2018 Travel Roundup

2018 was one of my very favorite travel years of all time. We were able to see and do so much and spent over half of the year on the road! We finished out our big trip this year and damn, did we make some memories. We saw waterfalls, castles, mountains, monuments and more. We made new friends, met up with old friends and family. We drank Port, coffee and beer, ate fish ‘n chips, goulash and tagines and more. We definitely tried to make the very most of our travels and we’ve barely scratched the surface writing all about it. Here’s a roundup of the highlights of the amazingness we encountered.

MY YEAR IN NUMBERS:

MILES TRAVELED [43,764] – This is 5k miles shy of being enough miles to go around the equator twice. This is an approximation of our flying, driving, public transport and walking miles!
DAYS SPENT TRAVELING [189] – That’s just over six months on the road! We loved that we had the opportunity to spend so much time abroad. In fact, this is the most travel days I’ve had in one year!
BEDS SLEPT IN [56] – This is always a fun number. We stayed in guesthouses, AirBNBs, flats, hotels, hostels and with friends + family.
FLIGHTS TAKEN [17] – 4 domestic, 13 international // I was a little surprised that this number was so low, considering we traveled to and from island countries 6 different times. This is a number that we try to keep as small as possible because of the environmental impacts of flying. We prefer to road trip or taking public transport when possible.
STATES VISITED [10] – Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
COUNTRIES VISITED [18] – Belgium, Bosnia + Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, The Faroe Islands, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, The Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Wales.
CITIES VISITED [57]

MY FAVORITE TRAVEL MOMENTS FROM 2018

VISITING MY GRANDPARENTS IN FLORIDA

In January I was feeling a down about having to come home early from our big trip to recover from my emergency surgery in Thailand. While trying to figure out our next moves my grandparents flew us down to Florida to visit them for a handful of days! It was 5 days full of fried shrimp, beautiful springs, manatees, family time and even a day spent at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was the perfect trip to kickoff the year!

SPENDING MY BIRTHDAY IN SINTRA, PORTUGAL

Our first stop on ‘Big Trip 2.0’ as we called it, was Sintra, Portugal. We got settled in just in time to spend the next day (my birthday) exploring 4 different castles throughout this fairytale mountain town. I instantly fell for Portugal with its brightly colored buildings and friendly people.

LISBON MAGIC – TILES, CABLE CARS, JENNY + MORE

Lisbon is just such a beautiful city. The streets have cable cars zipping by, and the walls are covered in gorgeous tiles and street art. My favorite thing we did in Lisbon, though, was meet up with Jenny! We worked together on a project last fall that led to becoming Facebook friends. Then we found out we were going to be in Lisbon at the same time so we decided to meet up for lunch and instead spent an entire day together! I can’t wait to see what we get ourselves into on our next adventure together, whenever that may be.

EXPLORING PORTO

As much as I loved Lisbon, Porto might be my preference, or at least just as strong of a love. First of all, it’s beautiful and has equally mesmerizing tiles and street art. It sits in the beautiful river valley and it has a tie to Harry Potter – what else does a girl need? Also, across the river, are all of the Port Cellars! We worked with two Port brands (Croft + Cockburn’s) while we were there and we’ve had both again because they were so unbelievably tasty!

HIKING TO ALL THE BEACHES IN LAGOS, PORTUGAL

Lagos holds the spot as my number one favorite beache(s) I’ve ever visited. Some are covered in seashells that I probably spent two hours sifting through. Some are only accessible by going down several flights of stairs. Some are connected by holes in rocks that you climb a rope to get into. And the sea arches, oh the sea arches! All the things this red-rock lover goes gaga for.

EXPLORING MOROCCO’S BLUE CITY

Chefchaouen was hands-down my favorite destination that we visited in Morocco. The people were spectacular, the city was gorgeous and I think it must hold the most beautiful facades in the entire world!

SEEING ALL THE TULIPS IN THE NETHERLANDS

So, tulips are my very favorite flower and Matt made my tulip dreams come true by taking me to Keukenhof – one of the word’s largest flower gardens and they specialize in, you guessed it, tulips!

DAY TRIP WITH TESSA TO KINDERDIJK, BRUGES AND DELFT

While we were in the Netherlands, we stayed with Matt’s parent’s friend, Tessa. To put it simply, I LOVE HER. I joked with Matt’s parents that she is my spirit animal. The three of us took a day trip together from the Hague to Kinderdijk, Bruges and Delft. We saw multiple UNESCO sites, drank beer + hot cocoa and shared stories about our lives. It was just such an amazing day!

UNEXPECTEDLY FALLING IN LOVE WITH ZAGREB

When I had my heart set on Croatia, I really only had Plitvice Lakes in my head. I didn’t expect that Zagreb would be a city that stole my heart. Zagreb had so many surprises. We wandered the streets all day long making our way to markets, churches, museums and more.

EVERYTHING MONTENEGRO

Montenegro was an, ‘I hope we can get there‘ sort of thought. Now, it’s an, ‘I can’t imagine our trip without this day‘ thing. Our day trip to Montenegro was a major highlight. I’ve never seen water that’s clearer or more beautiful and I love the way that mountains lead right up to the edge of the water. I can’t wait to go back and spend more time in Montenegro!

FINALLY SEEING STARI MOST

I honestly can’t remember where I first saw or read about Stari Most and it’s sad history from the Croat-Bosniak War. The original bridge stood there for almost 500 years before it was destroyed in the war in 1993. I loved seeing this bridge just as much as I thought I would, if not more. The river is truly that turquoise and the people in Mostar were just wonderful. I can’t wait to explore even more of Bosnia + Herzegovina!

3 WEEKS IN LONDON WITH MY IN-LAWS

We spent three weeks with my wonderful in-laws and it was just so much fun – the third week Matt’s brother + sister in-law came too! Matt and/or his family lived in + near London a couple of times, so they knew all kinds of cool places to visit! My favorite things we did together were visit parks, go to the Map House (a vintage map store full of amazingness) and see a play each week!

DISCOVERING IRELAND’S BEAUTY + HISTORY

The whole Wunder gang spent a week in Ireland together and we saw some really cool stuff! With our home-base in Dublin, we really explored that city and also ventured out to different coastal towns and archaeological sites.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH WALES

Why doesn’t everyone go to Wales? We really only had two days in Wales because we’re crazy, but I cannot wait to go back. The mountains here are absolutely stunning and the hikes definitely feel wild, but in the U.K. way. Wild, to me, in the U.K. feels ancient, dreary – in a good way, and calm.

DRIVING THE RING ROAD OF ICELAND

This was a dream-come-true! I visited Iceland in Feb. 2017 and I knew that I wanted to go back in the summer and show Matt what I had already seen in this beautiful country. So we did that, plus drove the entire Ring Road! It’s a wonderland of volcanic formations, waterfalls, mountains and more!

CELEBRATING OUR SECOND ANNIVERSARY IN THE FAROE ISLANDS

The Faroe Islands is just an incredibly magical destination. Matt and I spent days driving to several different islands to see waterfalls, sheep, mountain overlooks, grass-roofed homes, fjords and so much more! We had a beautiful AirBNB that we got cozied up in and had cocoa every single night to wrap up the days of exploration. I’m so excited we decided to spend our anniversary there.

EXPLORING GERMANY + SPENDING TIME WITH MATT’S COUSIN, JASON

Or plan to go to Germany came about basically as soon as Jason moved there and our week in and around Wiesbaden with Jason was one of our favorites of the whole trip. We’re already dying to go back and visit Jason again. We took adventures with and without Jason, since he had to go to work, but we would always meet back up in the evenings to grab dinner, watch the world cup, get a drink or find a festival. It was just a blast!

FALLING FOR PRAGUE

This was our last alone destination of our big trip. We had plans to get out and go to other cities, but we fell in love with Prague and got into a groove here. We had our morning rituals, spent afternoons walking and exploring and fell in love with the beer at Three Roses Brewery, so we revisited there several times as well!

SPENDING TWO WEEKS WITH MY MOM + AUNT IN SCOTLAND

I was so excited to see my family somewhere along the way! We ended up spending the last two weeks of our international big trip with my amazing mama and aunt! We road tripped all around Scotland, which is probably my favorite European country so far. We hiked, were silly, explored castles and so much more!

HIKING THE ISLE OF SKYE

The Isle of Skye is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. Love nature? You’ll love it here. I found one of the most mesmerizing hikes/landscapes I’ve ever seen. We saw waterfalls, fog shrouded peaks, rugged coastlines and insane rock formations. Every twist and turn down one-lane roads left me gasping with wonder. Couple that with Scottish culture and some adorable homes + villages and it’s a beautiful little paradise.

GETTING MY OUTLANDER ON AT CLAVA CAIRNS

My mom and I have been reading the Outlander books for years and when we decided that we were meeting in Scotland, we knew had to find some standing stones to visit. Many were on super rural islands, that were just unattainable for a two-week road trip. Luckily, after doing some research, I found out about Clava Cairns. I forsee these being a very, very popular destination in the near future. The thing that made these standing stones even more “Outlander-y” is that they’re in a similar location (near Culloden just outside of Inverness) to the fictional stones in Outlander. Interested in reading these books? They’re phenomenal! Order your own HERE.

ALL THE HARRY POTTER THINGS

Have any of my regular readers figured out yet that I’m a Harry Potter fan? This was my year! I went to the “birthplace of Harry Potter” – a cafe where JK Rowling wrote and got her Hogwarts inspiration along with inspiration for the names of characters. I went to the library that inspired the Hogwarts Library. We visited the Hogwarts Express viaduct and Platform 9 3/4 in London. Plus, we made it to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – it was my second time, but first at Diagon Alley and it was pure magic! I was over the top nerdy all year long.

EXPLORING IOWA’S COVERED BRIDGES WITH MY PARENTS

I had been through Iowa several times, but when we went up to Iowa for my great-aunt’s 90th birthday we turned it into an opportunity to explore a bit! We went to Madison Country to explore most of the covered bridges and we even stumbled upon the birthplace of none other than John Wayne. It was a really fun short little weekend with my parents!

OZARK EXPLORATIONS WITH MY LOVED ONES

I love the Ozarks and I love exploring the gorgeous region. My dad and I got our annual father/daughter hike in down in Arkansas and we met up with Stacey to explore the springs of SW Missouri! We saw mountain views, mills, springs, rock formations waterfalls and more this fall!

GETTING TO OUR BELOVED ASHEVILLE

Our annual pilgrimage to the place where we met was wonderful, although it was super rainy the whole time. We spent quality time with Matt’s parents and squeezed in time with some of our dear friends and even visited a new brewery in the Asheville area! I always love our trips back here and can’t wait for the next one.

2018’S FIVE MOST POPULAR POSTS ON FOR THE LOVE OF WANDERLUST

TO READ ANY OF THESE POSTS, SIMPLY CLICK THE PHOTOS

Clava Cairns is an archaeological site made up of stone circles, standing stones and passage tombs. It’s one of the coolest places I’ve been, and I loved how closely we got to explore these incredible sites! Plus, it was one of the sites that supposedly inspired Diana Gabaldon’s fictional stone circle near Culloden Battlefield in Scotland.
Porto, Portugal is one of my favorite cities that we visited. This city has history, great food, Port and it even has a Harry Potter connection! The architecture is stunning and its proximity to both the river and the ocean make it an even more appealing destination. I’m so glad that people are reading the things I loved doing in this amazing city.

We completely fell in love with the Faroe Islands while we were there. It’s one of the most remote destinations in the world! However, it’s on the rise, so I put together a post answering questions from readers + followers that they asked via social media, plus added any information I wish I had known before visiting all in one place!

This is actually one of my favorite posts I’ve ever written. I minored in Religious Studies in college with a special interest in Eastern Religion. This is a topic that I’m personally passionate about and I hate seeing people disrespect Buddhism (sometimes, I think unknowingly, at least I hope). So, I compiled all the tips I could think of from not only my experiences in temples and information I learned in classes.

I was a little surprised at just how popular this post is, but I love it! Luang Prabang is probably my favorite city in Southeast Asia (so far) and after spending about three weeks in Luang Prabang last fall, I decided to put together a post on our favorite places to eat while we were there! If you’re going to Luang Prabang, definitely check out these tasty treats!

MY THREE FAVORITE POSTS FROM 2018

Often times, my favorite posts are some of the most personal ones. I really put a lot of myself into these posts. The personal posts don’t pop up quite as often because I am afraid they’ll bore people, but they’re very cathartic for me. I wrote this post on the one-year anniversary of us leaving for our big trip. It’s a look back at the time traveling and what’s to come for us.

This was probably my favorite road trip in 2018. It felt like a true road trip with a new destination each and every day and nothing but adventure crammed in between. Driving Iceland’s Ring Road was a bucket list thing for me, and getting to see all this amazingness (and then put it all into a post) was so much fun!

This is another personal post. It’s all about my surgery in Thailand, and how grateful I was to have travel insurance through World Nomads. I cannot say enough that if you don’t have enough money for travel insurance, you don’t have enough for your trip. Don’t believe me? Read more to find out why. Travel insurance saved our trip.

While it’s very difficult to say goodbye is 2018, I’m also very excited to see what kinds of adventures 2019 is going to bring!

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