When 2022 began, the outlook for possible travel trips was bleak. Most travel was still restricted, or at least uncertain, so to be able to look back and have travelled as much as we did this year feels really significant.
We got back from our ‘big trip’ in January 2020, and then found ourselves locked down for the best part of the next two years. It was beyond difficult to go from being as free as we have ever been (one year RTW trip with no jobs) to restricted to 4 walls.
2022 has been the year we can finally see what life would be like ‘post trip’, and how we could integrate travel back into our lives now we were back at work.
January – Lake District
Being local to Blackpool, the Lake District has always been a place we visted a lot. We love to hike, and go camping, so January there were multiple single day trips to the Lakes as we decided we wanted to tackle the Wainwrights (Etsy tick list map now purchased, so we really are serious about it…update pending). At the end of January, for my birthday, we visited some glamping pods as a treat (definite step up from backpacking, it had a hottub!).
We checked out Buttermere as we don’t usually get as far up as there on our day trips, and we were pleasantly suprised – it’s much less busy than the south lakes area, and absolutely stunning. This trip was just what we needed, a few days without phone signal, doing our favorite things.
March – Prague
As some places began opening up, a friend and I were desperate to book a city break to celebrate and landed on Prague. Disaster (and irony) struck, and the day before our flight left she tested postive for covid.
Joe had no annual leave left to take, and after exhausting all other options I was faced with a decision; spend the next day on the phone to travel insurance trying to get my money back, or be brave and go solo! It was a big deal for me, I’ve done flights alone to meet friends, and did a semester abroad in Australia at uni, but that felt different as it was really easy to meet other people. I love to hike alone but the thought of eating in a restaurant alone was niggling me. After a frantic google search for solo travel inspo, I decided to go (thanks wheregoesrose!).
I spent the time wandering through streets, and embracing not having to consider what anyone else wanted to do or see. I had lots of quiet moments sat people watching, my favorite spot being perched on the wooden tables sipping on a mulled wine, at Letna beer garden overlooking the city. I ate meals by myself, and also shared some meals, and good times with new friends I’d met there. I came away feeling so empowered knowing that if I wanted to, I could definitely solo travel again.
It was actually a huge challenge but exhilerating at the same time, and I’m so glad I went. No regrets there – even though I did get stranded there for an additional 24 hours because of covid politics (special thanks to Randox for all the stress for messing up my test!). A year long trip and I’d never had to miss a flight – enter travelling alone and it all happens, but here I am and I survived!
April – Lake District
We’d planned to rent a camper van and do the NC500 in Scotland but unfortunately had a family berevement. We’ll definitely get there one day, but it didn’t feel right to go given everything that was happening. Despite the list of travels here, our 2022 hasn’t been all fun and games, truth be told it’s been one of the hardest years yet for us for lots of reasons I won’t go into here. Time and time again this year, we’ve found the Lake District to be a real life line, and this week was no different. We headed up there for a night, and although we were struggling, it provided us some much needed comfort. Here, we also learned not to force it if we aren’t feeling it – we didn’t do a great deal on this particular trip up the Lakes, but it was good to see it all the same.
May – Oslo
We were on the look out for covid restrictions easing in countries and searching through sky scanner for bargain flights late April and found tickets to Oslo for just £22 return each. We’ve always been keen to go to Norway and this seemed like a perfect time to (given how expensive we’d heard it is when you get there). It was so exciting to get back to travel together, I’d been on my solo trip to Prague but it was good to have my travel buddy back.
We hit Oslo and it was like we’d never been away from the world of travel, and I’m relieved to say it all felt very automatic to us again. We were only there a few days, but we managed to somehow slip right in and lift the lid a tiny bit to see what it was like to live in Oslo.
We went on some local hikes outside the city, and we spent time chatting to locals at restaurants or food stalls, one guy even told us all about his mushroom foraging (and identification) for the authorities, as we chatted about hot dogs and english football teams (Liverpool). We island hopped and accidentally became a member of a Mamma Mia congregation getting off the ferry (a sight I will never forget!). We ate as much local food as we could in the short time we were there – all hail the brown cheese!
It felt good to know we could have local experiences even being in a country a few days, as this is something we feared we’d left behind in the slower travel world we were more used to. It was a sign of things to come, and we knew we had Italy coming up in the summer so it gave us hope we could do similar there and get a bit beyond a typical city break experience.
June – Bologna & Venice
In June, we finally got to go on a belated trip to Italy to see MCR (My Chemical Romance) in Bologna, Sonic Park. We orignially booked it for July 2020 but we all know what happened there! They did not disappoint and there was a moment I may have teared up looking round the crowd seeing people enjoy the things that we’d all had to give up for a while; dancing together, belting out lyrics in unison, drunk goings on with friends and family, and LIVE music!
I cannot put into words how good it was to get back to seeing live music again. I think after lockdown I largely forgot how much joy I used to get from the things we regularly did, and took for granted, and it was as though their set just shook me back to life, and prompted me to get back out there and book some more gigs.
We continued on the thread of trying to understand more about culture and local life through food. We took a cooking class in a local ladies home and learnt to make fresh pasta, and bolognase (and that it most certaintly is not called bolognase, it’s Ragu, and nor is it made how we make it back home). I realise as I type this, I’ve got this in the slow cooker right now. It’s a memory that has stayed with me, and I left out the garlic (they would be proud!).
We loved the feel of Bologna, it’s not a very touristy destination which allows you to sink into the background and experience it from a different perspective. Obviously when we got to Venice the atmosphere changed completely and it’s to date one of the most touristy places we’ve visited – it was packed! We did really enjoy it though, and spotted the quieter times to soak up the sights, and appreciate how beautiful it was.
I guess Oslo if taught us how we could do a bit of a different version of a city break within a short time, this trip taught us how we could extend a city break to give us really different experiences within one country in a slightly longer amount of time. Both shaping how we will keep travel a central part of life in the future in their own way.
June – Lake District
We got back into camping this year, and did a few weekends up in the Lakes. It’s such a cheap way of getting away, and we love being off the grid. Through camping, we were able to get to more wainwrights too, and have BBQ’s to celebrate- so it’s a win, win really!
One of my favorite snaps taken in the Lake District this year, this is Joe on our way down from Nab Scar in Grasmere. It just shows that there are amazing views to be had right here in the UK (..but it has been bloody nice to get abroad!).
September – Snowdon
We’ve got a bit of a problematic history with Snowdon. This isn’t our first trip to Snowdon.
We went a few years ago, in really bad conditions and got within 1km of the peak and had to turn back – wounded. It’s been the topic of huge debate between Joe and I ever since as he maintains we could have done it (Joe is the definition of painfully optimistic). Every now and then it would get brought up and had to be let go with stern looks, and since I’m the one writing this – just know, we definitely could not have made it – the snow was far too deep, and visability was less than a meter in front of us.
We decided we had to go back and settle this once and for all. We had much better conditions and finally now can put it to bed! We wanted to retrace our steps (to continue the argument) and take the miners track, but we took a wrong turn and ended up on Pyg, and came down the Llanberis track.
Snowdon served as a reminder that we can do hard things (shout out to Glennon Doyle!), but mainly that I was right, we definitely couldn’t have made it the first time. And obviously the view was nice.
September / October – Albania & North Macedonia
This feels like the biggie of the year. By now it felt like we weren’t just chancing it to see if we could book a trip that covid might not interfer with. With Italy, due to restrictions, there was still a chance a few weeks before it that it would all fall through again, but now it felt like we could book a trip and count on it happening – horray!
Having been on city breaks in well trodden places (therefore, convenient and easy places to get around), we felt we wanted a challenge; somewhere that would make us feel like we were back properly travelling again. I for one, had got really comfortable in the predictability and convenience of daily life back in the UK. I am by nature quite a worrier, and flapper in normal life, but something remarkable happens to me when I am thrown into the unknown, and unpredictable – I manage, and actually thrive. I was craving this part of myself back, and so reading about what travel is like in Albania sounded like the perfect place to get this (and it didn’t disappoint).
We planned a trip from Tirana (Albania’s capital), and worked our way down the coast, coming back up through some historical towns, and then crossing into Macedonia (one of the more complicated border crossings we’ve done due to there not being many direct buses). We went to a couple of stops in Macedonia before flying back via Italy as there wasn’t any direct flights at the time back to Manchester/Liverpool. See our blog for the perfect itinery (coming soon!).
Whilst the other trips quenched the thirst of culture, history, nature, Albania & Macedonia quenched the thirst of all that plus having to navigate a completely novel culture, and try to work out how things like bus timetables, and social norms work in a new place. It was just what we needed, just at the right time, and I was sucessful in my quest for tolerating the uncertain again.
November – York
As our Lake District romance suggests, we also appreciate what is on our doorstep at home. Although we are from Lancashire, we can very much appreciate York (Yorkshire) without getting bogged down by any rivalries. We ended the year soaking up the Christmas Spirit and doing our Christmas shopping.
We’ve been so thankful for the trips we’ve been able to get on this year, and it’s given us a lot of hope to know we can fit in travel around our ordinary lives now we’re back. That alone means so much to us because in all honesty, we were feeling quite lost when we returned. Noone really talks about how coming back from a trip like that feels, and this year has helped us work out how travel around our day jobs can be done.
We travel a lot, but we certainly don’t earn a lot, we are just ordinary people, with ordinary jobs. Often people think we must have a secret lottery fund, or really well paid jobs, but we just value travel above all else and budget accordingly. If you want to find out more about this, read our blog about how we fund our travels (coming soon!).
We definitely could have made it first time…