How cow, 2018 was a fun year for us in terms of travel! And an eventful one. We may have gone a little crazier than normal on trips since we had a bit of a carpe diem attitude (“gotta go now, Owen starts school in the fall!” and “let’s go before we have another baby” and “what if we never see fares this low again?!”). But, absolutely no regrets!

This year brought us to Belgium in February, Florence/Tuscany/Rome with my in-laws in April, Berlin and Scotland in May/June, Slovenia in June/July, Malta in August/September, Berlin (again) in October and Frankfurt and Strasbourg for Christmas markets in November/December. In March, I had spent my first days away from the kids since they were born spending four days in Paris with my bestie. Chris had a bunch of work trips, including going to Ireland and the US in April, plus he and his brother had an impromptu trip to Paris themselves in October.

If you are wondering whether it is lost on us how insanely lucky we are to have this opportunity right now: it isn’t. We are grateful every day.

Our favorite places of 2018, according to each of us:

Fiona’s favorite country: Malta
Fiona’s favorite city: Also Malta. (She would not consider selecting an actual city)

Owen’s favorite country: Scotland
Owen’s favorite city: Berlin (worth noting: he had his birthday in Berlin, and Fi had hers in Malta)

Chris’ favorite country: Slovenia
Chris’ favorite city: Bruges

Yours truly’s favorite country: Slovenia
My favorite city: Edinburgh. Just barely — I went back and forth between Berlin and Edinburgh as my favorite.

Some recurring themes from our 2018

1. Castles on giant cliffs. 

Castles are always a big thing for us anywhere we visit (one of our favorite trips all-time was seeing castles in the Loire Valley), but this year it was all about castles perched on cliffs. We saw these all over the place, particularly in Scotland and Slovenia. Inside some were more exciting than others, but the view never gets old.

1. 

   

   2. Unexpected favorites

   This year, we found ourselves surprised by some of our favorites! Obviously we wouldn’t go somewhere we weren’t at least somewhat interested in, but in some cases it was the side-trips we added as a whim that turned out to the be the best. For the Belgium trip, it was the day we spent in Bastogne and Orval Abbey that blew us away, especially the amazing WWII museum in Bastogne. For Florence/Tuscany, it was a day in Greve in Chianti (despite the bus misadventure). Scotland? The town of Pitlochry,  originally chosen largely for convenience. And in Slovenia — where we went specifically to go to the Lake Bled tree house — it was falling in love with the unspellable city of Ljubljana!

   

   

3. Visitors!

This year was especially great because so many friends and family came to spend time with us! My friend Shaina spent several days with us in April after our Paris trip, my aunt and her significant other came out in May, my parents were here in August, our friends April and Josh and their daughter visited in October, and my mother-in-law and her husband were here in November. We love showing our island to the people we love!

4. Mythical creatures

Once again, I’m not sure what it was about this year but mythical creatures seemed to be a theme. In Scotland, it was seeing unicorns everywhere (in art, sadly, not in real life. Though Fi and I aren’t entirely giving up hope!). In Slovenia, it was DRAGONS. Next up: finding more countries with badass mascots for next year.

5. Paris with friends

This year, Chris and I each sneaked away for a visit to Paris with friends! (Well, technically Chris went with his brother, but they are also besties so …). Each of us had been there before more than once, but our travel companions hadn’t. We each had a great time seeing sights both old and new to us! Paris will never get old to me.

Some things about our flights this year

This section brought to you entirely by the fact that I am a nerd, and that also a few weeks ago I decided to put off my actual work in favor of the obviously urgent task of determining what the average costs of our flights were this year.

See also: this post about our accommodations this year!

1. Direct flights only. This year, we did not take any flights that required a stopover anywhere. It started off somewhat incidental, then as the year went on we realized we really liked wasting less time in airport. I hope this trend will continue in 2019, though obviously not for a trip back to the States because that does not exist.
2. Low-budget airlines. With the exception of Chris’ work flights, our travels were entirely on RyanAir, EasyJet and Volotea. Low budget carriers all, but hey — can’t beat a $40 flight to Belgium! Next year we are trying out a new one, WizzAir, to get to Budapest.
3. No bags. Well, no checked bags, that is. We’ve grown increasingly efficient with our packing and made it through each trip with just one or two small carry-on suitcases. The only time this was slightly problematic was our 12-day Berlin/Scotland trip; we booked an AirBnB with a washing machine so we could do laundry, but it didn’t occur to us that it wouldn’t come with a dryer. And it turns out things don’t air-dry as quickly as you might hope in a damp and chilly place like Edinburgh. Lesson learned.
4. The cost? For the eight round-trip flights we took as a family (I’ve excluded our individual trips and work trips), we paid an average of $72 a ticket. That’s actually a smidge higher than I expected, given some of the crazy deals we had this year, but not bad at all for going all over Europe!

   

Some other big developments from 2018

1. We moved! At the time it was the most stressful thing in the world — massive drama, house hunting, packing, etc. But you know what? I could seriously not be more happy with the way things worked out! Our not-so-new apartment is half the size of our former villa (though still 2,400 sf, so still pretty large!) but actually feels like more space because it is just much more functional. We now have five real bedrooms all on the same level, which is perfect since our new baby will have a room of his own and we’ll still have a guest room. We “only” have two bathrooms instead of five, but amazingly we can use both showers at the same time! Even if the washer and dishwasher are running! Even better, the power isn’t constantly going out. You’d have to have stayed in our old house to know how remarkable these things seemed when we first moved in. Most importantly, our landlords are the absolute BEST! They could not be sweeter or kinder or more thoughtful. We love them! 
2. Owen started kindergarten! And Fi started a new preschool! These kids are growing up so incredibly fast, it is just blowing my mind. Both are absolutely thriving in their new school environment and learning so much. Owen is starting to read and loves math, and Fiona is constantly coming home with new Italian words as well. It is amazing that now they have these whole social lives outside of me — we go to base and each of them invariably sees friends they have to run over and greet. Sniff, sniff. 
3. We’re having another baby! Woohoo! Our baby boy is due March 23. That’s only about 12 weeks away — crazy! Next up: working on a nursery. Well, I’d say that about does it for this year’s recap. Next up: all the posts I meant to write, but never did. Well, about a paragraph about each location I didn’t write about because I was tired/busy/pregnant/insert other excuse here. Because #realistic.

Can’t wait to see what 2019 brings! What are your travel plans for next year?