Here are 10 ways to deal with a bad vacation

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Oh no. You have arrived at your ideal vacation spot thinking that it was going to be amazing. Next thing you notice is that you are actually dreaming of going home, not now, but days ago. Those stories people told you of that certain vacation spot, that dream destination, was all a lie. All those lovely people, land, and exotic food was nothing but a message sent by a broken telephone. All you have is nothing but mean people, a crappy view and food that is worst than fast food. Now you are stuck at this "great" vacation spot--I know you can leave, but the flight back at an earlier time is going to cost you an arm and a leg--and you have to survive for the duration of the trip...without losing your frikin' mind. So my desperate friend, here are 10 ways to deal with a bad vacation.

10 ways to deal with a bad vacation:

1. Use your vacation time for work. There is nothing better than forgetting your problems from a bad vacation by drowning yourself in work. Life is work. So don't say there is no work to be done. Get caught up with tasks that have been piling up at the office. Or, you can work on planning for a better vacation for next time. Nevertheless, when you keep your mind occupied by working on something, you should be able to kill a few hours from a vacation that is totally horrible.
2. Use your vacation time to get into shape. Why put on the pounds from the depression of your bad vacation? Get into shape. Do long exercise sessions--really long ones to kill the bad times. Start with a cardio workout that lasts 30 minutes to an hour long. Then get those muscle ripped by picking up weights for another hour. Just keep moving, keep exercising, to forget that you are in a bad place. Doing this everyday will surely shave off many hours towards your trip back home.
3. Go for a walk away from the troubled scenery of your bad vacation. Sometimes you need to clear your mind from all the garbage stimuli that surrounds you. What I personally do is go for long walks. I'm talking about 2 to 3 hour long walks to anywhere. The place that I go to does not really matter to me, but my focus is on the action--walking. Not only are you clearing your mind and getting some exercise, you are lower the amount of time left to go home.
4. Take some time away from your horrible vacation to meditate. Meditation may actually save you from your vacation. Like walking, but with less motion, it allows the mind to relax from the anxiety that comes from worrying about the past and future. You might think, "Oh man. That only leaves the present. ...The present is my horrible vacation" Well, it would be a lie if I said that it wasn't true. Yes, you will be focusing on the present. However, not the present vacation you are on, but your breath. Focus on the action of inhaling and exhaling on the very tip of your nose. When you catch yourself thinking about the past and future again, take your mind back to your goal focus--the air going in and out from the tip of your nose. Do this for as long as you can. I recommend that you start with 15 minutes a day until you are able to extend that time. It takes practice, but it eventually works for the busy mind. Oh...and it will help you get through your bad vacation.
5. Connect with people back home to remember that nice feeling. Want to be home now from your vacation nightmare? Well, try contacting a friends and family from back home. In fact, fill up your whole day with chatting to your friends about what is going on back home. Get all the details about how your friend "Jim" went to work, yelled at his boss for something and then got fired. Ask your family about the weather situation of your hometown. Just be well engaged with the events that are happening at home so you can be distracted away from the events that are happening in front of you.
6. Pick up a new book. Want to drift off to a far away kingdom where there is excellent room service and a view? If it is not where you currently are, why not go to the local store that sells books and pick up a book that you find interesting. If you are in a country that does not speak your language, good luck with finding a book that you can read. But if you manage to find a place that can sell you a good book in your language, pick it up. Once you have that book, use it to help your mind not think of your horrible vacation. Try to finish the whole book. If you are a slow reader like me, one novel should cover a 1-2 week vacation.
7. Watch T.V. Turn on the T.V. Watch it. There are a million channels--well that depends on your location and whether or not you have cable. Anyway, you probably have done this when you were a youngster; watched many hours of T.V. for many days in a row. Try to do that again right now. Make a schedule for what you are going to watch at each hour. Make the schedule for the duration of your trip. You should be able to "watch" your hours disappear.
8. Kill time on the internet . This is nothing really new, but you can kill, or continue to kill, time on the internet. As you may already know, there is a large amount of information that lives on the internet. From videos to articles you have enough stimuli to keep your head busy for years! Bye-bye vacation, hello internet highway.
9. Get drunk? Life sucks right now. Screw it. Get hammered. Pick up a bottle of your favourite beer or hard liquor and have a mental vacation away from your bad vacation. After several shots of whisky or a few bottles of lovely golden ale, you will not be focusing on how bad your trip is because you will be off to La-La-Land. Know your limits and please drink responsibly. You don't want to make your trip worst by ending up in or on the toilet for several hours, or in a hospital. But anyway, this should help you get through a few hours of your bad vacation.
10. Sleep away your bad vacation . Hey your trip might suck right now and that may be leaving you depressed. Take advantage of the usual affects of depression--fatigue. Close the shades of the hotel that you thought was going to be 5 stars, but actually the owners forgot to put a negative sign in front of the 5 (-5 stars). Turn off the lights, unplug the phone, get into your sleeping gear and take a long nap. If you can sleep for most of the day, DO IT! Like the subtitle says, "Sleep away your bad vacation." Remember, the more you sleep, the less you will realize your current situation.
11. BONUS 1: Change your point of view . Maybe this bad vacation you are on isn't that bad after all. Maybe you think it is really bad because you mind is in a negative state, which would make even a nice person that said, "Hello" to you seem like the biggest ass ever. It is possible that you have had bad sleep or that something negative outside of your trip has affected the way you think about your present position. I really recommend that you analyze whether the vacation is actually bad before you conclude that it is the vacation's fault.
12. BONUS 2: Just spend the money to go home. If the vacation is really bad. I mean like if you flew to your destination and you arrived at a hostel then later found it was exactly like the movie "Hostel"--only if you can make it out alive--just go home. If you get to your private hotel and it has a surprise roommate called "Cockroach Larry" who is not really a person at all, but just a human sized cockroach, just go home. If you find out that your vacation spot does not serve alcohol, JUST GO HOME! Take the little money that is left in your account, or borrow from your credit card and buy a ticket out of that place. It will save you. The money will be well spent and you will have an expensive lesson of where not to go next time.

There you have it. These were 10 ways to deal with a bad vacation. I went over ideas like watching T.V., Going for a long walk and even getting really drunk. These ways have helped me in the past. They helped me keep my sanity while everything around me at the "heavenly" vacation spot was a total disappointment. If you can, try to stay positive while you are at your destination. And remember one thing, the vacation will eventually be over. Trust me. I wish you the best of luck and a safe trip home.

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