A Year Of Travel | 2014 In Review

How this year has gone by so quickly! The year has been a bit of a whirlwind with many ups and downs, but thankfully more ups than downs. We only have a few days left of the year, as we wave goodbye to 2014 and head into the new year with a brand new attitude, I thought I would review some of what I got up to this year. I am so excited for the new year, which always brings the usual excitements and new plans for you too I hope. This year also saw me collaborate with so many other bloggers, from meeting at blogger events to guest posts and features on other blogs to publishing my travel adventures on Travel Noire (global community for black travellers). I cant wait to share plans for the coming year. Without further ado…

 

The very start of the year saw me head to Germany for a work related trip but that didnt stop me leaving on a Friday evening to explore a few towns before my training started on the following Monday. I met up with my friend who  lives in Dusseldorffor a weekend of exploring. He showed me around his city and made time to have a road trip to Cologne. Living Monday morning to head to for a solo trip to Frankfurt before exploring Kronberg where my training was taking place.

This year had two major family trips fun and scary at the same time, where both my boyfriend and I were going to be meeting each other’s extended families back home. With his extended family based both in Russia and Israel, this year we thought we could only manage to comfortably travel to one of the countries to also have time to explore surrounding areas. So April saw us travel to Israel, while meeting family and friends, we also managed to explore the country from North to South, touching down in Shlomi, Nahariya, Haifa, Western Wall in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Akko and the floating in the Dead Sea before leaving Israel. The whole country is so beautiful and so much history where ever you turn that its’ sad that there is so much to conflict there. When we travelled at no point did I feel in danger, that was also before the major fighting we have all seen on TV throughout this summer. 

I always give anyone the side eye that says “Oh I cant travel because I can’t afford it”. You dont need to win the lottery to explore. Starting with your backyard can be just as much fun and cost little to nothing. What I also find is travelling around the UK is more expensive sometimes than travelling to Europe, which absolutely DOES NOT make any sense to me. I guess that’s maybe where the term “rip-off Britain” comes from as we always seem to be suckered into paying more than we should for many things, but I digress.

 

 

Exploring your own backyard allows you to appreciate great spots that you mostly likely take for granted because they are so close…like living next door to Tower of London for 20 years and not once stepped in it until the London Poppies installation was placed – Yep that was the first time going inside! I also took off to explore Edinburgh and found a little gem for all of you to check out on your next visit. Glamping in the beautiful English countryside for some much needed RnR with friends.

 

 

Also managed to squeeze in some time for a man-made island to partake in a romantic date on the Spitbank Fort with AAAMAZING views surrounding the fort. Lets also not leave out exploring the creative part of London that is East London

Remember how I mentioned that this year was going to be one for two major family trips? Well this is that other part. My boyfriend met most of my family in London but I also have many more relatives living back home in Zambia and Botswana so what better reason for planning an African adventure around a family reunion. I am sure you have seen some of my pictures from our exploration of Zambia, where we explored the capital before heading to Livingstone for Tongabeziand diving into the Devils pool as well as Lunch on the beautiful Victoria Falls. 

We also drove from Zambia to Botswana where we did a Safari in the Okavango Delta then drove from Botwana to Namiba where we explored Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Windheok. There are plenty more posts to come that as I haven’t had the time to post yet. Although you may have seen me post a few pictures from the safari  and desert sandboarding on my Facebook and Instagram.

Ending the year in true form with not only one trip but two in the dutch capital of Netherlands.  We went dutch in true romantic style with a Wine Experience at the Dylan in Amsterdam. As if that wasn’t enough we also got to explore Amsterdam via a food tourwith Eating Europe where we explored the city by boat and feasted on the most delicious food. You can also check out my other post on Brunch in Amsterdam...more posts to come on Amsterdam.