Rules of Happiness

💖 Have friends around you
🌳 Have freedom
🎨 Do meaningful work
💳 Spend $ on experiences, not things
🤝 Help others with what you're good at
👇 Lower your expectations
💪 Exercise + eat healthy
🤔 Reflect on thoughts

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If you're feeling down lately, here's a quick test to figure out why:

👇

💖 Have you met up with your friends IRL this week?

🏋️‍♀️ Have you exercised today or yesterday?

🎨 Are you working on stuff that's meaningful to you?

🤝 Have you helped someone today with something you're good at?

I've been asking people after their trips if they liked it or not.
854 trip reviews later, here's the % most liked cities:

Mexico City: 100% liked it
Vienna: 100%
Saint Petersburg: 100%
Madrid: 100%
Tokyo: 100%
Belgrade: 100%
Budapest: 93%
Lisbon: 93%
Berlin: 93%
Singapore: 91%

Most disliked cities by trip reviews:

Ho Chi Minh City: 36% disliked it
Bucharest: 30% disliked it
London: 29% disliked it
Canggu: 29% disliked it
Warsaw: 27% disliked it
Krakow: 25% disliked it
Amsterdam: 24% disliked it

Interestingly, almost 1 out of 3 people (29%) going to top destination Canggu have a bad time. Not unexpected because it takes quite some effort to have a good time there with no choice other than having to drive a motorbike the biggest one.

More than 1 out of 3 people (36%) have a bad time in Ho Chi Minh City. That's also understandable. It's not an easy city either. Locals are less easygoing than for ex Thai and again you have to drive a motorbike everywhere. Not much public transport except buses I think

The divide between 93% of people having a good time in Berlin vs. 29% having a bad time in London is interesting too. These are two big W-EU cities. It's been said before that London is a playground for the rich. Berlin is more affordable, spacious, creative and fun I think

🇵🇹 Lisbon is pretty great:
- locals are insanely friendly and hospitable and keep wanting to show you around and invite you to go on trips or drinks or parties etc.
- weather is close to perfect, warm but not too hot
- lots of cafes, great food
- very walkable
- very affordable

- if you can speak a bit of Spanish you can get around speaking Portuñol, a mix of Spanish and Portuguese and they get it; also everyone speaks English otherwise anyway
- a lot of the remote working ppl who'd be in Asia if not for COVID borders closed, are now in Lisbon

- met multiple ppl who are setting up residency in Portugal, as it gives Americans a visa for EU and gives Europeans a tax residence elsewhere, interesting

- Lisbon from very quick glance feels a bit like Barcelona without the arrogance and pompousness, just humble and chill ppl

- the entire service industry here seems to be run by Brazilians, affordable labor and they speak the language