During this difficult time as the world faces the global pandemic, a lot of people are getting stir crazy. It is perfectly understandable, but we still have to stay inside to ensure everyone’s safety and flatten the curve. One thing that I am really missing is… you guessed it, travelling. Spring break has come and gone and now summer may be in jeopardy, and my wanderlust is taking over, but I have devised a plan to stay safe, and experience what the world has to offer.
When you travel you want to see the beauty of the new place you are in and experience the culture. To do this normally you would go on a tour, or maybe just get lost in the city. You would talk with the locals(if there isn’t a language barrier), and you would go to all the places that scream fun, whether that’s exploring a national park or zip-lining through a forest. You would expand your palette and try out some new food, and enjoy the entertainment this foreign land has to offer. While, this plan can’t give you the same experience as being on vacation, I hope it can at least make your life a little more exciting as you learn about a different culture. So let’s get to this plan that I keep talking about.
First things first, you have to decide where you want to ‘go’. You can base it off of a famous painting in a museum, or a culture you want to learn more about. I chose to go to Egypt! If you are having trouble choosing, don’t worry because there are plenty of quizzes online to help. I took them, and they all gave me great results, some even gave me places I have already traveled, so I guess it”s pretty accurate! I listed some below…
- https://www.quizony.com/where-should-you-travel/index.html
- https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/travel-tips/articles/what-bucket-list-trip-should-you-take
- https://www.jetsetter.com/magazine/quiz-dream-vacation-based-on-your-personality/
- https://www.arealme.com/travel/en/
- https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/where-to-go-on-vacation-quiz
Next, you should start looking for entertainment. I started off by searching for the top ten songs in Egypt right now, and then I found the top 5 Egyptian movies. I always see if I can find a translation of the lyrics so that I can understand what they are saying, but sometimes it is fun to not know because then the song will have a unique meaning to you alone. The movie you chose(or movies if you’re feeling ambitious) can be watched when you are eating, which don’t worry, we will cover. For now though, plug in your headphones and listen to some of the songs you chose during your search. The rest of the songs can be background music as we finish the steps for this virtual vacation.
Now you can get into the sightseeing. If you know what you are looking for then you can google if the place has any virtual tours available. Due to the lack of visitors these touristy locations are getting, a lot of them have made tours, posted galleries, or something similar to keep traffic to the location. I chose to go to the tomb of Queen Meresankh. The photos were all amazing. It’s crazy to think that we made such amazing architecture and monuments that long ago. If you don’t know what to do than you can always google top things to do in destination of choice, or you can use this site, https://theculturetrip.com/, because they offer virtual tours of different attractions. The site offers much more and is definitely fun to play around with. YouTube, Google Arts and Culture, and many other sources-even colleges are providing virtual tours, or something close to it. There are a couple of sites that offer pages and pages of museums offering tours, one of which being https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2020/04/02/these-museums-are-offering-free-virtual-tours/, which once you click the name takes you straight to the tour!
I know I promised I’d cover food so here we are. To experience the culture you are ‘traveling’ to google some of their dishes and see if you can replicate them. Because of the quarantine, ingredients may be hard to find, so maybe try for one item instead of a full meal. I naturally chose dessert and wanted to try roz bel laban, which is like an Egyptian rice pudding! I’m going to use an Egyptian cooking blog(http://dynasegyptiancooking.blogspot.com/2013/10/ros-bil-laban-rice-pudding.html), and hopefully it comes out right! Once the cooking process is finished, you should dig in while watching your favorite of the movie options! Bon Appetite!
You could end your virtual vacation there, or you could take a leap of faith and search for a foreign penpal. You should consider your safety first and foremost, when making this decision because you don’t want to give out personal information. I found a couple of sites that you can match you up with penpals that all have credible reputations. The first one is https://www.ipfworld.com/index.html and while it is highly recommended, you have to pay service fees, but if you are okay with that this is one of the biggest platforms. Another one I found was https://www.globalpenfriends.com/index.php?page=index which is free and the one that I signed up for. They seem to be a very transparent company especially because I was able to read there entire privacy statement in about 2 minutes. They also advise you to use an alias for the maximum amount of security. I will let you know how it goes, and maybe in the future post about penpals!
I hope you enjoyed your vacation from the couch! Comment where you ‘traveled’ and if you have any suggestions to enhance the experience. I will be posting again on Instagram and posting my first ever YouTube video of me ‘going’ to Egypt by following these steps! Stay safe and stay at home so that soon these vacations won’t have to virtual! š
Teen Traveler 