2018 YEAR IN REVIEW: Here, There & Everywhere

2018 was my biggest year yet: I moved abroad, traveled to 14 countries, and had more adventures that I’ve ever had before.

I took planes, trains, and automobiles (plus a few ferries, cable cars, speedboats, and seaplanes!)

I tried everything from crispy silkworms (1/5, would not recommend) to Michelin-starred meals (slightly better ) and everything in between.

I swam with pigs, had champagne under the Eiffel Tower, danced with Portuguese fans during FIFA 2018, rode The Most Scenic Train in the World, gotten lost in Seoul at 3 am, and so much more…

And I lived to tell you about it – here’s my 2018 in review! *drumroll* 

2018 YEAR IN NUMBERS 

✈️ 43 flights (96,160 km)
💺 153 hours up in the air (almost a week 😝)
🚤 4 ferries
🚠 3 cable cars
🚉 2 trains
🎫 1 missed flight

 

JANUARY & FEBRUARY

The year started off with a family trip to the Bahamas, where we did nothing except eat, relax on the beach, play volleyball… And swim with pigs! We took a day trip to Exhuma island, where there were about 20 wild pigs roaming around. Nobody knows how they got there (was it a shipwreck? genius marketing plan?), but it was cute to see them swim up to our boat and start demanding food. Although we spent a week there, that’s about all I can write, because, as I mentioned, we pretty much just laid on the beach all day.

February was a slow month that was filled with food. There were so many restaurants and cafes in San Francisco that I wanted to visit before my move abroad, that my best friend and I easily gained a few pounds in our attempt to clean up my Yelp bookmarks.

 

MARCH & APRIL

One huge change came at the end of March, when I packed up all my crap valuable possessions and moved to Ukraine. I’ve been planning to do it since the end of 2016, but there was always something holding me back: a job promotion, my Ukrainian passport was delayed by 7 months (thanks, Ukrainian embassy ), and just a general feeling of anxiety about this huge change in my life. Now when I look back on everything, I realize that there’s never a “perfect” time to start something – you just have to go out there and do it.

I always wanted to move back to my hometown in Chernivtsi, because I’ve never really experienced what it was like to live in Ukraine – I moved to the States when I was 4 and stayed there. I had no rent to pay, my job was remote, and it would be closer to Europe – and therefore easier to travel!

April was spent getting settled into my new apartment, exploring the city, and planning my big trip in May…

 

MAY

At the beginning of May, I had a huge surprise for my Favorite Aunt (I only have one, but she deserves the title 110%!). She’s never been abroad, except for some neighboring countries during the USSR, and I wanted to surprise her with a trip to her number 1 bucket list destination. It took months of planning and a few close calls, but in the end, Operation Macaron was a huge success!

I hyped up Favorite Aunt for weeks by trolling her about my surprise: I “accidentally” told her we were going to Bucharest, Romania; left fake tickets to Ethiopia where she would see them; and bought her guidebooks about traveling to Lviv (4 hours away from our city). In the end, my aunt didn’t even bother trying to figure out where we were going because she was tired of my trolling LOL

I kept the secret until the very end, until the pilot announced that our flight would be to Paris. To say that my aunt was shocked was an understatement: her face went white, she must have said “really??” a hundred times, and then proceeded to call every single family member to tell the news.

Although I had never been to France before, I tried to plan the most interesting things that could fit into our 5-day. Our first day was spent wandering around the streets of Paris and taking in everything: we followed the delicious smell of baked bread into a cafe, gazed up at the gorgeous buildings (that were probably hundreds of years old!), and stopping by small parks and watching the (fashionable) Parisians walk by.

Over the next few days, we strolled by the Seine, enjoyed an entire afternoon at the Louvre, visited Versailles, ate 4 different crepes, shopped at one of the biggest flea markets in Paris (so many cool things!), hiked to the top of Montmartre and saw the Sacre Coeur. During the last day, we moved into our amazing macaron-themed suite, went to the local supermarket to get some sandwiches and champagne, and had a picnic near the Eiffel Tower. It was an amazing end to an amazing trip — and time for me to go home to California for a month!

(In case you’re wondering why I only stayed one month in Ukraine, it’s because my friend had his graduation in May back in SF and I didn’t want to miss it. Don’t worry, this was just the beginning of my travels!)

 

JUNE

June started off with a bang, mostly because I missed my flight to Ukraine. I booked a ticket with my airline miles from San Francisco to Amsterdam and then bought a separate (paid) ticket from Amsterdam to Kiev with a 15-hour layover in Prague. The ticket was fairly priced, and if I could see another country on my stopover, why not?

It seemed too good to be true, and it was: I only had 45 minutes to connect in the airport and failed miserably because my first plane was late. Since we’re here, let me let you in on a quick lifehack: book tickets with a minimum of an hour in between flight! (Or be like me and have to fork over 300 Euros for another ticket, your choice )

Anyway, I managed to get to Kiev just in time for my next flight to Rrrrrrussia! My friend and I were going on a two-week tour of Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine over the summer, and Russia was our first stop. I’ve been here before in 2015 (you can check out some of my first blog posts here, which were coincidentally about Russia ;)) when I visited Moscow and Volgograd, but this time was different…

After watching the World Cup in the Fan Zone (and dancing with some Portuguese fans when their team won!), wandering around the Red Square, and checking out the new Zaryadye Park in Moscow, it was time to fly to one of my top bucket list cities: Saint Petersburg!! I’ve been wanting to go to this city for years, even before I became interested in traveling, because it felt like everything I love all in one place. Rainy? Check. Cats? Check. Beautiful architecture and food? Check. I even joked before that if I was a city based on my personality, St. Petersburg would be it.

Of course, Saint Petersburg did not disappoint. It was such a wonderful city! I’ve been typing, deleting, and retyping this sentence for the last few minutes because I can’t begin to describe how magical this city really is. Everyone was so lovely and nice, the streets are full of creativity and life on every block, and the canals and bridges have this indescribable charm. But what really stood out in my memory was the White Nights. Since Saint Petersburg is located so far up north, the sun sets after midnight during the summer months — and when we walked around at 11 PM, it felt more like 4 PM! It definitely took some getting used to, but it was great to have some extra sunlight in our day because it meant more time to explore. :)

Finally, one of the biggest highlights of my year was the Scarlet Sails festival (Алые паруса). Traditionally, this is an event to celebrate the end of the school year that includes fireworks, a boat show (hence the name), and concerts. I was so bummed to learn that the festival would be held the weekend after we left, but thankfully, there was a rehearsal going on when we were there – and we got to see (mostly) everything! Definitely one of my favorite memories from this year. 

 

 

After our quick trip through Russia, it was time to hop on a plane to Georgia! This country was on my list for a while, especially after watching TV shows about their delicious food and gorgeous nature. The only problem was, I didn’t want to travel there by myself because all of my friends kept teasing me about being kidnapped. 
Although I knew I wasn’t in any real danger of being kidnapped, the joke is from an old but very popular Soviet movie called Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (you can see the subtitled version on Youtube). Anyway, my friend didn’t mind adding it to our itinerary, and off we went to Georgia.

Our first stop was the capital, Tbilisi, where we hired a local guide to give us a mini tour of the city. It’s such a lovely city that’s full of many hidden treasures, like the colorful stained windows (you can see it in the photo above). Georgia is also known for its wine, which we happily tried at different restaurants and cafes – there was even wine-flavored ice cream!

The next day was full of rain, so we bundled up and visited one of Tbilisi’s most famous attractions: the sulfur baths. It was a nice way to relax and unwind after walking around for 5 days straight, plus we felt like real locals. On the way back to the hotel our taxi driver tried to scam us by jacking up the price 3 times than normal, but a couple of strongly-worded sentences later we were fine. :)

Afterwards, we took a marshrutka to Borjomi, which is known as one of Georgia’s most famous resort towns. It was a nice place to stop on our way over to the next town and the perfect one-day trip. We took the cable car to the top of the mountain (gorgeous views!), hiked in the nearby park, and strolled around the center of the city before leaving the next day on another marshrutka.

Four hours later, we reached the seaside town of Batumi, the final stop on our Georgian trip. Besides getting sunburned, we rented bikes and cycled around the shoreline, rode another cable car (see a theme here?), and saw the famous Ali and Nino statues.

I finished up my trip in Kyiv, Ukraine… but not before booking another ticket for next month!

 

JULY & AUGUST

Since July is one of the worst times of the year to travel (groups of tourists! overpriced hotels! humid weather!) I planned to stay home and work on my blog — after all, I’ve been traveling for the last few months and had a grand total of zero posts to show for it. 

That is, until one of my best friends mentioned that he was planning to go to Europe and if I wanted to join in. Of course!

We started our trip in Prague, Czech Republic, where we wandered around the streets and learned more about the city through walking tours. Even though I’ve seen travel shows and read about the city, it still amazed me that all of these old buildings were still standing — and how gorgeous they looked! On our second day we ate allll the delicious local delicacies and even tried a beer spa! It’s exactly what it sounds like: you relax in a “barrel jacuzzi” that’s filled with beer, and you get unlimited refills in the two-hour time limit that you reserved.

Our next destination was Karlovy Vary, a small but very famous city where Eastern Europeans come to relax at the spas and sanatoriums. The town is built near mineral water, which flows into the dozens of hot springs in the center of the city. You’ll often see tourists walking around with little cups so that they can walk up to a spring, pour the water into their cup, and drink it. Everybody that we met raved that the water is healing and helps with a ton of health problems… but when I tried it myself, it tasted so salty and bitter that I couldn’t drink any more for the rest of our time there (although the cup was a nice souvenir ).

Afterwards we took a bus to a small town called Tabor where we met my best friend’s other friends and stayed there for two days. From there it was time to visit our next country: Slovakia!

I didn’t have that many expectations about visiting Bratislava because I thought it would be similar to other Central European capitals like Prague, Vienna, and so on. But, if I’m being honest, Bratislava was the most meh place that I visited this year. I’m sure it’s lovely for other people or as a day trip, but we booked three nights there and I couldn’t wait to go back after the second day. The only thing that really stood out was our stay at the Dunjavsky Botel – which was pretty cool to stay on a boat hotel.

After our adventures in Central Europe, it was time for me to head back home to Chernivtsi. I had almost the entire month of August free (no trips planned!) and used the time to catch up with friends, write a few blog posts, and started new freelancing projects (these trips don’t pay for themselves ya know ). My parents came to visit in the last week of August, and then we were off to…

 

… Hungary! We couldn’t travel too far because of my parent’s limited vacation time, but Hungary was the perfect destination because all of us wanted to visit and it was close to Ukraine. We spent the first few days in Budapest, where we soaked in the Széchenyi Thermal Baths (one of my biggest bucket list dreams!), ate our weight in goulash, and hit up all of the famous tourist sights.

Although we had a week in Budapest, we broke it up into two smaller day trips.

The first was to Szentendre (try saying that five times fast), a cute city an hour away from the capital. It turned out to be one of my favorite places that I visited this year because it looked like a colorful village (check out those lampshade lights above!) that was full of interesting museums.

The second place we visited was a town called Eger a few days later. It wasn’t as big and exciting as Szentendre, but it was a nice little break from the hustle and bustle of Budapest. Plus, there was a viewpoint on top of a castle where you could see the entire town (top center photo)!

 

SEPTEMBER

One of my favorite months! September started off with a week-long trip to Sri Lanka. To be honest, I had no plans to visit Sri Lanka this year (not because I didn’t like it, but because I didn’t plan to be in that region!) but as luck found a way. I wanted to surprise my mom with a trip for her birthday to a  secret destination  and the closest country was Sri Lanka. Voila!

I was a little nervous going there alone so I posted in a few travel meet up groups, and by a pure stroke of luck, another girl had the exact same travel dates as me. It was such a cool coincidence, especially since we came from neighboring countries (Ukraine and Romania) 

We started off in the capital, Colombo, where we wandered around and had an awesome food tour — if you’re passing by, definitely try Lamprais or Kottu! Afterward, we drove to our next destination, Pinnawala, where we had breakfast with elephants (post to come soon!).

We definitely needed that little break, because the next day we planned to climb up 1,200 steps at Sigiriya Rock. Although we were freaking out about the hike, it wasn’t too bad! We reached the top of the peak in a little over an hour with plenty of stops along the way. In fact, we made “friends” with a cheeky little monkey who tried to steal my sunscreen more than once. >:(

After a brief stay in Kandy, it was time for another famous Sri Lankan attraction: the Kandy-Ella train ride, also known as one of the most scenic train rides in the world! We had high hopes of sitting near the windows and taking in the gorgeous views during the 7-hour journey, but the first train was so crowded that we couldn’t even get on. 1.5 hours later and another train, we found a little spot in the middle of the aisle. Some locals were kind enough to give us their seats (they were getting off) and we had the rest of the journey to look out and be hypnotized by the rolling hills of tea plantations. We spent the evening in Ella before it was time for me to leave and fly to the  top secret destination  and meet my mom. Ready to find out where we went?!

 

I’ve always wanted to spoil my mom and take her on a vacation somewhere after all that she’s done for me, so why not go to a place that ticks off all the boxes? She loves warm weather, sandy beaches, and bright blue water, so the Maldives was a clear winner here. 

Getting there, though, was the hard part. When you have a mother that could work at the KGB or FBI with her investigative skills, keeping a secret from her was nearly impossible. Every day I would wake up to texts from her with a new guess of our “secret country,” and she even tried to bribe my dad (he was the only other person who knew). But we did it and kept the secret until the very end!

At the airport, while I was in Sri Lanka and my mom was about to board her flight (and both of us on Skype), my dad finally gave her the two tickets that she needed to board. The first was to Singapore (which she knew) and the second one was to Male City (the capital of the Maldives).

Pfft, Male, yeah okay, she said, I knew it was Malaysia all along…

No, mom, Male is in the Maldives. I replied back. She looked at me exactly like this emoji  because she thought I was still trolling her.

And with that began our trip to the Maldives!

We started off with two days in Male City, where we took a full-day walking tour of the city (highly recommended, by the way!) and explored on our own on the second day. Originally I told my mom that we were going to spend the entire week in the capital, but my surprise had other plans…

The next morning, I told my mom to pack up because we had to be at the ferry dock to visit another local island. Instead of a local ferry, however, was a shiny new speedboat that would take us to an undisclosed destination. (*cough* actually it would be the Adaraan Prestige Vadoo *cough*)

After the 20-minute ride, we stepped onto a long pier and were immediately gifted with a handmade necklace made from palm leaves. We were then escorted to the office, filled out some brief paperwork, and were introduced to our personal butler, Vijendra.

That’s right: we would live like kings queens for two days and have a personal butler who would help us with everything. Making a surprise reservation for my mom’s birthday? Check. Being our personal photographer? Check. Getting an air compressor to blow up our unicorn floaty? They didn’t have one in stock, but he would be happy to help inflate it himself. What an amazing guy!!  Sometimes we felt awkward calling him because we didn’t want to seem too annoying lol

This vacation was supposed to be a time to relax with my mom, and we took it to the maximum. Our mornings were spent strolling over to the breakfast buffet before splashing in our private plunge pool. Our lunch break was swimming in the crystal-clear water. And our evenings were listening to the live music (AKA the voice of angels ) while trying the most heavenly desserts at the restaurant.

After our short stint in paradise, it was time to go to the next destination. Although this is going to make me sound like an emotional noob, we both shed a few tears on the speedboat back to Male because we were going to miss the amazing staff (and, let’s face it, our overwater bungalow) at the resort. We took the ferry over to Maafushi, another local island, where the next three days were spent getting sunburned, eating our weight in seafood, and going on a snorkeling trip with the friendliest group of Indians we’ve ever seen.

OCTOBER

Following another brief break back at home in Ukraine, it was time to celebrate my birthday month – the Spanish way. I was originally supposed to meet my parents in Sevilla, Spain, but my flight from Chernivtsi was delayed by 10 hours due to some hardcore fog clouding up the tarmac. After a few reroutes and finally getting on a plane, I got to spend my first night in an airport! It wasn’t too bad, though, because the McDonalds in Madrid airport had really comfortable seats (and a delicious cheeseburger, even at 4 AM!).

Anyway, I arrived the next day and our plans were back to normal. We took a day trip over to Granada, which had some of the most gorgeous architecture that I’ve seen – definitely visit the Alhambra fortress if you get a chance! You can see part of it on the bottom left photo, where we walked around in the gardens.

The next day we flew over to Barcelona, but not for long – we got into our rental car and started the journey over to Andorra. Did you know Andorra is the 6th smallest country in Europe? Although I’ve never been to Switzerland (yet), walking around felt like it a mini-Switzerland. There were cute cottage-style buildings near the center with huge mountains in the background. We spent the first part of our trip at one of the best spas that I’ve ever been to, called Caldea – there was even a bath where you could swim with pomelos (top right photo)!  I also have to mention the freaking amazing buffet (Bufet El Grill), which was the best that I’ve been to. There you have it: the best spa and the best buffet is in Andorra. No wonder they get 10 million tourists a year. 

Back in Barcelona, we became so enamored with Gaudi that we ended up visiting four of his works: the Sagrada Familia (of course), Casa Mila, Casa Batlló, and Park Guell.

For my birthday, we had a mini photo shoot with a photographer that was using a Polaroid camera (you can see some on the bottom center — they turned out so well!) before heading to Hisop. Dining at a Michelin restaurant was another one of my big bucket list items, and I got to check it off on my birthday!! We had a 9-course meal and the chef even came over to surprise me with a cake towards the end. That’s us in the top left corner. :)

 

NOVEMBER

November was a bittersweet month. I finished up my year of living in Ukraine, and it was time to head home for the next few months — but not before sneaking in two last trips! Back in February there was this amazing deal from Sweden to South Korea for $250 round trip. And, of course, ya girl booked it ASAP.

Since I had to fly to Korea from Sweden anyway, I made a mini trip and spent 4 days in Sweden. It was pretty chilly in Stockholm (5C, brr!), but I got to see Gamla Stan (the Old City), explore the colorful metro stations on a tour, and even have a fikapaus (coffee break) and try all of the delicious Swedish sweets.

Afterward, it was time to go to Gothenburg (where my flight was departing) and spend my last day in Sweden. The train journey on the way there was so nice: I couldn’t stop staring out of the window because there was so much scenery! On arrival, I had the whole day to just walk around and get lost (literally – my SIM card ran out of data lol).

And then it was time to go to my last country of 2018!

 

 

DECEMBER

In South Korea, I fell in love.

But before we get to that, let’s start with something a little simpler. My relationship with South Korea didn’t have the best beginning. In fact, you could say we actually had a rocky start. My Korean SIM card didn’t want to work, I almost got onto the wrong airport bus, and I had to drag a 55-pound suitcase across 10 blocks in Seoul to get to my hostel. That’s ok, though, because what happened in the next 10 days made South Korea one of my favorite countries ever.

After settling into my hostel and falling asleep until 8 PM (#jetlag problems), I decided to take it easy and treat myself with a relaxing evening. I took a bus over to Blind Alley, which is a cafe with an interesting twist… it’s a raccoon cafe! I ate a quick dinner before playing with the raccoons (plus two teacup pigs and a corgi ) before heading over to the next tourist attraction. If you’ve watched Korean dramas, you’ve probably heard of jjimjilbangs: they’re Korean spas that have different treatment rooms like ice rooms, light therapy rooms, and steam rooms. I went to one of Seoul’s best-known jjimjilbangs called Golden Dragon and liked it so much that I accidentally lost track of time and stayed there until midnight.

No worries, I thought, as I boarded the metro that would take me back home. That is, until I realized that nobody else was in my metro wagon. And it was past midnight. And there was a grumpy policeman walking towards me. After an awkward game of hand charades, the policeman said that the metro turns off at 12:30 am and I would need to find another way home. Thankfully the busses never sleep (haha), and that was the end of an exciting first day in Seoul.

The next day I met up with a friend from Couchsurfing and shopped ’til we dropped at the night markets and Korean beauty stores all around Myeong-dong. Having no set plans for the day after, we decided to rent hanboks and walk around the historical Gyeongbokgung Palace. Another huge item ticked off the bucket list – plus the ones we rented were so gorgeous that other tourists wanted to take a photo with us… In the end, I think we were in over 30 stranger’s photos. 

After Seoul, it was onto the next destination.

Remember how I mentioned that I fell in love at the beginning? No, it wasn’t with a K-Pop singer – it was with the island of Jeju! I had absolutely no expectations about Jeju Island when I first arrived: I saw it being mentioned in some “Top Things to do in South Korea” lists, everyone raved about the nature there, and that was it. I booked my flight, reserved my hotels, and closed the tab. No research, no planning, nada.

At this point, you can imagine how I felt when I woke up the next morning and saw the city of Seogwipo. It was so bright and colorful, so gorgeous, that I couldn’t wait to jump out of bed and start exploring. The more I walked around the town, the more it began to look like something out of a Pokemon game (in the best way possible!). I tried to find a local waterfall but got lost (what else is new?) and instead stumbled upon the famous Jeongbang Waterfall. I can’t even begin to put into words how beautiful it was — but if you want to see for yourself, there’s a photo of it near the top right. :)

In the next few days, I walked around the island and saw Jusangjeolli Cliff, made some new friends with the Dol hareubang statues, and even tried the island’s famous black pork. Three days was definitely not enough for Jeju Island, and it’s already on my list to visit next time.

Afterwards, it was time to visit Busan, where I met some awesome travelers on our day tour – we went to the Gamcheon Cultural Village, Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, and Oryukdo Skywalk.

Although I didn’t have many expectations before traveling to South Korea (that’s what I get for not planning ), it became one of my top three favorite countries and was the perfect end to my year of traveling around the world.

THE END

THAT’S IT! That’s my 2018 in a nutshell. I wrote a huge 4,800-word (omg ) wall of text – hopefully there was something in there that was interesting to read. :)

How was your year? Did you go on any interesting adventures (at home or abroad!) or do anything exciting? Let me know in the comments, I’m excited to hear them!

As always, I’m wishing you happy travels wherever you are, and a wonderful 2019. Let’s make some amazing new adventures!