Dallas: Travel guide, prices and free housing · 2026

ANAziz Nadjimutdinovanadjimutdinov · Feb 1, 2017Read

I've mentioned in previous stories that I constantly find myself in various situations during my travels. It's nerve-wracking and stressful, but at the same time, it's an adventure that leads to crazy experiences and stories by the end. These are the stories I usually share with everyone heading overseas so they don't end up in the same trouble. Those who read my past blogs might remember the missed train, the long bus ride, debt, various illnesses, and that was just the first year:) This year, after New York, I decided to visit my old friend Weldon, who once taught me the craft of cooking from scratch. I'll never forget the first time I walked into the kitchen and he pointed out that my shoes were unsuitable and slippery, and later showed me how to hold a knife properly. Yes, I had been holding a knife wrong my whole life. Actually, everyone holds it wrong. But that's not the point. My flight was to Miami with a 3-hour layover, where I planned to walk around the airport. Why not? My luggage was already being transferred from plane to plane. But that's where the adventures began. It all started in New York, while I was sitting calmly on the plane waiting for takeoff. The flight was delayed a bit, but then it moved to the runway, taxied around, and then went back to the gate. They announced there were technical issues and we had to wait. That's when it hit me. I couldn't remember where my laptop was. I checked my carry-on, and it wasn't there! I just ran to the gate without listening to the flight attendants, shouting that I'd forgotten my laptop. Technically, you're not supposed to leave the plane after boarding. Who knows what you might have left inside? It turned out I had taken the laptop out at the security checkpoint, which was half an airport away. Dying of breathlessness, I barely made it there. Of course, it wasn't there anymore. I asked, almost shouting: "Did you see a laptop? I forgot it about 30 minutes ago..." A young African-American man, for whom the situation was apparently routine, just opened a small safe, checked it, and asked if there was anything on it. Well, yes. It had a gray, wool-like folder on it. I explained that to him, and he handed me my laptop. I couldn't believe my eyes! I ran back to the plane just as frantically and sat in my seat, but it turned out my running was in vain. We sat for another 20 minutes, and then they announced that something was really wrong and the flight would be delayed for another 3 hours. They asked, "Could you please leave the plane? We're going to get it fixed!" It was unpleasant, of course. At the gate, a representative from American Airlines was bombarded with questions about what to do with connecting flights, which we would obviously miss. She just said there was a small chance, but we could go and change them. They advised calling a special number. But that number told me my ticket status hadn't changed yet, so I couldn't change it. They said to go and change it at the airport exit where I checked in. I went out, and there was a giant line. I tapped into my inner troublemaker and started complaining to the manager about why I had to stand in line because of the company's mistakes. We had a tense conversation, but he said there was nothing he could do. Eventually, another manager approached me and took me through the VIP line. They changed my ticket in 5 minutes. Only now, instead of New York-Miami-Austin (Texas), it was New York-Miami-Dallas (Texas)-Austin (Texas). Given that the transit between Dallas and Austin and the flight time were minimal, it wasn't too bad. But I did have to wait for the plane to be fixed in Miami. And I had quite a long wait there. I had to go through security again (this time I double-checked everything. Yes, I didn't lose the laptop again.) You understand, right, that you have to be careful with these things? Because, for example, in my country, they don't ask you to take out laptops at security. But in America, at every X-ray, you have t

ALAnastassya LebedevaNastyaLebedeva · Oct 28, 2012Read

Letter from August 29. Sender: Anastasia Lebedeva, Houston, Texas Recipient: Yulia Keda, Kazakhstan I'm writing from Houston, Texas. You might ask how we ended up here. Why not from New Orleans? We had to change our plans. At first, we wanted to go to New Orleans by bus the next day or on Wednesday. We thought we'd go kayaking there—all the streets are flooded, and it didn't work out with Nora. But it turned out that all trips were canceled until Friday. ALL of them. Even the flights. No one is going there. The city is closed. You probably saw on the news what's happening there because of the hurricane. We didn't know what to do, and Anya suggested catching our flight in Houston. New Orleans – Houston – Arizona. Well, we'll have to skip that city. No one refunded our bus money. But we couldn't let our tickets to Arizona go to waste! And so, through a strange chain of events, Houston ended up on our travel calendar! After booking a hostel in advance and buying new Greyhound tickets, which cost us 50 bucks, we left for Houston on Tuesday afternoon. It gets dark in Houston at 7 o'clock. So when we got off at the Greyhound station in Downtown, the sun had almost set. With a huge suitcase, we trudged in the direction where our hostel was supposed to be. Downtown isn't safe. There are dark alleys everywhere and suspicious people asking for change. Luckily, it was about a half-hour walk to the hostel. In the morning, Anya called our airline to ask about the flight. We had tickets for New Orleans – Houston – Phoenix – Flagstaff. They said we would have to pay 1000 dollars just to board our flight in the middle of the route—in Houston. What the? Our mood was ruined. We were walking in a beautiful park with a lake and free Wi-Fi when we suddenly found this out. What 1000 bucks? Where would we get extra money? Anya called Greyhound to ask about tickets to Arizona. But the phone died. WTF?! I said: we should have stayed in Dallas and waited for the bus, but we're stuck here. After arguing with Anya, we decided to go grab a bite, charge the phone, and book bus tickets online. It's so beautiful around, but we're not in the mood. We walked through a sculpture park. It's peaceful. Everyone is relaxing, reading, and we don't know what to do. WHAT to do? We went to Starbucks. We could only hope that if we canceled our flight from New Orleans in advance, we would get at least part of the 502 dollars back. Anya called the airport. She talked for a very long time. They told her that our Friday flight from New Orleans was also canceled! And they would change our tickets! We will fly to Flagstaff from Houston. And we won't have to pay! Apparently, it was all meant to be: the buses were canceled, the phone died. After such stress, we needed an excellent Frappuccino. At the same time, we decided to do a little shopping – for such an occasion. That's all, I'll finish here. Let's chat later!

ALAnastassya LebedevaNastyaLebedeva · Oct 28, 2012Read

Letter from August 28. Sender: Anastasia Lebedeva, Dallas, Texas Recipient: Yulya Keda, Kazakhstan How to save yourself from killer mosquitoes. Hi, Yulka! You won't believe what happened to us! Today we were supposed to be wandering the streets of New Orleans, but guess what, we are still in Dallas. And why? Let me start from the beginning. Nora turned out to be a very friendly, energetic, and interesting person. She lives in a quiet neighborhood near the lake. She has two dogs – a boy named Derby and a girl named Mabel, whom we were initially afraid of. Nora is an avid traveler. She has been to Mexico, Italy, China, and France. She is planning to visit Argentina and other countries. In her free time, she visits a Buddhist temple, yoga classes, rock climbing, and goes kayaking. She also plays the guitar and loves watching travel shows. She listens to blues and country. That's a mini-dossier for you. In just a few days, she showed us all of Dallas! We visited real American diners, listened to the chants of Buddhist monks, went to the movies, and didn't miss the museums! We learned a few words in Thai. For example, the greeting 'sawatdee'. And we tasted Thai food. We went to the lake and took photos. We saw George Bush's house. At least that's what the locals say, but no one has ever seen him there. At first, we were afraid to go to the lake because of mosquitoes – carriers of a deadly virus. We put on hoodies, sneakers, and jeans. Everyone asks us: where are you from? And we say: from Florida – the Sunshine State. And now for the most important thing: Linkin Park was AWESOME. Yes, we were at their concert! Chester is singing and screaming just a few meters away! There were both new and old songs, which we couldn't have imagined at all. Everyone is singing along, and we are the loudest! Craaaaaaaaaaaawling iiiiiiiiiiiin my skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin! These wooooooooooooooooounds, they wiiiiiiiil not heeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaal!!!!!!!! The photos turned out pretty good, and the videos too. We couldn't have imagined before that we would get to a Linkin Park concert! Amazing! So many positive emotions! Live sound! We rocked out! Rock on! Filled with bright hopes and charged with positive emotions, Nora and I went to the Greyhound station. We had tickets for 3 AM. After saying a warm goodbye to our new Texan friend, we had a snack and got ready to check our luggage. Suddenly, it turned out that our bus to New Orleans was canceled! Shock. The reason was the approaching Hurricane Isaac. We had to stay at Nora's for one more night. We hope to leave on the next bus. We will write when we get to New Orleans! Good luck! Adios! #travel #LinkinPark #Dallas #NewOrleans #adventure

ALAnastassya LebedevaNastyaLebedeva · Oct 28, 2012Read

Letter dated August 25th. Sender: Anastasia Lebedeva, Dallas Airport, Texas Recipient: Yulya Keda, Kazakhstan Hola! I was so happy to receive your letter. It's great that you don't forget about us and write such detailed notes. Now, let me get to the news. The month flew by unnoticed, and our journey has finally begun! I'm writing to you from the airport in Dallas, Texas. The plane just landed. We are waiting for Nora – we met her through Couchsurfing. After reading in your letter about the West Nile virus outbreak in Dallas, we looked up the terrifying statistics online – so many people infected by deadly mosquito bites. Everyone at work kept telling us: why are you going there? Don't! But the end justifies the means. By the way, we received all the packages from Amazon, so expect some gifts! I didn't think it would be so sad to leave Daytona Beach. I will miss not only my American friends but also the students from Russia and Moldova I worked with. On our last night before the flight, we gathered on the ocean shore, ordered pizza, and shared our impressions of the summer that flew by. I immediately remembered our hangouts and your delicious pizza! I'll put the bittersweet feelings aside for now, because The Big Trip is ahead! Friends from Daytona just wrote that a hurricane has started there – we left just in time! Answering your question about why we chose Texas as our first stop, I'll finally lift the veil of secrecy. In a couple of days, we are going to a concert............................................... of Linkin Park! Chester, Mike and the gang, wait for us! And the killer mosquitoes won't stop us! In the meantime, while Linkin Park is preparing for the show, I'll write about our grand plans. All our plane and bus tickets were bought a long time ago, so I think everything will be cool. After Dallas, we'll head to New Orleans, Louisiana, then to Flagstaff, Arizona – we have a tour of the eastern part of the Grand Canyon booked from there. The next stop is San Francisco, and finally, New York. We'll spend three days in each city, and we saved four for New York. Don't be bored! See you soon!

АБАлександр БолдаковVIRUS666 · Oct 31, 2011Read

After Dallas comes the state of Arkansas and the city of Little Rock! The capital of Arkansas! I'll just note that the Capitol is located there!!! Otherwise, there's nothing else remarkable. Birmingham, well, there's nothing interesting in the city ))) Only a mountain called Vulcan or something like that, where a huge guy stands on a tall monument that you can climb to see the whole city!!! Atlanta is the capital of the state of Georgia!! The tallest building in Atlanta is the Bank of America Plaza, which is 312 meters high. Also, the Coca-Cola headquarters is here! Atlanta was the host city of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games!!

АБАлександр БолдаковVIRUS666 · Oct 31, 2011Read

Next, our journey takes us through the state of Colorado, through Mesa Verde National Park! The park was established in 1906 to protect the numerous ruins of Ancestral Puebloan settlements. They lived in stone houses ))) To get to this park, we had to overcome a long 600-meter climb, as the park is located on a plateau towering over the area!! I really liked Colorado in general!!! There are many forests and mountains there!! After Colorado, we headed to Texas, through New Mexico!! Texas is just one big plain! And here we are in the state capital, Dallas!! It's hot, but not like in Vegas! By the way, in Texas, all the cops drive Dodge Chargers!!

ДДмитрийventura · Oct 18, 2009Read

18.08.2009 Well, I've reached the final point of my route! It's 7 AM, August 18, 2009, and I'm sitting here drinking coffee in San Francisco! I'll spend the whole day here, and at 11:00 PM I'll head out to Dallas, which is almost a two-day trip! I slept like a log last night, didn't even wake up during the stops—after yesterday's sleepless night. It's quite cold here! I hoped to wait out the morning chill over coffee, but it looks like it won't end anytime soon, so I'm off! Oops, sorry, it's not just 'quite cold' here! It's freezing and there's a huge wind! I endured it, but then I couldn't take it anymore and wrapped myself in the blanket I bought yesterday for sleeping on the bus. I walked around like that for half the day, like an Indian :). First thing, I walked down Montgomery Street, which is considered the Financial District here. I turned left and walked up the streets—holy cow, the incline! I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in cities before. Cars are parked at such an angle that it feels like they're about to roll away. I walked around, went up to Nob Hill—the highest point in San Francisco, looked down, then went online to check the bus schedule to Boston. It looks like I'll be going to see Aunt Inna after all, and that's cool because it should be interesting there. Just then, the Cable Car Museum opened, probably the most famous symbol of San Francisco. It's cool: there's a metal cable running underground that moves, and the tram hooks onto this cable through a slot in the ground and moves itself. The cable is powered by massive engines located at the station. And since the museum is right inside the station building, you can see everything—how it all rotates and is set in motion :). After leaving the museum, I wandered around Chinatown a bit. Chinatown in SF is so huge, and there are so many Chinese people, that you can't tell if SF has a Chinese Chinatown, or if, conversely, Chinatown has a San Francisco district. In their Chinese shops, they sell even ordinary, non-Chinese goods at very low prices. Just for fun, I bought some soy drink and some crunchy sticks. Both turned out to be mediocre in taste. When I was heading back down to Montgomery Street, I saw a crowd of fire trucks, police, and other people. Apparently, there was a fire. Getting closer, I saw a man with terrible burns standing and talking to a policeman. 'Holy cow,' I thought. 'He needs to get to the hospital urgently.' And only then did it hit me that they were filming a movie! Reaching the center, I headed to a park that, judging by the name, should have been an arts center, but the pavilions of this very arts center were closed, and it was just a park around. Strange. An arts center without art. From there, I decided to go to Coit Tower. I miscalculated the size of San Francisco on the map (the city is small) and overshot my stop, but I returned to the right place pretty quickly. I climbed to the top. The view is cool! Of the bay, Alcatraz Island, the city... Awesome! I went down, walked to the coast, and asked about tours to Alcatraz. It turned out they were all sold out. Oh well, I was doubting whether to go or not anyway. I asked a guy about the Golden Gate Bridge, and he said it's 4.5 miles (i.e., more than 7 km) on foot, about an hour and a half walk. I asked about the bus, but he said it would also take about an hour and a half by bus. I decided to walk. I grabbed a bite at Subway for the road and set off. I walked slowly, stopping at cool places. For example, there's a real submarine moored on the shore that fought during World War II and is now open as a museum. For 6 bucks, I went inside—very interesting. Everything inside is untouched, real. On the way to the bridge, I saw a real hippie Volkswagen minibus, and I got to talking with a Rastafarian sticking out of it in an Ethiopian hat. He said he painted it and did everything inside himself, that it's his home, and he and his girlfriend travel around America, earning money by

ALAnastassya LebedevaNastyaLebedeva · Oct 28, 2012Read

Letter from August 28. Sender: Anastasia Lebedeva, Dallas, Texas Recipient: Yulia Keda, Kazakhstan How to survive killer mosquitoes. Hi, Yulka! You won't believe what happened to us! Today we were supposed to wander the streets of New Orleans, but guess what, we're still in Dallas. And why? I'll start from the beginning. Nora turned out to be a very friendly, energetic and interesting person. She lives in a quiet neighborhood near the lake. She has two dogs – a male, Derby, and a female, Mabel, whom we were afraid of at first. Nora is an avid traveler. She has been to Mexico, Italy, China, France. She plans to visit Argentina and other countries. In her free time she goes to a Buddhist temple, attends yoga classes, does rock climbing and kayaks. She also plays guitar and likes to watch travel shows. She listens to blues and country. That's the mini-dossier. In just a few days she showed us all of Dallas! We ate at real American diners, listened to the chants of Buddhist monks, went to the movies, and didn't skip the museums! We learned a few words in Thai. For example, the greeting 'savatika'. And we tried Thai food. We drove to the lake and took photos. We saw George Bush's house. At least that's what the locals say, but nobody has seen him there yet. At first we were afraid to go to the lake because of mosquitoes — carriers of a deadly virus. We put on hoodies, sneakers and jeans. Everyone asks us: where are you from? And we: from Florida — the Sunshine State. And now for the main thing: Linkin Park was AWESOME. Yes, we were at their concert! Chester sings and screams just a few meters away! The songs were both new and old, which we never could have expected. Everyone sings along, and we sing louder! Craaaaaaaaaaaawling iiiiiiiiiiiin my skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin! These wooooooooooooooooounds, they wiiiiiiiil not heeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaal!!!!!!!! The photos turned out pretty good, and the videos too. We couldn't even imagine we'd get to a Linkin Park concert before! Awesome! So many positive emotions! Live sound! We tore it up! That's rock! Filled with bright hopes and charged with positive emotions, Nora and I went to the Greyhound station. We had tickets for 3 a.m. After warmly saying goodbye to our new Texas friend, we grabbed a bite and were about to check our suitcase. Then we discovered that our bus to New Orleans was canceled! Shock. The reason was the approaching Hurricane Isaac. We had to stay at Nora's for one more night. We hope to get on the next bus. We'll write when we get to New Orleans! Good luck! Adios!