Thanks so much to everyone who followed along with me for the last 8 months!

I had originally planned to do a full year of travel, but after 8 months, I was ready to come home. I missed the US and working with kids. I missed seeing family and friends and having a regular schedule. I missed Dairy Queen, ha! 😂😉

I will start applying for jobs soon and will keep you posted on where I land…..and will likely keep this blog going for any future travel plans (including a Disneyland trip coming up!).

For now, maybe more for myself as a reminder in times to come, are stats and favorites from the last 8 months.

Travel stats:

Total Countries Visited: 27

Regions: Africa, Europe, Asia (barely, just Cappadocia in Turkey is technically in Asia), Central and South America and the Caribbean

Transportation:

Flights: ✈️ too many to count Trains/Trams: 🚃 30 Buses: 🚌 11 Boat Rides/Ferries: ⛴ 19

Helicopter Rides: 🚁1 Hot Air Balloons: 1 Horseback Riding: 🐴1 Camel: 🐪1 Parachute:🪂 1

Lost/broken items: Sunglasses (4 pairs! 🤦🏻‍♀️) and a door stopper I accidentally left on the train in Egypt.

Things I missed most: clean/safe tap water, the ease and convenience of driving my own car, regular work outs, cooking in an established kitchen with multiple ingredients, seeing friends and family in person.

Things I loved: 🎉 Meeting so many kind and friendly people along the way, making new friends, exploring new places on excursion days, the food!, meals in the homes of locals on my Intrepid tour, practicing my Spanish in Latin America, WhatsApp allowing me to connect regularly with friends and family.

Things I did not love: Travel days 😩…..in the time of covid, travel days felt especially taxing 🤦🏻‍♀️😷…making sure I had everything I needed from covid testing in appropriate time frames, to online required forms to enter each country, to reliable internet to find the right buses/trams/trains to and from the airport, to wondering if my bag would make it to my new destination with me (it only got lost once, in Finland, but was found the following day).

Favorites:

Reflecting on the last 8 months of travel, I am so grateful for the opportunity to have done this! It was a lot of hard work and sacrifice to get to a point where I could quit my jobs and travel, but totally worth it! 😉

This is a list of my favorites in 8 months of adventure:

1. Volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary in Zimbabwe for a week.

2. Feeding a rhino on my birthday. (Look at his little face!) ☺️

3. Seeing wild hippo on a sunset dinner cruise in Zimbabwe.

4. Exploring Victoria Falls by myself….grateful for being able to see the natural wonder in a time where there were no other tourists.

5. Hiking to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa on a sunny day with outstanding and peaceful views.

6. Cooking class in a local’s home in Zanzibar.

7. Eating in a rooftop restaurant in Stone Town (Zanzibar) with a 360 view of the city.

8. Visiting Mostar, Bosnia and being able to see the Stari Most bridge early in the morning before the crowds.

9. Climbing the city wall in Kotor, Montenegro and watching the sun rise over the bay and the city.

10. Biking to Kinderdijk in The Netherlands with my brother to see windmills. 🚴🏻‍♀️

11. Eating fish & chips at an Irish pub with live Irish music playing in the background on my first night in Dublin.

12. Driving around Ireland by myself, on the left side of the road, while sitting on the right side of the car and using a left sided stick shift (and surviving this!). 🍀😂

13. Exploring the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands with a biker dude guide in a kilt.

14. Krakow, Poland. From visiting Auschwitz to taking a delicious and unique food tour, to the Wieliczka salt mines, this city had so much to see and do.

15. Hammam (Turkish bath) in Istanbul. One of the most luxurious and pampering spa treatments I’ve ever had!

16. Hot air ballooning in Cappadocia, Turkey! The scenery coupled with loads of other balloons was one of the neatest things I’ve ever experienced!

17. Riding a camel at the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.🐪

18. Other adventures in Egypt….Abu Simbel, The Valley of the Kings, sleeping on a felucca on the Nile, delicious meals shared together with a really awesome group of people and a lovely guide.

19. Unique experiences on the Jordan tour: sleeping in a Bedouin desert camp, visiting Petra and swimming in the Dead Sea.

20. Italy: one of my all around favorite spots….I loved the old and iconic sites in the city of Rome, seeing Florence and Pisa, sitting in the Sistine Chapel, and the fabulous food tour!

21. Seeing the Pope in person!

22. Exploring 3 new countries with my sweet friend, Andrea! This was such a treat after mostly traveling solo for 4+ months. The snowy landscapes of Finland, Estonia and Iceland in December were especially fun to experience with a friend!

23. Christmas in the US. Being able to come home in the middle of the trip to spend the holidays with family was the best 🎄❤️

24. Swimming with manatees! A dream come true from the time I was in elementary school. 💕

25. Medellin, Colombia. I loved visiting this city! The beauty of the mountains, the friendly people, the awesome hotel, the coffee plantation tour, paragliding….it was such a fun week.

26. The Galapagos!! The unique wildlife here made this visit really special. 🐢🦈🦎

27. Sacred Valley of the Incas, Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain in Peru. Some of the most breathtaking landscapes I have ever seen!!

28. The Amazon Rainforest! From the lovely, rustic lodge that we stayed in, to seeing animals and insects all over, to night hikes and fresh exotic fruit….this was such a unique experience.

29. Aruba with Arlene! Wrapping up the trip with a relaxing week at the beach was awesome.🍹🏖😎

30. Friends Week! Officially ending the travel trip visiting friends in the PNW was wonderful. 😀

Even though it’s a lot of work, technology has really made it easy and safe to travel long term. I think anyone with an interest in trying this can absolutely do it! 😀

Thanks again to everyone who followed along with me on this adventure! ❤️