At one point in time, not so long ago, I had planned to start writing daily, but I couldn’t bring myself to focus on Infinite Diaries as much as I wanted to. Part of the reason behind this was that I was depressed after both my parents succumbed to cancer in March and April of this year, just 20 days apart. Actually that’s probably the main reason, with laziness being the other. Or lack of motivation perhaps. Nevertheless, I wasn’t doing what I had been planning to do for the past year. And then I went to Rome …
Travel
Giant Squid Captured on Video →
Amisha Padnani:
They can be as big as a bus, or even bigger, and yet the elusive giant squid has hardly been spotted swimming alive in the ocean.
‘That’s one big fish!’
Lauren Juliff — the Disaster Traveller →
Lauren Juliff:
I receive a lot of emails telling me I’m living the perfect life, but at times, it feels like I stumble from one near-death experience to the next. This life of travel isn’t always amazing, and I have far more unfortunate experiences on the road than any other backpacker I’ve met. I think it’s important to talk about them in order to give a more realistic view of travel than the beach and sunset photos. 2015, in particular, has been a tough one.
Her bad luck and ability to get into trouble are amazing. And someone, preferably her boyfriend Dave, should make use of that photo for a meme of some sort — it’s insanely great. Kudos for posting it online too.
Hotels, Drugs, and Convertibles: How I Lived Like a King
for a Month in Venezuela for Just $115 →
Diego Urdaneta:
What I do want to do here, however, is help my country’s tourism industry by demonstrating that you can live like a king for an entire month in Venezuela with just one €100 bank note (about $115) thanks to these strange and confusing economic controls. If you’re a local earning local money, life is tough—very basic supplies like toilet paper are in extraordinarily short supply and you’ll have to wait in line for hours just to get your hands on them. If you’re a tourist bringing over foreign currency, on the other hand, the country is your oyster.
I didn’t know it was this bad.
Oh, and Diego picked a really beautiful car to rent.
Lauren Juliff’s Summary of This Year’s Travels →
Lauren Juliff:
Over the past 12 months, I travelled across eighteen countries; seven of them new. I spent time in 62 cities and slept in 35 beds. I took 15 flights and travelled 24,613 miles. I spent $20,417.83.
You could say it’s been the best year of my life; I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have received so many amazing opportunities. I wrote a book! It sold out its first print run in three months! The vast majority of the reviews have been positive! I’m a published author and it still feels incredible. This year, I lived in Spain for several months. I ran my first 5k race. I visited the Baltics, a brand new region of Europe for me. I explored Cornwall and saw for myself that there’s more to England than my London bubble. I stayed in an Italian village with a permanent population of two. I took a ferry to Finland on a whim. I spent several nights floating on a river in the jungles of Cambodia. I ate everything in Taiwan. And Vietnam. And Spain. And Italy.
And at the same time, I can’t deny this year has included some of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced. Mental breakdowns. Panic attacks. Self-doubt. Cancelled trips. Bedbugs. Allergic reactions. Letting down friends. Losing my passport. Forgetting to apply for visas. I started the year in one of the darkest periods of my life, but end it at one of my strongest. Those terrible experiences were necessary for me to reassess my life and make the changes I’d been putting off for a while.
If you’re into traveling, or just want to read about someone who is, give Lauren’s blog a shot. She has the most insane adventures.
Even though her 2015 wasn’t quite as crazy as the previous escapades, it was pretty good. You can read about her earlier and more insane travels in her book [iBooks]. I wrote a little about it here.
We Went to Rome, and I Found Something I Wasn’t Expecting
I Have a Dream and it Probably Won’t Come True
I love traveling. I love visiting new places. I was fortunate enough in my youth to spend a lot of time with my parents, visiting many wonderful places around the world. This isn’t as easy today. I now have a family, a job … My father once gave me a poster for my bedroom wall. It had a great photo of a bulldog on it with the following words:
I want all of the power and none of the responsibility.
I was probably about ten years old then, and I did not fully understand the message that it conveyed. Close to thirty years later, I do. Unfortunately.
Taking Notes and Writing in Markdown – My Current Workflow
My wife and I are currently on vacation in India, lounging on the beaches, eating fresh shrimp every evening and having a great time. Before we left though, two things happened—I changed my writing workflow and spent some time with Dan Counsell of RealmacSoftware, talking about Markdown writing tools.
Discover: London — Our First Photography Album and Travel Guide for iPad in English
I’m extremely proud (and a little frightened) to present our first photography album and travel guide for the iPad written in English. The idea first came to me after using my webpage to show my photography and talk about our family’s travels — it was a sub par experience and I didn’t have full control over the layout. Since I use Adobe Creative Cloud for various other things, I decided to try to leverage their tools and create the whole album in InDesign, to my exact specifications.
Two Universal Travelling Constants
I’m sure many of you have flown in an aeroplane before, as have millions of people around the world. My wife and I are in transit as I write this in fact. We’re hopping on and off at airports, trying to get back home, seeing the same two strange phenomena over and over again. The first occurs a few minutes after touching down, while the second needs a half hour more or so. I’m sure you’ve all seen this happen and perhaps you even do this yourselves – perhaps you’ll be able to enlighten me as to why it happens.