Issue #22 · Everything in Limbo

December ??, 2023: Welcome to Purgatory Week™ those confusing few days between Christmas and New Year’s when the calendar fuses together, pajamas take center stage, work deadlines are guiltlessly pushed back, and calories from leftovers obviously don’t count.

Since it’s super embarrassing to admit how many times I listened to the Daddy Yankee remix of Gyal You a Party Animal in 2023 (a song that came out in 2016) I thought I’d share an end-of-year Spotify Wrapped-style recap of my travel instead:

• Countries: 12 (7 new)

• U.S. States: 3 (0 new)

• Days Spent Abroad: 307

• Accommodations: 17-ish

• Flights: 14 (18 separate legs)

• Red-Eye Flights: 3

• Middle Seats: 0

• Longest Stay: Puerto Escondido (60 + 56)

• Shortest Stay: Costa Rica (1)

• Longest Travel Day: 3 legs/28 hours from Cyprus to Hong Kong

• Longest Day Day: My October 16th was 31 hours lol

• Fanciest Accommodation: Schmiedgut (in Bad Aussee, Austria)

• Hostel Dorm Nights (just to keep things humble): 5*

• Best Food: Cyprus, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Oaxaca**

• Favorite New Place: Definitely Valencia

• Disappointments: Prague, and tbh kind of San Diego

• Need to Go Back: Japan

Other Honorable Mentions:

• My week-long trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo was absolutely the ~travel~ highlight of 2023, and a fantastic reminder to never think twice about going solo.

• A short but sweet visit to the Brudvigs in Stockholm in July. Miss you guys 🥰

• If you also attended, you know that Nomad Summer Camp obviously deserves a shoutout.

• This year of Puerto (“Season 4”) has already been the most fun and it feels more like home here than ever before. Man do I love this place and these people.

Some Uncategorizable Year-End Thoughts:

It may not seem like it, but compared to 2021 and 2022, I slowed down a lot. Even with some bumps in the road (ahem… Prague), this was my favorite year of travel yet. That’s because I’ve finally figured out the secret recipe that tastes best: Mixing long stays in places I love (2-5 months) with quick adventures to new places (2-5 days). The longer stays allow me to plant roots and feel a sense of community, while anticipation builds for shorter bucket list/weekend trips where I can unplug, go all-in on exploring and am okay with temporarily living out of a bag. It’s those clunky 2 or 3 week trips that are too short to get settled, yet too long to live in limbo — that’s what burns me out.

Speaking of being in limbo, I still don’t have any travel plans set for next year. I definitely want to return to Valencia, and will also spend time in New York for my brother’s wedding (!!). Guatemala is on the radar, and of course there’s always Puerto. But most of the puzzle pieces are still loose in the box, and for now, I’m okay with that.

That’s probably because most of this year has also felt like one giant Purgatory Week™. In 2023, I intentionally worked less. A lot less. What was intended to be a six-month experiment of trying my hand at full-time indie making never quite got off the ground. Instead, it turned into a year-long semi-sabbatical of sorts, doing just enough freelance work to pay the bills and spending the rest of my time focused on things that brought me joy: I picked up new hobbies, improved my Spanish, created a mandatory morning self-care routine, wrote often, read books, started writing a book of my own, went on a lot of runs, and got in much better shape.

Besides the occasional existential crisis — that societally pre-programmed nagging feeling of “I should be doing more” is HARD to suppress — it goes without saying that it was a pretty awesome, chilled-out year. Turns out, you can earn less money yet have a higher quality of life. It’s not a perfectly inverse relationship, but finding the sustainable sweet spot between the two is worth the effort. Of course, my bank account and budget had to recalibrate themselves due to working fewer hours, but investing in myself this year was worth every penny sacrificed.

A quick note on the whole budget thing: For those currently thinking “what a [lucky duck/privileged bitch], she hardly worked and still managed to leisurely jaunt around the world” I’d like to resurface this piece about my often un-luxurious travel reality. Also, a $280 flight from Japan to California is pretty easy to afford when you don’t go to Target once a week. And did you know that buying groceries in most other countries doesn’t require a second mortgage? Excuse the snark, but I’m still coming to terms with the fact that a CVS in San Diego had the audacity to sell a half-gallon of Tide detergent for $27.49. It’s not uniquely a U.S. problem but y’all sure do take the brunt of it.

Anyway, I’m starting to ramble, so let’s wrap up this Wrapped: Not only was it another successful year of travel, but I’m in a much better place than I was one year ago. Stepping off the full-time treadmill was an overdue breath of fresh air that helped me realign my priorities and take better care of myself. Now, the pendulum is finally ready to swing back in the other direction, and next year my intention is to work more, take my side projects more seriously, and cash in on the compound interest from the habits, hobbies and happiness that I discovered in 2023 (even if nearly all of my plans — travel, career or otherwise — still remain very much in limbo).

* * *

*This consisted of one ROUGH night in a dorm bunk bed in Liberia, Costa Rica that I booked because immigration almost didn’t let me into the country without a reservation and then I thought “how bad could it be, it’s already paid for” (mistakes were made) + four nights in a swanky little pod in Tokyo which I loved, allowed me to make friends and saved me nearly $700.

**All four of these were back-to-back in October, and I ate approximately 87x the FDA’s daily recommended calorie intake every single day during the entire month. Diet, meet window. I regret nothing.

PS: I’d love to hear what you thought about this post. If this landed in your inbox, just hit reply! Or if you’re reading this online, send me an email at [email protected] and I pinky promise I’ll reply back.

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Here’s a list of every issue if you want to keep reading!

• Issue #21: No Hay Luz [Dec 2023]

• Issue #20: Unclogging the Pipes [Dec 2023]

• Issue #19: A Love Letter to Charm City [Oct 2023]

• Issue #18: Plot Twist: I’m Going to Hong Kong [Sep 2023]

• Issue #17: To All of the Places I Will Never Visit [Sep 2023]

• Issue #16: Embracing the Blank Canvas [Sep 2023]

• Issue #15: In Pursuit of an Endless Summer [Aug 2023]

• Issue #14: Follow Me to Weird Places [Jul 2023]

• Issue #13: Self-Inflicted Social Overload [Jul 2023]

• Issue #12: Schlepping It 🎒 [Jun 2023]

• Issue #11: Finding My “Next Thing” [Jun 2023]

• Issue #10: Book the Damn Flight and Just Go [May 2023]

• Issue #9: Choosing Your Own Life Adventure [May 2023]

• Issue #8: Eat, Sleep, Write, Repeat [May 2023]

• Issue #7: My First Month of Indie Making: An Honest Review [Feb 2023]

• Issue #6: Ten Years of Making Money on the Internet [Jan 2023]

• Issue #5: The Modern-Day Mission Trip [Dec 2022]

• Issue #4: Ready, FIRE!, Aim [Nov 2022]

• Issue #3: A New City Every Month: An Experiment in Change [Aug 2022]

• Issue #2: Defining My North Star as a Nomad [Dec 2021]

• Issue #1: One Year on the Road: Looking Back [Oct 2021]