S5E12: When You’ve Gotta Go - Mark Wolters: YouTuber | Professor | Traveler

When should one travel? When they are young, while they are unattached and have all the time in the world? When they are middle-aged, and in the thick of their “normal” lives? When they are old, and it seems that all things have passed them by? The answer, of course, is “yes.” An honest “yes” to all of the above, and Mark Wolters knows better than anybody how important it is to be honest. He believes that you should truly travel right now, because you never know what can happen later. If you get a chance, he thinks you should take it. He offers honest and genuine travel advice on his YouTube channel, Wolters World, and assists people as they begin their own travel adventures through the world. “As they say,” Mark reminds us, “you only live once.” 

When Mark Wolters studied abroad in Argentina, his goal was to meet locals. Lucky for him, he did, and almost immediately, when he met two local girls who invited him to a gathering outside of town that weekend. Unfortunately for him, though, he abruptly got very sick that week; he managed to get himself under control long enough to go meet these girls for their party that Saturday, but, maybe, he should have just stayed. Having not gone to the bathroom in four days, Mark Wolters arrives at Saturday night with everything hitting him all at once, affecting him to the point of tears. He manages to get on a train (without a bathroom), reach a station (also without a bathroom), and make it into Buenos Aires (where everything is closed - ipso facto, without a bathroom). Everything is closed up except Mark that Sunday morning in Buenos Aires, so he just decides to take matters into his own hands - with a handful of wax napkins, a hole in the ground, and without any clothes. 

From then on, Mark Wolters made sure to memorize all the maps of a location when he travels, because (in his words): “You never know when you’re gonna have to go.” Mark Wolters’ Travel Soundtrack Mark Wolters made himself into a human guidebook over the course of many years. Like so many travelers, according to Hayden, Mark began with a countercultural attitude. He grew out his long, luxurious hair as an original self-defining statement about himself, gathered a punk-rock attitude that may have contributed to his travel desires, and decided to explore the world in any way that tied into this life. The romantic nature of travel directly ties into the romanticism of rock music, he believes, which leads him to announce that the soundtrack to Mark’s travel life would prominently feature “Why Don't We Get Drunk” by Jimmy Buffett, and “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey. 

Mark gives travel advice by being honest, throwing in little extra tidbits, and reassuring others that anything they do will be worthwhile if they make it so. Mark Wolters even manages to give the much-experienced Hayden advice for his ride through Europe later this year, spreading bike-related advice specific to various locations throughout Europe, flavored with anecdotes and jokes from his life and from his friends. 

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