Do you miss a vacation? A real one, away from home. One with so many memorable moments to fill a whole year of memories with a smile on your face. So do we!
Probably, because of the pandemic, we want a vacation even more. Like any other wish, which we cannot fulfill, it becomes more and more burning. Because many of us preferred safety and we chose to stay at home this year, we thought of a solution to balance the desire to leave and the need to be safe.
Holidays are an important resource for everyone’s mental and physical well-being. It is scientifically proven that a few days breaks help us maintain heart and brain health. For those who do not feel safe to venture during this period, staying at home can offer almost the same benefits as when we go on vacation: a chance to rest, a break from the daily routine, freedom and play.
Sometimes, taking a few days off and staying at home can be more relaxing than going on a vacation: you avoid the time spent at the airport, you get rid of the traffic stress and you avoid the queues at crowded tourist attractions.
Here’s how you can take a vacation, right in the comfort of your own home:
- Watch movies or read books to transport you in space and / or time
If you want to visit a certain part of the world, you can read a book or watch a movie whose actions take place in that specific location. You can learn the history of the place or you can see it from the perspective of a native author. And there are so many times you have told yourself that the most interesting way to discover a place is through the eyes of the locals, not through the tourist areas.
However, if you want to be more daring, you can read some crime novels or classic novels, maybe with the action carried out in another time frame. With their help, you can travel wherever and whenever you want, as you did as a child when fairy tales took you to fantastic realms. In “Master and Margarita”, Mikhail Bulgakov walks you through Moscow in the 1930s, and in the novel “On the Road”, you embark with the author Jack Kerouac on a journey through America in the 50s.
- Broaden your musical horizons
For sure it happened to you to hear a song and to be carried away to the moment and place where you first heard it or when you lived a memorable moment. Music is closely linked to emotions and is an ultra-fast virtual time and space transport machine. Therefore you have at your disposal the perfect way through which you can travel mentally.
And who says you have to limit yourself to one song? You can live a whole day in another corner of the world, with a playlist from a place you always wanted to go, that wouldhelp you create the right atmosphere.
And we give you another suggestion, try to listen to a radio station from a country you want to visit, something to your taste, Antena Satelor or TOP Hits. We guarantee you that after a few hours you will really wonder where you really are.
- Make a cocktail specific to your favorite place
Cocktails or drinks specific to the desired place can transport you to where you want to go. You can try an evening with Sangria, if you like Spain, a refined wine if you want to go to France, English tea or even agua fresca Mexicana.
Whether you choose to prepare or order them, we are convinced that these drinks will make you feel a little taste of the culture of the chosen country. Of course, do not exaggerate, keep in touch with reality.
- Travel culinary!
Holidays also mean what we eat, or at least taste, some of the dishes specific to the place we arrive in. Taste is one of the strongest hooks of memory.
In Romania, we have the chance to access extremely varied ingredients of all kinds, indigenous or exotic, which allow us to do this right at home. You can even buy a book of recipes specific to the country you wanted to go to and prepare the most interesting dishes you can find. Now that everything is coming to your door, you can order the strangest ingredients, which will help you cook your perfect plate.
Baklavas from Turkey, Stroganoff from Russia or classic hot dogs from America, will make you taste a little of their culture. How? Don’t you like to cook? Oder! The small restaurants, which strive to recompose the culinary culture specific to other countries will cook with even more passion.
- Visit a virtual museum!
You may not know it, but the world’s most famous museums have opened their doors to allow us to visit them even online. You can find virtual tours both in Romania and abroad. From Antipa to Louvre, you can visit every exhibition. You can access Google’s Arts and Culture to choose your favourite museums or pieces of art that you wanted to see.
Sure, it’s not the same as going there, but when will you ever get to see the Van Gogh Museum and the Frida Kahlo Museum on the same day? In addition, the digital format delivers more friendly and intuitive information about exhibits, allows you to choose sections that are of interest to you and take themed tours through several museums around the world at the same time.
Also, on Google`s Arts and Culture, you can discover the US National Parks and many other interesting things.
- Buy a souvenir
An important custom of all holidays is to buy a souvenir from every place we went, to remind us of the moments spent there. If you can’t go there, why not bring vacation to your house? You can buy a fridge magnet, a cup or a notebook from that place. You can even choose a miniature work of art and when you get to go where you want, you can start the tour from the piece of art you know or already have.
But how about making a souvenir yourself? Google can help you reach out to online creative experience providers, even in the countries you want to reach. Local masters will teach you how to create your own souvenirs, and the experience will remain as deep in your memory as a real one.
If you are thinking of planning a short vacation from the comfort and safety of your own home, you can consider the tips above for an experience similar to a physical visit to the desired places with a much more affordable budget.
If we stay at home, it does not mean that we cannot explore the world around us!
