Does this sound familiar? You’re speaking with someone who has just arrived back from a trip overseas. They share all of these great stories with you of adventures and experiences that they had on their vacation. You then start wishing that those sorts of things could happen to you, but you believe that they probably won’t.
The touristy things that other sites or travel guides tell you to go and do aren’t necessarily the most exciting and everyone else has done them to death anyway. Don’t get me wrong! Those things can be fantastic, especially to give you insight into the culture of the place that you’re visiting, but they’re rarely the experiences that you would get from a more ‘local’ perspective or give you a feel of what it would be like to actually live there. You may think that you can’t get that kind of travel experience unless you are very lucky and happen to be in the right place at the right time.
Actually, it’s easier than you think to have an exciting, memorable holiday and you don’t have to pay and read through a Lonely Planet guide. All you have to do is get out there, try new things.. in fact, try everything and meet as many people as you can. Be open to new experiences and new encounters and remember, when you’re on holiday, you can be whoever you want!
Canberra
Having spent my youth in Canberra, the capital of Australia, with the reputation of being the capital of boredom, most people that I have met have a negative opinion of Canberra. But the same people may have only visited once in the last 5 years or have never even been there. I wish that they could hold off on passing judgement without any experience of the place. If they would get out there and have a go, they might find that they have a great time trying new things regardless of where they are.
So go out there! Go for it. You can thank me later.