Dani: Lost in Hollywood

Would you like to introduce yourself?

I’m Daniele, a third-year graphic design student at De Montfort University (Leicester) and also a motion graphic designer at the second fastest growing company in Europe, Kilo Health.

Instagram: @danixen_ 

What makes you happy?

I think creating stories, travelling, speaking with people, making spontaneous decisions, being by myself and trying to create new things. This is why I think I like my course because you get to create new things and have the freedom to develop new ideas.

How would your friends describe you?

I hear my friends saying a lot about me like ‘oh you’re always so down for anything’ but like in a good way. Though I have boundaries, I’m always the one who’s like, ‘let’s go, let’s do it!’ I am quite spontaneous. My friends say that I’m an outgoing person, that I’m really extrovert, even though I wouldn’t say the same thing about myself. But I can go and talk to people with confidence.

What inspired you to travel?

For me travelling is all about experiences. It’s about living spontaneously because I know when I go back to Lithuania, it feels so safe that it’s boring and I feel like I have become comfortable in being uncomfortable.

I love travelling because from one place you can easily get to another and you never know where you’re going to end up and it’s all about gaining experiences, knowledge and meeting new people.

How do you keep safe when you travel?

I’m not sure if I do. To be fair you never know when you’re going to get into danger, so it might be that you will be sitting in your bedroom hiding from the dangerous world but there might be an earthquake or somebody might break in and rob you. So it’s like it doesn’t matter where you are, sometimes you put yourself in more danger but I feel like it’s good that I have my friends around me who are going to stop me if I’m going too crazy. Sometimes, I feel like I’m more comfortable when I’m with a friend, as I feel safer, which is fair enough because you are not alone and somebody is going to help you out if something happens.

But at the same time, when I’m travelling solo, I feel like I’m just aware of things and I’m not going to do something if I know it’s going to be bad but it may end up being something greater than something bad, so then I would take a risk. Research the places in advance would be my top tip.

What was it like leaving Lithuania?

So, I moved to Leicester by myself for study, without knowing anybody here. I would go to the shops, not knowing Tesco exists and end up in some dodgy shop, which wasn’t really in the city centre and I was like, oh so this is it. I can go buy meat and bread here. But no vegetables or fruit. So I got some stuff for my first night. I didn’t have kitchen stuff but I had pans. I started to meet people and get to know the city by myself and just figured out how to survive here.

Why did you choose Leicester?

I chose Leicester not by city but because of the study programme. It was the only study programme from all the universities which I truly understood and wanted. Leicester seemed really nice just because I was watching videos of Leicester and it looked amazing in the videos. I feel like the best part of Leicester is everything is so close around you. If you want to go to the city centre, it’s a 5 minute’s walk. If you want to go to the shops, it’s a 10-minute walk. Everything you need is in one place.

Leicester is small but there are students all around and I think I got a really good student experience here, which I wouldn’t get in London, for example. I was comparing my friends who are studying in London and me studying in Leicester and the thing with Leicester is that you have a community here. So if you go to a bar anywhere and you will be like ‘oh I am studying at DMU,’ you’ll probably meet someone also going to DMU which helps to start friendships. I think this type of interaction barely happens in London I would say. Well it can but it’s more common in Leicester.

What is your happiest family travel memory?

In 2014 we were planning our holidays somewhere and my Dad said, ‘so I’m thinking maybe we go to Barcelona to see Barcelona’s football match.’ I was like, ‘are you joking?’ To see Messi, Neymar and Suarez all in one place would be a dream. I would give anything to go there.

I was with my Dad and this was our first time in Camp Nou stadium and it was insane. I even made a huge poster saying ‘I love Barcelona’ and I drew Neymar on it, which I brought from Lithuania. Some fans even took pictures with me and my poster. So I think that experience was one of my happiest travel memories.

What is most memorable short trip?

My friend messaged me in September and asked me, what am I doing on the 13th October. It was a Sunday, so I said, I would be getting ready for university. She asked me if I wanted to go to Milan for the day. Go in the morning and come back in the evening. I said, ‘yeah sure!’ What was wrong with me, nobody knows. My friend was traveling from Greece and had a transfer in Milan, that’s why she wanted me to come. So I flew from Birmingham to go and see her and we explored Milan.

Then we realised the last bus to the airport was at 11:30PM and our flight was at 6AM. I was a bit ill which made the night in the airport waiting for our flight harder. We had to wait for shops to open so we could get tea and food. I got back to Leicester at 2PM and I went straight to sleep because I felt so tired and ill.

Later that day, I actually got woken up by a call from my manager, asking if I could come into work as they were short staffed. My manager said no one else is available to help. So, I went to the library, completed my task at 10PM and went to work in an outfit I had just made up, as it was around Halloween time.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

When I was little, like three years old people were asking me, ‘what’s your favourite country?’ And I would think Spain, even though I hadn’t been to Spain by that age.

I was playing football with my neighbour at the time I was around 3 years old and we had to pick teams and I always picked Spain. I don’t know why Spain had such an impact on me but from the day I was born, I knew that I have to go to Spain and Barcelona was always one of my favourite cities.

So yeah, then it came to the football, then I started to watch the World Cup. It was almost like Barcelona was pre-made for me, like it was already planned for me to like Barcelona. I visited the city with my family three times and with my friend once and it didn’t feel like ‘oh it’s a new city and it is scary.’ It actually felt like home. I like seafood to and Barcelona was a bonus for that.

Do you have any travel drama stories? 

Usually, my holidays have been planned really spontaneously, like three days or a week before and I’m like ‘lets go!’ And then it will go, however it will go.

There was one story about how I ended up almost not coming back home from Italy. I think that was the first time I was travelling without my parents and not on a school trip.

So, my friend has a sister who was living in Italy and she was like, ‘I’m going to visit my sister, do you want to come? I’ll be there from June.’ So I said, okay, I’ll come at the end of July. I think I just told my parents that I am going with my friend and they know and trust her. My friend’s sister is kind of big sister to me. At the time I was 15 so I was quite young and my parents gave me money for the trip.

We stayed at my friends sister’s hotel and we were there for five days and at the end of the trip, on the last day, we decided to go explore the Cinque Terre, which is like a coast of five different small cities. We left early in the morning. For the whole trip we were sleeping for like 3 hours maximum a night because we were just exploring the city.

We went there by train and Italy is the place where people like to cancel trains. My friend was telling me a story whilst we were traveling, that one day everyone decided to cancel all the trains and they couldn’t get their babysitter to come to their city, so she couldn’t leave, so there was a huge disaster because all the trains were shutdown. No transport. Nothing. Do whatever you want. It is just Italy.

We went to one place in the city and we were just swimming, having food and enjoying our lives. There was one last city we had left to visit but it was already 9PM and the sun was setting. I was like okay should we go or not? Okay let’s go it is the last one left and then we’re coming back to our hotel which is like 2 hours from that place.

So, when we arrived at the train station, guess what? No trains! No tickets! They’re saying that trains are coming but we can’t buy any tickets. I asked, ‘Okay what’s happening?’ My friend is calling her sister because she’s living in Italy. She said, ‘the issue is all the trains cancelled and to get away from that place you can only get out by train. Unless you’re going to take a boat.’

It was 10PM and we were not really stressing. We had a flight booked for 10AM from Milan which is like 3 hours from where we were and our luggage is in the hotel which is like 2 hours from this place. So, we have to go collect our luggage and be at the airport in Milan by 8AM.

OK we have like 10 hours to get the airport and we’re stuck. So I was calling my parents at 10PM and I was like can you transfer some money because it’s the last day it might be that we have to stay here until the trains are going to start running again and they were like, ‘you are stuck where?’ Because they let there 15 year old daughter to go to Italy safely with her friend.

Then we came back to check maybe the trains are running again. We got a train to some random city. It was the only train but we boarded without buying any tickets, as there was no option to buy tickets. If a ticket inspector stopped us, we will probably get a fine but we are not able to buy any tickets. So, we just jumped on the train, with no real idea where we are going. It was almost midnight but we have to check if there’s a train running to our city and luckily, there was.

So then we thought, should we take the one in an hour or should we take the train at 4AM and stay and explore the city. We didn’t end up taking the train at 4AM but we still went to the city and explored a bit and then we went to our hotel but that train journey was the most funniest ever because it had drunk Italians playing truth or dare on it.

One Italian was laying down sleeping, where you put luggage in the trains overhead compartment and they were loud playing music, dancing and playing games. It was so fun to watch.

But yeah we came back to our city at like 3AM and we met with our Italian friends and one girl was actually from London but I haven’t stayed in contact with her unfortunately.

Then it was like you know what, we have like 2 hours of sleep left… What was the point? It was sunrise, so we went swimming in the sea and then we got to our hotel it was breakfast time. We ate breakfast, collected our luggage and left the hotel to go to the airport.

Even while we were staying in Cinque Terre, my friend was calling her sister and she was like can you pack our stuff and bring it to the airport. It was that bad that we thought we will actually have to go straight to the airport. So yeah this was kind of one of the disasters but I think it all ended happily.

Paris

Another story was from last year, when I was living with my friend in Leicester, it was a Tuesday night and she came into my room then she said, ‘I want to go to this university in Paris for my master’s degree and they have an open day next week.’ She asked me if I could go with her.

I was like, ‘okay let’s do it!’ So, we booked our flights, trains and hotel at 2AM. I asked my friend ‘are you sure that I don’t need any private Covid-19 tests or anything,’ and she said she checked everything last night and we don’t.

On the day we are getting on the train, we were almost late because we decided to have a Starbucks on campus and then decided that we were not walking to the train station but were taking an Uber, which actually took 10 minutes longer than walking.

We ended up catching the train but there were no seats for us, so we had to stand. I’m sure we had to fill out the form of arrival, so I looked for it online. I was like, I am blind or do we have to take Covid-19 tests to be able to fly and my friend said, ‘no you’re joking.’

Both of us were staring at this statement on my phone, that we had to have Covid-19 tests. Our flight is four hours from now. We’re going to be at the airport in an hour, so we are looking at the Luton Airport website for all the possibilities to take a test there.

To make it more stressful, the form we had to fill out which includes where we are going to stay, well that had to be printed out.

We booked and paid £80 for our Covid-19 tests on the website for Luton Airport and we arrived 2 hours before we were due to fly. I was like OK, I’m going to try to find somebody who is going to tell us where to take the tests and she’s like, I’m going to try to print out those documents.

I found a girl and she said the Covid teams are usually there but I’m not sure they’re open at this time and I was like we booked our tests but you’re not even sure if they’re open. She replied, that yeah they do that sometimes. You walk outside of the airport, turn right and it is going to be there. So guess what… We’re going there the tent is empty! There is nothing in there, it is just a tent!

We were standing there, both scared because our flight was in an hour and a half and we had to take our tests. Another girl comes into the tent and asks us if we were trying to take the Covid-19 test as well.

We passed through some doors and we found the Covid-19 testing centre. We were waiting for the test results and it was stressful. We thought, what if we have Covid now with everything booked and paid for.

Thankfully, we didn’t have Covid and we flew to Paris and everything was fine. We went to McDonald’s because it was 11PM and our bag broke in the Uber, so everything was just on the floor. Then, my friend’s bag got stuck as she was walking through the metro gates. So she couldn’t move and it was hilarious. The trip was good. I don’t think any more stressful things happened, from what I can remember.

What was the moment like when you found out you were going to New York?

When I got the university email saying that my application was accepted and that I’m actually going to New York, I was like this is not happening! This can’t be happening! The night before getting that e-mail, I remember sitting and looking through my window because I have I panoramic view of Leicester and I was just trying to think how cool it would be if I would be seeing the same view but of Manhattan.

How was your trip to New York?

Yeah it was a really special moment for me and I was just excited to go there. I remember probably one of the best parts of New York that was when we went to the Summit building which had an immersive experience, as well as the panoramic view of the Manhattan.

We actually didn’t book tickets beforehand, so that was our mistake but it was our last day in New York. Everything is fully booked online. But I was like let’s just try to go there. So when we arrived, they said ‘OK let’s go, your machine is here and you can buy tickets.’ I asked, ‘what’s the catch, it says that there are no tickets everything is sold out online.’

The catch was that you have to buy more expensive tickets but you’re getting an elevator journey to a really high floor, which included the glass floor. Although my friend is afraid of heights, we still decided to take it as it was our only option.

Our plan was to go spend an hour and a half there and then go for dinner but we spent 3 hours and we left only because they told us they were closing in 10 minutes. Everything I could see was just mirrors and lights with views of the whole city, including the Empire State Building.

I can’t explain the feeling when you’re standing on the floor and you’re seeing the whole city view because it reflects from the mirrors and you can see the whole of Manhattan. It was night time as well and there was mindfulness music playing because it was part of the immersive experience. There were different lights too and it was just insane like all of it was just a dream.

I was just laying on the floor, looking at the Empire State Building just spending hours there with my friend. We were just staring at everything around us, it was just a moment of my life. There are rooms as well. There was actually a huge queue and I was like, ‘what is happening here?’ It was the line for the balcony on the 85th floor, which was glass, so you can lay on the ground and see the road below.

I was like okay, I can do that, I like heights. Then I just saw everything there and I made friends with one girl standing in the queue so it was nice. She said, ‘I can take a picture for you’ and I was like ‘okay that’s cool.’ The girl said she was studying in New York and had visited California as well. Then there was a room with those big balls you have probably seen videos about where you just throw them around.

I like immersive experiences in general just because you can just be in the moment and you can let your mind go free. Because New York was my dream city, with my dream view and the immersive experience, everything just added up and yeah it was crazy.

So, this was probably the best part of New York, besides all like networking and all the people we met. It seems unreal that I made my dream happened but there is nothing left for me in that dream. It is strange to think that dream came true. Sometimes when I see the videos and pictures, I don’t feel anything because it doesn't feel like I have been there.

Reflecting on New York, how do you feel?

The thing is, I still haven’t really told anyone about the trip to New York, besides my parents. My friends asked me to tell they everything about New York and I was like, ‘it was great.’ I don’t want to tell anyone because it feels so personal. I feel like it’s not only that my biggest dream came true at the same time I lost my biggest dream because it came true, so I don’t have anything right now to dream about as much as I used to dream about New York.

I know everyone is like oh it’s the American dream, it wasn’t just my American dream, it was way more than that. I was talking to my friend yesterday and I was like I feel like that trip to New York was like my imaginary friend because I was going to sleep to that thought about New York, I was waking up that thought of New York and I knew that if I’m in a bad mood, I can always dream about New York and it’s going to make me feel better.

I didn’t think I would be able to visit New York as soon as I did. I was thinking I would be 25 maybe before I could visit. I made myself a rule that I’m not going to travel to New York just for holiday purposes. So if I’ll go to New York, I have to go there with the thing I’m doing which is related to either graphic design or entrepreneurship.

What was it like travelling with a group of people to LA?

I didn’t know anyone before the LA trip from uni but that was a special trip. So, we met literally on the day we went to the airport and I remember how awkward it was sitting on the bus all in silence. No one knew where we would be sitting on the plane. Thinking are they nice people or am I going to spend all the time in the LA by myself. You don’t know who they are but because we went to LA with the same goals, with the same mindset and we all wanted to enjoy our time in LA. So, on the first night we went for dinner all together, spending time at Santa Monica pier, sitting on the beach until 3AM.

It was like we had known each other for months, for years, so even though we are going on different sightseeing trips, we were staying as a group. So, maybe one group wanted to see the Hollywood hills and our group wanted to go to Malibu beach but we made compromises for each other. I’m still in contact with some of the new friends I made on that trip. I feel the LA trip was about the people, as the people made the whole experience what it was. 

Have you ever got lost whilst travelling?

So, we lost in the Hollywood mountains. Basically, on that day, one group was planning to go to the Griffiths Observatory and another group was planning to go to Warner Bros Studios. So I was like OK I really want to start with studios, so probably I’ll go with them and I just joined their group. So we went there first as we were planning to all go to Hollywood afterwards. I dressed nicely and I was wearing white jeans and a glittery T-shirt.

Then when we were coming out someone said, ‘we are walking to the Hollywood sign now.’ And I was like, ‘you what?!’ You didn’t mention that part to me.

I was already tired of walking and didn’t want to hike up a hill. As I had just joined the group and I was not in the planning of stuff, I felt that I couldn’t really say anything.

She was like, ‘oh it is only like 30 minute’s walk to the hill’ and then I was like, ‘OK’ and well we got into argument. But I was like OK you know what we have to compromise and okay whatever happens, happens.

I can’t really do anything at this point, so we start to walk. It was sunset and we’re walking there and we’re asking people like how long this is going to take to see the sign. They were like, ‘oh it’s like you see your under one mountain, you go up, down there, up there to another mountain and it is the third mountain.’ I was like, ‘you’re joking!’

The thing was, it was 5PM it was sunset and we’re like okay we have to make it so one couple said it’s going to take like 30 minutes to reach that point. So we were like, OK we can do that. We start to walk and it is 40 minutes later and we’re still not up the hill. And we couldn’t see the Hollywood sign anywhere around us. So we were like OK, something is not right.

There was this guy who just passed us running. Then 5 minutes later, he’s walking back down and we were like ‘why are you walking back down?’ He was like, ‘it’s sunset guys, you need to go back down because you’re not going to make it before it gets dark and then you’re screwed because you’re going to be lost in the mountains and it’s going to be dark.’ The thing is we have a fight next morning as well.

We had only one phone which had charge it wasn’t even full, it was like 20%. Everyone one else’s phones were dead and we did not have internet data.

So we made it to the top of the one hill. It was a nice sunset, that’s what I can say. It was actually a 360 degree view because of the side we were on. But the view was pretty nice. Then we had to go back down. We were walking without any phones or anything and just vibing and laughing because the situation was really funny. We could be at the Observatory or Malibu beach but we were just on a mountain.

Oh yeah and my outfit was not really ready for that even though my friend was wearing the same thing basically. So, we were like yeah this is nice outfit choice for a hike.

We’re walking back and the friend who said that we have to go up the mountain, she had a panic attack. I don’t think she was scared of heights, I don’t know why she had a panic attack but like it was quite bad but I was like trying to help her. I asked her what was going on and stuff and she was panicking and crying and she was trying to step down. I know that it’s getting dark we’re stuck in the mountain with no people around basically. Our group is somewhere in front and I’m helping her on my own. She can’t focus and she’s sitting there crying and stressing. I was like okay, this is going to be fun.

I know some psychology so that’s why I knew that you need to like transfer thoughts because she will be focusing on what scares her and she was going to feel worse. So, even though she didn’t want to speak with me at all, I was trying to ask her about her business idea and about the books she likes.

We got a conversation flowing where she told me her ideas and she was like I haven’t told anyone about it. We had almost made it to the bottom of the hill. It took us like an hour to get back and it was dark already but we met with our group, which was nice and it was really cold, so we had to call a taxi to get back to the hostel. That was the most insane part of the LA trip.

I’m kind of happy that we didn’t reach the Hollywood sign. We would have never thought of climbing up by ourselves to see literally the other side of the LA. We were passing through those fancy houses on the Hollywood Hills and we saw a different side of the city. I think it was really important to not just see Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills but also those hidden gems.

Have you had any island adventures?

I was in Rhodes (Greece) with my family and I saw that there was an opportunity to go to visit the hills and monasteries around the island. I thought it was a really good chance to actually see more than then the capital and the Old Town. But I would have to wake up early and get a little train.

So, I told my parents that I would like to go on this tour and they were not up for getting up early on holiday. But they said if I was up for it, I can do it.

So, I decided to and I woke up at 6AM. I went solo and it was probably a first step for me for travelling by myself like that. And yeah I just caught the open window train which takes you to the hill and then I climbed up.

I didn’t have any suitable footwear to wear for that climb and it took me 40 minutes to hike up to the hill. When I got to the top, it was around 35 degrees Celsius, so it was very hot and I didn’t have any water with me. So it was really hard, but yeah I felt proud of myself that I actually woke up and did it.

The view from the top was amazing! I saw the whole scenery of the island, the sea and I saw the monasteries as well. Then I had time to get coffee and I made some friends along the way and found out where they were from. It was just great to explore solo.

Solo travel Vs travelling with other, what do you prefer?

I haven’t really been proper solo travelling but it’s in my plans. I went with my grandparents to Germany and then because they were leaving by car and my flight was back to London in the evening, I had to spend the whole day in Berlin by myself. So, that was nice but I slept through my breakfast which was included in the price, but I just went to the restaurant and I got my breakfast so that was fine in the end. After that, I explored the city as much as I could, taking in the sights.

I remember a solo trip that I took to Brighton once. I also flew solo when I was visiting my friend who was in Copenhagen. I was just walking around by myself because she was working at the time. I was exploring the city by myself and that’s why right now, sometimes it’s better to travel solo because you really get to know who you are and you get to make your own decisions.

What’s the worst flight you’ve ever been on?

I remember I was flying to Lisbon with my grandparents and we had to wake up at 3AM, as we had a flight at 6AM but it was a stormy. I was twelve years old and sometimes I felt I was more responsible for the trip than my grandparents were because I know the how to use phones and Google Maps.

So, I’m sitting on the plane and I’m looking through the window and the plane is shaking, it was so scary. I see the thunder and lightning bolts strike. That flight has stuck in my mind for so long, even though it was over 8 years ago.

Name 3 of the most memorable travel moments

Manhattan. It’s just the view from the immersive experience probably that was the best part but a lot of moments come to my mind. When I think about it, even the first match at Barcelona or travelling to LA and sitting at Santa Monica pier, just not stressing, not thinking, not doing anything with a bunch of random people you met a day before, talking like your family and like you’ve know each other for ages was also quite memorable.

You come across very confident. Have you always been confident?

Before coming to university, I was watching TV and I saw one girl who was really confident in a TV show, like the main character. She wasn’t sharing any stories about her but she was listening to people and learning from them, so when I was going to university I wanted to be like her.

I think coming here to Leicester by myself and sometimes even like losing people in my life made me more confident because in the end you are on your own, like when I started my first year at university.

I had one book and it had a list of tasks we have to do for the week. So sometimes the book said go buy some glitter to sprinkle around the waterfall or whatever and I was following that book. It was actually like a self-development book, I would say.

I feel LA taught me a lot about confidence, as I understood that if you are not going to be confident, it can be that you’re going to miss an opportunity in most cases. So I think that LA was more of a lesson and then New York was more of the test, as at some points, I was even feeling over confident but that led me to make new connections and meet new people and actually making valuable industry contacts. This is why I think that not being confident sometimes can stop you from ceasing opportunities and this is the lesson which I learned.

I would add that I feel like people around me made me confident. I have the mindset that you don’t have anything to lose because all gain is a loss and a loss is a gain.

If you could wake up anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be?

I would want to wake up somewhere where I wouldn’t know where I am. I would want the world to transfer me to a random place. It can even be Bali, Vietnam, Shanghai or whatever.

If you don’t know where you wake up that means that you don’t have any expectations. So, I could say that I want to wake up in New York tomorrow but I already have an image for New York. I have images for most of the places in the world I would say, so it would be nice not to know in which image you will wake up to, so you can create your own image for that place.

If you could travel with a famous travel companion, who would it be?

I would love to travel with Albert Camus who was a writer. I believe a lot in Albert Camus’ theories than any other theories about the world. So he believed that life is has no meaning and we are here to just enjoy ourselves, like we create our own meaning. He’s so careless and I like his books and his mindset too. It would be nice to travel with him because he doesn’t care.

What would you like to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered for not following the rules. So, when people are telling you, you have to do this to get there, you have to have a good job, we have to do that. I’m not saying that I’m not going to do that stuff but I’m saying that I’m not going to do that stuff just because people are telling me that this is the right way to live. So, I want to be remembered for finding my own path and yeah just for being spontaneous and actually making the most of every moment.

Instagram: @danixen_