Follow the unknown

Hello friends,

The world is full of places to explore. You always see this cool vlogs of people going to some epic place, trying out something new, eating something crazy and seeing things you never thought existed. People traveling around the world. People showing their adventures. Adventures that they'll remember forever.

I wanted that too.

I wanted to have an adventure myself. I was craving this need for exploration. But I was hesitating. Where do I want to go? What do I have to plan? Who do I want to go with?

It wasn't until I met Nathan, a friend I haven't seen in years and who had a similar idea than me, that we decided (in the bathroom of a sushi restaurant) to spend our summer holidays together. And we wanted to make it epic.

The plan?

Going in without a plan.

Going in blind

We decided to spend 14 days travelling together. We didn't plan shit.

The only thing that we decided on is to start our travel in Vienna (Austria). So we booked our Airbnb and that's it. We thought we could just book last minute.

Well, we quickly realized that it isn't that easy to get a last second fly to Vienna. Especially when all planes are fully booked out.

Only through a bit of luck and a connection of my father, we could get a plane ticket. But not to Vienna: It was to Graz. And if you are like me, you have never heard of Graz before, but that didn't matter: We were going places.

So we were sitting in this airplane going to Graz, and we didn't know how we would be getting to Vienna from there. I there found out that Graz was at least in the same country.

We talked to a few strangers on the plane, and they were amazing: They helped us get a FlixBus to Vienna, told us about a place to go eat dinner, someone took us even with him to Graz, and gave us some advice. Amazing people.

We went to a place called Area 5 in Graz to eat dinner, went to the FlixBus, drove to Vienna and then had a ride with those Lime Scooters to our Airbnb. We arrived in our Airbnb at around 2 a.m. and trust me: We were happy that we finally arrived.

In this short amount of time we met two teachers, one IT-specialist of a big company, and a few strangers which we had amazing discussions with, we were in two cities and had our first adventure already.

Already this single day helped us to bond so much on a deeper level and to really kick off our holidays on a high.

And this was just the tip of the iceberg.

We then proceeded to have an amazing time in five different countries. We were eating amazing Schnitzel and trying out a Slingshot in Austria, finding secret lakes, trying Kofola and singing in Karaoke bars in Slovakia, seeing the caves and hills of Budapest (and nearly getting scammed), listening to street musicians and seeing some amazing buildings in Croatia and finally seeing the beauty of nature, culture and food of Bulgaria.

But those are stories for another time.

The Impact of an adventure

We just talked about the first day of my holidays with Nathan, and we already had so much going on. And this is nothing compared to the rest that happened.

This day alone made me realize how fucking sick life can be. If you follow the unknown, you will experience adventures you can't even imagine.

For exactly this instance, I want to share a cool quote I've read:

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” - Diane Ackermann

It's the unknown that makes life so interesting. Not having a plan and just going somewhere, seeing where it leads you. Exploring the world. Meeting new people. Seeing other cultures. Tasting new food.

Travel to places you know nothing about. Just following roads and seeing where they lead you to. We didn't know anything about most of the cities we visited, and that's exactly what made it so great: We felt like in an open-world game. We could do whatever we wanted.

And on top of that, you'll get to know the people around you on a way deeper level. You get sucked out of your daily routine. And as long as you are not your average tourist just going for tourist spots, you will meet foreigners. Talk to them. You will be surprised what stories they have to tell you.

Travel more.

Follow the unknown.

My challenge for you

Go on an adventure this week.

It can be as big as travelling to a different country, or as small as going out and take a 20-minute walk to a place you don't know. I want you to go on an adventure.

If you feel like that you can't go on one, just lower the bar. No joke, go on that 20-minute walk. Go down a road you've never went down before and try to find out where it leads you. Go try out that dance class. Go visit this friend you haven't seen in years. Put yourself out there.

And then be proud of yourself for taking action and embrace the experience. Shake up your life a little bit.

My Song of the week

A song that Nathan showed me during our travel. I am addicted to it now.

Thank you so much for reading today's blog post. I wish you an amazing week!

Much Love,

Kim

P.S. Let me know what your biggest adventure was via IG or Mail!