Thought I’d stop with the layover talk for a while and tell you another one of my strange travel tales.

This one happened last October while I was traveling around Romania for a couple of weeks. It was my last day in Transylvania and I was just getting ready to leave my hostel in Brasov to go check out Sighisoara which is about two hours away. Ten minutes before I was supposed to leave, I get this message:

 Hi Larissa

How are you? – or “so-caress”, say the Gypsies. I hope Romania is treating you well. It’s a beautiful country.

I truly hope I’m not disturbing you with this message but I noticed you are in the “area” – also noticed your interesting moniker (blonde Gypsy) and thought to reach out and introduce our non-profit community development organization (ngo). It’s something that I think might interest you; we invite open minded travelers into the segregated “Tzigania” (Gypsy part of town) and experience the true GYPSY “carpe diem” lifestyle. It’s another world. We offer the chance for people to SAFELY come into the segregated communities and see for yourself. It’s not only about culture but the history, traditions, music and dance; plus it’s a lot of FUN.

We are a small org trying to build something positive against so much negatively.

Thanks for your understanding..

Friend

Chuck

PS Our location is in restful Transylvania, after Brasov, not far from the “must-see” Citadel Sighisoara: Mures county…

Gypsy tourism? Was this guy for real? The way he was selling it kind of made it seem like one of those slum tours in Rio or Mumbai that I’ve read a lot about but have never been interested in doing. They seem so sad and exploitative to me. At the same time, I’d be lying if I said that going to have FUN with a bunch of gypsies didn’t intrigue me. The fact that he said it was a non-profit community development organization also made me a little more open to the idea. I totally understand why an organization would want to build something positive because to say the Roma have a bad reputation, especially in Romania, would be a huge understatement.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this proposition during the entire ride out to Sighisoara. What are the chances I get this offer on my last day in the region and on the day that I am going in that direction anyway? It seemed too serendipitous to pass up so as soon as I arrived I sent a message back to this guy Chuck. I told him I was interested in dropping by to check it out for dinner but I wanted more details. How would I get there? Who else would be there? How would I get back to Brasov in the evening?

Chuck responded that just stopping by for dinner was not going to be possible if I was getting to and from there via public transportation, so he suggested that I stay the night. It would be me and one other visitor from Switzerland. Hmmmm…

I still wasn’t entirely sure this was a legit organization so of course this kind of made me a little uneasy. This place was out in the middle of nowhere and I definitely wouldn’t be able to just bounce if I decided I didn’t want to be there anymore. Also, if this turns out to be something completely bogus, who is going to know?

Well, Rob would, I decided. I rarely take this kind of security measure while traveling solo but thought it would be a good idea for this occasion to email my new pen pal and ask him to contact Interpol if he didn’t hear from me within 24 hours. True story. I really didn’t feel like worrying family or friends back home and I knew he’d be totally cool with that request. Plus, if something did happen, at least he’d have some interesting material for a new blog post, right?

Luckily, this turned out to be unnecessary. I found the bus minibus I was supposed to take and thankfully got off at the correct stop. Chuck was there waiting there for me like he said he would and took me straight over to meet “the gypsies”.

It is here where I wish I could tell you that I walked into a full-blown gypsy party with gypsies dancing and singing around a huge fire. Maybe post some photos of me learning some traditional Roma dance moves from the best dancer in the tribe or taking shots of homemade brandy with their leader. That, however, would be far from the truth.

No, actually I walked straight into a pretty nice two-story home with cable TV blaring from the kitchen and pictures of Hilary Duff and Hannah Montana stuck on the wall. Before I even had time to say “WTF?”, I was greeted by the hospitable residents of this slick countryside pad, the Gabor family.

After we had dinner and walked around the village for a bit, I spent a couple of hours just chatting with Chuck. He is an American journalist who has been living in gypsy communities for the past six years and has written quite a bit on Roma culture and issues. Regardless of how he came off in his message and how overly touristic some of the activities he offers are, I could tell he deeply cared that people came away from this experience better informed and with a more positive view of the Roma.

While there were some elements of my stay that bordered on cheesy (like them wanting to dress me up in Roma attire), I came back feeling like I had done something meaningful and that I actually learned a lot. People can argue that doing something like this is an example of irresponsible tourism, but I think that irresponsible tourism has almost everything to do with irresponsible tourists. As long as the organizations providing these tours are reliable, they actually involve the people living in the communities in a positive manner, and any profits made are put in the right hands, then it is up to the tourists to turn it into a learning experience and not something exploitative.

I truly hope Chuck and the Gabor Family are on the right track with this project. It’s always hard to tell from the outside, but it seemed like their hearts were in it and they were making progress as best they could given their circumstances – circumstances being that at the Romanian tourism board wants absolutely nothing to do with a program like this so funding and publicity is limited.

If you are interested in seeing more photos and a short video from my time spent in Tzigania, you can also check out this post on my blog.

Te Bahktalo (may the luck be with you)

]]> http://stophavingaboringlife.com/a-gypsy-sleepover-in-valeni-romania/feed/ 5 http://stophavingaboringlife.com/view-of-little-corn-island-from-space/ http://stophavingaboringlife.com/view-of-little-corn-island-from-space/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 22:55:47 +0000 Rob http://stophavingaboringlife.com/?p=11095
Good day,

Let us discuss the important matter of satellites aka techno gadgets shot by scientists with large sling shots into a place we know very little about called space. These stellar space cameras can take pretty crazy photos and as always, I’m thankful for what technology can do for us. How could I describe the island better than shown above? That’s Little Corn Island, Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea and most certainly one of my “favorite places on the planet”.

You can see a cluster of activity on the west side, that’s downtown aka where all the action happens. You should see the place on a busy Saturday afternoon when all the supply ships come in, it’s popping.  To the east side it’s random beach bungalows and whatnot most commonly referred to as the beach side. In the south eastern tip, there is Casa Iguana which gives you a great view of the entire east coast. To the north is mainly forest, the beloved baseball diamond aka the Little Corn Island Golf Beach & Country Club.

If you’re going to the north side which arguably has the best beaches and snorkeling, you’ll cross the baseball diamond and notice there isn’t a lot going on up there. From the baseball diamond to Casa Iguana there is a concrete path that’s smaller than most bike paths in major cities and that’s the “main road” aka the “the strip”. There are no cars or motorized vehicles on the island, I almost got ran over by some dude on a bike once though; true story.

So this place is like 1 square mile or so but it feels considerably larger and it houses about 1000 people and believe it has room for 250+ tourists. On the north side they are building a resort which is going to change this island. They look stunning and are located right in front of some of the best reef snorkeling accessible from land. Also believe if you had a boat, some of the best fishing as everyone seems to see barracuda when they go snorkeling.

The lack of power is slowing the progress of whatever I’d be doing online if I had power. Also it’s entering rainy season and the number of tourists seems to have walked off a cliff, it took the stairs up all winter and just took the elevator down, broken cord styles. It’s time for reverse migration my friends, that means if you’re down south it’s time to go north aka be in some of the most beautiful countries in the world for that small window when they’re dressed to impress.

This is the “little island” and I love it.

Tips hat,

P.S: Thanks to John who runs Tranquilo Cafe for sharing this photo on Facebook.

Let’s just dive right off the deep end and into the heart of this monster fish, shall we? I was sweating in my second floor office surrounded by screens as I often do when a sudden urge to go snorkeling overpowered me… I grabbed my gear and skipped down the steps to hit the streets without missing a beat. As I’m burning the soles of my feet on the searing concrete while contemplating if I prefer oatmeal or shredded wheat I see an acquaintance and inquire what’s the good word? Supposedly the good word was well that fish above, unreal eh!?

As I approached the beach I could see a gathering, the type that forms whenever there is an accident, fight or some other spectacle. Get through the small crowd and see this Goliath Grouper or Junefish or whatever. Supposedly they are in the same family, others say no but who really cares just look at it? Supposedly this type of fish can get up to three times larger and a whopping 600lbs!? This fish was so big that supposedly the small skiff nearly flipped as they managed to “haul em in”.

I grew up catching fish that looked like this weighing 1/5th of a pound and loved it. For someone who loves fish and fishing, just being there for a catch like this is like winning the World Series for a Baseball fan. It’s also why people pay good money to go deep sea fishing because “anything can happen at sea”. For every 10,000 fishermen who catch nothing, not even a rock there is that one who goes out and catches the biggest fish anyone has ever seen. Who cares about catching a barracuda when you can catch a Goliath grouper!?

The largest steak they removed from this fish was 55lbs without any bone. The mouth was large enough to put my entire head in and probably powerful enough to crack it like a coconut. It had what appeared to be sandpaper on the top and these pointed dagger like devices on the lower jaw. It’s skin was so strong that it could be used as masonite on a skate ramp or really shoddy wall paper on a small trailer home destined for a roach infestation. Just look how big it is and remember that I’m 175lbs…

I just eat some for lunch and it was delicious, add “eat Junefish” to list of things to do.

In closing, I’m seeing an alarming number of couples here on Little Corn Island these days. I hope this place doesn’t turn into a “couples retreat” as that is code in the tourism industry for “really boring place to buy over priced seafood and dine by candle light on the beach” type scene. Also this example of “just doing something” and it leading to something cooler is a great reminder that you’re never going to sleep with a 200lbs fish if you dont’ get off your seat and jump around…

Photo credit: “Johnny da boi” from Hamburg.

Tips hat,

P.S: Went to the reggae bar last night, it was weak as usual but the stage is always set and only needs a spark…

P.P.S: Happy Mother’s Day Mom -  LOVE YOU!!!

Good day,

The above snapper was purchased not long ago for $5US at the rate of $1 / pound, muahahah. Buying fresh fish here is incredibly easy as most days someone will have fish, it often changes but once the news gets out it’s not hard to sniff out the spot of sale. This was purchased from a catch of roughly 100lbs that included jack, snapper, barracuda, king fish and lots of odd looking creatures whose names elude me.

A gent involved had egregious plans to make this “bodacious BBQ” but it was foiled and eventually cooked on a stove in none other than tin foil. It was one of those BBQ’s where someone like myself immediately says “this isn’t going to work, there is not enough coal” but someone insists until you end up flipping it around on a propane stove, lol. The true player way is to go to the beach, build a small fire pit in the sand, let it go to embers then throw in some tin foil with your fish, veg etc… Add in a sunset and you’re ready to roll, seriously.

We probably could have taken a better shot of the finished product but whatever.

It’s Saturday, please remember to go out and be social even if it’s against your nature…

Tips hat,

P.S: I love red snapper.

Good day,

In a land where cotton candy clouds rain french fries on old growth forests and and people work their entire lives to have their pensions routed into bailouts of wall street bozos, isn’t snorkeling simply sensational and divine? When is the last time you went snorkeling? I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve neglected such a serious sport for all too long, when you live near world class snorkeling, not only should it be done often but daily I say, daily! Let me tell you about a recent snorkeling trip I took during the day, when I would have been at work.  This trip involves an interesting cast and crew from all corners of this round globe we call home.

Here’s the deal on Little Corn Island, west side aka where I live is the town side, the east side is the “beach side” but I don’t care for it much and rarely go there, the south side is mainly homes and this cliff that you’d break your legs if you slept walk off as well as some ‘secluded beaches” behind Casa Iguana. To the north side there is beautiful beaches aka the best on the island, the least amount of people and guess what!? They are also building a great looking resort where you can buy buckled shoes and have a world class chef cater to every whim, sounds good – yes?

I digress, again.

Suffice to say we marched there, if you go from the west side aka town, should take you about 20 minutes or so. Once you cross the baseball diamond it’s just endless single track paths that weave in and around the landscape as you descend from the “mountain of 37 meters” to sea level. Once you arrive you can see the reefs, look around and see NOBODY. Drop your gear, hide your valuables and hit the water. We went with a “wolf dog” aka more wolf than dog that I feed daily, I even go as far as to get other people’s scraps to keep beefing this monster up, he’s loyal and my side kick but I digress once more…

We were snorkeling where the photo above is, fyi. The group was myself, an English gent from Australia,  a German man who wears a top hat everywhere, including snorkeling and a Slovenian lady who loved to party and sing songs like “White Wedding” by Billy Idol at 5am. We hit the water and began to swim, if you’re not a good swimmer I suggest you go with a boat, swimming out to some cool reefs takes time and lots of energy.

Once arriving at the reefs we saw two giant eagle manta-rays majestically gliding about, they came about 20 feet from me and could see them eye to eye just gliding without a care in the world, there were two of them. Moments later see some big snapper doing their thing, hmmm snapper, hmmm red snapper in particular. Finally we saw something that I’ll always remember and was truly epic in my opinion, a school of 20-40 barracuda.

You’re swimming there and suddenly you see one leering about like that creepy guy in the back corner of the club, moments later there are more. Then they are swimming on both sides of you. They look small from the front but once you get the side view you begin to see what they are really all about. In the spirit of disclosure, this freaked me out to no avail and even looked over to see if a friend was there only because that would increase my odds of survival should this pack of creatures with long pointed teeth turn into a tourism terror squad.

About an hour later, returned and sat down on this rock from the photo above, the furthest rock to the left. Sat there having a smoke while these flying fish began going nuts about 3 feet to my right then a swarm of fish which I assume are jacks went to town on these flying fish. Moments later a long silver fish literally ripped out of the water and just sailed until it did a nose dive later, it’s like it jumped a rock or something. Anyways all this from just “getting out there and going” aka not being lazy.

Tips hat with a TGIFesque smile,

P.S: If you’re going to a beach destination, be sure to try snorkeling as it’s a great activity for all ages / groups.

Thought I’d go ” live” today and blog about what’s happening right now rather than reporting on it later.

First and foremost, I should tell you the trip back to Sweden that I was trying to coordinate last week has already begun. I’m not going to get there until next week, but so far my latest layover is shaping up quite nicely because…

I’m in Miami! South Beach, to be exact, and only for 8 hours.

Let me just start off by saying if you have a layover longer than 4 hours at MIA and the weather is nice, you should really try to get out of that place and down to the beach. That airport kind of sucks and not only is it incredibly easy, but also super cheap. The Airport Flyer (Route 150) leaving every half hour will take you directly to South Beach/Miami Beach in about 20 minutes and only costs around $2.50 one-way.

There’s tons of cool spots in South Beach to eat or get a drink, go for a stroll on the boardwalk, take a dip in the lukewarm seawater, etc, etc. If I didn’t have somewhere to be right now, I’d totally be exploring the entire place, BUT…

I have a couple of really amazing friends who graciously invited me to hang around the Soho Beach House all day when I told them I would be in town. And, well, the Soho Beach House is freaking amazing!

It’s a private members club so unfortunately not open to the public, but if you’re interested, it costs $900/yr for those under 27 and $1,800/yr for those above. They also have two in London, one in Berlin, one in New York and one in West Hollywood. I was just talking to the waiter, apparently they are in talks to open 30 more properties around the world in the near future. All I heard Mumbai.

Any hoot. So many ridiculously good looking men and women here. They clearly work out and/or are on the South Beach Diet. This Soho House in particular has a really cozy, shabby chic spa vibe on the inside, but once you get out to the pool and beach, LOOK OUT. It’s 100% Miami Vice. Hope one day I will be able to join the club.

I think I’m going to sign off for now and go bask in all the Soho glory since this isn’t how I typically roll (minus the rosé, that is always how I roll). I’m seriously in heaven, how did I get so lucky. Two more hours and I’m off to the next surprise destination where I will remain for the next four evenings…

Cliffhanger. And cheers, everyone!

Good day,

Little Corn Island where I’m living for another 2.5 weeks doesn’t have power all day and some days, it doesn’t turn on at all. The power runs from a diesel generator that powers the island and it’s typically “on” from 2pm-5am. Having now been here for roughly 3 months off and on, can tell you that a day without power is no surprise and at times, it can be several days should there be an issue with the generator, let us discuss life without electricity…

At first having no power could be seen as tragic but in reality it’s quite sublime. When the lights go out and you’ve got nothing but well placed candles, there is an aura to the room and it almost feels medieval if you’re inside a large custom concrete structure. Besides the aura, have found that when there is no power, people tend to gather around what light is available and actually interact instead of engross themselves in personal pursuits.

If you’re not deeply entangled in the “wired world”, having no electricity really doesn’t matter and it’s quite nice .You’ll probably go to bed earlier, wake up earlier and be wiser for it. Considering I’m on borrowed time using the only one of my three batteries with a bit of juice, time to depart. I am currently working on something here, if it was done I’d be on the next flight to Poland for 3 weeks, such is life…

If you’re thinking of “getting away from it all”, look into some remote lodge, you’ll probably enjoy it…

Tips hat,

Good day,

Not long ago I got an email in my inbox from this education company about an infographic they made on learning English. As you know I’m in C. America and would like to learn Spanish. Currently I’m on a Caribbean Island and everyone speaks English so naturally, have made little progress. Not a day goes by where I don’t at some point realize how lucky I am to speak English. It’s without a doubt the official language of business and travel, not to mention a huge audience online if you ever choose to blog…

Infographic: How to learn Englishvia Kaplan Blog

As such, I decided to write how I’d learn English if it wasn’t my mother t0ngue. Before we begin will mention I’ve always been slightly envious of those who speak English as a second language because when they travel, they have a secret language they can communicate with friends when making tough decisions. As I already mentioned, most people you’ll meet traveling will speak a bit of English.

So let us begin, if I wanted to speak English the first thing I’d do is fly to central North America or anywhere in Australia or New Zealand. The reason I pick these locations is because English is the national language and since they are somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, it’s almost all English. Sure there are other languages being spoken but it’s predominantly English and you’d need a bit just to get by. The need to speak English would be the catalyst to continue learning more and from there the stage would be set to finally finish as a fluent English speaker.

Something I found interesting regarding the infographic is that 36% of respondents said they would go to the United Kingdom to learn English. Sure going to England to learn English makes sense at first glance but upon further inspection, believe it would be a mistake. England is too multicultural and small, wherever you went you’d probably be able to find huge pockets of people that speak your language making it easier to follow the path of least resistance and sabotage your language learning mission.

If traveling is not an option for you, believe the next best bet is to watch your favorite movies in English. The reason you watch movies you’re familiar with is that you already know the plot and know what people are talking about. As a result, you’ll often hear certain words, terms and phrases used that you can begin to associate with certain activities, locations and objects. Believe the visual component would assist most people and once you got a grasp on the language via movies, go straight to listening to music. It’s no surprise that roughly 80% of people surveyed agreed that both movies and music are great tools to learn English.

Naturally, these principals would work for any language, may have to start watching some Spanish television…

Good luck!

Tips hat,

P.S: It’s Saturday, go make the most of it regardless of your schedule.

Good day,

I’m starting to get bored on the islands, not that I don’t love them just things get boring after a while, yes? Variety is the spice of life and if you love a certain dish, you’d get bored of it after a week or so, doesn’t mean you no longer love the stuff, just a little change is often appreciated, that’s all.

As a rule of thumb, spending more than 3 months anywhere a year is boring if you live no strings style.

The photo above is of the port in “Big Corn Island” as it’s known here but on google maps it’s still just “Corn Island” and where I live on Little Corn Island has no real official title at all and is basically just a small rock 15km away, hooray.

Quick history lesson for you, people have lived on Big Corn for a long time, Little Corn until recently was just used by people to grow agriculture and whatnot. Until a few years ago, there was no commercial panga so lots of the land here is still owned by those on Big Corn Island. The big island has power 24/7, great cell signal and things are cheaper for those living on margin.

It’s Friday, have yourself a wonderful weekend and as much as I love it here, thrilled to be going on a large Canadian adventure this summer. I’m currently making waves around here to solidify a spot in the future for when recklessly traveling the world and telling stories about it becomes old hat and the next level of a “complete as possible life” is attained.

Tips hat,

P.S: A few quintessentially SHABLesque maneuvers are in the works & have a great weekend.

Good day,

This photo is about the change occurring in and around Little Corn Island. Plots that were once forest now look as though they have been pulverized into plantations. Certain paths have expanded and in front of us there is a boat pulling a heavy hunk of plastic pipe with a group of kids swimming out to jump on board, nice – yes? Crazy how different a Wednesday afternoon looks depending on where you’re standing.

Have been without internet to call my own for a week, the sand bags in the photo above are for work being done on the Claro (cell network) tower. Currently the signals come from Big Corn and are faint at best, once this tower goes live this island will become a surreal spot to rest, relax and refocus.

On the topic of focus, an important question floating around my mind is what does this blog want to be when it “grows up”?

Tips hat,

P.S: Big plans and announcements for this summer coming soon…

P.P.S: How cool would it be to have your own small ship in the Caribbean Sea!?