Travel Missteps - Lili on the Loose

9 11, 2015

Travel Missteps: Grand Theft Uber

By Lili|November 9th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2015, Florida, Miami, Miami Heat, North America, Uber, work trip|0 Comments

I did what I've never done before. Not plan. And apparently not planning for me is doomed to failure. I had 2 days off in Miami after a work trip. I really wanted to go out on a boat, visit sandbars, and snorkel. Unfortunately the only boating companies that did that either were booked...or didn't allow single tourists. (The 2nd time Viator has let me down in that regard.) So with my dreams dashed, I ended up not planning anything. This ended up being slightly in my favor, as the weekend before this trip, I decided to go shopping for

26 10, 2015

Travel Missteps: Following the Fall Leaves on the Freedom Trail

By Lili|October 26th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2014, Boston, fall, ghost, ghost story, Halloween, haunted, Haunted in Boston, leaves, Massachusetts, North America, trolley, USA|0 Comments

One of the best sounds in life is that crisp crunch sound when stepping on fall leaves. At my old condo, the wind would blow all the leaves in this grassy ditch behind the parking lot. The pile would get huge, up to my waist. My dog would join me as I jumped and kicked up the leaves. Then again, my dog’s main goal was to eat as many fall leaves as she cool, like they were potato chips. I still miss that home just for those fall leaves. So when I had just a single brief afternoon in Boston

12 10, 2015

Travel Missteps: Clearing out Starbucks

By Lili|October 12th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, 7-11, 7/11, Asia, Breakfast, caffeine, coffee, exchange program, Frappuccino, Japan, Japanese, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, Starbucks, Tokyo|0 Comments

I had never been to a Starbucks prior to my trip to Japan. Crazy right!? The key reason was that I didn't drink coffee, as I'm highly sensitive to caffeine. I also was a bit intimidated by ordering, as I had no idea what to order (or in fact what I would be ordering.) That hesitation was thrown out the window when the other students in my exchange group insisted they get their morning coffee. It was much easier to ask questions when the entire group had no idea how to order what they wanted in Japanese. So I could

28 09, 2015

Travel Missteps: Wrong Exit

By Lili|September 28th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2005, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, Europe, Italy, Rome, Sistine Chapel, swiss guard, tour guide exit, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vatican City, Vatican Museum, wrong|0 Comments

The Sistine Chapel - known for Michelangelo’s beautiful ceiling and the grand finale of most Vatican Museum tours. After craning my neck trying to take it all in, it was time to leave...except I went through the wrong exit. There are two ways to exit the Sistine Chapel. The main exit is to the left of the room as you enter. I’m told that this has a long walk back. The other exit is for licensed group tours only, and lets you out close to the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica saving you a long hike back and skipping an

14 09, 2015

Travel Missteps: No See Ums

By Lili|September 14th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps, Travel Tips|Tags: 2010, 2011, beach, bites, bug bites, bugs, Caribbean, itchy, mosquito, no see ums, ocean, paradise, rum, sand, sand flies, snorkel, snorkeling, St. John, St. John 2010, St. John 2011, USVI, vodka|0 Comments

The US Virgin Islands are full of amazingly beautiful sandy beaches. And those beaches are often infested with small biting and blood sucking insects sometimes called No See Ums, Sand Flies, as well as many other names. They are almost invisible but their bites can swell up and look like mosquito bites. They can also carry/transmit diseases. They are also not fast, if you are moving quickly into the water, you'll likely not get bit, but its when you walk back through the sand, sit on a towel, or have stand sticking to you or your shoes that they can hitch

31 08, 2015

Travel Missteps: The Early Shuttle

By Lili|August 31st, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, 2012, Asia, Bath, button, Central America, Colorado, Costa Rica, Japan, North America, packing, pants, sewing, shuttle, Sister Cities Japan 2004, Super Shuttle, USA|0 Comments

I use to be a horrible packer, waiting until the last minute. This lead to many sleepless trips such as the time I finished packed at 4AM for my trip to Japan. Unfortunately my shuttle was picking me up at 4:30 AM so there was no point in sleeping. But one day that changed in me. I started to have everything packed and ready in advanced. And then I started cleaning my entire home and having it ready for when I returned. That was always nice as now when I get home, no matter how tired I am, I unpack

17 08, 2015

Travel Missteps: Lost in Japan

By Lili|August 17th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, Asia, exchange program, Girl Scout, Japan, lost, shopping, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, Tokyo|0 Comments

View of Tokyo from the observation deck. As I've written before, in the summer of 2004 I went to Japan through a Sister Cities student exchange. We first spent a couple of days in Tokyo before heading over to Chino in Nagano prefecture. On our first day in Tokyo we decided to take a tour of various parts of Tokyo. While on the tour we met a young Japanese guy who said he wanted to work on his English with native speakers, so he got a ticket for this tour and said he would be happy to work

3 08, 2015

Travel Missteps: Negotiating a Discount

By Lili|August 3rd, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2006, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, Barter, Discount, Europe, Haggle, Italy, Leaning Tower, Pisa, shopping, Sister, Trafalger, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site|0 Comments

Follow my blog with Bloglovin The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a gauntlet of gaudy souvenir hawkers and littered with people taking that same vacation snapshot. Neither of which is necessarily a bad thing. As long as you are aware of that going in, you’ll be fine. So after enjoying the lesser known Pisa Church and Baptistry my sister and I made our way out of the area when one of the many souvenir sellers called out to us, and his wares caught our eye. The Leaning Tower of Pisa He had fashion watches, jewelry, and knock off

20 07, 2015

Travel Missteps: Ripped Off

By Lili|July 20th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2012, cabbie, cash, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, delayed, Denver, DIA, exchange rate, flight, hotel, late night, money, robbed, San Jose, scam, taxi|0 Comments

Budget travel means that you are trying to stretch your money as far as you can. Which means in my case, I often choose the cheapest flights, even if they aren’t ideal. Which is why I found myself at DIA late at night getting ready to catch a late night flight. But what I hadn’t counted on was my flight to Costa Rica to be delayed. Which meant I arrived in San Jose after 1AM, and found that that my hotel was completely full for the night. They kept speaking Spanish, and it sounded like they wanted me just to

6 07, 2015

Travel Missteps: The Fish Bet

By Lili|July 6th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, Asia, baywatch, bet, fish, Japan, koi fish, koi pond, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, Tokyo|0 Comments

When you have 10 high schoolers on a trip abroad, things can get weird. Clicks form, arguments occur, and silly childish bets occur. While we were still in Tokyo, one of our chaperones bet us that no one would stick our head in the hotel's massive lake, filled with Koi fish. The idea was that once you put your hair in, you'd need to flip it back "baywatch style" and stroll back into the hotel like nothing happened. Like all bets, it involved money and for high schoolers who had already blew a lot of money shopping Tokyo, earning extra