Most of us are in some form of social distancing or another. With countries worldwide imposing restrictions on travel to minimise the spread of the disease during this season, many people are experiencing ‘cabin fever’. The lack of travel for those who just love traveling can be daunting for some, but there are many ways to travel without traveling!
Go travel around the world, virtually!
There has been an increase in the number of virtual tours available online for free during this COVID-19 season. Two of the museums which I’ve particularly enjoyed viewing virtually are the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul and NASA’s Langley Research Center.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul’s online viewing gallery not only has the overall image of the art piece involved and its background story, it also gives one a close-up on the strokes of the paintings. The level of details in the paintings shown on a virtual exhibit shows the effort to which the museum has curated its library, and all this is made free for all to view!
NASA’s Langley Research Center’s virtual tour is also commendable as there is so much to learn and explore. The research flight deck exhibit (as seen in the image below) has a high level of detail, and I like how they embed information and video links within each the virtual tour – it is as if you’re in the exhibit and looking at it first-hand.
You can view more collated lists of virtual museums here, and here.
Reminisce via your old photos, videos and souvenirs!
If you can’t make a trip out right now, why not reflect or look back on the trips you’ve travelled before?
My father enjoys collecting bells – and for each destination we head to, he’ll make it a point to buy a bell from there. It may well be a small bell, and look insignificant, but this collection grows – and when it grows, each bell can serve as a reminder of the memories created in the destination! Have you looked at some of the souvenirs you bought from the countries you’ve travelled to? If no, why not take a look at it now?
As the saying goes (more like a quote, heh), we take photos as a return ticket to moments otherwise gone. You can use this non-travel period to look through photos taken at the various countries and attractions you’ve been to!
Tip: If you have your photos hosted on cloud platforms like iCloud or Google Photos, one can easily search for photos based on countries traveled to!
Plan for your next trip
The headline of a Huffington Post’s article caught my eye a couple of years’ back. The article, which headline reads ’The Happiest Part Of Your Vacation Isn’t What You Think’ got me thinking, what makes traveling so exciting? And it turns out, planning a trip (while it can be stressful) is what makes vacationers happy because one tends to look forward to good times while planning for a vacation. So, why not begin planning for your next vacation during this period?
It may not be a detailed trip planned, but you can make use of the time now to create a ‘wander-list’ of places you want to visit and why you want to visit it. This can serve as a good start when deciding on your next trip. Whether the number of days, the attractions or even the food, having such details on what you like of place will make deciding your next holiday a lot easier when it is safe to travel again.
Social distancing and the lack of travel may be hard for us right now, but why not ‘travel’, without traveling during this period?
101reasons.blog 