2024, a.k.a. The Year I Did Too Much

Guys… I’m gonna be straight with you. 2024 has been a LOT.

Too much, in fact. I set out intending to have a slower year, and instead I’ve been going a million miles an hour and haven’t stopped.

My downfall was deciding that I’m on a mission. I realised last year that I actually didn’t have many European countries left to visit, and while I never set out to visit them all, and also have no interest in “visiting every country in the world”, the realisation that I was actually quite close within Europe spurred me on, especially as I had a few solid plans to visit a few of them when I had the chance.

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Well, now was the chance! And so, with what little annual leave and money I had left after Japan, I kept booking weekend trips, and ridiculous trips that took me to Moldova and Italy in the same week (because how else am I meant to get home from Moldova?). I also wanted to do it while I’m still happy staying in hostel dorms, doing mad things like hopping across to Madrid for a day just to get a cheaper flight home, and generally travelling rough on the cheap. I couldn’t do half of what I do without doing it that way.

At the moment it’s a mission that’s a little in vain, because there are certain countries I sadly won’t get to any time soon, but I only have five European countries left to visit!

So in that respect, it’s been a very fun year. But there is NO doubt that I need to slow down or I’m going to burn out completely.

This year has also been all about doing things I’ve been meaning to do for YEARS.

As well as finally getting to Japan:

• we went to Monaco, somewhere I’ve been trying to book every year since the pandemic
• I went to Luxembourg, another place I’ve been trying to squeeze in on other trips
• we did all the touristy things in London
• I went up to the top of the Forth Bridge
• I stayed in the jumbo jet hotel
• we saw Neck Deep live after being fans for years
• we went to Scotland’s third most visited castle, a huge oversight on my part
• I toured the metro stations of Stockholm
• I visited Moldova and managed to get to Transnistria, the “country” that doesn’t exist
• WE GOT A PUPPY!!!

And after saying last year that I wanted a quieter year with fewer city breaks, this year I have been to… London (x4?!), Luxembourg, Nice, Monaco, Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Bucharest, Chisinau, Tiraspol, Milan, Barcelona, Andorra La Vella, Madrid, Paris and Wroclaw. And that’s not including the cities we visited in Japan, nor Shanghai, Glasgow or Manchester!

Honestly, it’s been nuts.

As usual, here’s my monthly run down of the year.

January & February – NOTHING! Oh, except Yorkshire

As usual, we had a very quiet start to the year, although it began with a trip down to the waterfront to witness the Loony Dook, an annual New Year tradition here in South Queensferry.

The only exciting thing we did was go to Manchester for my sister’s big birthday – she actually has the same birthday as me, just many years apart! We came home via the Yorkshire Dales, and stayed a night in Haworth, an absolute gem.

Other than that, we were saving for Japan and I was very busy at work (much of my job involves ski season) so I essentially hunkered down and beavered away.

But don’t worry, the year was about to get MUCH more exciting!

March – a castle, a gig & JAPAN!!!

Obviously, the main event of March was our long-awaited Japan trip, but there were a couple of things before that, too.

We visited our parents for a weekend, and finally went to Urquhart Castle. Despite being the third most visited castle in Scotland, we had never been, but Historic Scotland were offering free tickets to Scottish residents to most of their properties on the first weekend of each month over the winter, which made it the perfect time to go.

And then, two days before we flew to Japan, our favourite band of all time, Fightstar, had announced a one-off reunion show at Wembley Arena. I had scoffed. As much as I love them, Wembley??? Four times the size of any venue they’ve ever played? Come on, now. Anyway, it SOLD OUT.

It was one of my favourite gigs ever, and we were even on the barrier. I normally hate being on the barrier – I prefer being in the thick of the crowd. But I was with a whole bunch of friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in almost ten years since their last shows, and it was such an amazing night! Seeing some of my favourite songs of all time which I never thought I’d get to see live again. Extra special because Ash & I met through the band. I had to beg for the extra day off (I’d already had to beg for 2.5 weeks off for Japan…) and it was WORTH IT.

And then we flew to Japan!!! I refused to believe it until we had landed safely in Tokyo. After four years, we had made it! I was so ecstatic I was practically delirious.

We spent four nights in Tokyo before heading west to Kyoto for three nights. That actually brings us nicely to April, so I’ll just talk about those.

Tokyo was everything I thought it would be. Wacky, buzzing, vibrant, and we had a brilliant time. We stayed in Shinjuku, and also visited Harajuku, Shibuya, Asakusa, Akihabara, Kichijoji/Mitaka (for the Ghibli Museum, of course!) & Azabudai Hills (for TeamLab Borderless).

Kyoto was all about the shrines and temples, but it also became just as much about the food. We had a great time exploring Gion, climbing to the top of Fushimi Inari, and visiting Arashiyama while skipping the most popular attraction there.

April – Japan travels continue & chaos in China

We continued our travels through Japan in April, hitting up Osaka, Nara, Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Mount Fuji, and back to Tokyo.

We absolutely LOVED Osaka, and it became, possibly, our favourite city in Japan. Jury’s out on that one as it seems impossible to beat Tokyo, but the atmosphere is brilliant and the food is unbeatable. We had a fantastic day in Nara, hanging out with the deer. And our overnight trip to Hiroshima was one of my favourite parts of the trip, with an afternoon relaxing on Miyajima Island.

After a long journey to Mount Fuji, we couldn’t even see it when we arrived, but thankfully it showed itself to us right on time for our friends to get engaged! It was such a perfect moment, which I was honoured to be a part of.

And then back to Tokyo for one final hurrah, doing a few things we hadn’t had time to do at the start of the trip, and re-visiting some favourites, ending on a high with a stay in the dinosaur robot hotel.

We also had a layover in Shanghai on the way back to the UK, but if you’ve read my post, you’ll know it didn’t quite go to plan. We rode the maglev train and saw the incredible skyline, but that was about it. Not the most successful layover ever, I have to admit.

And then the dream was over and it was back to work, where I was mega busy catching up with what I’d missed.

We also went to see Hamilton when it came to Edinburgh, which was brilliant! It was a very delayed Christmas present for Ash.

May – Cyprus & Luxembourg

At the start of May, we headed out to Cyprus for a few days of much-needed relaxation after the hectic Japan trip. This was one of the few (or only?) holidays that we’ve had where we have basically done nothing. We spent one day on a tour to the Troodos Mountains, and that was it. It was a great trip to somewhere new, and one of the selling points for us was that there wasn’t a lot we wanted to do, so it was the perfect excuse to actually relax for once.

A couple of weeks later, I went on one of my mad weekend trips, flying out to Brussels early on the Saturday morning and back on Sunday night. I wasn’t going to Belgium though; I was hopping on a bus and going straight to Luxembourg!

Luxembourg was a surprise! I really enjoyed this tiny city and a couple of days was the perfect amount of time to explore it. I walked some of the walls, went up and down some elevators, ate good food, met great people, found a couple of quirky cafés, and enjoyed wandering the old town. It was actually one of my favourite weekend trips I’ve done!

We also had a family event, had a friend come to visit, and then bought a puppy!

June – family stuff, Isle Of May – and puppy time!

June began with another family gathering up north, which actually meant we didn’t pick up Bonnie until the 3rd of June. But then, our lives were changed forever with the arrival of this sweet girl.

Most of June was spent puppy training (by the end of June she was fully toilet trained!) and getting used to life with her.

In mid-June, Ash’s parents came down for a few days for his mum’s birthday, which was brilliant as we had a few things lined up. The main event was visiting the Isle Of May, which is home to over 100,000 puffins, and it’s genuinely one of my favourite things we’ve ever done in Scotland!

We got incredibly lucky with the weather too, with sunshine for the whole boat journey. The island itself was shrouded in mist which made for an eerie visit, but it was so cool! We saw absolutely tons of puffins, razorbills, shags and other seabirds. We also saw seals and even a peregrine falcon! It’s the sort of place you have to see to believe, to be honest. It’s all very well seeing close-up photos of puffins, but to have thousands of them flying over your head? You can’t capture that.

Anyway, in all my gushing about how great the trip was, I almost forgot what made it even better: Ash’s sister travelled all the way up from Kent to join us on the boat, and surprised their Mum in the queue!! It was executed perfectly. Just honestly probably my favourite day from this year – I’ll be writing about it properly at some point.

A week later we also went to see Green Day with a friend, which was fantastic! And a couple of days after that, I went to see Busted at one of their summer shows. So overall, June ended up being a pretty full-on month – but one of my favourites!

July – London

July, in contrast, was a relatively quiet month, although it started with a weekend trip down to London which had been organised months before we got a puppy. Luckily my parents were more than happy to puppysit, as it was their first time meeting her! Thanks Mum & Dad. Their dog, Ola, absolutely loves her thankfully, and the two are now inseparable during any visits.

We were headed down to London for an intimate Neck Deep show. Despite being massive fans of them for years, this was actually our first gig – and what a show it was! My friend and I also met them beforehand to get some records signed at the cult classic Banquet Records in Kingston, and then everyone was let into the gig early to watch the England v Switzerland game in the Euros with the band! England of course won, and I captured the band and fans celebrating. I don’t support England because that’s illegal in Scotland, but it was an electric atmosphere!

We had also spent the rest of the day in nearby Richmond, an area I’ve never been to before. It had actually been on my list anyway because it’s meant to be lovely (we didn’t get to Richmond Park though!), but our main reason for going was to check out the Ted Lasso filming locations!

(If you haven’t seen Ted Lasso, WATCH IT! It’s hilarious, wholesome, and some of the best feel-good TV I’ve ever seen.)

Anyway, we ate in the pub from the show, which was excellent, and explored the pretty streets in the rain. Sigh. This summer has been MISERABLE in the UK.

The next day, we headed into London proper for our train home, but first we had booked the Postal Museum, where you get to ride on a little underground postal train!!! This was so much fun and genuinely probably my favourite visitor attraction in London.

And that’s all I can really say about July, as the rest of the month was spent with Bonnie. I also used the downtime to do lots of background work on the blog, including updating all my old posts, while working on all the Japan content.

August – France & Monaco

In August, we took our first trip up to my folks with Bonnie, which meant her first three hour car ride. She was absolutely perfect! I had booked a local festival for my Dad’s birthday, where we saw Bonnie Tyler and, the main reason for going, Status Quo! They were surprisingly good, and Dad never got to see them back in the day, so he was thrilled. Still rocking at 80!

Our other main weekend was a short hop over to Nice in the south of France, where we also spent a few hours in my fifth new country of the year: Monaco! I was not expecting to love Nice as much as we did. We are now thinking about going back and spending longer exploring the French Riviera.

And Monaco? I mean, it’s what I expected really. Stepping into another world and looking at things we can’t afford. However, as big F1 fans, we were very excited to walk a lot of the track, and we spent some time sitting at the Fairmont hairpin watching all the fancy sports cars drive round it, occasionally stuck behind a bus.

We also had some friends come and visit for a weekend, and we took them to Stirling Castle as well as checking out Edinburgh Fringe goings on.

September – Sweden, Finland & Estonia, London, Forth bridge climb & chickenpox!

I honestly planned a quieter September, after how hectic the past couple have been. Particularly last year, when I struggled to keep up with work – it was the first time ever I’ve realised I’ve packed too much in and truly burned out.

And then… things kept happening. First I booked a trip to northern Europe. That was fine; that would be my one plan. Then I realised we had a pass for London that needed using by October. Our anniversary is in mid-September, so we decided that would be the perfect excuse. Then I happened to remember, finally, to look at doing the Forth Bridge Climb when tickets went on sale, and of course that was September too. I have ALWAYS missed out! I accidentally booked it for the morning after a work party, and so suddenly, I had a lot of plans for three weekends.

My Nordics/Baltics trip was brilliant – I was worried that I really had packed too much in this time, as I’d added on a night in Stockholm to stay in the jumbo jet hotel, which then turned into “well, if I’m here, I might as well go into the city and…” and suddenly I was using up most of a day in Sweden, which wasn’t even part of the plan!

Anyway, I loved Stockholm way more than I thought I would, a day was actually perfect for Helsinki in the end, and Tallinn is a very popular day trip as it is, so naturally I managed to see absolutely loads in 26,000 steps.

We then had a perfect weekend in London, including a free upgrade to a top floor suite! We finally went into all the big attractions on our pass, and had a fantastic time being tourists.

The Forth Bridge experience was one of the coolest things I’ve done! Several thousand people have now stood at the top of the Forth Bridge, but it feels pretty awesome to be part of that number.

It’s organised by a charity each year, and provides a unique opportunity to view the most famous bridge in Scotland from above.

And then… literally as I got home from the bridge, I thought “thank goodness… I have nothing planned for two weeks now”. I was exhausted. I laid down and slept for 2 hours, and woke up feeling so awful I couldn’t even move my head. I ached and had swollen glands, and I put it down to a combination of overdoing it, dehydration and lack of food.

The next day I woke up with spots everywhere, and discovered that those had been classic pre-spot symptoms of chickenpox. CHICKENPOX!! At 35!!!

October – Romania, Moldova, Italy & Glasgow

October, somehow, was busier than September.

Yup, my year was getting ridiculous now.

First of all, I booked a completely mad trip to Europe. I’d always planned to get to Moldova via Romania, it was just a question of having enough time off. Well, finally I did! However, getting home from Moldova? I didn’t fancy a second overnight train going back on myself, so I did what any sane person would do and booked a flight to Italy instead. I had one night in Milan before making a beeline for Lake Como.

Days after booking it, I realised I’d messed up. We’d been informally invited to our neighbours’ wedding, by which I mean I’d had the date casually mentioned to me in conversation. My brain decided not to retain that information, but we received the formal invite, and I’m sure you can guess when it was. For the first time ever, I changed one of my flights, and it meant I’d no longer have time for Transylvania.

Anyway, any wedding that’s held at a natural history museum and features a children’s book about dinosaurs in the ceremony is definitely a good one! I got home at 1am, and at 4am I was out the door for my flight to Bucharest. Some might say there was no point me going home, really.

I had a couple of days in Bucharest, which was enough, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I then took the overnight train to Moldova, which ended up being one of my favourite travel experiences! For the novelty and for the people I met.

I actually really enjoyed Moldova too, having had no idea what to expect, and my day in Transnistria is the weirdest day of travel I have EVER had. From eating in a Soviet-style canteen to accidentally riding a Soviet-era ferris wheel, it was an experience for the books! I cannot wait to write about it.

And then, Italy. A couple of days to wind down and relax in more familiar territory, I thought. Well. Day one was brilliant. Took an amazing boat trip up Lake Como. Bumped into a couple of Orcadians. Almost messed everything up by not planning around the boats.

Day two, after a lovely time in Varenna, turned into stress central with trains going wrong, train stations refusing to have signs, and the most bizarre airport I have ever been to. (You know it’s bad when you can’t even find departures!!)

The following week, we had a friend to visit for a few days, and the weekend after that, we had two gigs in Glasgow so we ended up staying overnight.

In that same weekend, I somehow found time to drive to Perthshire for a fix of autumn colours as, believe it or not, I hadn’t had a chance!!! Can’t think why.

November – Andorra, Spain, Aberdeen & Paris

It was around half way through October that I realised I wouldn’t have a free weekend for another seven weeks. So yes, November was also busy AF.

I kicked off November with a flight straight away on the 1st to Barcelona. I was only passing through, though, and the following morning took a bus up to Andorra for two days in this tiny country. Andorra surpassed all expectations – I loved it!

Then it was back to Barcelona for another brief night, before narrowly escaping some floods by taking the train to Madrid. Madrid was a new city for me, and I much preferred it to Barcelona. If I’m honest, though, I was totally citied out by this point. It sounds awful, but I arrived in Madrid thinking “I cannot be bothered.” I have NEVER had that mindset on my travels before!

Anyway, I managed to have a lovely few hours in Madrid despite my misgivings, and I’ll be writing about what I got up to there.

A few days later, another friend came to visit for a week, and the day after he left, we headed up north to see our folks. I actually had a lovely weekend planned – I was taking Mum to a spa hotel in Aberdeen! The hotel was AMAZING and we had a wonderful time.

I mean, look at the hotel!

And finally, Paris. A trip that should have been the easiest of everything I’ve done this year. I headed down to London for a night to catch the first Eurostar out the next morning with a friend, coming back Sunday afternoon. We had a perfect plan, and then hours before the trip, our Eurostar was cancelled. At such late notice on a weekend, there was no availability left until the afternoon. Frankly, it ruined our trip to the point I put in a complaint and we’ve got a refund (there’s more to the story but all you need to know is it was NOT a cancellation outside of their control). But it was far from the only thing to go wrong.

I survived on 5-6 hours sleep 3 nights in a row, with early mornings, late nights, a massive concert, a delayed flight, cancelled trains (plural), 54,000 steps, virtually no food, a meltdown in a train station, and work in the office the next day. My friend was assaulted and I felt ill on the way home. It was awful.

(On the upside, the concert was amazing, celebrating Sum 41’s last ever European show with, appropriately, 41,000 other fans; I bumped into an old friend; and we did have a few good moments on the trip, including finding all the Heartstopper filming locations!)

December – Poland

I wasn’t planning anything for December – but then I found cheap flights to Wroclaw, somewhere I’ve heard great things about. Keeping up my new tradition of visiting a city in Poland every year (with friends too, it seems!), I invited my work friend along.

We had a BRILLIANT time! I’ve actually written about it already because a big part of the trip was Christmas markets. We loved Wroclaw and had great fun searching for dwarf statues. Highly recommended!

And, apart from a couple of Christmas work nights out and then spending Christmas up north with family, that’s all for December, thank GOD.

Honestly, I’ve had whiplash trying to keep up with this year. I say this a lot, but next year is DEFINITELY going to be calmer.

And I’m sticking by that, truly. This year ended up being mental because I suddenly had a laser focus on new European countries (and money left over from Japan). With only five left, next year just isn’t going to be so ridiculous.

Plus, a lot of this was booked before we had Bonnie. Priorities have changed, and most of our trips now will involve her – and that means a big focus on Scotland travel.

Highlights of the year

• Finally getting to Japan. As you may have seen from my Japan highlights post, it was impossible to narrow down specific highlights, so I’m just going to leave it as a general highlight.
• Finally getting a puppy! Okay, this should have been first, but I was thinking of travel, okay? Bonnie is the best.
• Spending a few hours with 100,000+ puffins on the Isle Of May with Ash’s family. A very special day even without the feathered friends, but they were just the icing on the cake.
• Visiting Transnistria. An absolutely bonkers day, and a fascinating place.
• Seeing Fightstar live at their first gig in 10 years. We caught up with soooo many friends and it was honestly one of my favourite nights ever! We went to several amazing gigs this year, and I saw ALL FIVE of my top 5 favourite bands, which is not something I *ever* thought could happen.
• Bonus: some of my favourite stays ever, including staying in a jumbo jet engine, and being checked in by robot dinosaurs!

On the blog

So, I need to talk about the blog, because it’s been an absolute rollercoaster. With Google updates hitting the blogging industry hard, nobody knows what’s coming. Many of my blogging friends have lost their incomes overnight, and it’s been devastating. Google just doesn’t seem to be useful half the time any more – instead of giving relevant, informative results, it gives you an inaccurate AI overview and then ten-year-old Reddit threads.

Imagine my surprise, then, when in March my traffic started booming. Out of nowhere, my Norway itinerary post became the number one result for “Norway itinerary”. WTF. I got major imposter syndrome because quite frankly there were better posts out there that I was suddenly out-ranking. I’d luckily added affiliate links, and I watched in shock as booking after booking came in. (And then watched in disappointment as booking after booking got cancelled.)

I’ve never written this blog to make money, but it was a very welcome surprise to realise that I could. I’ve got ads installed but in all honesty they hardly make anything compared to proper ad networks, and as my traffic went up, I decided that I would move to a new host so I could get some installed.

Then the August update hit, and I changed my mind.

My traffic, along with every other blogger I know, tanked. I have friends who have gone from tens of thousands of views per month to less than a thousand. It’s infuriating and disheartening, but I feel lucky and relieved that I don’t rely on this for income.

It’s hard to quantify the change in views for me, because when my traffic tanked, my Edinburgh Fringe post was booming and keeping the views afloat. Then I had seasonal Christmas market posts ranking. But my Norway post, for example, went from 6,500 views in June to 2,000 views in August and then under 800 in September. I’ve made no affiliate income from the post since July.

Now my traffic’s been improving again, but who knows when that’ll change?

Anyway, here are some of my favourite posts published this year:
A Love Letter To Osaka, Japan: Why It’s Worth More Than A Day Trip
Our Perfect Two Week Itinerary For A First Time Visit To Japan
Sleeping In A Jumbo Jet Engine – One Of The Coolest Places I’ve Stayed

And my top posts for traffic:
The Perfect One Week Norway Itinerary For First-Timers
Everything We Bought In Japan – The Best Souvenirs To Buy
Szechenyi Vs Gellert: Battle Of The Budapest Spa Baths
How To Spend A Festive Winter Weekend In Riga, Latvia
Visiting the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo + Tips For Buying Tickets

And social media? Let’s talk about Twitter for a minute. Twitter has made me very sad. I’ve spent the past few years on there building connections with people, I’ve met up with loads of Twitter pals and there’s an excellent travel community.

Beyond that, it’s been a great breaking news source over the years, as well as a fantastic source of entertainment. Sure, it’s always been a toxic cesspit, but it’s been drowned out by the good. Not any more. Almost everyone I know on there has left. Some I’ve lost contact with probably permanently. Fun posts no longer exist. It’s *never* worth looking at comments now because they will all be rage bait and spam by blue checks who get paid for engagement. And all to get a narcissistic hateful little man with a big ego into power. I’m sad to have left, but it’s no longer fun and it’s not something I want to support.

Anyway, you can find me on Bluesky now, and of course I’m still on Facebook, and I’m even using Instagram and Threads more now. I’m not saying the Zuck’s any better, but I don’t feel like he’s trying to radicalise the world.

My favourite albums of the year

Once again, I’ve struggled to narrow down my music highlights. Some of my favourite gigs were Fightstar, Sum 41 and Biffy Clyro, all of which were incredibly special shows for different reasons. Sum 41 released a final album at the start of this year and it’s brilliant, so I at least need to mention that, and I saw them at their final ever European show in Paris.

However, my highlights:

Green Day – Saviors (+ tour!)

Green Day are back with an album that would fit in with any of their older works. Brilliant record from start to finish. We hadn’t been bothered about seeing them on their tour as we saw them fairly recently, but then they announced that they’d be playing Dookie AND American Idiot in full. Well. Two of my favourite albums of all time by one of the best live bands of all time? Can’t really pass that up! Absolutely phenomenal 2.5 hour show; I don’t know how they still keep going for so long at their age.
Best songs: Dilemma, Bobby Sox, 1981, Strange Days Are Here To Stay
(P.S. The above video is from the gig we went to – extra special because it wasn’t a normal song that they always bring a fan out to. Give it a watch if you want to see a young lad having the highlight of his LIFE.)

Frank Turner – Undefeated

Ceasefire may just be my song of the year, and the rest of Frank Turner’s latest release is fantastic. Frankly, I’ve not listened to enough of his stuff in the past despite loving a few of his songs, so this needs to change!
Best songs: Ceasefire, Letters, Somewhere Inbetween

Neck Deep – Neck Deep

Pop punk is SO back! Neck Deep released their fifth album and it’s one of their best. We went along to Banquet Records in Kingston in July and got a copy signed, said hello to the band, watched the football with them and then watched a brilliant, intimate live show! I also saw them supporting Sum 41 in Paris.
Best songs: We Need More Bricks, This Is All My Fault, Sort Yourself Out

My favourite reads & watches of the year

I haven’t read an awful lot in 2024, and there have even been a few that I didn’t finish, so I’ve only really got one stand-out book.

Glasgow Boys – Margaret McDonald

Glasgow Boys is a heartwrenching insight into two boys who have been in the care system, both now at different stages of their lives but both now hopeful for the future. I spent the entire book rooting for each of them as we’re let in to their struggles, past and present.

Some favourite articles of the year:

Missing In The Wild & Praying For Survival
“My shop was looted by rioters, then saved by strangers”
‘They couldn’t even afford a bag of chips!’: Scotland’s great lost all-female bands
Dark tourism: Do we owe it to destinations to understand their troubled past?
This absolutely insane story split across two articles:
Woman searching for birth parents found dad was a friend on Facebook
Georgia’s stolen children: Twins sold at birth reunited by TikTok video

And TV shows / movies? I haven’t watched many new ones, to be honest! Heartstopper, obviously. The latest season is much more intense and less binge-able than the first two seasons, which I still re-watch on a regular basis. It’s brilliant, again, but does try to pack too much story into eight episodes and I feel it doesn’t leave enough time for the joy that makes Heartstopper such a beautiful show. It was always going to be a tough season though, with the material focusing heavily on mental illness, and for that element I don’t think it could have tackled it more perfectly.

I think the fact that I’ve got such a short watch and read list this year sums up just how busy I’ve been.

Famous last words, but 2025 will be less full-on.

I’ve actually really enjoyed not having the pressure of wanting to cram in as much as possible in the places I’ve visited this year (except Japan, of course), but there’s no denying I’ve been trying to cram in the places themselves. I’ve been to 15 countries, which is ridiculous! Some have been great surprises (Luxembourg and Andorra!); others have been great adventures (the overnight train and boat, the madness of Transnistria).

So here’s to the next 5, which won’t be any time soon – mostly for obvious reasons – except perhaps Liechtenstein.

In fact, I have barely any plans for next year. Other than one trip we have booked to Madeira for my birthday in a couple of weeks, we’ll be focusing more on Scotland adventures with Bonnie.

And I’m definitely feeling good about that, to be honest.

Plus… I have a LOT still to write about!

How’s your 2024 been? As mad as mine, or are you normal?! Either way, I’d love to hear about it!