Gen Y is a generation characterized by anxiety and depression… These days, outlooks and perspectives aren’t what it used to be… The 50’s was characterized by the white picket fence mentality. The 60s was characterized by the love and peace mentality. The 70s was characterized by the lets make love mentality. It all felt so carefree.
Today, we’re advised by so-called new age gurus to meditate and do yoga. Well, fuck yoga, Tibetan monk chanting, buddha, and all that… I use cigarettes to ease my stress. A) The nicotine gives me my fix and B) In the five minutes that it takes to suck one back, I just think of my happy place…
HERE IS A LIST OF MY TOP 6 HAPPY PLACES
1. the plaza hotel
(Or any five star hotel for that matter). I used to love reading Eloise at the Plaza. I would marvel at the pictures and imagine myself in Eloise’s shoes. Fifteen years later, I still dream of the Plaza. The white fluffy robes, chocolates on your pillow, and the feeling of slipping in between the sheets of a perfectly made bed. The giant lobby makes you feel like Alice in Wonderland, and people are always coming and going. The best thing is about hotels is that you’ll always feel at home. These days there are all types of hotels (including cave hotels, underwater hotels, seven star hotels). The amount of happy places are endless.
2. alaskan cruise
There is nothing like an icy wind permeating your skin – down to the very core of your bones- to make you feel alive. The untouched and untamed scenery surrounds you, and you feel lulled into a dream-like state because it all just seems too unreal to be true… As if you walked straight into a postcard-picture and you would never want to leave.
3. the ice hotel (sweden)
(Combining the concept of number one and two). So, P Diddy is famous for his white parties. There is something about an all white room that seems so clean, so pure, so ethereal… Built every year at the start of winter, the ice hotel is just that… It is white, crisp, and you will feel like you are in heaven. The architecture is something to be said, as you would feel like you were living in a Bond film. The thought of being surrounded in perfectly crafted walls of snow is exhilarating. The fact that the hotel is located 200 kms above the Arctic Circle, isolated from society is oddly comforting and relaxing. Unlike the ice, your worries just melt away…
4. ikea
There is something to be said for the neatly designed model-kitchens, model-living rooms, and model-bathrooms. It is the perfect clean home and life that is never lived (unless you have an obsessive compulsive disorder, or have the privilege of dating a person who is OCD). In reality, we do not always come home to a house where everything is neatly organized and all the picture frames aesthetically match with your sofa that matches with the bookcase (all of which are called names that you cannot even pronounce). There will usually be a huge mess, people you might not be able to tolerate (ie a husband), and you never get the feeling that you are living in a perfect world. Ikea is our generation’s white picket fence. I envied Mark Goes to Ikea. He was living the dream.
5. cities where no one knows my name
Sometimes I imagine the cobbled streets of a little Southern French village, or I picture myself in Tokyo – lost amongst the sea of bustling people, neon lights, and sounds of an unfamiliar tongue. Sometimes I wonder why ScarJo was so lonely in Lost in Translation… Whatever city it may be, it is the anonymity that I seek. The fact that you do not have to answer to anyone, and the fact that you do not have to answer to your own name. You can assume any identity, assume a new lifestyle. A city where no one knows your name lets you be who you truly want to be.
6. a treehouse
Did you ever read “Swiss Family Robinson”, or ever remember when you were a little kid, and you would climb trees and attempt to build treehouses on the little younglings in your backyard? Well someone made yours and my dreams come true. This is taking nature to a whole new level (pun intended), and we all know that nature is quite relaxing. A German company is pioneering the way of treehouse-building. Some guys even took it to another level and built an invisible tree house hotel… That is isolation at its purest, though that doesn’t guarantee that the squirrels and birds will keep their distance.
When I am Not Sucking Down on A Cigarette: Now, when I am not sucking down on a cigarette. I go to the “Architecture” section of The Coolhunter.com It just makes me happy to see those perfectly constructed, beautifully designed homes
FORTHESPECTATORS 