How to nurture your travel bug at home
Travelling has become an indispensable part of our lives – it brings us many benefits – the joy of exploring new cities and countries, new tastes, history, rituals, meeting fascinating people, and getting to know ourselves better. Sometimes a moment hits (be it corona pandemic, or else…) when the only travelling you get is the one to the couch, or bed, or fridge. You feel stuck at home – but do not waste that time! You can still make it travel-rich! We have prepared a list of activities that let you bring the world home and keep on exploring!
#1 Immerse in culture
It is a perfect moment to dedicate yourself to discovering the cultural offering and choose which classy manner of spending your free time works best for you. Thanks to technology, you can have a peek into the world’s famous museums or you can watch an opera show without moving away from your couch! Cultural institutions worldwide offer virtual tours – dreaming about seeing the inside of the British Museum in London, Louvre in Paris or Uffizi Gallery in Florence? – you can do this now! Always wanted to visit Opera de Paris or visit a concert at Philharmonie in Berlin? It couldn’t be easier – just turn on your computer!
For some more art inspiration and live streams, visit Social Distancing Festival, a webpage created by Nick, an artist from Toronto, to celebrate and support artists during the #stayathome times due to coronavirus spread. It is a great opportunity to show your support and interest in cultural happenings close to you and all over the world.
#2 Play board games
How long have your board games been gathering dust, huh? It is the time to take them out of the cupboards and spend some quality time with your dear ones. Games can be a great mood booster – a healthy dose of competition can do wonders. From classics, such as card games (Uno, Rummy, Memory) or Monopoly which we all have at homes, to some of the newest game inventions which will take you to the most beautiful places in the world, at least by imaging them. Such as Azul which is based on Portuguese tiles called azulejos, 7 Wonders takes place in real-life wonders of the ancient world like the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria or Backpacker where you will be traveling the continents.
For those on board and ready for a ride, we recommend Ticket to Ride which is a railway-themed German-style board game, Robinson Crusoe will take the players to a deserted island, where they’ll play the parts of shipwreck survivors confronted by an extraordinary adventure and Terraforming Mars where players take the role of corporations working together to terraform the planet Mars by raising the temperature, adding oxygen to the atmosphere, covering the planet’s surface with water and creating plant and animal life. You will not want to stop!
#3 Have a good read
Read all the books you have been wanting to read, and bring yourself to yet unexplored places. Books teach us about the world we live in – the geography, culture, rituals, and much more – it is the time to upgrade your knowledge and at the same time fuel your imagination. Embark on a self-discovery journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia with Eat, Pray, Love, discover the different faces of India with Shantaram, follow your destiny with The Alchemist, dine out with Anthony Bourdain in Medium Raw or travel around the world with Maps (great pick for the little ones!). Feed your travel enthusiast with content.
#4 Get sentimental with your travel memories
How many photos have you taken during your last trip? Have you already had a chance to see all of them and make an album? Organizing your disk space and photos is a sentimental journey that is recommended to everyone once in a while… Take time to appreciate all of the memories you have of your last travels, organize them and make sure to share them with your friends and family. Maybe it is also the right occasion to try a new way of preserving your memories – scrapbooking, anyone?
#5 Upgrade your cooking skills
Are you missing the mouth-watering Italian pizza, the crunchy French croissant or the traditional Apfelstrudel? We can totally relate! No time to waste – accept the challenge and become an international master chef! Having more free time, you can finally follow all the indications of the Italian nonna and make the carbonara right (no cream, remember!). You could also try your chances with a cuisine of the country you haven’t been to yet. Organize a cheese and wine pairing, make a healthy version of fish & chips, the list of possibilities is endless.
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