Summer of 2014 was the craziest, most adventurous and most amazing I had. As I am sure you noticed from my Facebook wall - I spent two entire months traveling. Instead of going home to see my parents, like good girls would do, I shut down my computer for good 60 days and wondered around!
I have never been the girl with brilliant logic. Instead of traveling to countries that are close to each other, I made an impossibly complicated rout around Europe.
Stavanger (NO) ---> Oslo (NO) ---> Rome (IT) ---> Florence (IT) ---> Venice (IT) ---> Den Haag (NL) ---> Amsterdam (NL) ---> Hamburg (GE) ---> Barcelona (SP) ---> Porto (PT) ---> Lisbon (PT) ---> Madrid (SP) ---> Athens (GR) ---> Fira, Santorini (GR) ---> Heraklion, Crete (GR) ---> Kampala (UG)
You see, not much of logic regarding my destinations.
I call my journey "4-day-traveling" as that is approximately how much I spent in each of the cities. Actually, sometimes it was way more, but it always felt I like I was staying in one place for 4 days, which is enough to get familiar, but not enough to get attached.
To be honest, I can never say which of the places I like the most. I gave it a thought -- and I have no way of picking my favourite. All of the places were magical in their own way. However, if I were to give titles to those places - here is how I would do it.
Best food - Portugal
Best view - Santorini
Most welcoming - Madrid
Most fun - Barcelona
Most expensive - Oslo
Most romantic - Florence (duh!)
Most calm and relaxing - Porto
Most unbelievable - Amsterdam
Most historically interesting - Athens
Place I would return to - Santorini
The most outstanding - Kampala
Traveling is amazing, but sometimes you find yourself wondering - where am I? Usually that was the question I asked myself within 5 seconds of waking up "Ok, where am I now?"
Although, once, when my plane landed, I couldn't understand where I was. I took a short nap in the plane, and I was a bit jet-lag from the flight. I tried to figure out by the language spoken in the airport. It sounded like Norwegian. Wait a second. Did I go back to Norway? Or am I dreaming?
I was really confused. It took me 10 minutes after washing my face and getting double espresso to realise that I was in Copenhagen. Ok. Capital city of which city is Copenhagen again?
Oh! Copenhagen! Danmark!
Wait a minute. What am I doing in Danmark?
It took me some time to really put myself together, and when I finally woke up - I remembered I was going to Hamburg to visit a friend.
This summer was really unforgettable. I managed to visit friends I hadn't communicated for a long time, travel with my brother, make new friends, learn and most importantly - enjoy life. I know it sounds very cliché, but I have no other way of putting this.
I realised a lot of things, one of which is the following: the more you explore, the more you understand that you have seen nothing so far! So, this summer I learned to love traveling. It made me obsessed about visiting new places. Now I am impatiently waiting for my travels in South America.
I have never been the girl with brilliant logic. Instead of traveling to countries that are close to each other, I made an impossibly complicated rout around Europe.
Stavanger (NO) ---> Oslo (NO) ---> Rome (IT) ---> Florence (IT) ---> Venice (IT) ---> Den Haag (NL) ---> Amsterdam (NL) ---> Hamburg (GE) ---> Barcelona (SP) ---> Porto (PT) ---> Lisbon (PT) ---> Madrid (SP) ---> Athens (GR) ---> Fira, Santorini (GR) ---> Heraklion, Crete (GR) ---> Kampala (UG)
You see, not much of logic regarding my destinations.
I call my journey "4-day-traveling" as that is approximately how much I spent in each of the cities. Actually, sometimes it was way more, but it always felt I like I was staying in one place for 4 days, which is enough to get familiar, but not enough to get attached.
To be honest, I can never say which of the places I like the most. I gave it a thought -- and I have no way of picking my favourite. All of the places were magical in their own way. However, if I were to give titles to those places - here is how I would do it.
Best food - Portugal
Best view - Santorini
Most welcoming - Madrid
Most fun - Barcelona
Most expensive - Oslo
Most romantic - Florence (duh!)
Most calm and relaxing - Porto
Most unbelievable - Amsterdam
Most historically interesting - Athens
Place I would return to - Santorini
The most outstanding - Kampala
Traveling is amazing, but sometimes you find yourself wondering - where am I? Usually that was the question I asked myself within 5 seconds of waking up "Ok, where am I now?"
Although, once, when my plane landed, I couldn't understand where I was. I took a short nap in the plane, and I was a bit jet-lag from the flight. I tried to figure out by the language spoken in the airport. It sounded like Norwegian. Wait a second. Did I go back to Norway? Or am I dreaming?
I was really confused. It took me 10 minutes after washing my face and getting double espresso to realise that I was in Copenhagen. Ok. Capital city of which city is Copenhagen again?
Oh! Copenhagen! Danmark!
Wait a minute. What am I doing in Danmark?
It took me some time to really put myself together, and when I finally woke up - I remembered I was going to Hamburg to visit a friend.
This summer was really unforgettable. I managed to visit friends I hadn't communicated for a long time, travel with my brother, make new friends, learn and most importantly - enjoy life. I know it sounds very cliché, but I have no other way of putting this.
I realised a lot of things, one of which is the following: the more you explore, the more you understand that you have seen nothing so far! So, this summer I learned to love traveling. It made me obsessed about visiting new places. Now I am impatiently waiting for my travels in South America.
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