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| 15.07.2016 Venice, Italy |
2) Learn to sit at a Café alone and enjoy it. Take a book if it is dinner time. It will help you not feel so out of place.
3) Learn to let go and do what you want to do. You are alone amidst a sea of people, whom you shall never meet again. What is holding you back? Do what you feel like. Who cares what they think?
4) Take time to discover where you are. I do not just mean the tourist attractions, I mean the places where the locals go. Try to get a peek at the local life here. Roam random streets. Discover antique book stores that you have only read about in books but have never really seen. Visit coffeeshops that the locals frequent.
5) Try the local food.
6) Make sure you know how to get back to your accommodation late at night. Look up the public transport timetables beforehand. Find out if the trains, buses, etc. work according to the same timetables at night.
7) Dress sensibly. Try not wearing sandals that will make your feet hurt after walking for 30 minutes. Put some goddamned sneakers on.
8) Walk around with your headphones playing some local music. When I was in Verona, I did not speak the language, I was tired and I did not have a lot of time in that city. For some reason I just felt as if I was missing out on something. I then decided to google top 10 Italian love songs and play them. Voila! I finally understood why Verona was also known as the city of love. It is often hard to see why a place is considered amazing with throngs of tourists around one. So put on those headphones and be ready to be transported somewhere else.
9) Do not trust anyone and everyone. I know it sounds mundane. I mean how many times have we heard our parents tell us this very exact thing, but it is easier said than done. Gauge a person before asking them for help. Not everyone is a nice person trying to make sure that you reach your destination safely. Ask families. This applies especially at night when you are asking someone the best way to get to your accommodation because the chances are that the person might remember the address.
10) See the city at two times: one, early in the morning when all the tourists are sleeping in their hotel rooms, two, at night when the street lamps finally come to life and the entire city is lit up.
11) Strike a conversation with a few locals and try to see their perspective on their city.
12) Accept that you will not be able to check everything off of your To See List, and be content with what you have seen.
13) Take a few moments to think about what this trip taught you or made you feel.
14) Try to take back with you not a load of souvenirs but rather memories and experiences that will last you a lifetime.
15) Find your favourite place in that city. The one place that calls to you and makes you feel calm.
16) Imagine how it would feel like to live there.
17) Accept that you will not fall in love with every place that you visit and that it is okay.
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