Something For Nothing

There is a reason why I don’t mention money that much in my blog as I don’t have much of the stuff. I don’t live out of Mummy and Daddy’s pocket nor did I have some high-flying job that I quit back in the UK. I’ve gotten this far through grafting away at home prior to my trip, my tight purse strings and dumb luck.

My friend quite rightly told me that I could fill a separate blog with my “bodging”. Somehow I manage to make the pennies stretch to the unfathomable. Being a tight arse with money has come in handy finally. I knew I’d get the last laugh one day after the endless ribbing.

However, all good things must come to an end. My skills have gotten me this far but Australia took far too much of my money. My predictions in leaving the country with heavy dollar-filled pockets crashed and burned months ago.

Never one to dwell on what could have been, I had a trick up my sleeve. Couchsurfing is something that I dabbled in during my time in Japan and my first days in Australia. It’s a concept I am fairly familiar with having written about it for an article at university. Luckily, those stays were arranged through people that I met on my travels. In America, I’d ran out of contacts. I knew a couple of people but nobody who could host me.

Despite heavy warnings from travellers and Americans (ha!) telling me that there are too many weirdos out there, I decided to look for hosts via the official CouchSurfing website. I’d created a skeleton profile months before in the hope of meeting people in Australia but it turned out to be one of many things I never got around to doing there.

For those not in the know, couchsurfing describes the process of one person, couple or family hosting another traveller. This is the bare bones of it. There is of course a lot more to it than that but you’ll get to understand it a lot better as you read my future travels in America.

People’s reactions and opinions to couchsurfing intrigues me. Instinctively, the majority of people recoil at the thought of staying in a stranger’s home. “They could rape you in your sleep,” or “You could end up having all your stuff stolen,” are just some of the many humourous thoughts that have been expressed about couchsurfing. All by those who haven’t actually couchsurfed I hasten to add!

If you pause to think about it for a moment you’ll realise that couchsurfing isn’t all that bad. As a prospective surfer, you enter a person’s own private space. You must have a possession that you are protective over. At the moment, for me, it’s my laptop. If someone manhandles it or takes advantage of it in anyway then I flip out. It takes a lot for me to let someone use my laptop. For others it could be electronic or something more sentimental such as photos or ornaments. I’m just carrying one possession that I hold dearest to me, imagine how many things a person has in a whole apartment/house. I think that’s pretty admirable and respectable that they feel trusting enough to let someone into their space.

With any social network, you get your weirdos. Heck, have you seen how many I have encountered in the hostels I’ve stayed in!? Like with anything in this world, you have to have your wits about you. A level of common sense weeds out those you suspect that you wouldn’t get on with. Everyone has a profile and there is a reference system.

There is the risk that I’d end up staying with a complete idiot but I’m not paying to stay with this person so if I have any problems I can up and leave. I felt confident that this was the right path for me. Not only would I get a place to stay free of charge, I’d hopefully meet lovely people who know their hometowns. I might get to see things I’d never know about staying in a dorm room full of newbies like me. I wanted to try out something completely new and experience a country in a new light. I set my goal at couchsurfing through my entire stay in America.

Unfortunately I fell at the first hurdle. I tried to find a host in San Diego but posting an ad as well as sending out a handful of requests had failed. I started to have my doubts about couchsurfing. I thought it was easy to find a host, there are so many on the website. Instead, I settled for a hostel by the beach. As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s not the best nor the cleanest but the location was good for bus links as well as eateries and shops.

My first mission of the day was to find a plug adaptor but food came first. One plus point to the hefty hostel price tag, was the free breakfast. I’m used to what hostels class as free breakfast. I’ve had bread and a toaster to a full continental spread so I had no idea what awaited me. I entered the tiny kitchen and dining area and my eyes bulged at what stood before me. Two bright and cheery girls were cooking pancakes. As well as this sweet treat, there was toast and scrambled eggs piled up. Now is the time to fill my boots. I’ve already resigned to the fact that I will get fat in America. I plan on stuffing my face within one of the fattest nations in the world. Mwhaha..ahm nom nom!

Happily tucking into fluffy scrambled eggs and buttery toast, I tried to leave room for a pancake. It was difficult but I managed to force feed myself a peanut M&M pancake. What an awesome combination. It tasted as good as it sounds. By the end, I resembled Dawn French in the  British comedy Christmas episode - Vicar Of Dibley (Click here if you've not seen this episode before or click here to see the specific moment I was thinking of). I was sat on a bench so I didn't have any issues with my chair. The sweet-pancakey-goodness came as a better comfort to me than brussels sprouts ever would!

My sugar boost set me up for the day. I had plenty to do. No I didn’t go to the zoo or do something equally as exciting. Instead, I spent most of the day glued to my laptop sorting out my travels. It may sound like a wasted day but I really needed it. Being away from the internet for two weeks in Fiji has meant that I was seriously behind in my bookings. As I had a tour booked from LA and a festival ticket bought for Chicago, my dates were pretty rigid. I needed to ensure that I was on the right plane/train/bus on a specific day or I’d be screwed.

Before I could start planning, I needed an adaptor. The hostel receptionist gave me directions to a nearby pharmacy-come-supermarket. It was a funny sight as I don’t know any pharmacy in the UK that sells alcohol. I managed to come out with everything I wanted – a plug adaptor, a couple of drinks, Twizzlers (classic American confectionery  and hair straighteners. The latter wasn’t a planned purchase but a very much needed one. The Fijian waters had made my already frizzy hair regress to a frazzled mess. I looked like a yeti. I felt even better about my purchase as it was a flipping bargain! I love America already as everything is so much cheaper.

As I set up my laptop in the dining area, a guy set down across from me, breakfast in tow. Eye contact was made which then led to a semi-lengthy conversation about our travels and what brings us to San Diego. Amongst the friendly chatter, Michael (American) tried to coax me into taking a surfing lesson with him. At the time I was too distracted by his current predicament as he’d lost his car key and needed to move his car from the front of the hostel to prevent receiving a fine or even worse, having his car towed. He was asking me for advice on how to get into his car - somehow I look like a person who can break into a car. I asked if he had a coat hanger handy. Thankfully he didn’t as I’d have no idea what to actually do with it, I just saw somebody break into a car with one once...or maybe it was the front for of a house...

Moving the focus to Michael’s car troubles deviated from his sales pitch. Part of me was tempted as he was charging very little but I’d already done the “surf thing” in Australia and I am useless in the water. I couldn’t really justify the expense and even though he was a nice guy, I just didn’t really want to go in the sea.

As the conversation moved forward, a worker came over and started chatting to Michael. He donned the synonymous hoover pack that almost all hostel housekeepers use. Michael joked with him saying he looked like a superhero. I joined in and asked if his job title is Hoover Man. Unfortunately my sarcasm was lost on this guy who was also American. Is it just me, can I not pull off sarcasm? I know Americans are known for not understanding British humour but he’s not the only one who takes me deadly serious when I’m trying my hardest not to be, dammit!

Hoover Man turned to me with a mixed look of pity and disgust and said that his job title is Housekeeper. This was a clear facepalm moment but I just turned to my laptop, plugged in my music and tuned everyone out. Michael had other new guests to snare so he left me to it.

After scouring the internet for bargains, I managed to have an itinerary that made sense. I’m all up for the go-with-the-flow approach to travel and did it whilst in Japan, Malaysia and Australia but I didn’t have a lot of time or money left. I wanted to make sure that I got everything I could out of my final weeks. To do this, I intended to cram as many places as I could into six weeks.

The Plan

San Diego (3 days)
LA (2 days)
Bus tour begins – Joshua Tree National Park, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Yosemite National Park (7 days)
San Francisco (8 days)
Chicago (8 days)
Washington DC (4 days)
Toronto (3 days)
Montreal (3 days)
New York (9 days)

There are travel days in between each trip which I accounted for. It’s very easy to split your days and forget about the journey from one place to another. Travel days are my most unproductive days as I’m always so drained. I make it easier on myself by marking a whole day off for travel so I can rest and get my bearings.

You may notice that I have included two cities in Canada. That was a slightly spontaneous decision. I’d been thinking about visiting Canada for a while but on a separate trip. It was in Fiji when I noticed I had a gap in my itinerary between DC and New York.  Spending over two weeks in New York sounds great but expensive. I used this as an excuse to expand my list of countries. It was this day that I made it official and started booking transport and made provisional reservations at hostels just in case couchsurfing didn’t work out. I did this in every other place in America that I planned to visit.

Whilst I went on a booking spree, I noticed I received a message from someone who I sent a couchsurf request to in San Diego. Laura apologised for not being able to host me as she was out of the city. I messaged back to let her know that I managed to sort things out and asked for any tips. Laura messaged back pretty quickly with a list of places to visit and an invite out for dinner. That evening happened to be a weekly couchsurf meeting. These take place all over the world and are a great way to meet people in the area as well as prospective hosts. I’d already paid for the rest of my stay in San Diego.

It seems like my day wouldn’t be so much of a waste after all. I messaged Laura back accepting her invite. If I’d spent the day sightseeing I would have missed this message so sometimes good things can come from nothing…or doing nothing rather!