Ep. 295: How This Tin Whistle Backpacker Lives A Simple Yet Fulfilling Life On The Road with Finn
In this episode, I speak with Finn who is a full time backpacker and part time tin whistler.
Finn loves playing flight roulette where he shows up at the airport, finds the cheapest flight to anywhere and makes that his next destination.
His dream is to make a living as a tin whistler while traveling the world!
Listen on to find out how this tin whistler backpacker, lives a simple yet fulfilling life on the road.
Listen Below:
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Transcription:
Debbie:
Hey everyone, thank you so much for being here. I am so excited to speak with Finn.
Hi, Finn, how are you?
Finn:
I’m doing good. How you doing?
Debbie:
I’m wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today. Can you tell us a little bit about you, Finn and why you live an offbeat life?
Finn:
Just an average guy really that, you know, just thought he would go out and see the world, really. Nothing really much, nothing really special.It’s, I don’t know if I would consider myself a digital nomad, cause I don’t make a living on my laptop. I’m just kind of like a wandering, vagabond or just a wanderer really. So yeah, I mean I, I do a little bit of things on YouTube for a little bit of money, but other than that, I just go wherever the wind blows, really. And, um, just play music wherever I go and, you know, we’ll see what happens really. But there’s nothing really special. I think.
Debbie:
Well, it’s interesting that you say it’s nothing special, but for most people, that is not the norm. That’s not something that people typically do, you know, most people just stay at home. There’s also a lot of people that just stay in like their community and never even see outside of that. So for you it’s the norm, but for a lot of people it’s not.
Finn:
Yeah, I guess so. That’s, that’s true. It’s all about, perspective, really and it’s, it’s all relative. I’m like, “Yeah, this seems pretty normal to me.”, but other people, you know, they always say to me like, “Oh, I wish I could do that.”, I’m like, “Can’t you?”, but I guess people have responsibilities and all that, you know?
Debbie:
So from what I can gather from, just to start, you’re the type of person, you’re a wanderer obviously, but you’re a very free spirit and you’re not, are you kind of analytical or you just kind of figure out things as you go? And you know, like it’s so interesting cuz there’s people who are super analytical and everything they have to plan out. And then there’s people, someone like you, Finn just like, “Okay, I kind of like it here. I’m gonna stay here.”, or “I’m gonna go there because I heard something about it that really interests me.”. So I kind of figure you’re the latter, right?
Finn:
Yeah, I don’t really plan things. It just keeps it more exciting that way. A lot of people, you know, to each their own, they have the plan, how long they’re gonna be, then where they go. But for me, I usually just, I just, the only really thing I spend money on is one way tickets, because whenever I go to a country, I always buy one way tickets or, you know, train tickets, anything really, I don’t plan on going back to the same country. It’s always, you know, A to B to C to D to E. And it’s more exciting that way and it’s a little bit more easy to travel too.
It’s a little bit cheaper and depending on how much luggage you have or what you carry with you, it can be very efficient. So fortunately for me, I’m a minimalist, so I only, I’ve been traveling for about five years now and I only have like a, like a 20 or 30 liter backpack with me.
Debbie:
Oh wow. Well that’s pretty good considering what type of lifestyle you have, but how did you get started with this Finn? How did you start five years ago and just thought, “Hey, I’m gonna leave everything behind and just be nomadic and do this continuously.”.
Was this the plan or was it just kind of like, “Okay, let me start and then I’m gonna come back home?”. How did this all happen?
Finn:
So yeah, I guess I did the whole university thing and um, honestly, everything I learned, I could have gone to the library, but you know, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. You gotta get a degree and you know, when I was in university, I really hated it.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and you know, I was thinking about just leaving school. But then my brother who’s older and he did the whole, you know, four year degree, master’s, aerospace engineer and all that stuff, he’s like, “Dude, no one cares what your degree is, is all they care about is that you are good at something for four years and you can learn and X whatever.”, and I’m like, “All right, that’s true.”.
So just got my degree cause you know, why not? And then I was about to graduate and I was applying to all these jobs, office jobs, boring jobs.
And to be honest, I kind of half-assed it. I didn’t really wanna work in an office job, but I thought, “Okay, I guess this is what I’m supposed to do now and get money.”. Needless to say, none of the jobs got back to me cause I half-assed it. But I’m like, “All right, now what?”, and so my buddy who I met at university, he’s like, “Dude, I’m going to Alaska, let’s go.”. I’m like, “What are we gonna do in Alaska?”, he’s like, “No, we’re gonna make a lot of money. We’ll do like seasonal work and then we’ll get our ton of money and we’ll travel.”, I’m like, “All right, that sounds good.”. Not analytical. I’m like, “All right, cool.”.
So we go up to Alaska for a season, in summer, you know, tourism, that sort of thing, raft guiding or zip lining fishing, anything really.
We got a lot of money and I just suddenly discovered this group of people or this, these kinds of people that are just like-minded as me, just wanted to travel. And seasonal work was a good way of doing that. You know, a lot of people that go up to Alaska or any, any state during the season work up, work six months, they get their money and then they travel the world for the other six or however long it lasts.
And so I thought, “Okay, let’s see how this goes.”. But I knew that I wanted to pay off my debt first. You know, it sucks that a lot of people in the states are in debt. And one thing I would advise people is to pay off your debt as soon as possible because that’s the same advice that this one guy told me I was, I was in a bar at night near graduation.
He was a rich guy too, you could just tell, and he had a Rolex on, he was drinking alone, but I was drinking with him. He told me I was, I asked him like, “Do you have any advice for, you know, someone that’s about to graduate?”, and he said, “Pay off your debt as soon as possible, because once you do, all the money that you make is for yourself and you’re not, you know, giving any of it away.”.
So, I thought that was good advice. And so after the season in Alaska, a lot of my friends, you know, they went to Central America, they went to Asia, they went to Europe. They just started spending. But me, I, you know, I wanted to pay off my debt. So, I immediately started to get more work in Alaska, get other odd jobs.
I climbed cell towers, I, you know, do anything possible to get more money. And I was able to pay off my debt within a year. And so debt paid off, money in the bank and nothing was holding me back. And so I just decided, “All right, here we go.”, and got my backpack and started traveling and hasn’t really stopped. I got my first taste of it when I was in university. I did a study abroad in Belize, and that kind of opened my eyes to different cultures, different foods, and I’m like, “All right, this is one country, let’s check out the other ones. And so I haven’t really stopped since, really.
Debbie:
That’s amazing. And also, I love that you prioritized your debt first, paying it off before you went off and traveled the world, because you know, that’s not, actually also that’s not the norm. People just think about the now and not what’s gonna happen in the future. And that’s exactly why you’re able to do this and you’re more of a free spirit because you are a free spirit, but you also know what your responsibilities are.
Finn:
Yes.
Debbie:
And, and that was amazing that you met that guy because you got like the best advice. That’s what everyone needs to do, you know, because otherwise you would’ve just been bogged down with that and you would’ve been not such a free spirit because you can’t be, if you have all of these problems, especially with money, you know,
Finn:
Yeah, it was, it was just, it was kinda like a movie. It was like winter, it was dark, it was jazz in the background, and then this guy was just drinking, I just like, we struggled by conversation.
Debbie:
Yeah, I mean that’s, it’s super simple, right? And it’s a simple thing. It’s a simple advice, but it goes a long way because that’s why most people are unhappy because they can’t do what you do, Finn, because either they have certain responsibilities or they’re just in debt. They’re in so much debt that even if they are able to go out and live this type of lifestyle, they’re always worrying that they have enough money to pay all of their debt off.
Finn:
Yeah.
Debbie:
And you don’t have that, you can literally, like, you’re literally a free spirit because you don’t have any of that.
Finn:
Yeah. Well first off the, I don’t know anything about the education system, but I just feel like crippling debt is not really the way to, you know, start off and educate or you know, start off any, anyone that’s in university. I mean, I meet people in France and they’re like, “Oh yeah, school’s paid for.”, I’m like, “By who?”, he’s like, “Oh, the, you know, the country, like school’s free.”, I’m like, “What?”. I go to like Germany? And they’re like, “Yeah, yeah, school’s paid for, if you can’t pay it off then, no worries.”, I’m like, “How come we can’t do this?”.
But, you know, I don’t know anything about schooling, but I feel, I guess like when you have all that debt to pay off, people feel obligated to get like a high paying job. And then when they do have the high paying job, you know, along the way it takes time to get the job, get the money, pay off the debt, and by that time you’ve accumulated things maybe like a dog or a girlfriend or an apartment.
And so it’s tough to just say, you know, it all, just like, just throw caution to the wind and go, because now you have things that tie you down, so to speak, but I’ve met a lot of people traveling that said, “Yep, sold everything. dumped my girlfriend, I’m gone man, I’m out of Shawshank, I’m free!”, I’m like, “Right on!”, yeah, I think like if you’re in university, you know, paying off that debt I guess is like the first step I would take to live in, if you wanna live this kind of lifestyle dirt bagging it.
Debbie:
Yeah and I always find it so interesting that, that you mentioned that too, Finn, I feel like, especially here in the United States, I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but here, you know, obviously I’ve spoken to a lot of people about education and all of that stuff, and I used to be an educator and it’s so interesting how we obviously are told that we need to go to university, we’re supposed to go to school, we’re supposed to finish that and then have all of these other expectations.
Even if you don’t know what on earth you are doing, you’re still supposed to go to school and spend the money instead of being told, “Hey, figure out what you wanna do first with your life.”, and that takes a lot of self-exploration. And once you do that, then you can go back to university.
And if you need, well, if you need to go back to university for that career, then go back. Because it’s just so much money I feel like that should be told after high school, right? Like, you got your basic education now figure out what you actually wanna do with your life, and if you need university for that, then go ahead. But it’s, it’s like, okay, go into debt and then have a life. It’s like what? How is that even a good advice?
Finn:
Yeah, well I think, I mean the more I travel and the more I do, the one thing I would say is have a trade or like get like a trade job. So it’s like you have a skillset really, but one way of looking at university, I think, is think of it as like you’re investing in yourself, in the future. Like, so if you don’t want to, you know, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then maybe save off the investment part to see what tickles your fancy first. And then you, like you said, go back and, you know, put the money in.
Debbie:
Yeah.
Finn:
But I still don’t know what I want to do. It’s not a bad thing, but I know what I don’t want to do, so that’s one way of looking at it.
I think it’s, if you keep trying things, you’ll know what you don’t want to do. So it’s like, “Oh, I don’t know what I want to do.”, it’s like, “Neither do I, but I know what I don’t want to do.”, so I’m like, “Okay, I don’t know much about marketing, let’s do marketing.”, cause that was my degree and hated it, I hated dressing up, being up to date on all the social media, making people buy shit that they don’t need. I’m like, “You know what? Don’t sit right with me. I don’t really give a shit about money, so all right, I’m out.
So marketing was no good. And then, you know, I tried scuba diving. I’m like, “All right, yeah, scuba diving in the ocean, this is great.”. But then to make a living, you have to like look after people. And I’m like, “Eh, I don’t know if I wanna look after people.”. That’s like a lifestyle, especially scuba diving when there’s a lot of stuff that can go wrong cause there’s a lot of stupid people in the world. So diving is, you know, scratch that off and, you know, just keep trying things really. So I think that’s like a good way of approaching it, is if you don’t know what you want to do, keep trying things, then you’ll know what you don’t want to do and then you’ll get it narrowed down in no time, I feel.
Debbie:
Yeah. And I love that philosophy, that you have about figuring out what to do because that’s exactly what I did, Finn. I just tried out a whole bunch of stuff,
Finn:
Yep.
Debbie:
and then I’m like, “All right, I, I’m figuring this out now. I hate doing X, Y, and Z.”,
Finn:
Yep.
Debbie:
“but I love this, this and this, okay, why don’t I combine all of this stuff? So I pretty much just enjoy everything that I do. Hey, that’s awesome.”.
Finn:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s how you do it, man. That’s good.
Debbie:
Yeah and really that’s the most important thing. And I think too, a lot of people are really unhappy with what they have and it’s not because of anything else. It’s what you put yourself into, right?
It’s the situation that you place yourself into, especially as an adult, you know, when you’re a child obviously you have no control or very little control of your life, but as you get older, hopefully, you know, you have a lot more control of it. And that’s when you have to really take things into your hands and be like, “Okay, what do I need to do right now?”, like Finn said, if you have debt, you have to pay that off, you know, hustle cause you hustled really hard.
You didn’t do what your other friends did. You didn’t go off and just start doing this and start gallivanting before you actually, did what you were supposed to. There’s some responsibility here, right, Finn? Before you go off.
Finn:
Yeah, I feel, I don’t know about being philosophical, but I feel like when you have a little bit of responsibility, it makes traveling so much more better, or this kind of lifestyle so much more better. You know, cause you got the university thing, get that responsibility out of the way, but even when you have no debt and you’re just going around the world, I feel like if you have a little bit of responsibility, it would, it makes it that much better because otherwise you’re just kind of wandering just anywhere you want and you, it’s, it’s kind of, it’s it’s good but also bad, cause sometimes there’s like, there’s no aim, like “Why, why am I here? What am I doing this for?”, yes, it’s cool and I see so many things, but it’s like, “What am I, what am I doing?”. You know, cause people sometimes ask that question, it’s like, “What am I doing here?”.
Like, “What is the point? Blah, blah, blah.”. Or maybe that’s just me. I don’t know. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, you know, when people see the stuff on social media, on Instagram, they just see the highlights really. But they don’t really know what’s, you know, going on in someone’s head.
People try, they see all these like Instagram people and all these people and they think they have such a life traveling, seeing the world, but you don’t know that person, man. You don’t know what’s going on in the inside. You don’t know their personality, their behavior. You could see someone with a BMW driving down the road and you’re like, “Oh man, that, I’d want that life..”, but that person might be thinking of like driving off a cliff or running into like a concrete wall, you don’t know what’s going on in people’s minds.
And so I feel like you just have to find your own thing and just focus on that, don’t try and be like other people and do what kind of gives you a little bit of a sense of like responsibility or like purpose. So, I don’t just wander endlessly. I always like to volunteer in any country that I go to because you know, you know, make a place a little bit better than when you first arrived or help out someone and whatever dark thoughts you have or whatever feelings you have, you’re like, well at least today, like I helped out someone.
Like I reduced stress. I helped out, I made someone’s day better. And that always kind of gets, keeps me going because I just think that’s like kind of a good way of going about your travelers is helping people. It kind of gives you a little bit of something back, you know?
Debbie:
Yeah and I think what everyone, essentially, all of us as individuals, what we all look for is a sense of purpose, a sense of really belonging to something, right? And if you don’t have that, you kind of get lost in everything, and this is why a lot of us become depressed.
We just don’t know what we’re here for and kind of like trying to figure all of that stuff out and obviously I feel like there’s different parts in your life where your purpose changes or it evolves into something different, but it’s always good when it does that, right?
And then there’s certain people that their purpose is the same thing their entire life, which is also really great. But I think it’s just figuring out what will make you happy.And most of the time it’s fairly simple and I think we overthink things. We think it’s way more than it is when it’s just like the simplest things, right? Because I’m like, you don’t need to make a million dollars a year to be happy, but just having food everyday, having gratitude, being with people you love, things you enjoy, like, those are pretty simple things. And I think we kind of overlook that most of the time and we overlook what’s in front of us.
Finn:
Yeah. He who is content is rich.
Debbie:
Yeah. It’s kind of, but it’s also us, we do that to ourselves because like you had mentioned, Finn, like we kind of, we tend to want to go with the Joneses, we want to see what people are doing on social media. We want to see how we can up that or do more and then you wake up at the end of all of that and be like, “Wow, I’m still not happy. I was just chasing things that weren’t even important to me but was important to everybody else, but what do I want?”, and that’s, that’s really hard to do sometimes just to sit down and be like, “Okay, what do I want?”, but then, you know, most of the time you’re like, “Am I being selfish for doing this?”, No, you should have what you want.
Finn:
Yeah. That’s the thing. It’s, I find a lot of the times where I’m like happiest is when I’m not on social media or I’m, I just had a long hard day of helping or working or volunteering and then it’s just like, “Aah, right, I’m going to sleep good tonight.”. So it’s,
Debbie:
Yeah.
Finn:
but to each their own, you know, everyone has, everyone has their thing. But,
Debbie:
Yeah.
Finn:
if you live in the past you can be depressed, if you live in the future, you can be anxious. But if you live in the present, you can be at peace.
Debbie:
It’s true. I love that. And you know, you can’t do anything about the past. The present is allowing you to kind of build for the future, but it’s what’s now, it’s what matters because you don’t know, like the people around you are still gonna be there. You don’t know what’s gonna happen to you in the future.
But I love that. I think that’s so important to do and I, I think I definitely am a victim of that, of always being like, “What do we need to do?”, Like, “We need to, to do X, Y, and Z.”, and I’m like, “Okay, you need to stop. You need to actually like, enjoy every moment, enjoy the people around you because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”, you know, it’s beautiful and sad at the same time.
No, I was gonna ask you because before we hit record, I know you’re in Scotland right now, can you tell us how you got to Scotland? Cause I’m like, “I love Scotland and it’s so funny.”, one, I was telling you, one of my friends is actually in Scotland and then I’m interviewing you, you’re in Scotland. I’m like, “Is this a sign? Do I need to go back?”.
Finn:
So, I was in Norway picking up trash along the Norwegian coastline and then I left that and I played a flight roulette, which is you go to the airport, pick the cheapest, quickest flight out of the airport and that was Kraków, Poland.
So I went to Poland and then hanging around Poland for a little bit with some people I met, then went up to Belgium, then went to Amsterdam, then went to Ireland, then went to England, and then went back to Ireland.
Then I went to Spain and there’s this thing called the Camino de Santiago, did that, went to Portugal, went all the way up through Portugal by foot 730 kilometers and then I flew to Ireland and then I flew to Scotland. And now I’m in Scotland.
Debbie:
Oh my gosh. Well that’s a lot of traveling. How long do you typically stay in one place?
Finn:
You know, it, it varies. It could be a week, couple weeks, couple months. It depends really. And it def-, if I like a place or if I’m ready to move on, you know, that’s the beauty of one-way tickets is you don’t, you’re not on a time schedule, you can leave whenever you want, volunteer wherever you want. And then when the money runs low, you can find work and see how that goes. And just keep, just keep going.
Debbie:
I do want to say like you’re definitely the old school backpacker, you know, that we hear about and what we used to know and it’s like you don’t really work digitally. Yeah, like, you know, those old school backpackers where you just travel and then you find jobs along the way and you don’t do most things digitally and you’re like, and in a lot of ways I’m like, “That’s super cool.”. I’m like, “Wow!”, that takes me back to when I used to read all of these different adventures and you know, like people who used to like write for Lonely Planet because they were really out in the field and there wasn’t anything online.
Finn:
Yeah.
Debbie:
And these people were out there like meeting people. And I remember having those different types of guides where, “Okay, if you crossed the street in, in this place where this taco place was,”, like, “you’ll find this really interesting old man.”,
Finn:
Yeah.
Debbie:
I feel like you’re that person that like.
Finn:
Yeah, I mean that’s the thing. I was kind of wondering why you guys were going to interview me on this podcast. Cause you were talking about being a digital nomad. I’m like, “I’m not a digital nomad, dude.”, I just, I use the computer sometimes for my YouTube channel, but other than that I don’t really, I don’t really generate a livable income on the computer. So I’m like, “All right, if you, if you guys, okay, no problem.”.
Debbie:
But no, I love that because you know what? Not everybody wants to do things online, you know?
Finn:
Yeah.
Debbie:
But no, I love that because you know what? Not everybody wants to do things online, you know? And I totally, I totally understand that and I like the fact that you’re able to do this and you make a living, but then you do it through network and meeting people and really connecting, you know, with your environment.
And not only are you helping, but also getting something back from that, which is I think what really, what we’re trying to do, right?To give back. And also it’s kind of like reciprocated in, in that sense. So that’s a really cool way to do it. And it’s definitely how it used to be done. And it’s definitely not done because there’s somebody like Finn out there still doing this and making it work and loving it.
Finn:
Yeah, I mean I always, I would tell if people like, want advice or whatever, I would say just talk to people. Get off of Instagram or social media talking to people, you’d be surprised how many, doors open.
Like for example, I’ll tell you a story, so I was, I had some money saved up and so I went down to Central America with my buddies, you know, who worked in Alaska. We were going to become dive masters and learn to scuba dive. And I was down there and diving for weeks. I was in Utila, Honduras, so if any of you guys are interested in scuba diving, Utila, Honduras, it gets the most bang for your buck for divemaster and Divemaster essentially what that is, is you are, that’s like the minimum level required to work in the scuba diving industry patty.
So, a divemaster assists instructors, they can take groups out on their own.
Finn:
It’s about a two month course, but for the most bang for your buck, it’s either Utila, Honduras or Ko Tao or something like that, Ko Tao, Thailand. And for me, what made me want to go to Honduras was it’s year round whale sharks. And I’m like, “Oh, whale sharks, yeah!”, cause no one really knows the migration patterns of whale sharks, but for some reason they’re always down there.
So, I’m like, “F*** yeah, let’s go to Central America.”. So, we’re down there and saw whale sharks, learn to scuba dive, party. It’s, oh, it’s freaking pleasure island man. Anyways, so I was doing that and then I met this guy, he was my dive buddy, nice guy from England, nicest guy. And he had no tattoos on him except a watermelon slice on his ankle. And I never thought anything of it. So we’re diving, you know, and one night we’re at the bar, I had some to drink,
I’m like, “Dude, why do you have a watermelon slice on your ankle? Do you like watermelon or what’s this story?”. And he said to me, “Oh, I worked with elephants in Thailand for about six months and one of the elephants name was watermelon. So I bonded with her and I got this tattoo.”. I’m like, “Hold up, hold up, hold up elephants? Tell me more!”.
And he told me about this place in Thailand. This guy owns six elephants in the jungle. He just takes care of them, I’m like, “All right, tell me more.” and long story short, he got me a job working with elephants and helping out the keepers over there. And if I never asked about that tattoo, then I never would’ve known if I was just on my phone on social media or, you know,
Debbie:
Mm-hmm.
Finn:
don’t, not even talking to people, asking questions, then that never would’ve happened. And so I always ask about tattoos now I always talk to people cause you never know what they’re gonna tell you that will lead your life into like a different direction, you know?
Debbie:
Yeah. And, and that’s what I love. Like, I feel like somebody like you, Finn, is, you know, you just have so many stories to tell and you don’t, you really don’t know who you’re gonna meet. And I feel like when you are traveling, like you have been, there’s so many people, you’d be surprised how many people are kind of like you, right?
Because you don’t meet someone like you, Finn, just off the street. Like people like you adventure, you know? So, you’re going to meet someone like you, like in, in a really crazy hike somewhere or in a scuba spot or, you know, it’s, it’s so crazy. It’s so,
Finn:
Like, meet like-minded people. You meet, whatever you’re doing, you meet like-minded people. And it’s almost like, I don’t know, it’s like whatever activities you do, you tend to meet people that are more into that. So, I mean, it’s almost kind of like dating in a way.
Debbie:
Yeah.
Finn:
It’s like, if you want to meet someone that has the same interests as you, then then keep doing those things and you’ll meet someone. But if you have all these interests and then you try and meet someone in a bar, it’s like, no, they’re, that’s like their interest is like the bar. And so, you know, you get what you get. And so,
Debbie:
Yeah, it’s true.
No, it’s true. And I could definitely vouch for that. A lot of my friends that I’ve met throughout the years have been in the most interesting places. Like, one of my good friends, I met her during a hike in Patagonia, and then another one I met in like when I was doing photographs in Guatemala and like it’s, there’s just so many places that you wouldn’t even think would, you would meet like lifelong friends and friends that you would have, you know, and you, you stay with them and,
Finn:
Oh yeah.
Debbie:
even if you don’t see each other often you still connect with them because, you know, sometimes, you just don’t have that in your own circle if you come back home. But with you, Finn, you’re constantly on the go, so I’m pretty sure you’re like meeting so many people. That’s why you get to go to all of these different places, because you get like insights from them what to see and what to do. They’re kind of like your own personal guidebook, you know?
Finn:
Pretty much, yeah. I mean you can trust social media and all these people who don’t have your interests or, you know, but if you, if you talk to people and you get the insight, like knowledge, then it becomes a lot more exciting. And, you know, I just find people interesting. Everyone has a story and you know, you just talk to people. If you find someone boring, it’s just like, “Maybe you’re not asking the right questions, man.”, like, everyone has a history, everyone has a story and you know, you just talk to people. If you find someone boring, it’s just like, “Maybe you’re not asking the right questions, man.”, like, everyone has a history, everyone has a story and I like stories. And so I like always like to listen to people.
Debbie:
No, but, but it’s true, Finn, it’s really what you surround yourself with and then your priorities tend to shift, you know? And if you are in a big city where everyone prioritizes their money,
Finn:
Yeah.
Debbie:
and status, that’s what you’re going to do. But then if you get out of that, that’s why traveling is so important because you get different perspectives from different people and not just your own.
Finn:
It’s really, it definitely does teach a perspective, traveling, for sure, cause you know, as bad as you have it, you think you have it, there’s always someone that is having a worse day than you. And it’s like when you see someone in Turkey with no legs begging for money or you go to Auschwitz and, and or you know, you just see a little kid digging through the dumpsters in Egypt. It’s like, “What do you have to b**ch about man?”, you know?
Debbie:
Yeah.
Finn:
It’s so that’s, it’s a really humbling thing to travel and do all these things. I always just tell people to travel, but it’s kind of weird sometimes going home or to visit or visit your old friends that don’t travel. It’s kind of hard sometimes to talk about things like, “Oh, I was in these countries and, you know, what were you doing?”, like, “Oh, Jimmy had a nice soccer game.”, I’m like, “Uhhuh, okay.”.
Finn:
They’re good friends, but it’s just like, “Ah, we’re running out of things to talk about, man.”. But you know, those, the kind of friends that I feel like you want are the ones that you can not talk to them for like years and talk, call them up and like, nothing’s changed, or you just, you don’t need that many friends. You just need a couple, I think, a couple of good ones.
Debbie:
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think as, also as I get older, I feel like the, my friends have gotten smaller and smaller and I like it so much more because,
Finn:
Well, I think it’s like, you don’t really lose friends. I feel like you just find out who your real ones are.
Debbie:
That’s true. That’s very true. And also, like, sometimes there’s just people that come at a certain point in your life and then they’re not really meant to be there for the rest of it, you know?
Finn:
Yeah, relationships and breakups and people, it’s like, “Oh, sometimes new beginnings are disguised as painful endings.”, you know?
Debbie:
Are we doing the meme route now? Like all of the,
Finn:
I don’t know. I just, I got really into Lao Tzu, which is a Chinese philosopher. He just says a lot of sh**, I’m like, “Right on, right on, right on.”.
Debbie:
Yeah, I believe that. Yes. That’s a good one.
Finn:
Yeah.
Debbie:
But thank you so much for doing this, Finn, I feel like I could talk to you for hours. You’re definitely the type of person that I would meet if I’m like backpacking and hiking somewhere and just talk to you for hours and days and just like stick with you throughout the whole you know, trip because I’m like, “Okay, Finn, tell me more, tell me more!”, because you just have so many stories.
But I appreciate this so much and you’re definitely somebody that I admire because you do things like old school way where it used to be and where you actually meet people and experience traveling instead of just putting it on social media because what did they say? Like, if you didn’t take a video or photo of it, did it really happen? So, you’re like, “Yes, it did. And I’m here. So.”.
Finn:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, yeah, thanks, thanks for having me. This was a lot of fun, I’ve never really done a podcast before.
Debbie:
Yeah, you should do more. I feel like you should either write all of your stories or create a podcast and just like talk about all of these things that you’ve done because it’s incredible, you know, and you’re still super young, so I’m like, I can’t even imagine like 10 years from now what other stories you’re gonna have.
Finn:
Well that’s the fun part about traveling, but I think my whole brand, if you will, is based on two parts. So, like the first part is Instagram, you know, that social media traveling part cause you know, I have, everyone has to have social media nowadays. And then the second part is, YouTube, my YouTube channel, which is where I teach people how to play music on this instrument called a tin whistle.
Debbie:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, can you tell us where our listeners can find you to you know, to look at like your Instagram and YouTube?
Finn:
Oh yeah, so my Instagram is tinwhistletraveler and then my YouTube channel is the same thing, tinwhistletraveler. But I remember before I started traveling, I thought to myself I wanted like a travel instrument and a lot of people they go for the ukulele, right? Cause it’s very small and you know, Hawaii, whatever vibes.
And then I’m like, “Ah, it’s still kind of bulky. I want to go lighter.”. And then my brother, when I was over at his house one night before I left, he was playing this instrument called the Tin Whistle. And it’s like an Irish folk instrument, but if you hear folk music, it’s that whistling in the background, but it’s just smaller than a recorder and you only have six finger holds to worry about and blowing. And I’m like, “Okay, that looks like a nice instrument.”.
And my brother was playing Lord of the Rings concerting Hobbits, and I’m like, “Hell yeah, I’m going to learn this.”. And so I started to practice and YouTube was a good teacher, but no one was really teaching what I wanted to learn.
And so I thought, “Okay, I’ll just make a couple of videos myself.”. And then more and more people were like, “Can you teach me how to play this song from Lord of the Rings?”, or “Can you teach me this song from this one show?”, and it just kept snowballing. So, now I do that as a hobby, but new videos every week, you know, and people can fill their travels with a little bit of music and you know, fill their day with a little bit of happiness.
But, yeah, so basically my videos are all tabs. I don’t read sheet music and a lot of people playing music can’t either so just place your fingers where the tabs show and that’s all there is to it really.
Debbie:
That’s awesome. And now you’re doing this and it’s become like a part of what you do, you know, when you travel and it’s like a part of your journey, which is pretty awesome. Well thank you Finn, we really appreciate you and for sharing with us all of your incredible stories.
Finn:
Yeah, thanks a lot, Debbie. Thanks for having me.
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