BACKPACKING ADVENTURES
2023 — Destinations To Get Lost This Year
How I will lose my flights (and my shit) while backpacking solo across Europe, Egypt, Asia, and hell knows where.
This year is the year. I am planning my travels. Or at least, I am trying to. For my mental sanity, my backpack, and so people kinda know where I am. On my list, I’ve also added: don’t lose the passport.
Although I have always appreciated the magic of not planning anything and deciding from one day to the next where I’ll end up, this year I’ve realized that it might be worth trying to follow the advice — heard and ignored — of a friend: to go with the flow, plan the long term and enjoy the short.
The situation got slightly out of control, and I found myself planning destinations for the entire whole year with a rainbow calendar. The satisfaction and relief of having an itinerary for this 2023 and being able to tell my friends where I’m going to be when they won’t be able to call me because the phone has no network or data.
Here, 12 months and 12 destinations where I will lose my flights (and my shit) this year.
#1 Mom’s
Inevitably, partly for mom and partly for her lasagna, I plan to spend some time in Italy with her, my brother, my friends, and my person.
#2 London
My space is in London. For the art, for the music, to recharge, but mainly to laugh with my tribe. The time in London — and in the darkroom — is never enough.
#3 Spain
My partner is in Spain. My surfboard and blender are in his flat, and most of my travels converge on his couch. Our weekends do it on the Costa de la Luz between Tarifa and El Palmar. After reading Adrienne Beaumont travel alphabet, I got a new pin on my map for La Gruta de las Maravillas.
#4 Portugal
Portugal is my magical place. I lived in the Algarve during the quarantine and one of my best friends lives in Lisbon. It’s there that I fell in love with the ocean. Once waves get you, they never leave. Literally. Especially when you try to surf. This year I want to spend a weekend in Nazaré to see the big ones.
#5 Lofoten
I have no idea how it’s possible to plan on-budget a month in Norway, but that’s what I’ll try to figure out after I finish this list. I dream of traveling the roads between fjords and the Arctic Ocean saying —what the fuck am I doing? — in Norwegian, and finding out what it feels like to be under the Aurora. Maybe I will be lucky as Vincent Gragnani in his journey from Tromsø to the Northern Lights.
#6 Egypt
A rooftop overlooking Giza. A felucca sailing down the Nile. A sunbath. The plan was to try to work for a few weeks from Egypt. The plan changed when I found out that the connection is crap. Not this, nor claustrophobia, will stop me from exploring pyramids and reef. I will just have to make it with a week off.
#7 Jordan
From Egypt, how to resist not going to Jordan? An adventurer friend taught me how to sneak inside the bus to cross the border with Israel, as well as how to sleep in Petra. Eventually, I added another destination to my rainbow calendar. I’m soaking in the Dead Sea in my sleep.
#8 Fuerteventura
Out of all of them, this is probably the riskiest trip for missing flights this year. My mom is retiring this summer. To celebrate, we booked a beach house in front of the ocean to escape for 2 months. If we manage to get there first.
#9 Birthday time🎂
September is the only month on my rainbow calendar empty. To celebrate my birthday, I thought — in an old-fashion way — to keep a bit of that magic of not planning anything and deciding from one day to the next where I will be. I have an idea, but I’m pretty sure my travel karma may have a different one.
#10 Istanbul
The truth is that I can’t stop thinking about having traditional Hammans for an entire weekend. Like, every-single-day of the weekend. I loved Robin J Kish, Writer and Travel Blogger article about Istanbul, the only drama is that I now want to go also to Cappadocia.
#11 Vietnam
There is a travel curse between Vietnam and I. With canceled flights, lost passports — and destroyed passports — I keep trying to go but I keep failing. Maybe, this year will be the good one to cross from north to south by bike.
#12 Bali
From Vietnam, it’s impossible to resist not taking a short flight to work from a jungle bungalow in Ubud.
At the end of this year of travel, I will write a passionate retrospective documenting expectations vs reality. Because having a plan is reassuring, but sending it to hell is much more fun. Especially more realistic.
— I wrote this list after reading Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturist article and inspiring nakations. If anyone already traveled to my 2023 destinations, your stories might save my butt, tell me everything 🎒