Moving on -

[jarrbyrd]

Hey there Travelers!

My name is Jay - well not really but that's what we'll go by, k? Anywhoozles, true story I'm ready to travel. I have a friend in Spain who wants me to come visit him. No, I didn't meet him online. He's a friend I met here in sunny Southern California and he teaches English all over the world.

But that's not the point.

The point is that I'm ready to move on from Los Angeles and discover other metropolitan cities. I don't know where to start. I recently (October '13) went to Jamaica with about 300$ USD; and was able to survive for a week.

So, I thought to myself Jay - you have no debt, a fancy camera, and nothing - NOTHING to lose. Just do it, just buy a one-way ticket to Spain and hope for the best.

Only problem is I'm flat broke (well I can afford the ticket). I can imagine being able to save up 1,000 dollars for the trip but let's be honest. 1,000 is about enough for a hostel for 20 days? Simply put I don't want to be there for 20 days. I wanna be gone for much, much longer.

I am an artist and I have no doubt I will be able to sell my wares on the street for food (sketches, paintings) - but what I'm more concerned with is shelter. I don't mind sleeping in parks, subway tunnels, you know outside. I am an experienced back-packer. But I don't want to sleep outside everyday. But if that's what it comes down to... Anyone else have experience in this?

I know it's not impossible to be able to survive; so I don't want to hear the whole: "It's going to be difficult." I get it - life is difficult (I grew up in the ghetto + and I graduated Suma from the School of Hard Knocks).

I plan to back-pack starting from Spain. I would like to see most of Europe. Spain, England, Scotland, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway you know the whole damn thing...

So here I am, a dude. Who is going to go to Spain in July. With a 1,000 dollars hoping that he'll survive.

Heres what I will be taking:

1. MacBook
2. Canon t3i dSLR
3. 1k
4. Equipment (tent, water bottle, et. al.)
5. Clothes

All fitting into a single back-pack.

I hope I've given you enough information to get an idea of what's going on here. I'm looking for advice from people who have dropped everything: stability, a promising career, to just be free from the beast. To see how other people live. To grow. To just be. Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

-j

[marc873]

Best of luck mate... I walked away from life in the states over 4 years ago with less than $1000 and started in Nicaragua which is FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR RRRRR
cheaper than Western EU... That being said I had almost run out of money within 2 months in Nica where the cost of life is nothing compared to EU... I ended up working in Nica and Guatemala and spent 4 years floating C.A. always managing to make enough money to pay for the bed, food and beers...
Now Ive made the jump to Europe and live in Belgium... Cost of living is huge in comparison here and its very likely that you will blow through $1000 in less than a month even if you are sleeping outdoors half that time...
And then with your travel plans, well thats not cheap at all and many of your countries listed are high cost countries...
If you want to do it, do it!!! But if you want to do it and try to insure some sort of long term success, slow down, work your ass off and leave with a much larger bank acct in order to get your self settled and figure out how to earn along the way without just going total broke super fast... And since you will not be legal to work in any of these countries, you will have to find some kind of under the table paying jobs, bartending, hostels etc... And then you also need to think about the language barrier and trying to get jobs... English speaking jobs are not as easy as you may think to find...
Good luck

[Sijuki]

Or check out parts of Eastern Europe that you can stay for cheaper.

Transportation can be pricey, unless you plan on trying to thumb it everywhere. I would definitely recommend trying to get more than $1k together, or at least find a reliable way to get some funds when you get there. Like, if your buddy knows a place you can bartend or do some light work for some cash once you land.

Nothing is impossible, it is just merely how difficult you want it to be for yourself. Live the dream man.

[travelpunk]

You chose some pricey countries to visit on a $1,000 budget. Right now, $1,000 US dollars is equivalent to about 730 euros.

That's about 23.5 euros a day in July. July and August are the busiest times to travel during the year as everyone is on summer vacation and all accommodation oriented places charge higher fees for prime time.

If your dream is to travel for longer, I would plan it for later in the year or next year so you have more time to work and save money.

Just a thought. If you're struggling in LA right now, are broke, and can only manage to save $1,000 by June, then you're in for a rude awakening here in Europe. Spain has one of the highest rates of unemployment among the youth (click here)

You could work at Starbucks, Mcdonalds, Ralphs, any restaurant, etc... for the next 6 months and save way more than $1,000 I would assume.

And if you really want to travel indefinitely, then I would work my ass off for the next year and half, bank all the money, then take the trip.

No point in traveling to another country just to be stressed about money, accommodations, transportation, food, etc...when you get there. That will be a miserable experience for you.

I understand the urge to go and to just drop everything and get the hell out of Dodge, but like anything, preparation is an essential key to success.

Wish you the best!