Dear Eurolines Travel,

Wanted to share my great (almost horribly) experience we had today with Eurolines and Mihaela at the Bacau Arena Mall Travel Agency.

I arrived to the agency this morning to find our charter bus tickets were sold, unbeknownst to Mihaela the agent who took our reservations two days prior. She was very apologetic, but said the tickets were no longer available even though we had a reservation. It was beyond her control.

I left and returned back to where we were staying and chalked it up to big companies with people working for them that do not care for their customers. I was pissed and I didn’t car who messed up or why. All I knew was I didn’t have a ticket to leave Romania and now I needed to scramble to leave with only 2 days left on my travel visa.

We have plenty of big companies in the U.S. that treat their customers poorly. So, I figured I would make other arrangements and then be sure to share my world-travel experiences with Twitter and Facebook and various travel sites so others would be cautious about traveling with Eurolines.

They really screwed up my travel plans in a big way!

I was surprised when we got a phone call from Mihaela 15 minutes after I left. We were looking for air fair at the time and trying to scramble to make other arrangements. This was very stressful, to say the least.

Mihaela called and said she took care of everything and secured us two tickets as we had previously reserved. And apologised profusely for the trouble caused to Monica and myself.
SHE FIXED THE PROBLEM, WOW! That is customer service. and I didn’t even have to ask her. I left assuming the worst.

Mihaela fixed a problem she didn’t even create. And she was very professional and apologetic about the entire situation.

Being a word-traveler is a big challenge. I am happy to say Eurolines and Mihaela made our travel easier and will be #1 on my list for charter bus travel no mater where we go in Europe.

World travel is not about dealing with big faceless companies. It is about dealing with people directly one-on-one. We have had our fair share of horrible customer service while traveling, who hasn’t. I am convinced if more people traveled they have the opportunity to experience the good. It felt good to know somebody was looking out for us.  I wanted to share the positive experience we had, because all too often, we only hear about the bad experiences of world travel.

Thank you Mihaela and Eurolines

P.S. Eurolines Travel – Mihaela deserves a bonus or at least a phone call from the head office telling her how professionally she handled this entire situation. We will now be doing all of our travel through her and all of our charter bus travel through Eurolines. She fixed a huge, huge, problem.

P.S.S. Eurolines get your Twitter account active and you will see me sharing my experience’s there with the hashtag #Eurolines. You need a better social media presence and strategy on Twitter as you have no way of knowing I am also talking you up there.

P.P.P.S. Eurolines did not pay me in may way to say this. My problem was handled professionally and I am glad to share my good and bad travel experiences.

Avid reader AND traveling? No problem! The world’s library awaits you. Every book ever written-seems like that to me anyway, because I am finding EVERY book that I want to read-available at your fingertip, 24H per day! Now, how amazing is that?

I am currently reading 2 Timothy Ferriss books, 2 Kevin J Anderson books, 2 Ayn Rand books, 2 Plato books, 1 Charlaine Harris book, a Deepak Chopra book, Douglas Adams, Charles Yu, Gary Vaynerchuk books, and a few others. But the mind blowing fact is, I am reading these books all at the same time, carrying them all with me as I cross country borders, continents, and I am not adding an ounce of weight to my already oh so heavy luggage. The adventure of Ebooks on the road. LOVE IT!

About this book that I’m just done reading, hm hm, I LIKE. Star Dragon by Mike Brotherton, It’s a bit old in style, it ramps you up and then delivers the “bang” only partially. But I think that’s only because I am reading it after reading contemporary sci-fi, which is full of action, thrill, and excitement all around, with faster and faster action.
If you are to look at this book alone, suspended in time, this book is worth the time it demands to be read.
Mike Brotherton knows his science-or at least it seems like that to the “couch scientist” that I am. Technical terms abound, but don’t overwhelm the story, and you can easily follow the 500 year journey of this crew. Star Dragon is a book with great and innovative ideas in space travel too. So read on my friends, because that is a sure way to keep your brains working and pushing mankind into the new way of thinking.
Peace!

Star Dragon

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Here are some additional pictures:

"On the Way to Sally Gap"

Black Abbey Kilkenny, IE

Glendalough Ireland

Sally Gap, Ireland

Travel can be the most beautiful of beasts or a most brutal of bitches. Get too close and you risk a bitter death. Stand too far off and it leads one to question, why get off the couch.

Honestly, I’m no travel guru. Travel hack is more like it.

Take for example the following display of poor travel etiquette:

• While picking up some Guinness at the store yesterday. It took me 15 minutes of standing in line and fumbling with my credit card to finally be told my card doesn’t work on their machines. Something about a chip in the card.
• The next stop was at the pharmacy to pick up some vitamin K. Guess what? You need a prescription from a medical doctor for vitamin K in Ireland.

Now an expert traveler, unlike myself, would have been prepared with plenty of local currency and known about the health care system. Shite, I couldn’t through the grocery store unscathed.

My New York Times best selling travel book would be titled:

A dumb Americans Guide of Travel Hacks:

Douchbaggery, Feaupaux’s, and Other travel Idiocies to avoid on the road

Get your copy today!!!

My travel woes didn’t stop with the vitamin K, however. I was on a mission to find canned pumpkin for making some pumpkin pies. (For my wife, she’s the one who bakes).

What is Halloween without a nice pumpkin pie?

Not one can of pumpkin in the entire country

I see plenty of pumpkins stacked in the local grocer just begging to be stuck with a knife, but no canned pumpkin.

Guess what? Four stores into my search the only answer I got was “Poompkin in a caan? Never heaard of it”. (Insert Irish accent here)

It seems the Irish haven’t figured out how to put pumpkin into a Tin (the correct use of the term “can)”. The term “Cans” here refer to soda cans, hence the confusion.

Frustrations are part of the normal travel experience. Fumbling around in an English speaking country, like Ireland, is down right embarrassing though. They speak English here, so no excuses about not understanding the language. Cant wait to get to India. : )(

Living in America we get used to “the customer is always right”. In most other places they could give “two-shites” about being right. We Americans have it too easy.

Obvious Vices!

Perhaps, you are asking if I read any travel guides before setting out on this journey?

Hell no! And waste time reading stuff like this…

Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɾlənd]( listen),; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen); Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world.^[4] It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets.

What travel guide is going to tell you where to find canned pumpkins?

I much prefer the adventure of learning new things and conquering new challenges on my own. Besides, who is ever really 100% prepared for what life throws your way? You, sitting there right now reading this post, what is coming tomorrow or even 10 minutes from now?

We travel off the beaten tourist path. It offers opportunities to meet really cool people like our host family here in Ireland and their friends. Our time here has been wonderful. Thanks to our Irish hosts they dove us to the Cliffs of Moher (pictured above).

30 minutes after we arrived the rains rolled in. Most people left the area.

Here is some video:

We rode out the rain and waited. And as a reward we given the opportunity to see this:

What is next in life?

You may have a good idea of what is coming next in life, but sometimes the surprises bring us the most joy. Too many expectations increases anxiety and frustration. The other option is living in the moment and taking life one step at a time. Some call this serendipitous traveling.

DeeAnne White at Sharing Travel experiences had this to say about serendipitous travel.

1. Book a travel deal: Rather than deciding on a location, roll the dice.

2. Wander: Book a flight, a hotel room and nothing more.

3. Be open to what you discover: Try something you’d never think you’d enjoy

4. Talk to strangers: I know I’m suggesting you ignore your mother’s wise advice, but sometimes we miss out on the best things in life when we’re too cautious.

5. Let go: This may be the most difficult of all the suggestions, but you are on holiday after all.

Serendipitous travel puts you in the moment. But why do people think they need to travel to be serendipitous?

Agreed, the hardest part is letting go. But, everyone can take time in their lives to be more spontaneous, even if not traveling.

Philosophy of Travel

Understandable why so many travelers are philosophers. What the hell else do you have to do while traveling, but sit there and talk to yourself? : ))

Philosophy is about self examination and the environment that surrounds you, right. Continually facing the challenge brings out the inner Thoreau in us all.

In this way – through simplicity – Thoreau was able to find true wealth. “Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only,” he wrote. “Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.”

Funny how many US travelers face borderline anxiety disorders with the thought of a 3 Day trip to Canada, let alone a trip across the pond.

• Have I read enough travel books?
• Do I have enough clothes?
• Do I have enough money?

Money is the excuse we all use to push away the source of the true source of anxiety; self examination of the soul. It was my biggest excuse for extended travel. Who wants to examine the “ugly financial gorilla standing in the corner” when it’s actually a mirror?

Now what would good travel prose be without some helpful travel tips?

The kind of tips you can implement into your life right now, not some ethereal B.S. Here is one that costs little to no money to help engage you with examining your own life.

Start Reading…

The Travelers Way

Step 1: Download the new Kindle Reader for Mac’s here. You do not need to buy a kindle, you can read books right on your computer screen. It saves me from having to buy and carry yet another item on my travels. If you have a PC or want to read on your phone, God help you with that one. Check out the free Kindle Reader apps here.

Step 2: Pick out some books to read and read them already. Turn off the Twitter feed and the CrackBook and put your nose in a virtual book. Heck you don’t even need to spend any money. You can read samples of books in just about every genre, like Chris Guillebeau:

The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World [Kindle Edition]

Check out his blog Art of Nonconformity. Here is his definition of travel hacking in North America.

Travel hacking, for anyone who is new to it, is my process of venturing out around the world on a low budget, using tools such as Round-the-World airfare, a big stash of Frequent Flyer Miles, mistake fares, elite status matches, and more.

If this reading doesn’t meet your fancy here are some books I’m currently reading:

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel [Kindle Edition] by Rolf Potts

You can read this modern day traveling vagabonds bible (of sorts) on philosophy of travel. His recent exploits on his travel blog No-Baggage Challenge, which included 6 weeks of travel with no baggage. I know what your asking where the hell would I put all of my nonsensical and redundant travel accouterments’?

The no-baggage journey is complete! After six weeks and more than 30,000 miles on five continents, I’ve come full-circle to New York — and [to] be honest, it feels kind of surreal. I didn’t pack many items for the journey, but I did manage to pack in a lot of experiences — so many that I feel like I’ve been gone a lot more than a month and a half. I feel both happy and tired (and I’d reckon my exhaustion has less to do with my lack of luggage than the fact that the world is a big place to cover in such a short time).

6 weeks without any luggage or bags is doable. But, for 52+ weeks (the length of our trip), hardly.

Travel hacking is part philosophy 101 class, part living travel guide book, part history lesson and part uncomfortable silence.

The silence comes when the person you are speaking to has no clue what you are saying.

The history lesson is not forgetting how adventurous people used to be in order to survive in this world.

Society did well prior to “Tweeting’ a text messaging on a smart phone, while drinking a Starbucks latte, passing an 18-wheeler on the highway at 75 mph.”

Is it any wonder anti depressants are so prevalent in America?

Why are people (In America) so unhappy?

Healing The Unhappy Caveman – Why The Human Mind Was Not Designed For Happiness And What You Can Do About It [Kindle Edition] by Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson explores the evolutionary psychology view that our mind was not made for happiness, it was made for survival. Hunter-gatherer societies of our ancestors were after two things in the smaller group societies at that time.

1. Social status seekers-primarily by may of physical prowess and cunning survival
2. Cooperation with their close fellow group members

In today’s society many people live an isolated existence;  Twittering a text on a smart phone, while sipping a latte with the radio blaring and passing an 18-wheeler on the highway doing 75 mph. Seemingly busying the mind with a more and more frantic devices to distract from the truth of our existence.

Healing The Unhappy Caveman – An Integral View – Introduction takes a closer look at this phenomena of the rampant unhappiness so prevelent in the Unites Sates today.

Were our hunter-gatherer ancestors unhappy?

The hunter in hunter-gatherer would imply travel. I would surmise our ancestors didn’t have time to sit around and brood over their feelings. they were too busy trying to survive.

Perhaps the reason people long so much to “get away from it all” is because our  ancestral genes are pushing us to travel (and hunt – but a discussion for another time). Travel, if only briefly giving themselves permission to take time away from work.

Helpful questions for the weary and travel starved:

How can I travel more?

Look at the graph. It shows the number of “vacation” hours related to the amount of time we work. There isn’t much time to travel for an extended period of time is there?

For a moment entertain a what if. What if YOU had no restrictions in your life?

Here are 5 helpful questions for the weary and travel starved:

1. How can I make enough money to “make it” traveling for a month or more?

2. Where would I like to go?

3. What would I like to do?

4. Who would I like to see?

5. Who would I like to do this with, if any body?

Go ahead answer these questions for yourself. Think BIG think BOLD, go ahead and put a trip into space on your list, Virgin Galactic is taking reservations:

Whats your excuse for not traveling more?

Please share where are the boldest places you would like to go in the comment section below. : )

 

Best of Rolle 10 19 10 :: Rolle CH 10.10 slides…, posted with vodpod

 

“Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.” Carl Yung

A few years back I was in transition from practicing in New York City and moving back to Atlanta, Georgia (Story for another time). Starting into a new practice was a tough but rewarding challenge. While looking for something to improve my business acumen, I ran across the book the “Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss.

I was like, “Are you friggin’ kidding me? Who the hell does he think he is?”

My adolescent raised working middle class sensibilities were screaming,

“No this can’t be”

Needless to say it is now 3 years since I read that book. Today I’m sitting in Rolle’ Switzerland packing for Dublin, Ireland, working on my Mac Book Pro (My lifeline to freelance work on the web), I’m talking with my virtual assistant in the Philippines, researching for a client, and reading the book Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. Not all at the same time, but by the end of today much will have been accomplished. Including plans for checking out a local snowboard factory.

The hardest thing for me about this whole world travel thing was allowing my mind to entertain the idea of a Mini-retirement slash Vagabond trip slash world travel.

My mind questioned, “Who the hell do you think you are? How will you practice and travel?”

I’ll admit I have had an itch to travel since I was a kid. I just love to go places and explore. Sadly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever done enough of it, until now.

No excuses though.

I went to school for chiropractic and practiced for 10 years. I didn’t fool myself into thinking I would be able to continue to practice in one location while traveling abroad, it just don’t work that way.

Something had to change so I could sustain myself while traveling. Deferring my desires to travel the world were only making me miserable in practice.

My choice now is to place my practice on hold until further notice. Scary as hell considering I’m learning a whole new way to sustain us while we travel.

My biggest fear is that the internet will shrivel up and go away while on my travels, leaving me to fend for myself locally.

Hardly likely:

Internet to Surpass 2 Billion Users This Year

Talk about “False Evidence Appearing Real” F.E.A.R.

It’s our fear of the unknown that strikes down our dreams, like a blade on flesh, leaving us to bleed out a slow rotten, cyclical existence of “work to pay bills”.

No More!!

Here are the three things that helped me most get my head around world travel and make it happen.

1. Mind set - Without the right mindset nothing else will follow. Sheer will power won’t do it. A bigger purpose for your travels will be needed. Something other than the spoon fed images by the mass media, of a Hawaiian print t-shirt, khaki short wearing, camera strapped around the neck typical tourist looking American douche-bag. I despise much of the tourism industry as some half baked new world order ponzi-scheme, dedicated to sterilizing your travels while expunging you of as much travel money as possible.

“Would you like to Super-Size your lame-ass bus tour?”

What about the sense of adventure. Hell, what about real adventure? Forget the sense.

Today’s post on Tim Ferriss’s blog:

The Experimental Life: An Introduction to Michel de Montaigne

A commonplace book is a way to keep our learning priorities in order. It motivates us to look for and keep only the things we can use.

Books can influence your mindset, just don’t obsess about how many books you need to gain the knowledge of extended travel. Remember, your book has yet to be written. I’ve only read a handful related to this topic. I found it more important to keep a personal journal over the years. This blog is a part of that journal.

2. Money - Nothing strikes down the fear of world travel more than the thought of money. Admittedly, I have my own hang ups and issues revolving around money. I’m also finding the extended solace of travel offers time for reflection. Reality creeps in when moving forward with extended world travel plans. For me I started working part-time a freelance internet consultant while still practicing chiropractic. From the day we decided to make this trip happen we took action steps, not knowing exactly how it was going to happen. Waiting around for the stars to align opening a portal, allowing you to travel will never happen. There is no real Stargate folks, wake up. My plan wasn’t to toil away for 30 years and then retire. I was tired of deferring my desire to travel.

A respected friend of mine once said…

“Travel when your young and travel as much as you can stand”

This from a man who lived in a castle, drove a Rolls Royce and had plenty of worldly possessions before he passed. Incidentally he didn’t take anything with him when he departed.

No matter where you are at in life you can examine your life and those life possessions you think you must have. Adopting a minimalist lifestyle is crucial for world travel. I recommend it even if you aren’t going to travel, purging yourself of unneeded possessions is liberating and encouraging to self growth. But, A Minimalist Lifestyle Does Not Make You a Better Person. It makes you a happier person.

Besides cutting back of possessions I immediately started working part time online didn’t interfere with my practice and I was able to generate contacts and clients. Budgeting for travel is an entirely different subject for another time.  Check out Freelancer.com, Guru.com and oDesk.com to learn more about the outsourcing industry. You can use them to look for work and find outsourced help to help you reach your own entrepreneurial goals. My favorite is oDesk, but check around to find what works best for you.

3. Moxy - Taking flack as a chiropractor is nothing new to me. Jibes about “not being a real doctor” and “how can you really help someone without drugs?” are common place. This has served as a training ground for the flack of world travel. Having the right attitude and a willingness to take criticism and keep rolling are essential. When traveling you get it from people you know and people you don’t know. The attitude of I can, I will and I must is more than a slogan it is an essential mindset for survival.

Hope this helped you understand how world travel is possible regardless of your circumstances. And I also hope it helped you with some resources to get you started. If you have any questions, just drop a line.

-Joseph

http://travelonthedollar.com/2009/03/26/tips-for-driving-abroad/

CDC Global; Road safety
http://www.cdc.gov/features/globalroadsafety/

Stuff used to put this together:

Final Cut Express

Twixtor add-on

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Canon 10-22mm F/3.5-4.5

Canon 50mm F/1.4

Travel MoJo is a blog featuring thoughts related to our travels. We are Monica Antohi and Joseph Doughty (MoJo). This blog is primarily for friends and family, but if you have an interest, please feel free to follow us on our journey. So much can be said while traveling, but he reserved the best for this site. We appreciate your comments, thoughts and suggestions.

Here is to a safe trip.

Now get your travel MoJo on!