Would You Rather? With Geena From Bartender Abroad!

WOULD YOU RATHER? A series of interviews with Travellers, Bloggers, Travel Bloggers and just generally interesting people. We’ll ask a series of difficult travel questions with two possible answers. They’ll tell us what they would choose and why.

For this article we have Geena Truman from Bartender Abroad. Geena and her lifetime adventure partner, Evan are a couple of bartenders who worked their asses off to travel full-time. They spend their time exploring the lesser traveled corners of the world and experimenting with some of the infinite ways of life on this planet. Learning about other cultures, eating their food, and interacting with the locals is what they are all about.

Adventure enthusiasts and full time explorers with travel goals to seek out the tastiest food, cutest animals, and most exciting adventures in off-the-grid places. Their mission is to show readers that the world can be accessible to everyone. Immersive travel doesn’t need to be expensive. Hoping to inspire fellow explorers to go out and see the world for what it is. To get a little dirty and learn something new. Focusing on finding the off-the-beaten-path local spots and getting a new perspective, while taking all of their followers with them!

Now to the questions …

Your Hero, Anthony Bourdain; foodie and authentic traveler loved many cities but if you had to stay in just one city for the next 3 years without leaving, would you choose New York City where he called home: “I’m a workaholic, I love my job, and I think I’m hardwired to New York, so as much as I’d like to spend time elsewhere, I’d be deluding myself if I thought that I’d ever retire to a hilltop in Tuscany” or Tokyo about which he said: “I went to Tokyo the first time and my head kind of exploded. I compared it to taking my first acid trip: Nothing was ever the same for me. I just wanted more of it. If I had to agree to live in one country, or even one city, for the rest of my life, never leaving it, I’d pick Tokyo in a second”?
Although I’ve always been so curious about Tokyo & would LOVE to visit, I’d have to choose NYC. It’s such a foodie city with so much diversity! That’s a huge factor for wherever I call my home-base.

For a party week, would you rather attend Burning Man Festival in Nevada USA or Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California?
Burning Man has been on the bucket-list for awhile now!! I’d like nothing more than to fill up a camper van & join in the swap culture of the Black Rock desert. I’m all for the eclectic & wild attitude of traditional burners.

From a street market in India, would you rather try Fire Paan or Ice Paan?
Ice Paan. I make it a rule to avoid putting flaming concoctions in my mouth.

You’ve already seen the Komodo Dragons but for your next close up animal encounter, which adventure in Africa would you rather take on, visiting the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda or Great White Shark cage diving in South Africa?
Mountain Gorillas!! I’m so fascinated by monkeys & great apes. We actually have a trip to Virunga National Park tentatively scheduled for our honeymoon! 

Which South American new Wonder of the World would you rather visit Machu Picchu in Peru or Christ the Redeemer in Brazil?
I would love to visit Machu Picchu but when I do it—I’m doing the long way. The hard way. I think that you have to do the pilgrimage to truly appreciate it the way it was meant to be appreciated.

For a completely free trip, would you rather hike to the top of Ben Nevis at 1,345m the highest point in the UK followed by a weekend in Glasgow or to the top of Carrauntoohil the highest point in Ireland at 1,038m followed by a weekend in Dublin?
I’m going with Ireland on this one. I can imagine the hike being lush & green and a weekend in Dublin would provide the perfect recovery beers! 

On Instagram, you recently quoted this amazing fact: ““researchers have discovered that new genes turn themselves on when an organism is placed in a new situation. These genes code for proteins. These proteins are the building blocks for new structures in the brain.” -Jordan Peterson”. To turn on some new genes would you rather Bungee Jump in Queenstown, New Zealand at a height of 134m with 8.5 seconds of free fall or fly through the air on all three 200m flying fox zip lines in Auckland, New Zealand?
Bungee jumping terrifies me. I would have to be literally pushed off the edge. So I’m going to have to go with the flying fox lines!

Would you rather visit Oktoberfest in Munich for one week and not be able to drink any beer only water or visit Pizza Fest in Naples for a week and not be able to eat any Pizza only salad? 
Pizza is my favorite food. That would be absolute torture. I would waaay rather give up beer for Oktoberfest. 

Would you rather get free return flights for Evan and you to Singapore for a Singapore Sling or Moscow for a Moscow Mule?
Moscow Mules over Singapore Slings. But Singapore over Moscow…

Would you rather try Surstromming from Sweden which is Baltic Sea herring fermented with just enough salt used to prevent it from rotting or Hákarl from Iceland which is the rotting carcass of a Greenland or Basking shark. It’s buried underground in a shallow pit and pressed with stones so the poisonous internal fluids that allow it to live in such cold waters can be drained out making the meat safe to eat, described by Anthony Bourdain as “the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing” he’d tried?
I avoided the Hakarl like the plague while I was in Iceland. The herring is probably the lesser of two evils.

Evan and you spend quite a bit of your vacation time with a drink in hand. From licorice liquor in Iceland to Arak in Indonesia, making a list of some of the best (or most interesting) alcohol you’ve tasted on your travels.⁣⁣ Which of these festivals that revolve around drinking would you rather attend next St Patricks Day in Dublin for a day of beer, whisky and Guinness or the Haro Wine Battle a water-fight with Red Wine held in Spain every June?
If I had to pick one beverage to drink forever it’s wine. The Spanish wine fight seems right up my alley. St. Patrick’s day is a bartenders worst nightmare. It’s my duty to not add to the madness. 

You’re a firm believer in going off the beaten track when travelling and the environmental and social benefits of this approach. Living like the locals, meeting them and learning their secret hiking trails, restaurants, and traditions. Encouraging other travellers to tag #OTBPTravelGuide on their own off the beaten path adventures. ⁣For a less explored country option would you rather spend two weeks in Turkmenistan to visit “Door to Hell” in the Karakum desert and explore a country very few tourists visit or two weeks in the off the beaten path Solomon Islands with it’s amazing surf spots and scuba diving?
I’m an island girl through & through. The Solomon Islands are a dream of mine. I could spend weeks island hopping & finding my own private little beaches. What a place that would be to finally get my dive certification!