Rapidly approaching is the anniversary of when I left New Zealand. My last day of work was May 3, now over a year ago. I then spent a bit of time in Hawkes Bay and Mount Maunganui respectively with my family before flying out of Auckland. It was pretty surreal packing, difficult too: European summer tied in with places like Switzerland and Iceland meant I was trying to pack for a variety of seasons. Thankfully Andy and I had plans to come back to New Zealand before we eventually made the move to Canada, else I don’t think I would have coped! My solution was to pack old and worn warm gear that I could offload to family or throw out once we had visited certain places. I really enjoyed being at home with my brother for a couple of weeks: he had not spent much time outside of New Zealand and it was his plan to travel with Andy and I for the first six weeks or so of our adventure. Excitement levels were high!
You might be thinking what does this all this have to do with the title of my post, ‘The Recollection Diaries’. Great question. 2019 is undeniably going to be one of the best years of my life. What I’m going to do over the next wee while is relive some of these glorious memories (and some less so) by posting about each of the countries we went to in chronological order using the following format:
- Strongest memory;
- Memorable meal;
- Best activity;
- Favourite place; and
- Unforgettable sight.
I have taken inspiration from a podcast that I occasionally listen to (‘An Extra Pack of Peanuts’) where reminiscing has been a huge theme of 2020 so far, due to the virus-related travel restrictions in place. Given last years’ travels, I’m in a pretty good position for reminiscing right now and even better, Andy is going to participate as well. It is my hope that these posts not only serve to be entertaining for anyone who reads them, but also provide a helpful bite-size guide about some of the cool things that a particular country has to offer. All my posts will eventually be listed below, as they become available.
Blog posts
- Amsterdam
- Belgium
- France
- Switzerland
- Italy
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- Spain
- Portugal
- Iceland
- Berlin
- Prague
- Budapest
- Malta
- London
- Turkey
- Dubai
