Vacation Ideals: 15 Key Things that All Vacations Need to Include (1-5)
1. Never accept no
(When travelling, YES needs to be your default answer)
Right before I jumped out of the plane, she asked, "Are you ready for this?" ...f*** no I screamed mid-backflip as I fell the first 6 ft. of 14,000. Gosh, I was so young and naive, how did I not know that No and Yes means Yes on vacation?!!
2. Meet new people
(If you don't make any international friends while you are away, you are just not trying hard enough!)
I ran a 50K ultramarathon at Burning Man. Somewhere in between kilometer 20 and kilometer 50 I befriended a dude from NYC named Tim Jim (that was his Burning Man nickname also called his "playa name"). On the last 10k he told me, "it's tradition." He pulled off his pants and ran the last part of the ultra naked beside me.
At the end of the race he ran up to me – hey guys, it was the biggest physical accomplishment of my life, I was obviously emotional – and we hugged it out.
There might have been some mild contact...if that's not making international friends, I don't know what is??!?
3. Search for the authentic
I biked across France last summer, from Paris to Amsterdam. The first thing I did when I landed in Paris was go to this Canadian bar called, The Great Canadian Pub, where they served us Moosehead. I mean, I just traveled halfway across the world to wind up back home. I was clearly missing the point of travel. Instead, my words of advice to my past self visiting France: get yourself out of the tourist district and go to a small French town in the countryside, which is so undeniably French that red-wine canals replace streets, houses are made out of baguettes, and the Mayor is a mime. Explore the authentic parts of a country's culture!
4. Do an activity that's new or has a slight element of fear
I don’t know if you’ve ever looked up the definition of “wonder” before, but it means, "a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar or inexplicable." I’ve also heard another definition of the word – Tim Jim told me about it during our 50k run, thank god for international friends, right!?
‘To see the world as if seeing it for the first time.’
In that sense, doing things for the first time and experiencing wonder are synonymous. So if your life is feeling dull or void of energy, perhaps you are not doing enough new things, which produce this incredibly euphoric feeling of wonder. My first time skydiving was in Australia, surfing – Costa Rica, Scuba diving – the Caribbean, kissing a Sting Ray – the Cayman Islands, backflips on a snowboard (into an air bag) – New Zealand, backflip on a snowboard (without an airbag) – Nelson, BC...I think you get my point. Act outside your comfort zone – do something new!
5. Arguments
(Stimulating conversation)
I don't mean, strain everyone's energy by "never shutting up," or act in a disagreeable manner, but seriously, arguments are mental stimulation. An argument is a form of mental travel where you travel outside your own head and perspective and enter into someone else’s. I know, deep right?? I'm telling you, think controversial, think unconventional, think outside your box and take a glimpse into someone else’s – that's travel right there!!
Thanks for reading! Here's part one of my Nelson, BC trip where I try to live out these vacation ideals!!
Stay tuned for part 2, coming out tomorrow – with a video as well!!
