Tourlina: The Tinder for Travel in Twos

Categories Female travel, Solo travel, Tips, Travel

In 2011, when I was fresh out of high school and not prepared to start college yet, I took a gap year in which I spent four months working in my hometown of Santa Cruz, California and then three months volunteering with a non profit organization in Antigua, Guatemala. Since I had only ever been out of the country on two family trips to Mexico, my mother and I (mostly my mother) were a little scared for my safety and general well-being. My mother suggested I…Continue Reading “Tourlina: The Tinder for Travel in Twos” →

San Sebastián is Mindblowingly Beautiful and If You’re in Spain You Should Go

Categories Europe, Eurotrip, Solo travel, Spain, Travel

Picture this: Jessica wearing her cow onesie and laying on her friend’s couch in Vitoria-Gasteiz (small Spanish town near Bilbao), trying to use the bus company Alsa to find a bus back to Barcelona and audibly complaining because Alsa doesn’t like to let people book buses with foreign credit cards. Fed up with the whole Barcelona bus situation, the aforementioned cow started messing around on the Alsa website and saw that she could instead get a bus to San Sebastián for 7 euros and worry about getting back to…Continue Reading “San Sebastián is Mindblowingly Beautiful and If You’re in Spain You Should Go” →

10 Things I Wish I Knew About Barcelona as a Tourist

Categories Barcelona, Europe, Eurotrip, Humor, Learn from my mistakes, Solo travel, Spain, Tips, Travel

After four days of visiting Barcelona in 2015, I was completely in awe of the city and knew I wanted to come back and live here. So, a year later, I did. While I’m obviously still technically a tourist in Barcelona, since I’m not from here and have only been here for four and a half months, four and a half months is a lot different than four days. So, knowing what I know now, here is everything I wish I knew before I went. 1. Spanish…Continue Reading “10 Things I Wish I Knew About Barcelona as a Tourist” →

GUEST POST: A Basic Bitch’s Guide to Bali

Categories Bali, Humor, Solo travel, Tips, Travel

Guest post by Michelle Rick. You can find her on Instagram or at michellearick.com. According to Pinterest, there’s a place that has beaches for days, because it’s an island, and islands tend to be surrounded by water. Its menu is designed to nurture the taste buds of a deliciously, nutriciously Instagrammable diet. And there’s many an opportunity to get in sunrise yoga selfies until you literally can’t even. If you find yourself headed to Bali in the near future, buy yourself a Bintang bro tank and…Continue Reading “GUEST POST: A Basic Bitch’s Guide to Bali” →

How Not to Suck as an American Tourist 101

Categories Travel

If you’ve talked to me for longer than ten minutes, you know that I’m about as patriotic as a potato. (Read: not patriotic at all.) Whenever anyone asks me where I’m from, I always say “California” instead of America. I even went as far to lie on my Couchsurfing.com account that I’m from Montreal (which only led to my host in Venice, Italy trying to speak to me in French). Aside from all the obvious reasons that I’m not a huge fan of my own country…Continue Reading “How Not to Suck as an American Tourist 101” →

Baecelona: My Love Letter to the Spanish City That Stole My Heart

Categories Europe, Eurotrip, Humor, Solo travel, Travel

When you’re in love, you’ll do anything to be with the object of your affection. You look past their imperfections, you cherish every moment with them, you’ll travel thousands of miles to be with them if you have to. I fell in love like this in June 2015, and when I still felt the same way almost a year later, I decided it was time to pack my bags and move across the world so I could be with her. Last summer, I stood knee-deep…Continue Reading “Baecelona: My Love Letter to the Spanish City That Stole My Heart” →

Why Friendships Abroad are Different than Friendships at Home

Categories Europe, Eurotrip, Solo travel, Tips, Travel

In August 2010, most of my friends left my small hometown of Santa Cruz, California to go off to college in various other parts of the country. I was taking a gap year, so I stayed in Santa Cruz for six months working at a daycare before I moved to Antigua, Guatemala to volunteer. When everyone left, I was a wreck. I had grown up with these kids, they had made Santa Cruz what it was for me, and now they were all leaving. At…Continue Reading “Why Friendships Abroad are Different than Friendships at Home” →

Being a Vegetarian in Cartagena, Colombia

Categories Cartagena, Colombia, Food, Vegetarian

South America isn’t exactly known for its vast plethora of vegetarian options, and Cartagena, Colombia is no exception. That being said, I’ve been a vegetarian for 20 years, and I managed to find plenty to eat during the eight days I spent in Cartagena (and various beaches nearby). As long as you like corn-based foods and melted cheese, you’ll be good to go. That’s essentially what two of the most popular foods in Cartagena are–both an arepa and an empañada are basically cornmeal dumplings filled…Continue Reading “Being a Vegetarian in Cartagena, Colombia” →

I Went to Colombia and Didn’t Die, and You Can, Too!

Categories Colombia, Humor, Solo travel, Tips, Travel

Cartagena’s streets are lined with colorful houses, bustling with the constant sound of horse-drawn carriages clopping down the cobblestone and full of guys with push carts selling beers for the equivalent of 33 cents each. That’s probably not what you picture when you think of Colombia, though. Thanks to movies, television and the widely-known fact that Colombia is a major hub for cocaine, the country is regarded by most of the rest of the world as a highly dangerous country, and certainly not a safe…Continue Reading “I Went to Colombia and Didn’t Die, and You Can, Too!” →

My First 48 Hours of Traveling Alone Was a Total Shitshow–And I Lived to Tell the Tale

Categories Europe, Eurotrip, Humor, Learn from my mistakes, Solo travel, Tips, Travel

As someone who was still prone to getting lost in San Francisco after living there for five years, I got a lot of raised eyebrows when I told people I a) bought a one-way ticket to Colombia to meet up with friends and b) was traveling alone after. Three weeks before my flight to Cartagena, I took a job in Barcelona, fully aware that that’s nowhere near Colombia, and spent literally an entire day researching the cheapest and most effective way to get there from…Continue Reading “My First 48 Hours of Traveling Alone Was a Total Shitshow–And I Lived to Tell the Tale” →