GUN FUN
LOGAN'S GUIDE TO COOKING
Sauces
What you put on food to make it taste better. Especially if the food is shitty.
Saucier
A type of chef who specializes in sauces.
South America
A country in desperate fucking need of sauciers.
FRIEND MAP
On Facebook, they have a nifty app called "My Friend Map".
It's a nifty app I can recommend.
MYFIVEBEST.COM
Another thing I recommend is James Fowler's My Five Best. Lot of neat facts in there.
Also, he did a very professional rewrite of something I'd sent him - view it here.
HOW TO PLAN A VACATION
Disclaimer! I normally don't do brief vacations. Perhaps this will help someone.
[This came from a conversation I had with a buddy of mine, Brian S. Thanks to Brian for not minding if I turned it into a blog post.]
He mentioned he was getting a passport. At first, he didn't have any idea where he'd like to visit. This is a pretty common problem for most people. You need to figure out what you want.
Beaches? Mountains? Cities? Culture? What are you after?
Can you narrow it down to a continent? As they say in many web pages on setting goals, you have to get specific. Until you do, you just have a niggling thought of "Gosh I'd like to be somewhere else." This doesn't make anything happen.
Brian mentioned he'd looked at the photos I'd taken of Prague and was impressed with the architecture.
That narrowed it right down.
First step, hop on skyscanner.com. Note, this isn't where you buy your tickets but to get an idea of the cost and which airlines you'd be dealing with. Note that they have a 'search by year' feature.
If Brian went to Prague at the right time a normal cost ticket (round trip) would be about a grand. Pretty reasonable. Since he has time, he can sign up for various 'watch for special deals' and figure out how airline miles and such work. The airport you want to leave from is whatever is biggest and busiest near you. The bigger the airports you deal with, the better the deals. Mess around with skyscanner to find the best deal. If you have a fancy mobile phone (I don't) they have a skyscanner app. Get it. It is like the web page but even better.
Figure out if you want to stay on a bunk bed with other people in a hostel or if you want a hotel room. Generally, hotel rooms cost as much as two people in a dorm. If you are traveling with someone else, hotels are a potentially good choice. If you have the means to upgrade to 'a delightful bed and breakfast' you can also consider that - but in general with free breakfasts you get what you pay for and unless you are poor will end up skipping it after the first day or two and going to a supermarket or restaurant.
You can find the general prices of places to stay at www.hostelbookers.com and www.hostelworld.com Consult with both - they have different clients. Wikitravel can give you more info on the districts and such. (Note for some reason it is weird about getting off the main page. I'd recommend doing a search for wikitravel country you want to go to. That takes you right to the correct page.)
How much luggage you take (under 15 or 20 kg for the airplane - research ahead) is not too important. A large or medium sized backpack will be good - you don't have to put much stuff in it but if you want/need to buy souvenirs to bring back to people you have space in your bag.
If you allow for food costs the same as in your native country you will be happy to be taking home some change. Unless you are from say Cambodia going to Denmark. Research ahead. With certain countries (like the Czech Republic) they are also renowned for their beer so you'd want to take plenty of drinking money to sample what is arguably the best beer in the world.
In Brian's case, I figure a two week jaunt will cost between $1500-$2000, including everything, depending on how much tourist stuff he does. Personally, I recommend taking $3000 and realizing 'it is OK to come home with money in your pocket'.
The last thing I recommended was he get hold of the book "Xenophobe's Guide to the Czechs" and read that now. It is an excellent book, cheap and a fast interesting read. Check to see if they have one of the books in this interesting series for the place you want to go.
Research everything ahead while you're saving up money. That makes it more real and helps keep you from blowing your money on stupid stuff in the meantime.
One last note - if you are going somewhere looking for romance (or want some hooker action), get your condoms in Western Europe or USA. Most of the rest of the world have rubbish ones.
VIDEOS
Cooking with Logan Yes, sadly I ate it.
LOGAN'S GUIDE TO COOKING
Sauces
Saucier
South America
FRIEND MAP
On Facebook, they have a nifty app called "My Friend Map".
MYFIVEBEST.COM
Another thing I recommend is James Fowler's My Five Best. Lot of neat facts in there.
Also, he did a very professional rewrite of something I'd sent him - view it here.
HOW TO PLAN A VACATION
Disclaimer! I normally don't do brief vacations. Perhaps this will help someone.
[This came from a conversation I had with a buddy of mine, Brian S. Thanks to Brian for not minding if I turned it into a blog post.]
He mentioned he was getting a passport. At first, he didn't have any idea where he'd like to visit. This is a pretty common problem for most people. You need to figure out what you want.
Beaches? Mountains? Cities? Culture? What are you after?
Can you narrow it down to a continent? As they say in many web pages on setting goals, you have to get specific. Until you do, you just have a niggling thought of "Gosh I'd like to be somewhere else." This doesn't make anything happen.
Brian mentioned he'd looked at the photos I'd taken of Prague and was impressed with the architecture.
That narrowed it right down.
First step, hop on skyscanner.com. Note, this isn't where you buy your tickets but to get an idea of the cost and which airlines you'd be dealing with. Note that they have a 'search by year' feature.
If Brian went to Prague at the right time a normal cost ticket (round trip) would be about a grand. Pretty reasonable. Since he has time, he can sign up for various 'watch for special deals' and figure out how airline miles and such work. The airport you want to leave from is whatever is biggest and busiest near you. The bigger the airports you deal with, the better the deals. Mess around with skyscanner to find the best deal. If you have a fancy mobile phone (I don't) they have a skyscanner app. Get it. It is like the web page but even better.
Figure out if you want to stay on a bunk bed with other people in a hostel or if you want a hotel room. Generally, hotel rooms cost as much as two people in a dorm. If you are traveling with someone else, hotels are a potentially good choice. If you have the means to upgrade to 'a delightful bed and breakfast' you can also consider that - but in general with free breakfasts you get what you pay for and unless you are poor will end up skipping it after the first day or two and going to a supermarket or restaurant.
You can find the general prices of places to stay at www.hostelbookers.com and www.hostelworld.com Consult with both - they have different clients. Wikitravel can give you more info on the districts and such. (Note for some reason it is weird about getting off the main page. I'd recommend doing a search for wikitravel country you want to go to. That takes you right to the correct page.)
How much luggage you take (under 15 or 20 kg for the airplane - research ahead) is not too important. A large or medium sized backpack will be good - you don't have to put much stuff in it but if you want/need to buy souvenirs to bring back to people you have space in your bag.
If you allow for food costs the same as in your native country you will be happy to be taking home some change. Unless you are from say Cambodia going to Denmark. Research ahead. With certain countries (like the Czech Republic) they are also renowned for their beer so you'd want to take plenty of drinking money to sample what is arguably the best beer in the world.
In Brian's case, I figure a two week jaunt will cost between $1500-$2000, including everything, depending on how much tourist stuff he does. Personally, I recommend taking $3000 and realizing 'it is OK to come home with money in your pocket'.
The last thing I recommended was he get hold of the book "Xenophobe's Guide to the Czechs" and read that now. It is an excellent book, cheap and a fast interesting read. Check to see if they have one of the books in this interesting series for the place you want to go.
Research everything ahead while you're saving up money. That makes it more real and helps keep you from blowing your money on stupid stuff in the meantime.
One last note - if you are going somewhere looking for romance (or want some hooker action), get your condoms in Western Europe or USA. Most of the rest of the world have rubbish ones.
VIDEOS
Cooking with Logan Yes, sadly I ate it.
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