2017 Travel Year in Review

How do you measure, measure a year? 2017 was the year I spent time in 13 different countries and 11 different states. I traveled to Europe three times. I set foot on my fifth continent. I revisited London, Indianapolis, Ireland, and Portugal. I reunited with friends from college in Prague and Dublin and old coworkers in London, Chicago, and Dubrovnik. I traveled for 10 days in Cape Town with someone I met in Mandalay and for 12 days in Croatia with someone I met in Dublin. A twelfth of my year was spent dog-sitting, both in Chicago and Jersey City. I added Shenandoah National Park to my list of U.S. National Parks.

February 2017 Recap | South Africa, U.K., Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic

As I wrote in my January recap, I waited a while for my 2017 to begin. After returning from India right before Thanksgiving and spending all of December and January either in New Jersey or New York, I was ready to take off – and take off I did. In February, I landed on a new (to me) continent, added five more countries to my list, and, for the first time, visited a European city and country I’d been before.

United Kingdom | Revisiting London

When I first traveled to London, to visit a friend from work on a short-term assignment abroad, it was my first time traveling outside of North America in years. At that point, I didn’t know how to initiate trips, who to travel with, or that I was allowed to spend my hard-earned money for something other than rent. The U.K. was my second time in Europe, those many years ago. And earlier this month, London was the first European city that I revisited.