Gift Ideas For Nomads

Last year, I did a post on gift ideas for active people, and now I am back with another edition of gift ideas, but this time it will be for people who travel a lot! Some of these are things I already own, while others are ones that I have researched a lot and will probably buy soon eventually! I will mark the ones I own with a asterisk below. P.S. there are a few things on the active list that are also good for travelers, like a fanny pack, my favorite Patagonia windbreaker, or Goodr sunglasses, but here are a few more ideas! 

Even travelers love chocolate dipped strawberries!

Merino wool ($20-$150+).* Whether it's these socks ($20), or something more expensive like a shirt ($75), your nomad friend will appreciate the lightweight, quick drying and less smelly item. I have tried Smartwool and Icebreakers and they are a little on the thin side, but definitely dry fast and don't stink, and there are other brands like Ibex or Unbound that may be a little thicker and make things that are not as geared toward active people. Also, I have heard great things about merino underwear and bras, but have never tried them myself. 

Osprey Collapsible backpack ($41). I usually just carry a Chico bag with me, but having a backpack for day hikes and such would probably be a better idea. I have done a lot of research and this Osprey version has gotten good reviews! I have also had Osprey packs in the past and they hold up well. 

Universal travel adapter. ($20) I have one of these that is just the plugs only (no USB ports) and I love it but I am constantly having to swap things when charging, or get one of these multi charging blocks (which I do have and use) which starts to get redundant and bulky!! If your nomad does not travel internationally though, the charging block is golden. With this one you can also charge one computer with a plug (or other three pronged items) and all of your USB items at the same time!  

Lightning charging cable with adapter. ($23) Again, cutting down on cords and accessories is very helpful! I currently still have a few things with a USB-mini, so this cord would not help with that, but it is good for any USB-A or USB-C (or old iPhone) charging! You can also get ones that are just USB-C and USB-A if that is more your jam. 

Ankor power bank.* ($59) This one has 20,000 mAh of charging capabilities, which will charge your phone approximately 5-6 times. I find that even if I am traveling in a place where there is electricity (aka not camping) this comes in very handy. The one I have linked is their newest one, which is an improvement on mine, as it has a built in USB-C, three ports, including one USB-C, and a monitor on the front so you know how much power you have left. Even if you are traveling in the car with your family, this can be a great way to have extra power if you are all trying to charge at the same time. 

Laundry detergent sheets.* ($12) If you are on the road for a while, these are great. They don't take up space in your bag, or use up your liquids quota and they are better for the environment. I actually use these in real life too. Pro tip: you can rip them in half and just use half and it is enough for most loads. 

One bag travel backpack by TomToc (40L). ($80) I have read a lot of reviews for which bag is best and is also carry-on eligible for most flights. Some European carriers have very strict rules, and a lot of the bags that will comply are super expensive! The TomToc seems the best bang for the buck, but if you want to spend more the Osprey Farpoint ($135) and the Tortuga Backpack Pro ($350) get really good reviews. 

Do you have any good gift ideas for travelers? Do you own or use any of the above items? What kind of carry on do you use when traveling? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Be My Guest

For those of you who don't know, I used to do a lot of photography. Of course, this was back when camera phones were not really a thing. Now I still do a lot, but so does everyone else! And what do we all do with all of these photos? Well, except for the few AI things I have been playing around with for fun, all photos on this blog are taken by yours truly! 

I am excited to say that yesterday I was featured on the Viewfinder website! You can find my post here! Please go and check it out and come back and let me know what you think! 

Lest you think I am using this as a cop out for posting today, I will leave you with the following five places I would go back to, in photo form. These are in no particular order, and are "including but not limited to!" 

Patagonia

Maine

Croatia

South Africa

Nepal

Have you been to any of the places I have mentioned? Do you like taking photographs? What places that you have been to would you return to? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

What I Learned

San Francisco Bay

Have you ever taken a flight that has been canceled? I am sure many of us have. Well, this happened to me in September of 2022 and I learned something on this trip that I am going to share with you. First, spoiler alert, I got cash for my troubles! The bad news is that I did not know the rules, and the same thing happened to me in 2019 and I did not get any reimbursement. 

In 2022, I flew from the US to Amsterdam, had a long layover in Amsterdam and then had a flight scheduled from there to Vienna. I was flying Austrian Airlines, and when I went back to the airport to catch my flight to Vienna, we sat for a while before finally getting on the plane, and then once on the plane, sat again, and then finally they deboarded us and sent us on our way. It was very confusing for me, as in the US, when this happens, we normally get in a long line at the airline counter to rebook our flight. 

In Europe, there are a few different rules about flights. First of all, instead of going to stand in a line to rebook once our flight cancellation was announced, they send you an email with your new flight details. Although this saved us waiting in line, it was a little bit of a pain to not have any control over the new flight and my new flight was scheduled for 6 am the next day AND had a layover in Dusseldorf, so would not get me to Vienna until later in the day (and I still had to get from Vienna to Maribor, Slovenia after that, but that is a story for another day). 

The second thing that they did was they automatically booked us into a hotel, so once we figured out what the heck was happening, we took a bus to the Sofitel near the airport, where many of my other flight mates were staying. When we got there, we just told the hotel our name and voila, we had a room. I did not get checked in until about 1:00 am however, as the bus to the hotel had taken a while to get to us. So 4:00 am the next day came fast! 

Long story short, I got to where I needed to go. However, once I got home, I emailed Austrian and told them that I would like to have my ticket refunded and also get reimbursed for the hotel that I had booked in Vienna and never used. They actually came back to me pretty quickly and asked for more info, which I sent them, and then they said it would take a couple of months to process. They kept following up with me when the couple of months had passed, but I did finally get a credit of €250.00 in the end, which I was happy enough with. 

I thought I was just really good at negotiating, but I found out afterwards that there is a rule in Europe (EU261). You can read all about it here, but basically if your flight is canceled, depending on how many kilometers/miles it was, you are entitled to compensation. FYI, they usually will NOT advertise this, and you have to request it! So if I had not emailed them, they probably would have never said anything! Here is the breakdown: 

Up to 1,500 km (930 miles) --> €250.00 

1,500 km to 3,500 (2,170 miles ) --> €400.00 

more than 3,500 km -->  €600.00 

You have three years in most cases to claim this under rule EU261, so think back and if you have a flight that was going to, from or within Europe, you may be owed money. Just as a side note, in the US, it may be worth emailing them too if your flight ever gets canceled, as I have gotten some money back by doing this too (as well as a hotel room and a meal usually). It does not hurt to ask!

Have you ever had a flight canceled? If so, what did you do? Have you heard about this rule? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Future Travel Plans

2024 is almost over, and it has been an interesting year! To update you all, I am pretty much done with my bike ride across the US and Canada. I will probably have a few fun rides (day rides with no gear) and maybe a few more rides as transportation, but otherwise Bob and I are taking a small break. I am currently doing some housesitting and exploring some US cities before going home for the holidays. 

After the holidays, I will head to Europe and I have figured out part of my plans for the first couple of quarters! Here are some of the places where I will definitely be going in the first quarter: 

Frankfurt, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Strasbourg, France

Dijon, France

Lyon, France

Krakow, Poland

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Brussels, Belgium

Seville, Spain

Cordoba, Spain

Malaga, Spain

Here are possibilities for the second quarter: 

Istanbul, Türkiye

Cappadocia, Türkiye

Antalya, Türkiye

Fethiye, Türkiye

(Lycian way hike)

Tbilisi, Georgia

Istanbul

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Albania

Montenegro

Kosovo

(Peaks of the Balkans hike)

Albania & Montenegro

Just as a side note, for those who are unaware, as Americans we can only stay 90 days in the Schengen zone out of every 180 days. What is the Schengen zone? It is a unified zone comprised of most of the western European countries, and some of the eastern ones. It does not include Ireland, the UK, Cypress, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or most of the countries east of Romania/Poland. Here is a map. 

So if you are going to be in the Europe area for a long time, you have to get out of the Schengen zone after 90 days and go to one of the other countries for at least 90 days before coming back. If you default on this you may not be let back in the next time! 

If you have been to any of these places, do you have any suggestions? I lived in Istanbul, but may go for a refresher, plus the grand bazaar has THE BEST roasted pistachios. I have also been to Albania (Tirana, Sarada, Durmi) and Montenegro (Durmitor, Podgorica, Kotor) before, but would like to go back for further exploration. 

If you have not been to any of the above, are there any other European places that have sparked your interest, and if so, why? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Money Monday: By The Numbers: October

Finally, things have simmered down enough and it is time for my monthly spending recap, along with a few other random stats! For the month of October, my bike trip was slightly winding down, and I spent a lot more time visiting and housesitting than I did riding. All of the below numbers are as of October 31, 2024. 

Montreal bike (they were everywhere!)

Mileage To Date:

Total Days on the Road: 222

Total Days Ridden: 153

Days Ridden in October: 10

Total Miles Ridden: 8,540

Average Miles Per Day Ridden: 55.8 (vs 56.57 as of Sept 30)

Max miles per day: 101

Accommodation To Date: 

Airbnb: 12

Established Camp: 35

Friend: 36

Housesitting: 18

Motel: 69

Warm Showers: 9

Wild Camp: 40

Train: 3

Total Days: 222

Total average cost per day: $39

Verdict: Although October involved a lot of housesitting and stays with friends, the motels were more expensive than normal and there was no wild camping. This only brought the average per day down from $40 to $39. 

Total Cost: October

*Please note that I eradicated my travel category since basically all my costs are what I would have categorized in travel before. 

Accommodation: $1,106 (↓ from September by $15!) Includes any place where I rested my head for the night. In October this included housesitting (13), Motel (9), Friend (5), Airbnb (2), Established Camping (1) and Train (1). 

Dining Out: $174 (↓ from September) Includes coffee, ice cream shops, snacks and meals at a restaurant, including bakeries and the train canteen. This was down about 30% from the average for this trip. This is likely due to the fact that I was not on the move as much so could plan my groceries and meals out better. However, I did go out and get food in Montreal and Quebec a few times, and went out with Elisabeth! I feel like this was more quality than quantity though. 

Groceries: $254 (↓ from September) Includes food and snacks from a grocery or convenience store. This is down about 20% from the average for this trip. This is likely due to the fact that by housesitting or staying with friends, I tend to be able to shop less often so can stock up on more things. 

Health: $234 (same - insurance premium) Includes my health insurance and any costs for health care (which I have luckily not had!!!). I expect to go for my colonoscopy procedure in the next six months and it will be interesting to see what the out of pocket is for that with my new insurance plan. (by interesting, I mean please don't hold your breath!) 

Misc.: $33 (↑ from September) Includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts, personal care (as you can see, there is not much of that happening)

Shopping: $4 (↓ from September) Includes costs associated with cycling maintenance, cycling gear, running and camping gear and other clothing or toiletries. The $255 average for this trip is mainly because I've spent about $1,100 on bike maintenance, which equates for about 62% of this category. Luckily in October, I barely spent anything! Bob sure is high maintenance! (*Dad joke)

Transportation: $169 (↓ from September) Included one flight for me and Bob and a couple of local bus and train rides in Montreal and Quebec. Why is it so low, you ask!? I used points for a lot of this, which I talked about in my last Money Monday post! 

Utilities: $232 (↓ from September) Includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, Garmin charges, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN). 

Total Spent: $2,205 (↓ 20% from average and ↓ 27% from September)

Verdict: Pretty much all categories went down from September and most were lower than the average for the trip. I am still trying to figure out what I should target for my budget for next year, but I am thinking that $2,500 a month may be a good number to start with. I do think that there will be a couple of things that I will need to upgrade next year (for example, my normal travel backpack is from the 90s!) but hopefully they will not cost more than the cost of bike maintenance, so it will even out. 

This brings to total spent for seven months to $18,407 or approximately $2,600 per month. The highest month is still the Tour Divide (July) and the lowest is April with October coming in second lowest.

Verdict: Being on the move more or trying to go faster equals more expensive for the most part. Being able to slow down and buy things in larger quantities and stay in one place for a week really does make a difference. 

To end this number heavy post, here are a few non-cycling related stats! 

Favorite Ice Cream: The Real Scoop in Wolfville. 

Favorite New Town: Wolfville, although Mahone Bay was pretty dang cute

Favorite New Water Related Venue: Hubbards Bay or Blomidon

Favorite Food Item: I really loved the family dinners at Elisabeth's house! However, I had a blast getting a loaded poutine at La Banquise in Montreal. Was it touristy? 100% yes. However, it was still a lot of fun and it was very filling! 

Favorite Book: God of the Woods. I will be doing a post about what I read later, or you can find my list on my Goodreads page here! 

Okay it's your turn!! Have you read God of the Woods? What was the best (or worst) thing you spent money on in October? What month is normally your highest spending month? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Never Have I Ever

Never have I ever: 

* Milked a cow

But I have milked a goat!

* Eaten or been to Chick-Fil-A (PS one of my pet peeves is when people spell things wrong to be cute. This is not why I have never eaten there though!)

* Read Fifty Shades of Grey

* Seen Top Gun (either version)

* Been to the states of Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota or West Virginia (layovers on the plane don't count)

* Been to the continent of Antarctica

* Ridden a mechanical bull

* Brushed a dog's teeth

I've helped clip this one's toenails!

* Ridden on a scooter (motorized or non)

* Had kids

Volunteering at Bolivian orphanage

* Used one of the shared rental scooters, bikes, etc. in any city

* Had a gerbil, Guinea pig or hamster as a pet

I have had a lot of cats

* Put the toilet paper roll on upside down (flap goes over every time)

Which of these have you done (drink!)? And what things have you never done? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Rabbit Hole

The other day I was working on a post about things I never do and I was wondering, what DO people do that I have never done? So I googled, "what is a common thing for US people to do?" and this is what the AI blurb at the top of my search spit out, along with my comments. The answers did not really help me with my post, but it was amusing all the same. 

Here are some common things that people in the United States do:

Work: Americans tend to work long hours, often starting before 9 AM and ending before 6 PM. Many Americans start working at a young age and take relatively few vacations. [Me: Is this really what we are known for? Relatively few vacations? FYI, at my last job, I got five weeks off every year, and I always took all of them!]

 

Eat out: Americans often eat out or order takeout for convenience and time. They also enjoy eating out for fun. [I suppose this is true to a certain extent, especially the fun part, although I just checked my spending report and even when I am on the road, like now, I don't eat out a ton. In October, I went for lunch 4 times, dinner 3 times and ice cream 1 time.]

Lunch out with Elisabeth

Value time: Americans value time and convenience, and often celebrate busyness and lack of leisure. [I do think this is true, and am actually struggling with this a bit right now, as I feel like people may think that because I am not working, I am lazy and/or not busy, aka not productive, aka lazy.]

 

Follow sports: Many Americans enjoy watching and following sports, especially football, baseball, and basketball. [I do not fit in this group very much, but do feel like a lot of people do love watching sports, especially football. Those fans are INTENSE.]

 

Practice small talk: Americans often engage in small talk, which is making conversation with strangers or acquaintances about non-controversial topics. [This one seems odd; are other cultures not known for small talk? Are Americans engaging in more small talk than other cultures? As you know, I am not a huge fan of small talk.]

 

Be independent: Americans value the idea of being self-sufficient. Many American kids and teenagers leave home for extended periods of time. [I do know that in many cultures it is normal to live at  home for a long time, or have multiple generations under one roof, so in contrast to them, I do think Americans are seen to be kicking the kids out early. Also my parents definitely taught me to be self sufficient.]

 

Respect differences: Americans generally practice political correctness and respect other cultures and people's differences. [Hmmm.. not so sure about this one, AI!]

 

Use red cups: Americans often use red cups to drink alcohol out of. [THIS ONE CRACKED ME UP! I mean, what algorithm caused it to put this on top of other things? I have drunk out of a red cup, but I do not think this is a top ten defining characteristic of Americans!]

 

Celebrate holidays: Americans celebrate holidays like Halloween and Black Friday. [What about Christmas!? And Thanksgiving? Plus, is Black Friday now a holiday? My critique to AI: needs work!]

Which of these do you think AI got right, and which are just weird? And which do you think should be added? For my non-US readers, what do you think of when you think of Americans (don't be shy, I know we are known for being loud in a crowd!)? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.