Fun & Famous

THINGS I REALLY WANT TO DO

but still don't or dare

And I don't mean bungee jumping or skydiving, but smaller things. Things I could do almost every day, but have never done because I'm a scaredy-cat or because the moment hasn't been right yet. Okay, this is still quite vague, I'll just tell you.

A newspaper with holes

In comic books and cartoons, there is always a detective-like person who sits on a terrace in a big gray or beige raincoat and looks through a newspaper with holes. You know, two holes at eye level so he can peek through very subtly, supposedly without anyone noticing. It seems so incredibly cool to do that once. Just casually sitting on a crowded terrace with a cut-out newspaper and seeing what happens. Hilarious.

Becoming friends with tourists

When I'm traveling, I often form a close friendship with fellow backpackers, but I also have had really fun interactions with people who live in the city. For example, in Rio, I started chatting with a girl and she told me she was having her sister's birthday that evening, would I like to join? Um, yes of course! How fun is that! I would like to do that for someone else sometime. For my travel karma, but also because it can just be really nice. A few weeks ago, I was in my local pub where two girls asked if I knew where they should go that evening when the pub closed, and I told them about that place and that place – but didn't take them where I was going. That's silly. Next time I will definitely do that.

Texting a stranger

Yes, this might sound a bit weird, but you sometimes see those incredibly funny SMS screenshots online of someone receiving a text from a stranger and then having entire conversations with them. I want to do that once. Just send a “Hey, how's it going?” to a random Dutch number and see what happens. Just for fun.

Fake shopping

And by that, I mean: going to a ridiculously expensive store in my best suit and pretending that I am really capable and planning to buy things. Trying on beautiful evening dresses, shoes; everything. And then deciding with: ‘I'll let my stylist take a look at it’ and not paying for anything. Or am I going to get scolded by eavesdropping shop people who think this is a really antisocial plan? I just really want to try on those beautiful things once. Is that allowed?

By subway

Okay, this requires a bit more planning because this has to happen in a foreign city. So it seems really fun to take the subway to the last (or one of the last) stops in a foreign country where there is a good subway system and then find my way back to where I came from. Of course, it has to be nice weather and I would prefer not to end up in a ghetto, but it's about the fact that I always find it so delightful to just get a little lost and follow my nose. And an extra plus: this way you get to know the city even better.