#going back to poland for like 4 days this coming week ill wave from the plane

[not-equippedforthis]

hi :) i went to the beach today & saw an incredible amount of jellyfish!! it was so cool!! reminded me of you (bc jellyfish are your favourite animals), so here i am saying hi :)

have a lovely day <33

hiiiii!!!! <333 sorry ive gone AWOL ilysm im just. ouurhhhh

thats so cool 😭😭 actually crying thank you for thinking of me skgbsng. on a somewhat unrelated note, i have a vague understanding of what you look like based on picrew challenges but i still see that specific image of DANC holmes and go omg...anna....

going to a beach and seeing jellyfish would cure me, i think (maybe i need to move to belgium...tho im pretty sure we have some biolum beaches heree??). i hope you had a good day!! i saw your tags a while back and i feel you with sometimes feeling better going and exploring by yourself rather than w family (iirc? bad memory gang sorry). idk what ur situation is like but sometimes its just so much more fun/relaxing. i think going to a bioluminescent beach is on my bucket list - ive done my epq project on biolum, i adore it, i adore jellyfish. i need to go to one sooo fucking badly shaking you i need to shake my hand in the water and watch it glow back

i also saw your bio energy level and i hope you feel better <33 have a nice week :]

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Two travelers submitted fake vaccination cards before flying to Toronto. Each was fined nearly $16,000. (Washington Post) Before two passengers flew from the United States to Toronto last month, they submitted required copies of their vaccination cards and negative coronavirus test results to a portal reviewed by Canadian authorities. But it wasn’t until they arrived in Canada the week of July 18 that officials discovered the documents the pair presented were fraudulent, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a news release Friday. Now, each passenger must pay fines totaling nearly $16,000 (about $20,000 Canadian) for submitting “false documentation” and failing to comply with quarantine and testing requirements. Both travelers were Canadian citizens. In Canada, airline passengers who are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus must spend three nights upon arrival at a hotel approved by the government and submit proof of a 14-day quarantine plan, even if they have tested negative for the coronavirus or have already recovered from the illness. They must also submit proof of a negative coronavirus test taken at least 72 hours before their flight. Upon arrival, passengers must get a second coronavirus test and collect a kit containing a test they must take on Day 8 of their quarantine.

Senators produce $1T infrastructure bill (AP) After much delay, senators unveiled a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, wrapping up days of painstaking work on the inches-thick bill and launching what is certain to be a lengthy debate over President Joe Biden’s big priority. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocked in at some 2,700 pages, and senators could begin amending it soon. Despite the hurry-up-and-wait during a rare weekend session, emotions bubbled over once the bill was produced Sunday night. A key part of Biden’s agenda, the bipartisan bill is the first phase of the president’s infrastructure plan. It calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels, what could be one of the more substantial expenditures on the nation’s roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband and the electric grid in years.

Abandoned oil wells (AP) In 1859, Pennsylvania became the site of the first successful commercial oil well in the United States. What followed was an oil boom that lasted decades, but one where nobody was actually keeping track of where people dug wells, so the technology to seal defunct or abandoned wells was still decades off. As a result, Pennsylvania is estimated to contain 100,000 to 560,000 unplugged abandoned oil wells around the state, an environmental and safety disaster. To date, Pennsylvania has located 8,700 orphaned wells. Across the country, there are an estimated 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells.

Europe’s heat dome (Foreign Policy) Europe could see new record-high temperatures today as a heat dome continues to drive a heat wave across the continent’s southeast. The dry conditions have already contributed to wildfires in Greece and Italy, while in Turkey at least 8 people have died in fires that have blazed since last Wednesday. Turkey has seen an unusually high number of wildfires this year—133 in total. From 2003 to 2020 Turkey averaged 43 wildfires per year, according to EU data.

Sun-seekers enjoy European summer 'workcation' before office return (Reuters) Drawn by sun, sea and speedy Wi-Fi, remote workers are converging on Europe's southernmost islands to try "workcationing" before employers order them back to the office, giving battered tourism businesses a welcome boon. Combining holiday destinations with remote work is a growing trend in Spain and Portugal's sunniest archipelagos, as travel bans ease and the starved tourism industry offers discounted stays and dedicated workspaces. The remote workers register as tourists, making them hard to quantify, but evidence of their presence is ubiquitous, from new co-working spaces sprouting up to stickers advertising free, extra-powerful Wi-Fi in many restaurants, cafes and bars. The "Nomad List" website counted the Canary island of Tenerife among the 10 fastest-growing destinations for teleworking in the first seven months of 2021, after the trend began last year.

Boar battle (Washington Post) In the Brandenburg forest, a bounding 4-year-old black Belgian shepherd named Uschi picks up a scent. Wearing a neon high-visibility jacket, she stops by an overturned tree and barks. In the mud is the rotting carcass of a wild boar. It’s exactly what they spent the day hunting. As the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, teams in Europe are battling another outbreak: African swine fever. Hundreds of miles of fencing have been thrown up in Europe to stop its steady march west across the continent. In fenced-off “red zones,” teams work to clear the area of the infectious wild boars that have succumbed to the sickness and hunt any still alive in an attempt to break infection chains. While the virus cannot be passed to humans, it kills almost every pig it infects in about a week. The stakes are high for Germany, Europe’s largest pork producer, exporting $4.7 billion in pig products each year. The arrival of the virus in Germany’s wild boar population last year triggered bans on pork exports to countries outside Europe, wiping out $867 million in sales to China. Then, in mid-July, the first case was discovered in a domestic pig farm in Germany—exactly the spread that teams picking through forests had been hoping to prevent.

At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound (AP) A surfer jumping in to translate for the rival who’d just beaten him. High-jumping friends agreeing to share a gold medal rather than move to a tiebreaker. Two runners falling in a tangle of legs, then helping each other to the finish line. In an extraordinary Olympic Games where mental health has been front and center, acts of kindness are everywhere. The world’s most competitive athletes have been captured showing gentleness and warmth to one another—celebrating, pep-talking, wiping away one another’s tears of disappointment. Runners Isaiah Jewett of the U.S. and Nijel Amos of Botswana got tangled and fell during the 800-meter semifinals. Rather than get angry, they helped each other to their feet, put their arms around each other and finished together.

Belarus athlete enters Poland's embassy in Tokyo after refusing to return home (Reuters) A Belarusian athlete at the centre of an Olympic standoff with her own country walked into Poland's embassy in Japan on Monday, a day after refusing to board a flight home she said she was being forced to take against her wishes by her team. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, would seek asylum in Poland, said a member of the local Belarus community who was in touch with her. Earlier, Polish foreign ministry official Marcin Przydacz wrote on Twitter that Tsimanouskaya has been "offered a humanitarian visa and is free to pursue her sporting career in Poland if she so chooses." In a brewing diplomatic incident on the sidelines of the Olympics, Tsimanouskaya's refusal to board the plane has thrown a harsh spotlight on discord in Belarus, a former Soviet state that is run with a tight grip by President Alexander Lukashenko. The sprinter, who was due to compete in the women's 200 metre heats on Monday, had her Games cut short when she said she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight. She then sought the protection of Japanese police at the airport.

Australia tightens COVID curbs as Brisbane extends lockdown, army patrols Sydney (Reuters) Australia’s Queensland state on Monday extended a COVID-19 lockdown in Brisbane, while soldiers began patrolling Sydney to enforce stay-at-home rules as Australia struggles to stop the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus spreading. Queensland said it had detected 13 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours—the biggest one-day rise the state has recorded in a year. The lockdown of Brisbane, Australia’s third-biggest city, was due to end on Tuesday but will now stay in place until late on Sunday. Australia is going through a cycle of stop-start lockdowns in several cities after the emergence of the fast-moving Delta strain, and such restrictions are likely to persist until the country reaches a much higher level of vaccination coverage. Meanwhile the lockdown of Brisbane and several surrounding areas comes as Sydney, the biggest city in the country, begins its sixth week under stay-at-home orders.

U.S., Britain, Israel blame Iran for fatal drone strike on oil tanker; Tehran denies responsibility (Washington Post) The United States, Britain and Israel on Sunday all accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack last week on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two people on board, raising fears of an escalating maritime war in the Middle East, as Tehran denied responsibility for the strike. American and Israeli officials had previously said that Thursday’s attack on the Liberian-flagged Mercer Street bore the hallmarks of an operation by Iran, which has been accused of deploying attack drones in the past. The Mercer Street is managed by Zodiac Maritime, a London-based company owned by an Israeli billionaire. Those killed included a British national and a Romanian citizen, the company said. Hostilities over the past two years between Israel and Iran have frequently played out at sea, in tit-for-tat attacks by both countries on oil tankers, private commercial vessels or warships—a conflict often referred to as part of a “shadow war” that feels increasingly overt. The strike on the Mercer, off the coast of Oman, marked a significant escalation and was the first time fatalities had resulted from one of the recent attacks.

Food insecurity (Foreign Policy) Ethiopia’s Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan, and northern Nigeria, were all named by both the U.N. World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization as the most at risk of “catastrophic” food insecurity in the next three months. Six countries have been added to the list of “hunger hotspots” since the two agencies last assessed global hunger in March: Chad, Colombia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and North Korea.

Survivalists (NBC News) Americans worried about climate change are flocking to survivalist schools and taking urban-disaster preparedness courses. Once the domain of campers and hunters, survivalist schools across the country are busily instructing young families and urbanites in skills they can use if faced with wildfires, droughts, and destructive storms increasingly brought about by Earth’s rising temperatures. Whether or not one thinks that training to survive in the wilderness is the best way to prepare for the looming crisis, it’s likely that periodic disasters will force many city dwellers to at least temporarily evacuate their homes, which is why urban-preparedness courses at survival school are particularly popular. Tony Nester is head instructor at Ancient Pathways, which teaches desert and wilderness survival in Arizona and Colorado. “We talk about it. What plans do you have in place? How do I get my family evacuated? Where do we go? What supplies should we have with us? How do we get out of our house in 15 minutes? How do we get across town to get to our kids? We’re discussing those issues more and more.”

[lifeismeantforexploring-blog]

Planning a trip is an exciting task, but it can be a bit daunting for some – especially if you’re new to traveling abroad. A lot of time goes into researching, obtaining visas, buying plane tickets, booking accommodation, and it can all be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, we have boiled it down into an easy step-by-step process that you can use to plan, book, and set off on your next international adventure.

How To Pick Your Travel Path

1). Choose Your Country (Or Countries 😉 )

Before you can ever begin to determine a travel path … you sort of need to know what countries you’re interested in visiting. Otherwise, it’s kinda like building a house without having the foundation set. So, first things first, decide which countries you’d like to visit. Ask your network for their top picks, read travel blogs, search on Pinterest, look at a map, and compile all your info. Next, take all your research and pick some countries. If you like warm weather maybe Russia in the winter isn’t for you. If you like the challenge of learning a different language pick countries where something else is spoken. Once you have chosen a location it’s time move on to looking for flights!

For our first long term travel together, we picked SE Asia, specifically: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. We may also add in Nepal, Japan, and Sri Lanka depending on how we feel in a few months.

2). Look For Cheap Flights

One of the most expensive parts of traveling is getting to where you want to go, especially when traveling from another country… or continent. Thus, scoring the cheapest deal possible is one of the most important parts of planning your trip. The more you can save on airfare the more $$$ you will have to explore awesome places once you arrive. The good news is that airlines post thousands of amazing deals each day. Whether companies accidentally publish dirt cheap “mistake fares” or slash prices to beat out the competition for your business, cheap fares are out there if you know how to search for them.

If you want the process we use, then check out Nomadic Matt’s “13-point guide to easily finding cheap flights, based on over ten years of travel and thousands of flights flown”.

When searching for flights to start our year-long adventure through SE Asia we started by searching for the cheapest day to fly for the entire year on Skyscanner, Google Flights, Kayak, ITA Matrix, and Momondo. We searched all the countries listed above and found that it was hundreds of dollars cheaper to get one-way tickets into Indonesia! So, we booked those (knowing it would be shoulder season- see next step) and flew into Bali a few months later 🙂

3). Focus On Low/Shoulder Season

One of our favorite ways to save on our travels is to ride the shoulder and low season. What are these seasons? Well, they’re descriptions of time spans based on weather, holidays, and when tourists typically travel to said areas. Traveling in low and shoulder is great for many reasons:

You’ll spend less money (places are much more expensive during high season), you’ll have more opportunities to explore on your own (during low season some tours shut down and you can do the treks yourself without paying a fee or seeing many other people).

There will be fewer travelers (you’ll get amazing views and landscapes all to yourself!)

You can be more flexible and save more money (fewer people traveling overall means you can wait longer to book your accommodation and flights).

You’ll have more opportunity to interact with locals (naturally people are more keen to chat when they’re not bombarded by foreigners).

If there is a certain activity or place that you are dying to go, you’ll want to make sure that it still runs/is open during these seasons – you don’t want to be heartbroken if you find out you can’t do something in particular!

To figure out when would be best for us to visit different countries in SE Asia we built a spreadsheet (Alli loves spreadsheets!) and listed out the seasons for each country by month. This way we had a nice and easy visual representation (that we color coded 🙂 ) of the seasons to help us chart our path.

4). Consider Visas

Just because you bought a plane ticket and are excited to see a new country doesn’t mean they’ll let you in. Make sure you check out visa requirements based on your country of citizenship! If you’re traveling to a country that requires you to get a visa at home before you travel make sure you do so. If you’re traveling to a country that requires a visa but allows you to get it at an embassy or consulate abroad make sure the country you’re in beforehand has the appropriate consulate.

Some countries will also require you to show proof of departure in the form of a ticket out of the country (this requirement is often dependent on what country your passport is from). Sometimes, you can prove that you’re leaving the country by any means, so boats, trains, planes, and automobiles are all fair game – but planes are your safest bet. If you aren’t sure what your next destination may be after visiting one of these countries, then you can always buy the cheapest possible ticket option out of that country and just consider it a lost cost (e.g. a cheap bus ticket to a bordering country). Obviously, visas are not the most glamorous part of planning your adventure but don’t be the naive traveler. We have heard horror stories of people being turned away at the border or airport for failing to meet visa requirements and trust us, you DO NOT want to be them.

As Americans, we’re very fortunate with the power of our passport and don’t require visas to many of the countries in SE Asia. For some, we’ll do Visa On Arrival and others don’t require a visa at all. For Myanmar, on the other hand, we’ll need to get a visa at the embassy in Thailand before arriving. Thus, we’ll be traveling to Thailand before Myanmar.

5). Travel In A Logical Order (Geographically)

You’ve picked your countries, found a sweet deal on a flight to start your journey, mapped out the seasons you want to travel in, and have considered visa requirements for your country of citizenship but there’s still a little bit more to do. Next step – charting a travel path that makes the most sense based on geography and movement. A great way to save money and time is to travel to countries (or cities) that are close to one another instead of darting back and forth across a continent (or country)! In other words, instead of starting in Portugal, heading to Poland, and then darting back to check out Spain… do it the other way! Go from Portugal to Spain and then over to Poland. There’s no sense in going back and forth especially if you can partake in some amazing train travel to see the countryside and save yourself the $$$ of plane tickets 🙂

When it comes to our journey in SE Asia we try to travel in as logical an order as possible (given the other requirements listed above) so that we can make the most of our time and money in this magical place. Thus, after leaving Indonesia we left for Malaysia (home of our favorite place we have visited thus far, the Cameroon Highlands, pictured below) and then traveled to Thailand. While we have extenuating circumstances (see below) that change our path from here… it would have made sense to go to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and then Vietnam next. But we’ll just have to hop back over and hit those later.

6). Think Of Extenuating Circumstances

By this point, you’ve probably got a pretty neat list of where you want to go and a really exciting connect-the-dot travel plan formulating before your eyes. Wohoo! Before you “set it in stone” think of extenuating circumstances. We put this in quotes because as every long-term traveler knows… one of the keys to an awesome trip is to be flexible! Sure, we have a plan of what countries we’d like to hit and in what order, but we rarely ever have things booked more than two weeks in advance. You never know what opportunities will come your way and you don’t want to miss out because you already have a ticket booked.

Back to extenuating circumstances…. These can be hard to predict, but try to think of any before you leave. Family coming to visit? Need to get an immunization abroad (like when TJ got Japanese Encephalitis in Bali because it was 1/8 the price of the States)? Want to see a ceremony that only takes place once a year? Make a note and think about how it will affect your travel plan.

In our case, we have two. The first is the reason we’re ditching our logical travel path from Thailand to Myanmar. Some great friends are flying into Indonesia so we’re headed back there to meet up (don’t worry … we’re still making sense of this move geographically and stopping in Singapore on the way!). The next is Alli’s parents and TJ’s sister coming to visit us for Christmas! We’ll likely travel Vietnam together so we’re leaving this country out of the travel plans until December.

7). Don’t Leave Home Without Travel Insurance

Yeah yeah, we know what you’re thinking, “travel insurance is expensive, I’ll be fine”. Well, you don’t own a car or a house without paying for the safety net that insurance provides… do you? Well, you shouldn’t go on a trip without it either!

Why? Because travel insurance will cover most anything that happens to you! Get sick or injured – they cover the medical bills. Computer gets swallowed by a wave – they’ll help replace it. Flight gets canceled – they’ll reimburse you. Family emergency – they’ll help you sort out how to get home. Luggage lost – they’ll cover the new items you need to purchase.

Sadly, traveling is not all fun in the sun. Bad things happen and you want to protect yourself for when they do. Travel insurance is all-purpose emergency coverage and is the single most important thing that we recommend people to purchase before setting off on their next foreign adventure. Trust us! We have heard far too many stories from hostel mates who crashed their motorbikes or became seriously ill abroad (like going into anaphylactic shock from a citrus allergy in Koh Phi Phi) and had to foot the bill all on their own (medical expenses can quickly climb into thousands of dollars overnight). You don’t want to regret being cheap as you stare down at a crippling medical bill when for the price of a coffee you could have been completely covered.

Although we have been lucky thus far and hope we never have to use our insurance to cover anything serious, we have been able to use it for some things like when TJ needed to get a vaccination in Bali and Alli needed to rehab her ankle and went to physical therapy in Chile.

God forbid you get in a horrific motorbike accident in Vietnam, or fall off a cliff while trekking in Patagonia and need to be airlifted to the nearest hospital to be saved all on your own dime. Do yourself a favor and get a quality insurance plan to cover your next trip. We always use World Nomads. They have great customer service, competitive prices, and in-depth coverage. They are also recommended by Lonely Planet and National Geographic so you know they are good. Do Not Set Off On An Adventure Without Travel Insurance!

Now That You’re All Ready It’s Time To Let The Excitement Build And Set Off On Your Adventure!

Planning a big international trip, especially one that’s going to be long-term can be daunting but it’s so much more manageable when you break it up into little chunks. What once was an overwhelming task suddenly becomes “easy” and it takes a lot of stress off your back knowing that you have a solid plan ready to go. Now that you have all that taken care of it is time to celebrate – the adventure of a lifetime that awaits you! Enjoy 🙂

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Planning a trip abroad? Make things easier with these 7 things to consider before traveling Planning a trip is an exciting task, but it can be a bit daunting for some - especially if you're new to traveling abroad.