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Visiting Monaco With No Plan: How One Morning Became Country 48
Europe and I have a complicated relationship. I want to visit every country in the world, which unfortunately means I cannot just spend the rest of my life traveling around Asia where everything is cheaper and I am generally much happier. So every once in a while, I come home, look at the map of Europe and think, Fine. Which countries can I somehow combine without financially destroying myself? That was basically how Monaco happened. I was back in Portugal for a bit and decided it was time to count a few new European countries. But because Europe is expensive, there was absolutely no chance I was flying somewhere just…
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I Paid 35€ for a Tiny Dorm Bed in Nice — Was Hostel Ozz Worth It?
Nice is expensive. There is no nice way to say it. I’m so used to traveling around Asia, where I can get a really good hostel for a fraction of the price, that paying European summer prices again genuinely hurt. When I was choosing where to stay in Nice, Hostel Ozz Nice kept coming up because it had really good reviews, looked modern and was one of the most reviewed hostels in Nice on Booking.com. The prices were painful basically everywhere, so I eventually gave up trying to find some magical cheap option and booked a bed here. I paid around 35€ per night for a bed in a 4-bed…
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18 Things to Do in Vienna If You’re Not Here to Spend 3 Days Inside Palaces
The first time I arrived in Vienna, I had just come from Bratislava. That was probably already a problem. I had loved Bratislava. It was small, colorful, easy to explore and exactly the kind of place where I could walk out of the hostel and just see where I ended up. Then I got off the train in Vienna and immediately got lost trying to find my hostel. Everything felt huge. Everything seemed far away. I was tired, annoyed and staying in this dark hostel with terrible Wi-Fi, wondering why I had left Slovakia. The funny part is that Vienna eventually became memorable for me, but not because I suddenly…
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Vienna Itinerary: How I’d Spend 2 to 5 Days Without Wasting Them All in Vienna
The first time I visited Vienna, I had just come from Bratislava during my 80-day backpacking trip through Europe. I had loved Bratislava, so arriving in Vienna was a bit of a shock. Everything suddenly felt huge, busy and far away, and I managed to get completely lost just trying to find my hostel. The hostel itself was dark, the Wi-Fi barely worked, and somehow that terrible Wi-Fi ended up being one of the best things that happened because everyone actually had to talk to each other. I met two girls in my dorm and suddenly Vienna became much more fun. We wandered around together, went to a food market,…
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Vienna Guide: Everything I’d Actually Want to Know Before Visiting
The first time I visited Vienna, I had just come from Bratislava during my first big solo backpacking trip around Europe. I had absolutely loved Bratislava, so Vienna was a bit of a shock. Everything suddenly felt huge, busy and far away, and I managed to get completely lost just trying to find my hostel from the train station. The hostel itself was dark, slightly weird and had terrible Wi-Fi, but somehow that terrible Wi-Fi ended up being one of the best things about it because everyone actually had to talk to each other. I met an Italian girl and an American girl in my dorm, and the three of…
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The Best Time to Visit Kochi (And When I’d Go Again) 2026
I spent almost three months in Fort Kochi, from the end of October through Christmas, and if there is one thing I learned pretty quickly, it’s that the weather in Kerala does not work like the seasons I’m used to in Europe. There is no real winter in Kochi. You are not choosing between freezing January and hot July. You are mostly choosing between hot, humid, rainy, very rainy and slightly less humid. And yes, that makes a difference. For me, the best time to visit Kochi is between December and February, when the worst of the monsoon is over and the weather is much easier for spending your days…
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How a Random 4-Day Stop in Kochi Became an Entire Chapter of My Life
I was supposed to spend four days in Kochi. That was it. It was my first stop in India, somewhere I had picked mainly because I was terrified of India and Kerala looked like the least terrifying place to start. Three months later, I was still there. By then I wasn’t sightseeing anymore. I had my own room, my favorite cafés, people I saw every day, a bar where I knew everyone, a street dog waiting outside the hostel every night, and somehow even a group of people rescuing street dogs had become part of my life. Visiting Kochi was supposed to be the beginning of a much bigger trip…
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Where To Stay In Panama City: Best Areas & Hotels (2026)
When I visited Panama City, I was backpacking through Central America and stayed at Casa Areka because we arrived without booking anything and basically wanted the cheapest decent place we could find for the night. But if you’re trying to decide where to stay in Panama City, the area matters just as much as the hotel itself. The city is spread out, and staying in Casco Viejo feels completely different from staying around El Cangrejo, Albrook or the Amador Causeway. So in this guide, I’m breaking down the best areas to stay in Panama City first, followed by the hotels I’d actually consider at different budgets. Best Hotels in Panama…
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My Experience Backpacking Austria Solo: What I Really Thought of Vienna
Austria was one of the countries I visited during my first big solo backpacking trip around Europe, when I spent 80 days traveling entirely overland. I arrived in Vienna from Bratislava, and that probably couldn’t have been a worse combination for Vienna because I had just fallen completely in love with Slovakia’s much smaller capital. Bratislava had felt easy. It was small, colorful, quiet and the kind of place where I could just wander around without thinking too much about where I was going. Vienna felt like the complete opposite. It was huge, busy and much more overwhelming than I expected, and my first few hours there were mostly spent…
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Backpacking Slovakia: Country #10 in My Journey Around the World
I didn’t go to Slovakia because it was high on my bucket list. Actually, I barely knew anything about Bratislava before I went. I was in the middle of my first big solo backpacking trip around Europe: 80 days, entirely overland, moving from country to country and figuring everything out as I went. I had just been in Budapest when I realized that going through Bratislava before Vienna was cheaper than heading straight to Austria, so that was basically the entire decision-making process. I booked one night. That turned out to be a terrible decision, because within a few hours of finally making it into Bratislava’s Old Town, I was…
