Meet Adam. An Aussie living life as a European Festival Guide. And yep.. he’s just returned from Sziget music festival in Budapest, San Fermin (Running Of The Bulls) and La Tomatina – the world’s biggest food fight! Exciting enough??!!
1. Where’s home for you?
My home is Tasmania in Australia but I currently live on the road in Europe. Tasmania is an incredible place. Before I started travelling and while I was living there, I took it for granted. I would show Tasmania to friends that I’d met travelling and they’d be blown away by it. With great beer and the cleanest air in the world I realised how amazing the island is and it’s somewhere everyone should visit.
(Inca Trail, Peru. Image: Adam Dobson)
2. How long have you been a travel guide?
I started working as a guide for Busabout this season. I consider myself to be a travel addict and have been sharing my passion for travel for the last 6 years.
(Swiss Alps. Image: Adam Dobson)
3. What’s your current gig?
Currently I’m working on providing awesome travel experiences for Busabout passengers travelling around Western Europe on our Hop-On Hop-Off coach network, at Spanish festivals and Oktoberfest.
4. So you’ve just been to Sziget music festival in Budapest.. Tell us about this epic adventure!!
The Sziget festival is held on an island in the centre of one of my favourite cities, Budapest. It has over 400,000 attendees and features world-class music, for almost 24 hours a day, for 7 days! The incredible thing is that you could attend, not see a single music performance & still have an amazing time. My father is a musician so I absolutely love live music. I would highly recommended attending the festival to anyone who gets the chance.
5. Why are you addicted to travel and what leaves you wanting more?
In my early to mid twenties I was career obsessed and put off travel to later in life/ indefinitely. Out of nowhere I became very sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that left me so disabled I was unable to work or leave the house. I realised that none of the career stuff or money mattered that much to me. While bedbound I made the decision that if I ever recovered I would focus on living an awesome life. Once my health improved I booked an around the world trip with my housemate to Europe and the US. After a few initial challenges we made it to Mykonos in the Greek Islands. It was here that I felt an incredible sense of achievement and happiness, from being amongst the most incredible scenery, and having a sense of adventure.
I feel most alive and energized when I’m seeing amazing places and sights. I don’t know what will happen next while going on adventures and meeting cool people from all over the world!
(Teotihuacan, Mexico. Image: Adam Dobson)
6. Where have you been fortunate enough to travel too?
I’ve currently visited 58 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania and North and South America.
The luckiest place I have happened to end up by chance was in Buenos Aires in Argentina, in 2013, for the countries 200th year birthday celebrations. My brother and I wandered down to a square in the centre of the city where a concert was about to start. We were amongst the first 500 people to arrive out of 2.5 million that attended and were 15 metres from the Prime Minister when she spoke for over an hour!
7. Best piece of travel advice?
First one is that many people tell me they would like to travel but they put it off. If you really want to, you need to make it happen so set a date, save hard and go!
Secondly, if you’d made the effort to get there make sure you take the chance to experience it! An activity might seem expensive at the time but you might never get the chance again or it costs far more to go back to do it. I’m not rich enough to be cheap! Skydiving, bungy jumping or driving a Ferrari around a race track were all pricey but I still get excited thinking about these experiences many years later!
Other amazing ‘cheap’ experiences I have had have occurred by wandering a city, heading to a local bar for ‘just one beer’ or saying hello to the person next to me at a bus stop. Don’t waste it by locking yourself in a hotel room.
(Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Image: Adam Dobson)
8. What’s one thing that you undoubtedly pack for a trip?
I’m always accompanied and would literally be lost without my iPod touch which provides mapping app; CityMapsToGo, Spotify for music, audiobooks and games for those long flights, transport and waiting that is all part of travel. I also use it to take my travel photos, book flights and accommodation, and to communicate with friends and family.
9. Best thing you have done whilst being a travel and festival guide?
Spanish festivals really are something else and are incredible to participate in. I get caught up in the contagious happiness and in the celebrations of everyone there. San Fermin (Running Of The Bulls), La Tomatina (the world’s biggest food fight) are about so much more than just the events they’re built around. The Spanish certainly know how to fiesta!
10. Favourite travel destination?
Too many favs to name but the Greek Islands was where the travel bug bit. Norway, Buenos Aires, Budapest and Montenegro are a few of the absolute best.
(Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Image: Adam Dobson).
11. Future travel plans?
Heading to Canada has been the top of my list for a while but it’s so damn far from Australia. South Africa and Morocco are also on the agenda but as any experienced traveller knows, the more places you go to the longer the list becomes!
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