If you’re fed up with boring mornings, here are 10 ways to make the start of the day a small celebration (I’ve tried most of them many times, while some are still on my list):

Sunrise date

Wake up at 4 am and drive to a beautiful sunrise spot – it could be a seashore, a cityscape or any kind of scenic spot you and your soulmate enjoy. Watch the new day dawning on a blanket and then take a nap. Of course, you can do the same with your best friend.

Sunrise in a balloon

It’s not something you can do every day, but for an extra special morning you can’t go past a sunrise flight in a hot air balloon.

Sunrise surfing

Grabbing your board and plunging into the deep blue is a surefire way to make your morning more exciting. If you haven’t tried surfing yet, photos like the one below should give you some inspiration.

Sunrise picnic

Pour some steaming coffee in a thermos, grab a few sandwiches for breakfast and head for your favorite picnic spot. Sometimes I drive for an hour to reach a remote mountain meadow just to hear the morning birdsong and enjoy the breaking dawn.

Rooftop sunrise

Do you have a friend with a magnificent rooftop terrace, or do you know a rooftop bar that organizes early morning events? Find the best view in the city and bring your coffee with you.

No-sleep sunrise

For those who cannot wake up early, we suggest a gentler option: if you don’t go to bed all night, you won’t need to hammer the alarm clock!

Kayaking at sunrise

Sneak out of your tent/bungalow and grab a kayak at dawn to catch the magical moment when the first rays of sunlight kiss the water’s surface. What I love most about these moments is the perfect serenity that surrounds you.

Sunrise from your tent

The best thing about camping is that you can wake up, peek through your unzipped tent to marvel at the sunrise, then immediately go back to sleep. Two of the year’s most special sunrises are the summer and winter solstice, when you can add a ritual from your country to add to the experience.

Sunrise swimming

It’s worth waking up early to start the day with a refreshing dip in the water (a sea, a river, an ocean or a pool – whatever you have close by).

Play a sunrise song

We all hear different melodies in our heads when dawn breaks, but here are a few of my suggestions for a special song to play as you watch the sunrise. If you can play a musical instrument, you can perform the melody yourself, or you can play it on your speakers to enjoy a special sunrise soundtrack:

Shine by Benjamin Francis Leftwich      Sunrise by Simply Red      Sunrise by Norah Jones     Sunrise by One Last Night      Bloom by The Paper Kites

Pin these ideas for later:

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Celebrate the national day of a country – your own or another

You can start this by celebrating Independence Day on the 4^th of July, even if you’re not American. The celebration of different countries’ national days is a great way to honor foreign cultures and countries without actually traveling there. You can visit a friend from that particular country, organize a themed dinner with food from the country, go to a themed bar or restaurant, or have a movie marathon with movies made in or about that country. Some of the national days you can celebrate in July are:

• 4^th July – Independence Day (United States)
• 14^th July – Bastille Day (France)
• 20^th July – Declaration of Independence from Spain (Colombia)
• 21^st July – Belgian National Day
• 23^rd July – Revolution Day (Egypt)

Organize a trip for a friend

… or have a friend organize a trip for you. Let them know only the departure date and what clothes they should bring; everything else should be a surprise. Give them the tickets, the maps and a list of challenges they should complete on the day they depart.

You can choose to send them to a place they wouldn’t normally go (be prepared for some revenge in this case) or somewhere you know they’ve always wanted to go but for some reason haven’t been able to. We’re sure you can find a suitable place that is still affordable and worth visiting.

Go to an outdoor cinema

Nothing quite compares to the atmosphere of those warm summer nights in the city, and a night at an outdoor cinema is one way to make things even better. Fresh air, a few friends, a nice movie, popcorn, drinks and voilà! – you have the perfect recipe for an after-work chill session. If you have a backyard (or even just a balcony), you can get creative and organize your own open-air movie night.

Gather herbs and wild berries

It’s finally summer now and the last thing we want to think about are those cold winter days that seem so far away. But, as we’ve always learned from Game of Thrones, winter is coming and you’d better be prepared. One fun way to do this while it’s still warm is to gather herbs for your own personal blend of tea, or wild berries that you can use to make homemade jam. If you can’t identify herbs, download a mobile app that can do it for you, or hire a guide who can teach you how to do it.

When you get around to making your homemade jam, you can label the jars with not only the name of the berries, but also the place and the date when they were gathered, as well as a funny story that happened while you were gathering them. That way you will have not only some delicious jams, but also some heart-warming memories.

Rooftop challenge

If you’ve been following this website for a while, you might have noticed our obsession with sunrises. There is a reason for that – they are always absolutely stunning, and they offer the perfect opportunity to escape from the stresses of modern life for a while. Try this challenge and you will soon be obsessed, too.

So here it is: search the city for rooftop bars that offer early morning events and go to as many as possible. You can also do this by creating your own events on the rooftops of your friends’ buildings or any other rooftop you have access to. Compare them and choose the best one, then throw a party on the last day of the month to celebrate your newfound knowledge of the city’s rooftops. Make sure you’re prepared for a big night so you can greet the first sunrise of August; then, and only then, will you be ready for our August challenges!

Don’t forget to take with you things like tick clothes, wound dressing, food.

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So what does it mean?

Gökotta is an untranslatable Swedish word, which essentially means “to rise at dawn in order to go out and listen to the birds sing”.

What is the origin of the tradition?

In some parts of Sweden, there is a tradition of going out into the wild on Ascension Day (40 days after Easter) to listen to the birds, and in particular the cuckoo, sing their songs for the first time in spring. Even churches in many parts of the country agree to hold their Ascension morning service in the open so believers can hear the cuckoo sing.

Why should you do it?

It has long been known that having a positive and energetic morning is the most important step toward crafting a peaceful and productive day, though it might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that obnoxious alarm clock in the morning.

The other aspect of the concept – immersing yourself in nature – is yet another booster for mental and physical well-being.

And if that’s not enough, think of it as a way to get closer to Swedish culture without having to actually go to Sweden.

Want an extra challenge?

Have you already incorporated gökotta into your routine? We still have one more challenge for you: go camping near the city on a work day and start the following morning by using the birdsong as your alarm clock (here’s how we did it last summer). When you arrive at work, all your colleagues will be wondering where your good mood has come from.

More sunrise ideas

You’ve already made it out of bed, realized how different life is under the soft light of sunrise and want some more creative suggestions for how to celebrate the dawning of the day. Take some inspiration from our list of sunrise challenges and give yourself an energizing start to the day.

Read more: 10 sunrise ideas to start the day with a smile

Discover more untranslatable words: like aylyak in Bulgaria or dolce far niente in Italy. 

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In many parts of the world the day of the summer solstice (21 June in the Northern Hemisphere) is special. Besides being the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest in the Southern, this is also the day which marks the link between people, the Earth, and the Sun, and is celebrated with dances, bonfire, making wreaths, gathering healing plants and herbs, performing magic and mystical rituals…

Create a special celebration for the Summer Solstice this year, whether it be a traditional ritual or one you made up yourself.

Here are several unusual and fun summer solstice ideas:

Escape the city to greet the sun

Use every occasion to fill your smog-clogged lungs with fresh air. Choose a nature spot with a spectacular sunrise view to greet the first rays of the sun. Breathe in the smell of wild flowers, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, hear the birds’ songs. This is more practicing mindfulness than a ritual but still counts.

Sunrise © Nishan Joomun

Gather medicinal plants for their healing powers like a Bulgarian

In many places, the night of St. John (June 24) is considered a magical one when the medicinal plants double their power. Women wake up before the rooster crows to gather plants and hang them over the doorstep of their home to keep witches away (in case you have had any problematic witches in your life recently, now you know the remedy!). In Bulgaria, for example, the plants have to be 77. Additionally, a small flower bunch is left in a container of water to spend the night under the stars. This bouquet is kept throughout the year as a personal talisman.

Summer solstice medicinal plants © Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

Celebrate New Year like the Mapuche people in Chile

At these latitudes, the June solstice marks the shortest day of the year called We Tripantu. Eating, drinking, telling traditional stories and playing Mapuche folklore instruments is part of the party. Well, it sounds like a normal party but you can also counter any distrust pointing out that if someone doesn’t respect the Mapuche traditions, this is none of your business.

Four Mapuche kids to distract you from the drinking and eating topic.

Join thousands of sun worshippers at Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the places where the largest number of sun worshippers gather from all over the world. The monument was designed for summer solstice celebrations more than 1,000 years ago, plus you can join the event for free on the morning of June 21.

Summer Solstice at Stonehenge

Make flower wreaths like a Swedish

The Swedish express their summer joy by dancing around a high stake, adorned with flowers. They make wreaths, which the girls wear on their heads.

Burn a huge scarecrow like a Danish

In the whole of Scandinavia there is a tradition of making a huge bonfire during the night of the summer solstice. The Danish go to extremes as they burn up scarecrows.

Danish MIdsommer fire

Complete 108 sun salutations like the yogis

Enrich your yoga practice with a ritual observed in many places around the globe – completing 108 (1+8=9, a sacred number) sun salutations (surya namaskar) in a row.

Complete 108 salutations

Make up your own sun ritual

Maybe you feel like indulging in sun salutations while you burn your flower wreath in a New-Year bonfire near Stonehenge? It doesn’t really matter what you are doing as long as you put all your passion in it. If you have a fun summer solstice tradition, feel free to share it in the comment.

One more idea: Get dressed and watch the sunrise on the day of the Winter Solstice (between 21 and 23 December in the northern hemisphere) or right now if you are in the Southern Hemisphere.

Pin it for later:

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To help decide which one to choose – sunrise or sunset – consider the following pros and cons based on my personal experience:

Sunrise at Angkor Wat 

Pros:

1. The sun shows up right behind the ruins of Angkor Wat and the sight is magical.

2. Waking up early will give you more time to explore the ruins before the heat sets in.

Cons:

1. In photos the sunrise usually looks like this:

Angkor Wat, Cambodia © Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

But what you can’t imagine from the photos is that the reflection is seen in a rather small pond (not in a huge lake as it looks like) and if you turn back, you will see this:

Sunrise at Angkor Wat | ©Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

Hundreds of people flock around the shores of the pond (there are two ponds but the one on the right if you face the temple doesn’t reflect the buildings well) and fight with elbows and tripods for good shooting spots. Some latecomers even venture into the mud:

Sunrise at Angkor Wat | ©Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

But that’s what we do for art! If you don’t like crowds, you might feel overwhelmed. But that’s the overall vibe of Angkor Wat, so it won’t surprise you so much after a few hours.

2. Balloon flight – flying over the temples at sunrise is definitely the most spectacular way to feel the magic, but I have some ethical qualms about it. When we were in Siem Reap (spring 2017), we found only one company offering flights and they all ended with throwing candy to kids in a nearby village. I found this practice humiliating for the locals and skipped the balloon flight (that’s a personal opinion: if you are okay with it, go ahead!).

Tips:

1. To get to Angkor Wat for the sunrise, you can get a tuk-tuk or rent a bicycle or a motorbike. The price for a sunrise tuk-tuk tour (and then a whole day around the temples) is more or less the same all over Siem Reap ($20 per person) and there’s not much space to haggle. Renting a bike will cost you around $2 a day, and scooters can be as cheap as $7 a day.

2. Arrive long before sunrise (at least 40 minutes) to find a good viewing spot and to witness the amazing play of light in the sky behind the temple before the sun peeks above the horizon.

3. If it’s your first day at Angkor Wat, don’t forget that you have to go to the ticket office and buy a ticket to gain access to the temples. The ticket office has been moved to a new location, 10 km away from the official entrance of the temple area.

Sunset at Angkor Wat – pros and cons

Sunset at Angkor Wat, Cambodia © Maria Angelova/www.203challenges.com

Pros:

1. Fewer people make a special effort to visit Angkor Wat for the sunset, so it’s much less crowded.

2. The sun sets facing the facade of Angkor Wat and there is a special magic here. With the last minutes of daylight you will see the walls changing color several times – from orange to pinkish and then brown. It’s the perfect way to end the day at Angkor Wat.

Cons:

1. It’s not as spectacular as the sunrise.

Tips:

1. The Angkor complex closes at sunset, so make sure you are there early enough to find a good spot and take photos. As soon as the sun gets below the horizon, you will be asked to leave the temple.

2. If there are clouds in the sky, you should definitely go for the sunset as it’s even more beautiful.

The verdict: craft your route so that you can see both sunrise and sunset. 

Read more: How to beat the crowds at Angkor Wat

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