Post written by Laura
Doing my best to live a life well lived!
Similar to 2022, at the start of 2023 we also had 3 trips booked. This time as of 1st January 2023 we had booked our 84 mile Via Francigena walk in Italy; our holiday house week in Wales and I had booked my French retreat. And then it didn’t take long before I was jetting off to sunny climes with a few days in Morocco at the end of January, a last minute booking with RyanAir.
Throughout the year with some planning and research I steadily booked more and more trips maximising my annual leave allowance and making good use of the two flexi days I’m allowed to accrue and take each month which are perfect for long weekends or tagging on to longer holidays.
This is a summary of my 2023 trips and holidays:
- Jan: A short solo break to Essaouira, Morocco
- Mar: Devon family weekend
- Mar: Pre-Italy training Aylesbury weekend
- Apr: Yoga retreat in France
- May: Via Francigena through Tuscany, Italy
- Jun: Belgrade solo weekend
- Jul: Wales holiday house
- Aug: Camino de Santiago, Spain
- Sep: Suffolk family weekend
- Sep: Armenia and Georgia adventure
- Nov: A lovely Caribbean holiday in St Kitts & Nevis
- Dec: A short break to Cairo
- Dec: A weekend in the New Forest
- Dec: A weekend in the Peak District
We still didn’t get to Borneo which was something a year ago we were planning for November 2023… I did some research and found that generally the Borneo weather is better in the spring time so we decided to postpone Borneo (again) and we went to St Kitts & Nevis instead.
Statistics
Throughout 2023 I visited 10 different countries with Serbia, Armenia, Georgia and St Kitts & Nevis being 4 new ones, i.e. those I had never been to before.
One new European capital city: Belgrade
Two new Italian cities: Lucca and Siena
One new German city: Cologne
Two new African cities: Essaouira in Morocco and Cairo, capital of Egypt
Two new Asian capital cities: Yerevan and Tbilisi
A section of one new long distance hiking trail: one week of the Camino de Santiago
One new area of Wales: coastal mid Wales
One new English city: Winchester
This year including all trips from short weekend breaks to longer holidays I had taken a total of 14 trips (as listed above) which is 3 less than last year where, in 2022 I managed 17!
Observations
Of the trips taken this year and as I look back on my 2023 posts I noticed even more how much food is of major importance to me when travelling. I’ve always loved to taste and experience different types of food and this has consistently been a strong feature of my travels but this year I seem to have become ever keener to share my experiences in this blog. I am definitely one of those sad persons who wants to capture the memory of every delicious meal or every amazing drink!
The before, during and after of travel
I’ve also come to realise that travel, as an all consuming hobby for me, neatly splits into 3 sections of before / during / after. I love every aspect of travel and spend hours researching, seeking ideas and inspiration and designing future itineraries in advance of any trip.
Obviously the best part is during the trip 🙂
But I also cherish the reflection afterwards. While I’m away I’m uploading photos into draft blog posts and adding notes as I go. Then as soon as I return I eagerly tidy them up, finish them off and publish them. This creates many happy memories for me that I later read back. Many times.
In my view, travelling is the very best way of ensuring life is as stimulating and exhilarating as possible. As I’ve mentioned many times, it doesn’t have to be expensive or far away, preferably just different. Different experiences that temporarily transport you away from your normal day to day life. (Although anywhere far far away is always incredibly exciting!!)
How thrilling it is to take a random long weekend in the dark depths of January and spend it exploring a new coastal area of sunny Morocco? This time last year I had never heard of remote Sidi Mbarak until my little trek in the area a month or so later. I now have great memories of happy times with a small group of people I didn’t know and will never meet again.
As well as posts covering my year of travels throughout 2023 I also published several ‘throwback’ posts ranging from a wonderful holiday in Brazil where, as a single parent, I took my two children back in 2008 to my first backpacking trip around Austria in 2005.
Children grow up so fast and I particularly enjoyed re-living precious memories of family holidays. My son James and daughter Zoe brought much happiness into my life and into each family trip that I wanted to capture and treasure these times.
One of my favourite ever family holidays was to St Lucia back in 2000 when they were aged 7 and 5. The above picture was taken at the start of the day we hired a jeep and set off to explore the rainforests and banana plantations! (I don’t have any blog posts this far back… not yet…)
I think I am possibly addicted to travel 🤔 I only ever read books about travel. I only follow FaceBook and Instagram posts on travel. I’m mainly interested in TV programmes if they are about travel. I become fully alive and engaged in conversations when the subject is travel whether it’s listening to the tales and travel stories of others or reflecting back on my own.
Anyway – as always I am grateful to have had the opportunity to travel as much as I have and to have seen and experienced so many of the incredible places our wonderful world has to offer.
A random FaceBook quote from a random FaceBook poster:
“Life is too short to stay at home when you could see beautiful things”
frombluetogreen.com 