9 travel tips from Paulo Coelho

1. Avoid museums

At first glance, this is absurd, but let's think a little. Since you are in an unfamiliar city, isn't it better to get to know it today, alive, and not the city that it was once upon a time, centuries ago?

We feel obligated to go to museums. We were accustomed to this, hammered into our heads, as if this is the meaning of the phrase "to touch the culture." I won't argue that museums are important. But visiting them still takes time, thoughtfulness and preparation. You must understand why you looked into the museum walls, what exactly you want to find in them. Otherwise, this visit will turn into a mindless wandering and a waste of precious time. Having visited the museum "for show", you will leave it with the feeling that you have seen several fundamentally important things, but soon you will not even remember which ones.

2. Drop by the bars

The life of the city is revealed here, and not in museums. I'm not talking about nightclubs, but about small bars, eateries, where people stop by after work to knock over a glass or two, have a few words about the weather, chat with the bartender.

Buy a local newspaper and enjoy the people watching. If someone strikes up a conversation, join in, even if the topic may not seem very interesting to you at first. By the appearance of the door, it is not always possible to guess what is hidden behind it.

3. Chat with people

The best guides are locals. Those who were born here live here, walk these streets every day, know everything about everyone, are proud of their city, but do not work for a travel agency. Just go outside, pick a person with whom you would like to speak, and ask him about something (where is the cathedral? How to get to the post office?). If the first turns out to be laconic, try with the second, with the third. I'm sure by the end of the day you will find yourself accompanied by a great local companion!

4. Travel alone

Or, if you are in a relationship, with a partner. Everything. Only in this way will you truly leave your own "roots" behind. Traveling in a foreign country with a tourist group of your compatriots, constantly communicating in your native language, going where the guide points you, you will not be able to feel all the charm of travel and pay attention to the place that you aspired to visit.

5. Try to avoid comparisons

Don't compare anything - prices, hygiene standards, living standards, modes of transportation - nothing! You went on a journey not to prove that you live better and more correct in your homeland than other people. Your goal is to find out how these others live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and the extraordinary.

6. Don't be afraid to get lost

Even if you don't speak the local language, don't worry. I have been to many places where I could not say even a couple of words, and always found support, the necessary recommendations, useful advice and even girlfriends. Some people think that going outside in an unfamiliar country means instantly losing the road and getting lost forever. Although, just a business card of the hotel in your pocket is enough: if you really get lost, you can always stop a taxi, show the driver the address and comfortably return to your room.

7. Don't buy too many things

Spend money only on things that you don't have to carry on yourself: theater tickets, restaurants, excursions. If you really like something, remember: in our time of the global market and the Internet, you can buy almost everything you want online, and not pay for excess baggage.

8. Don't try to see the whole world in one month

It is much better to stay in one city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. Unfamiliar cities, what capricious women: it takes time to seduce them and discover them completely.

9. Think of every journey as a big adventure

Henry Miller said that it is more important to find a church that no one has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obligated to go to the Sistine Chapel, which you have been buzzing about, along with two hundred thousand other tourists. Yes, of course, visit the Sistine Chapel! But don't forget to wander the less touristy streets and explore the alleys as well. Feel the freedom to search. Searching for something that you don't even know about, but that, once found, can turn your whole life around.