dorm rooms

okay so last night was beyond ridiculous in the realm of dorm room issues.

i am currently staying in a 21 bed mixed dorm. not completely full, but there’s probably about 15 people in here i would assume. so a lot of people, and there’s bound to be some kind of friction because everyone is different and are here for different reasons.

luckily i am not in any way sleep precious.

the evening started off with the fire alarm going off sporadically a few times from 9pm ish until about midnight when it finally stopped. then there were a few girls going out to various bars and things. they left separately but they seemed friendly and asked around the room to see if people wanted to go. i was attempting to enjoy my last night and day (today) off work so i declined.

then at 3.30am it all began. for some reason i had decided not to turn my alarm off so my watch woke me up buzzing away. this was fine. it was irritating but i turned it off and rolled over. now it must’ve been not even 5 minutes later, when one of the girls comes in.

slams the door shut, stomps up the stairs to where the beds are (i also want to note here, it’s super odd to have a dorm room that has stairs AFTER the door), drops her stuff on the ground, turns on the big light, goes into one of the two bathrooms we have in this room. she then sees the state of the bathroom (which obviously we’ve all already noticed and we all know about it already). basically the hostel has taken all the shower curtains to be cleaned and hasn’t returned them just yet so someone had a shower and the entire bathroom is flooded pretty much. she starts yelling about how disgusting it it and leaves that bathroom to come back to the middle of the room and ask (as if it’s 6 in the evening and everyone is awake), who did that. no one responds. so she goes into the next bathroom and once she’s done (because you can literally hear everything because i swear the walls are made out of plastic or something), she leaves. no flush. no turning the bathroom light off. no turning the main light off. nothing.

then, and bear with because i can’t remember how this started but the other girl that was out who had already come home sometime before (quietly i assume because i hadn’t been woken up), she decides to go to the bathroom. when she comes out she starts playing fm radio from her 5 pound Alcatel brick phone. obviously because of the phone quality, the sound quality isn’t too good. one of the british guys speaks out and asks her nicely to turn the music off and she yells over the music saying she can’t hear him. then another older guy (possibly spanish or portugese) climbs down from his bed, pulls back her curtain and tells her to quieten down. now this is when shit really hits the fan.

she jumps out of bed and starts swearing her head off at this guy and he’s yelling back telling her to shut up and to turn her music off. by this point it’s starting to get super loud. he goes to the bathroom then comes out, puts some shoes on and a coat and leaves the room. now the british guy from before is started to get pissed (understandably). this girl is talking to herself, loudly. about how ridiculous it it. about how everyone wakes her up at 2pm. about how overly sensitive everyone is. about how she doesn’t care. etc etc. it goes on and on.

the british guy jumps out of bed and brings her head phones asks if she wants to borrow them. she tells him she doesn’t need them and to fuck off.

then the guy who went downstairs, came back upstairs with one of the guys who works at the hostel. he tells her to turn it off and she pretends like she thought her head phones were in the whole time. acting as though she hasn’t had the music blasting at 4 in the morning for the last 15 minutes, waking everyone up.

once the receptionist leaves, she says a few more things to herself, and eventually everyone heads back to bed.

looking forward to seeing where tonight takes us all.

Jax Goes OUT

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future plans

I am so up in the air. I feel like every time I try to make a decision and set a path for what I want to do next, something comes flying my way.

I have been dabbling with the idea of getting a nose ring (sorry mum) and also I want to get a new tattoo. I don’t know if I want to go for a travel tattoo or not. Do I go with pictures or words or something else. Do I go big or small. Do I just get one or a few little ones that I have been thinking of?

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So it’s been a few days and due to ridiculous work hours and being robbed, I haven’t had time to complete this post.

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I have a consultation with a vegan studio tomorrow and I am going to get some sort of camera/world map/writing tattoo combination. Stay tuned for an update on that.

Also I have just heard word that I got a job as a carer for the elderly/people with a disability. So that’s really exciting! My induction is on next Monday and Tuesday and then I believe I start on the Sunday. What a time to be alive.

Proper updates will be coming soon. For now, I need to go and check in to the hostel for a few days, I need to come back and meet Jacob for his break and I need to go outside for a run (maybe).

Jax Goes OUT

 

 

I don’t know what to write

I have started so many posts in the past few months. None of them have made it past a first draft.

I have been pouring out my heart onto Instagram without a second thought but as soon as it comes to the ‘daunting’ task of writing a blog post, my writers block is in full effect.

So I am going to try this one more time. I am going to free write, and let’s just see what happens.

Currently it is 7.34pm, on a Thursday evening. I am sitting in the hostel common area, talking to Amos, a Moroccan/Welsh 6″5 guy from a dorm room I was in the other week.

I am officially unemployed again sort of. I was working with a phone company in a town called Crawley which was about an hour or so commute each way from Brighton. I quit last night and have my final three days this weekend.

Then I am starting a cleaning job 4-7am for a few mornings a week. I know it sounds awful but I’m trying to convince myself that it’s a good idea. At least I’ll be up early and have the whole day to do things.

I am looking to do some volunteer work with the homeless because there are so many people here and it’s really upsetting me. I feel pulled to do something to help, so i am going to figure out what’s available..

What else…. I had a salad tonight for dinner. And yeah it was tasty but people don’t make bowls big enough for raw vegan salads to be honest. So I am still hungry and don’t know what to do about it. Do I go for round two or do I go up the street and buy something?

I want to take this food for lunch tomorrow so if I eat it now I won’t have any left so by that logic I should go and find something else to eat from Sainsbury’s but also…what would I get there.

Well apparently I’m going out with the girls here too now, but I don’t know that I really want to because I have to go to work tomorrow early. I say this but as soon as I start drinking, I change my mind. Is it worth feeling like shit though, three days in a row at work?

This is the internal monologue I go through. All the time. I’m over it. I need to go and eat. And then perhaps drink. More ramblings to come.

Much love people xo

Instagram – @jaxgoes
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Ultimate Budget Travel // B U L G A R I A

Bulgaria was the best spontaneous decision I have made so far in my trip. The Balkans are a lovely group of countries with incredible mountains, history and coastline. Bulgaria doesn’t use the euro, their currency is the Lev (BGN). It is consistently half the Euro, so €2 is equal to one Lev. So for me and my Australian dollar it was actually a really good country to pick money wise.

Where did I go?

I stayed in the capital city, Sofia. This was where my original flight was passing through so it seemed like a good idea. Also for a night I headed out to Varna; a small coastal town on the Black Sea.
Where did I stay?

Sofia – Hostel 123, the accommodation here was €30 for all five nights that I was in Sofia. A great brand new hostel. Everyone was very friendly and because it was still new and getting set up there wasn’t really a TV or any distractions like that so I ended up meeting some really cool people and having a really great time (more on that later).

Varna – Gagarin House, this accommodation was really basic but the staff were extremely accommodating, very helpful and the facilities were pretty good too. Only cost €9 for the night that I was there.
Where did I eat?

Sofia – breakfast was included and they did it later than most places so I was actually able to make it most of the time. Regardless, Hostel 123 had a kitchen which meant I could have oats and bread and sandwiches and that sort of thing. Because Sofia is so cheap, I checked out a few vegan places around the city. Loving Hut & Sun and Moon were my favourites. Sun and Moon had amazing massive portions for less than €6! Loving Hut had cheap smoothies which was refreshing considering it had been weeks since I’d had vegetables.

Varna – I was only there for one night so I had a whole lot of fruit bought from stores in Sofia on my way to the bus station and I took some vegan pesto that I had bought a few days earlier. I bought some pasta, canned veggies and beans and made an amazing home made dish with little effort, little price and little time.
What did I do?

A lot and nothing at the same time.

Sofia – it’s very much a walking city. Most of the sights are old buildings, cathedrals and parks so it’s very accessible and extremely affordable. All the cathedrals in Sofia are free to the public so you can always walk in and have a look around. A lot of my days were spent walking all around the city, enjoying the parks, and just taking in the atmosphere of the city. It’s not necessarily a city with a lot of sights and if you wanted to you could do everything in just a couple of days but I had 4 days in Sofia and I just wanted to enjoy my time and really take in the feel of the city rather than just the look.

Varna – very similar to Sofia except I only really had one night and one half day to walk around here. There are a few things to see, I paid around 5 Lev (€2-3) to go into the Roman Thermae and check out the ruins there. There’s a lot of museums and of course the Black Sea. Also, like Sofia there’s a major cathedral which is one of the main attractions and it’s free to enter as well. Varna is a very walkable city and it has a lot to offer. I wish I had’ve stayed longer to be honest because I saw the main attractions but I didn’t really get to experience a lot of aspects about the city. It was a very rushed trip as well. Another city on the Black Sea coastline in Bulgaria is Burgas.
The numbers.

I know I said that Greece was pretty affordable, but comparatively, Bulgaria was amazingly affordable! Pretty much half price for everything. I was spending less than 15 Lev on food easily (roughly €8) per day and like I said, accommodation is super cheap as well. It’s an amazing country that is very underrated. I would recommend asking the place you’re staying at to help you book bus tickets and things because most of the websites are in Bulgarian and it’s usually cheaper to buy online if you want to make a trip around. My bus trips were about 20 Lev each way but it was definitely worth it, I’d just give yourself some more time to check out the area you’re going to.
I hope you’re more inspired to check out Bulgaria now and that you’re more informed about doing it on a tight budget! All in all, I could’ve spent weeks in this country. There are so many incredible mountain ranges and cities worth seeing and I’m looking forward to going back! Next guide coming will be for London, UK. So that will be interesting! In the meantime feel free to check out my YouTube channel where I’m posting daily videos of what I’m doing, what I’m eating, what I’m spending, and that kind of thing. Also the series on the countries I’ve been to will be coming out once I am able to catch up on editing everything! I’ll keep you in the loop but thanks for reading this far and I’ll have another post out shortly!
Jax Goes OUT.
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Email – jaxgoesbusiness@gmail.com

what is ‘ultimate’ budget travel? tips and tricks

So I’m feeling like after one month, I know a few tips and tricks to travelling on a super tight budget while still enjoying the places you’re at.
A few disclaimers:

This is by no means a super comfortable lifestyle, nor is it sustainable long term or healthy or easy all the time.
So for most people budget travel through Europe means staying in a hostel or cheap hotels, buying meals that are around €10 and finding accommodation that is under €50 a night. For me, budget travel is couchsurfing to cut accommodation costs, or finding really cheap accommodation, no more than €15 a night, spending €10 or less a day on food and exploring by foot rather than even using public transport sometimes.
Accommodation:

Couchsurfing. Obviously hostels are great for meeting other Australians because we are everywhere and apparently all of us can only afford a 12-bed mix dorm. If you want to sleep in a real house with a kitchen a pretty much private bathroom and all of that good stuff then check out couchsurfing. I haven’t done it THAT much so far but when I did I had an amazing time, not an issue. Locals who are on it, really want to share their city, country and culture with you, so why not let them and the ripe old price of FREE. Of course you want to help them out with things and clean up after yourself because they are giving up their home for you. If you can’t find somewhere to couch surf, give booking.com a go. Agoda.com is also good; although I find it hard to get free cancellation hostels on there, the pricing is usually cheaper. Date flexibility will also help with cheaper pricing. If you’re in Europe during the summer, spend your weekends in cheaper places because it could be a Monday night and the clubs will still be going, the weekends will just cost you more for the same thing.
Food;

Now so far I’ve only really been in Greece and so I’ll have a blog post up about travelling cheap in Greece soon but just in general, the tricks are fairly easy. I drank a lot of juice, not the crap sugary stuff but natural juice, which in Greece is actually fairly cheap. Also if you love orange juice and you’re there in the summer that’s great. Also if you have a kitchen, rice and pasta are great. For the last month I have really gotten around bread as well. Bread is seriously under rated. Go to dinner with friends you make (because you’re travelling solo) and just get side dishes instead of mains, or even just eat the bread and then it only costs you €1 or sometimes 90 cents.
Activities:

Tourist attractions, sights, water sports and whatever else you can think of. I’m not saying don’t go to the Eiffel Tower or don’t get a quad bike for the day, but just think wisely. Maybe you can go to the Eiffel Tower and not go up it (trust me the view is very hazy anyway and it’s the same as any other view of any other city, why not walk up a hill instead). Maybe you can make a friend and share a quad bike so you can half the price (I did this and we needed up paying less than €15 euro for the whole day and that was everything we did – including petrol!). Do your research, weigh your options and before you impulsively jump into something, think about whether that activity will make your trip amazing or if you can live without it and still have a good day. From personal experience, most sights worth seeing are better from the outside for free anyway.
Extra tips:

If you do decide to do something, be wary of add on prices. Be wary of tourism traps and check out what the internet says first because the internet is always right, right? Avoiding high costing mishaps is also important, i.e. don’t lose your phone, don’t break your things, lock your bag (I need to tart taking your advice), get travel insurance. The more street smart you are, the less likely you are to be pick pocketed (especially in Europe). I have spoken to so many people who had their phones stolen, wallets stolen, or at least had attempts and they caught them. Just be aware of your things, zip your bags on the same side every time so you know if something’s up. Also plan in advance, but have fluidity. I’m really bad at this and sometimes it works out for me but planning ahead can save you a lot of money. Booking last minute accommodation and flights especially during the European summer gets expensive fast. Get out a calendar and sort yourself out early on if you can. That being said, getting flexible flights or free cancellation accommodation can save you if you meet some cool people or don’t like a place as much as you thought you would. Keep that in mind, I know it’s a juxtaposition.
Basically what travelling super cheap comes down to is doing research, staying smart, being friendly to everyone (you never know who has something you might need one day) and not being impulsive. It is hard in the beginning but eventually you’ll pick it up.

I’ll be writing and posting a Greece ultimate budget travel guide in the next week or so while I am in Bulgaria (very exciting!) and I’ll give you tips on cheap islands, cheap food, cheap accommodation, and all sorts of things.
Jax Goes OUT.
Let’s get social (I have a Facebook page now and other things!):

Instagram – @jaxgoes

YouTube – https://youtube.com/channel/UCqPUOXcu7IDrDjozHwBrOmA

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Email – jaxgoesbusiness@gmail.com

what’s in my backpack as a solo traveller?

So I know I did a video of this on my YouTube channel but I thought I’d write it out for those who prefer to read or who can’t figure out YouTube (hey mum and dad). This will probably get lengthy but anyway, here’s a full comprehensive list of what I packed for my trip (with commentary included). Anyone wanting to watch the video version of everything I packed you can see it here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oPoYTZaNzaE
Starting with my bag, before I came I decided I would spend money on a good bag but luckily, my bag was actually on sale! It is the Kathmandu 38L Litehaul in blue and orange. It usually goes for around $270 and I got it at the discounted price of $144.

I also have a Columbia 13L bag that is orange and grey which folds into its front pocket although I pretty much never have it folded up because it is my everyday pack. Even if I’m flying I usually have it on my front because it’s easier to get to things like my camera, my money and my passport. It cost me $25 on sale but actually it was free because I bought it on a gift card.

I have 2 packing cubes in different colours. I got these on sale at Kathmandu and got 3 for $30 (I lost one the day before I took this). These hold all my clothes, underwear, socks and bikinis.

I decided to bring with me only two pairs of shoes; I have Nike runners that I’ve had for probably about 5 years now. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to bring them but I figured I could wear them into the ground and if they got lost I wouldn’t mind. They’re also super flexible and pack down pretty small for shoes. As well as my Nikes, I brought my thongs which I wear every day. In Europe (so far) I have been able to wear these shoes every day in every situation except if I’m going on a hike or on a run or something. They’re already starting to get quite thin but I have had them for over a year now so that’s not too bad.

One of my last minute purchases was a blue 4L Sea to Summit bag that I put my camera in to keep it safe, dry and cosy (can confirm this is waterproof and has already saved my camera).
Clothing:

I have very minimal clothing with me. I would have brought more but my electronics just take up too much space.

Tops; I have 10 tops. Two nice shirts for going out which I haven’t worn at all, three singlets that I wear pretty much everyday, two graphic singlets that I got for free at a few bars from shot challenges around the Greek islands, one grey striped tshirt if I need it, one pj/travel tshirt and one jumper for planes and all the well air conditioned places.

Bottoms; I have 5 bottoms at the moment. One pair of workout shorts, one pair of leggings, one pair of Aladdin pants for travel and if I get cold, one pair of pj shorts that I also have ended up wearing to the beach and stuff and one pair of everyday cotton shorts.

Others; I also have one blue dress which I got for free in Mykonos, and one floral jumpsuit which I picked up in Paros. Other than that I have like 3 pairs of underwear (because the underwear packing cube fell out of my bag), 2 different bikinis, 3 pairs of socks (one for the plane), one sports bra and one normal bra.
Electronics:

I have an electronics bag which holds all my cords, chargers, adapters, hard drives, SD cards, USB’s and anything else. I also have my beats headphones for when my computer starts working again, my MacBook Pro which at the moment is three and a half kilos of dead weight because it broke my first day in Athens, my Canon EOS 700D, my Bluetooth speaker, my portable charger for my phone, my kindle and my GoPro.
Toilettries, makeup and first aid:

All of these things fit into two containers, a pink and white polka dot bag and a plain black waterproof bag (very practical).

Makeup; very basic, I have with me, travel mascara, travel lipstick, sample sized perfume, one brush, highlighted, bronzer and brows.

First aid; bandaids, antibiotics from when I got tonsillitis, tea tree oil, strapping tape, asthma puffer

Toilettries; nail clippers, tweezers, toothpaste, toothbrush, diva cup, hair brush, iron tablets and b12, Dr Bronner’s natural soap, hand mirror, small moisturiser, lush shampoo bar and sunscreen.
Miscellaneous:

Sarong, microfibres towel (from Kathmandu for around $60, definitely worth it), journal, deck of cards, pen, sharpie, mini notepad, polaroids from home, spoon, scrunchie, liteweight compact rain jacket from Mountain Designs, important documents and postcards I need to send, glasses, glasses case, computer charger, wallet, Greek tourist wallet clutch thing, bananas, fold out tote bag for shopping (saving plastic woohoo), face mask if someone needs CPR (you never know), a business card holder with my back up travel card in it and my paw paw.
That is everything I have with my right now and plan to carry with me for the next little while. I’m surprised it hasn’t changed much since I left considered I’m already one month in but I’ll make sure to do an update later on and we’ll see what made the cut.
If you’re interested in following my journey a bit more check out my socials down below:

Instagram – @jaxgoes

YouTube – https://youtube.com/channel/UCqPUOXcu7IDrDjozHwBrOmA

Snapchat – @jaxperrin

Twitter – @jaxgoess

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Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/jaxgoes

Email – jaxgoesbusiness@gmail.com

the revamp is here

I now have a Facebook page! Linked to my Instagram, linked to a new twitter, linked to my blog, linked to my snapchat!

I’m going all in, going to try and really put everything into budget travel and let people know about it.

So I will be working on some more ‘dodgy guides’ but in a budget travel type edition. I am passionate about travel and I have no money so that sort of makes sense to go for that kind of thing.

In the meantime, see all my socials below and I will start getting these updates ready to go.
Let’s get social:

Instagram – @jaxgoes

Blog – http://www.jaxgoes.wordpress.com

YouTube – Jax Goes

Snapchat – @jaxperrin

Twitter – @jaxgoess

Tumblr – http://www.jaxgoes.tumblr.com

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/jaxgoes

Email – jaxgoesbusiness@gmail.com