Culture points and drinking points

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If you're backpacking and you only spend one or two nights in each city, the amount of overhead from traveling is enormous.

To get to the next city, you have to pack up your stuff, check out of the hostel, get to the train station, take the train, probably get reservations for the next train you want to take while you're at the train station, get to the next hostel, check in, unpack, and then find an internet cafe so you can book the hostel after that.

We figured out early on that doing all this and trying to see every possible sight is unsustainable. We had to come up with a system that would result in a productive trip (in terms of seeing sights, taking in local culture, etc.) without being exhausting.

What we came up with was: culture points and drinking points.

We would award ourselves a culture point if we did a "cultural" activity, i.e., seeing a sight, going to a museum, etc. The activity didn't have to take long.

We would get a drinking point if we did something the locals did to relax and have fun. That almost always meant going to a local restaurant or a local bar that served local food and local drinks and was populated by locals (i.e., nothing touristy).

We considered the day a success if we got at least one culture point and one drinking point. If we had the time and energy to get more points, that was gravy.

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