Travel/Life Lesson #something or other

Sometimes you need to ride an 8 hour shit smelling vomit inducing bus to get where you're going.
And when you do, you may need to put ear plugs in your nose to get through it.

Today I watched an ant eat a piece of an orange for 10 minutes. 

WIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFIIIIIII (said in a scary zombie voice)

Wifi is awesome. It does wonderful things for you as a traveler. It allows you to keep in touch with loved ones so they don't stay up all night thinking you're locked up in a Mexican prison, book hostels in advance, download city maps to your phone, and keep up with the offseason happenings of your favorite football team (like which player can bench the most or how much weed your star qb may or may not smoke).

It does have a downside though. It has ruined hostel life. Travelers are now as zombified by their electronics as they are back home. Walk into a common area and every single person is on their phone. No one is interacting...which is the whole freaking point of traveling. It's a huge change from 5 years ago, and one that would probably upset me more if i wasn't so busy updating my Facebook status every 5 seconds.

Viva la Mexico!

One of the reasons I love to travel so much is because overall I'm a pretty dumb guy. I can fully admit I don't know that much about places I haven't been. Probably why I thought lions would be walking down the streets of South Africa before I visited.

This is partly due to the fact I'm also pretty lazy when it comes to educating myself on world happenings. I figure I'd rather visit a place for myself than get someone else's opinion of it.

Which brings me to Mexico City. Prior to putting sneaker to pavement, all I knew of Mexico City and Mexico in general is the following…White Americans either go there to party or to die. American media leads us to believe that Mexico City is a scary place, full of scary people doing scary things. Why on earth would you want to travel to one of our closest neighboring countries when it has a reputation like that?

I'll tell you why. Because Mexico City is amazing. Not only is it massive, but it's also very modern. European like even. Gigantic metro system. More parks than you can shake a churro at. Hipster neighborhoods with great coffee, beer, and skinny jeans. Amazing people. Incredible culture. And food! Food every 5 steps! Delicious food. Face meltingly good food. For next to nothing.

Add to that Mexican wrestling, 70's gay discos, naps in the park, more food, mescal, ancient pyramids and food and you've got yourself a fantastic time that neither Fox News or CNN would endorse.

Punto!!!!!!!

Last night we went out for some Mexican Wrestling, 70's disco, and way way too much tequila with our new friends Steph and Angus. Oh and we ate more delicious street tacos…a few times. And a bacon wrapped hot dog with smashed dorritos on it. Who cares! I don't!

We back.

It’s 10:16 the night before we set out for another adventure. A few things are the same. We’re both following our hearts and making that great step out into the unknown. We’re both hoping not to fall flat on our faces. We both are filled with so much excitement we feel as though we might puke on each other at any given moment. I quit a job that I love, again. We’re leaving friends we have grown closer to, and shared many amazing nights, weekends, and hungover Breaking Bad marathons with. And of course we have the upmost faith that the highs and lows of the next few months to a year will bring us closer, make us stronger, and help us become better people in general.

A few things are different this time. I’m older. Much older. I’m also married. Oh and I have a fucking awesome tattoo that I got at the end of the last trip to remind me to do the very thing I’m about to do. 

This time our goal is to land jobs in Europe…so there we have a goal. It’s actually a dream we both shared independently before we ever met. So we’re putting it out into the universe and on electronic paper. AT THE END OF OUR TRAVELS WE WILL BOTH BE GETTING JOBS IN ADVERTISING (IF THAT’S WHAT SABRINA WANTS TO DO, I KNOW I SURE DO) THUS FUFILLING A LIFE LONG DREAM.

The other thing that’s different, and that I also want to write down, is I’m terrified. There I said it. I’m terrified that I left my amazing job. Terrified that I’m leaving this amazing apartment that we have been blessed with. Terrified of money going out and not coming in. Of no more Breaking Bad couch marathons. Missing our friends. Missing our families. Going to strange places. Jumping into who the hell knows what. Terrified that I’m terrified. WHEN I’VE ALREADY DONE THIS!

But this is good. This is where I need to be. We swore on our last trip we would never let fear make decisions for us. We agreed that fear is the body/brains way of telling you you’re alive. You’re doing something different. We convinced ourselves that fear is a good thing. Well I have a lot of it right now, but I’m embracing it. Packing that fear up into my new backpack and hitting the road, to find whatever the hell I’m supposed to find. I can’t wait. I’m scared shitless.

 A SIDE NOTE: When I was writing this I started thinking of my sister Meghan. A couple years back she made a similar decision. She identified her goals, envisioning what she wanted her life to be like. She decided she wanted to move to London and marry a British guy. So she did it. ALONE. Packed up her shit in NY and moved to London. Got a temporary position at Burberry filling in for someone who was on maternity leave. A couple years later she is rocking the shit out of her job and flying all over the planet doing fashion stuff…oh and she met a rad British guy who she’ll be marrying in oct. It makes me unbelievable proud that my little sister took life by the nuts like that and made her dreams happen. It also makes me laugh that here I am shitting myself on my couch in Venice, thinking about doing a similar thing, when I’m not doing it alone. I’m doing it with my wife. So what, my sister has bigger balls than me. I can throw a tighter spiral.