2015 Travel Resolutions - 12 trips in 12 months

Travel blogs are a new discovery for me, and I am excited to perhaps have found a real creative outlet for myself. As usual, and along with the rest of the world, I've been searching to understand the things that truly make me happy. In the past year, I have come so close to narrowing things down, simplifying what I like, and recognising what to focus on. This is not easy in the midst of busy life. We all know the things that come and go; healthy eating, gym-going, learning a new language. But there are other hobbies (I hate that word, though I'm not sure why) that have stood the test of time, even if they haven't always been prioritised, and which keep giving me that inspired, creative, warm feeling that everything is possible!
Travelling, reading, cooking, and a new one, photography. These are the things I want to focus on this year.

I've been really interested in the idea of setting a specific goal to guide my travel plans this year. Namely, I want to take 12 trips in 12 months. So often I talk about going here or there, or how nice it would be to just get in the car and go somewhere. But how often do we do it? 2014 was a great year for being more spontaneous with travel. Financially we gained some freedom after finally buying our first flat, and that allowed us to take more trips. In short:

1. In February we went to Dublin, and Wicklow National Park, for two nights.
2. In April we went to London for the day to see a Johnny Flynn gig.
3. In August, we took two incredible trips. First, to Munich to visit family. We drove to the Bavarian mountains and the lakes (Konigssee).
4. Secondly, we had four incredible nights in Barcelona - such a highlight of the year for us.
5. In December, I returned to Munich to visit the Christmas Markets.
6. At the end of the year, we took a random trip 'up North' to Liverpool!

Some goals for travel this year:

1. January: A weekend break to Cambridge to see a 'First Aid Kit' gig and revisit where I grew up.
2. February: Road trip to Bruges! (So excited about this)
3. April: A final visit to Munich - Nuremberg, Neushwanstein castle.
4. August: 'The biggie' - We are so excited to be planning our first long-haul trip since we went travelling 4 years ago! A Californian road trip taking in San Francisco, Yosemite, Napa Valley, the Big Sur coastline, and a brief stop in LA (go on, then).

Long-haul travel is so exciting, and I'm so keen to do more of it while we are still 'young'! We've gotten to a position now where we are able to start ticking off those places we've been dreaming of. In 2016 I'd love to visit China and Japan, and perhaps the year after South America would be awesome. Everything is work dependent - I envy people who don't have to consider holiday allowance, budgets etc. but with determination I know we can make it work.

Along with our firm plans for the year already, here are some other ideas we have:

1. A weekend trip to Amsterdam - we have a history with this beautiful city since J worked there for an extended time last year. We'd love to return together to be 'tourists'!
2. A trip to Copenhagen - possibly to visit family.
3. Stockholm - basically anywhere Swedish!!
4. Edinburgh
5. An overnighter to Brighton.
6. Walking in the Lake District
7. Visiting friends in Cornwall

I've always had wild and wonderful ideas of cramming loads of trips in here, there and everywhere, and always find myself creating reasons not to go for it; 'We should be sensible with money", "It's crazy to travel too much", "We need to save places for the future".

But I think 2015 is the year we just go for it.

Life is too short.