Yes, I know. I’m a few days late with this 2019 travel report.
It’s been a busy few weeks here in Belgium, but I couldn’t resist writing another article like the one I wrote last year. So here it is.
This is my 2019 travel overview.
Note: when I mention ‘blog post/video coming soon’, it might already be up and I forgot to update this post. So please take a look at my recent blog posts and my YouTube channel to stay up to date with all my content.
Note 2: to ensure that I can continue creating content, I’ve decided to make it easier for you to donate to Ars Currendi. Just click the link or scan the QR code below. Thank you for your support!
Click the links below to skip to the destinations you’re most interested in!
In February 2019, I took my third solo trip (after going to Berlin and Malta in 2017).
This time around, I went to the German capital Berlin (which is an awesome city for solo travellers, by the way).
I visited the Berlin essentials, like the DDR Museum, Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag Building, on my first day. But after that, I went a bit more off-the-beaten-path. I went on a street art walking tour, hiked up a hill with a man-made Nazi station and explored an abandoned children’s hospital and an abandoned airport.
Video might be coming soon, but it might never come.
I’d say I’m sorry, but I don’t know if this video can deliver the quality that I want it to deliver.
All by myself, baby. It might seem strange to some of you, but I love travelling alone.
And, although there are plenty of reasons why solo travel sucks sometimes, I still think it’s one of the best ways to explore the world.
I went to Edinburgh in June to celebrate graduating from university.
So, we celebrated. (Pro tip: Dragonfly has the BEST cocktails.)
We also walked along the Royal Mile, took a ghost tour in Mary King’s Close, admired university buildings, climbed Arthur’s Seat and visited some museums, among other things.
Check the embedded map below to see more of what we did, ate and drank.
I’ll probably end up writing an article (or several articles) about Edinburgh in the near future.
I went to Edinburgh with my two best friends (@febelamkowski and @onanas_vandenameele).
Whelp. This is the big one.
In August, I went on a 3-week road trip in and around Rajasthan, India.
We definitely did too much to boil it all down to one paragraph, but I’ll try.
We admired countless palaces, forts and temples. After a wild camel ride, we slept in the desert. We zip-lined between hill forts and ridge tops. We took sleeper trains across the country. Indian ladies taught us to cook traditional Indian dishes. We went on a sunrise hike. We visited the Taj Mahal and the place where the Beatles spent three months. And, lastly, we took yoga classes and got Ayurvedic massages.
God, I want to go back.
I might write another article about India, but I’m not sure yet.
I went to India on a group tour, organised by Evelien from Joker (a Belgian travel agency).
My last trip of this summer was a quick weekend getaway to Lyon. I was going on a trip with my mom, and I wanted to surprise her by planning everything. She only found out where we were going at the airport.
Fun fact: I was originally planning to go to Budapest with her, but a few weeks before the trip, our flights were cancelled for no apparent reason. I had to find an alternative, and I chose Lyon.
We mostly walked around the city without having a real plan, and it was great.
I won’t be making a video of this trip, because I don’t have enough suitable video footage.
I went to Lyon with my mom, as previously mentioned.
Since this wasn’t our first time in London, we decided to combine some of the must-sees – like Oxford Street, Hyde Park and Notting Hill – with some more obscure locations – like Southwark, St Dunstan in the East Church and Leadenhall Market.
It’s always been one of my big dreams to experience the Big Smoke around Christmas. And this year, I made it.
Article coming soon.
I went to London with my parents and my sister.
So, this was my 2019 travel report.
Now, that only leaves me with my current travel plans for 2020. And it’s going to be a big one.
For starters, I’m going skiing in France with my parents.
Next up is a Joker reunion (you know, those people I went to India with) in Bucharest, Romania.
That will be followed by a visit to two friends who are doing an internship in Pamplona, Spain.
In the summer of 2020, I’ll be going on a kayak trip to Sweden, a road trip through the south of Norway, a sibling trip to Snowdonia NP (Wales) and a surprise trip with srprs.me to top it all off.
If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s this: 2020 is going to be a good one.
Although I travelled less in 2019 than I did in 2018, the same message applies.
I didn’t write this to make anyone jealous of ‘how I’m able to do this’ or to rub my travels in your faces.
If anything, I did it to show you that — if travel is your priority — you can do it.
And also, I think I might make these travel reports an annual thing. They’re fun and easy to write, and they give you a quick overview of where I’ve been and where I’m going next.
Again, I know that I missed the mark by a few days. But hey, what can you do?
Catch you guys on the flippity flip!
I’ll just go ahead and admit it. Travelling alone is hard sometimes. It’s not for everyone. At times, you’ll be lonely, you’ll think solo travel is overrated and you might even feel unsafe. These are the downsides of solo travel.
Okay, it’s time to come clean about something.
Remember when I went on my first solo trip to Dublin in 2017?
It wasn’t as much fun as I made it out to be.
Sure, I experienced some great things. I talked to people I had never met while I was having dinner in the pub, I got to discover what would become one of my favourite solo travel destinations in Europe. I got a tattoo, for God’s sake.
And, while it was nice to do things I had never done before, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
In the interest of full transparency on this blog, I’m going to tell you why my trip to Dublin in particular and solo travel in general isn’t always amazing.
The main downsides of solo travel stem from the prejudices that often still exist about being on the road alone.
People say solo travel is hard, overrated and lonely. They say it’s too expensive, it’s unsafe and it’s not for introverts. They might have had a bad experience with solo travel and write it off forever.
And, the thing is, I can’t blame them for thinking that.
Because solo travel can be all of those things.
Here’s how.
Why is solo travel so expensive, you ask?
There are a few ways in which the travel industry puts solo travellers at a disadvantage by making them pay more for essentially the same thing.
Think about accommodation. Hotels and cruise ships often have a single supplement (i.e. a way to compensate for the profit they won’t make off two people staying in the same room).
And even if there’s no solo supplement, you still have to pay for everything yourself instead of splitting the cost with your travel companion.
Similarly, you might end up paying more for transport than non-solo travellers. Sure, things like airplane tickets and bus fares are just as expensive. But hiring a rental car or scooter will definitely take a bigger bite out of your budget if you’re travelling alone.
Related: How to find cheap transport as a solo traveller
Lastly, when you’re eating out at a restaurant, it tends to be a disadvantage to be alone. You’re unable to share plates or drinks with your buddies, so if you want to try something, you’ll have to pay the full price.
Related: How to find cheap food and drinks as a solo traveller
In the end, everything comes down to your personal travel style. If you’re a shoestring-type solo traveller, chances are that your trip won’t be much more expensive than a trip with your friends. Hell, it might even be a bit cheaper. But if you’re not on a tight budget, you should keep an eye on your bank account anyway.
In general, it makes sense that travelling alone is less safe than travelling with other people.
However, that’s not necessarily a reason to write it off altogether.
As a solo traveller, you need to take some extra precautions. After all, you’re the only one who can prevent problems from arising and decide how to handle those problems when they do arise.
One of my favourite travel blogs, Solo Traveler World, wrote an article about solo travel safety. It’s more eloquent than anything I could write on the subject, so I’ll just link you to what Janice wrote about it.
You know, I get it.
You are out there by yourself.
So I get why you would think that solo travel is lonely. And, if you’ve never done it before, it could be a bit lonely. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
When I visited Dublin by myself in 2017, it was my first time travelling alone. And I really got to see the downsides of solo travel.
I felt lonely sometimes. I second-guessed my decision to travel alone.
But that only motivated me more to make my next solo travel experience even more memorable.
And, sure enough, when I travelled to Malta six months later, I talked to more people. I went for dinner with my Airbnb host (who now runs a successful coliving and coworking community called CoCoHub).
After all, it’s not as difficult to make friends as a solo traveller as you might think.
I didn’t feel lonely anymore, even though I still did many things by myself.
When you start being content by yourself without feeling lonely, that’s when you’ll realise that solo travel is a great option.
You might have made the decision to take the leap, but you’re still worried about the downsides of solo travel.
Here are a few tips to help you deal with the things that may go wrong.
Not everything will go according to plan.
And that’s okay. If you’re prepared to improvise, adapt and overcome (like Bear Grylls), you’ll be fine when you’re out there on your big adventure.
Come to terms with this fact and chances are that you can handle whatever the world throws your way.
Stay in touch with friends and family.
This helps if you’re afraid you’re going to feel homesick when travelling.
It also helps keep you grounded and remember that people are waiting for you at home – whether it be to listen to your adventurous stories or to tell you it’s all going to be okay if it didn’t go the way you wanted it to.
Book accommodation suited for solo travellers.
This one goes without saying. As a solo traveller, you probably don’t want to be stuck in a big, quiet hotel room.
Instead, opt for hostels, Couchsurfing, housesitting, river cruises, or any other solo travel-proof option.
Pro tip: you can also find great options for solo travellers on Airbnb. (Get €41 off your first booking by signing up through this link!)
Take a book.
A book (or digital alternative) can make any plain coffee shop interesting. Besides, if you don’t feel like going out exploring, you can just stay in and delve into your book.
The best part? Nobody’s there to judge you for it.
Walk and take public transport.
One of the best ways to get an accurate feel of your destination is to walk around and take public transport as locals would.
Furthermore, taking a taxi, Uber or Lyft is usually much more expensive for solo travellers.
Drink responsibly.
I’ve personally never gone out on a solo trip, but if you do, consider refraining from alcoholic drinks. They cloud your judgment, and that’s something you want to be clear when you’re alone.
If you do drink, please do it responsibly.
Don’t overplan.
One of my biggest mistakes on my first solo trip to Dublin was planning too much.
I figured I was only there for a few days, so I had to make the most of that.
But in reality, you can travel at whichever pace you prefer. Again, there’s nobody there to slow you down or to rush you.
All I’m saying is: leave some room for unexpected activities, like going for a drink with one of your hostel roommates.
Disclaimer: I personally do not suffer from anxiety or panic attacks when I travel solo.
However, I have noticed that social anxiety is a big barrier for people who are considering solo travel. For people who suffer from them, panic or anxiety attacks are a big downside of solo travel.
Since I have no personal experience with this, I’ll let other people do the talking.
In the following video, Alanna from Adventures and Naps explains how to deal with anxiety when travelling.
If you haven’t quite made the decision to travel solo yet because you’re afraid it won’t be what you expect, watch this video. Nadine from Hey Nadine gives tips on how to get over this fear.
Okay, I’ll admit that this article is a bit more pessimistic than what I usually write about.
But that’s just because I want to be as real as possible with you.
I’ll be the first to say that solo travel is not for everyone. It sucks sometimes.
But if you can look beyond those disadvantages, you’ll open yourself up to one of the biggest adventures of your life.
You can thank me later.
PIN IT!
Falling asleep in the desert after a camel safari while admiring the stars in Jaisalmer is one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had.
This is the story of how I ended up there.
Note: at the end of this post, I’ll link a Spotify playlist of songs you can listen to when you’re stargazing yourself or when you want to feel blissful when looking at a sunset.
I included a bit of this experience in my travel videos. Here’s one of them:
About a year ago, I was trying to figure out where my big summer holiday was going to take me in 2019.
It didn’t take me long to realise that I wanted to go on a group tour, so I started looking into Belgian travel agents that offer group tours to far-away countries. After all, I believe most countries in Europe can be visited as a solo traveller relatively safely.
I wanted an adventure that only a group tour would be able to give me.
I quickly came across Joker, a Belgian tour operator that specialises in sustainable small-group tours. One of their concepts is a trip where everyone is older than 18 and younger than 26. And that immediately spoke to me.
Related: 10 things to know before booking your first group tour
And so, after a while, I ended up with a short list of potential candidates for my summer trip with Joker.
After finding out that the tours to Sri Lanka and Borneo were already fully booked, I was left with three options.
India, Norway or Costa Rica/Nicaragua.
Some further research told me that the Costa Rica/Nicaragua pairing was a bit above budget and the Norway tour was going to be too challenging physically.
So, I ended up booking a 3-week road trip through Rajasthan.
I started counting down the days until I left for India. As time passed, months turned to weeks, weeks turned to days, and days turned to “I’m leaving tomorrow”.
We first spent some time exploring all the glory of Rajasthan’s capital city, Jaipur. As I describe our entire itinerary in this post, I won’t go into much detail about what we did.
However, after an unusual journey with the sleeper train, we arrived in Jaisalmer.
Jaisalmer is one of the main cities in the Great Indian Desert and is known as the Golden City.
See also: How to study abroad in Salamanca (Spain’s Golden City)
The fourteen of us visited the Jaisalmer Fort and spent some time having a drink by the lake before heading out to the desert for our safari.
Quick disclaimer: I had my doubts about the ethical implications of a desert safari that included a camel ride. However, I was assured that the animals were treated very fairly and, as I noticed, they were.
We opted for Renuka Camel Safari to host this endeavour for us, and I’m very happy that we did. They provided us with a truly magical experience, and I’m not just saying that.
If you’re considering going on a camel safari in India yourself, there are a few things you should know beforehand.
How to get to your sleeping spot
If you’re starting your camel safari in Jaisalmer, you’ll probably have to take a jeep to get to the camels.
The jeep drivers will come pick you up at your hostel and they’ll know exactly where to go, so you don’t need to worry about that.
For us, the jeep ride took a little over an hour.
After we got to the camels, we still got to ride them for another hour or so.
Riding a camel is uncomfortable
Don’t expect this to be the best hour of your life.
Yes, it’s a great experience and you may never get to stroll through the desert on a camel ever again.
But don’t let the cushions on the saddle fool you: you will more than likely be uncomfortable throughout the whole ride.
In fact, even though it’s such a special experience, you’ll probably be happy that it’s over.
Things to bring on a camel safari
Every camel safari is different, but here are a few essential things you may or may not need to bring on yours.
Some of these may be supplied by the company that organised your camel safari, but just check with them beforehand what you do and don’t need to bring.
The food in the desert
If your safari is like ours, you’ll ride your camel to a base camp where locals are already preparing your dinner.
And if you’re from the west, like me, you probably don’t want to see how they do it.
Although it actually tasted great, something told me that the preparation methods weren’t squeaky clean (nor should you expect them to be — you’re in the desert, for God’s sake).
Dung beetles are all around you
Yep.
You’ll see hundreds of dung beetles during your camel ride to base camp and you’ll see dozens more once you’re there.
My most – ahem – interesting encounter with dung beetles was when we woke up around 7:30 am. I had the beetles coming at me WHILE I was in the middle of a number two.
You’d better believe that was the fastest deuce I had ever dropped.
Photography in the desert
Before the sun goes down, it’s easy to take photos in the desert. The scenery around you is gorgeous enough as it is, and if you’re able to get some of that golden light (just before sunset or just after sunrise) in there, you’ll be great.
However, you should know that it’s very difficult to take decent pictures of the starry sky if you don’t know what you’re doing.
After the sun goes down, you’ll just have to live in the moment and enjoy the night sky without light pollution, coming to peace with the fact that you won’t have a good picture of it.
When I tell you that the most memorable part of our desert safari wasn’t the camel ride, sleeping in the desert or eating food that was prepared by locals, you wouldn’t believe me, right?
Well, it’s true.
The best part of going on a camel safari in India is stargazing.
Imagine this.
You’ve just had a typical Indian dinner of naan and dal while talking to the people who prepared it. Afterwards, you climb one of the sandy hills with your group – laughing, talking and drinking.
With time, more and more of your friends start to go to bed, but you’re not tired. And you find out that two other people aren’t tired either.
So you stay on the hill.
You look at the stars, listening to relaxing music and talking about love, happiness, friendship, sex, depression and fate.
Every few minutes, a shooting star passes by and you all make a wish.
That’s what it was like.
And all of a sudden, it was 3 am and we saw someone walk from the camp beds to our spot in the hills. Our group leader – who couldn’t fall asleep – lay down next to us and joined the conversation.
Just like that, we lost track of time and we were stargazing at 4 am.
Now, we knew that we had to wake up around 7 am to take the camels back to the jeep, which would take us back to the city.
But it was so worth it.
If I could do it all again, I would not hesitate one moment.
As a little bonus, here’s a Spotify playlist of songs we listened to while admiring the starry, starry night (yes, that’s a reference to Don McLean’s song).
Big thanks to Laura J. and Wannes V. for letting me use the great pictures they took during our camel safari! <3
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That’s exactly it. I visited an abandoned children’s hospital and I loved it.
Now, I get how this might not seem like something to look forward to on your next city trip. But I had been looking forward to this from the moment I started planning my solo trip to Berlin in February.
As I talk about in the post linked above, I visited an abandoned children’s hospital in Berlin, called Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee.
To be fair, I completely get it. I honestly do get why you wouldn’t want to do this.
But hear me out.
As I was preparing my Berlin trip, I browsed through Atlas Obscura (a great website to find amazing not-so-popular things to do all around the world!) and I came across the listing for this hospital.
This website described the building as a “state-of-the-art medical facility from the Imperial era” that has now become “a derelict ruin”.
So, naturally, I wanted to investigate.
After some further research, I stumbled across a Dutch article by Eva from Blackbirds & Blossom, who had also visited Kinderkrankenhaus Weißensee.
Eva took a more art-based approach to her visit, and her article perfectly shows this. It features many gorgeous pictures of the inside of the abandoned children’s hospital.
I decided to combine these two online sources and visit the building myself, paying close attention to both the decaying, abandoned state of the building itself and the graffiti transformation it has recently gone through.
If this blog post inspires you to go to this abandoned children’s hospital yourself, it’s really not as difficult as you might think.
All you have to do is get to a bus/tram stop called Buschallee/Hansastraße. The main bus/tram lines that stop here are bus 259 and trams 12, 27, M4 and M13. You’ll probably end up taking an M4 tram from Alexanderplatz.
As I explained in my Berlin itinerary post, visiting this place is illegal, strictly speaking. It’s fenced off and the city has made some efforts to keep explorers like you out.
Related: Three-day off-the-beaten-track Berlin itinerary for solo travellers (but also for non-solo travellers, honestly)
But, honestly, the fences really aren’t that big of an obstacle if you’re dedicated enough.
Walk along the street until you reach the entrance to an athletic field called ‘Stadion Buschallee’ (see picture).
You didn’t hear this from me, though.
Once you’ve gotten over the fence, the urban exploration can begin. This is where you get carte blanche to do anything you desire.
I was very excited to visit this place. I had been looking forward to this for a few weeks, ever since I found out that it was a possibility.
On my way to the hospital, I was joined in the tram by a group of schoolchildren. At about 9 am. Luckily, I had had coffee earlier that day and I had some good Spotify playlists, so I didn’t care too much.
The first nerve-wracking moment of the day was trying to find a way in. The place that I can only assume used to be the main entrance was covered up by wooden plates because too many people were trying to get in. It was impossible to climb these plates, so I kept looking for other options.
And then I found the metal fence just around the corner that I mentioned earlier. Fortunately, this fence was easier to climb – although I can’t have looked very flattering doing it.
Bottom line, I got in.
The next terrifying moment was actually taking the first step inside the building. I had no idea if any other people were in there, I didn’t know how well-preserved the floor and walls were (read: I was afraid I would fall through the floor) and I didn’t really know what to expect.
But again, I fought the fear and I went inside. I immediately saw half-wrecked stairs and wallpaper that was peeling off.
I occasionally had to use my phone’s flashlight because – obviously – there were no lights.
After a few minutes, I regained my confidence and started actually exploring the hospital buildings.
At first, what I saw didn’t impress me very much, because the first few rooms I saw didn’t have any spectacular or thought-provoking art (you can find some examples of that below). However, the further I ventured into the abandoned children’s hospital, the more impressive the things I saw were.
Note: I’m definitely not saying that every room you enter will have graffiti masterpieces. In fact, you will mostly see meaningless graffiti tags that don’t seem to contribute anything to the building. I’m definitely not trying to discourage you from visiting this place, but I’m just saying it like it is to avoid disappointment.
But then again, the scarcity of truly beautiful graffiti only makes finding the impressive pieces that much more worthwhile, doesn’t it?
An hour or so later, I went back outside and started walking towards one of the other buildings. Until I saw a man on the other side of the grounds.
Since I didn’t get a good look at him, I had no idea whether this man was another explorer like myself, he worked there, he worked for law enforcement, or something else entirely.
I decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and I got the hell out of there.
Unfortunately, that also means that I wasn’t able to see the rooms I was most excited about, like the cupcake room or the flower room (both of which can be found in Eva’s blog post I previously mentioned).
I found my way back to the fence I had jumped over to enter the premises and jumped (well, crawled) over it again to leave. I then made my way to the bus stop and got back to the city centre without any further issues.
Have you ever done something like this? How did it go?
Thanks for reading!
-S
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I’ve never done as much travelling in one year as I have in 2018. I travelled to three countries in Asia and four countries in Europe. Not only did I travel with friends and with family, I also travelled with a bunch of people I had never met before. This is a short overview of all the trips and crazy experiences I was fortunate enough to go through this year. This is my 2018 travel report.
Note: whenever I mention ‘blog posts/video coming soon’, it might already be up and I forgot to update this post. Check my recent blog posts and my YouTube channel to stay up to date with everything I do!
Click the links below to skip to the destinations you’re most interested in!
I’m not sure if everyone will count this as travelling, but I’m including it anyway. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.
In September 2017, I set off on my most ambitious project abroad to date. I spent four months studying abroad in Salamanca, Spain. Since I came back home in January 2018, I’m going to say it technically counts for my 2018 overview.
During my semester studying abroad, I met amazing people from all over the world (see Instagram picture below), I learned how to be independent and how to solve problems that I had never come across earlier. My Spanish also improved tremendously.
(The only reason I’m not on this picture is because it was taken the night before my first exam and I went home early to revise. See, Mom, I can be a responsible student.)
Studying abroad is usually something you do on your own. I was in a special situation, where I had a classmate who went on her Erasmus stay to the same city as me. We made friends together during the first few weeks, we were in class together and we studied together for our exams.
Big shout-out to Amy for helping me out with all kinds of problems I came across. <3
I went to Amsterdam in February.
One of the artists I had been following for a few years, Quinn XCII, was touring Europe in January and February 2018. When he dropped the announcement for the Europe leg of his The Story Of Us tour, I saw that the closest he would come to Belgium was Amsterdam. I messaged a few of my friends and one of them was willing to go to Amsterdam with me for a concert by an artist she had never heard of. What an absolute legend.
I combined this show with a visit to my sister, who was studying abroad in Amsterdam at the time. She was in the middle of her exams and we met up a few times to go for dinner and to explore the city.
In total, we ended up staying in Amsterdam for three days. We didn’t really visit any popular tourist hotspots, since my friend and I had both been in Amsterdam before (on the same school trip, by the way) and my sister obviously didn’t need to visit them anymore after having spent a few months there.
As I mentioned before, I went to Amsterdam with one of my best friends from high school and we met up with my sister a few times once we were there.
I went to La Plagne in February.
As I mentioned in my travel story, yearly ski trips have been an essential part of our family bonding since I was four years old. Before 2018, we hadn’t gone skiing for a while, but this year we went to La Plagne for a week of fun plowing through the snow.
We skied a lot. I reached a top speed of over 90 km/h (55 mph) rushing down a slope with nothing but two long sticks attached to my feet. I believe everyone should go skiing at some point, but that’s not the question here.
Also: I ate a lot of food. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
I went skiing in La Plagne with my parents and my sister, and we met up with a friend of my sister’s who was there with her family at the same time by chance.
I went to Lille in May.
After I came back from my four-month stay in Spain, I realised how much fun it was to be in an international organisation of exchange students and Erasmus students. While I was in Spain, I went on many trips that were organised by the local office of ESN (Erasmus Student Network).
Many of these trips can be seen in my Travel Videos playlist!
And so, when I was back in Belgium, I wanted to return the favour to the international student community. I contacted ESN Ghent (the city I’m currently studying in) to see if there was anything I could do for them, and it turns out there was. We agreed that I would join an upcoming ESN trip to Lille and take care of the pictures and video.
No sooner said than done, I found myself filming an international group of students I had never met before in a French city.
I went to Lille with two guys who volunteered at ESN Ghent and a group of 30-something international students who were out to explore the best Lille had to offer.
I went to Japan in August.
It’s been almost four months since I came back from Japan, but it still feels surreal to me that I actually went there and it was not a dream.
I spent two weeks in Japan and I visited Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Itsukushima, Hakone, Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa. (More blog posts about Japan coming soon, by the way)
It was action-filled, ridiculous, exceptional, adventurous, unbelievable.
I can’t wait to go back and explore more of this crazy, crazy country.
I went to Japan with my parents and my sister. We also met up with a few people my dad knew from work when we were there.
I went to Bali in September.
After our two-week trip to Japan, my sister and I were still feeling energetic and ready for another trip. So we went to Bali for a week.
Admittedly, we had booked all this in advance, so it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment kind of deal.
While we were in Bali, we visited Ubud (Monkey Forest, rice terraces and Bali Swings), Canggu and Nusa Penida (Kelingking Beach, Broken Beach & Angel’s Billabong). We also ate. A lot. And we got a few massages. #thegoodlife
Bali might be on your bucket list, but you might want to revisit that. Here’s why Bali may or may not be worth a visit.
I went to Bali with my sister.
I went to Singapore in September.
Since I was only in Singapore for a 30-hour layover, I didn’t do a whole lot.
In our short available time period, we managed to check out the Supertree Grove at Gardens By The Bay (during the day AND at night), the Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Little India and Chinatown.
We also admired a light show at the Supertree Grove (called the Garden Rhapsody) and one at the Marina waterfront. We experienced both shows within about half an hour of each other and it was the perfect end to a perfect trip.
Blog posts and video coming soon.
I went to Singapore with my sister, after our visits to Japan and Bali.
I went to Slovenia in September.
We arrived in Ljubljana, where we stayed for two days and mostly wandered around its quaint streets and neighbourhoods and discovering everything the Slovenian capital had to offer. Some recommendations: a stroll along the Ljubljanica river, Dragon Bridge, Preseren Square and Ljubljana Castle.
After two days in the capital, we took a bus to Bled, where we stayed in an Airbnb located at about ten minutes of Lake Bled. Also, I accidentally walked all the way around the lake on our last day. But that’s a story for later.
Related: get €30 off your first Airbnb booking here.
From Bled, we also went on a day trip to Vintgar Gorge. It was extremely tiring since the hike up there took us a lot longer than we had anticipated, but it was totally worth it. The views were gorge-ous. (I’m so sorry.)
Blog posts and video coming soon.
I went to Slovenia with one of my best friends from school (who is also an avid world traveller and one of the biggest fans of this blog, by the way).
This 2018 travel report wasn’t just meant to make anyone reading this jealous of how much I travelled. It was meant to show you that anyone can travel. If I, a full-time university student, can go on seven trips in one year, there’s no reason for you not to be able to do the same thing.
I’m not rich. I don’t have more time than you do. But I do make travel a priority.
As a travel blogger, writing a travel report like this is like a photographer making a photo album. In the future, I’ll be able to look back at this post and relive everything I experienced in 2018.
All I’m trying to say here is that it doesn’t always have to be a big, fancy trip. You can go to a city one hour away from your hometown and discover things you had never seen before.
Travelling is not about collecting trophies from the most extreme destinations across the world. It’s about experiencing life and living your dreams.
Here’s to travelling more than you think you can in 2019. Let’s make this the best year of our lives.
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