Naked in a Foreign Country

 

Did I get your attention with that title? Please keep reading, it is a topic that I will be talking about further down the page. Specifically I want this post to be be about trying new and/or different things when you travel to other places or countries, things that you wouldn’t normally do.

Do you ever dare to try the food whose name that you can’t pronounce? Jump out of that airplane because no time is like the present and you have always been curious how awesome all that adrenaline pumping through your veins must be? Or maybe you are just trying something new because everyone else is doing it, but that doesn’t matter because do you know what? You are doing it too! Have you walked on fire? Driven on the other side of the road? It could even be something that other people might not think is crazy or different but it is a big leap out of your own personal comfort zone.

I personally attempt to do something out of my comfort zone on every trip. A couple of years ago I even attempted trying something new and/or different every day! On the second day of doing this I ate vegemite – yes I realize this isn’t crazy for some, but it was for me, I almost threw up!

Now to the naked part. Canadians aren’t as liberal as Europeans; a fact that I’ve known for quite sometime and I’m sure a lot of you knew that to. I myself have always been quite a private person also have never been that comfortable in my own skin, but not too many of us are, are we?

Recently on my trip to Iceland I visited a few thermal spas/ hot baths. You can find numerous hot springs and pools across this intensely geothermaly active country including the most famous of them all the Blue Lagoon. All of the water is heated by the ground and most don’t require any chemicals be cause of their temperature, rate of water refresh and the natural combinations of minerals and algae and so on. However the icelandic people like to be very clean so it is mandatory that you must shower sans bathing suit before jumping into any hot pool. In Iceland they do require you wear a bathing suit in the pool however in the changing rooms everyone of every age and size was prancing around nude and they don’t seem to believe in shower doors in Iceland so it looked like I was going to have to do this too.
This is a situation that I have successfully avoided all my life, who knows what I thought might happen but I just always had a fear of “somewhat” public nudity and of course public nudity just in general. (That’s normal though right?) I won’t be attending any nudist retreats any time soon….. But I took a deep breath and I did it.

Guess what happened next? Nothing, all this fear and pent up anxiousness was over nothing, which I had been trying to convince myself of before hand but of course I could not of 100% known this until after I had done it. It felt great, I felt proud of myself and I also felt like I blended in and had experienced this normal every day European way of life. To them it’s like putting on your socks…. Or taking them off I guess…
Now what about you? What outrageous or different thing have you done wle traveling? Something that you had always felt uncomfortable with or something that you could of never even imagined yourself doing? Do you live for trying new things on the road? Will you ever jump out of a plane? I want to hear your stories!

~Cailin

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