Travel Tips: Make MAGIC Moments Happen Often...
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - You talked about this serendipity of meeting people,
00:00:07.480 | locals, kind of immersing yourself in these experiences
00:00:10.720 | that you probably couldn't have pretended.
00:00:12.640 | Do you think there's a way,
00:00:14.120 | not necessarily to like cheat the system,
00:00:16.180 | but to kind of engineer that serendipity
00:00:18.640 | to kind of give it a greater chance of happening
00:00:21.680 | than you would if you maybe had a whole week with no agenda?
00:00:25.900 | You know, maybe you just go sit at bars, talk to strangers,
00:00:28.000 | but what if you have a day
00:00:28.960 | and you really wanna try to make something local
00:00:30.880 | and interesting and magical happen,
00:00:32.960 | what would be your advice to someone trying to do that?
00:00:36.040 | - I mean, the first one I think is obvious
00:00:38.460 | to anyone who's traveled before,
00:00:39.560 | but it's put the phone away again.
00:00:41.360 | Like, you know, I think,
00:00:42.560 | especially when you're traveling alone, I do it too.
00:00:46.000 | It's the best social crutch there is, right?
00:00:48.680 | If you're sitting alone and you feel nervous about it
00:00:51.560 | or you're bored or whatever else,
00:00:52.920 | you immediately pull out your phone,
00:00:54.040 | but that signals to everyone else that you're busy
00:00:56.000 | or you're closed off.
00:00:57.940 | The amount of conversations that I've started
00:00:59.640 | from just sitting somewhere and just looking around,
00:01:02.920 | like people used to do when they had downtime,
00:01:06.440 | just kind of staring into space
00:01:07.920 | and making eye contact with someone, saying hello.
00:01:11.240 | You know, next thing you know, they say hello.
00:01:12.880 | How are you?
00:01:13.720 | Next thing you know,
00:01:14.560 | you're getting invited to grandma's house for dinner.
00:01:16.360 | Like that has happened so many times.
00:01:20.040 | I think people are naturally curious,
00:01:23.040 | especially for solo travelers.
00:01:25.180 | They're curious why you're visiting their home,
00:01:28.980 | what you're up to while you're there,
00:01:30.600 | if you actually have the best recommendations
00:01:32.460 | or if you're going on some, you know,
00:01:34.320 | that's something that they'd consider the tourist path
00:01:37.260 | or whatever that you actually,
00:01:38.180 | they want to steer you somewhere else.
00:01:39.300 | People are very passionate about where they're from.
00:01:41.380 | So tapping into that.
00:01:42.620 | I think going in also being like,
00:01:47.200 | I'm going to be just a little more extroverted
00:01:49.540 | than I normally am, goes a long way.
00:01:52.460 | And I'm not, I'm an extrovert in the sense that I do
00:01:56.320 | get energy from being around friends and family
00:01:58.480 | and being around people I love.
00:02:00.940 | But I'm still like a nervous extrovert,
00:02:02.840 | if that makes sense.
00:02:03.680 | Like I still get like phone anxiety and like, you know,
00:02:07.600 | weird, weird nervousness around approaching strangers
00:02:11.360 | and all these other things.
00:02:13.160 | So it takes an effort for me to be like,
00:02:15.280 | I'm going to strike up a conversation with this,
00:02:17.520 | with these random people.
00:02:20.080 | And just as one example, I remember I was in Munich,
00:02:22.580 | which is a city that if you ask people from Munich,
00:02:26.180 | they'll be the first to admit that it's like
00:02:27.580 | not an easy place to meet people.
00:02:29.620 | It's just part of the, I think, Bavarian culture and such.
00:02:34.060 | It's a little more insular.
00:02:35.060 | It's a little more, yeah, a little more insular,
00:02:38.060 | a little more insidery.
00:02:39.980 | So I was having trouble, like I was there for work too,
00:02:42.060 | and I needed a story and I was having trouble
00:02:43.620 | meeting people.
00:02:44.800 | And I was hanging out at this bar, not looking at my phone.
00:02:48.900 | So I was more aware of my surroundings.
00:02:50.920 | And I was like overhearing this conversation
00:02:52.440 | with a bunch of dudes standing next to me.
00:02:54.760 | And they were like talking about space and rockets
00:02:57.120 | and astrophysics and like all just like
00:02:59.320 | very fascinating stuff.
00:03:00.760 | And like, it took me a second to like work up the courage.
00:03:04.000 | But once I did, I literally just like poked my head in.
00:03:06.120 | I was like, "Hey, do you mind if I join you?"
00:03:07.760 | And they were like, "Yeah, of course, come on in, whatever."
00:03:09.360 | And I brought them around or whatever.
00:03:10.400 | Next thing I know, I'm talking to these like
00:03:12.640 | five astrophysicists who were working on some like
00:03:14.920 | German space program in the woods of Munich,
00:03:17.120 | just like totally fascinating stuff.
00:03:19.060 | We spend the whole rest of the evening together.
00:03:20.780 | We go to a show, we just like hang out,
00:03:22.300 | taking me to like all their favorite beer gardens.
00:03:25.380 | And all because I just took that plunge.
00:03:27.300 | And it was like a little weird.
00:03:28.280 | It's a little awkward to do that in any situation,
00:03:31.100 | at least for me it is.
00:03:32.260 | But like, I took a deep breath and went in there
00:03:35.000 | and said, "Hello."
00:03:35.840 | And next thing you know, I had this really wonderful,
00:03:39.060 | pretty magical day in a city where it's hard to do that.
00:03:41.860 | It's hard to find that serendipity.
00:03:43.620 | So I think those would be my two biggest
00:03:46.440 | overarching tips around that is one,
00:03:48.680 | being open to it, opening yourself up to it.
00:03:51.740 | And the first step towards that
00:03:55.040 | is literally being physically available.
00:03:58.320 | So stop staring at your phone,
00:03:59.640 | put the book down for a second, just be there,
00:04:02.080 | look around and see what happens.
00:04:04.080 | And then two, it's like,
00:04:05.760 | push yourself to just be a little more extroverted
00:04:07.880 | than you usually are.
00:04:08.920 | And then actually, no, I'd add a third one too.
00:04:11.680 | And this goes back to mindset as well.
00:04:14.620 | And this has taken me a while to really master,
00:04:19.100 | if I can even call it that,
00:04:20.640 | but it's admitting your own ignorance and embracing it.
00:04:25.640 | I think a lot of the times,
00:04:28.900 | especially with well-traveled people,
00:04:30.820 | there's a tendency to be like,
00:04:32.400 | to make it competitive almost, right?
00:04:35.020 | Be like, "Oh, I know this, and I've been there,
00:04:36.600 | "and I know my way around this,
00:04:37.660 | "and I've traveled, so I don't need help,
00:04:39.520 | "and I can find my way,
00:04:40.360 | "and I've read about this place that I'm traveling to,
00:04:42.460 | "so I don't need to know anymore."
00:04:44.720 | But people, you're never gonna know
00:04:49.080 | as much as someone who lives there,
00:04:50.360 | who has been born and raised there.
00:04:51.580 | You're never gonna know as much.
00:04:52.620 | You could live there for 10, 20 years.
00:04:54.780 | You're still not gonna know as much as someone.
00:04:56.200 | I've lived in New York for a decade.
00:04:58.200 | I'm not a New Yorker.
00:04:59.080 | I'm never gonna know New York like a New Yorker.
00:05:01.280 | And admitting that leads to you asking the right questions.
00:05:04.700 | It leads to the approach that you have
00:05:06.680 | when you're talking to people,
00:05:07.560 | the openness that you bring to new experiences
00:05:10.080 | and new culturals and things
00:05:11.240 | that might be unfamiliar to you.
00:05:12.880 | All of that first is gonna just come across
00:05:15.480 | so much more effectively if you first admit
00:05:19.160 | that you really don't know anything,
00:05:20.960 | and you're there to learn, and you're there to engage.
00:05:23.800 | And I think just that mindset opens up a place in a big way,
00:05:28.800 | and it's very hard to do,
00:05:30.240 | especially the more traveled you are,
00:05:31.640 | 'cause you start being like, "Oh, I know my way around.
00:05:33.480 | "I know how to navigate this stuff."
00:05:35.360 | And so still for me, too,
00:05:36.440 | when I'm at a place that I've been to 100 times,
00:05:39.280 | I still try to approach it as like,
00:05:40.560 | there's still something to learn.
00:05:41.480 | I still am not a local, I'll never be,
00:05:43.040 | so what can I learn from a local?
00:05:45.280 | And having that eagerness and that curiosity
00:05:48.000 | is gonna make you approach the right people
00:05:49.880 | and ask the right questions,
00:05:50.840 | and then the rest is serendipity.