Year in Review 2018

Sharing is caring!

Happy New Year, friends! Looking back on 2018, I’m so grateful for tons of lovely memories and new experiences. I learned how to surf (ok, not well, but I can stand up!). I visited two new continents alone. I biked my heart out. And best of all, I spent a ton of time traveling with some amazing people.

 

January

Kicked off the New Year in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I went on to Postonja to see the world-renowned caves there. If one cave wasn’t enough, I visited the Skocjan caves afterwards and then the Predjama Castle – built into the mouth of a cave! Then it was back to Zagreb, but not before I got my long-awaited visit to the Plitvice Lakes.  Just two weeks after returning from Christmas holiday traveling, I was off with my grade 8 students for a week of skiing (snowboarding for me) in St. Johann in Italy’s Ahrntal in the Süd Tirol region.

February

A quieter month for traveling since I was trying to get over a never-ending cold. I did manage to enjoy a full week in Morocco, spending five days learning to surf in Essaouira before wandering around Marrakech for another two days. I also had two full days in Bergamo, Italy…just because. Well… the flight to Morocco was really cheap most likely because I had almost full day layovers in Bergamo in each direction. At least I got to fill up on pizza, risotto, and gelato!

March

Dying to get some outdoor activity after a couple of particularly cold and cloudy weeks in Berlin, some friends and I went out on a hike in the Briesetal, following the 66 Lakes Trail again. I also decided to begin biking the Berliner Mauerweg (Berlin Wall bike trail). At the end of the month, I left for 2 weeks in Ecuador. The trip started out in Quito and went on to the Andean towns of Mindo and Otovalo.

April

I was still in Ecuador for the first week, visiting Baños and then Latacunga to hike the Quilotoa Loop through Sigchos, Isin Livi, Chugchilian, and Quilotoa. As soon as I got back, I spent the next weekend hiking the Brocken and checking out Wernigerode in the Harz region of Saxony-Anhalt. The remaining weekends in April were spent on the Berlin Wall bike trail with a beautiful weekend of cherry blossoms and a more challenging tour through Potsdam.

May

May was all about getting outside. There was the ADFC Fahrt to raise awareness about cycling in Berlin. Then, the last stretch of the Berlin Mauerweg. My school had a day trip to Potsdam where we walked around to various places of importance to learn about the city’s history. I spent another long weekend in the Frankenjura with Pjotr, this time with more climbing friends. The month was closed out pedaling 40km with my coworker, Iris, through Königswusterhausen.

 

June

Joined another bike ride through the city, the Sternfahrt, and even got to ride on the Autobahn! We went on a camping trip to the Liepnitzsee where my phone broke in a thunderstorm (just the camera, the rest is still functional as of Jan 2019). There were more class trips – a week-long excursion to Belgium (to learn about WWI) and another week was spent in the Czech Republic (an Outward Bound adventure). Closed out the month with more camping in Brandenburg, this time on Teupitzersee.

July

Had some visits with close friends in Baden-Württemberg before beginning an agonizing 18-day bike tour on the Euro Velo 6 from Ulm, Germany, through Switzerland, and then more than halfway across France. EIGHTEEN DAYS!!!

August

Spent a day at the Liepnitzsee to enjoy the summer weather. We traveled to Poland for a few days., following the tourist trail to all monuments and buildings in Stettin, Poland. Then spending a day on the beach in Swinemunde on the Baltic Sea. A quick trip home to the USA to visit mom and dad. We crashed for a few days in Woodstock, NY with mah besties and went kayaking, hiking, and yoga-ing with the parentals. Finished the month with a day trip to Waren on Lake Müritz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

September

Biked the end of the Mauerweg (Berlin Wall bike trail) for a second time, just before Bikey Mikey was stolen. Then there was a quick weekend camping trip to Zierow and Wismar on the Baltic Sea. It was followed by a long weekend in Vaihingen an der Enz, near Stuttgart, with a visit to the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival!

 

October

We traveled up towards the Baltic coast again for a weekend seeing some beautiful castles in Schwerin and Ludwigslust. I bought a new hiking guide to Brandenburg and tested it out on my own, hiking 25 km from Zehdenick to Dannenwalde. Then it was off to the annual Leonidio, Greece climbing trip! It was my second time enjoying a week of climbing on the beautiful red rock cliffs overlooking the ocean.

 

November

Another quiet month for traveling. Got a new camera to hopefully take better and more beautiful pictures of all these memories. We hiked some more in B-burg – this time a trail called the Turmweg (tower trail) from Fürstenwalde to Bad Freienwalde. I helped host Thanksgiving for the first time ever, which was a lot of fun.

December

Celebrated the first of Advent with typical German Stollen (Christmastime cake filled with raisins, marzipan, or poppy seeds, and topped with a blizzard of powdered sugar). Spent a weekend in Pirna, a picturesque German town on the Elbe River near the border with the Czech Republic. Saw the Alba Berlin basketball team play against the Fraport Skyliners.

I didn’t think anything would top the climbing trip in October, but my best trip of the year (ever?) was the last trip of the year at the end of December. We spent a week in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. Hopefully, more to come on that in 2019.

What a way to end the year, right? In 2019 I’m looking forward to many more trips, learning more about the new camera and how to take photos, and writing more blog posts.