It Can't Bother You When You're Dead

As the season winds down, the big question popping into everyone's heads up here is: what to do until next season? The off-season is a really long 8 months. And as a traveler, money is always an issue. I guess there's always the issue of what you want to do vs. what you need to do. That's the conflict. Me? I think I'm going back to Europe. But not to backpack. This time I wanna go someplace and just be for a while. I don't wanna worry about where i'm gonna sleep, get my next meal, or catching my next train/plane/ferry. So far, it looks like a couple old Tahoe buddies from South Africa are gonna let me rent out their spare "room" in London for a while. Perfect! I love London. I really don't like cities, but London, San Francisco, and Oslo/Stockholm/Helsinki are rad. (OK, I just like Scandinavia a lot). I can't wait to take in the curries, beers, and just generally kick around town. I have more friends in London than any other place in the world. The issue, though, is money. Living in London is muy expensivo, and as an American, I'm not gonna be able to work while I'm there. (All of a sudden, I'm thinking the American Revolution wasn't such a good idea). There's another issue with going to London, but that's another post.

So here goes back to the issue of money. One of my flatmates in Australia, Graham, gave me some great advice while trying to convince me on buying a costly ticket to the Livid Festival in Brisbane. Graham said: in the future, when you look back at your travels, you're not gonna remember how much money you spent, just the experiences. Unless, of course, you get ripped off or something. Granted, Graham's the kinda guy that gets fried by his radiator on the way to Livid, hit by lightning on Sri Lanka, and as a result leaves the island the day before the tsunamis. But this is good advice from him. If you manage your money well then don't worry about spending, especially on commodities like plane tix, lift tix, snowboards, etc. That day at Livid was one of my top days in Australia. Life's too short to be pissed off, fighting, and worrying about crap that can't bother you when you're dead.

This is a pic of my 1st ever back flip off a rope swing. Wailua River. That's the kinda stuff we did for fun on Kauai. I mean, living in vans, none of us had TV. Most of our entertainment was based on the environment. On Kauai, I was working in 2 restaurants as a chef, but I lived in a van. How does that work out? Well.