Long post alert! 

Whew, I’m still on vacation and I’m so looking forward to going home. 

This trip started out very rocky, but is ending pretty good. One thing I’ve learned is to be mindful of who you travel with. 

First, I’d asked the group for our itinerary, multiple times. The people I am traveling with are international travelers so I trusted their judgment. Long story short, I didn’t receive the itinerary until the day before we left and couldn’t make heads or tails of it. So I decided to go with the flow. First sign this would be a mess. 

Next, we were scheduled to leave for the airport at a certain time but left late. I hate rushing but okay. 

We landed but had no transportation to our Airbnb. My second clue was that this would be a mess. It was late and one of the travelers was attempting to barter with a taxi, in the cold late at night mind you, over 7 euros that would have been split 3 ways, for a total of 2.33 Euros. The taxi ended up leaving us and taking someone else, he found one that was the seven euros less than he wanted to pay. 

The next issue, as we couldn't get into the Airbnb, when we finally did the place was filthy, but I made it work since we were only there a few days. 

On day one, after a 16-hour flight and no rest, the group decided to tour. So I went along because of the way things were set up, if they locked the door, there was no way for me to get out or turn on the lights. Fire hazard, 🙄 I had no choice but to go. 

We had no car so we walked everywhere for hours. My legs became extremely sore to the point I thought I was going to have to go to the ER. I texted my niece who is in health care and she told me to put on my compression socks. That made a huge difference, but I was still sore. Long story short, the group could care less about my legs and wanted to walk 40 minutes to catch a $12 bus to take us two hours away because paying a cab about 100 euros, which would be split was too much. Thank goodness it was too late to take the trip. 

There's a second piece to this but too much to type. 

Needless to say, we left that location and headed to the next. I decided to hire a personal driver for a few hours since my legs were still somewhat sore. I'm glad I did. I got to see so much vs had I been walking with them. 

To wrap things up, we spent more time in vehicles (e.g. Cars, cabs, ferries) than touring, seeing the area. I feel like I missed so much. One day we visited two sites for a total of two hours, about one each but we spent a total of 8 hours on the road. I'll make another post about this later. 

Financial news 

While on vacation I got word that the HR manager who wanted to hire me full-time is no longer with the company. I'm nervous because I make about 8k a month with them. Fingers crossed that this contract doesn't end. 

So for now, I'm going to slow down on my student loan payments. I'll still pay extra but the kit is aggressive. 

I picked up another contract for about 2-3k a month but this will cover my everyday bills. 

I had booked my trip to Turks & Caicos already so too late to cancel. The total for that trip is $1000. I'm traveling with my family so no drama there