The year 2018 is reaching to its end and it is time to see how much I have traveled. How much should a blogger travel in order to have material for a travel blog? I have only done a couple of short trips to Europe and moved from Malta to Finland. Nothing exotic or extraordinary. 2018 will stay as a modest traveling year but next year might be a different story. Let’s first take a look of my trips in 2018.
Berlin
The first trip of the year was Berlin with my dad and sister. We didn’t do anything special really, just tasted surprisingly nice food, visited the Berlin wall and spent time catching up. We took my 64-year old dad out of his comfort zone and visited a shisha place with him.
Paris
One point on my bucket list was to visit Paris in the spring, and I ticked that off in this May. Paris is the city of love, and I took myself on a Paris date. This gave me plenty of time just to wander on the streets, taste macarons, buy sandwiches and eat them at parks. I also did some touristy things, like visiting the Eiffel tower, the Art Museum of Louvre and Montmartre. I had high expectations but Paris met them perfectly. If I could have changed one thing, I would have had some travel companion with me even though I like traveling solo too.
Finland
When I had my summer vacation, I traveled to Finland for our yearly midsummer celebrations. Like every year, the midsummer eve was freezing and rainy, even when the whole summer was record-breaking good. What made my Finnish holiday special, was my companion from Sweden. I got to show him Tampere, and we tasted the best doughnuts in the world, he ate some blood sausage, visited Tampere’s best museum Vapriikki and went to see Rönni’s dancing place.
Iceland
The highlight of the year was my trip to Iceland in June. I and my small tour group did a lot in one week: visited Reykjavik and Akureyri, swam in hot springs and swimming halls, climbed to a volcano, did several horse riding tours in the countryside, and listened to old sagas about trolls and other Icelandic creatures (like 13 Santas – all of them a bit mean). Doing a horseriding tour in Iceland has been my dream since I was 15 years old, and I finally got to experience that!
Malta
The first half of the year, Malta was my home country so I can’t really count it as one of the trips. Anyway, I already knew that I will return to Finland so I tried to enjoy the island as much as possible. The absolutely best thing was to visit the island of Gozo where I finally got to enjoy peace and nature, something not so easy to find if you are on the main island. At the end of July, I packed my bags, closed the door of my Sliema apartment for the last time, and returned to Finland to study.
Copenhagen
What can you see in Copenhagen in one day? At least the Nyhavn harbor and the Little Mermaid statue, visit Tivoli and taste the local specialty, smorrebrod. Copenhagen is the most “European” of the Nordic capitals, and definitely worth a visit during the summertime.
Sweden x 2
Because of one quite nice Swede, I visited Sweden two times this year. On my first visit, I got to know Karlshamn and experienced my first proper kfäftskiva, crawfish party. On my second visit, I went to Kalmar and visited the Kalmar castle. It might be that Sandra and Sweden will meet again in 2019 ;).
Tallinn
Shocking exotic! Today, I will take a boat trip to Tallinn, Estonia. My Swedish friend will come with me, and this is going to be his first visit to Estonia. In case you didn’t know, Finland and Estonia have a very special relationship, and even our languages are very similar. My Swede has never been to Tallinn so I can’t wait to show him around. I know Tallinn better than my capital Helsinki.
If I count Finland and Malta, I have done nine trips in 2018. Whether this a lot or nothing much, I don’t know. For a regular person it might be quite a bit, but for a travel blogger, it is not a lot nor anything interesting or exotic. I can’t say that 2018 has been the traveling year of all times but the year has anyway left me many good memories.
Which countries have you visited in 2018?
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