Recap of the Year: 2024

I visited more countries and cities than last year, but far fewer new countries. It was a year when I traveled to new destinations within countries I had already visited. Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States were all countries I had been to before but now saw new parts of (except the United Kingdom where I went back to London again).

Last year I visited South America for the first time with my visit to Brazil. This year I explored much more of the continent and visited four countries on a longer month-long trip. It was a great ending to an eventful travel year.

The One That Got Cancelled - Twice

The main trip of the year was supposed to be a trip to the United States with New Orleans as the headline. It would also include Atlanta, Nashville, and Savannah. I was really looking forward to this road trip. Unfortunately, it was canceled twice due to the sickness of my travel partner, and after the second time the trip was abandoned for the foreseeable future.

I've been to New Orleans before, ten years ago, but the other destinations would have been new for me. We'll see when I can go there instead.

Instead of going to the United States and New Orleans for vacation I got the opportunity to go to Barcelona for work. I spent two weeks near the airport but had plenty of time to explore the city too.

There's nothing wrong with Barcelona, it is a great city, but if I had to choose between the two main cities in Spain, I would prefer Madrid over Barcelona. Barcelona is too crowded, every single sight had to be pre-booked and could not be visited as a walk-in.

The second time my New Orleans trip got canceled, I went for a weekend to Italy instead during part of the time I was supposed to be in the US. Florence is a city I always felt that I had to visit in Europe but never found the right time to do so. Now it felt like a good time as I could find good flight tickets on short notice.

Florence was incredible crowded even though it was not tourist season yet. I don't even want to know how crowded it is during the summer and early autumn. It's understandable why this city is so popular though. It's beautiful! And full of history!

A day trip to Bologna from Florence might be a stretch, but thanks to the excellent railroad system in Italy it takes less than an hour (but is a little bit pricey). I felt done with Florence after the first day, so I decided to pay the fee and go to Bologna to see another city I've been interested in for a long time.

The main attractions of Bologna, the Two Towers, have been closed since late 2023 but Bologna was still an interesting city and I don't regret doing the day trip.

I flew into Pisa Airport so on my last day in Italy I spent some time exploring the city of Pisa, which is only a ten-minute monorail ride from the airport. Apart from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, there's not so much to do there so a day trip is the perfect length of a visit.

The combination of Florence and Pisa is great and you can easily fit these two bucket list types of Italian destinations into the same itinerary. Make sure not to spend too much time in Pisa, and to have your accommodation in Florence.

In late June I went on a short weekend trip to London with a friend. It's a city I've been to several times, but some places are those you return to regularly. Even though I prefer to visit new places, there are some places I do return to and it's an important part of traveling to re-visit too. With that said, London is actually not a favorite destination of mine, but it is a good place to go to when exploring is not the main objective.

I had been to Helsinki once before. The previous time, in 2018, was in the middle of winter. It was cold, dark and gray. This time it was in the middle of the summer and the weather could not have been better.

Last time I didn't like the city. Winter is really not my favorite part of the year, which can be seen by looking at when I do my travels. I rarely travel within Europe during the winter, and I almost always go somewhere warm every year during the coldest part of the European winter.

I did like Helsinki much more when it was warm and sunny. It's not a must-see major destination in Europe, but it does have some sights to fill a day or two, and it is less than an hour's flight time from Stockholm

This trip also included a stay in Billund from 05 August until 09 August. Didn't do any sightseeing or take any photos during those days. I had a half-day to spend somewhere in Denmark or Southern Sweden before going to Billund and since I recently visited both Malmö and Copenhagen I wanted to see something else in Denmark and decided to spend the half-day in Odense.

Odense was much more interesting than I thought. It's a very pretty small town with a decent amount of sights, especially for its size. The most useless UNESCO World Heritage Sight I have ever visited is however found in Odense. Nonnebakken is supposed to be the site of a former Viking ring castle. Today it is just the parking lot of a modern building and there's not a single trace left of the historic site. There's just a sign saying that sometime in history, something was here.

It's the third year in a row that I have visited at least one city in Germany. I've been to most of the major cities in Northern Germany now.

The best in the region is still Lübeck but Kiel was not a bad city to explore. It does not have any Old Town left, it's one of those modern cities where architecture is bland. However, the city center is like one giant shopping mall and there's life on the streets.

At last, finally, I made my way to the United States. Six months delayed, and definitely not without complications this time too as I was hit with erysipelas two weeks before departure, something that didn't heal as it should have either. So it wasn't until two days before that I could be cleared to fly for this.

Seattle was a very interesting city, one of the better tourist cities in the United States actually. A walkable center, and lots of shopping in the suburbs. It's a city I definitely could return to one day!

My visit to Seattle also included a day trip to Olympia, the State Capital of Washington. I took a tour of the Capitol Building, which was very interesting and highly recommended for a history lesson on the Pacific Northwest.

Vancouver is just three hours North of Seattle, so of course I had to visit Canada for the first time on this trip. This specific road trip was one that I've been interested in for a long time, but I didn't think it would happen this year. I thought it was one for a few years down the road.

Vancouver is gorgeous to look at from a distance. The skyline is one of the most impressive in the world. But at street level, I felt the city was a little bit soulless.

I was expecting more from Portland. Out of cities I have been to in the US, Portland ranks rather low. Downtown is completely taken over by homeless and drug addicts.

I suspect the city is more appreciated by people who enjoy nature and use it as a base for hiking throughout the region.

From Portland I also went on a day trip to Salem. It is a pleasant small town and well worth the trip. The main reason for going there was to eat at In-N-Out though...

Last trip for the year started in Lima. My second time in South America, and the first time doing a multi-country trip there as my first visit was solely to Brazil last year.

I was in Lima during APEC 2024, but I was not there to attend and if I had known about it beforehand I would probably have rescheduled. I realized two days before departure that it would be this event at the same time as my visit, and also that it was likely to be protests and strikes.

Thankfully, it was never as bad as it was predicted. Centro was partly closed down, so I missed some sights there, but in Miraflores and the rest of the city it was not noticeable and I enjoyed Lima very much.

The Next stop on the trip was Cusco, which of course also included a visit to Machu Picchu. I also went to Rainbow Mountain (Vinicunca), which is the highest altitude I have ever experienced at 5036 m (16 522 ft).

Cusco as a city is very beautiful and has a completely different vibe than Lima. I was a little bit longer there than I normally am in one place, as it is recommended due to the high altitude. Thankfully, I never experienced any issues with the altitude.

I'm normally not into natural wonders and nature tourism, but Machu Picchu is of course a once-in-a-lifetime type of destination and a highlight of the trip and the whole year!

Continuing high up in the Andean mountains, I went from Cusco to La Paz, Bolivia. I liked this city a lot. It is very chaotic and rather unpolished. But it has a lot of soul!

La Paz is the highest major city in the world, and the topography is unique as it's built pretty much on the slopes of a mountain. Street photography in La Paz was excellent, there was so much to photograph, and a lot of street life everywhere.

Sucre, the official Capital of Bolivia, was just a short stop and actually something that was added last minute to the trip.

The whole center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is one of the best preserved Spanish Colonial Cities. Sucre was definitely worth the stop. It was also a fresh feeling to be down from the mountains, even though Sucre is also rather high, as the weather was much more pleasant here than in Cusco and La Paz.

I didn't see the Dinosaur tracks though, which was a little bit sad. The city center has a lot to offer though so there was no time to go to the outskirts.

Santa Cruz is a city with two faces. The centro felt rather rundown, sketchy, and not as interesting as the rest of the historic centers I visited on this trip. However, the modern part outside of the historic center was nice and in total, I liked Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz is the economic center of Bolivia and in the modern center, it was noticeably much more affluent than anything else I saw in Bolivia.

Paraguay is not a major tourist destination, and unfortunately, I can understand why. I think the city of Asunción still feels the effects of the Pandemic because the city felt like a ghost town. Unfortunately. A lot of permanently closed storefronts and few restaurant options in the center.

This was of course exaggerated by it being a weekend for most of my visit, but it was almost as empty on Monday when the work week started again.

I knew that I would like Santiago, and I really loved it!

The last part of the trip was the part I looked forward to the most, I was really looking forward to visiting Chile. I always thought I would visit Chile as part of a trip with Argentina and Uruguay, but due to some circumstances in the planning phase of this trip it ended up being a great opportunity to visit now.

Santiago felt very modern and safe. It felt like a mix of New York City and Los Angeles. If it wasn't so far away I would definitely visit again. That 13-hour flight just to get back to Europe (and then an additional 2-4 hours to get back to Sweden) is the only thing that will hold me back.

Lastly, I took a day trip to Valparaíso. It's only 2 hours from Santiago by bus and it costs less than 5 USD.

The first and last destinations of this trip were the only ones where I could see the ocean. Unfortunately, Valparaíso hides its coastline behind a railyard. It did not feel like a coastal city, which was a little bit sad.

A great South American trip with four countries, eight cities, and two natural wonders.