After you impromptu solo European backpacking trip last April, I have had the travel bug really bad. I know a lot of my friends also love to travel, but for some reason, we’ve been having trouble lining up plans. I think I figured it out as I’m planning my next European trip.
Everyone has their own travel style. My family, for example, are the typical Long Island vacationers. They’ll take their annual trip to Orlando and see Disney World, or they will take a long weekend in the Poconos. Then you have my buddy Adam who goes around the world looking for some crazy way to spike his adrenaline. I guess you can call him an adventure traveler and my family a Disney-fied traveler type.
Me, well I’m going to dub myself a dork traveler.
I’m okay with that. Apparently nerds are cool now.
Gone are the days of my frat guy partying and trying to pick up girls. Well, not completely.
I just want to see all things nerdy and go on educational trips around the world where I can see the accomplishments (and failures) of people before me and currently. I’m the type that will stand in a historical location and try to imagine the ancient world walk around me.
I’ve been on a 500-year-old fort in Puerto Rico where I stood and imagined soldiers fighting for their lives around e on a beautiful green hill.
I’ve stared down into the Coliseum for longer than is normal just picturing the brutality that happened there.
I’ve walked the Freedom Trail by myself in 95-degree weather imagining everyone around me in a colonial era, while also needing to stop at an Equinox Gym to shower off all of my sweat.
The things I want to see and do are the ones where I can learn something. There are so many fascinating things in the world that most people haven’t had the chance to discover, big and small.
The next trip I’m planning, after Hong Kong, is a birthday backpacking trip to Europe where the main goal is to go to Dracula’s Castle. Yes, Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania is an actual place where an actual Count lived. It’s in Romania in case you’re wondering.
Besides my one buddy that agreed to go on this nerdy backpacking trip with me, I can’t think of anyone else who wants to fly across the world to see an old castle where Vlad the Impaler committed some heinous act 600 years ago.
I find that type of thing fascinating and it is worth every penny and every mile of transportation. You can travel by picking a destination that you dream of going to, then from there build an itinerary of things to explore around there.
I’m currently working on my bucket list of other “nerdy” places to go. It’s funny that a lot of the dorkier places still line up with touristy things like Stonehenge. It seems like most people are going there just for the Instagram selfie while I just want to stare in awe, wondering how people so long ago had the ambition and know-how to build something like that. I want to see everything like that!
I’ve been reading a lot of ancient history and modern science books lately. I don’t get how in my 30’s I have this newfound thirst for knowledge and adventure, but in the years when it was handed to me in school and life with zero responsibilities, I really didn’t care about it.
Okay, if anyone has read this far, thank you. That was just a rant of someone who hasn’t had a trip in a bit and is itching to get out and see some new exciting places.
Funny enough, my next trip is in a few weeks to meet my Long Island family in Disney World haha. I have a four-year-old niece that I want to see get excited about a Mickey Mouse signature. Don’t judge.
What’s your traveler type? Do you have any good nerdy trips you can recommend to a simple backpacker?
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