Travel Reflections: How Close Are We to Returning to the US?

Travel Reflections: How Close Are We to Returning to the US?

A fellow travel blogger recently posted a link on Facebook to this page: The Travel Experience In 35 Gifs: From Quitting At Home To Shitting Abroad (take a look!). Auston and I about shit our pants laughing at them. For us, they were about 90% accurate and 200% hilarious. Nothing explains trying to get your travel visas sorted out better than Bruce Willis crawling through an air duct with a lighter as his guide in “Die Hard”. In fact, that was our exact experience when applying for our Indian visas. Then we died laughing at the GIF expressing what it’s like to introduce yourself to the people you meet abroad over and over and over and OVER again.

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The Gayest Weekend in Antwerp, Belgium

The Gayest Weekend in Antwerp, Belgium

As we exited the central train station to step into the city of Antwerp for the first time, we felt immediately wrapped in the colorful embrace of a multitude of rainbow flags. We have been to a fair number of gay pride events over the past two years – four last year and five this year which we later learned was unimpressive compared to the ten plus pride events another American expat living in Germany had attended this year – but we have never seen a city so decked out in rainbows before. You really would have thought Rainbow Brite and her gayer-than-unicorns-sidekick-horse, Starlite, had been hired to decorate the city.

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Flying When Trans

Flying When Trans

Airport travel is hectic for anyone, but what is it like through the eyes of a transgender individual? What precautions can a trans traveler take at the airport? Everyone has an aspect about the airport and flying in general that gets to them. It’s an involved process that we all have to experience at some point. But what is it like for the transgender community when traveling at the airport and what sort of precautions can be taken should an issue arise?

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Meeting New People In A New City Offline And In Person

Meeting New People In A New City Offline And In Person

Meeting people in a new city can be difficult… if you let it. There are plenty of ways to make new friends so we explore ways to meet people without resorting to online social networks and relying on good old fashion face-to-face contact. This is the follow-up post to Part 1: meeting people through online social networks. There are great options for meeting people online, but let’s not forget about the old-fashioned face-to-face concept!

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Meeting People In A New City with Online Social Networks

Meeting People In A New City with Online Social Networks

There’s no denying it. We’re new in town and we need friends. Remember the good ol’ days when you made friends simply by turning to the guy next to you in class and making a smart ass comment. Then bam. Friends. Nowadays as an adult, not so simple. Sure you can make friends at work, but if you’re job is at all like Auston and my former careers, that can vary. Most of the people we worked with were significantly older than us, married with kids or grandkids, and paying a mortgage. Sure they’re nice people, but I just don’t see us tossing back beers together at the bar on a Friday night.

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Pet Peeve: Our Travels “Must Be Nice”

Pet Peeve: Our Travels “Must Be Nice”

On one of the first nights we spent in Madrid, Auston’s cousin Taylor asked us if we had any travel pet peeves. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t really think of any, though there were surely many. I could only come up with a general pet peeve I have about elevator buttons. When you walk up to the elevator, you push the up or down button and it usually lights up. Why then, do so many people feel the need to push the button again if it’s already lit up? The light means it’s been pushed! I don’t know why it gets to me, but I developed that one when we lived in a high-rise in Chicago. Anyway, Auston and I got to thinking and we do have a major travel pet peeve.

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How A Trip Around The World Threatened Our Relationship

How A Trip Around The World Threatened Our Relationship

Taking a trip around the world should be a romantic experience for any couple in love, shouldn’t it? Well we can’t speak for other couples, but it was no romantic getaway for us, at least some of the time – ok, many times. In fact, it was quite the opposite. We’d never fought so much in the seven years we’ve been together. It’s safe to say that by the end of our trip around the world our relationship was strained and apparently not aging well, so much so that if it had a face it’d look like Michael Douglas.

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