My 2016 – Never Stop Travelling

For me, 2016 was challenging on different levels but also brought some special moments during six months of travel and remote work all over Europe. This extended period of travelling was my big goal for 2016 and I’m proud that I made it happen. I’ve written about most of my trips here on my blog:

• My learnings from one week of remote work (in Croatia)
• A short travel guide to Lithuania
• A short travel guide to Latvia
• My travel guide to Estonia – Part 1: Tallinn and Tartu with surroundings
• My travel guide to Estonia – Part 2: Pärnu, Saaremaa and Haapsalu
• My travel guide to Estonia – Part 3: Kihnu, Hiiumaa, Saaremaa and Lake Peipus
• Iceland in pictures – My trips in 2012 and 2016
• 10 days of silence with Vipassana (in Austria)
• Scotland and Wales 2016

My posts about the Baltics and particularly Estonia received quite a lot of attention and positive feedback. I truly hope I could give a few valuable insights into this exciting, fast-moving and beautiful European region. I love these three countries!

I also visited a few other countries and places I didn’t write about, including Finland (fantastic nature), Romania (confusing but beautiful), Groningen in the Netherlands (visiting friends and the Norderzoon festival) as well as Warsaw and Krakow (Startup Weekend unsummit and short trip to Krakow).

Overall, I hopped onto a plane 31 times and covered about 36,000 kilometres, including longer trips by train and bus. One of my goals for 2017 is to make better and more conscientious travel choices though, flying less and taking the train or long-distance busses when possible.

This year was a disturbing and sad one on a global scale, as have been the years before. With the instant online accessibility of news, those events seem much more frequent and nearer to me though. Nevertheless, a lot of positive things happened as well and they’re absolutely worth remembering (see e.g. here and here). Those give me hope for humanity’s and Earth’s future!

I’m curious and excited about 2017 and the new opportunities and challenges it will bring, especially as I’ll jump into a new professional adventure soon. Let’s make the year count for all of us! Let’s help to make the world a better place step by step. Be kind to yourself and others!

Hello 2017.