I'm often asked how I fund all of my travels, so I decided it was time to officially address the question with a full explanation on the blog here. Financing is the next biggest obstacle for people who have finally decided that they want to travel the world.

I fund my nomadic lifestyle mostly through my work here on Eye & Pen. While there are many bloggers who fund their lives solely through their writing, I make very little from my actual writing work – which is gradually changing, but hopefully someday I will accomplish a much higher level. I mostly fund my life from my blog coaching, web design and travel planning services – and I also receive a little income from advertising. It was only a few months ago that I began to make enough from the website to sustain the lifestyle I’ve been wanting to have. Truth be told – I’m not even close to my ultimate goal, and I’ve nowhere near reached most of my longterm goals, and I don’t make enough to save for my future yet, but I do bring in enough income to sustain my frugal backpacking nomadic lifestyle. So for now, I’m satisfied with where I’m at – but it typically takes years to be completely successful in making a career of blogging, and I’m only over a year in, myself.

There are a few points in particular that I’m going to focus on, but it’s always important to double and triple check all reservations and bookings – and while you’re at it double check and possibly rework your itinerary to make sure you’ve thought of each and every detail, including your transportation and budgeting (which I will talk about a little further down).

When traveling abroad, using your cell phone is unfortunately pretty useless, as most signals can be limited and it will most definitely be extremely expensive to use. When I’m traveling for more than a couple of months, I ask my cell phone carrier to suspend my coverage, so that I’m not billed while traveling – do take note that this will extend your cell contract the length of your duration. There are two other options if cellular connectivity is a must for you... 1. You may purchase a local phone with a local sim and plan. 2. Ask your current carrier to ‘unlock your phone for global use.’ If you have a newer phone with a sim card, you should have no trouble putting a new sim in while you’re traveling. When calling in to customer support, keep in mind that not every representative you talk to will know what you’re asking about, so be sure to ask to be transferred to a manager in a polite manner – they will be able to direct you in the right direction to have your service unlocked. Another option is using Skype or Google Voice, where you’re able to complete calls over a wifi connection.

I landed in Barcelona, Spain on Thursday and I was sure that jet lag would get the better of me. But I managed to stave off any effect from my flight and the changing of timezones. I made sure that I remained relaxed during the flight – while staying away from much alcohol. I flew out from Columbus, Ohio at 8 AM and didn’t land in Barcelona until the following morning at 7 AM local time, after a brief layover in Chicago. I then proceeded to stay awake for the entire day with only one hour of sleep on the plane. I somehow managed to amp myself up to last throughout the day – I made sure to eat and sleep and continue my normal daily regimen as if nothing had changed. I walked around the city and kept myself busy, until it was time to crash at the hostel later that night – I ended up staying active for over 34 hours. I feel like it’s rather incredible that I was accustomed to my new timezone already by day two. I suppose if you can manage to keep yourself awake and continue ‘business’ as usual, then you can trick your body and sort of skip the lasting effects of jet lag.

Often, a place may not be quite like you had imagined prior to visiting. Most of the time, you’re way off and it exceeds expectations in unconventional ways. But a place can also be quite dull in comparison to what you may have anticipated. Every place in the world is beautiful and wonderful in its own way. When I visited Dublin, Ireland, I was a bit let down to be honest. I’m not entirely sure if the Irish stigma of merry little pubs and all-night drinking is shared throughout the world, like it is in America, but Dublin didn’t quite fit the bill for me. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that that was how it is in Ireland all of the time, but I was expecting a bit more of the natural Irish heritage and culture to be apparent in Dublin.

UPDATE: It took two weeks, but they finally provided an appropriate voucher as recompense.
 
In this day in age, those who are at fault are expected to repay for their transgressions – this goes for criminals and those who do business, in this way, they are alike.

Today, I had set out to fly from Columbus to Chicago, then Chicago to London. I had a two day layover planned, where I had setup accommodations and attractions. But my airline, American (Eagle) Airlines had a massive grounding of all flights around the USA. The effect was pure mayhem of unhappy people who were been stranded and left without answers. It took me five hours to get a semi-acceptable flight rescheduled. Customer service was completely unprepared, which was understandable, but they provided no updates to travelers, and lines of hundreds of people took hours to process. News cameras came and went, preying for ‘juicy’ interviews with angry and irritable travelers.