2024 in Travel 💺

In 2023, I picked music to become the theme of my yearly reflection. In 2024, however, after travelling for 10 months, guess what theme I thought of for that year?

January

When are you really ready to set off on a trip around the world? Well, first, you need to get the boring but necessary matters out of the way: the tedious project handovers at work, the bureaucratic nightmare of applying for educational leave and the tiresome relocation of all my possessions to the basement of my girlfriend Sophia's.

Driven by the idea to further improve my writing, I secretly launched a travel blog called Niqs Reisen. I was convinced that writing in my mother tongue German would make me a better writer. I'll let you be the judge of that.

My favourite places in January were the Schmelz, my old home in Ottakring, my new home in Penzing and the Kuffner observatory.

February

February hit just the way you expect it to in harsh European winter. Vienna's unforgiving winds and bitter coldness reminded me why I had decided to start this journey at the worst time of the year (Sorry, February).

When finally, the day to start the trip that I had been dreaming of for an entire decade had come, I couldn't yet fully grasp the freedom that was lying ahead of me. We travelled across 3 continents and 4 time zones within a week. When we made it to Christchurch on the 11th day of our trip, we reunited with our friend Manu, who was our travel companion for the following weeks on a road trip around the South Island of New Zealand.

It took me weeks before I could comprehend that I had made it to the other side of the planet, where people drive on the left side of the road and travellers you come across talk about their "past lives". Many agree that there is a life before and a life after you made it to New Zealand. It's a country whose natural beauty is nothing less but inflationary.

We observed the Southern Cross on the antipodean night sky, became friends with Simon, a French solo traveller, and drove by the snow-capped mountains of the Southern Alps only to watch dolphins at the Pacific Ocean mere hours later. We swam in ice-cold and aquamarine lakes, took boat tours through breathtaking fjords and whatever we did, New Zealand just wouldn't stop being absolutely stunning.

My favourite places in February were Geylang Food Market and Haw Paw Villa in Singapore, the Forest Lodge, Franz Josef, Knight Viewing Lookout and Albert Town in New Zealand.

March

When March came around, we made it to the south of the island to explore more of the local wildlife. The inhabitants of the beaches were sea lions, magnificent creatures who wouldn't allow themselves to be bothered by tourists as insignificant as us.

We took the most popular of hikes, the Hooker Valley Track, which left our minds blown by the shear view of Mt. Cook, the highest mountain of the country. At Lake Tekapo, I observed the brightest night sky I had seen in my entire life, at Kaikōura we watched dolphins swim in the distance after sunrise. In the Abel Tasman National Park, eventually, I realized, that I had been travelling too fast and needed a break.

We took said break weeks later, when our 4600 km (2860 miles) road trip had ended, and we travelled back to Australia. I had originally pictured another road trip on the east coast, but for the time being we had enough of sitting in a car.

My favourite places in March were Lake Manapouri, Twizel, Lake Tekapo, Tui's Nest and Albert Park in New Zealand and Woolwich Point in Australia.

April

April started with culture shock. We flew over Australia's bleak and lifeless red interior and once we got off the plane, we found ourselves in a place where our language and credit cards suddenly stopped working. Add to that crazy traffic, crazy heat and crazy people, and you're in the right mindset for Vietnam.

I became obsessed with riding scooters, visiting Buddhist pagodas and eating fresh fruit. We drove in the wild traffic of Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Ninh Binh, we explored the islands of the Mekong Delta and travelled in night busses from South all the way to central Vietnam. We reunited with our friend Nga, who properly introduced us to this foreign culture. Da Nang became a great base for day trips and allowed us to rest, recharge our batteries and plan the next steps of the trip.

In Ninh Binh we were faced with a heat wave that peaked in temperatures of 41 °C (106 °F) and still Sophia managed to catch a cold.

My favourite places in April were the Riverside Hotel Pool and Shamballa in Ho Chi Minh City, our Bungalow home on Phu Quoc, the temple in Duong Dong, Lady Buddha and Con Market in Da Nang and the Hoi Van Pass.

May

In Hanoi we were both mentally burned out and done with Vietnam. When we arrived days later in Hong Kong we were culture-shocked yet again, because all of a sudden we seemed to be back in the Western world. We visited Lamma and Lantau island, had amazing views from Victoria Peak and made a day trip to Macau, commonly known as the Las Vegas of Southeast Asia.

I loved everything about the culture mix with British and Chinese influences that shaped what is now Hong Kong, with its vertical buildings, its pineapple buns, its malls and its beautiful islands. We were nevertheless happy to leave the density of our 11 square meter flat behind and be en route to the Philippines.

Unlike the Vietnamese and many Hong Kongers, Filipinos were very fluent in English which allowed us to reclaim the ability of communication. For the first time in my life, I stood on a surf board, power outages occurred on a daily basis, one of my shoes was stolen by a local dog (that I had bought only weeks before in Hong Kong) and altogether being in the Philippines meant that we could finally rest and recover from all the adventures, all the travelling and finally embrace everyday life again.

My favourite places in May were Bai Dinh Temple Complex in Vietnam, Bake House, Victoria Peak and Happiness in Hong Kong and Pacificio on Siaragao island.

June

In June, we were enjoying everyday life on Siargao island: writing (or drawing), going for morning swims at the infamous secret beach (one of many), having breakfast in General Luna, taking a siesta around lunch, more writing in the afternoon and having dinner at our favourite Indian place.

The animals of the house grew so accustomed to our presence that they started to anticipate our arrivals. Brownie, the dog and Drama, the cat (at least that's what we called her) would wait in the corridor and compete for attention. We returned a couple of times to the Northeast of the island, to surf at Pacifico and spend time with our new-found friend, David. Siargao, we miss you.

After a short stay in Manila, on which we discovered some appealing sides to the unbeloved city (such as the oldest Chinatown in the world), we took a night bus up North to Baler. Rainy season had started, and we seemed to be the only foreigners in this place. We rented another scooter, swam in the ocean and died from the heat. And we started to realize that it was time to up our surfing game.

My favourite places in June were Rotti, Canijugan Peak and Secret Beach in Malinao, Roots in General Luna and Gagay in Baler.

July

Baler was a boring place, in the supposed off-season of surfing. But boring was exactly what we needed. And the surfing season was far from over!

Soon, the Baler spirit took over and made me feel the bliss of being in the Philippines. In the mornings, my surfing instructor Chad would look out to sea and announce the conditions. While on Siargao, I had believed it was only a matter of low or hide tide, in Baler, I learned that it was far more complex to forecast proper surfing conditions. But once you sat down at the little cabin on the beach, it didn't really matter if you surfed or not. Sitting on one of the bar stools, eating Chad's spectacular food (the best I've had in the Philippines), blogging away, planning the next steps of the trip or simply enjoying the good company in this place: the Baler spirit was real.

When two months of resting in the Philippines ended, it was time to travel again. And with it came all the bad things of being out there: packing, exhausting days of travelling and again the language barrier. But also the good things: immersing in a new culture, eating fantastic food and a glorious reunion with my Korean friends who I had last seen 8 years prior.

My favourite places in July were Oung and Cemento in Baler, Cheonggyecheon stream and the Hangul Museum in Seoul, the Seoraksan National Park and Pelican Chicken in Seoraksan.

August

Two weeks of travelling in Korea had us drained, overstimulated and exhausted. When we arrived in Taiwan, both of us wanted to quit. But when we asked the oracle at Longshan Temple whether that was a good idea, what do you think it answered? No! It was clear that we had to carry on.

Taipei was one of the greenest cities I have ever been to, filled with the most beautiful temples that are mounted by porcelain dragons and its local cuisine is nothing less than mouth-watering. The streets in Taiwan are designed to benefit scooter drivers and that I had to experience for myself. We discovered the beautiful green landscapes of this country, the funny and interesting culture of the Taiwanese and the fact that you can spend a lot of money on electronics.

I could have stayed in this place for the rest of the year, but this trip demanded to be completed, and planet Earth demanded to be circumnavigated. And so, after Taiwan, we spent ten amazing days in Tokyo. With all the love I have for Japan, I have to say that I can do without its tourist crowds.

My favourite places in August were Bishanyan Kaizang Sheng Temple, 來了就吃, Hao Gong Dao Dian, Guang Hua Digital Plaza and Lion's Head Mountain in Taiwan, the Nintendo Store in Shibuya, Gansozushi Akihabara Manseibashi in Akihabara and teamLabs Planets.

September

We crossed the Pacific Ocean and thus ended our 5 months in Asia. All of a sudden, we were in California. The United States brought cooler weather, self-driving cars and the Golden Gate Bridge. Out of all places, we learned how to play Mahjong in San Francisco's Chinatown.

En route to South America, we decided it was best if we took another break from travelling and stay in Cancún. We enjoyed having iguanas in our backyard, we went for morning swims in the pool, we took occasional trips to the beach, and we were hit by the tropical storm that days later became Hurricane Helene.

My favourite places in September were the Carlton Hotel, Bob's Donuts and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Ritual and Playa Delfines in Cancún.

October

I challenged myself to write one blog post a day in Spanish for every day spent in South America. As a consequence, I started to adapt a Spanish mindset once we made it to Peru.

We skipped the obvious gringo route that would have taken us south to Machu Picchu. Instead, we went north to the Andes. It felt fantastic to live in the mountains and have our base in Huaraz, 3000 m above sea level. After adjusting to the altitude, we took wonderful hikes, explored beautiful lagunas and trained our Spanish every day in this exciting place full of Quechua people, alpacas and hiking enthusiasts.

Taking colectivos to get around felt like an adventure, but even more so was riding a horse at 5000 m above the sea. The ultimate adventure though was when we hiked Nevado Mateo equipped with ice axes, crampons and joined by experienced mountaineers. And even though I'm so happy that we came around to undertaking this adventure, at the end of it, Sophia exhaustedly announced "Nunca más". Never again.

My favourite places in October were Julieta in Lima, Café Andino and Cantú in Huaraz and Laguna Churup.

November

In November, I was reminded of the freedom that riding a bicycle entails. Especially so, when we rode on the majestic cliffs of Barranco and Miraflores. I ended our time in Peru with an exciting activity in the sand dunes at the edges of Lima: sandboarding.

We made our way to Colombia and visited Medellín, the city of eternal spring. In Bogotá, we climbed the city's local mountain Montserrat, drank hot chocolate and let cheese melt in it (as one does) and spoke more Spanish. We flew back to Europe at the end of the month.

The original plan to return to Austria from Spain by train, fell apart within two weeks of being back on the old continent. Europe was cold, expensive and full of tourists. But we were glad to reunite with Simon, who we had met in February in New Zealand.

My favourite places in November were Museo de Antioquia in Medellín, Blues Kitchen, Museo Nacional de Colombia and Montserrat in Bogotá and the city walls of Girona in Spain.

December

Returning to Vienna was very strange. Everyone spoke German and life was just the way it had been before we left. While we circumnavigated the planet and so much had happened in our lives, it felt like this place stood completely still.

We did everything that the Viennese heart desires: spend an afternoon in a traditional coffee house, eat Wiener Schnitzel, go for a hike in the Viennese woods and feel extraordinarily grumpy because this fantastic year had come to an end.

My favourite places in December were The Bakery Corner in Toulouse, the medieval town Corde-sur-ciel, Café Kriemhild, Happy Buddha, Otti and Breitenseer Lichtspiele in Vienna.

In summary

2024 was the year that I had been dreaming about for so long. I finally went on a trip around the world.

I visited 17 countries, met beautiful people around the world and lived my best life. Thank you 2024, for doing what you did. 🙌