One year ago today, my husband and I packed up our lives into a carry-on bag and boarded a flight to Europe on a one-way ticket.

As I’m writing this, it may appear that I’m more or less right back where I started – drinking coffee at our house in Tampa, Florida.

But I’ve been across the world and back, and although it may sound the same it feels far from it.

It’s hard to sum up a full year’s worth of adventures, experiences and traveling into a single blog post (one that’s tolerable to read, anyway).

We are beyond grateful for the opportunities this past year has brought us – it’s been the adventure of a lifetime. But in the spirit of transparency and at the risk of oversharing, I’m pulling back the curtain on our first year as full-time travelers.

The Internet – Instagram in particular – can paint a rosy picture of other people’s lives. The highlight reel is all that you see.

My goal is to give you, my friends, a real picture of the up’s and down’s, of life on the road and what it’s like to spend a full year away from home.

Did you ever play that game as a kid where you go around the dinner table, and each person shares the high and low points of their week? Example – High: I won my tennis match. Low: I got a B on my English paper.

Keeping in theme, here’s the story of our first year as full-time travelers… A side that you probably haven’t heard yet.

One Year of Travel: The Highs, Lows & What’s Next

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April 2018

HIGH

We purge our belongings at a rate that would make even Marie Kondo proud. We fill an entire Salvation Army truck with our hand-me-down, fraternity-house-chic furniture.

We move out of our house in Tampa, then immediately hop on a plane to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for the wedding of our good friends.

LOW

I bittersweetly give notice at my medical device job. While it was a conversation I’d played over in my head a million times, when that moment came I felt like I was going to throw up.

After months of debate and planning, the train had left the station and there was no turning back.

Sunset over San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

May 2018

LOW

I wrap up my last day at work, then spend the next three days sleeping until noon, questioning my life choices and laying on the couch watching Outlander.

A group of college girls signs a one-year lease and move into our beloved house. I spend my newfound free time sleuthing for evidence of a dog I hear has moved in with them, violating their lease of our newly renovated house.

HIGH

Our friends throw us a Bon Voyage party. Shit’s getting real. We board a flight to London, then the next thing we know we’ve landed in Croatia.

It’s more beautiful than we could have imagined, and all of the stress that comes with voluntarily uprooting your entire life lifts with the jet lag.

June 2018

HIGH

We spend the month in the coastal city of Šibenik, Croatia. We adjust to life abroad, life without our day jobs and life at a leisurely pace that we’d never before experienced.

We spend our days swimming in the Adriatic, hiking in Krka National Park and doing, well – nothing. Our newfound freedom sinks in.

LOW

We take a weekend trip to the island of Zirje, Croatia to find that all businesses and restaurants are closed for the off-season.

Our Airbnb advertised as “entire place” shares the living space with a chain-smoking German man who wore only a Speedo, visor and a tank top for the duration of our visit.

After watching him clip his toenails at the dinner table next to us, we attempt to leave the island to find the next ferry isn’t for two days. Despite the bad weather that rolls in we stick it out, play cards and eat potato chips and scrambled eggs for dinner.

READ MORE: A Beginner’s Guide to Island Hopping in Croatia

July 2018

HIGH

We visit the Middle East for the first time and tick some major things off the bucket list.

We hike through the Lost City of Petra, float in the Dead Sea, visit King Tut’s tomb in Luxor, and watch the sun rise over the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo.

It was pure magic.

READ MORE: Travel guides for Egypt and Jordan

LOW

I Google “best place for medical tourism in Europe”. The answer – Hungary, and fortunately for all parties involved we were already on our way to Budapest. We make a visit to a private hospital for a minor, but necessary procedure.

I’ll spare you the medical details, but I could have eaten breakfast off of the floor and the lobby had a view of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Medical tourism is a real thing, y’all.

READ MORE: A Beginner’s Guide to Budapest, Hungary

August 2018

HIGH

We fall in love with Amsterdam, and what starts out as a 10-day stint quickly turns into a month.

We immerse ourselves in the city, catch up with friends, and attempt to live like locals. If I were to move to Europe for an extended period, I’d set up shop here.

READ MORE: The 10 Essential Things to Do in Amsterdam

LOW

After three months away, homesickness creeps in as we’re packing up our bags (again) for Spain. We receive news of the tragic passing of a family member, and we miss a few big events for family and friends.

The unanticipated side-effects of long-term travel sink in, and despite the amazing experiences and adventures, we can’t deny that we are really, really far away from home.

September 2018

LOW

A high-school football knee injury rears its ugly head on day two of the Camino de Santiago, a 500 mile pilgrimage route across Spain. Travis grits through the remaining 486 miles wearing two knee braces.

I pop a blister the size of a golf ball and calculate how many pedicures lie ahead of me until I can wear sandals in public again.

HIGH

We complete the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in a questionably aggressive 31 days. We push ourselves physically and emotionally to limits we weren’t quite aware that we had.

We walk away (no pun intended) with friends from all over the world, and we vow to hike the Camino again before we turn 40.

READ MORE: 10 Myths about the Camino de Santiago, Debunked

October 2018

LOW

Fearing deportation, a scarlet letter on our passport or at minimum a stern scolding by a customs agent, we flee the Schengen Zone of Europe on the final day of our tourist visa.

Much to our surprise, neither upon exit in Portugal or arrival in the UK did anyone so much as blink an eye… Nor as I had hoped, give us a gold star for following the rules.

All the counting days on our calendars, scouring the Web for punishments for overstaying and researching conditions in Portuguese women’s prisons was for not.

We were in the clear (phew!) but we did feel a little silly.

HIGH

We relish our final month abroad in Lisbon and London. We reunite with old family friends and visit their home in Liverpool before flying home on Halloween, wondering what the hell just happened.

November 2018

HIGH

November brings five months worth of visits with friends, three weddings and a baby shower.

But the true icing on the cake was meeting my new nephew, Jackson, for the first time. Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, I think my heart grew three sizes that day.

LOW

While we moved out of our house in Tampa eight months prior, for the first time we felt homeless. We were home but we weren’t, and we spend the month hopping around Airbnb’s and our (very gracious and hospitable) friends’ guest rooms.

We acknowledge that this isn’t sustainable long-term, so we make plans to set up a home base again after our next stint away.

New to Airbnb? Here’s $40 off your first listing!

December 2018

HIGH

Because at this point it’s normal to pack up everything you own and move to a place you’ve never been, we road trip West to Vail, Colorado. We exchange Epic Passes in lieu of gifts, and we ski on Christmas Day.

LOW

It hits us that for the first time in our lives, we are both away from our families for the holidays… Then immediately invite them out for next year.

Winter 2019

HIGH

We fall in love with winter, mountain life and the complete change of scenery from our home in Florida.

After a 15-year hiatus from skiing, I graduate from the bunny hill to my first black diamond runs by the end of the season.

LOW

After skiing said black diamond run, I slip on an ice patch and tumble down the mountain… With one ski still on.

I spend the next three weeks sitting by the fire nursing my leg injury with a bag of frozen cauliflower rice.

Silver lining- I wrote a few blog posts during my forced hibernation – check them out here.

April 2019

HIGH

After living out of a suitcase for a year, we reestablish a home base back at our place in Tampa… This time not in the house, but in one of the apartments in the backyard!

What was previously a rental unit starts to feel like home again.

LOW

We furnish the apartment from scratch. Our bed gets lost in transit, and we sleep on an air mattress for three weeks.

May 2019

HIGH

We celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary in Longboat Key, Florida, returning to the same spot where we got engaged. With our apartment now furnished, we host our first Airbnb guests and plan to rent it out while we’re away on future travels.

LOW

Not anticipating the last minute Airbnb booking, we clean up after the guests ourselves for the first and last time. Lesson learned – just pay for a cleaning service.

Celebrating five years of marriage in Longboat Key, Florida

So what’s next?

Here we are, one year since we first left, and the million dollar question stands: Are we still traveling?

The short answer: Yes, and we always will be.

They say that some people are genetically predisposed with wanderlust, tracing back to the days when people lived nomadically. Travel is in our blood, and we plan to travel as much as we can for as long as we can throughout our lifetime.

Our goal remains the same as when we set out one year ago – to travel slowly and truly experience a destination, versus breezing through places just to check it off of our list.

In the short term, we will be in the States for the summer as we visit family and friends, catch our breath and regroup for a bit. We plan to maintain a home base going forward, having our cake and eating it too as we rent it out while we’re traveling.

A sunny Wednesday afternoon in St. Pete Beach, Florida

We’re also still pursuing various side hustles to perpetuate our remote lifestyle. I’m keeping my hand in the professional world, and I’m back working part time for my previous employer when we are home.

I’m keeping my focus on my new favorite activity – blogging! While Year One of blogging consisted mainly of throwing things at the wall to see what stuck, I’m thinking bigger picture now.

I’m focusing on the long-term growth of my site, building a brand and attempting to turn this little passion project into an actual business. Speaking of, I’m off to Italy next week for a blogging workshop!

Long story short, there’s no handbook for this. After a full year on the road, what we have learned is long-term travel truly is a marathon, not a sprint.

It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn… Perhaps wisdom, at least for me, means realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.”

– Anthony Bourdain

I think it’s true that the more places you go, the more you add to your list… Places you’re now dying to visit that were never on your radar before (Mozambique, I’m looking at you).

Catching sunset in Anna Maria Island, Florida

Who knows what the future holds, but for now the Longest Weekend continues.

We’ll never stop learning, exploring, or saying yes to adventures. Like in travel, life is full of ups and downs, but it’s the average of the two that makes it all worthwhile.

So stick around, there’s still a lot more to come and stay tuned for our next big adventure this fall… This time we’re headed South!

Cheers,

Meredith

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The magical Old Town of Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

It’s the end of an era. The closing of a chapter, the turning of a page.

Making friends with the locals at the pyramids at Giza, Egypt

1. Less actually is more.

Travis and I left Florida with just one carry-on bag and backpack each, and that’s all we came home with.

From a logistics standpoint, we honestly wished we even had less than we did. A bigger bag means more stress packing up each time you move, a tougher walk from the metro station to your Airbnb and more things to potentially lose along the way.

We abided by the “one in, one out” rule with our suitcases. If we bought something new, then we ditched or donated an item that we were no longer using. For more on how to pack for a long trip in a carry-on, click here.

With the exception of probably your honeymoon, you will never regret packing light for a trip. And anything you forgot, you can probably buy wherever you are anyways.

    
The day we left Florida on a one-way ticket to Europe, awaiting the train to Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina

2. Cab drivers know all the best spots.

Searching for that hidden, locals-only beach in Croatia? The best dim sum in London? The best poffertjes in Amsterdam?

Forget Rick Steve’s, TripAdvisor or Yelp. Ask your cab or Uber driver and they will always point you in the right direction. While these sources can be helpful, most of the spots you’ll find on these sites cater to tourists and thus repel locals.

Our favorite question to ask is, “What’s the one place I can’t leave here without trying?” The answers never disappoint.

I’ll loop bartenders into this category as well.

    Heading off the beaten path in Croatia

3. Don’t point fingers.

The restaurant that you trekked all the way across Paris for is closed. You find yourself on an express train heading out of Amsterdam, but one hour in the wrong direction. The hike in Petra that was described to you as “up just a few steps” actually entails scaling boulders, vertical ascents and putting your life in the hands of a 16 year old guide named Ahmed.

I’m going to take a guess and say that 95 percent of arguments that two travel companions find themselves in results from a scenario like this.

The beauty of travel is to experience the unknown, but with that even the most well-organized and seasoned traveler is bound to encounter some mishaps.

If (ahem, when) things do go wrong, do not point fingers at your travel buddy. What’s the fun in going on an adventure if everyone knows where they’re going anyways?

The nail-biting view of the Treasury from above in Petra, Jordan

4. We’re tougher than we thought.

There were many times along our journey where we surprised even ourselves with our strength and resilience.

Like when Travis walked the entire Camino de Santiago, all 500 miles of it, with a painful knee injury. Or when I yelled expletives at the two women in Belgrade posing as police offers who followed us, demanding we take them to the ATM to pay a fine for a “transit ticket”.

An inner perseverance and scrappiness kicked in that we weren’t aware we had, and that carried us through some stressful and uncomfortable situations.

Upon our return we’ve often been asked if we ever felt unsafe, and through all of this I can honestly say we never did.

Call us self-aware, jaded by the road or just plain lucky, but we have yet to encounter a situation we couldn’t take on… Or at least bail ourselves out of.

     
In Spain with 100 miles to go on the Camino de Santiago, cheers to evading a scam in Belgrade, Serbia

5. Everyone speaks English.

Wait, what?

While of course you should make every effort to speak the language of the country that you’re visiting, more often than not people speak some level of English.

And this goes both ways. Most people can understand a language prior to speaking it fluently. Even if they aren’t saying much, assume everyone can understand what you’re saying.

There’s nothing worse than overhearing a tourist who assumes someone can’t understand them, talking about said person or the country they are visiting in a negative light.

And on that note… Regardless of how strong your language skills are, it never hurts to point to the menu when ordering. After a few times of getting served a completely different entree than I ordered, always point.

A sunny August day in Amsterdam

6. Don’t chase the unicorn.

In the age of Pinterest, blogs and Instagram, it’s easy to be inundated with recommendations for the best or most photogenic restaurants, coffee shops, and lookout points. The FOMO is real, and I’m the first to admit that I’m guilty of constantly searching for the “best” spots.

But over the past five months, I’ve come to terms with the fact that we can’t see everything and we can’t go everywhere.

While I’m all about doing my research ahead of time, there’s something to be said for just winging it and discovering places on your own.

Know a good thing when you see one. It’s okay to eat at that delicious and surprisingly cheap Thai place a few times, even if you are in Portugal.

7. Souvenirs aren’t mandatory.

While the idea of buying a memento at each destination was great in theory, the practicality of it for our travels was non-existent.

Plus photos are free, last forever and don’t clutter your suitcase or your house later on.

    Sunrise in Šibenik, Croatia, the cathedral in Burgos, Spain

8. A little homesickness is normal.

Anyone who claims that they never get homesick is probably lying.

To say that we had fun during our five month stint abroad is an understatement. But we’d be lying if we said there weren’t moments when we didn’t missed the ease of being home in the grand ole’ U.S. of A.

Of course there were times when we craved the creature comforts of living in America – clothing dryers, grocery stores that have everything, Chick-fil-A…

But more than that we missed the daily connections with our family and friends that are just not quite the same when you’re thousands of miles away, battling a big time change.

Fortunately this feeling didn’t last long, and the homesickness usually hit Travis and I at different times, allowing the other person to carry the team and to bring perspective to the situation.

But we were three months in to our journey and had just embarked on the exciting adventure of the Camino de Santiago when the homesickness hit us both simultaneously. For Travis, it was missing his brother’s first football game of his final high school season. For me – it was my best friend’s bridal shower, and it killed me to miss it.

Leaving home and traveling far away from what you know is amazing, but this part was a side effect that caught us off guard.

9. Always, always wear sneakers.

Enough said. One of the best things about Europe is how walkable the cities are.

But even the most comfortable sandals are such until about seven miles in to a long day of walking around London. Anything more than that and you’ll be missing your Nike’s.

    
Walking the halls of Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest, Hungary and Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt

10. Good people are everywhere.

Bad people are everywhere, but more importantly good people are too. Stereotypes aside, universally we found that most people are just trying to make a living and provide for their families.

Whether that looks like the man in Egypt peddling alabaster a little too aggressively, or the guy who charged us twice the price for sodas because we were tourists, universally people are often just making the best of the cards they are dealt.

As a traveler, you are a guest in that country. It’s normal to feel uncomfortable – that place isn’t intended to make you feel comfortable. That’s why home feels so good.

The boogeyman isn’t real. Ask questions, listen, extend kindness and more often than not, you will experience it in return.

     Our guide Sheva in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina, a new friend in Petra, Jordan

11. Home is a state of mind.

    
Sunset in Budapest, Hungary, exploring the many temples of Luxor, Egypt

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