Recap of the Year: 2023

After a great 2022 which became one of my best travel years ever, I thought it would be hard to top that in 2023. I was wrong...

2023 turned out to be my best travel year ever. With three major trips, two weekends, and one day trip. I visited three continents, one of which I had never been to before (South America), and one which I only last year visited for the first time (Africa). This was also my first time in sub-Saharan Africa.

I visited eleven countries, eight of them which I had never been to before. One of the revisited countries was however the United Kingdom. I have been to England several times before, but this trip went to Scotland and Northern Ireland which I had never been in previously. That trip ended in Ireland. Depending on how you count it, the trip could be considered as three new countries (Scotland, Northern Ireland & Ireland), or just two countries (United Kingdom & Ireland) where only one was new (Ireland).

I ended the year with one of my longest and most extensive trips ever by going to Southern Africa for three weeks, exploring both along the beaten path, and also visiting some places with almost zero other tourists.

The first trip of the year was to Brazil. I actually had two nights, and one full day, in Rio de Janeiro before going to São Paulo. São Paulo is still the first city I fully explored in 2023 and it was such an unexpected destination. I did not have Brazil at the top of my travel list, but a friend asked and we booked a few hours later. This was back in September 2022, but as I mentioned, Brazil was not something I had planned for before that.

I did enjoy Brazil a lot though. It's a country I would love to come back to in the future. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Of my four days in São Paulo, two of them pretty much rained away. Then I had two days of great weather, sunny and warm.

São Paulo is not a popular destination. For its size, it is underwhelming in the tourism department. I did find things that I liked there and I am pleased with my decision to go to São Paulo. I wanted at least one more city in Brazil, apart from Rio de Janeiro which was the main destination of the trip.

Four days was perfect. Even though two days rained away, which allowed us to do some indoor activities like shopping, museums, and such, I did not feel that we had to rush during the remaining two days.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the best cities I have visited. A city I truly enjoyed and had such an awesome time in. It was both relaxing and interesting. I had a whole week there, which is more than I usually spend in a city, so I had a lot of time to just take it slow and relax. But there's also so much to see, so at the same time, I had plenty of time to explore with my camera.

Exploring with my camera was something that I was concerned about before I went there. Would it be safe? I felt completely safe in Rio. As long as you stay in the tourist areas I think the safety warnings about this city are a little bit exaggerated.

While Copacabana and the beaches are the main reason people go there I would also like to highlight that everyone visiting Rio de Janeiro should find time to explore the historic Centro too.

Another great memory from Rio is that I got to see a football match at the famous Maracanã Stadium. That was an experience! Something to remember for years!

My second trip of the year went to the United Kingdom and Ireland. I had been to the United Kingdom several times before, but only to England. So while it technically counts as one country, one I've been to before, I still feel like I visited something new as I visited Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This trip coincided with the massive heat wave that hit Europe in July 2023. This didn't affect the island of Ireland or Scotland, as the weather was rainy, overcast, and 14 degrees Celsius most of the time. I choose between, Italy, the Balkans or the United Kingdom. I'm still not sure if cold and rainy was better than 40+ degrees and so hot that you could barely go out.

The trip started great, with a flight cancellation and 24-hour delayed arrival. The good thing is that I received more than I paid for all my flights on this trip back in compensation from Scandinavian. Never forget to file a claim if you get delayed or experience a canceled flight.

Of the cities I visited on this trip, Edinburgh was my favorite. It was also the first. Edinburgh is very touristy though, and the city center, at least in summertime, is like an open-air museum. It's one of the most beautiful cities of Europe though, and one with an interesting layout due to the topography.

I feel that I could have used that day I lost, and I might have to come back again in the future.

While in Edinburgh, I decided to go on a day trip to Glasgow on my only full day. It's only an hour away by train so it's very easy to go there and back.

Glasgow is more like a living city. It's not touristy at all, contrary to Edinburgh. Despite being so close, they are worlds apart when it comes to feeling and atmosphere. One day is definitely enough to visit Glasgow!

From Edinburgh, I flew to Northern Ireland and Belfast. The trip only takes about 30 minutes in the air, which is neat. Belfast is a city I have been interested in visiting for a long time. Partly because of all the history found there, and partly to visit the Titanic Museum.

One of my two days rained away completely. The good thing was that I saw the forecast beforehand and booked the Titanic Museum for that day. I usually can do museums at the lower end of the estimated time frame, but this time I stayed much longer than the higher end of the same estimate.

Belfast is not a city for those who are seeking beauty or something romantic. It is however an interesting and gritty city. Full of street art and dilapidated old historic buildings. A perfect city for someone traveling with a camera and an interest in photography.

The last stop of this trip was Dublin. I took a train there from Belfast. Dublin, like the other three cities I visited on this trip, gave me rain and overcast for most of the time. I guess I should not be surprised, but it was still disappointing considering that it was the only region of Europe with terrible weather these weeks.

Dublin was probably the least favorite stop on this trip. I never fell for this city. I do believe it would be more fun if you travel in a group and are interested in bar hopping. I traveled solo and do not drink...

There are a few sights, but not much. The draws of Dublin come in liquid form.

August was a travel-heavy month with three separate trips. I started with a trip to Germany, which has sort of become a yearly tradition. Third year in a row that I have gone to Germany in August. This time I went to Munich and Nuremberg.

I have learned that I seem to prefer smaller cities in Germany, contrary to everywhere else in the world where I prefer to visit cities as large as possible. I found Nuremberg more interesting than Munich, just as I found Hamburg to be rather dull last year.

Munich still has some sights to offer, and during the summer it is a great weekend city. I would not go there during the winter though...

The city center is small, which is good. It's easy to walk and see all the sights on foot. But just as with Dublin, I probably missed out on the best parts since I traveled solo and didn't drink.

Nuremberg is a historic city that has lost a lot of its former importance. I did like Nuremberg a lot though and it was one of the highlights of the travel year.

To begin with, don't miss to visit the Memorium, the museum, and the courthouse where the Nuremberg Trials took place after WWII. You are even allowed to go inside the actual courtroom where the trials took place.

Nuremberg also has a good Old Town and one of the largest castles in Europe. There are sights in abundance in this city!

This was completely unplanned. I went on a day trip to Oslo with short notice. I've been to Oslo before, back in 2016, and didn't like the city at all.

This time the weather was much better, sunny and warm. One of few such days in Scandinavia this summer. With good weather, I liked the city much more. Most cities are prettier in good weather and it can often make a huge difference in how we perceive a city.

Oslo is still not a great destination where you'll leave thinking "Wow!", and of all the Nordic Capitals it is still the least interesting from a tourist point of view.

August was a travel-intense period. Vilnius was even the same week as my day trip to Oslo. Vilnius was planned months ahead though.

It was the last of the Baltic States that I visited, and I have now been in all three of them (even though Estonia and Tallinn were more than ten years ago so I might have to revisit). I was hoping to be able to go to Kaunas on this trip too, but the weather was unstable (turned out fine) and I was a little bit tired so in the end I opted to just stay in Vilnius and take it slow.

Vilnius, like the other Baltic Capitals, has a lot of history to offer. The Baltic States are a great option for those visiting Europe and wishing to see something outside of the usual big travel destinations.

I ended one of the best travel years of my life by going on a three-week-long country-hopping trip to Southern Africa. It started in South Africa and Cape Town. In the initial planning phase for this trip, Cape Town was not included. But who can go to South Africa without visiting Cape Town?

Cape Town gave us rather dull weather, unfortunately. For a city that is mostly noted for its beautiful scenery that was a little bit disappointing. On a more positive note, the rest of the trip gave perfect weather except for one day, which was a travel day anyway so it was fine.

I had three full days in Cape Town and it actually feels like one or two more would have been needed. I'm usually done with a city after two days. The thing with Cape Town is that the city center does not have much to offer. The sights are on the outskirts or even an hour away from the city.

Overall, Cape Town was a great experience, and together with Rio de Janeiro and the next stop on this trip, it forms the top three highlights of the travel year!

Maputo is one of these places you have eyed and been interested in visiting for no particular reason. Even after I visited Maputo I can't say why I wanted to visit it, or why I enjoyed visiting and have it as one of the highlights of the year.

The opportunity to visit Maputo was the main reason I became interested in this travel plan. Unfortunately, one of the days there was a Sunday and the city was completely empty of people. The difference between Sunday and Monday was extreme.

The street photography here was awesome! I got some really interesting pictures of street life. There are also some architectural sights, even though it was fewer of those than I had anticipated. Most of the buildings are in very bad condition.

From Maputo and Mozambique we travelled by land to Eswatini. It was an interesting journey that took seven hours and moved us a distance of about 150 kilometers only.

Eswatini is small and does not have any major cities. Mbabane is the political Capital. I found Mbabane to be more interesting than the larger Manzini, which I also visited.

Manzini is the economic center of Eswatini and the largest city of the country, still with less than 100.000 inhabitants. We took a minibus from Mbabane, and went back less than two hours later. Manzini had not much of interest and after walking the two streets of the Downtown it was not much left to do.

Manzini also felt slightly unsafe, compared to Mbabane. Especially the bus rank, which is where there were some opportunities for street photography, had a rather unpleasant feeling.

Gaborone is a rather boring city, to be honest. But it was nice to arrive in a city that felt much more developed than what I had been in for the previous week. Despite it being a little bit on the boring side, I did enjoy Gaborone. Botswana is a great country!

This city feels modern, but it is small and the layout is very clearly inspired by American cities. We didn't rent a car, and we didn't stay in the center of Downtown. The walk from our lovely Guesthouse into Downtown was long and followed large roads with fairly heavy traffic.

When we planned this trip, we sort of forgot to plan for any Safari. I spent three weeks in Southern Africa and didn't go on a real safari. This was something we realized shortly before leaving for the trip. So it was no time to change anything, as we would have to scratch any of the planned destinations, and that was not something we were willing to do.

Near Gaborone we found a Nature Reserve for some Safari Light at Mokolodi Nature Reserve. The only of the Big Five animals that we were able to see there was Rhinos. We also saw some Zebras. But besides that, we didn't see anything interesting. Safar will have to wait until the next time I visit Africa.

The next stop of the trip was to be Maseru. The flights from Gaborone to Maseru, via Johannesburg, were very expensive. So expensive that it was cheaper and better to just fly to Johannesburg, spend a night there, and then rent a car and drive to Maseru, 5 hours away. So we did that!

To fit Lesotho into this trip was only to get the stamp in the passport and check it off the list. We spent a full day in Maseru, however we didn't go for what most people do in Lesotho. That is to drive through the countryside and explore the natural beauty of this country. Even the locals wondered why we didn't do that...

Maseru as a city is not a great city, with nothing to see really. We took a short walk through Downtown, and got tired of it rather quickly. After that, we met several people who said that they had seen us earlier. I don't think that's a good sign. So it was probably for the best that we left early the next morning.

This trip, and the travel year, ended with Johannesburg. A city most people and guides tell you to not bother spending time in. It wasn't the plan either, but due to logistics, we ended up having 2 full days, at different phases of the trip, in Johannesburg. Almost all flights in Southern Africa go through OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. So if you are touring this region you are going to end up here at some point.

Johannesburg has an interesting history and there is tourism potential in the city. It is all destroyed by one thing: Crime!

I went to Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the year and felt completely safe despite the warning. I've been to many other cities where there are warnings about safety before. Johannesburg is the first time I have visited a city and it feels just as unsafe as the warnings say. Where walking the streets, with or without my camera, did not feel like a safe option.

It was the first time ever that I opted for a guided tour rather than exploring on my own, and while I would have preferred to explore freely here too, I feel that it was the smart option. It's sad because Johannesburg could be a great travel destination. There's a lot of potential.