Disqus - Friends of marionvermazen

Re: Currently updating website

Benny Lewis — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:45:22 -0000

lol, thanks for that um… contribution Karl!! :-P
You know rightly I speak no Cyavanese; I can barely speak English these days!!

Re: Casa dos 40 – Couchsurfing, Recife

Benny Lewis — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:18:43 -0000

Obrigado Bruna!! :) (respondo em português porque quero manter essa parte do site em português ;) A próxima vez pode deixar comentário ao site em inglês se quiser). Espero que os estudos nos EUA vão bem!! Adorei Olinda e Recife; fiquei um mês lá e tô com muitas saudades!! O povo é muito legal mesmo! Estou na Irlanda agora mas vou escrever mais sobre o meu tempo no Brasil neste site depois!!! :) Até!

Re: How to Live Like a Rock Star (or Tango Star) in Buenos Aires…

Benny Lewis — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:19:05 -0000

Thanks for the advice Tim!! I'm halfway through your book and enjoying it thoroughly; I've been travelling around for 6 years and take Internet-based freelance work with me and do better than earning in dollars... earning in euros ;) A lot of your advice mirrors things I've randomly picked up along the way, so it's cool to see parallels!
I was already planning to move to BsAs for ages before discovering your story; I love the accent and the use of vos (it's kinda like speaking with "thou" in English for most hispanohablantes), and would like to water down my "Peninsular" Spanish from living in Spain for a few years and I've got plenty of South American experience in Brazil... although I can already tell by the Argentines I've met that it's going to be an vastly different experience! I usually use the country's craigslist equivalent when finding flats and it always gives me an extremely cheap option, but your barrio advice will give me places to give priority to!! I'll be there from September this year :) Can't wait! I managed to pick up some Capoeira in Brazil, so hopefully I'll be fit for Tango!
Ah yes, BTW, you should update the Youtube link; that Shall We Dance video was removed for copyright reasons. ;)
Ciao for now!

Re: Brand new site!

Benny Lewis — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:47:38 -0000

Well *I* think it was quite clever!! If you google it mine is the only version that comes up, I can't believe no-one ever thought of it before. Welcome back to Éire!!

Re: Couchsurfing, Casa dos 40

Benny Lewis — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:30:33 -0000

Wow!! Many thanks for the compliment :) Feel free to subscribe to find out when I make more of these (shortly I'll be adding one about Tenerife, and in the coming months one about Irish speakers, then Esperanto speakers and then my experience at Burning Man!) They'll be more or less in the same style as that one. Be sure to let me know what you think of them!

Re: Where the hell is Benny?

Benny Lewis — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:32:02 -0000

Hey that's a good point! I was just frantically waving my arms, but it does look like I'm asking the watcher to join in! The ironic thing is.... I'm blocking out Matt!! That scene is the only one I can't see him in!!!! :P Thanks for watching :)

Re: Hike up Mount Teide

Benny Lewis — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:26:13 -0000

Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 :) Emlyn had to give me a few tips so I could get the best out of it; it's a lot more versatile than what I was using before! Hopefully I didn't overdo it!!

Re: Amazing Latest Video from “Where the Hell is Matt”

Benny Lewis — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:23:09 -0000

If you look at the Montréal scene at 3:51 you'll see me in the yellow jacket ;) (I'm Irish though). Matt is really cool in person. There were so many of us there, but an hour after introductions he still remembered my name! He responded to my emails afterwards too and is a real down-to-earth guy. He's quite famous from his previous video and yet he never let it go to his head; something a lot of travellers (myself included) can learn something from.

Re: Where the hell is Benny?

Benny Lewis — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:23:49 -0000

He wasn't as public about his appearence as he could have been (probably better; it wouldn't have been as good if every scene was like his last one). I was looking up a site about events in Montreal and someone casually mentioned that Matt was coming to dance (they heard from his blog). I made sure to go and organised to bring over 15 friends with me... but they all got scared off once they saw the rain!

Re: Hike up Mount Teide

Benny Lewis — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:35:17 -0000

Yes! Going to Burning Man and I have official media permission to record and make a documentary similar to the ones I've already done! :) Will you be there??

Re: Would you like some tea with that?

Benny Lewis — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:35:38 -0000

It doesn't look like that here Horsebox ;) You're a big softy deep down!!!

Re: Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, shares five tips for better video blogging

Benny Lewis — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:06:42 -0000

Excellent tips!! I have my own video blog but I didn't really think about what he said for one-on-one interviews; using an interesting background really makes a difference! Something else I do is use my still camera for quick videos, but carry around a digital audio recorder with a tie-mike (you can get them for $30 off ebay). It unfortunately has extra synchronizing work in the editing stages, but all videos I make have to be edited anyway so it's not that big a deal. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, shares five tips for better video blogging

Benny Lewis — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:06:42 -0000

Re: 4HWW Cover Story in Men’s Journal (Plus: Be in a Movie)

Benny Lewis — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:24:30 -0000

You're going to Burning Man!! That's great, me too!! Hopefully I'll run into you and get to shake your hand :) Ask for Irish Benny at the Couchsurfing Camp right by center camp if you are about! ;) I'm also rushing to get things ready for my first burn, it's going to be spectacular!!
Great job on getting on the front cover by the way; I could see in your book that you have a liking for researching men's magazines so you must be really proud of yourself.

Re: The Canary Islands, Where There Are No Small Yellow Birds Who Like to Sing

Benny Lewis — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:35:28 -0000

I loved the Canary islands!! I spent 2 months in Tenerife this year and had an amazing time hiking up to the peak of mount Teide. The locals are so nice, and their Spanish is linguistically half way between peninsular (Spain) Spanish and Latin American. Excellent place!!

Re: The Brave New World of Twitter

Benny Lewis — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:41:38 -0000

Twitter is an excellent tool!! It has a lot of possibilities. One thing I do with it (which is a lot less commmon) is to use it as a means of practising languages. In the same idea as on my video blog, almost every tweet I do in English, I'll translate the same thing to Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto and of course Irish Gaelic. This forces me to think regularly in these languages and imagine or look for ways to translate things I say in normal conversations.

Benny Lewiss last blog post..How to take as much as you like in your hand luggage

Re: What’s Your Travel Style?

Benny Lewis — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:33:45 -0000

Excellent post!! I never thought passionate non-tourist travellers could have so many different subcategories :) I used to think I was a flashpacker, but according to your definition I'm a "professional traveller". Interesting! Thanks for the links to good blogs (some already in my feed reader, some just discovered).

Re: Comment tout mettre dans votre bagage à main à l’aéroport

Benny Lewis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:08:15 -0000

En fait ils s'en foutent !!! D'après le personnel d'aéroport, c'est le problème du personnel de l'avion combien tu apportes : les gens du machine à rayon X ne s'intéressent qu'aux objets métalliques et aux liquides et bombes etc. On a toujours des trucs dans les poches, mais moi j'en ai beaucoup plus c'est tout :-P

Des fois il faut s'assurer que le bagage à main ne surpasse pas 10kg etc. (ainsi il faut mettre le plus lourd sur toi si possible pour qu'ils ne comptent pas) Sinon, on m'a jamais arrêté ;) Je ne les mets pas dans mes poches après avoir passé par le machine à rayons X (car des fois c'est pas confortable), donc j'ai des sacs plastiques prêts pour être utilisés avec ce qui était dans mes poches une fois que je suis dans le terminal. Essaie-le !! :)

Re: How to take as much as you like in your hand luggage

Benny Lewis — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:31:02 -0000

Great comments eveeryone!! Keep 'em coming :)
@Jenni & Karl: Yes, it's a little inconvenient going through security, but after some practice I can get through now as quick as everyone else. Once through security I nip out a few plastic bags to put everything in so I'm not walking around with my pockets full. When getting on the plane, they presume you bought it all in duty-free ;)
@Jill Yes of course, the microfibre towel is easier to fold etc., but I tried that for a while and didn't like it. For this funny and not-so-inconvenient work-around I get full entire fluffiness in my towel :) It is mostly just a suggestion though; you could also use the same idea to bring a flag or extra clothes. I've stuffed everything from shoes to even dumbbells into my pockets or various other places they fit into. Even when I have check-in luggage, this method lets me go way over the overall 30kg or so limit, which is important when you move house as often as I do!
@Cormac: No idea where to get that super-pocket jacket. If anyone reading this could let us know, leave a comment with the link!! As a temporary work around, when I was really desperate to bring several books with me, I took an old jacket and sliced open a hole in the back to put them in between the layers (it was a winter jacket). Definitely not something you want to sit back on, but I brought half a library with me that way :-P

Re: Video: How To Take As Much As You Like In Your Hand Luggage

Benny Lewis — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:12:28 -0000

Thanks for linking to my video :)
It takes a bit of practise; when I first started travelling I brought way too much with me. You learn that "just in case" causes you more problems than you are potentially solving. Even so, keep them in mind for when you want to travel with CHECKED luggage, while taking more than the checked+ carry-on limit combined. I use this whenever I move house; I take everything with me, in my carry-on, checked luggage... and jacket pockets :-P
I'll be making more videos like this soon (not just travel advice). They are available in several languages on my blog.
Take care!

Re: The Dopplr Effect: Have Social Media, Will Travel

Benny Lewis — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:25:09 -0000

I was actually looking for something exactly like this!! I'll also be adding a link to it on my blog but for now here are my travels on Dopplr. I added you - thanks for sharing the interesting site :)

Benny Lewiss last blog post..How to take as much as you like in your hand luggage

Re: Éire

Benny Lewis — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:06:59 -0000

Hola Declan!
Sí claro, tienes razón, la verdad es que Cork es la tercera ciudad de Irlanda - tuve que escribir "de la república de Irlanda". Es verdad que debo conocer el norte también!! Muy pronto, vale? :) Para los que no nos entienden, Declan dijo que debí escribir que "Belfast" es la segunda ciudad de Irlanda.
Por favor sólo escribe comentarios en irlandés en las páginas en irlandés!! (O escríbeme por la página de Contactar conmigo). Si no, no se entiende aquí lo que escribes!! :) Gracias ;)

Re: Where to Next? Um, South?

Benny Lewis — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:25:51 -0000

If you make it to Buenos Aires before mid December I'd be glad to show you around!! I'm living here at the moment hosting Couchsurfers etc.
For Spanish I'm glad to see you are taking a serious outlook on learning it. People in South America are very nice and patient with those learning the language. In the mean time some good online free resources include About.com's Spanish learning page and in general trying to listen and read as much as you can. As well as in English I write a blog in Spanish the same as the English one that you can compare to learn some new words etc.
Buen viaje!!

<abbr>Benny Lewiss last blog post..How to take as much as you like in your hand luggage</abbr>

Re: You Can’t See Paris for Cheap, But You Can Certainly Try

Benny Lewis — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:20:56 -0000

I could easily do Paris on less than €20 a day.

I actually hate Paris. Lived there for 9 months of my life - such miserable people. Thank god the rest of France is so pleasant!

Anyway, just a few additions I'll make; out of all places to avoid Couchsurfing, Paris is the last one - it's the world's Couchsurfing capital. You should try it somewhere and dip your feet in the amazing possibilities in popular cities like Paris with the meetings etc. Otherwise people on budgets don't stay in hotels, of course you are going to pay lots of money if you set those kinds of standards... if you're really on a budget you would have to consider Couchsurfing or at least a hostel. The one I stayed at my first week was only €18 a night and comfortable and safe, but the price may have changed. Obviously I was renting a room in a flat once settled so I paid less per day.

As far as the city goes - don't pay for Louvre entrance. It's free for certain ages (like under 26s I believe) Friday evenings and for everyone the first or last (don't remember) Sunday of the month. If you don't check your main luggage you'll slice the price of the Ryanair ticket down quite a bit. The city has a host of free concerts and events and festivals that go on all the time.

You only eat for €20+ in the touristy areas. A cheap metro ride (or if you've already got a day-pass etc. might as well use it) to almost any non-touristy part of the city has a lot of amazing restaurants only locals use. The company I worked for gave me €8 "ticket-restaurants" and I ate very well every day with that. Bistrots always have amazing lunch specials for business workers, catored specifically to the ticket-restaurant standard price. Even a fussy vegetarian like me ate very well without spending more than that limit since I couldn't afford to with what I was earning.

All souvenirs bought on the street can be haggled if a price isn't displayed. But you are better going into a small store somewhere slightly off the tourist trail for the best deals.

One €8 lunch time meal, €5 snack in the evening, a couple of euros for metro rides, and leaving space for haggling the price of a souvenir down and contacting local Couchsurfers for advice on free events going on now in the city (CS isn't just about the free accommodation, but if you used it for accomodation...), €20 would easily cover you - with breathing space. So I beg to differ, you can see Paris cheap ;)

Re: List of Language Lovers On Twitter | Matthew Bennett

Benny Lewis — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 06:37:42 -0000

Matthew; the key for not annoying your readers is to have completely separate accounts for each language!! I only ever tweet in English in my English twitter, so non linguists can follow me without getting confused.

It's true that each tweet takes 5-10 minutes depending on the vocabulary I use (would be much less if I wasn't tweeting in 7 languages!) I use pidgin to handle multiple twitter logins (in Windows Thwirl is quite good for multiple accounts) and enable spell checking for each language individually. I tweet naturally in English, and then try to find a natural sounding translation in the other languages. It's an excellent way of maintaining fluency!! I literally have to write and keep my vocabulary up to date in each language every day! Since it's more time consuming, it also forces me to tweet less often (only once or twice a day max), which I think filters the quality. Otherwise I might have just spammed my twitter account every 10 minutes (I've had to un-follow people doing that because they take over my feed).

It also lets me have different networks of followers and "followees". Thanks for following me, I'll keep an eye on your progress! :)