rkearns' VirtualTourist Home Page

Welcome to my travel pages! You have clicked on a Brazilian-born, California-raised artist who loves to travel and write about it. My specialty (out of necessity) is budget travel, and my challenge is having patience and understanding the differences between my American upbringing, and other cultures. As I grow to understand the way things work all over the world, I am grateful for my own fortune, and strive toward unabashed assimilation into the countries I visit. I hope that you will find these pages funny, useful, and most importantly, inspiring.

Chin Chin!

I am a budget traveler. What that means is I will find any way possible to extend my trip and stretch my cash. Besides sleeping in airports and bus stations, there are other alternatives that are much quieter and safer. Try an apartment stairwell. Yes, I had to do it and you can too. I was in Madrid and it was late. I hadn't found a place to stay for the night. I had been searching for a while and was tired. I came upon a hostel that was located in an apartment building in Sol. I buzzed up and they let me in. I went to the front desk and they said there was no occupancy. Upon leaving, I decided I was going to stay in that apartment anyway. It was cold outside (yes, winters are VERY cold in Spain), and I was tired. So, I went up about 6 flights of stairs, plopped down my bags and rest my head on them. I will tell you that I didn't get much sleep. I was too busy pretending I was "waiting for someone" if the residents came out of their apartment....but, I was safe, warm, and off the street. And it was free!

so i had to come home early from spain one time because my cash had run out. so, i called home and my then husband rounded up funds from all our friends and was able to change my itinerary so i could get the next flight out. so, he tells me "your plane leaves monday at such n such time". so i arrive at the airport on monday and i get in line to check in. they are telling people to have their passports ready. i get mine out and the attendant looks at it and sends me to the front of the line. i get to the counter and they look up my flight information. but my name is not in the computer. i am a bit worried at this point, thinking that there may have been some confusion since i use my brazilian passport to travel sometimes. but they continued to look and finally said to me "maam, your flight departed yesterday".
of course at this point i was ***ting my pants. i had no money and there was no way i could stay in spain. my then husband had already sent me all the money he could round up. but i called him, pretty peeved that he had told me my flight departed on monday, but was focused on getting home. i had to spend one more night in spain. this time it would be the airport. during that time, he once again rounded up funds from all my friends, bought an entirely new ticket, and i was on the next flight home. god bless friends! i was home in no time and able to pay everyone off in a reasonable amount of time. let that never happen again.