If travel is canceled, is your homebase enough?
Reexamining our everyday lives
A background tune for reading this newsletter:
Apologies in advance, but we have a lot of questions for you this week. They’re questions one mulls over from time to time, but Pandemic Brain really makes them top of mind these days. And they revolve around this little thing we call a house. Or a home. A hometown. Homebase. Current city. The place you go to drop off your groceries. If you’re lucky enough to have one of those places, has staying there for almost a year made you rethink that location, even if it’s one that you love?
Maybe travel exists because we can’t possibly live anywhere we want at any given time. Some do, most don’t. Hence, travel. When one has exhausted their home life and needs an escape, a trip—short or long—usually does the trick, yes? So when faced with the reality of not being allowed to travel to most countries or you’re not yet comfortable getting on a domestic flight, are you making your living situation an escape for those times you can’t escape? (A pillow with the Eiffel Tower on it doesn’t count, by the way. But maybe a gigantic standing globe next to your TV does. Or the sheets with the good hotel-style thread count.) If revamping the home decor isn’t an option, are you questioning why it is you live in the city that you do? And do the answers to these questions depend on whether or not you live in a popular city? If you’re living in a “good trip,” is it possible you’re getting sick of being in “good trip” mode 24/7?
Live in the good trip, create the good trip, or wait for the good trip. That is the question. Or rather, questions. And of course millions (millions!) of factors come into play here. Family, friends, jobs, flexibility, necessity, privilege, responsibilities—to name a few. The world’s unique present circumstances have given people the time and mindset to question these things. Some of you got pets to cope with staying put. Others looked to Animal Crossing. Most found Dutch ovens to bake Instagram-worthy bread. But are you finding these distractions good enough substitutes for that old feeling of having a trip planned? The months of anticipation? The Delta cookies? (Actually, you can totally buy the Delta cookies.)
I suppose it’s a delicate balance, more difficult to figure out when you’re almost forced into figuring out the answer by a pandemic. And I can almost guarantee some of the questions above have creeped up for you whether you’re living in your dream location or not. And here at Good Trip, you know we’d truly, madly, deeply, love to hear your answers.
Natalie
Good Trip Contributing Writer
Local’s Corner
When the pandemic hit, Marcele Martins had just quit her job and had no idea what to do next. She started living in the suburbs of her hometown of São Paulo, and fell in love with working her vegetable garden. She thought about how she could help people living in small apartments in São Paulo also gain that contact with nature and closer understanding of the cycle of growing your own food. Enter: Horta Na Caixinha, her now 7-month-old business that creates small boxed gardens ideal for apartment balconies.
We think it’s pretty damn inspiring how Marcele has grown (pun intended) something good for the soul and nature during such a challenging year.
The song she’s had on repeat lately:
“Brazilian Soul” by Sofi Tukker. I love it, I love the rhythm and also the lyrics; it really describes the Brazilian vibe.
The place she’s traveled to that she’d like to go back to:
A lot of them, but I think one that’s on top of my list is São Luís do Maranhão in Lençóis Maranhenses because the view is just insane. I think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, naturewise, so I’d really love to go back there with my girlfriend.
Her favorite local São Paulo spot within a 15-minute walk of her apartment:
Now I’m living in the suburbs, so when I go to São Paulo I stay at my girlfriend’s house, and my favorite place around the corner from her place is a really simple bakery that’s very typical in Brazil. They have pão na chapa com requeijao and really fresh orange juice. The place is called BomBom; it’s a boteco that serves breakfast.
Her favorite local-to-São Paulo snack:
My favorite snack in São Paulo is for sure açaí. I have two favorite places: Purpleberry, where I normally go in Pinheiros, and the other is Frutaria. The açaí is amazing. They both have açaí with no sugar.
Her ideal day in São Paulo (non-COVID times)
My favorite day in São Paulo would start by waking up early. I really love to wake up early on a Saturday. I would go to Ibirapuera Park to run 5k, or I would go play futevolei with some friends and do some outdoor exercise. After that I’d go for my favorite snack, some açaí, or água de coco, one or the other. After that, I’d go home, take a shower, relax, read a bit, then have lunch with my parents. After that I’d meet up with some friends, either dinner at their place or a chill bar or a birthday — I love birthdays because you gather people! And that’s it, I go home early and sleep before midnight. Favorite day.
Where she wants to travel next, post-COVID:
I want to go with my parents to Italy, because we were in Italy when COVID started hitting Italy, one of the first places outside of China. We had to cancel our trip plans and come back to Brazil. We really want to travel around with my mom so that we can show her Italy, because we have our citizenship there.
Good Trip Tip
Anyone else feel like they are just over cooking? We’ve never done so many dishes in our life. To inject some novelty, pick a day once a month (or week — go wild) to have a night “abroad.” Pick a recipe and drink from a different region or country and cook something new. With the boom in e-commerce, there are increasingly more places to purchase harder-to-find spices that can help!
Read All About It
Cheap, fast flights, globalism, and everyone being connected at all times on the internet has made the world feel a whole lot smaller, often in a good way. But there are still lots of geographic reasons behind why things are the way they are. Prisoners of Geography is a fascinating read that will help you understand your own country and future travels a whole lot more.
Mentally teleporting ourselves into all of @jennimurphyart’s artwork:
