Getting older is easy, as long as you keep traveling.

I just turned 48 today. But i am not worried about getting older. I am still on the road 365 days a year and I feel a lot younger than most people my age do. Last year i celebrated my birthday in Brazil. And this year I celebrate it in San Luis Potosi in Mexico. Traveling keeps me young.

I recently had a mail from an old friend of mine. She wrote to me that she was feeling old and tired. The poor girl is only 36. But she is stuck with a lot of monthly payments. A job that is stressful at times. Her kids are becoming teens. And her marriage is not always what she would like it to be. So getting older has become something she is not enjoying.

That is when I feel so happy to be an eternal vagabond. I seriously don’t feel that I am getting older. Especially not when I am out on a cycling trip in a foreign land like now. I have new unknown challenges every day and that is when I am in my element. It keeps me alive that I do not know where I will be sleeping tomorrow and that I will probably be cycling over some mountain tomorrow that I have never cycled before. I am still quite easily cycling 100 kilometers per day when I travel. And I still feel like partying in the evening. Even if I am at an age where I should be a middle aged grumpy guy.

Screw being grumpy when the world is out there.

When I sometimes meet old childhood friends, then it strikes me that a lot of them have started to act the way we said we never would when we were young. Everything is wrong: Especially with the young generation. And the taxes and the emigrants and the government. These people need to get out there and meet some new friends from around the world. When I am sitting in some random little hotel around the world. Or meet some people on a foreign road, then I almost never hear them moan. Cause these people get out and do something about their life. Life is too short to just be watching TV and moaning on Facebook. And people who travel are too busy exploring new things to end up as grumpy old farts who never get out of the house. Even if they are only in their 30’s or 40’s. Life is too short for grumpy people.

I have new travel plans all the time.

Right now I am cycling through Mexico. A trip that I am really enjoying. But I am also planning several new trips as I am undertaking this trip. I have some work trips to do this fall. But I am already in the process of planning non work trips to Africa, Asia and the Balkans within the coming few months. I always have my sight set for new horizons. And that makes me too busy to get old. I once saw an interview with a 100 year old guy who was still traveling the world. He was asked how he managed to get so old and he answered that he was simply too busy to die. I think there is a lot of truth to that. Once you just lean back and stop planning new adventures is when you become old and grey.

Today i am wandering around the streets of San Luis Potosi, searching for good local craft beer. Tomorrow I will be cycling over the mountains towards Guanajuato. Even if I am a year older now 🙂

Cheers to everyone. And please remember to keep acting like a youngster around the world. Just like I do. 🙂

Cheers from a 48 year old happy barstard.

Claus.