What's your travel cadence? Sunday Surprise (7th May)
It's that time again for the weekly dose of random
Ola from Barcelona!
Apologies for missing the last issue of the Sunday Surprise. After writing the newsletter last time, I totally forgot what day it was and only realised the following Thursday that I had missed an issue. Sorry! I suppose it’s the sign of a good holiday.
More on that below, but for now, the weekly nudge to share this newsletter with your nearest and dearest by using the link below:
Thoughts from this week
What’s your travel cadence?
I realised after nearly 2 weeks of almost constant travel that while I love exploring new places, it need to be with a certain pattern that I’m calling the travel cadence.
In the past, I’d spend 3 or 4 days somewhere and pack most days with exploring 1-3 attractions or museums and have 1 rushed day of packing/travelling and unpacking somewhere new. Rinse and repeat for 3 or 4 locations and that would be a 2 week getaway with another few days to get there and back given Australia is so far from everything.
For the last few holidays, I’ve intentionally capped the number of locations and increased the time in each place and I’ve found it MUCH more enjoyable. Not only because the previous schedule could be exhausting trying to pack in as much as possible, but I realised that after a certain amount of new things, I wanted time to decompress and go through my photos/write down my thoughts or just read up on things I’d seen.
This trip, we began in Lisbon with a few days of exploring then had a day or 2 where I wrote the email and generally stayed home. Then there was a rush of activity, visiting Malaga, Tangiers, Chefchaouen in just a few days. That burst of activity meant that Barcelona has been the “slow” part where I’m literally planning to see 1 thing a day or nothing at all and instead, taking the time to reflect and journal.
The old traveller in me keeps saying it’s a waste to spend the days in a cafe writing or in the hotel but it’s actually allowed for some mental uncluttering. Ending the vacation on a slower pace should hopefully mean that I get back home recharged instead of feeling like I need to take another holiday to recover.
How do you like to travel? Are you likely to change your travel cadence? Let me know!
Weekly update
Ola from Barcelona!
It’s essentially the last few days of this vacation and I’ve really enjoyed ending on a slower pace that’s given me a chance to reflect and “smell the roses”. On the note of reflecting, it’s our 1st wedding anniversary today and I can’t believe the year has flown by!
It’ll be off to our favourite paella restaurant in a bit after visiting the famed Park Guell later today. There’s been so many highlights in the last 10 days that I’ll keep all that for the blog…
Gadget/tech
Lencent 65W GaN Travel Adapter*
Oh man, I miss my original version of this even though it was far lower capacity. This is essentially the only charger most people will need for travel. It combines a power adapter AND a charging brick with 65W into one. Essentially, that means I charge my laptop/phone/drone/camera without carrying anything else! 🤯
I’ve lost mine during the move between places and only realised about 30 mins before I had to leave so I’ve ordered this replacement already.
Creative update
randInt podcast - Bunbury break in!
It’s slightly delayed because of the continent hopping and Chandra’s boat adventures but the latest episode is out now!
This time we talk about what happened to Chandra’s backpack, the last week of Ramadan (this was recorded a while ago!) and the long waited “Growing up Brown” stories. Available on your favourite podcast app (search “RANDINT”) or click below
Watch
The Amazing AI Super Tutor for Students and Teachers
ChatGPT is all over the news everywhere and generally speaking, the use cases have seemed kinda scary. Everything from people losing their jobs to deep fakes making news and current affairs even harder to navigate.
What I loved about this video is that it’s quite the opposite and shows how AI and natural language models can in fact bridge the gap that exists in education these days in a scalable manner.
Brought to you by
NordVPN*
If you’re a frequent traveller, you know you’ll be connecting to Wifi at the airport/cafe/hotel as you go. All that web traffic is far less secure than you realise and this is where a VPN comes in, encrypting your data from your device to the server you’re connecting to. It also allows you to access websites/streaming services as if you were elsewhere in the world.
NordVPN
Weekly Quote
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
—Lao Tzu
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