How to Beat the Post Holiday Blues.
APRIL 8TH, 2014
Holidays are the best. Long lazy days lying on beaches, drinking cocktails. Or wandering around an amazing city, seeing the sights and eating delicious local food. You can have so many unforgettable experiences when you travel, and meet so many wonderful people, that coming home can often be a massive downer. I mean, you were looking forward to this trip for months - sometimes years. And now it's over. OVER. You're back home, and everything is back to soul-crushing normality. Except now instead of savings you have a scary credit card bill!
Welcome to the Post Holiday Blues.
So how do you beat this insidious gloom? You've just had an amazing holiday, none of your friends are going to feel sorry for you! They just spent the last three weeks envying all your photos on Facebook. And you can't plan another holiday - you haven't even paid off this one yet!
Well, the albumworks team are here to help! We have a few suggestions for getting the holiday spirit back into your life:
1. Make a Beach.
Miss the feeling of sand between you toes? Why not dump 500 kgs of sand in your backyard and make your own beach!? You can get your partner to bring you drinks on a tray (calling him or her Ketut is optional), and wear those speedos or that bikini you're too shy to put on in public. Hey, you can even forget the bathers altogether - it's your garden! (Note: if you live next to apartment builidings with voyeuristic windows, maybe keep your swimmers on.) You could, of course, just go to your local beach - but where's the fun in that?
2. Put Umbrellas in ALL Your Drinks.
Nothing says "holiday" like a big cocktail with an even bigger umbrella in it. So why give up the custom just because you're back home? Buy a pineapple and a packet of umbrellas, and get tropical on your beverages. And don't just add them to cocktails either. Wedge a Kingston biscuit and a pink drink brolly on the side of your tea! Then you're on holiday even when you're at work. Genius.
3. Be a Tourist at Home.
Why give up the trappings of being a tourist now you're back home? After all, you can pay too much for a coffee and argue over map coordinates right here. And you don't have to be overseas to spend four hours waiting around a train station, or to wander around a boring local museum made up of random bric-a-brac. Plus I'm sure if you leave your unattended bag on the ground in your local shopping mall it will be just as likely to get stolen, or have the local authorities sending in the bomb squad. So get out there. And don't forget your comfy walking shoes and bumbag!
4. Learn to Cook Their Cuisine.
How amazing was that little street stall in that amazing little town, with that delicious food? So amazing. So why not spend the next month trying to source all the obscure ingredients and cooking utensils you need to make it right in your own kitchen. Sure, after going to every market and international food shop in town, you might discover you need to import some ingredients yourself ("The Norwegian whale meat is in quarantine right now, but we'll get it in about three weeks, pending environmental review"), and building a smoker in your backyard might be a bit of work but it will be so totally worth it.
5. Keep Your Holiday Style.
You don't need to stop wearing your holiday clothes just because you've come home. In fact, why even unpack? Just wash your sarongs and Hawaiian shirts in the sink, hang them over the bath tub to dry, and keep your holiday style rocking. Thongs and shorts might seem like a bad idea in the winter, but you'll go numb pretty quickly. Plus you'll just be keeping up the tradition of thousands of Australians who rock thongs in the middle of European and American winters. Frost bite for the win, maaaate!
6. Turn Your Room into a Hostel.
Do you miss sleeping in a room with 5 strangers? Miss the sound of a Frenchman snoring, or two New Zealanders possibly getting it on 3 feet away? Just put an ad on Gumtree, throw a few mattresses on the floor of your room, and hey presto! Instant hostel! Just don't forget to come in really late, make as much noise as possible, and maybe spew on the floor.
7. Make New Friends.
Why is it cool to drink with people you just met when travelling, but weird when you do it at home? Walk into your local bar, spot some fun looking people, tell them you're from out of town and make some new friends. Go hang out in your local hostel bar, drink some cheap beer and share your travel stories. It could just be the best night of your life. How could drinking excessive alcohol with a bunch of random strangers possibly go wrong? Just make sure you get epically lost on the way home, somehow lose a shoe and/or wake up in a park with a guitar you don't remember acquiring.
8. Make a Photo Book.
Ok, so some of the above tips might be a bit silly, but something you can ACTUALLY do to relive your fantastic adventures is to make a Photo Book. Think about it, what's better than making your friends jealous on Facebook? Making them jealous all over again in person! Relive those tikki shirts and giant daquiris, the day you nearly died walking to the top of that mountain or tower, the random Germans you met in that little bar, the epic sunburn, that unforgettable sunset. Your holiday might be over, but you can keep your Photo Book forever.
9. Start planning your next adventure!
You might be still paying off your last holiday, but searching on the internet is free. And there are LOTS of hilarious TripAdvisor reviews to get through before you book your next trip.
Please note: albumworks in no way endorses irresponsible drinking. Or bum bags. But fully endorses the making of Photo Books.