Liepāja

Humans of the Travel School

2017-08-29T11:00:42+02:00

Some of the wonderful people visiting our Travel School in Liepaja, from 15th of July to 15th of August 2017.

Milan, Serbia

Milan was our first visitor and he's an invisible editor of The Travel Club who's been working for years on our website maintenace and other small and big tasks for the Travel Club. He came to visit us in Latvia to say hello, and then he continues his voyage to China through Russia!

Egita, Latvia/England

"If you're travelling with a larger group of people, you can rent villas and houses for quite cheap price, usually in Spain and similar countries. My rock climbing group and I went out there and for each of us it was around 50€ per person for an entire week! The most expensive thing was the flight. And we had a nice house! We had a pool, a huge kitchen, everybody had an actual bed! It was great!"

Tate, Australia

"The difference between a cemetery and a graveyard is that the cemetery is attached to a church while the graveyard is a standalone. And the difference between fish and fishes is: If they are plural of the same species they are labeled as fish. If there are different species involved they're called fishes."

Joanna, Germany/Greece/Australia

"I'm an awkward traveller and a terrible planner. I love being on the road and will often take the longest route possible to arrive to my destination, but once I'm there I have no idea what to do." She is also a die-hard fan of gaffer (duct) tape: "It holds the universe together!"

Ally, Canada

Ally cycles everywhere. She cycled around Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and now she cycles through the Baltic countries, making her way to Poland and maybe Ukraine. Or maybe somewhere completely different.

"This was BOTH my first CouchSurfing experience and The Travel School, and it was a wonderful one. I think the Creative Cartography workshop was a hit -- my favourite thing is to share travel stories and dreams."

We miss Ally and her smile!

Nuri & Gosia, Tunisia/Poland

"We were about to sleep on the streets of Liepaja, but then we heard about The Travel School. We were supposed to stay for only one night, but we liked it too much and we decided stay for one more night... or more."

Nikola, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Nikola hitchhiked 1700 km just to spend three days with us, and then another 1700 km to go back:

"I adore the Travel School/House because it gathers people with the same passion, passion for travelling and discovering new places. All places are different, just like the Radi Vidi Pats bicycles, some of them are colourful, some of them are without brakes, some of them are tandem, for those who travel together. I am glad to be a part of this crazy, colourful project. It was worth all of the 1760 hitchhiked kilometers."

Jun, South Korea

"This gave me so much joy, more than I could expect. I met many wonderful people. Sharing experiences has enlightened each one of ous and has helped us change the way we think. I appreciate all the experiences I had in the Travel School"

Jovan, Serbia

"I told my parents I will go to the seaside this year. They thought I was gonna go to Montenegro or Greece (the closest seas to Serbia). Two days before the trip I told them I was hitchhiking to the Baltic seaside."

Kristina, Serbia

This is Kris. She's been with The Travel Club since the very beginning in 2005 and now she's visiting us in Liepaja for a few days. Thank you, Kris, for your support!

Anne, Denmark

"I work in a nearby bar and I live in one of the hotel rooms they provide for me. BUT I come to the Travel School every day. I bring my food here, I cook for the people here, I eat here and I do my laundry here. I participate in the workshops and I use their WiFi. But nah, I don't live in the Travel School."

Xi, China

"I started to travel around and I wanted to find out what the purpose of life is. And now I think it's just to be happy. To be happy and have some nice friends in your life and for your important ones to be happy. A nice, happy and relaxed life. That is the purpose for me."

Vladan, Serbia

"Thank you, Travel School, for having me and for letting me stay much longer than I should have. I believe that true riches are the places you see, the people you meet and how you spend time with those people. The things you did here are awesome and amazing. You made people feel welcome and safe, you helped them, guided them and showed them how important it is to travel and meet other cultures. Simply put, you INSPIRED them all. For that you should be poud!"

Ana, Nina, Lucija, Marina (Croatia)

Four out of five volunteers in this year's Travel School visiting a creepy doll village in Latvia.

Nina, Montenegro

We weren't supposed to have five volunteers this year, but Nina sent us a long, enthusiastic e-mail saying she would love to volunteer for accommodation and a bit of food. We couldn't do anything else but to tell her to come.

You can find more photos in our facebook album Humans of the Travel school.

Liepaja: the city of details

2017-08-12T19:19:43+02:00

Liepaja is a small town on the Baltic coast, where our Travel School 2017 found its home. The city itself doesn't have too many landmarks, but in turn, each street offers interesting details you might easily miss if you stare at your phone while walking those streets.

Here you can see some photos of Liepaja, the city of details – the details Google couldn't find.

Liepaja - the first two weeks

2017-08-02T18:21:51+02:00

We are past the mid point of this year's Travel School in Liepaja.

On our facebook pages (The Travel Club and Klub putnika) we've been regularly publishing updates about events and people of The Travel School, and now we are giving you an overview. So, what have we done in the past two weeks?

We have had 17 travel-related workshops:

We brought a Barcelona-based band - Balkumbia - to play here in Liepaja. They play Balkan music, and the band member are from Catalonia, Lithuania, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Columbia, Chile. With them, we created a Balkan weekend in the Baltics.

Our Nataša came from Portugal to give a lecture on guerilla marketing:

We've had acroyoga and aerial silks workshops:

We have visited a local NGO Karosta Kids that helps teenagers and young parents that come from difficult socio-economic background, and we explained how to create a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money for the renovation of their new space.

A local NGO, Radi Vidi Pats, is helping us host The Travel School this year through Erasmus+. Among other things, the organisation provides an alternative to regular Friday night drinking: Cycling around the city from 10:00 pm to midnight. The best party and the best cardio!

Sunsets are beautiful everywhere around the world, and they are the same on our beach in Liepaja.

We have seen many places in and around Liepaja. In a few days we'll publish a photo-gallery. In the meantime, here you have a few details from this year's Travel House-School:

So far we have been visited by travellers from: Australia, Austria, Bosnia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Singapore, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia. This is the second year of our new concept of the Travel School we have to say we love it. We don't have more than 10 people per night, so we can make friends with all of them. So far, we remember every person that has visited us, what they do, what their names are, where they're from... And because of the everyday workshops, there's a lot of "big talk" instead of "small talk". It's wonderful.

School rules and application form

2017-05-12T10:56:51+02:00

Welcome to The Travel Club’s Travel School in Liepaja (15.7-15.8 2017).

The Travel School is slightly different from The Travel House we organised in previous years. If you haven't already, please check out this article that explains the concept of the School.

There were four Travel Houses: Istanbul (2012), Granada (2013), Tbilisi (2014), Athens (2015)

We had the first Travel School last year in Aveiro, and now we're doing it again in Liepaja, Latvia!

Before you apply for the stay in The Travel School please read these basic house rules, and if you decide to come, keep them in mind at all times.

Everyone can stay up to three nights in The Travel School. If you want to stay more than three nights, let us know in the application form and we'll tell you if it's possible.

Mandatory participation in minimum one workshop/discussion/lecture. Our team of volunteers has prepared interesting and useful workshops and other activities, most of which are related to travelling. See the schedule below and sign up for one or more activities when filling out the application form to stay in TS. All workshops last two to five hours.

Be quiet. Don’t play loud music, shout or talk loudly.

Be especially quiet in the corridor. When you’re coming or leaving, be extremely quiet in the building. No loud talking, shouting or singing in the corridor. Don’t slam the doors.

Don't come between 01:00 and 08:00 a.m. If your plane/train/bus arrives in that interval, please wait till 08:00 on the airport/bus or train station and then come to the Travel House. Most of the people sleep those hours. You don't want to wake them up and make them angry with you.

No smoking. No drugs of any kind are allowed. You can drink a beer or two, but you mustn’t get drunk. And please don’t come to the School wasted.

No wild parties. Quiet social activities are welcome.

If you break something, you pay for it.

Keep your valuables with you. We are not expecting thieves or kleptomaniacs and they haven't visited us so far, but it’s better to be on the safe side. You are the only one responsible for your stuff.

This project is funded by personal donations. Donations aren’t compulsory, but are welcome. There are bills to pay – power, water, Internet – as well as things like cooking oil, detergent, toilette paper etc. If you’d like to leave a donation, put it in the donation box or look for the school staff and give it to them. Nobody will ask you for a donation, or check whether you have donated or not. It's totally up to you, and it's definitely not a precondition for staying in the Travel School. And don’t worry if it’s only symbolic: it will add up.

In the Travel School, there are no guests. Everyone is a host. So,

- if you see something broken, fix it.

- if you see something lacking (soap, toilette paper, cooking oil, detergent etc), buy it.

- if you see something dirty (toilet, bathroom, kitchen, floors, balconies), clean it.

There is a nice term that we will borrow from the Rainbow Gatherings: “drainbows”. Those are the people who just take and don’t give. The Travel School is not a perfect free-for-all. It is a community we’re all building together. Think how you can contribute.

Keep the School clean & tidy! Don’t leave your stuff lying around in mess. Whoever walks in should have an impression of a clean, nice, tidy place.

Do not waste resources! No shower longer than five minutes, making meals that are cooked for five hours and needless consumption of any resource. Also, we will recycle the trash in the School.

No pets! Absolutely no dogs, cats, parrots, fish. Parrots that can speak are welcome, though.

If you find any of these rules too hard to follow, you will be asked to leave immediately. We hope you’ll enjoy your stay and help us make this small contribution to global travel culture.

Before you come:

Please let us know when you're coming to make sure that we’re there to let you in.

Make sure to bring your sleeping bag & mat. There are no beds in the Travel School. Only the floor.

Bring a towel.

The address of the School will not be published online. When you notify us that you’re coming, you’ll get the detailed instructions how to find us. Please keep the instructions to yourself and don’t publish them anywhere.

Read the house rules. If you don’t follow the rules during your stay, you will be asked to leave immediately. So it’s a good idea to get familiar with them beforehand.

If you do any sort of creative work – writing, drawing, photography, film, music – and you want to contribute to the Travel School, please mention it. We will publish the best photos, writings, films, drawings etc. on our website and you'll get to stay longer in the School.

Statistics & Guestbook:

We’d like to have some statistics about the Travel School project. Namely, we’d like to know how many people have used it, where did they come from, what their age groups and occupations were, where they are headed after Liepaja, how long they are planning to stay on the road, do they hitchhike or use some other form of transportation etc. So we’ll kindly ask you to make your entry in our guestbook to make this possible.

The application form can be found here.

Apart from workshops, we'll have activities to wake up our bodies every morning (meditation, breathing excercising, capoeira, hatha, ashtanga, acro, and maybe even aerial yoga and silk dance, if we get the silk). In the evening you can expect socialising in various forms (movie nights, board games, decyphering everything that's not Roman alphabet, world music).

You are welcome to send a donation to our organisation:

List of workshops (all workshops will be held in English)

July 15: How to travel cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome low-cost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

July 16: Travel photography: Make your adventures and memories last forever. Learn how to take travel photos in a unique, personalized and original way.

July 17: European scholarships and interships: The best way to experience culture is to live there. Find out about all the magnificent scholarschips and interships offered!

July 18: Women and independent travelling: Women often hear they shouldn't travel alone. Learn how to prepare for travelling alone.

July 19: Cultural norms and body language: In some countries, to burp after a meal is considered rude. In some other countries, it's a compliment for the chef. Let's explore the richness of our world and its differences!

July 20: Volunteering for food and accommodation: If you don't want a long-term stay (3+ months) to experience a culture, you might want to consider volunteering in exchange for food and accommodation.

July 21: Travelling while working or studying: If you don't want to your job or university be in the way of your travelling, hear us out!

July 22: How to travel Cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome low-cost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

July 23: Women and independent travelling: Women often hear they shouldn't travel alone. Learn how to prepare for travelling alone.

July 24: Creative Cartography: Every map is subjective and incorrect. Let’s put our own stories on personalized maps...

July 25: Folk tales from different cultures: Don't let the Boogeyman steal your dreams!

July 26: Travelling while working or studying: If you don't want to your job or university be in the way of your travelling, hear us out!

July 27: What we learn while traveling: A session of sharing experiences from our journeys.

July 28: How to pack efficiently: Ever found yourself lacking space in your backpack? Want to make that a thing of the past? Join this workshop!

July 29: Women and independent travelling: Women often hear they shouldn't travel alone. Learn how to prepare for travelling alone.

July 30: Slavic countries for dummies: Tips for travelling around Slavic countries.

July 31: Travel photography: Make your adventures and memories last forever. Learn how to take travel photos in a unique, personalized and original way.

August 1: European scholarships and interships: The best way to experience culture is to live there. Find out about all the magnificent scholarschips and interships offered!

August 2: Cultural norms and body language: In some countries, to burp after a meal is considered rude. In some other countries, it's a compliment for the chef. Let's explore the richness of our world and its differences!

August 3: How to travel Cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome low-cost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

August 4: Volunteering for food and accommodation: If you don't want a long-term stay (3+ months) to experience a culture, you might want to consider volunteering in exchange for food and accommodation.

August 5: Travel photography: Make your adventures and memories last forever. Learn how to take travel photos in a unique, personalized and original way.

August 6: Slavic countries for dummies: Tips for travelling around Slavic countries.

August 7: How to travel cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome low-cost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

August 8: How to eat healthy on low budget: How to spend little money and not eat pasta with tomato sauce every day.

August 9: Folk tales from different cultures: Don't let the Boogeyman steal your dreams!

August 10: Creative Cartography: Every map is subjective and incorrect. Let’s put our own stories on personalized maps...

August 11: What we learn while traveling: A session of sharing experiences from our journeys.

August 12: How to travel cheaply: Let’s see how can we create an awesome low-cost itinerary and see as much as possible spending as little money as possible.

August 13: How to eat healthy on low budget: How to spend little money and not eat pasta with tomato sauce every day.

August 14: How to pack efficiently: Ever found yourself lacking space in your backpack? Want to make that a thing of the past? Join this workshop!

The Travel School 2017: Liepaja, Latvia

2017-04-02T10:20:45+02:00

There will be a Travel School this summer! There will be! This year, we're spending the summer in the Baltics, enjoying the spring temperatures and avoiding summer. Join us in Liepaja and explore the not-so-explored Baltics.

Liepaja is known as the city of wind, there are sandy beaches nearby, and the city itself hosts two music festivals, Summer Sound and Fountaine Rock Festival. The whole Baltics is a home to many festivals, workshops and various events and we will publish a list of those you can't miss as soon as our spies in Liepaja despatch their coded message.

The Travel School will be open to travellers from 15th of July to 15th of August and besides accommodation and socialising, it will offer its guests dozens of different workshops, of which the majority will be in the broadest sense related to travelling - from how to reconcile travelling and professional life, to how not to die of hunger if you find yourself in the middle of the woods on an unknown continent.

The exact schedule of workshops and other events will be published soon, when we will start to receive your requests for the stay. To ensure the quality of workshops and life in School in general (which is also the House), we will accept ten guests for the night, for a maximum of three nights. The main criteria for accepting guests will be your participation in a minimum of one workshop, as well as a good level of English language. The latter is necessary because it will be the language of the workshops. House rules will be similar as in the previous Travel Houses.

The workshops will be similar to the ones we had last year. If you want to know what to expect, check out the list of last year's workshops at the bottom of this link. Apart from workshops, we'll have activities to wake up our bodies every morning (meditation, breathing excercising, capoeira, hatha, ashtanga, acro, and maybe even aerial yoga and silk dance, if we get the silk). In the evening you can expect socialising in various forms (movie nights, board games, decyphering everything that's not Roman alphabet, world music).

For all of this to be possible, the Travel Club partnered up with the coolest local organisation in Liepaja: Radi Vidi Pats. They are helping us with all the logistics, and not only that, they will include their EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers to help with development of workshops. In total, there will be five EVS volunteers; 3 of them will stay for the duration of TS project, and another 2 are long terms volunteers that are already in Latvia.

Okay, you have convinced me, where do I sign up?

Application form will be available soon. We ask for a firm conviction from all the accepted that they will actually come to the School. This year we will, unlike in the previous ones, probably have to turn down a lot of people. The form asks you for motivation just to make sure you don't fill out the application form just like that.

What about the money, donations?

We will not create an Indiegogo campaign, we will not harass you to donate to the project, we know ourselves that these things are not so popular and don't suit many people.

We hope that we'll manage to collect all the money we need in the donation box that we'll place in the School. Of course, as always, donations are not a requirement to stay in the School. On the other hand, whoever wants to is more than welcome to donate to our organisation :) This can be done through Paypal: