Travel

United States

My mother used to take us to New York and New Jersey every year when we were children to visit her side of the family. Once I became a teenager I was stuck in L.A. until I could travel on my own for reasons. After 9/11 a lot of people refused to fly, even years later.

In 2010, I decided that I was going to fly somewhere. I took a greyhound to South Dakota to move my most valuable stuff then flew to L.A. and flew back to South Dakota. The flight from South Dakota to L.A. was my first commercial flight as an adult back in 2013.

On my Greyhound trip to South Dakota we passed through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and finally arrived in South Dakota. There were rest stops along the way and the driver explained some of the history during the ride and at the rest stops.

After arriving in South Dakota, I learned about the four corners road trip which is a journey bikers take from the North East US to Seattle Washington, down to San Diego, over to Florida and back to the North East. This made me more eager to travel and to be open about the mode of transportation.

I’ve done one more road trip and a few flights within the U.S. since then. I’ve also spent lots of time on a boat and jumped out of a plane twice.

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United Kingdom

I finally got my passport in 2015 but didn’t really know what to do with it once it was in my hands. I was worried about visas, exchange rates, cultural and language barriers, getting stranded in a foreign country, and probably several other things that I can’t even remember anymore. I went to D.C. and Hawaii the following year which did not require a passport.

After doing research, checking prices, and thinking about the places that I’ve really wanted to go to since I was a kid, I narrowed it down to El Salvador, where my parents are from and the U.K. which is a completely different culture that I’ve been interested in since high school.

I decided to visit the U.K. because I had been following the news since October 2016 and wanted to make sure everyone in the U.K. was doing o.k. and also see what type possible business activities might help with Brexit since I grew up on the internet and we don’t necessarily think in terms of Us vs. Them.

I arrived in Heathrow on 9/21 and was supposed to be here for 28 days but missed by flight by 10 minutes so decided to stay for the entire 6 months on my tourist Visa.

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France

British Airways has packaged deals that include flight and hotel from London to Paris. This was the second flight from London that I picked, the first being Scotland. Another option would have been to take the train and book my own hotel then fly somewhere else through British Airways.

The cost of flight and hotel through British Airways was about the same as the train ride by itself so I decided to go with British Airways since I feel comfortable with the airline and wanted to try an all inclusive service.

As a new traveler, the packaged deal is the way to go in my opinion. If I had planned better and didn’t lose my phone I would have been able to squeeze in the Notre Dame Cathedral and a show at the theatre one block away from the hotel they picked for me. I had a lot of fun in Paris even though I couldn’t speak French at the time. I ate some French pastries and even had a few shots of London gin across the street from my hotel.

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