You probably spend a lot of time thinking about getting away. Wherever you are, you want away from there. If you have snow you want sand, if you have sand you want mountains, and if you have mountains you want cityscapes.
I was cruising around online looking for some destination inspiration of my own. I decided to see where Londoners were reading about and went to the travel section of a UK newspaper. Where were they recommending readers go on holiday? San Francisco. About 20 minutes from my front door. Hmmm. Where else? The small town of Deal, not far from the white cliffs of Dover, home to my friend, Luke, and someplace that I once spent a week’s vacation, mostly listening to Luke talk about how dull Deal was and how he wanted to get away.
Well Luke’s living in Tokyo now, but apparently somebody thinks his hometown is worth a visit. And after reading the article on the beaches outside of San Francisco, I thought that sounded like a pretty good trip as well.
Sometimes you don’t need a new destination, just a new perspective.
And if so, does it matter?
It was such an awesome idea, of course someone else was going to jump on it. Lucky for you, that means that if spending a few months sailing around the world, learning as you go and visiting exotic ports of call sounds like something you’d enjoy, you have more than one option.
Right now I’m indoors, at my desk, and it’s 86 degrees. At my desk. Inside. More than anything, I would like to climb inside a refrigerator. The next best thing would be an ice cream factory/wonderland. Here are a few you could check out.
If the recent tragedies in Myanmar and China have gotten you thinking about ways you can help out, why not consider spending part of your summer volunteering as you travel? Those areas may be the most devestated right now, but there are programs that can take you all over the world to help those in need.
Another simple thing to do is to find the local newspaper for your destination online and read up on what’s going on there. It’s an easy way to get weather reports, find out about local festivals or events you may want to attend, or just to get a feel for what the people there are talking about. It’s much easier to strike up a conversation with locals when you’re able to ask them about a recent election, important court case, big sporting event, or just something funny you saw (“What’s the deal with that surfing poodle?”).
If you’re looking for a way to help the people of Myanmar, consider buying a book.
One little hiccup in that plan now is that one of Japan’s largest English schools,