I’m Victor Jeffries, an Event Planner for Gizmodo Media, and This Is How I Travel

Calling Victor Jeffreys an “event coordinator” is like calling a unicorn a “horned vehicle.” His events for Lifehacker’s parent company, Gizmodo Media, included pole dancing lobsters, trendy lookbooks and an ice sculpture conceived and commissioned in 24 hours. We talked with Victor about why he always arrives a day earlier, about his must-haves (sports belt and speedometer) and two times when he thought he would be arrested at the airport.

What does your trip usually look like?

I host a lot of things on behalf of the company on behalf of our 13 properties. Whether it’s a reception for readers or events hosted by our editors. So we do everything from car shows, podcasts and other events hosted by our editors to hosting guest speakers and readers. We also have the business side of the organization, where we entertain clients, invite them to entertainments.

I usually come the day before the event. I hate showing up on this day simply because if something goes wrong, it could all be in vain. I hang out in the city I’m in and get an idea of ​​what the city is like. We always add small details because of what I learned the night before in the city.

For example, last year we drove to St. Paul four or five days before the Super Bowl with Deadspin for the Deadcast . I’ve never been there, it was fucking cold. I was with our responsible sound engineer, Mandana, we are just walking, and suddenly I realize that there are ice sculptures here. They build these castles. I would never think about it. But that night on the net I found a dude who cut Deadspin D out of ice for us, and the next day he was on stage .

How are you going to travel?

Only carry-on baggage. I went to India for three weeks and didn’t check my bag. On the way back, I did it because I basically took an empty bag and then came back.

I’m an avid writer of everything, and before I took three cameras, four cameras: underwater, film, a PDA that I take at night, and a DSLR. The last time I was in India, I took a film camera and a small pocket computer. The picture is either good or not. I can’t worry about which camera I have.

I’ve gotten better at packing less electronic crap. But this is most of my packaging. You have a camera, you have a flash, you have memory cards. I travel with my computer mainly to download pictures, which is ridiculous. And then the chargers for all of them. So there’s a lot of shit here.

I got much better at taking the exact amount of clothing or clothing that I can wash. What I love the most is when I wash my clothes somehow while traveling and come back with clean clothes.

I always take a sports belt and a speedometer wherever I go, because I always want to jump into the pool if I get the chance. You can wear these things all the time, just wash them and they will dry overnight.

Speedo for personal taste or because it fits in your luggage?

Both.

What luggage do you have?

I think it ‘s an Incase roller bag . It’s hard outside. Opening the zipper will make it thicker. Fits on a plane. There is a computer pocket on the back.

I have a mostly leather men’s handbag on the side, which I really like. It included my computer, camera. It becomes hard, it is difficult for the back to do a one-sided exercise. I just found another backpack that I took with me to India. Slim, black, I don’t know what it is. Slim, very thin.

Do you bring snacks?

I’ll buy coffee downstairs, and in the wine cellar I’ll buy a banana, a protein bar, orange juice and yogurt and eat them in the car on the way to the airport. If the flight is a little later, I’ll buy a fried bagel with egg, cheese and avocado across the road, and then I’ll go in the car. And when I am at the airport, at best I will take yogurt, mostly. That’s all.

I am always impressed by how many people drink at any given time in the morning. There is something at the airport that allows you to have a drink. If you are on a business trip or vacation. When I get to the next level, I definitely won’t have a problem with the tequila tonic at nine in the morning until the wheels are up.

How are you having fun?

I usually paint. I always carry my painting supplies with me. So there are at least three brushes. I have a small metal can of water-based paints where you can just apply some water and cook something. And markers, and always markers, and pens.

I always carry small notebooks with me. Drawing, drawing, drawing, drawing. People are looking and want to see, especially when I mostly don’t speak their language. It’s a fun way to connect with people. I take out a piece of paper and a pen and say, “Do it now.” I have exchanged small drawings many times.

I’ll go to the thrift store or my closet and find a plain white button-down shirt. I take this with me. At some point, I will see something that epitomizes this place, and then I just paint it on my shirt and then wear it in place.

Three years ago I was in Japan, it was during the cherry blossom season. I sat down in the park, took off my white button-down shirt, drew sakura flowers on them and colored them, and then threw that night for a fancy dinner. These Japanese people loved what was on me.

The incentive is to get something off the ground. I make clothes from a place that I know I will wear at home. I probably have six or seven.

I also took a series of photos of jumping in different locations .

Where do you eat when you travel?

I eat very easily. It doesn’t bother me much. The Deadspin team is like, “We have to go to one very specific place,” because [Deadspin columnist] Drew is there, and they are foodies. They find this place, and I show up with enthusiasm, but honestly, I don’t really care about that.

People give me recommendations, or I’ll ask someone at the hotel or something. I like to eat alone. But I will not eat alone in a restaurant that is empty. It just makes me sad.

What’s the best meal you’ve ever had on the road?

In A Reverie, it was mushroom soup, but only tea. So, it was in the teapot, you served it in cups and drank it like tea. They called it mushroom tea.

I liked the ceremony. Therewere puns on the menu. These were ridiculously insane puns. The space itself was weird, they had too much going on. But the food was really good.

Where will you stop?

I’m back and forth. I love the idea of ​​Airbnb. The tricky part, especially if you’re going to an unfamiliar place, is how far removed you really are. If I have friends who live in the city, I will ask where the gayboard is, what’s around.

As the trip gets longer, I will buy Airbnb less often. If you come for a week for work, you suddenly clean up all the time.

Whenever I travel, my bedroom in my house must be completely clean. The bed needs to be made. It has to be clean, because the worst thing is to come home late or early, to the crazy apartment. I hate this.

What will you do when you arrive?

I will definitely check the bathroom. Think about where I am going to photograph myself at the hotel. Connect to the Internet. And if the flight is long, I’ll take a shower.

If I’m there long enough, like three days, I’ll probably take my clothes out of my bag and put them in different things. But if not, it remains in the bag, the bag remains closed. People are already cleaning up after me. I want the room to be beautiful. Not with all my shit all over the place.

Then I go out into the street and walk. Find a place to eat or visit a large art museum. In Philadelphia, I went to the Barnes Foundation. There is a really good Netflix documentary about this. In his will, he left the house with everything in its place; and he said in his will, here’s all the money to make this thing work, don’t fucking move it, just leave it here. Philadelphia somehow figured out a way to ignore his will and they pulled all the shit out. They built another amazing museum and tried to replicate the house inch by inch.

What travel apps and gadgets do you use?

Grindr is great because it’s a great way to use every aspect of your hotel room and also understand what’s going on. This way I will know which party to go to together.

What kind of souvenirs do you collect?

I write postcards really well. So I buy tons of postcards and write them to my friends, and I always write one to myself. Just so as not to forget that I went there. I wish I could tell you that I had a box with all of them, but no. Who knows where they are?

I send a lot of postcards. There used to be mailboxes at airports, and they practically stopped doing it. Just because of the bombs. I gave people five dollars: “They are already stamped, can you just mail them to me?” And then I hope they do it!

What do you spend the most money on when traveling?

This is probably the last trip to India. I went up to Pushkar. As with many other places in India, there are all these very old palaces – I think a lot of them still belong to the royal family – but they have been turned into hotels.

The US dollars go quite far here. So, for example, in New York, for $ 300, you can get a decent room in Union Square outside Hotel W. Here, for $ 350, I stayed in the prince’s bedroom in these buildings, which are simply incredible. Marble walls, gardens, pools, peacocks.

What’s your biggest accident on your trip?

I recently got a little scared. I went to India and got a one-time entry visa. My friend saw all these Instagram posts. He’s like, “You should meet me in Sri Lanka this weekend.” I looked and it’s $ 60 round trip, like an hour flight, hell yeah. So I went to Sri Lanka for the weekend and when I landed in India I thought, “My God, I have a one-time entry visa and I just left the country. Fuck, fuck, fuck. ” I thought I screwed up … and the visa actually passes you twice. So it was a close challenge.

I made my way to Cuba in 2005. This is under Bush. At the time, I was working in finance. My portfolio manager was worth more money than God — a very good friend of mine — he sat me down the day before I left. He’s like, “Okay Victor, you’re having a great time, but I just want to remind you that if you get caught, they could theoretically jail you and / or fine you $ 250,000.”

I went to Mexico, left the airport, returned to the airport, boarded a Russian propeller-driven aircraft from Mexico to Havana.

It is the USA that does not want us to go to Cuba. Cuba doesn’t give a damn about it. So, you get there, and no matter if you have a Turkish or American passport, your passport is not stamped. They stamp a piece of paper that is not stitched into your passport.

Cuba, Cuba, fun, fun, fun, great. Flight back to Mexico. Of course, when I first flew to Mexico, my passport was stamped: “Welcome to Mexico.” When you fly back to Mexico, your passport is stamped “Welcome to Mexico.” So the only way to get caught is if the immigration officer notices that you have two entries into Mexico, but you haven’t gone anywhere.

I sat in the back seat of an airplane flying from Mexico to New York, and with a friend came up with a plan: “What the hell are we going to say when we get caught?” I was terrified.

Be that as it may, I am at the JFK at the immigration office. I go there and look this person in the eyes, and I try to keep my eyes and his eyes, and I talk about the weather, and I just don’t want him to look at my passport.

He just churns it out. That was great.

I canceled this passport as soon as I got home.