2018 Rewind: Travel

In 2017 I set out to travel a whole lot – I was on a steady paycheck now and well… according to Instagram that seemed to be what you do once you’re getting paid. That said, it fell just short of expectations, however I wasn’t too mad, as it allowed me to save more. This year, I was ready to just go with the flow and see where that took me. Somehow – a lot due to the increase in work trips – I managed to leave the country 12 times this year! That’s a whole 24 flights in 12 months and while that may be a minor to some – I’m started to feel like some sort of a seasoned traveler (pass me my avios points or whalleva)! I’ve even recently decided to start using the lounges Amex allows free access to (fancy eh), but that was mostly on account of finding out lounges serve free food lmao. Anyhow – follow the jump to see a rewind of my year in travel!

So, in short, my year was quite equally split between work trips, spontaneous weekend breaks and two more luxurious breaks to Greece and Spain. I started my year skiing in Val Thorens, France, then went on 24 hour round-trip work trip to Stockholm. Levi was doing a speech in Vienna that happened to fall on Valentine’s Day so I spent 2 days in that romantic city, following that, we went to Madrid in March for my birthday. My cousin had a baby gender reveal in Turin, Italy in May and next up was my favourite trip of the year – a week split between Santorini and Mykonos in Greece. After being back at work for a little while I took on Stockholm again for mid-year work meetings, then on to Munich for a work conference. I was back to Stockholm again for a work event in October, and the day I landed, 10 of us from work booked out a villa in Palma, Majorca for a weekend. Finally, I visited Stockholm 2 last times in both November and December. *Breaths out*.

These were my top 3…
 

3. Turin, Italy

I’ve been to Italy on two occasions in the past. The first was in 2014 when I went with a few friends from uni to Naples. The trip was a good one – the food was amazing, we got to visit the old city of Pompeii which was really cool, and also Capri which is absolutely gorgeous. That said Naples is an… interesting city itself to say the least! It’s not the cleanest, and we also stayed in kind of gross hostel, so I haven’t necessarily recommended it to people in the years since. In 2015, Levi and I visited Rome for our one year anniversary and whilst the city was gorgeous – to put it bluntly and to get straight to the point – there was some subtle racism. 3 years later and you can see why I’ve never been in a hurry to go back to Italy. So when my cousin invited us down to Turin for his baby gender reveal wellll – I was skeptical to say the least. Actually, Turin really surprised me. It’s a cute little neighborhood which is surprisingly diverse, the people that live there are very polite and my cousin’s girlfriend cooked the most delicious meals for us all weekend which I’m still salivating over. Also – the company (i.e. other cousins and family friends I went with) was great. It’s definitely changed my view of Italy so I probably won’t leave it another 3 years before I go back again!
 

2. Palma Majorca, Spain

In September time, my friend sent me a WhatsApp message to let me know that a few people from work were planning a weekend break to Majorca within the month. I kind of scoffed at the idea – my (work) friends and I struggle to even organise a dinner let alone a trip to a whole other country. I said I was down – but I also expressed that I didn’t think it was gonna happen! Well – two weeks passed and still nothing had been organised. But all of a sudden, everyone seemed keen to make it happen and within no time we had booked flights and a villa for a weekend break to Palma Majorca in Spain. We ended up booking a humongous villa somewhere in the middle of nowhere (to be quite frank) in Palma, we bought bottles of prosecco, sparking rosé, spirits and champagne in duty free and honestly, we spent the weekend drinking, partying, eating and taking pictures by the pool. We were sort of situated on a hill which looked out to Palma but that’s about as much of the city as we saw. In the evening we ventured into the city to visit a club called “The Social Club”. It was such a spontaneous yet fun trip and now I’m always recommending everyone do the same – as there’s so many of you the cost is actually more than decent and it is relaxation and living your best life at its finest.
 

1. Santorini and Mykonos, Greece (blog post)

I’ve known for a while now that I wanted to visit Santorini and/or Mykonos, so when Levi and I got around to planning our summer holiday it was really a no brainer. As we’re both working now full time (we met in uni when, as I’m sure many of you know, money is a lot more scarce), we could afford to invest a bit more into having a really great time, and it was so worth it. Santorini was such a gorgeous, romantic city. Meanwhile, Mykonos was more of a luxurious, party city. Between relaxing by the pool, exploring, eating out and (in Mykonos) partying, we really had our pick of the best of many worlds and it was honestly an amazing holiday. I would recommend to anyone visiting Greece to consider island hopping – to really get the most out of your trip!

 

Next year?

Next year, I think, we be a much more cross-continental year. I know for (almost) certain that I’ll be going to New York and from there likely elsewhere in the states (I was last in the states in 2016). Dubai and the Caribbean are also on the cards. Again – I’ll just see where the year takes me!
 

 

2018 Rewind

➣ 2018 Rewind: Fitness
➣ 2018 Rewind: Travel
➣ 2018 Rewind: Looking back at my favourite posts
➣ 2018 Rewind: How did my 2017 resolutions go?
➣ 2018 in Review and 2019 Resolutions