ABOUT YOU
What’s your name? Crystal – or Castaway with Crystal is my blog!
How old are you? 30
Which place do you consider home? Where my heart is! Ha ha. Probably Sydney is the closest I’ve got to home, although I don’t have family there, they are spread all over Australia.
What type of traveller are you? Slow, culturally immersive, cheap traveller. I like to live like a local, make friends with everyone, get to know the intimate parts of a city or town and really dig deep. The best memories of my travels always came about because I made friends with a local.
What is the first travel that you remember? When I was about two my mum took us around the Australian outback in a camper van with my sister. We actually almost had “A DINGO ATE MY BABY!” incident happen to us, but I saved my sisters’ life.
QUICKLY QUESTIONS
What’s your favourite transport? Being in transit is possibly one of my favourite places to be. The sleeper trains in India are easily one of my top favourites because you can read a book, look out the door, make friends with locals or sleep which are all of my favourite things. One train I was on for 38 hours and the only bad thing about being on a train for 2 days is that the bathrooms don’t get cleaned (omg, they were so bad!). On a 5 hour train to Kolkata, the train had to go through 6 long tunnels and each tunnel everyone in every carriage would scream as we were going through them. I moved to the door (train doors are open in India) so I could scream with everyone else and it was one of the best rides I’ve ever done!
What’s your favourite country? This is a hard one, but so far I think I would have to say Cuba. I have always wanted to go, and almost did in 2010 but then I got too scared as my Spanish wasn’t very good back then. So I studied up hard, and the next time I went to Mexico I made sure I went to Cuba as well. And it was everything I hoped for and more! The music in the streets, the cars, the buildings, beaches, the atmosphere... It was exactly my type of country – although I don’t think Cuba would be for everyone!
What’s your favourite city? I’m still yet to find a city that has the same allure and pull as my hometown or Sydney. The quality of life there is just great!
What’s your favourite beach? In Ecuador, there’s a little seaside town called Canoa. Here the streets are made of sand and the buildings are made of palm trees. There are no night clubs or even any bars. Instead all the locals and travellers congregate at the local Italian Restaurant after hours, buying beers from the General Store across the road. This sleepy town and its long stretch of beach is one of my favourite travel memories ever. The surf here is good, and there are a handful of beach-related activities to do. But mostly it was the vibes created by the locals and backpackers that really stole my heart in Canoa.
What’s your favourite food? Peruvian ceviche – with its fresh tart taste made by curing the white fish in the juices of lime, mixed with chilli, coriander and avocado. It’s divine and I’d happily eat it every day!
What’s your favourite language? Ever since I first heard my Argentinian exchange student speak, I was in love with the Spanish language. Because it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world I decided I would also learn to speak it myself. I just love how it sounds, the speed, the inflections…
What’s your favourite travel book? It’s probably an odd book to inspire wanderlust but I love the book Shantaram. It’s about an Australian drug dealer who manages to break out of Jail and escape to Bombay in India. It’s technically fiction but it is actually written by the criminal and is somewhat a true account of his time in India; becoming immersed in the drug scene there, living in the slums and falling in love.
WHERE WE CAN FOLLOW YOU?
What’s your Website url? http://castawaywithcrystal.com/
What’s your Twitter? https://twitter.com/CrystalCastaway
What’s your Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/castawaywithcrystal/
What’s your Pinterest? https://au.pinterest.com/CastawayCrystal/
What’s your Instagram? https://www.instagram.com/castawaywithcrystal/
What’s your YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/user/NostalgiaFilmsAU
FUNNY QUESTIONS
In how many languages you would know to order a beer? Only about 3 or 4…. Damn, that’s bad!
Hamburger or Pizza? Hamburger – I don’t like cheese… I know, I won’t be welcome in Italy will I?
Do you have a favourite team? Like Sportball team? Not really. I don’t have enough time to care about sport (he he, sorry everyone!).
A musical group you’d like see live? Sigor Ros – he makes people cry when he plays the violin with his teeth!
Favourite movie? And the worst one? Favourite is probably the Lion King or Fight Club. Worst is those horrible American films like Scary Movie.
The most embarrassing song of your iPod? Probably the Spice Girls – takes me back to childhood!
QUESTIONS
Have you ever had bad experiences during one of your journey? I have bad experiences all the time! I’ve had my wallet stolen in Mexico, luggage lost, planes, trains and busses have been missed. A standout scary thing that happened was when I was stalked down the road while alone at night in India. I had to duck into a hotel lobby to escape them!
Do you also have any funny story that you still remember? I have SO MANY funny stories. I write them all down and put them on my site. The most recent one will be about how I urinated on my own scarf while trekking in the Australian Outback. I’ll be posting that one soon.
Do you have a bucket list? Which is it? I do a bucket-list thing called: 100 Things; where I aim to do 100 cool things in a year, even if I’ve done them before.
Could you imagine your life without travelling? I’d probably be married with kids and a mortgage I suppose. I don’t think I’d be as happy as I am, that’s for sure!
Why would you suggest to our readers to follow online your adventures? Because I don’t just write my blog to get hits. I write because I’m crazy and I want to tell the world how amazingly awesome it is when you just let go and allow ‘Travel’ take you on the ride of your life!
What was your photo, article or post that had more success? My only viral article has been a Budget Guide to Cambodia, which somehow went viral on Pinterest. No idea how.
And instead, what is your favourite? The one you’ll not easily forget? My favourite piece of writing is a story about a time I was staying on a completely deserted island in Panama with a Russian ex-soviet soldier.
What was the cheapest journey that you’ve made? Cheapest country ever is probably a toss up between India and Cuba. In India I had my own private room with bathroom overlooking a snow-capped mountain for only $2 a night! And in Cuba I drank beers that were 5 cents a glass!
If you win $10.000, but you can’t spend them on travels, what would you do? Food. #Worthit
Photo Courtesy By Crystal Egan
