How Did We Start Our Expat Lives?

On this episode of Just The Ticket you are welcomed to the very first episode with some background about your hosts. Stick around as Josh and Veera share their first top tickets - a weekly top 3 section with something different every time!

Just The Ticket is a podcast for travellers, ex-pats, and everyone in between. 

Join Josh and Veera, and experience living abroad vicariously through embarrassing stories, educational anecdotes and unusual traditions. 

New episodes every Friday, see you there. 

Mike Franklyn / Moon Stalker / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com 

Transcript

Josh  0:11  
Hi, I'm Josh &, I'm Veera, and you're listening to just the ticket, the podcast about all things culture, languages, travel and living abroad.

Veera  0:21  
Today is our first episode ever. So we thought that we could talk about, well, we could introduce ourselves. Yeah. tell you a bit about why we're here. Our backgrounds and how we became expats,

I guess. Yeah, we'll bring you on this little journey to how we got here and tell you all about us. Exactly. So, yeah, I guess let's get right into it. Yeah. Should we introduce ourselves? Yeah. First, to start. Yeah, I think that's probably a good idea. Okay. So I'm Josh, I'm a kiwi, not the fruit a New Zealander. And hasn't been a lot of confusion about that, actually. And I've been living as an expat for I think about four years now. I started when I moved to London in 2017, and then to Germany and 2019. And now in Finland. So we're here in Finland now.

And we're here because of me. Yeah. So I'm better. And Finnish. And I have also lived in many different countries, first in Australia, Germany, and then in New Zealand for one year.

So yeah, the, the idea for the podcast basically came about from these kinds of like living in other countries, like experiences. And, and we kind of plan to keep doing that. So we'll take you along for the ride.

Exactly. Yeah. Like we said that, in today's episode, we would like to talk about our expat

journeys and our traveling backgrounds. You know, like how we got interested in traveling, like, Why Why are we living abroad? I mean, or how do we begin living abroad and so forth? Yeah. So we've, we've come kind of to this like end goal quite differently from like, quite different along different paths. So

yeah, so because, like, I started traveling, when I was, I think two years old. Yeah. But for you, it's quite different. Yeah. Right.

Josh  2:33  
I started quite a bit later in life. Okay. Do you want to? Yeah, I can tell about that. Yeah. Well, so actually, I didn't get my first passport until I was 21. So that's quite, that's quite a lot of time, even before I travelled. And so that was about seven years ago now. Yeah. So. And so your family? Your family hasn't traveled? No, no, my family hasn't traveled? I mean, yeah, I have very, very small family in Australia. Which is not really traveling, I don't think. And and then my brother has left the country. And, you know, one of my Auntie's briefly left the country. Yeah. But for example, your mom has never left the country. Yeah. Correct. And, and most of my extended family have either only been to Australia or or never gone anywhere. And the majority of the people in my entire extended family don't even have a passport. Yeah, quite a different experience to yours.

Unknown Speaker  3:32  
Yeah.

Veera  3:33  
Would you say that it's because from New Zealand, it's really difficult to travel like anywhere. I think it's like we're quite far away. So we, it's really expensive. It's quite a lot of effort to like, organize. And it's like, the distances like are very far away. So yeah, I mean, time to travel as well. Yeah, it does. It does. I mean, like the closest kind of flight abroad, which is, yeah, like I said to Australia, it's like three and a half or four hours. And exactly, yeah. So that's not a short first flight. Yeah, but it's certainly not Europe. That's for sure.

And what do you think, like what got you interested in in traveling because your family didn't travel? So. So how did you end up?

Josh  4:25  
Yeah, I don't really know. I didn't even really care about traveling until I was already an adult. For some reason. Just I guess it kind of felt like an unobtainable goal, simply because nobody had ever really done it. And so I guess I never really considered it and then I decided, I think, yeah, maybe like 20 or something that I wanted to go. There was an event in Australia that I really wanted to go to. And yeah, I think I wasn't really so interested in the traveling at that point. I was just interested in going to the event and right That was in Melbourne and Yeah, kind of the rest is history really. So it began there. And I yeah, like I said, I don't really wasn't really for the travel it was for the event and so I don't know that was quite an experience. And doing it, I realized that I really like traveling. Yeah, like that first - do you, like, can you say? Like, what was it that you loved about it? I don't really know. I think New Zealand is not that different to Australia. So it wasn't like I was in like a foreign country or a foreign culture or something. 

Veera  5:38  
But I mean, Melbourne is like, way bigger than for example, Christchurch.

Josh  5:43  
Yeah. Melbourne is like the size of the whole of New Zealand. Yeah. I mean, not physically. not physically. But yeah the population. That's -Yeah-, very similar. 

Veera  5:50  
Yeah, so it has very different feel to it, then, like New Zealand, which is very kind of like a small country. And like a lot of the cities are very small. Yeah. And kind of, yeah, don't really feel like cities, at least not to me.

Josh  6:06  
Yeah. It's not a bad thing. Yeah, it's quite a different. It's quite a different thing. I think. Melbourne was quite special. Like, I felt like, I think what really got me excited about Melbourne was that I kind of didn't really know anything. And I really liked that. Yeah, like I didn't, I didn't know what to expect down this road down this alley, in this place. And, you know, and Melbourne is not like a really old city, but it's a lot older than most of New Zealand. So I think

Veera  6:35  
that's true. Yeah, it does have like a lot of like, historic,

Josh  6:39  
like buildings. Yeah. Yeah. So that was really interesting. But I guess like, I think it was just kind of like the feeling. I think I just kind of fell in love with the feeling of going away from home.

Veera  6:50  
Yeah. Yeah. I think that that was what I really liked about, like, what made me like fall in love with traveling as well. Yeah. Because, like, yeah, I traveled a lot when I was a child. Like, I mean, not a lot. But yeah, but more than me. Yeah, definitely. So the first time I traveled was when I was two. But I don't really remember much about it. And that was like, What with all of my family actually like, with my aunts and uncles and cousins. And where'd you go? to Greece? Yeah. And then I do remember, like a couple of like, other trips, when I was younger, like, we went to Tenerife, and I went to London with my dad. And when I went to London, that was actually I was nine years old. And that was the first time when I traveled on a plane, like kind of alone. Oh, yeah. So because my dad was already there.

Josh  7:54  
You said you had to fly from from Finland?

Veera  7:56  
Yes. And I traveled, like with someone, but I didn't really know the person. The person was like a friend of my dad's. Okay. So I kind of traveled alone. So that was my first like, alone. Traveling experience. Yeah, quite a bit younger than me. Yeah. nine years old. And then like another like alone travel experience was when I again, I visited my dad. So as maybe you can hear, like, I get a lot of the traveling bug. Yeah. From my dad. Because he has traveled a lot and like, I have done most of my traveling. Like at least like before I was 18 years old. Yeah, I have done with my dad. Yeah. either with or four. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I went to Ireland when I was 16 years old. And then I traveled first time alone by plane. Yeah. And I think that kind of made me fall in love with traveling. Because then like there in Ireland, I also - you were alone a bit?- Yeah, because my dad had to work. So then, like, we didn't live in the city centre of - so we were in Dublin. Yeah, but and we didn't like stay in the city centre. So I had to take the train. Yeah.

Josh  9:13  
All by yourself. Yeah. foreign city. Yeah. And like, yeah, I guess.

Veera  9:19  
And I think the feeling was kind of like that. I can do it. Yeah. alone. Yeah. Like, like, like, you already felt comfortable. Yeah. Even if I'm in this, like, I'm 16 years old, or I think it was maybe 17. Yeah. And I didn't speak English that well. Yeah. But I can still somehow manage to get by

Josh  9:38  
Yeah, yeah, I think I don't know. It's so it's such an interesting feeling. Like I don't know if I guess like you got, you kind of like caught the bug. Like a little later in life. Really. Even if you did travel a lot younger. If that's true. If If you can say caught the bug.

Veera  9:56  
Yeah, of course. I liked traveling even before that. Yeah, that wasn't like, you went out. I feel like I live for her traveling or like, That's like my one true. Like passion. Yeah,

yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, but that wasn't really a thing. Yeah, I guess like as a child when you're not really like organizing these things yourself or like, or you can't really decide, like where you're going.

Yeah. Where do you Where are you going? And like, Where do you want to visit and everything like that? Yeah, that's

Josh  10:25  
different. Like, it's kind of like getting told to go somewhere. There's still traveling, I guess. And you could probably still catch the travel bug. Yeah, from from doing that. But I of course, but I can imagine that when you went for the first time to Ireland, and you were traveling by yourself that that, like kind of. It's kind of inspiring, like, you know, like self inspiring. Yeah, exactly. So that was really cool. For me as well. So what about your first time moving abroad? Yeah, so it follows on really well for me, because that was literally the second time I ever went abroad.

Veera  11:02  
Yeah, so it's it's quite funny. Yeah. I you you went like abroad for traveling. And then you like really liked it so much

Josh  11:11  
that, that I moved. Yeah. Yeah, I moved to the other side of the world. I mean, I I went to, yeah, so I went to Melbourne, I was there a week. And then I came back. And I realized that I really, really liked traveling a lot. And I wanted to do it again and go other places. And that got me really excited. And so when was that there was 2014 and took me another two years to actually do anything about it. And then in 2017 I decided, you know, going to go to London. Yeah, like I think it's it's quite a thing, like so any Kiwis that are listening will know that it's quite normal to go to London, for example, like for a two-year visa, because we get one really easy.

Veera  11:51  
It's the same as, like my first like, moving abroad experience, which was to Australia. Yeah. And it's very typical for like Finnish people. And I think like a lot of Europeans go there to do like a working holiday there. Yeah,

Josh  12:05  
yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's, it's, we call it an OE in New Zealand, okay. And Australia, I think uses it as well. But OE like the overseas experience? Ah, right. And so that's like, kind of part of it. And I decided like, well, I don't just want to go for a holiday. I want to see like so much more than just that. And I had a really good opportunity with my work. And the visa was like, super easy to apply for and like didn't cost so much money. Yeah.

Veera  12:30  
And it does make sense as well. The both both ways. Like you going to London and me going to Australia. Yeah. Because it's so like, such a long distance. Yeah, but when you go there, you want to go there for a longer time. Yeah.

Josh  12:44  
Yeah. You want to go you want to go like explore all the place.

Veera  12:46  
Not just visit for like one week or two weeks. Yeah that doesn't really make sense. Yeah, just do it like that. I

Josh  12:53  
mean, I recommend for everybody that goes to New Zealand, don't go for one week. Like you just even two weeks. It's not enough. You just it's not worth the time of that really long journey. Yeah. When at the other end, you're going to see so little. And are you really going to go back? Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah, that was the thing for me as well. When I went to London. I was like, well, I could travel there and just go for a holiday or something. And I don't think I ever really, like really considered it. I think immediately the moment I started thinking about it, I decided that I wanted to move.

Veera  13:23  
Yeah. And you weren't only going for London, right? Like you were going to Europe, basically. Yeah. Because you wanted to like visit all these other places as well. London was just like where you were going to live. But like you weren't only going there because of London.

Josh  13:37  
Yeah, I mean, like, it was actually a really small part of it was London. Like, I was excited about London because of you like media and yeah, you know, like, it's like so international and 10 million people and blah, blah, blah. But like, I think the thing for me about London was you know that it was part of the EU at the time. Yeah. And it still was just and it was like, so easy to just go to all of these other places all over the world, and particularly Europe, and just see everything. Yeah, and one go. Makes sense. And I assume that was the same for you going to Australia as well.

Veera  14:10  
Yeah, of course, like, Well, I was actually planning to like, even like in my first trip. I was planning to go to New Zealand. Yeah. But then I didn't have money. At the end. Yeah. But yeah, working holiday life. Yeah. So of course, I wasn't going there for the whole like area, you know, like yeah, like whereas you were going for, like Europe for the whole continent. Yeah. But like I was mostly only going for Australia. But Australia is a big country. Yeah.

Josh  14:40  
It's technically actually a continent. That's true. Actually, we were both on four continents, but yours was just a little bit like less diverse. Yeah, yeah. But Australia is cool. That's really nice. Yeah, that's a really nice country actually, and really, really fun to travel in. So why did you go to Australia?

Veera  14:57  
I think it was Like a lot, a lot of it was because so many Finnish people go there. Yeah. So before there like it was right after high school. And that's like usually time, the time that you would go abroad, like right before your studies, and I had seen a lot of my, like people from my high school do that. And then like me and my best friend, we were thinking that okay, like, we would like to do that as well. And even before that, like in high school, I think I wanted to do an exchange, but it's quite expensive. Yeah. So then I didn't end up doing that. And then I was thinking like, Okay, well, what other ways can you like go abroad for a longer time, kind of, like similar experience? And then I found out that you can do au pair and it was like a perfect, like, opportunity for me because I love working with kids. Yeah. I at the time. I think I wanted to be like a teacher or something. Yeah. So then I was like, Okay, that sounds like perfect for me. And I actually didn't use any like agency. Like, usually you would go through like our agency and then then find your family that way. But I found my family just online, which was a bit scary. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds kind of dodgy. Almost. Yeah. But it's quite common, I think. Yeah. And I Skyped with them, like one time, I think, yeah, where I went. And so on the plane on the way to Australia, I was kind of scared that, like, what if they're not there? And And what if they don't show up? Or what if they're, like, creepy or something? Yeah, creepy people. But yeah, so they are really lovely. Yeah. And it turned out like completely okay. And you have met them as well. Yeah. Yeah. They're really nice. Yeah. Really nice people. Yeah, like a Korean family, which was really nice as well. So I got kind of two culture experiences at one. So the Australian culture, but also some of the Korean culture. Yeah. That's really cool. What about so you going to Germany? Well, because of me, but

Josh  17:04  
yeah, well, it's true. But like, No, I mean, yes. Or no, like, I was coming to the end of my my time in London. And I did, I did quite a lot of traveling while I was there, I at least went to a few of the main places that you should go, or whatever. But like, I knew that I definitely didn't want to go back home to to New Zealand yet. I wanted to travel more and see more of Europe and things. And it's it's quite hard to stay on London longer if you don't have like, some way to stay there. Like some work or something. And so yeah, I thought, well, why not go and live in Germany? Because, you know, like, Kiwis also get really easy visas

Veera  17:41  
there. And you knew some people like me, like we weren't dating at the time yet. But, but, like, then,

yeah, at least I had some friends. Yeah, exactly. So that was good. Yeah. And, yeah, that was, that was way better than I thought it was gonna be. It was a bit scary. Because that was my first time going to a, like a non English. That's true. Like, I obviously I traveled to non English places for like, two days or

three days. So that was the first time living in like a non English speaking. Country. Yeah. And then and you didn't speak any German? Yeah.

I mean, I started learning the moment I decided that I was moving there. Yeah. And that was only I think, three months or not even three months before moving there. So Exactly.

And like, when you moved to Germany, I had been living there already. For four years, I think. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. So after Australia, like because I had such a good experience in Melbourne. Then I knew that I wanted to keep traveling as well. And and like, because I wanted to study. Yeah. So I thought that that Why shouldn't I study abroad? Yeah. And my first thought was actually Scotland. Yeah. And I applied there. And I think I actually got the place. Yeah, the free study there. Yeah. Yeah. But then, like, at the time, I was studying a German guy. Yeah. So that kind of that made sense. Yeah, I think you can move to Germany. Like instead, because it's also so in Scotland and Germany. Well, I'm not actually sure about Scotland anymore. And in Germany, it's not free to study, but but almost, yeah, it's very, like, compared to like, for example, London, or like New Zealand or Yeah, they're, like, very iterative.

Yeah, I think like, I think it's maybe $700 a year or something. Exactly. And I had

to learn German in high school, or like, not high school, but like school in general. Yeah. So like, it was also kind of like, like that. It just made sense.

Yeah. You had already had the language. You had a partner and you had like an opportunity there. So it made sense. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you kind of got stuck there for a while. Yeah. And and then we got out that Not intentionally, actually. Yeah. So we ended up moving together back to New Zealand, but it was only meant to be for for six months. Yeah. And then COVID happened. So yeah, we kind of got a bit stuck when all our flights were canceled and everything just kept not working out with the reason that we went to New Zealand in the first place. So then, yeah, so we just stuck around for a bit longer than we thought we were planning to go back to Germany. But and to live, and I was going to study there and blah, blah, blah. But

yeah, so the reason why we were going to go back to Germany is because I actually studied in Germany. Yeah. Still, like about to finish my degree now. Yeah. But the like, good thing about, like, COVID. Yeah. Being a thing. Now is that, like, a lot of, like, studies can be online. That's true. So that's, that's why we're living in Finland at the moment. Yeah. And I'm still studying in Germany.

Yeah. So it opened up like the opportunity to come back exactly. to wherever we want. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

And because, yeah, we didn't really have anything else in Germany anymore. Like a lot of my friends have moved out already. And yeah, and there was like no other reason to go back there.

Yeah, I wasn't gonna go there and study anymore. And I started to study in New Zealand. So Finland. Exactly. Yeah. And now we've been here for seven months. Seven months? Yes. Yeah. Seven months this week? Well, I think so. Yeah. Seven months. And that's been great.

looked really kind of like,

sad. I'm not sad. I'm not sad. I love it. I like being back in Europe. I just, I'm just sad because well see, I'm not really sad. I just wish that we were able to travel more. Yeah, of course. Yeah, too. I really miss traveling. But that's coming coming soon. And really sad, actually. Because at the end of this month, we'll be we'll be back in Germany for a week. Yeah. And then next month, we've got a trip to Norway. And hopefully, like, we can start traveling more. Yeah. Yes. That would be amazing. And that's why we're, well, that's part of the reason that we can move to Europe. Not the whole reason. You know, you have family here.

Everything here as well. But the whole reason Definitely not. Because, yeah, I still wanted to live in Finland. At least for sorry, short while

Yep. That brings us to the last section for the podcast. Yeah.

Which is going to be like a, like a weekly special. Yes. Weekly

section. Yeah. Which is this week's? I don't know, we haven't really called

top three. What's it called? top three. No top tickets. Top tickets. Three tickets. Three tickets. Three tickets.

We got there. And yeah, so three tickets. Yeah, that will come up with every week.

This week's three tickets is going to be our three top travel memories. Yeah. Top three? Top.

Yeah, top three travel memories. So they like to start because I got nothing. You got nothing. Okay, my first top travel memory is definitely going to come on. I don't know if it's first or second or third. This is in no particular order. But at least one my number one is definitely going to be have already talked about it today. It's going to be going to Melbourne the first time.

Okay. Do you have any specific memory from there? Yes,

I was in the evening on I think the second or third night I think was a Tuesday night. Yeah. Not really relevant. But it was relevant to me at the time. Okay. And it was like a bit gray but really warm. And I walked outside. And I think it was 9pm or something and where I was living in New Zealand at the time. This is like dead time Tuesday night. 9pm. Yeah, everyone's basically asleep.

Yeah. But I know but.

But Melbourne is like it was like the party weekend or something. It was Tuesday night. There was nothing special going on. It was the middle or like, I think it was like the beginning of November or something. So it wasn't even really summery yet. Yeah. And it was like I had walked into like a party. Yeah. And I walked down the street and it just felt like everything was alive. And I specifically remember turning and walking into the, like the Chinatown Street. And I like remember seeing that i think i think it was the first time that I saw that. At least I knew it was there, but I maybe hadn't seen it yet. Yeah. And it was just like, all of these like restaurants and so many like Chinese decorations and like kind of just like a mixture of cultures. And the street that I had just turned from was like a party. buskers in the streets. I know. Reaching everywhere, right?

You're talking about, by the way, like, this is a comment that's not relevant. Other otherwise, but we were in Melbourne at the same time.

Yeah, yeah, we were Yeah, cuz you were there at the same time. I

mean, you know, pair like that. That's where I was. I didn't say that already. I'm not sure. I think maybe I did. Yeah. Okay. Right. And yeah, you were there traveling. Yeah. It might be that we we saw each other. Yeah. Yeah. We may be cross paths as possible. Yeah. Okay.

And, yeah, I mean, that's my that's my, my moment. I think that was I think that was kind of like the defining moment for me deciding that I wanted to travel. Yeah. Because, like, yes, it was that I was like, wow, Melbourne is amazing. But I think at that exact moment, I realized that wasn't just Melbourne. That was amazing. That was just that where I lived was boring. Right. Or at least that's what I felt like

New Zealand isn't boring. By the way. It's just that, like, the cities are not if they're not big cities. Yeah, they're not. You're on New York. Yeah. You don't go to New Zealand for the city. Yeah, please don't. Yeah, you go there for the nature and like,

many other like, for the people and for the like, just for the landscape? And exactly, but not

not not necessarily for the cities. Not for the food. No, I wouldn't say so. Maybe the lag is so that's true. That's better. Some sausages? And pies. Yeah. Do you have? Do you have a one of your what's your first ticket? Um, well, like I hadn't thought of this at all. Yeah, that's fine. Um, but the first memory that comes to mind, which is not actually like a happy memory, or like, not? Yeah, you know? Yeah. Can you guess? Yeah, I can, which we're thinking about India? Yes. Yeah. Go. Um, so I have visited India two times. And this was the first time and I was 16. Again, with my dad, and my dad's, like, Emily. And we were coming back to Finland. We had spend, I think, three weeks in India, and I was kind of sick of it. Yeah, of course. Like, it was really nice and really nice experience. But it's so different. And three weeks is a lot for a 16 year old. Yeah, yeah. Especially. Yeah, for sure. Um, so we were coming back, and we missed our flight. We were in? I think it's so is it Bombay, Bombay, Bombay. Yeah, because we say Mumbai, it's Mumbai an English as well, actually. I think it's both I think Bombay. Bombay is like an old name for it. All right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So we were in Mumbai airport. And we were waiting in one of the other terminals. And we asked, like some worker there that, that? When is the like bus coming to pick us up to bring us to the other terminal where our flight was leaving? Yeah. And they were like, just wait, just wait. Like, in very Indian way. No worries. Just wait. That's all. Yeah. And we asked like a couple of times, because it was getting close to the time that the gate was or I don't think the gate was closed and backdrop was closing. Yeah, yeah. Or the check in? And we asked many times, and always it just said, like, just wait, just wait, it's, it's fine. Like, it's okay. And then, like, when it was getting really close to the time on the check, and it was closing my dad, like, showed them our flight tickets like, like, it's literally closing in five minutes or something. Yeah. And then they were like, Oh, my God. I think they called like a taxi or something or, or some bus? Yeah. To like a private thing. Yeah. To get us to the other terminal. And we went there, like super fast. And then we were just running in the

bags.

And yeah, yeah, we missed it. And, like, I think we ended up staying another night in Mumbai. And then we came back through London. Yeah, London, but I think through Dubai, and then London, and then Finland. Yeah. So it was very long trip back as well.

Yeah. You said you stayed in London a night as well. So like, what, three days, four days?

They got home. It was crazy. But like now it's funny. And like, it's one of my favorite travel memories, but then it was really horrible.

Yeah. It's definitely like memorable. Yeah. And it's like kind of an experience really? Like it's Yeah, it's, it's it's kind of like cementing that Indian experience. Yeah. And you're living there. So basically, it kind of makes sense. Okay, what's your second why number two? Do you know what I think my number two top ticket is going to be when I first went to Spain. I went to Barcelona and or Barcelona. Exactly. And well, it's kind of like a Double thing it might be really like, like, see something from another perspective, it was the second time I've ever been to a non speaking non English speaking country. Yeah, I went to France, I think to Paris before that. But it was it's quite different because we're in the central center of Paris. And my French has like my high school French for a year, right. And so it was basically nothing. So you get by speaking like, Hello, and you know, goodbye, and sorry. And yeah, the maybe I could try and say Do you speak English and French. But the majority of my time there was spent just speaking English and we're on all the English speaking places, and super touristy. And when I went to Spain, I had actually been studying Spanish for like three years before that. Yeah, so like, self study. But two things that I specifically remember from that trip, apart from the fact that was raining and my birthday. so miserable. But the two things that I remember most is that when I first got there, I could understand things in another language. That's really cool. And it was really, really awesome. I mean, I couldn't speak it. And I'm by no means like a speaker of Spanish, but I could like read signs. And I could figure out like, the subway maps and like, how to get around. And when we would see like a bookstore or in the like, this restaurant or whatever, I could figure things out from that. Yeah, yeah. I have, like, I guess fond memories from that. Yeah. So that's my number two. Okay. What's your number two?

My number two is, it's not like one specific memory. Okay. But it's the whole Australian east coast. Oh, yeah. I was doing it with my German friend. And we so because we wanted to save money. Yeah. And for some reason, we didn't want to really go to hostels. Yeah, we did end up going like, staying in couple of hostels as well. But like, mostly we want to do stay in like Airbnb ease. And then we did couch, couch surfing. That's right. You did quite a lot of couch surfing on that. Yeah. And that was really, really fun. Yeah, because we met like, really amazing people there. Yeah. And we always, like, wanted to do something nice for them. So we often like cooked something for them. Or like, I think one time we'd like make like a cake or something. And it was really nice. And they were like really awesome people. And they often want to share like a lot of like, stories and tips and

everything like that. You had to kind of like your own, like personal tour guides in some places as well. Right? Yeah, exactly. That will take you to all the hotspots.

Yeah, that's so so if we stayed for like, a couple of nights in one of their places, then like they were kind of like our friends.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. It was really nice. And that was the beauty of like, six weeks or seven weeks. seven weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Such a long trip. Exactly. Crazy. Yeah. But you did the whole east coast.

Yeah, we did. From from Sydney to Darwin. Darwin was the

the last stop. That's right. Yeah, that's cool. Do I have to what was that number three? No. Yes. Um, I think it's gonna have to be Singapore. Yeah. I think it's gonna be Singapore. It's the same. Yeah, maybe we can share our top three. Yeah,

let's chat. Share. Three. Yeah, can't speak anymore. Yeah, words are gone. Well,

so this is this is such a weird top three because I think like, if you think about all the different trips and all the travels that I've done, this was like, quite a small insignificant one. It was literally like a stopover. Yeah. We decided like, Oh, well, the stopover can be 23 hours. Yeah, for some reason, there was an option for that with the flight. And so we were like, yeah, let's stop for 23 hours in Singapore.

Wow. And I actually think it was really good decision because, like coming back from New Zealand without the stuff over

Yeah, that was horrible. Yeah, the worst thing ever. Yeah. I mean, we did have a stopover but with COVID Yeah. I mean, it was six hours or 10 hours. Yeah. But not like a long stopover. Yeah, not. And it was in the middle of the day. I'll stop coming back. Yeah. So you can't just go to a hotel and sleep. That's true. But But yeah, we I think we arrived. What was it like? 4am? I think in Singapore. Yeah. I think something like that. Yeah. And I how or maybe even like, yeah, about 4am or something. Yeah. And we went straight to a like a pod hotel. And we said and like one of those pods. That was

an experience as well. I don't know if it was good or bad, but it was fine. It was fine. Yeah,

it was fun. It was kind of like a self chicken pod thing. And it was kind of in the middle of Singapore City area.

Yeah. If you don't know what what we're talking about, like the pods. So that's like, kind of your sleeping in like a little

like box. Yeah. It's kind of like a slightly rounded box. Yeah, that closes almost like a giant. I don't know barrel. Yeah, or something. But it's quite big. It's a lot bigger than it sounds. You can very easily fit two people and

I ended like claustrophobic. Yeah. And I didn't like is fine. Fine.

I think I think like they kind of make that a bit easier if they have like a mirror on one side so it makes it feel a lot bigger. Yeah, there was slide inside as well. Yeah, really good lighting and they had like less fancy, like gadgets and things that you could do and yeah, that was nice. But we only obviously stayed there for I think, like six hours or something because we had to check out yet, but that was enough. We got like, we got to sleep. Well a nap. Yeah. And then we spent the whole day exploring Singapore. And that was so cool. It is such a, like a diverse city. Yeah, that's one place where I definitely want to go back. Yeah, we didn't really like explore enough. Like, I think it just kind of spent the day like hitting all the kind of the main points, but not even all of them. Yeah. And just very briefly stopping in each one.

And it was really nice. It's such such a nice day as well.

Yeah, it was, I think, like 27 degrees and we just come from winter. Yeah. And it was like beautiful. And I mean, it was actually almost too hot.

Yeah, that's true. But but they had like vending machines with like freshly squeezed orange juice. That was so good for like, I think it was like two Singaporean dollars or something. So yeah, I think like, two New Zealand dollars one euro, like kind of thing. It was it was crazy. And it was so good. I don't know. It was very clean. And yeah, like super clean. I think everybody says that about Singapore. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Because it kind of has to do yeah, like, don't you get like a super fine. I think it's like 500 Singaporean dollars if you drop litter. Yeah, yeah. And I think I think some people get, like, put in prison for doing that. Like, for example, if you like litter, like a law or something. Yeah, that is crazy. They have they have really strict laws and stuff. But I mean, it works. Yeah, it does. And it just feels like it doesn't only just feel super modern and super rich, like you would think or like it kind of looks from the movies, but it really does feel like that as well. That's true. It's like it feels like so natural. There's like so many trees so much green. And I think like where it is in the world is perfect. Because it's like almost always like that. Yeah, they don't really have like a winter time because it's almost on the equator. mussen render time. I think they're in the Northern Hemisphere. So yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe technically in wintertime. Yeah, well, now I'm not so sure. But yeah. And that that would be our number three. Yeah, both of that. Number three. Okay. I guess that's kind of the end for this episode. Yeah. That's wrap. Yeah, that's a that's right. We need like a, like a ticket noise. Insert ticket. you rip your ticket. Yeah. Because you have you finished your journey. And yeah, we'll see you next Friday. Come back. Follow us on social media. Yes. plays at just the ticket, just the ticket podcast on nearly everything except for Twitter where it's just the ticket. Okay, so it's at just the ticket. I didn't even know that. today. I thought that it's just the ticket. But it's just the ticket podcast. Yeah. We wanted to be very clear about what we are. Yeah. It's not. It's not not just the ticker. Yeah, it's just the ticket podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Come back and see us next Friday. We're gonna talk about Finland and New Zealand.

And differences between countries. fun, exciting. Okay, see you next time. See you then. And thanks for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai