Meet the Nomads – Jade Johnston of Our Oyster

Jade Johnston is the blogger behind Our Oyster and she shares a lot of helpful tips about budget travelling in the places that she goes to. She has been to more than to 30 countries (and counting). Jade is a freelance writer and a gal who loves to help out through volunteering.

Learn more about Jade and follow her adventures at .

But before you leave this page, check out my short interview with Jade.

How did you discover your passion for travelling?

“My family never travelled much, so I didn’t discover my love for travel until I was an adult. However whenever we did visit the main city of my province (we lived out in the countryside) we always made sure to visit museums or other attractions like that. So now when I travel I always enjoy visiting local attractions like that.

My first experience with travel was going on a high school week long trip to Canada’s capital city of Ottawa. The trip brought together over 100 students from across Canada who stayed together in a giant dorm and learnt about our government and foreign policy. That was my first experience leaving my province, and sparked my desire to travel. Immediately upon my return home I started researching other exchange programs and ended up applying the 7 month long volunteer program which takes youth across Canada, called Katimavik.”

What’s the most horrible experience that you’ve had on the road?

“The most horrible experience I have had will probably make a really great blog post when I get around to writing it up. I think I will name it “A night in the Cockroach Hotel” or something like that. The article will reach its peak when I describe how confused I was that our hotel room had the walls painted black, until those walls started moving and the thousands of cockroaches started running around the room frantically. It may not be suitable for my more sensitive audience.

Another horrible experience I have had, actually occurred right recently. I often refer to it as “the worst day of my life.” It happened during a visit to the small town of Nimbin in Northern NSW Australia. Nimbin is famous for its hippy culture and drug laced cookies. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.”

What’s the best travel experience that you’ve ever had?

“Some of my best travel experiences have to do with the people I meet, and not so much with where I am or what I am doing. When I was living and travelling in Europe I spent most of my time couchsurfing. Some of my best travel experiences are the times and adventures I shared with these people, and the lasting friendships that developed between us.”

What’s the biggest realization that you’ve got out of travelling?

“I don’t know if I have had any many epiphanies while travelling, but I think the one thing I have really developed from travel is my problem solving skills. When you travel, even the best laid plans can get blown to pieces and you need to be able to react in such a way to achieve a positive outcome while not going a little bit insane. Problem solving skills and flexibility are probably the biggest things that I have learned from travel.”

What keeps you going? What keeps you motivated?

“I am a very stubborn person and don’t tend to listen to other people if their opinions do not match up with mine. So it doesn’t really matter to me if other people don’t see the point to travel. I personally don’t see the point to slaving away every day at a job you hate with no reward or fast approaching end date in sight.”

This is a silly and hypothetical one. If you would be given a chance to travel with a popular person or a celebrity, who would it be and why?

“I don’t know if I would want to travel with a popular person or celebrity – I think it would be one of those travel situations when one travel partner has a bigger personality (or a bigger sense of self importance) than the other person, which means they want to have their way all the time and don’t compromise. Basically, I think a celebrity would make a pretty crap travel companion in general.”

Where’s your favourite place in this planet and why?

“It’s hard to pick a favourite place… I really loved my time in New Zealand for the hiking and laid back lifestyle, but then I also really loved my travels in Spain, and the life style of living and working in Edinburgh Scotland… I guess it depends on what you want to do…..”

What’s your best tip for newbie traveller?

“Pack light! Most of the things you think you need to bring with you, you will be able to buy at your destination. And also shopping for new things is part of the fun of travel, so you will probably want to buy new things when you travel anyway, which will make your pack REALLY heavy if you already over packed with things from home.”

What’s the funniest and silliest thing you’ve ever done while travelling?

“Haha… can I put meeting an Australian man at the cockroach races at a local pub while I was in the country on a working holiday visa, then marrying him and getting pregnant? :D”

What do you think about yourself?

“Haha well I think I am one of the more unlikely candidates to be a travel blogger, since I am kind of an introvert. Although having the blog is helpful, because the travel blog forces me to go out and get into silly situations so that I have material to write about.

I’m kind of a wall flower, I much more enjoy relaxing with a glass of wine in a quiet lounge bar, then hectic partying and drunkenness. I love cultural travel and outdoors travel where I can get lost in my own thoughts. I guess that is why I am better at writing reviews and guides than hilarious travel stories about my misadventures. Although I still do manage to have misadventures sometimes….”

“My blog, OurOyster.com, is a collection of everything I think will be of interest or helpful to other travellers or people about to start travelling. I write guides and reviews to both popular destinations and off the beaten track locales, as well as reviews of travel products or tours.

Since I am a budget traveller, I also provide budget travel guides to the destinations I visit and I also usually try to include a budget breakdown of my own expenses while I was travelling in the location.” – Jade of Our Oyster

Photo Credits: All pictures are provided by Jade.

Next: Stephen Bugno of Bohemian Traveler Previously: Stefan of Redcat Travel For more interviews with travel bloggers, check out the archives of Meet the Nomads.