What you'll find are streams and streams of articles written by various travel writers and organisations detailing all of the 'must do' activities that you 'must' do when you're there. This is great of course, and really informative, as it means that you won't miss out on the major attractions, but please do remember this; it is only one person's opinion.
If the thought of cage diving with sharks makes your heart fall out your bottom, then you don't HAVE to do it, even if it you've read somewhere that you 'must' do it- it doesn't make you any less of an explorer.
If you don't want to party, or jump out of a plane, or go on a hike up a mountain, or raft down a river, or visit a monument then dear lord forgo those things and travel your own way.
I'm tired of people telling me that I 'must' do a sky dive or a bungee jump. If I respond with: 'it doesn't appeal to me' I get the usual: 'well you don't know until you've tried it'. No, no, no my friend...I've never tried putting a firework up my arse either but I know that I wouldn't enjoy that. Flinging myself off a bridge with an elastic band round my ankles is not on my 'bucket list' at all, and that doesn't make me any less of traveller than Bjorn from Sweden whose on his sixth bungee of the season.
When I went Interrailing round Europe, I'm not going to deny that I kind of OD'd on all the goddam culture and was making myself visit certain museums because it was something that I 'must' do rather than being something that I wanted to do. Sometimes the 'iconic' spots were the most underwhelming and a wander through the city would provide much more enjoyment and enlightenment of the place instead.
I don't really tend to give advice very often but I will say this; you must travel your own way because trips tend to be over far too quickly and you don't want to look back with regret on some of things that you did or didn't do with your time.
This blog post was inspired by this article on The Guardian, give it a read if you've got a spare minute as it's really interesting.
Hello and welcome to This Ruth Is On Fire, a UK blog which is a haven for random thoughts and sarcastic observations.
I'm also into books, clothes and visiting places too.
