Hey Gina, the new site sounds great! Feel free to get in touch via email about my app and site review options!

After being put off long term travel I got into the development of a travel site though, it’s recently gone live and it’s called http://www.triporia.com here we allow anyone wanting to book accommodation – even in the remotest parts of the world – to check out what their local surroundings will be like when they arrive. This is something that other travel sites don’t do and the idea is to reduce the anxiety and stresses that goes along with travelling unknown territories. If you could take the time to take a look at the site I’d really appreciate it. And carry on with the amazing blogs, I’m sure the memories are amazing.

Ah, Britt, thanks so much for the heads up on the Citibank Transaction Account — that’s awesome! Great to know of an option for some of my non-American readers! And yes — definitely check out Trailwallet and Mint.

Hey Anna! Thank you so much for the kind offer. I’m not sure if I will get to Belo Horizonte (it’s not on the current itinerary) but I will take you up on it if I do! And yes, the visa was quite difficult and expensive to obtain, and definitely gave me empathy for what others have to go through to travel. So happy to finally have it in hand!

Yay! That makes me SO happy to hear Michelle. The more people using these bottles, the less plastic waste polluting our planets. Thank you!

Packing is seriously the worst, I never seem to get it right. I forget things I really could have used (and its often the things I made an active decision not to bring thinking I wouldn’t need them) and lug stuff around that I haven’t picked up the whole trip. It’s terrible of me.

I 100% can attest for trying to avoid foodborne illness. I was in Avignon hospital less than two weeks ago because of a terrible bout of food poisoning. It’s pretty ironic that I’ve been to Asia and African and been fine but this is my second time getting food poisoning in France. Being on a top bunk while vomiting your guts out is not fun- I think next time I’ll immediately look to move to an airbnb or hotel if I get it again. I’m lucky enough to have health insurance covered by my university for the two months before I start my international study program, during the program and afterwards!

I almost pulled my hair out trying to find a card that wasn’t going to charge me fees while travelling. There isn’t a lot of options for Australian banking. Although if any Aussies are reading this the way to go is the Citibank Transaction Account!

At the moment I’ve been tracking my spending in the notes section of my phone. I really should start thinking about using an app, it would probably work 100x better. I’ll check out the ones you recommend.

As for the difficult of getting a visa for Brazil, is because of the reciprocity. It can be a nightmare for brazilians to get a visitor’s visa to the US (a protocol we don’t need for others countries as UK, France, Germany etc.). So the Brazilian government also increases the difficulty for US natives to get in Brazil.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my country.
I’ll be going to NYC and Miami in June, for the first time. Your blog helped me planning many of my activities. I hope you write about both cities soon.

Have a lovely day!
Anna

Thanks Izy! It’s something I get a lot of questions on.