I'm A Weirdo....mostly while traveling

I love to travel, f***ing love it, and try to do it as much as possible. In fact about a year ago at the suggestion of a great partner, I sat down and thought of what my ideal life would look like. One thing I knew I wanted in it was travel. I wrote down that I would like to go on two big (month+) trips a year and at least one decent-sized trip (week+) between the big trips. I then started trying to build the rest of my life around that foundation.

I’m not a huge believer in manifesting what you want from the universe but at that time I definitely did not have the means to pull off traveling four months of the year. But I started with just one trip and then moved onto the next trip and all of a sudden things have aligned that in the last year I’ve traveled to Oregon, Croatia, Mexico City, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Colombia and I’m currently spending six weeks in Croatia.

One of the things I love most about traveling is connecting with people, being exposed to the similarities we all have and not the differences. But for the god damn life of me, I cannot stop being an awkward f*** when I travel. Maybe I’m just awkward in general and for some reason, it isn’t as glaring while I’m walking around the USA. But below are some of the odd behavior that I exhibit while I’m abroad:

• I give an insane amount of thumbs up to people

• I think that everyone is instantly my best friend (the possibility that people are just really nice)

• I say ‘gracias’ to a bunch of people, have it be a Spanish-speaking country or not. I also do not speak Spanish

• I can never figure out where to go to the bathroom and usually end up going somewhere I’m not supposed to (dumpster, trees, etc)

• I’ll walk into a shop, not really sure if I want to buy anything. Someone will say ‘hi’ and I’ll walkout

• When its time to pay and someone says the total really fast, I just hold out a hand full of money and let them take whatever they think is appropriate

• I try to help other tourists when I‘m just as lost

• I always get a burger somewhere. Usually, it takes a few days but I always cave

• I have a constant movie playing in my head where I’m Jason Bourne or James Bond and this is a mission. Extremely dangerous while driving windy roads in Croatia

Just a few little things that have popped into my head as I’ve been enjoying this current trip. I would like to clarify that in no way do I blame anyone other than myself for this odd behavior. I am constantly impressed and reassured about the future of humanity when I travel. I find that people are kind, generous, and helpful in the many and often awkward positions that I put them in.