Interview with a globetrotter #1

Greetings and salutations globetrotters, try and contain yourselves with all the suspense this weather is bringing upon us, well at least we now know that the scientists who argued  against the theory of climate change were well paid… This week I thought we should get down to the nitty gritty of what makes a globetrotter just that. starting with none other than yours truly the GTG will profile a wide range of travelers on an ongoing basis so expect to see your worldly faces here sooner rather than later and start thinking of your own answers to these questions. Without further ado, let’s begin out interview.

Name: Sinead Francis-Coan

Age : 28

Home area: Newcastle NSW Australia

GTG: What’s the most unusual place you’ve traveled to?

SFC:  Balatonfured Hungary (since I had to pick one), a beach resort on a lake with a unique Hungarian twist

GTG:  What’s the longest you’ve been away from home at one time?

SFC: Two and a half years

GTG: What do you miss the most about being away from home?

SFC: The weather and familiarity with things

GTG:  Where is the top of your list to visit?

SFC: Belize and Okinawa, I’ve heard a lot about both and they appeal greatly for being unique and exotic

GTG: What’s the one thing you don’t leave home without?

SFC: My teddy bear and my travel Buddha

GTG: What’s one thing you’d never do overseas?

SFC: Regret going

GTG: Is there anywhere you’d never go back to?

SFC: No

GTG: What’s the most unusual method of travel you’ve used?

SFC: A Mitsubishi L300 van that was set up with a microphone as a tour bus on the Aran Islands (off Ireland’s West coast)

GTG: How long is your ideal trip?

SFC: At least three months

GTG: Where do you go to relax?

SFC: North coast New South Wales

GTG: Best beaches?

SFC: It’s a toss up between the south of Thailand, the Algarve (Portugal) and the Newcastle beaches

GTG: What’s the best food you’ve eaten on your travels?

SFC: Tough call but Kao Lam in Thailand (BBQ sticky rice with coconut in a bamboo tube)

GTG: Perfect number to travel in?

SFC: Four

GTG: What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken on the road?

SFC: Maybe rely on a local bus to get me home late at night

GTG: Who’s the coolest person you’ve met travelling?

SFC: Bojan Franzee Brankov, an awesome Serbian guy with a love for life and random conversation and a talent in improvised comedy. Also the balls to give up his long-term day job to be a pirate in the Caribbean.

GTG: What’s the one thing from your travels you wish you could get at home?

SFC: Irish Soda bread and every day Japanese food (has to be food)

GTG: What is your favourite accent at the moment?

SFC: Don’t make me choose, oh god, um I miss the Scottish

GTG: Hardest language to negotiate

SFC: Hungarian or Malaysian (Bahasa Meleyu)

GTG: What’s your travel ambition?

SFC: To promote educated travel and hook up volunteers with places that could really use a hand

GTG: What’s the strangest thing you’ve brought back into the country?

SFC: Could be squid from Japan, stones from a harbor in Croatia or a plastic test tube from Serbia that originally came filled with Raccia (a local schnapps-like spirit).

GTG: How do you prepare for a trip?

SFC: Well I have often been harassing people well before I know i’m going to a place and have some useful fact or other stashed away but I also like to read a guide book, and then leave it in my bag 🙂

GTG: What’s the worst thing you’ve forgetten?

SFC: Well I always end up with multiple stationery supplies for scrapbooking and postcards…

GTG: Where do you stay when you travel?

SFC: Anywhere from my aunt’s place, through a university campus, hostel, tent, friends’ couches/beds to an expensive hotel, really depends on the trip and who i’m with.

GTG: Where is your favourite place?

SFC: As far as cities go, Sevilla in Spain or (O)Porto in Portugal, both so passionate, were made for summer, have amazing buildings and something in the air.

GTG: What’s one thing you do every trip?

SFC: There’s a few but go to a café and buy myself a postcard somewhere are a couple

GTG: What do you think about as you’re getting on a plane?

SFC: Thank god I wasn’t charged excess baggage fees and taken aside for questioning, what I want to eat and of course who I’ve left behind.

GTG: What kind of stuff do you write in your travel diary?

SFC: I like a chronological order of events, where I went, where I ate, what I ate, where I stayed, who I met, sometimes prices and times, that kind of thing.

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed your first interview with a globetrotter and stay tuned for number two soon! Till next week