Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Part 1: Germany

Hi Everyone,

If you have been following my blog from the beginning you will have found out that I will be discussing some of the places I have been through the years. I figured that mixing this in with some money saving tips will give you guys a good feel about planning these trips but also to give you some ideas of where you may want to go.

If you have travelled at all internationally then you know that the world is so much different than it appears to be from a purely American stand point. Don’t get me wrong, I love the U.S. but our culture has lost many of the original values and norms that you find in foreign lands. One of my favorite places in the world is Germany. I have a great deal of German heritage and am roughly 75% German. I still have family in Germany that never moved the U.S. so I get a little bit lucky in that I don’t have to pay for hotels at every stop I make when I go there. Staying with a family in a foreign country is amazing because you are fully submersed in their culture and have no choice but to live how they live. I do find it kind of weird that extended families live under one roof and that every morning people go to the corner bakery for freshly baked hard rolls, but OH MY GOSH are they wonderful (To be honest I love all of the food in Germany, except for Liverwurst)!!! I may find their traditions odd but I love them just the same!

In Germany some places that you NEED to check out are the Berlin Wall in well, Berlin, because it has so much history and making the connection between what you read in a history book and actually seeing it and touching is completely mind boggling. You should also visit at least one of the concentration camps that were built during the Second World War because although it is part of the history that Germany tries to ignore, it is something that has shaped the worlds views on prejudice. The first time I went to a concentration camp I was only 8 years old and had no idea what a concentration camp was. I walked around looking at the pictures and with all my innocence I began to realize what happened. When it came time to walk through the gas chambers I refused to walk through fearing that they would miraculously turn on, even though this particular concentration camp had never opened for use. I still remember the dramatic fit I through in front of all of the tourists because I was petrified to walk through. I probably could have done without the traumatizing realization at such a young age but later on in life when I learned more about the tragedy of WWII I was really appreciative of the experience.

If you were to do only one other thing in Germany I would suggest that you visit a castle or two. All of Europe is filled with such rich history that the United States doesn’t have so getting to embrace it and see things that we grow up only watching in Disney fairytales is so cool! My favorite castle is called Nordshwanstein located in Munich. This castle is literally like a real life Cinderella’s castle. It is fun to walk through and imagine if you were the one living there.

These are only a few of the MANY places you should check out in this beautiful historically rich country and I greatly encourage you to go experience all it has to offer. If you have any questions regarding other places to check out or more information about the places mentioned above let me know and I would be happy to go into more detail!

My quote this week is pretty simple, “Was ist das?” . This means “What is that” in German. I chose this because when I was in Germany, I learned to communicate with my cousin who is roughly the same age as me and I would ask him “Was ist das?”and point to things. He would tell me how to say what I was pointing to in German and I would say it in English. When you go to a foreign country take the chance to learn and ask “What is that?”

Bar Hoppin’ in Boston

Hi everyone!

As I talked about a few weeks ago in my limo posting, I just had a birthday where I turned 21! I have always been one of those people who just goes a little crazy on the big birthdays such as having a huge sweet 16 so I thought I might as well do my 21^st just as big. My birthday was on Thursday the 18^th but since everyone works on Thursdays I decided to celebrate on a Saturday, when the nightlife that I have been craving to experience is in full swing. If you read my earlier post you will see how I started this trip, in a pink Cadillac Escalade limo and 20 of my closest friends.

The limo arrived at precisely 8PM and I was ready to hop in and take Boston by storm, but then the limo asked, where to birthday girl? If I wasn’t prepared I would not have had any idea how to answer this question but luckily I did some research. I currently am taking a social media marketing class and one of the earliest things that we learned was that the most influential form of marketing is word-of-mouth marketing. I took this into account and made a Facebook post to get feedback from my peers on where they like to go when hitting the Boston bar scene. I got feedback that if I wanted hangout type bars then I should check out Sissy K’s in the Faneuil Hall area or Lansdowne Pub in the Fenway Park area of Boston. If I wanted a more club type atmosphere I was directed to Tequila Rain and Royale. I figured that I would give each type of atmosphere a shot and see what I liked the best. Turns out that I liked both! I tried Sissy K’s and another bar right next to it however the bar that was not recommended was terrible! It was small and smelled of stale beer and body odor. It became even more clear to me how important these peer recommendations are to a company.

Although you might not be the time of readers that cares to hit the city bar and club scene, you can learn something from my experience. Before you go to someplace new you should ask around and see what your friends, family and acquaintances liked and didn’t like. The chance that you will like/not like a place is a lot more likely if it comes from a peer rather than merely doing a search on the internet. If you can take anything away from this posting let it be that your peers are your greatest tool and should be utilized to their full potential! Ask around because it could mean the difference between loving your new experience or hating it.

What type of travel is right for you?

Hi Guys, 

I made a podcast for you comparing the different modes of travel to hopefully help you decide which is best for you. Check it out and let me know your favorite ways to get away!

https://www.box.com/s/ksgdp0ysc8i2n8oquus6

A Trip is a Trip No Matter the Distance

During the week I have been working on making reservations for the celebration of my 21st birthday which is on October 18th. All of my friends are already 21 so we decided that a night of bar hopping in downtown Boston would be perfect! I live about 45 minutes away in Derry but going to the city and experiencing the excitement of ordering my first, second, third, fourth, and so on (you get the picture), legal drink. At first I contemplated getting hotel rooms for me about 20 of my friends but came to the conclusion that the cost of travel, the hotel, the cover charges at bars, and my drinks was going to get very expensive quickly. After some brainstorming I came up with the idea to take a limo down with my friends for the night that way we could bring our own alcohol in the car and bar hop in style without having to spend as much on the overpriced drinks at the bar, but still get the full experience.

Step 1: Find the baseline

A limo is no cheap feat either, so knowing how to get the biggest bang for your buck is important. I am a thrifty girl and I love to save money where I can so the first BIG thing to know is that you can’t settle for the first price you are given. Shopping around will show you all of your options. I bet most of you don’t know that there is a site very similar to kayak.com or priceline.com and it is called limos.com. If you use this site you will get a listing of many limousine services in your area, their cost, and what type of vehicles they have to offer. I started off by going here and to my surprise was then emailed by several of the limo services with special offers and discounts. I received special incentives which made the deals even sweeter! 

Step 2: Call around

The next step in finding the perfect deal is to look at the listings on limos.com and make the calls! Call several places (I called 5) and get different prices. The price they show online isn't always the best price and getting personal makes them want to work on the price with you. Let them know you are shopping around! This will make them want to be even more competitive on their price. When you call you should ask how much their rates are, does it include gratuity, availability, and also get pricing on a few of their vehicle styles.

Step 3: Review your results

I had gotten 5 places to provide pricing on vehicles ranging from a 10 person stretch town car to a 30 person party bus and all the options in between. I love spreadsheets, (I know I am a nerd) so I put it all into an easy to compare format that I could quickly narrow down. I found that a few of the options were WAY over priced and immediately eliminated them. After I narrowed my options down to what vehicle I wanted, a 20 person Cadillac Escalade or a 10 person stretch Dodge Charger, I was ready to get down to business.

Step 4: Call back and Negotiate

After I chose my vehicle, I found that only 2 of the 5 places I had called offered these vehicles for the night I wanted. I decided to call the two locations and play the prices of the other business off each other to get them to drop their pricing. I first called Celebrity Limousine and informed them of the pricing I was looking for. This was my second choice because I really wanted the 20 person Cadillac Escalade, in PINK. Celebrity did not have it in pink but their pricing was a bit better. They were not willing to move at all on the price so I called Premier Limo and said I wanted to go with their company but their pricing was a little too high. I had previously been quoted $960 all-inclusive for 5 hours of service. After informing Premier that Celebrity gave me a price of $860 for 6 hours all-inclusive, Premier offered me 6-hours all inclusive for the original price of $960. Since I really wanted the pink vehicle I agreed!

Morale of the story, I got my pink limo for a decent price of $960 total split among 20 people for only $48 a person! Check out what it looks like!!!!

And of course for you quote for the week which ties into my planning efforts for this trip:

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail. Napoleon Hill