ANTARCTICA

It might as well have been outer space or another planet. I previously never thought that I’d see Antarctica before, but I'm ecstatic I did. If you watched Interstellar when Matthew McConaughey got tricked by Matt Damon and saw a desolate ice age of glaciers, that's exactly how parts Antarctica looked like. Surreal!

I was in my hotel room in Nairobi, Kenya when I realized, hey! This is my 6th continent that I've been to. Why this did not occur when I visited Africa two years prior, I do not know. But, yes, I had been to 6 of the 7 continents.

You can only visit Antarctica four months of the year, during their summer season from November to February. In reality, the window to visit is from mid November to mid February. Talk about catching the opportunity before the window closes.

It's also super expensive, which is super nice. At $10,000 minimum or about $1,000 a day if you can splurge, any and every other trip you do in the future will become a piece of cake. Most trips are considered expensive at $100 a day, so spending ten times that daily will make justifying any future trip a whole lot easier. Plus at $10k, you can visit a plethora of countries so that's many trips in one. That's right, going to Antarctica will make going to any other place easier to justify. Maybe Madagascar will be a big challenge and North Pole, but other than those two you're all good!

PERFECT PENGUIN POSING!

You will have the most peaceful sleep on the ocean. I slept 14 hours a day at times and had the most lucid dreams. Having a psychologist as a roommate who helped me analyze my dreams was a lot of fun too! You'll never have the most peace than here. Is it boredom or is it tranquility? Are you living in a dream? There is no concept of time time. Not a clock on the ship. There's no internet unless you want to pay $200 bucks per megabyte. You literally feel like you’re back into the ice age. The sad part is you’re not, and will be reminded by that because of global warming. Yes it exists. Seeing Antarctica now is not even the same as it was ten, twenty years ago, and who knows if it will even be anything like what I saw twenty years from now! The internet age is killing the ice age.

So much of Antarctica is all about Kairos, the opportune moment to see the whales. find the penguins, even coming to Antarctica on time or having to wait another full year.

Welcome to a time machine, welcome back to civilization.

Do the polar plunge, it's cold and awesome!

POLAR PLUNGE 30 DEGREES!

About the Author - John D. Lin is a 7 Continent 114 Country Traveler and National Award Winning Public Speaking Professor. Born and raised in New York City, he explores the entire world to master cultural knowledge and social interaction. There is no need to “get out of your comfort zone”, if you’re comfortable everywhere!

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