I love travelling, or rather I love going to new places as that's the best way to see and learn more about this world. Last year was quite a busy year for me, settling back in UK permanently. I didn't get around as much as I would have liked but still managed a few nice . Here's a look back at where I ended up around the world.
Jan to March - Taiwan
Definitely the highlight travel of my year. Taiwan was my home for 5 years till my stay was abruptly cut short in 2020 due to Covid (remember that period when the world practically stoodstill). It was 3 years since I was able to return to Taiwan and I arranged my trip back pretty much as soon as they opened up the borders at the end of 2022. It was so good to see Taiwan again through the windows on the plane.
I spent 7 weeks in Taiwan, wrapping up my previous life and shipping all my belongings back home. I meet up with friends that I hadn't seen for 3 years, visited places that I always meant to go when I was living in Taiwan, and ate loads and loads of yummy food that you can only get in Taiwan.
I went to the very north of the island
To the most easterly point
To the top of the island at the famous Alishan to see the sunrise, a trip which I have yet to post.
And of course back to Taichung, my home city for 5 years. I missed it so much. The infamous delayed MRT system had even opened during my absence.
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There were still places I didn't managed to go, friends that I couldn't arrange to meet during my 7 weeks stay. Plenty of reasons for a return visit again.
April - Spain and France
My next holiday was in April, a month after I returned from Taiwan. To be honest it was a little soon for another holiday, but I knew I'd be busy the next six months and wouldn't be able to go away. Plus it was a very good cruise deal that I couldn't resist even though cruises aren't my cup of tea. I went to La Coruna, Valencia, Cadiz and Barcelona in Spain, and Marseille in France. Valencia is the only place I haven't posted about yet.
October - Poland, Estonia and Latvia
My next overseas travel was six months later when The Wizard arranged the HiveBeeCon meet up in Poland. I had already planned a trip to some other European countries around this time, but luckily I could re work my itinerary to make it to HiveBeeCon in Krakow. I'm so glad I did as it was an epic event, meeting some old friends, and meeting face to face many new ones.
During this trip, I went to Krakow (of course) and Warsaw in Poland. Then I went to Tallinn in Estonia, and Riga in Latvia. There is still so much from this trip that I haven't posted about yet.
| Tallinn | Riga |
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December - Germany
My last trip of the year was just before Christmas to Germany to visit the Christmas markets. It was a little treat to indulge myself, but it turned out much better than expected as it became a free trip in the end. I'll tell you more about that in another post.
I went to Cologne and Dusseldorf on this trip and did a few touristy things, again which I haven't got round to post yet.
The biggest surprise I got from this trip was that Dusseldorf has an area called Little Tokyo. It has lots of authentic Japanese restaurants including this one where we treated ourselves to a very expensive wagyu beef meal. The 14 pieces of wagyu beef was nearly Euro 100 😅(yes I said it was very expensive) but it cost me half price in the end. That's part of my free trip story... to be posted soon.
So this wraps up my 2023 travels. This year I have a couple of travels planned already. One will be a sibling holiday, 10 of us going to America. We've always wanted to visit some of the National Parks, so this will be an epic trip. Then I will be going to a friend's wedding in Sweden in the summer. Other than that, I don't have anything else planned yet. Hopefully if there's another bull run, I can justify a few more trips, not that I will be withdrawing funds to pay for my trip as I like to grow my stake on Hive. But knowing my Hive stake grows, makes me feel better to spend my fiat. Do you have any travel plans this year? If you do, don't forget to pin it on Pinmapple and share it with everyone else on Hive. You might even get curated by the Pinmapple team and our trail 😀.
A request to the community
By the way, if you love what Pimapple are doing, and how we are supporting the travel community on Hive, the team would really appreciate it if you can vote for our DHF proposal here. The requested funds from the proposal are to run the Pinmapple project, mainly infrastructure cost which is around USD60 per day. The proposal is currently funded but that could change and we need around 10m worth of stake to fill the difference. That's a big gap to fill so any support would be helpful. Thanks on behalf of the Pinmapple team.
