When you’re traveling there is a lot happening nearly every day. You see new places, meet new people, try new food and find exciting new activities. It’s a blast and many days require a good midday nap to process it all. But then you have the days where it’s all missing. Nothing’s happening either around you or to you. The weather is bad, people suddenly disappear running all kind of errands, and you’re left by yourself wondering what to do with this brand new day in paradise. The universe has granted you a break, a pause, a void amongst all the action. Today was one of those days.

It started the night before with my morning surf lesson being cancelled because of strong winds and bad conditions. So I planned for a small workout session before breakfast, but again, general crappy weather put a stop to that. So as a result I ate way too much for breakfast and the need for a nap after became much more urgent than making any plans for the day. By the time I got back up everyone was gone, and I was left by myself for the day. It seems like once the bad weather comes around everyone else go into hiding.

So I tried to pass some time until something would come up. I had a whole day to my disposal and really wanted to do something productive on a day off from surfing. So I decided to do that exercise anyway. Bad idea. I only managed to run like 5 mins at the time for like half an hour since my stomach was basically still filled with toast, coffee and coconut cake. Result being a new nap when I came back from my run. Still, it was only noon. So many possibilities.

After walking around the hostel a couple of times, scratching my mosquito bites, trying to read a little, I decided this might be a good time to go to the super market. An errand executed with the swift efficiency that deserved a new meal. Still no one around, and I’m now bored of my book. So I checked facebook, instagram, snapchat, newspapers, but still nothing new. It’s now 3 pm.

And that’s how the day was spent, doing basically nothing. I realise that a lot of days can be like this, but this day I was just so prepared to do something memorable. It seems like my restlessness was also a result of a general in-between mood. I’m sure I could have found some satisfaction in either doing A) commit to a day on my own and just go somewhere in spite of the weather, or B) embrace the day as a another day of rest and unproductivity, do some meditation, order a massage or just watch a lot of TV-shows. Instead I got caught in my own indecisiveness, not managing to feel complete by anything.

My expectations of how an everyday should be might still be influenced by a hectic everyday life back home. Not having had a real time-out vacation in two years, it takes some time adjusting. Thus boredom and stressing over not-doing-anything happens, even though a range of travel-instagrams might tell you differently. But trying to turn boredom and semi-stressing into relaxation, I’m going back to my bunk bed, watching an episode of Suits and trying to embrace that I don’t have to do anything for the rest of the day.