Why Being Broke is the Best Time to Travel

When you don’t have much money, travel seems only a nice fantasy. When you have debts, loans, or a crummy job; sleep on your friend’s couch; or can barely afford McDonalds, it seems that traveling is a pipe dream that will probably never come true, something you’re going to have to put off until you have money.

But I don’t think that’s the case! I think being broke is the best reason to start traveling.

When you have the fewest options is when you really you have the most options. When you’re at the bottom, you have little lose but everything to gain.

As Janis Joplin said, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

When you don’t have any money or a great job, there’s little downside to picking up, saying goodbye, and going off to travel. You’ll ride out the storm, maybe find something you really love, and gain life experience and those soft interpersonal skills that employers today find valuable!

The world is full of opportunities (and jobs), so if you’ve exhausted those in your area, why not try a new one? If you’re willing to go out and grab life by the horns, you’ll find plenty of opportunities out there to earn money, travel, and find what you love.

Open yourself up to new possibilities and experiences. Don’t suffer in that crummy job that barely pays the bills. Move somewhere. Pick up and start over. It’s what our ancestors used to do. They moved to where the opportunity was and they thrived because of it. Where would we be if they didn’t constantly try to seek a better life but instead sat and watched Netflix?

I know picking up and leaving when you’re struggling can seem scary. We often leave a situation only when we are the most secure. When you’re struggling, your thoughts are more likely to be “if I can just get ahead a little, then I’ll be ready to go.”

However, there’s no perfect time to travel. There’s no right moment. If you’re in a bad situation, find opportunities and go try them. Which is scarier: failing and coming back to exactly where you started or continuing down a path that will probably drag you down for the rest of your life?

Unless you seize the moment, that temp job you’re in just until you find something new is more likely to be the job you still have years from now.

If you’re in a place you don’t like, are working a job you hate, or have debt, there’s no better time to say fuck it, move overseas, find work, and travel. Or volunteer with the Peace Corps, work on a farm, train dogs, or start a blog. My friend Mark Manson started his blog when he was sleeping on his friend’s couch counting pennies to afford McDonald’s because he figured what else did he have to lose?! (He’s now a New York Times best-selling author!)

One of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies, Up in the Air, is when George Clooney’s character fires J. K. Simmons’ character Bob. Bob is obviously upset — he has kids (one with asthma) and he feels like a failure. Instead of being sympathetic, George Clooney tells him he is a failure and reads Bob’s résumé: he went to the French culinary institute to study cooking and worked a fancy French restaurant. To quote:

“I see guys who work at the same company for their entire lives, guys exactly like you. They clock in, they clock out, and they never have a moment of happiness. You have an opportunity here, Bob. This is a rebirth. If not for you, do it for your children.”

What George is telling Bob is that now he has a chance to follow his dreams: to work with food instead of a job that saps his soul — because he has nothing left to lose.

If you were faced with such an opportunity to change — to use a setback or constrained circumstances to instead actually do something different — would you take it?

It’s super hard to go against the current. Life gets away from us as the days tick by. But eventually one must say, “not today, not anymore.”

Use the Internet (you can find a lot of work online via websites like Gumroad, UpWork, or Craigslist) and open yourself up to the world and all the jobs and opportunities in it.

There are ways to earn extra money via sharing-economy websites like Uber, Lyft, EatWith, TaskRabbit, and a plethora of other random side jobs from the sites listed in the previous paragraph to pad your wallet. (Bonus: you can do before and after you’re overseas!!!).

Once you find yourself overseas, you can get a working holiday visa, use job boards and local expat stomping grounds to find jobs, or take freelance work via a website like Upwork.

If I was broke, young, or in a job I didn’t like, I would first try to teach English overseas. You don’t need to be a teacher to do this — just a native English speaker (though having a degree will help if you want a better-paying job). There are a ton of schools out there that even pay for your flight to and from the country.

If I wasn’t a native English speaker, I would use websites like iTalki and teach people my language! You get paid to be someone’s language partner. There’s nothing like getting paid to have a conversation in the language you speak every day. These sites are hugely popular — and you don’t need to be a teacher.

Find something that moves you forward — even if it’s only a little bit. Then take the next step. Then the next. Then another.

Maybe along the way, you may find yourself with a new passion or in a new situation where you happen to feel at home.

But while you’re trying something new, you’ll at least be able to pay off some of your debt, have some cool adventures, and gain some life experience.

The world can be your oyster if you truly grab it! Whether you make minimum wage, are wheelchair bound, have to work on boats, or come from a developing country, you can make it happen. When you expand your worldview, you increase your possibilities.

Don’t make excuses as to why you can’t — find all the ways you can.

Stretch yourself. Piece a few things together. Use the web. Break out of your immediate circle.

The world can be your oyster if you let it.

What do you have to lose?

The post Why Being Broke is the Best Time to Travel appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Cloud-Like Explosions Photographed in Midair by Ken Hermann

For his latest photographic series Explosion2.0, Copenhagen-based photographer Ken Hermann went big. Partnering with a pyrotechnics expert, he captured this series of suspended explosions illuminated with a strobe light that seem to hover in the air like clouds. Each image is all the more mysterious because the origins of each detonation are obscured, as if the blasts were spontaneous. Explosion2.0 is the second in a series of photos that began with some slightly less controlled blasts in part 1. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

360° Earth and the Moon Book by Yusuke Oono

Book designer Yusuke Oono creates small books that unfold into 360° scenes revealing everything from fairy tales to high-end vehicles. His latest creation is a laser-cut Earth and Moon surrounded by clouds, stars, UFOs and other orbiting objects. Oono was born in Germany and was trained as an architect at the University of Tokyo, lending his design skills and understanding of materials to the concept of his innovative sculpture books.

The Earth & Moon book is now available in the Colossal Shop. Also check out his lovely Mt. Fuji book.

An ‘Infinite’ Galaxy Puzzle That Can Be Built in Any Direction

The team over at Nervous System recently designed this fun Infinite Galaxy Puzzle that tiles continuously in any direction. Pieces from the top can be removed and added to the bottom, and likewise from side to side. So regardless of where you start the puzzle can continue in a seemingly infinite series of patterns. Each puzzle is printed with satellite imagery obtained from NASA and includes a few themed pieces like an astronaut, shuttle, and satellite. Apparently the puzzles were wildly popular and are now available as a pre-order for 2017. (via My Modern Met)

Photographer Andreas Levers Captures the Hazy Glow of Unpopulated Streets at Night

Since 2013, photographer Andreas Levers has been photographing solitary landscapes at night, capturing the streets, train platforms, and gas stations that are rarely populated in the late evening hours. Each image is haunted by an eerie glow, scenes dotted by bursts of artificial illumination. The Potsdam-based artist is a media designer by day, whose spare time is spent focusing his camera on the stark architectural elements that surround him. You can see more images from Levers’ At Night series on his website and Behance. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

Scribbled Rainbow Light Paintings of Dinosaurs and Other Creatures by Darren Pearson

We’ve long been fans of LA-based photographer Darren Pearson (previously) who heads out at night to create site-specific light sculptures using long-exposure photography. He mostly uses a device of his own creation called a Night Writer to illustrate almost all of the creatures you see here, from rainbow-hued dinosaurs swimming across lakes to his popular skeletons that were incorporated into a music video. You can follow his work day-to-day on Instagram.

Searching for the Perfect Dram on Islay

Whisky and I got off to a rocky start. The first time I tried it was in college. It tasted like rocket fuel. I only drank it when I had no other options — and drowned what little I poured into my glass under a ton of Coke.

Then I met my friend Dan, whose home collection of various Scotches and whiskies rivaled any bar I knew. He and Choun, the manager of Rye House in NYC, slowly walked me through the world of whisky. From sweet to smoky to heavy to peaty, I got to taste everything.

I went from whisky hater to whisky lover, and soon I learned that there was nothing I liked more than the smoky, peaty whiskies that come from the Scottish island of Islay. I came to love their campfire smell and strong bite at the end.

Last month, I finally had the chance to visit Islay with Sean (the fourth whisky musketeer). Located off the west coast of Scotland, Islay is a large island battered by the sea, wind, and rain. (The weather is so bad and planes can’t land often enough that the island’s carrier FlyBe’s nickname is “FlyMaybe.”)

As my whisky-loving friend Sean and I flew onto the island, I gazed out my window in glee. I was finally in the whisky drinker’s promised land and it looked beautiful. Through the cloud cover, I could see a vast green island, with rocky shores, endless farms, grazing sheep, and rolling hills dotted with diminutive stone houses. The land looked pastoral and untamed. It’s hard to imagine that so much of the world’s whisky originates here.

Whisky has a long history on Islay. It’s been made there since the 16^th century — first in backyards and then, starting in the 19^th century, in big distilleries. Over the years, whisky from the island came to be considered a specialty and was used to flavor a lot of other blends on the mainland. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that Islay whisky became world famous. It produces mostly single malt Scotch, which means they only use one type of grain (barley).

Sean and I visited seven of the eight distilleries on the island (sorry, Coal Ila, see you next time!). We began our first day at Bowmore (Sean’s favorite), famous for its mildly peaty whiskies. Bowmore was founded in 1779 and is one of the oldest and largest distilleries on the island, producing 1.5 million liters per year. Located on the shores of Loch Indaal in the town that bears it, the white painted buildings behind the walls of Bowmore made it seem less a factory and more like a housing complex. (All but one of the distilleries are located near the water because it was easier to get supplies in and out of the bays rather than overland.)

During our tour, we focused a lot on the production of whisky, learning the ins and outs of how it is made. It’s a simple process: first, you take barley, soak it for 2-3 days in warm water, and then spread it on the floor of the malting house, turning it regularly to maintain a constant temperature. These days, only Bowmore and Laphroaig do their own maltings, though they produce only a fraction of what they need (used to make the tourists happy, I suspect); most of the malt and smoking process — for all the distilleries on the island — is done at a big plant in Port Ellen or on the mainland.

After the malting, the barley is then smoked in peat, an earthy fuel from the bogs that cover the island. It is this process that gives the whisky the flavor that has made Islay famous. After that it is fermented, distilled, and then put in casks, where it ages.

In Scotland, most distilleries reuse American bourbon or Spanish sherry casks (some use French oak, but that’s very rare). By law, Scotch whisky has to be made in non-virgin oak — they can’t make their own barrels. It’s not Scotch if it’s made any other way! It’s in these casks that the flavors of the whisky mix with the wood to become what they are. The longer the alcohol stays in, the smoother and mellower it becomes. (So if you like a real smoky, peaty whisky, get a young one!) Unlike wine, which continues to change with age, once the whisky is out of the barrel, it’s done maturing.

The highlight of our trip to Bowmore was when the attendant let us bottle our own whisky right from the cask! Let me introduce you to the Nomadic Rebel:

After Bowmore (and a quick walk around town), we went to Bunnahabhain. Located at the very far end of the island, its remote location provided the opportunity for the most scenic drive of the trip: across the island and then down a tiny road, with the sea and mountains of the nearby island of Jura to your right and farmland to your left.

Looking like an old industrial factory with long warehouses on a rocky shore, Bunnahabhain does most of its production off the island. After a short, very underwhelming tour, our guide took us for a tasting, where he leapt out of his shell and gave us an animated history of the whiskies we were trying. (Overall, this was my least favorite distillery I visited, although I loved their products.)

Our second day, we visited the three most famous distilleries on the island: Laphroaig, Ardbeg, and Lagavulin.

Laphroaig sits on a beautiful, wide, and rocky inlet that opens up to the sea. The smell of salt and sea fills the air, fighting for control over the peat smell of the distillery. Laphroaig’s distillery is considered one of the most beautiful, with its small historic buildings, its name in giant letters placed on the outside wall that faces the bay, and a number of viewing points of the bay, where you can sit out and enjoy a dram or three. The highlight here was seeing the malting process in progress, as well as the peat fire and smoke as it filled the kiln.

At Ardbeg, we had lunch before joining our tour guide, Paul. “You’ve probably seen a bunch of these now, huh? I’ll just show you what makes Ardbeg different and we’ll just drink,” he said as he grabbed two bottles for the tour. “In case you get thirsty!” he added slyly. (We got thirsty!)

Paul gave us a quick tour of the facilities, highlighting their old mash tanks and distilling process, which produces alcohol at 62-75% alcohol by volume (ABV). Afterward, we toured the grounds, marveling at the old casks and original buildings still in use, before setting back to the main house. Ardbeg is set back from the road and seems to take up a city block with its large white warehouses. Back at the tasting room, Paul let us sample many of Ardbeg’s famous brands, as well as some special distillery-only blends found nowhere else, never seeming to care that we kept slipping in requests for the harder-to-find good stuff.

We talked with Paul for a long time. Like most people we met, he had grown up on the island, moved away, and come back. “City life was too busy for me,” he said. Like most of his friends, he got a job at a distillery. Unlike most of his friends, though, he actually liked whisky. A surprisingly large number of the young people we talked to weren’t really keen on Scotch (“it’s what my grandfather drinks”), but Paul was a big fan and knew his way around the spirit.

After wishing Paul goodbye, we stumbled out of Ardbeg and strolled toward our final stop of the day, Lagavulin. With plenty of time before our tour, we walked slowly down the path between them, awed at all the cows and sheep on the rocky verdant hills that rolled across the island, then caught a few minutes’ snooze on one of the benches that line the way. Walking this path from distillery to distillery is something I can’t recommend enough.

On our final day, Sean and I visited Bruichladdich and Kilchoman. Starting early at Bruichladdich (which had been shut for decades before two private investors and reopened in 2000), our guide Jenn gave us the grand tour and history of the place. The grounds are mostly white industrial buildings in a small compound, though upon arriving we were struck by the cobblestone courtyard (parking lot). It was a beautiful entranceway that harked back to days of old. She set seven different types of whisky in front of us, though I had to drink most of Sean’s too because he was driving.

At Kilchoman, the visit becomes a blur, after having drunk so much at Bruichladdich. Our tour moved quickly through the distillery, then we tried a few of the brands. I don’t remember which ones, as I mostly turned them down since I didn’t want to be too drunk too early!

After a quick lunch and final dram before I hugged Sean goodbye, I boarded the ferry back to Glasgow and promptly fell asleep in a happy, whisky-induced haze with a giant smile on my face. I had been to my alcoholic promised land and it was everything I had imagined it to be. From the friendly people with their small-town charm to the beautiful landscape, distilleries, and sea air, Islay was an island of dreams, one I definitely want to return to.

(Though next time I’ll spend more time outdoors appreciating the scenery and hiking off all that whisky!)

Logistics

If you’re going to go to Islay, you can get there by a twice-daily plane from Glasgow with FlyBe or via the ferry/bus combo from Glasgow.

For meals, I liked Yan’s Kitchen, Lochindaal (best seafood on the island), the café at Ardbeg, Bridgend Hotel, and The Harbour Inn.

Accommodations consist mostly of cute little farmhouses turned B&Bs. There’s also an HI hostel on the island.

Recommended Whiskies

• Bowmore 13 – Nice, smoky taste with a strong finish. One of my favorites.
• Bowmore 18 (sherry cask) – Smooth, fruity flavor.
• Bowmore 25 (wine cask) – Smooth, with a peaty finish.
• Laphroaig 21 – Smooth, light on the palette.
• Laphroaig Cask Strength 16 Year – Really strong, very flavorful. Packs a punch.
• Ardbeg Supernova – Very strong with good, peaty finish.
• Lagavulin Double Matured Distiller’s Edition – Delicious!
• Lagavulin 8 – Very strong smoky and peaty flavor. Tastes like a campfire. One of my favorites.
• Lagavulin 18 – Smooth, with a more subtle flavoring.
• Bruichladdich 1989 – Smooth, with a subtle sweet flavor.
• Bruichladdich 2003 – Really strong, powerful flavor.
• Kilchoman Machir Bay – Great smooth Scotch, with a subtle peaty finish.

Note: Visit Islay provided the car and accommodation for Sean and I, and they also connected me to distilleries so I could get the behind-the-scenes tours for this article. Meals, flights, and transportation to and from the island — as well as all that whisky I bought — were at my own expense. 

The post Searching for the Perfect Dram on Islay appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.