Welcome back. This second week for the 30 Days of Indie Travel Art Project, we moved away from asking questions about you, to asking you to tell us stories from your travels. Starting with:
Day 8: What is the worst experience you’ve ever had?
- @TheTravelTart says all his worst experiences involve driving, and even rates driver in different countries based on their ability to drive (spoiler alert: Zimbabwe looses. But he does get a man-hug at the end, so maybe it wasn’t all that bad?)
- @4WornPassports tells “Apparently, the travel gods (like the Greek gods) don’t care much for hubris.” in the opening to their story about getting detained in China.
- @TravelRobin explains her worst experience was during the drought of 2009, when the Amboseli swamp “was littered with dozens of carcasses of dead animals.”
- @BurkhartAndrea tells us a powerful story of getting robbed on her first trip to South Africa and being caught up in a mob of people that started beating a boy they decided was the thief (despite her pleas for them to stop).
- On a lighter note, @edventuremama says, “We haven’t had anything go terribly awry. Certainly nothing I’d consider a crisis.” Then she goes on to post links to some hilarious stories of mishaps, like the time they had to run for their lives in Bali.
- We had some great twitter responses too:
@BootsnAll Well, the last hostel I stayed at not only had bedbugs, it gave me ringworm. That was pretty unplesant. #indie30
— Jess (@perma_frosting) April 9, 2014
@BootsnAll #indie30 A mastrubating, swearing in her sleep, Wicca roommate in a hostel. Hands down worst experience!
— dogsloveshushi (@MarjiStevens) April 9, 2014
(What? Oh Marji, PLEASE elaborate!)
- @Nellou made another awesome video, telling us about the time she convinced her boyfriend to come travel with her, then lost him for an afternoon when their tuk tuks got separated. (Horrible? Yes. Hilarious? Even more so!)
- And @daniLmeyer admits that “I’m that ass who says “someday we’ll laugh about this guys!“
Day 9: What is your best travel experience?
We heard some really nice stories for this one.
- Lois Middleton tweeted us this very optimistic outlook on the subject:
Day 9 #indie30 Best experience? Every trip I take has a “best” experience – too hard to choose just one.
— Lois Middleton (@loismiddleton) April 10, 2014
- @Mr_Smallwood gave us beautiful story about how his best experience was while on a school run trip to Paris, where “the defining moment of my experience there was when I finally got to see David’s Le Sacre de Napoléon” at the Louvre.
- @DaraMDenney told us about her recent experience being sick in Ghana, and how a simple “It is okay, madam.” from her cab driver, (while she is trying to promise that she won’t get sick in his car) was enough to make her feel relaxed. She then goes on to mention some of the many little experiences that make travel great.
- @withoutalicense and @CannoliColie both posted about trips with their family, including funny family photos.
- @anddontblink gave us this: “But nothing has yet compared to the one most glorious perfect day in New Zealand. It beat even my Lord of the Rings tour day in Wellington (and trust me, that is a nearly impossible feat).” (Wait…you found something BETTER than Lord of the Rings? Looks like we need to go New Zealand and test this ourselves!)
- @4WornPassports tells us a funny story about how she will NEVER bungee jump, yet one day finds herself “with my ankles strapped together, shuffling to the edge of a 2’ x 3’ wooden platform, perched 141 feet above a swiftly moving river?“
- And @slomadstravel tweeted us this
@BootsnAll #indie30 VERY 1st time overseas, suitcase broke (wheels AND handle!) and I had to carry it through rush-hour Tokyo station D:
— Slomads Travel (@slomadstravel) April 10, 2014
It may not sound like a “best experience” but really, if this happened to you, would you get upset, or just start laughing at the calamity of it all? We’d go for option two too.
Day 10: What is the strangest food you have eaten while traveling?
We loved this, because we knew it would bring in some funny responses. And since we are from all over the world, somethings that may be strange to one of us, may be totally normal to another.
- @withoutalicense says, “Growing up in Taiwan, things I ate normally would be considered strange to many people I meet today” then goes to to mention how she has tested death twice to try the delicacy that is fugu.
- @DanishiK explains the 2 categories of “strange foods” and goes on to talk about her love of playing in foreign grocery stores. (I do this too! I think we need to go on a ‘Grocery Store Play Date’ sometime soon!)
- We loved @AradInfo’s response that cactus and raw fish are the strangest things she’s tried. Why? Because in our area (USA) raw fish is totally normal. And cactus is strange in some of our states, but normal in others!
- @BoboandChichi tweeted this photo to us:
@bootsnall The strangest food we’ve ever eaten – Bundegi – Silk Worm Larva https://t.co/bc5N1XCXTl #indie30 pic.twitter.com/CynBsRnYTw
— Scott and Megan (@BoboandChichi) April 10, 2014
- @CannoliColie told us, “I thought harder about the weirdest thing I ever ate and Iceland continued to pop into my head.”
- @anddontblink tried haggis, “I’d heard so many things and when it was delicious, I thought there might be something wrong with me.” (I’ve heard this said before. Don’t worry, you’re not alone!)
- @PudgysHuman gives us a list of things she wants to try including fried tarantuala, durian, and “some kind of eyeball” (and you think you are boring!?!)
- @kirsty1j tried piranha which she said “It just tasted like any fish!” (I know, right? I’ve tried piranha too and the “it tastes like fish” aspect surprised me too. I guess the teeth made me think it would taste somehow different)
- @BudgetTrvlTalk considered poutine (Hey, poutine is delicious!), but went with “cabbage and gherkins pickled in pink vinegar and served in a disposable plastic cup“.
We also had a couple tweets of some strange foods like these:
@BootsnAll Strangest food item: soup I had in Shenzen. The waiter later said, it had something to do with lizzards and snakes. #indie30
— Surbhi Arora (@surbhiarora330) April 10, 2014
@BootsnAll #travel #food #indie30 a Japanese drink I never adjusted to was Calpis (which we called CowPiss) – a milk based soft drink
— dogsloveshushi (@MarjiStevens) April 10, 2014
Day 11: Tell us about a time you did something, something you knew you probably shouldn’t do, while traveling.
Some of you blatantly (and perhaps, smartly) refused to answer this question. But others told us about a things they have done that fall under a variety of legal-ness.
- @yqtravelling admits that they thing she likes to do when she’s traveling, that she would never do at home is, dressing like a tourist (not illegal at all, but probably the most taboo thing to actually admit!)
- whereas, @goingnomadic, gives us a video story about the time she snuck into the back of a zoo in Belgrade, Serbia to pet a lion!
- @PudgysHuman alluded to her membership in the mile-high club, but then posted this tweet about what she SHOULD have written:
#indie30 OMG My husband’s LPO just texted him about this https://t.co/7WsuTTPcEa Could/should have used this instead: pic.twitter.com/BJmH7b1aMT
— Traveling Navy Wife (@PudgysHuman) April 12, 2014
- @withoutalicense’s posts, “Internationally Renowned Donut Thief” (although we may be taking this line out of context for our own amusement)
- and @womenontheroad gave us this tip:
What not to do when traveling? Stand up on a roof during sniper fire in Beirut. @BootsnAll #indie30 challenge Day 11 #travel #rtw
— Leyla Giray Alyanak (@womenontheroad) April 12, 2014
(We’d agree that is something you SHOULD NOT do when traveling!)
After asking you to admit your bad behavior, we decided to ask you about some good actions and asked:
Day 12: Have you ever been helped by, or helped, a total stranger when traveling?
- @BudgetTrvlTalk tells us about the time she was forcefully helped by a stranger while in Kars, Turkey.
- @TaraLowryPhoto taught us that strangers don’t have to be human, and talked about saving a stray dog, which then protected her in return.
- @DaraMDenney was sick from vaccines she had in Paris, when a complete stranger showed concern and helped her out.
- and @womanontheroad tweeted this:
Helped by a total stranger? Yess! Mozambican drove me to Zim border for free after I’d been robbed. Day 12 #Indie30 @BootsnAll challenge
— Leyla Giray Alyanak (@womenontheroad) April 13, 2014
Day 13: If you could wake up tomorrow knowing any one language (one you don’t already know), what would it be and why?
We knew this would be a fun one, and it seems Spanish is the strong front-runner.
- @BudgetTrvlTalk and @Esther_WLW, both said Spanish,
- and @spankyandsarah posts, “Being a brown girl that doesn’t speak Spanish is no easy feat.”
- while @surbhiarora330 tweeted this:
The only reason I want to learn spanish is so I can confess my eternal love for Messi, in his own language! @BootsnAll #indie30
— Surbhi Arora (@surbhiarora330) April 13, 2014
- @AradInfo is already multilingual (jealous!), but would pick Greek as her dream language.
- @PudgysHuman would also like to know Greek (and Japanese).
- and @withoutalicense, who is also bilingual (in Mandarin and English), gave us a hilarious video about how, even with her language history, she still sucks at languages.
- @womenontheroad picked Turkish, @DaraMDenney picked Twi (the language of Ghana, where she currently lives), and @MeMoVanT went more practical with this tweet:
@BootsnAll: #Indie30 Day 13: Hindustani or Mandarin b/c they would be difficult to learn & are top spoken languages https://t.co/aa34PuXWw9
— meaghan kathleen (@MeMoVanT) April 13, 2014
- @MasterFrolicker sent us this hilariously imaged photo about how she SHOULD learn German, but thinks Portuguese is the most beautiful language. (I totally agree with you! I am in love with how beautiful Brazilian Portuguese sounds!)
Day 14: Write us a poem about a travel experience.”
- @PudgysHuman wrote a moving poem that, “1) It speaks to my health journey and 2) to travel that was not to be”…”3) It also highlights a wee bit of regret.“
- @filipachatillon said, “especially while traveling, I do get the urge to put things down in what looks like poems. Usually they suck,but some have turned out ok“. We think both your poems are amazing! Don’t doubt yourself!
- @chris2x wrote a poem in his post, about a place, that had a famous poem written about it. Go read ‘Flanderss Field Revisited’ by Chris Christensen
- @DaraMDenney gave us a beautiful, epic-style poem about travel
- @loismiddleton and @AradInfo both wrote us funny little limericks.
- @serenity007 created a name-style poem out of Indie#30 (Awesome!)
- @furnessmk tweeted us this:
@BootsnAll suitcase in hand, camera over shoulder; Light in her eyes; She looks ahead, always to distant shores. #travel #poetry #indie30
— Mary Furness (@furnessmk) April 15, 2014
- and @womenontheroad wrote her poem in our comment section, under the prompt’s article:
We asked you to do some creative things this week and answer some hard (ok, juicy) questions. We love all the responses and can’t wait to read all the ones for week 3!
It’s never too late to join, so check out all prompts and how you can participate in our month-long community art project!
Photo credits: Problemkind