Today is my one year anniversary for traveling internationally. When I look back at how far I’ve come in 365 days, it’s a little humbling. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers this year.
35 Countries
Europe (28)
[one_fourth]
- Albania
- Austria
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
[/one_fourth][one_fourth]
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Greece
- Hungary
- Italy
- Kosovo
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- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Macedonia
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Romania
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- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Asia (5)
- Cambodia
- China
- Hong Kong
- Malaysia
- Thailand
North America (2)
- Canada
- United States
Read about my favorite place here.
37,038 Miles
Excluding all inner-city walking, biking and public transportation, I traveled roughly 1.5 times around the world this year. Here’s how it breaks down:
- 25,245 miles by plane ($588.75)
- 5581 miles by bus ($626.36)
- 3704 miles by car ($33.19 for Blablacar)
- 1967 miles by train ($150.52)
- 416 miles by ferry ($71.08)
- 125 miles by motorcycle ($4 for gas)
Read about how I saved hundreds on plane flight here.
38 Hostels
- Full Moon Backpacker Hotel, Bristol, England
- Barcelo Hostel, Barcelona, Spain
- Two Ducks Hostel, Rome, Italy
- Archi Rossi Hostel, Florence, Italy
- Camping Serenissima, Venice, Italy
- Budget Backpackers, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Caledonian Backpackers, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Riva Hostel, Pula, Croatia
- Hostel Na Putu, Karlovac, Croatia
- Falling Lakes Hostel, Korenica, Croatia
- Wine Garden Hostel, Split, Croatia
- Savat Guesthouse, Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Montenegro Hostel 4U, Kotor, Montenegro
- Propaganda Hostel, Tirana, Albania
- City Hostel, Prizren, Kosovo
- Backpackers Hostel, Skopje, Macedonia
- Cordial House Hostel, Istanbul, Turkey
- Best Island Hostel, Istanbul, Turkey
- 1001 Nights Hostel, Belgrade, Serbia
- Freeborn Hostel, Timisoara, Romania
- West Side Hostel, Budapest, Hungary
- Arena Campground, Budapest, Hungary
- Zlaté Piesky Campground, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Palace Hostel, Vienna, Austria
- A&O Metro Hostel, Prague, Czech Republic
- Budget Hostel, Prague, Czech Republic
- Pink Panther Hostel, Krakow, Poland
- Ânedin Hostel, Stockholm, Sweden
- Siam Journey Guesthouse, Bangkok, Thailand
- Advisor Angkor Villa, Siem Reap, Cambodia
- Restiny Hostel, Bangkok, Thailand
- Be Beez Guesthouse, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Mr. Jack Guesthouse, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Chacha Slow House, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Julie’s Guesthouse, Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Travel Hub Hostel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Original Backpackers Travellers Inn, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Lub-D Hostel, Bangkok, Thailand
Four of these hostels I volunteered at. Read why you should work in a hostel here.
97 Blog Posts
Whoever said writing a blog was easy?
All my life I have loved writing. As a kid I wrote fantasy novels, and even my book reports at school were often rejected for being too long! Hey, what’s wrong with writing a 1500-word report about how much I liked a 300,000 word book?
My catalyst to becoming a blogger was working out what I really wanted to be doing in life. My three passions were traveling, writing and computers. Travel blogger, duh! So I set out with my laptop and a passion to see the world, and never looked back. Finding the time to write certainly was not easy, especially considering the above numbers, but somehow I managed to squeeze in the time to write over 150,000 words in my blog this year.
17,142 Page Views
All that writing is for naught if nobody reads it. And the time spent on writing was nothing compared to the time spent promoting my blog, building up social media and networking with other bloggers. Now it’s time to take it into hyper-drive and start looking for sponsors, guest publishing opportunities, affiliate marketers and those coveted little publications like Huffington Post and National Geographic. After all, you can’t and don’t achieve big if you don’t dream big.
14,001 Photos
Well, that’s after editing and deleting all the poor quality ones. After finding I was not taking nearly enough photos in the first few cities, I increased drastically. Unfortunately it still wasn’t enough and I find myself constantly hindered when writing a blog post for lack of a necessary photo. 2016 will definitely see a big jump in pictures, especially now that I have a full terabyte of storage to use in my Dropbox account.
I also plan to purchase a new camera this year. Hopefully a DSLR, but minimally the Canon Powershot SX 710 HS. So far, all my photos have been taken with either my Canon Powershot ELPH 110 HS, my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone (before it fell in water in June) or my Samsung Galaxy S Tablet. Btw, the tablet takes the best photos in most conditions!
5000 Following on Instagram!
As of this morning, I crossed the 5k threshold on Instagram! It’s the platform I’ve spent the most time working on this year, and it paid off. The next targets are 1k on Twitter and 500 on my Facebook page. Let’s see how high I can get it in the next 365 days!
$4905.93 Spent
You heard that right. 365 days of travel and less than some people spend on a week’s vacation. In fact, that averages $13.44 a day. I lived frugally, missed out on dozens of adventures, activities and festivals I would have loved to do and picked cheaper countries as often as possible. But the truth is I couldn’t have done it without Workaway and Couchsurfing. All the hosts I’ve had over the past year have my infinite gratitude, and I look forward to being able to exchange further with them in the future, either with fantastic stories on my blog or in other ways. After all, I’m now a trained Thai massage therapist!
What Else in the past 365 Days?
Are there more numbers you would like to see in this post? Feel free to use the comments section below to ask for more and I’ll update this post with additional information.
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