“What?!?!”, that was the reaction I used to get when I announced my schedule for the months of July-August to my colleagues or friends. Although theoretically, after the pandemic period, it no longer sounds like an anomaly, this concept of traveling to another place and work, for me sounded a little strange, basically because in the last 4-5 years, except the knee surgery that kept me almost bedridden, I didn’t accumulate more than 3 weeks a year in serious vacations spent in other places.
Okay, let’s start at the beginning, how did we come up with this idea? The well-known pandemic period that forbade us a series of experiences that we took for granted, on the principle: “yes, they are there, we do them when we have time, now we don’t”, after a knee operation which for 2 months made my ass hurt from lying in bed, only for the next 2 months to make my soul hurt from not being able to walk normally and after a series of other imagined existential crises that we all have on personal levels or professional, I said to myself: that’s it! And there was silence. And on this silence, I looked back at the last 5-6-7-8 years and saw that I put in some work during this time, yes, well done to me. And then I asked myself, what am I left with after all these years? And don’t think I’m going to dramatize it now. No, I’m left with a lot, which I didn’t even dream of 10 years ago. The problem, however, is that all the above crises stem from a state of imbalance, that is, we put more than we needed in one part and neglected other parts. Someone once told me that you can’t have everything in life at the same time. I didn’t believe it, but now I agree with him. Between the 3 directions in which you can invest your time, to name them: work, family/relationships and personal, I was somehow 75% work and the rest 25%. And after this very short moment of introspection, I thought, what do I need at this moment and the answer was: I need some time for myself, I need to change the landscape, to do a hard reset. And after the emotion penetrated the thread, I started to find rational reasons in favor of this idea, I almost gave myself the Nobel Prize for innovation.
And so, I began to put together the plan. I told myself that I don’t want to go too far to the many wars and great-grandchildren of COVID that surround us, so I stay in Romania. I must admit that my obsessive-compulsive orientation also voted in favor of this decision, which does not let me leave work for more than 48 hours, “you have to stay close,” she told me, and so I did. Then, I thought, I’ve wanted to learn to kitesurf for a long time, so let’s go to the sea, where I also happened to synchronize with a music festival. Then I thought that I like to bike downhill through the forest, but also to climb mountain peaks, so we go to the mountains. And just like that, I found two accommodations, 3 weeks in Mamaia, 4 weeks in Sinaia, and I was ready.
I’ll insert a disclaimer here though so as not to reinforce the idea that I’m some crazy rebel. If you do what I do and manage a digital marketing business, you have operationally trained people around you, cohesive teams and your partners don’t want to see you tied to an office chair, then yes you can do this. But more importantly, in order to have a business to return to after, you need a lot of discipline to manage remote work and activities specific to the place you travel to. Thank God and 8 years of sports, this is not a problem for me.
We started from the triggers, we got to the idea, then to the plan and the implementation conditions. Now is the time to tell you that my travel season this summer has come to an end. I am writing these lines from the balcony of an apartment in Sinaia, enjoying the coolness of a discreet wind and the starry sky. After these two months, I would like to write here for posterity, what I liked, what I didn’t like and what I was left with after this period. And if any of you reading this feel like you want to have that kind of experience, get your hands on it and get organized.
Most of all, during these two months, I liked the fact that I was able to enjoy nature. At the sea I was able to enjoy the salty air, the sea breeze, the lake-like appearance of the sea in the morning, the foaming waves in the afternoon, the hot sand, the sunrise from the sea and the moonrise from the sea. And in the mountains, I managed to really connect with the calmness of the forest, with the energy of the waterfalls fed by cool springs, I enjoyed enormously the panoramic pictures offered by the mountain peaks, the purity of the air, the stars in the night sky and the coolness of the mornings. I tried to stay outside as much as possible to sample the maximum of what nature has to offer.
Then, I really liked that I was able to move and do sports, even sports specific to each relief area. At sea I started learning to kitesurf, I still have some work to do, but the difficulty of the sport and the process itself make me very happy, apparently, I like difficult things that I don’t know how to do at first. Also, here I pedaled around 170 km along the seashore on my bike. Then the mountain came with some slightly more demanding challenges, in addition to climbing cycling sessions, in addition to downhill cycling sessions where I mamaged to produce 4 flat tires, at one point managing to break both front / rear cameras at the same time, after all these were the 4 mountain routes that I did, they helped me lose about 2kg in Sinaia. The most demanding and the strongest experience, was the ascent to the Omu Peak (2,507 m), starting by bicycle from home to the cable car, climbing by gondola from Sinaia to the height of 2000 meters, then more by bike to the Cabana Piatra Arsă where we also parked the bikes, finally following the route to Babele and finally Omu Peak, after which we descended on the same route to Piatra Arsă to finally descend on the bikes to Sinaia. The whole affair took about 10 hours including breaks. In second place in terms of difficulty and satisfaction was the ascent from Piatra Arsă to Caraiman Peak (2,384 m), which offers an insane view. Less difficult but very thrilling was the ascent through Sinaia to the Franz Joseph rocks, I say thrilling because I met for the first time, right from a distance, a bear. And the best route in terms of the variety of landforms was the route to Lake Scropoasa, through the forest, on the bank of a river, among rocks and waterfalls. I could also include the ascent of Postăvarul Peak (1,799 m), which also offers a spectacular view, but compared to the other routes, I only climbed 30 minutes because I got close to the top with the gondola.
I really liked that I had the opportunity to invite some friends but also my family to join me for different activities carried out both at the sea and in the mountains, whether we are talking about the Neversea festival, the evenings spent on the terraces by the sea, of the days spent on the beach, the kitesurfing lessons, the steep descents by bike through the forest, the demanding mountain trails or the evenings spent under the starry sky above the mountain. It’s as if all these experiences triple their value when you can share them with those close to you.
I loved that I was finally able to correctly identify the really important things that I need to take care of at the office, managing to organize them properly so that I can also enjoy the places while doing my work very good. I also liked the fact that I was able to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of the workplace, being able to look more clearly at the big picture. I liked the fact that I was stimulated by those around me to more coherently articulate my vision for the future, on the same axis as the values from which I am built.
Now, I should have told you what I didn’t like, but after writing this article and reliving all the positive experiences, I honestly can’t remember what I didn’t like. There were definitely things like “this pan is too small and we don’t have glasses for white wine”, so insignificant things compared to all the “wealth” accumulated in these two months.
Having said that, I end this article with a warm recommendation for those who have made it this far: look at yourself and see where you haven’t invested quality time in a long time. Is it about time with your family and loved ones? Is it like me having time for you and your individual passions? Is it time for your work? Don’t look at which one is going wrong, because there is a chance that all of them will go wrong due to an imbalance. Seek to redress that imbalance. But don’t think you can have them all at the same time, it’s way too hard if not impossible. I think that for a fulfilling life at least it is good to be aware of the fact that time is our most important resource. Then I think it is good to accept the fact that we will have periods in life when time will go more in a certain direction, but it is important to simultaneously be aware of the proportions of the 3 elements (work, family, personal), in order to be able to apply the principle of moderation and avoid long-term imbalances.
