Hello everyone! My name is Ali, or Alvin, or Phoebe, whichever you prefer, & I like to travel. Obviously. Welcome to Alvintures! I didn’t buy a one way ticket, I didn’t quit my job, and I didn’t sell my car. But I travel full time and live out of a backpack. Here’s my story.
As a child, being curious and adventurous leads you to grow up with a different perspective than maybe some others have. But when you grow up, most people forget. They forget the dreams they once had and the happy endings they had once heard in fairytales. They believe that when you grow up you are supposed to go to college, get a job, get married, have babies and live happily ever after. Which is still a great life plan, but it’s not the only life plan.
Now, I never wanted to become a full time traveller, really. That was never in my plans growing up. I did, however, know that I was going to end up doing something, different. Something that most people probably wouldn’t understand, but thats okay. My dream job and ultimate goal was to become a funeral home director and own my own business. See, that is different, and something most people don’t understand. So I thought I had the perfect plan for my future, I’d be successful doing something that I enjoyed. Wrong.
After I graduated I did what every other high school graduate does in the USA, I went to University. For me, University opened my eyes a little bit to the ‘real world.’ Another thing I want you to know, this blog is not always going to be PG rated. I want people to be able to relate to my real authentic self, which means I’m not going to sugarcoat anything on this blog and I want you to know my real life experiences.
My senior year of high school, followed with my first 2 years of University, I wasn’t in the best mindset. My best friend had died of cancer, I started hanging out with a lot of people that weren’t good for me, and doing a lot of things I should not of been doing. I got really depressed, ‘clinically depressed’ if you want to be technical, and found my own ways to get a temporary fix to cure it. This went on for 4 years until I finally hit a breaking point. Luckily, I had a great support system of friends and family that helped me get back to my normal, hardworking and ambitious self.
After this, my whole perspective changed. I started to enjoy going to school again, and I enjoyed having my life back in my control. For the last 2 years of University I went to school 21 hours a week, and worked 4 jobs including a model, referee, personal assistant, and a cashier/waitress. I even did an internship at a funeral home and was accepted into the best Mortuary school in the country. This is when I discovered this is not what I was meant to be doing. So, plans changed and I finished my degree at age 22 from the University of Rio Grande in December of 2016 with a BA in Psychology and a Minor in Sociology. I am also one of the very few lucky American college graduates that has no student debt to pay off. Thanks to a couple scholarships, my small savings, & my family, my whole college tuition was paid for by the time I was finished.
Now, imagine someone like Rachel Green, from Friends, going backpacking, by herself right after leaving Barry at the alter. Someone who never had to rely solely on herself. This is why my family thought I was crazy when I had mentioned about going to Europe after I graduated. Everyone thought it was a really cool idea, but no one ever thought I was actually being serious. In reality, no one really thought I could do it anyway, let alone do it alone. HA! This was motivation to me. After being in a slump for so long, I had nothing left but motivation and determination to turn my life around. I had saved up a lot of money working 4 jobs, and lets be honest, there’s not loads of jobs out there waiting for a psychology graduate.
I researched and planned for this Europe trip for 11 months. Down to every little detail, and I started to become really good at it, and I liked it. I always liked doing research in college, so this wasn’t hard work for me, this was enjoyment. I read hundreds of travel blogs, I planned my trip and I learned everything about traveling as I possibly could. Specifically, solo female traveling. I researched how to pack, how to find cheap flights, where to go, where to go during which seasons, what locations were safe for solo female travelers. I learned how to budget, where to eat, where to sleep, how the get from one location from the next. I wanted people to realize that I really was capable of doing this on my own and I was going to do it with or without anyone else’s approval. Before I took this trip, I had never cooked for myself, did laundry, made any sort of reservation, rode a train, bus or any kind of public transportation, I had never left my country or even went anywhere alone for that matter. I guess I can see now why people thought I was being unrealistic.
I left on my first backpacking trip that following March for 8 weeks. Little did I know at the time that 8 weeks would eventually turn into 3 years and counting. Within 2 weeks of traveling, I fell in love with this new lifestyle that I had started. I liked being independent and doing things for myself, and I liked living out of a backpack. Another thing you are going to learn about me in this blog is that I am an expert at screwing things up and getting into more messed up situations than you can count. I am very blessed to be able to travel and have the life that I have, but it’s not always fun and easy. I’m still the same Ali that gets herself into unimaginable circumstances. But, you know what mess ups and bad situations lead too? A lot of great stories, surprises, and unexpected adventures.
So within the first couple weeks of my trip, I started doing more research, research on how to travel full time. I wasn’t completely oblivious to the real world, I knew if I wanted to keep traveling, I had to have money to do that. After this I came home for 1 month and than left again to my first ever Workaway experience to live in a van and work as a bartender/waitress in Ireland for the summer. I also obtained my TEFL certification this following winter so I could start teaching English over seas.
Currently, Im working as an ESL teacher and I can say that I have lived, traveled, and worked my way through over 27 countries. I know all about visas for different countries, how to score cheap flights, how to pack for a year with just a carry on, and where to get the best Kebabs in Europe. I can point out almost every country on a map, name every state capital, I’m starting to learn a new language, and even a little web designing, as you can see; And you are going to get to learn all about it! I’m going to go back to the very beginning. My main goal it to make this the most realistic and authentic travel blog there is. You’ll learn all about the wonderful experiences I’ve had, the amazing people I’ve met, the tastiest food and the most beautiful sights.
Over the past 3 years, I’ve changed a lot and I’ve learned a lot. I’m happy, in love and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. I want this blog to do 2 things. The first thing, I want this blog to be of use to others. I want people to be inspired, enlightened, and educated. Whether you are an aspiring traveler yourself, or just a curious follower, I want to share my journey and hopefully I can make someones day. The second thing, I want this blog to motive and push me to always believe in my dreams and to remind me to never stop taking pictures. Enjoy!