It's surprisingly been quite some time since my last post given the fact I have had internet access everywhere, but even when being in exotic destinations, sometimes life just isn't that interesting. But after spending time in Ephesus Turkey and the last week in the Greek Isles, I have lots on my mind, so let's begin.
Let's start off by tackling some hard hitting issues:
Fashion:
You may be thinking to yourselves, "How is this guy, who wears one outfit for weeks on end, qualified to give fashion tips?" Well, because I have 2 eyes.
-Ladies: I realize that bras can be uncomfortable, but if Father Time has caught up with you and gravity has won the war with your breasts, do us all a favor and wear a bra.
Along that same line. Bikini offenders need to be stopped. You know how there are dress codes at night clubs, well I think we have reached a point where dress codes might be needed at the beach. Do women with with gigantic bellies really think a bikini is the best swimwear option for them? Do they actually walk out of their hotel room thinking, "Man, my extra 150 pounds really looks good in these 2 pieces of skimpy fabric?" There should really be bouncers lined up along the beach front, denying access to these women, forcing them at the very least to wear a shirt, or have complimentary one piece suits for all of these ladies.
Footwear has also bothered me for quite some time with women as well. Europe is loaded with cobblestone streets, yet the amount of women who feel the need to wear high heels, is off the charts. Sexy cute shoes are only sexy and cute if you can walk properly in them. If you walk like you are walking on ice, taking ittie bittie steps, your shoes are no longer sexy. They are just flat out stupid. Wear flats and get over yourself. I saw an Asian woman actually walking in the sand with 6 inch black heels for the sole purpose of having her picture taken in front of a windmill. She didn't bother to take them off, walk through the sand, and put them back on once at the spot for her photo. She walked a good 50 feet (15m) in heels in the sand. Crazy. High heels aren't meant for beaches unless I missed a memo while in Africa. And it's not just Europe where this is an issue. It is happening all over the world. I even saw women walking in high heels on the Great Wall of China. Pretty sure they weren't laying concrete on the top of the wall thousands of years ago so that women of the future could safely walk on the wall in high heels. I'd like to know what goes through the minds of these women when they pack for a trip. "Ok. So I'm going to Italy. Gonna walk around Venice and their cobblestone streets, hike through the Cinque Terre and relax on their amazing beaches, and take a few boat rides to the towns around Lake Como and walk their steep streets. What should I bring? Do I bring sneakers and some comfortable loose clothing or my tight fitting mini skirt with 6 inch heels? Such choice...such choices. I think I'll pack the mini and pumps." The stories are endless. Saw a woman wearing white jeans for a hike through Cappadocia. Do you really think those jeans are going to stay white after a day walking in dirt and dust. STOP THE MADNESS...PLEASE.
It's been 2 months since I've seen rain. If rain is that wet stuff that falls from the sky in droplet form, then it's definitely raining here in Athens.
Hey taxi driver. If I come to you and ask if you can take me to particular destination, don't point me in the right direction and make me walk. Open your door, let me in, and drive me there. Do I really look like I want to walk through the streets of Athens with my huge backpack at 1am?
I have been having an awful time trying to get my ATM card to work since the trip has started. The card I left home with had a crack on the magnetic strip and wouldn't work work when I first arrived in Australia. Had my parents get a new card and send it to New Zealand, where I received it about a month later. Cost about $100 to ship that little plastic card as well. Used that card for about a month before the Bank Islam ATM machine ate my card in the wee hours of the morning at a seedy bus station in Malaysia. About a month later, my parents sent my next card to Cape Town in time for the start of my African trip. After many failed attempts at using my card in the first few countries in Africa, my bank then informed me that my card wasn't going to work in Africa, Jordan, and Turkey. So for about 5 months, I was doing all sorts of stuff to try and get cash. When I got to Greece, I was assured that my card would work because it shouldn't be a problem in Europe. Wrong. Had about 5 different ATM machines refuse my card on the Greek Islands and was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was just going to have go the rest of my trip without the use of an ATM card....BUT THEN...magic happened. I put my card into a machine, just for kicks, and pieces of paper shot out of the machine. Part of me was actually hoping that the reason my card still wasn't working in Europe was because of inactivity. Sometimes if you go too long without using your card, it just stops working. I was hoping for the sake of irony that that was going to be the case with me. But unfortunately, it works now...for the time being.
So what have I actually been doing since we last spoke? I went to Ephesus. What can I actually say about ruins at this point? They're ruins I guess. A bunch of old stuff that is still standing with the help of renovations. The sight itself was neat. Had a huge theater, the famous library and a bunch of other homes, baths, tombs, etc. I then went by boat to the Greek Isles.
Started my trip in Mykonos and after arriving, I kind of thought to myself, "Why exactly did you choose to visit Mykonos?" It is essentially a party island with overrated beaches, in my opinion. It had a neat old town section know as Little Venice, which is where I spent most of my few days there wandering those narrow cobblestone streets in search of interesting colors and shadows to photograph. That part of town definitely had an exciting energy about it. Lots of neat little cafes and boutique shops. Definitely touristy, but there was enough local flavor to still make it feel authentic. I had one of the best meals of my entire trip while there. An amazing Greek salad, moussaka, chocolate souffle, white wine, along with a fruit plate drizzled with apple pie like syrup and dessert wine on the house. So in the end, I was happy I went, but still am not entirely sure why I wanted to visit the island.
I then spent the last few days on Santorini. I have wanted to go there for the views that include the blue domed churches overlooking the sea, and was not disappointed. Stayed at a hostel that kind of reminded me of Melrose Place. A pool upon entering and then various rooms scattered about. Met a really cool group of people that made the stay that much more enjoyable. Even included a girl from Baltimore. One night, we all went down to the black sand beaches. Shared some drinks and stories and then decided to go into the sea, clothed. Then turned into skinny dipping, where tragedy then ensued. My beloved orange shirt that so many of you have grown to love and hate, was lost to the sea. I thought I was holding it along with my pants, but when we left the water, I found that it had vanished. Not gonna lie, that kinda ruined the night. That shirt has been with me since my first backpacking adventure 5 yrs ago. It would have been nice for that shirt to be worn in all 7 continents, but alas, it was not meant to be. The next night, we all went out to dinner, came back to the hostel, where I may or may not have had a couple bottles of wine. I then made the mistake of falling asleep before the rest of my dorm mates and woke up in the morning to find my fingernails and toenails painted a lovely shade of red. Strangely, I wore the polish for most of the day and didn't want to eat any messy foods because I didn't want to dirty my nails. The polish is now gone, but the memory lingers.
So now I sit in Athens following a 5.5 hour ferry ride, which can only be described as sea sickness inducing. The first half of the trip was fine, but then for about a 2 hour stretch, we encountered some really rough seas. Pretty sure the boat was airborne almost as much as it was in the water. If you've ever been in a motorboat and hit a wave in such a way that you get that weightlessness feeling in your stomach before crashing back down into the water, we had that for 2 hours. Every other person was throwing up. People were lying down in the aisles and at one point the staff came over the loud speaker and was asking for the services of a doctor, if there was one on the boat. The crew just kept coming around to all of the seats handing out sick bags and taking the used ones. It was almost like being in a floating emergency room. Luckily, sickness eluded me and I was able to enjoy the in cabin entertainment Bruce Almighty with surround sound vomiting.
And now to address the title of the post. When I first decided to travel the world for a year, I thought that by the time I hit South America, about 9 months into my journey, that I would be craving some structure. Which is why I decided to do a 3 week volunteer experience in the Galapagos Islands. I thought that having some sort of routine would be a nice change of pace. I no longer feel that way. In fact, I am basically wanting less and less structure by the minute. This trip has in fact re-affirmed my belief that I will be great at being retired. I am essentially evolving as a backpacker by devolving. The less structure the better. It is fun to just wake up and then decide what the heck to do for the day or what city to travel to next without any advanced planning. Structure is stressful. That probably sounds counter-intuitive to alot of you, because for most of us, it is structure and routine that dominates everyday living. You wake up, have your morning routine, go to work and probably do something similar to what you did the previous day, go home, sleep and do it all again the next day. But even though that kind of structure makes your everyday living go smoothly, if something like sleeping through your alarm or a traffic jam or an unexpected meeting at work occur, all of a sudden, having so much structure to your day becomes detrimental. I kind of think that is why I am a travel therapist and why I kind of enjoy home health. While there is still the everyday grind of going to work, with home health, I can decide when I want to see a person. I can take time in the middle of the day to play golf if I wanted to so long as I still manage to see all of my patients for the week. Relatively low stress when you aren't really constricted by a set schedule and work hours. The only parts of my trip that are stressful are usually surrounding the 24hrs leading up to catching my next flight, which was something planned months ago. If I were to have no intended destination, I could just wake up one morning, go to the bus station or airport, and pick a place to go, and figure out my next course of action upon arrival. No stress. Why do you think so many of you always come back from a vacation saying, "I had a great trip, but now I could use a vacation from my vacation?" Because of structure. That constant feeling of always having to be somewhere the next day to see the next sight or do the next activity is stressful, even if the activity itself is rather relaxing. I'm not saying that flying by the seat of your pants is the way forward for society. We need structure to prevent lawlessness but perhaps a little less structure in our everyday living/vacations could be liberating. Food for thought anyway.
How about some pictures:
Let's start off by tackling some hard hitting issues:
Fashion:
You may be thinking to yourselves, "How is this guy, who wears one outfit for weeks on end, qualified to give fashion tips?" Well, because I have 2 eyes.
-Ladies: I realize that bras can be uncomfortable, but if Father Time has caught up with you and gravity has won the war with your breasts, do us all a favor and wear a bra.
Along that same line. Bikini offenders need to be stopped. You know how there are dress codes at night clubs, well I think we have reached a point where dress codes might be needed at the beach. Do women with with gigantic bellies really think a bikini is the best swimwear option for them? Do they actually walk out of their hotel room thinking, "Man, my extra 150 pounds really looks good in these 2 pieces of skimpy fabric?" There should really be bouncers lined up along the beach front, denying access to these women, forcing them at the very least to wear a shirt, or have complimentary one piece suits for all of these ladies.
Footwear has also bothered me for quite some time with women as well. Europe is loaded with cobblestone streets, yet the amount of women who feel the need to wear high heels, is off the charts. Sexy cute shoes are only sexy and cute if you can walk properly in them. If you walk like you are walking on ice, taking ittie bittie steps, your shoes are no longer sexy. They are just flat out stupid. Wear flats and get over yourself. I saw an Asian woman actually walking in the sand with 6 inch black heels for the sole purpose of having her picture taken in front of a windmill. She didn't bother to take them off, walk through the sand, and put them back on once at the spot for her photo. She walked a good 50 feet (15m) in heels in the sand. Crazy. High heels aren't meant for beaches unless I missed a memo while in Africa. And it's not just Europe where this is an issue. It is happening all over the world. I even saw women walking in high heels on the Great Wall of China. Pretty sure they weren't laying concrete on the top of the wall thousands of years ago so that women of the future could safely walk on the wall in high heels. I'd like to know what goes through the minds of these women when they pack for a trip. "Ok. So I'm going to Italy. Gonna walk around Venice and their cobblestone streets, hike through the Cinque Terre and relax on their amazing beaches, and take a few boat rides to the towns around Lake Como and walk their steep streets. What should I bring? Do I bring sneakers and some comfortable loose clothing or my tight fitting mini skirt with 6 inch heels? Such choice...such choices. I think I'll pack the mini and pumps." The stories are endless. Saw a woman wearing white jeans for a hike through Cappadocia. Do you really think those jeans are going to stay white after a day walking in dirt and dust. STOP THE MADNESS...PLEASE.
It's been 2 months since I've seen rain. If rain is that wet stuff that falls from the sky in droplet form, then it's definitely raining here in Athens.
Hey taxi driver. If I come to you and ask if you can take me to particular destination, don't point me in the right direction and make me walk. Open your door, let me in, and drive me there. Do I really look like I want to walk through the streets of Athens with my huge backpack at 1am?
I have been having an awful time trying to get my ATM card to work since the trip has started. The card I left home with had a crack on the magnetic strip and wouldn't work work when I first arrived in Australia. Had my parents get a new card and send it to New Zealand, where I received it about a month later. Cost about $100 to ship that little plastic card as well. Used that card for about a month before the Bank Islam ATM machine ate my card in the wee hours of the morning at a seedy bus station in Malaysia. About a month later, my parents sent my next card to Cape Town in time for the start of my African trip. After many failed attempts at using my card in the first few countries in Africa, my bank then informed me that my card wasn't going to work in Africa, Jordan, and Turkey. So for about 5 months, I was doing all sorts of stuff to try and get cash. When I got to Greece, I was assured that my card would work because it shouldn't be a problem in Europe. Wrong. Had about 5 different ATM machines refuse my card on the Greek Islands and was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was just going to have go the rest of my trip without the use of an ATM card....BUT THEN...magic happened. I put my card into a machine, just for kicks, and pieces of paper shot out of the machine. Part of me was actually hoping that the reason my card still wasn't working in Europe was because of inactivity. Sometimes if you go too long without using your card, it just stops working. I was hoping for the sake of irony that that was going to be the case with me. But unfortunately, it works now...for the time being.
So what have I actually been doing since we last spoke? I went to Ephesus. What can I actually say about ruins at this point? They're ruins I guess. A bunch of old stuff that is still standing with the help of renovations. The sight itself was neat. Had a huge theater, the famous library and a bunch of other homes, baths, tombs, etc. I then went by boat to the Greek Isles.
Started my trip in Mykonos and after arriving, I kind of thought to myself, "Why exactly did you choose to visit Mykonos?" It is essentially a party island with overrated beaches, in my opinion. It had a neat old town section know as Little Venice, which is where I spent most of my few days there wandering those narrow cobblestone streets in search of interesting colors and shadows to photograph. That part of town definitely had an exciting energy about it. Lots of neat little cafes and boutique shops. Definitely touristy, but there was enough local flavor to still make it feel authentic. I had one of the best meals of my entire trip while there. An amazing Greek salad, moussaka, chocolate souffle, white wine, along with a fruit plate drizzled with apple pie like syrup and dessert wine on the house. So in the end, I was happy I went, but still am not entirely sure why I wanted to visit the island.
I then spent the last few days on Santorini. I have wanted to go there for the views that include the blue domed churches overlooking the sea, and was not disappointed. Stayed at a hostel that kind of reminded me of Melrose Place. A pool upon entering and then various rooms scattered about. Met a really cool group of people that made the stay that much more enjoyable. Even included a girl from Baltimore. One night, we all went down to the black sand beaches. Shared some drinks and stories and then decided to go into the sea, clothed. Then turned into skinny dipping, where tragedy then ensued. My beloved orange shirt that so many of you have grown to love and hate, was lost to the sea. I thought I was holding it along with my pants, but when we left the water, I found that it had vanished. Not gonna lie, that kinda ruined the night. That shirt has been with me since my first backpacking adventure 5 yrs ago. It would have been nice for that shirt to be worn in all 7 continents, but alas, it was not meant to be. The next night, we all went out to dinner, came back to the hostel, where I may or may not have had a couple bottles of wine. I then made the mistake of falling asleep before the rest of my dorm mates and woke up in the morning to find my fingernails and toenails painted a lovely shade of red. Strangely, I wore the polish for most of the day and didn't want to eat any messy foods because I didn't want to dirty my nails. The polish is now gone, but the memory lingers.
So now I sit in Athens following a 5.5 hour ferry ride, which can only be described as sea sickness inducing. The first half of the trip was fine, but then for about a 2 hour stretch, we encountered some really rough seas. Pretty sure the boat was airborne almost as much as it was in the water. If you've ever been in a motorboat and hit a wave in such a way that you get that weightlessness feeling in your stomach before crashing back down into the water, we had that for 2 hours. Every other person was throwing up. People were lying down in the aisles and at one point the staff came over the loud speaker and was asking for the services of a doctor, if there was one on the boat. The crew just kept coming around to all of the seats handing out sick bags and taking the used ones. It was almost like being in a floating emergency room. Luckily, sickness eluded me and I was able to enjoy the in cabin entertainment Bruce Almighty with surround sound vomiting.
And now to address the title of the post. When I first decided to travel the world for a year, I thought that by the time I hit South America, about 9 months into my journey, that I would be craving some structure. Which is why I decided to do a 3 week volunteer experience in the Galapagos Islands. I thought that having some sort of routine would be a nice change of pace. I no longer feel that way. In fact, I am basically wanting less and less structure by the minute. This trip has in fact re-affirmed my belief that I will be great at being retired. I am essentially evolving as a backpacker by devolving. The less structure the better. It is fun to just wake up and then decide what the heck to do for the day or what city to travel to next without any advanced planning. Structure is stressful. That probably sounds counter-intuitive to alot of you, because for most of us, it is structure and routine that dominates everyday living. You wake up, have your morning routine, go to work and probably do something similar to what you did the previous day, go home, sleep and do it all again the next day. But even though that kind of structure makes your everyday living go smoothly, if something like sleeping through your alarm or a traffic jam or an unexpected meeting at work occur, all of a sudden, having so much structure to your day becomes detrimental. I kind of think that is why I am a travel therapist and why I kind of enjoy home health. While there is still the everyday grind of going to work, with home health, I can decide when I want to see a person. I can take time in the middle of the day to play golf if I wanted to so long as I still manage to see all of my patients for the week. Relatively low stress when you aren't really constricted by a set schedule and work hours. The only parts of my trip that are stressful are usually surrounding the 24hrs leading up to catching my next flight, which was something planned months ago. If I were to have no intended destination, I could just wake up one morning, go to the bus station or airport, and pick a place to go, and figure out my next course of action upon arrival. No stress. Why do you think so many of you always come back from a vacation saying, "I had a great trip, but now I could use a vacation from my vacation?" Because of structure. That constant feeling of always having to be somewhere the next day to see the next sight or do the next activity is stressful, even if the activity itself is rather relaxing. I'm not saying that flying by the seat of your pants is the way forward for society. We need structure to prevent lawlessness but perhaps a little less structure in our everyday living/vacations could be liberating. Food for thought anyway.
How about some pictures:
The ruins are from Ephesus. The pics starting with the windmills and ending with the outdoor movie screen are from Mykonos and the rest were taken in Santorini. Gotta love the nail polish.
If any of you readers have questions you have been wanting to ask, I would like to answer them in my next blog post. Either comment on this post with your question, send me an email, or look me up on Facebook to pose your questions. Funny or serious, I'll answer them all so long as those answers aren't too incriminating. Cheers.
Okay, so tell us, do the guys wear skimpy suits as well regardless of their build? Your pictures continue to be just beautiful. Can't decide what country(ies) you've visited should go to the top of my travel wish list. Glad you didn't get sick on the boat ride- guess all the whale watching trips and love for rough amusement rides might have helped.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Croatia- can't wait to see your pictures from there.
Happy Travels,
MomG
i am more amazed every time i catch up on your blog posts - your pics are so beautiful and your commentary so insightful! i agree that i fall into the trap of too much structure and it can be exhausting. hope you can get out of that volunteer work and fly by the seat of your pants in south america!!
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