I hope you all had a great Christmas! I have been with my parents for almost a week, and I really wanted to blog before – but then I managed to knock myself out with a strong allergic reaction. Again. I know. It obviously only happened because I had forgotten my antiallergics at home. But let’s talk about more positive things. Like my travels this year. Although I always feel like I don’t see enough of the world, statistics paint a different picture.

In 2017

• I have traveled to or in five different countries: the U.S., the Dominican Republic, Canada, Germany, and Turkey.
• I have stayed in five different cities: Atlanta [here], New York City, Toronto, Montreal, and Istanbul. Of these I was both in NYC and in Montreal [here] twice.
• I have traveled for 64 days and 54 nights, I stayed at home for 301 days. That means I traveled for about two months in total – or 1/6 of the whole year.
• my trips have happened in the months of March, April, May, July, October, November, and December.
• I attended a college graduation of one of my former students from Istanbul. They grow up so fast *sigh*.
• I went on one road trip from Boston to the Finger Lake Region in Upstate New York to the Niagara Falls to Toronto and back.
• I found the village of Mecklenburg in the middle of nowhere in Upstate NY – I am from the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, and in my opinion that is also rather in the middle of nowhere (at least the village I am from).
• I also went on day trips to Manchester-by-the-Sea [here], Plymouth, Gloucester, Rockport [here], and to different beaches.

I especially liked two things that had been on my bucket list: I finally visited the Niagara Falls in July and visited both the U.S. and the Canadian side. I loved loved loved the falls. I even skyped with my parents from there to show the falls to them via camera. And in October I took the train from NYC to Montreal. The Adirondack train travels through the Hudson Valley and the Adirondack Mountains. I enjoyed the 12 hour long ride very much.

I never expected to fall in love with Canada, but that is what happened this year. Driving from the Niagara Falls to Toronto during the Friday afternoon rush hour was quite an adventure. Everything else in Canada is rather relaxed and simply beautiful. I liked Toronto a lot, but I loved Montreal even more. That city is the perfect mix of Europe and America. And I certainly will go there many more times.

In 2018 I will probably go to

• Montreal for winter vacation,
• Washington D.C. in February for a school trip,
• the West Coast for spring break,
• Washington D.C. in April for a workshop,
• Germany for my parents’ birthday party in July,
• somewhere in Canada to renew my U.S. visa in July,
• Hamburg and Berlin in September for a school trip,
• NYC once – just because.

And I could also go somewhere during fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas break. I would love to go on more day or weekend trips, esp. now that I have a car. But when work is busy, I often forget about traveling. Ideally I would like to leave Boston once a month or at least every six weeks. I’d also like to visit a country I haven’t been to before, but that might prove difficult looking at my plans so far.

My last trip of 2017 will bring me to Istanbul on Friday evening. I can’t wait to see my favorite city in the world again.

What are your travel highlights of the year? What are your travel plans for 2018?

© janavar

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