Another decent year for me is over and even if it wasn’t a spectacular one I still can’t complain. I traveled a bit (only in my favorite regions though), this blog has been doing well again and all the important things in my personal life remained the same (which isn’t a bad thing).

2022 was also a difficult year, defined by the war in Ukraine and how it affected people there. We could see it very well in Poland and we did our best to help everyone who fled here. It’s still heartbreaking to see what’s happening just across the border. I keep supporting the country in its fight however I can and I keep my fingers crossed for Ukraine to win this war, soon.

Here is a little summary of 2022 for me.

Travel

After the slow beginning of the year (covid was still going strong here) I started finally traveling in April and since then I spent the majority of my free time visiting new places or returning to the old ones.

This year I’ve visited Albania, Montenegro (twice), Slovenia, Croatia (twice), Italy, Hungary (twice), Slovakia, Czech Republic (twice), North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, and Georgia.

I also went to some great places in Poland, some of them (like Slowinski National Park) for the first time. I actually had more plans for weekend trips around Poland but the weather here in August and September was a joke and hence I had to cancel many of them.

Altogether, I spent 75 days traveling (I will add one more at the end of the year) which is not as much as I used to but still fine enough, considering I work full time.

Here are some pictures from my favorite places I (re)visited this year:

Blogging

In July 2022 I celebrated 10 years of this blog. When I started writing and publishing here I never expected to come this far, both in how long I’ve been doing this and in the number of readers who visit this website or follow me on social media. This blog started as a passion, without much thought really, yet it quickly has become a crucial part of my life that now I can’t imagine not having. Even in difficult times, when travel was put on hold, I still enjoyed writing here, editing pictures, improving the website and of course interacting with all of you. So thank you all for being part of this journey with me, I appreciate it so much!

In 2022 I published 58 articles (which is surprising even to me) but my list of places I still want to cover here is getting longer than ever. As always I aim to be the best resource for you when you plan your trip to Central/Eastern Europe or the Balkans. And I think I’m doing a pretty fine job since the blog had the best statistics ever this year, with almost 120K visitors in August only and over a million in the whole year. I never thought I will come this far with this blog and I sometimes wait for someone to pinch me. Hard work and passion really pay off.

Here are some of my best articles published in 2022:

• 37 Amazing Things to Do in Krakow, Poland
• What to See in Szeged, Hungary – the Art-Nouveau Gem of Europe
• 35 Amazing Places to Visit in Slovakia
• A Complete Guide to Visiting Lake Koman, Albania
• 19 Amazing Things to Do in Montenegro
• Guide to Bratislava Brutalist Architecture
• 17 Perfect Day Trips from Ljubljana, Slovenia
• 23 Great Things to Do in Bucharest, Romania
• 13 Great Things to Do in Pula, Croatia
• and so many more!

Recently I also reached another milestone (that I never really aimed for, it just happened) – I crossed 10k followers on Instagram. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Instagram (I prefer Facebook), it’s too much of a game really, but I’m still impressed I’ve managed to reach so many people there.

My goal for 2023 is to be more active on social media as I feel I neglected it a bit and I do like interacting with my followers there (but it was also my goal for 2022 and I’m not really happy with my presence there this year).

If you would like to follow me on social media you can find me on my Facebook page, the Facebook group about traveling in Eastern Europe/the Balkans, or on Instagram.

One of my favorite parts of blogging is meeting like-minded people and I’m more than happy that I could meet some of my fellow bloggers who became friends this past year. Some of them I haven’t seen in a while (Kirsty and Mark from Kathmandu and Beyond or Nate and Phillipa from Yomadic) and some (Emily from Wander-Lush I finally met in person after years of knowing each other from the online world). Of course, I don’t have any pictures from these meetings as we always were too busy talking to remember to take pictures. Fun times!

Personal life

Things are fine and stable here. No major changes but I don’t mind that really. I still work in the same place and still enjoy it. I still try to spend as much quality time with friends as possible. I still appreciate quiet time at home every now and then. And still, the best way for me to relax is with a romance book. Ever since I discovered them last summer I never looked back and this year, with all that is happening around me, I appreciate this escape to the fictional world more than ever. I read over 250 books this year (don’t ask me how, I have no idea), and I didn’t regret for a single moment that the majority of them were romance instead of my usually preferable non-fiction.

But the real highlight of 2022 was the live music shows that are back. This autumn I’ve been to some great concerts by my favorite bands, I even went to Vienna and Katowice to some of them and it was totally worth it! I haven’t realized before how much I missed live music but now that concerts are back I appreciate them more than ever.

Plans for 2023

2023 already looks very promising travel-wise.

On New Year’s Eve, I’m boarding the plane to the new country for me (no. 73) – Tunisia. It’s been on my radar for a while now and I’m really excited to finally go there. I haven’t been to a new country in some 2,5 years, the last one was the US in mid-2019. Then I have tickets to Armenia for February and Serbia in March. In May I’m going across the ocean to finally visit Central America, a trip that I had to cancel a few years ago. And in June I’m planning a road trip with friends to Romania.

As for the rest, we will see what happens but I hope to visit some more places in Poland and maybe return to Austria since it’s about time I revisit some great spots there that I haven’t been in in years. But these are just the ideas and as always I have many of them.

When it comes to blog I just hope to continue what I do here and provide you with the best information and inspiration about some amazing and often underrated places in Central Europe and the Balkans (and hopefully in some other regions too). And I really plan to be more present to be active in social media, especially on my Facebook page and Facebook group, as that’s the best way to interact with you!

As for everything else – I’m not very demanding. My only wish is for things not to be worse than now as I’m pretty happy with my life and everything around me now.

I wish you all the greatest things and amazing places to visit in 2023! Happy New Year!

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