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My First Evening on Samos, Greece

I arrived on Samos today, my 21st Greek island. I spent last night on Mykonos, only because I had to change ferries there coming from Santorini. I visited Mykonos once before, in February purposefully to avoid the crazy crowds. Every Greek island has its appeal it seems, but the real fun of exploring them is experiencing how different and unique each one is. What a relief to leave behind the tourist traps of Santorini and Mykonos (even though they're both gorgeous) and arrive somewhere that feels so much more authentic.

I'm in the port town of Karlovasi, which is a bit scruffy and deserted and I think other villages on the island will be prettier, and probably have more tourists as well. I haven't seen hardly anyone this evening that stood out as being a tourist. Not many people around in general. Two days ago I was in Ia, Santorini struggling to get through the crowds gathering for the sunset and getting turned away from a restaurant that had tables because I just wanted a juice.

Interesting Day on Santorini, Greece

Another interesting day as a solo traveler here on Santorini. I went on a day tour, something I don't do often. But I wanted to go on a boat trip into the volcanic crater in the middle of Santorini, which is part of the sea now. Only 35 euros for an all-day tour. Not a bad deal, especially considering how much it included. Some highlights and lowlights:

The bus broke down while driving to the port, leaving a group of us waiting around for fifteen minutes or so for another bus to come, while wondering if we might miss our boat.

Made it to the boat and we sailed into the beautiful blue Aegean, to a small island in the middle of the crater of Santorini called Nea Kameni, which formed in 1707 as a result of volcanic activity under the sea. We went hiking across the island of jumbled volcanic rocks, devoid of any life (other than tourists). Totally amazing. The views in every direction of the sea and the islands against the clear blue sky were stunning.

Flying Back to Europe

It was a relatively short two-week trip back in the US this time. I'm now on a bus headed to the San Francisco airport to catch a flight to Brussels, Belgium. This will be my second time to Belgium, technically. But the first time didn't really count. That was on my first trip to Europe when I was 18. At the end of my trip my backpack was stolen while sleeping on a bridge over the Seine river in Paris. Luckily I was left with my day pack which had in it my passport, flight ticket (which was crucial since this was before the internet, so flight tickets were almost like cash), the little bit of money I had left, my camera and a few other essentials.

Northern California Road Trip

I just completed an awesome three-day road trip around northern California. Started in Ukiah (where I'm staying at my mom's for a little while), drove over to interstate 5 and north up to Lassen national park where I camped for the night in a campground with a lot of snow around because spring comes late up there. Went on a hike up the road because the road was gated, although free of snow, and got a great view of bubbling sulfur pits and Mt. Lassen, a volcano.

Greyhound Bus Cancelled, So I Hitchhiked

Interesting past 36 hours. Yesterday morning I was at my brother's in eastern Oregon, where I'd been visiting him, his wife and son the previous few days. I had a long travel day ahead of me. I had a Greyhound bus booked from La Grande that would take six hours to get me to Portland and (if it was on time) arrive at 4:20 pm. I then had a flight from Portland at 7 pm to San Francisco, where I had a hostel reserved for the night. The next morning I would catch a city bus up to Santa Rosa where I would meet up with my aunt and we would then drive up to my mom's an hour north of there in Ukiah.

Strange Day in Romania

Interesting day. Went by train from Bucharest to Brasov here in Romania in a snowstorm. Absolutely beautiful scenery of small mountain towns and villages, forests and rural homes all covered in snow.

My phone has been acting up lately, and it started to do it again on the train ride. Hard to explain but it kind of takes on a mind of its own and starts selecting things randomly, doesn't do what you tell it to do, etc. Major problem. So after searching around online a bit I decided to do a hard reset on it. But I didn't do my research thoroughly enough because I thought that meant it would erase me photos and apps I downloaded and revert it back to the default settings when I bought it. I did the reset only to realize that erases basically everything, wipes your phone completely clean. 

The Challenge of Internet While Traveling

Wi-fi can be so random. As a traveler I have obviously seen the full range of wi-fi. Fast, slow, weird. Connections that go in and out constantly, drop randomly, speed up and slow down considerably, especially when it comes to uploading videos.

When I was working in Alaska a few months ago the wi-fi at the employee housing was ridiculously slow. It would take 10 hours or more to upload a video, depending on the file size obviously (length of the video, basically). Once though, I was on the computer and I noticed the upload had picked up speed. It had hours and hours to go, but then suddenly it started zooming and the video uploaded in ten minutes. That never happened again on that connection. A strange blip of internet turbo power. 

It's always a real crapshoot when picking hotels as far as how good the wi-fi is going to be. It matters a lot for me because super slow wi-fi can slow down my whole operation of posting videos and really hold things up, leaving me with finished videos lined up that I can't get posted. People might write reviews about a hotel saying the wi-fi is great, but they most likely mean for browsing the internet, which can be completely different from trying to upload or download stuff.

How Do I Afford to Travel So Much?? Interview with Gabriel Traveler

There's a new article on the website of Nora Dunn, The Professional Hobo, in which she interviewed me about how I manage to travel the world full-time. Very in-depth and informative with lots of tips about how to make money while traveling the world. You can check it out here.

Muscat, Oman

Currently in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which borders the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. But despite its more rambunctious and/or glitzy neighbors, Oman is probably one of the most peaceful, chilled out and humble countries in the world. It's very clean, organized, feels super safe, people are ridiculously friendly but not pushy, almost everyone speaks English and they're more than happy to help with directions, etc. In fact, there aren't really that many people around at all. The streets feel quite empty, especially compared to India (I just spent six weeks there). But even compared to the U.S. it feels like everyone has left town on vacation (maybe they did?). Oman is like a forgotten corner of the Middle East (it is a corner, literally, if you look at the map) that defies all the stereotypes of what the Middle East is like.

The one problem: it's expensive. Pretty much the same as Europe and the U.S., except there are no hostels in the entire country, so I'll have to pay for hotel rooms the whole time I'm here (which I prefer anyway, but not when they're $60 and up). All considering, I'm looking forward to seeing some more of the country, but may not explore as long as I'd thought I would. I might just stay another week or so and then head for Jordan, which is much cheaper and also the home of Petra, one of the most incredible historical sites in the world, by the looks of it. After that quite possibly Israel. That's the plan for now, and I may or may not stick to it.