Jeremy

Jeremy founded Living the Dream in 2008 to chronicle his long-term trip around Asia. Since then he has been on two long-term trips, visited 69 countries, and is just getting started. He is now on a Lifestyle Design quest to build businesses to pursue a life of travel.

How We Got a Refund on a Non-Refundable Plane Ticket

For the first route change of our year-and-a-half long trip, we were hit with a big one.

Just a few weeks before heading to Egypt a new batch of protests began. These protests were not like the previous ones, and I had a horrible feeling that our plans were about to change.

Within days of the protests, the US government released warnings to avoid travel to Egypt as well as a “global warning” that was mainly focused on travel to the Middle East.

After discussing it with a friend who was coming to visit us in Egypt, we decided to change our plans.

We had one problem: Angie and I had already booked $857 worth of non-refundable plane ticket from Expedia for an itinerary of Istanbul to Cairo (Egypt Air),  Cairo to Istanbul (Egypt Air), and Istanbul to Bucharest (Tarom).

Not resigning ourselves to lose that money, our quest to cancel our Expedia itinerary and get a refund began.

If you find yourself in a similar scenario, you may need to try one of the following methods to get a refund for your non-refundable plane ticket.

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Where to Stay in Kyoto – The City is Bigger Than You Think

Kyoto is one of my favorite cities in Japan. It is a must-see every time we visit the country, and is one of those places I could imagine myself living in as well- it is just that fun.

But, when it comes to planning where to stay in Kyoto, you have a very important consideration to keep in mind, namely, Kyoto is huge! This is not just in population, like most major cities in Japan, but also in area. 

So when planning your base, it is less the number of people that is a concern (although we will discuss why that is also an issue later on), but rather that Kyoto is just very, very large, and it can take quite a bit of time to travel around to see all of the highlights!

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Where to Stay in Tokyo – Strategic Subway Access is a Must

When planning a trip to Japan, odds are good you’re going to spend a fair bit of time in Tokyo.

As many consider Tokyo to be the largest city in the world by population (when including the metro area), it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is really a lot to do here. There is so much to see, in fact, that we could visit many times over and still not feel like we’re doing the city justice.

Naturally, with the population comes the urban sprawl, and Tokyo is simply massive from an area standpoint. As such, when it comes to planning where to stay in Tokyo, you really have a lot to consider as the options are nearly endless.

But one thing is certain- no matter what, staying near a subway station is a great idea. But even there, a few subway locations are better than others when it comes to getting around this massive city and is our guiding consideration when booking a hotel or apartment rental.

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Bougatsa is the One Greek Pastry You Absolutely Must Try

Bougatsa is one of those things that when you see pictures of it or read about it you instantly start drooling, even if you’ve never eaten it before.

Such was the case for us when we heard about it on Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations,” and again from one of our friends who traveled to Greece.  (Okay, fine, so you have heard about it, but you probably have long since forgotten). 

So what is bougatsa? It’s a Greek pastry consisting of buttery, flaky phyllo dough wrapped around either a cheese filling or a sweet semolina custard filling.

Drooling yet? Yep, I thought so.

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