Travel Superlatives for Our Year Abroad

If you’re new around here, let me catch you up! My partner, Colin, our dog, Ellie, and I spent almost a year (June 2019 – March 2020, to be exact) living abroad in Prague.

One of our big goals was to travel and see as much of Europe as we could. And even though we had to leave Prague early, I think we definitely accomplished that goal!

Trips by the month

(get ready for all the hyperlinks!)

• June 2019: We flew into Paris and travelled through Munich on the way to Prague. June also saw us taking a day trip to Kutna Hora and spending a weekend in Dresden.
  
• July 2019: July wasn’t a huge travel month for us. But we did spend my birthday in Vienna!
  
• August 2019: In August, I headed out on a solo trip to Stockholm, Sweden.
  
• September 2019: September was all about our 3 week Europe trip with our moms through Copenhagen, Southern Sweden, back to Prague, Salzburg, Venice, Tuscany, Cinque Terre and Pisa!
  
• October 2019: We started off October visiting Nuremberg and doing a day trip to Oktoberfest in Munich. At the end of the month, we visited Bratislava and Budapest (our B&B trip where we stayed in Airbnbs!).
  
• November 2019: We went on a winter getaway to Cesky Krumlov and later spent a week in Rome and Naples.
  
• December 2019: In December we went on our Christmas Market road trip through Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and Nuremberg. We ended the year at a World Juniors hockey game cheering on Team Canada in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
  
• January 2020: In January we worked on a fun secret project in Prague and then met my siblings in London.
  
• February 2020: February was all about the sibs trip through Barcelona, Madrid and Seville. We then took a ferry over to Morocco to travel through Chefchaouen, Fes, Marrakesh and the Agafay Desert.
  
• March 2020: In March we set out on a road trip through Salzburg, Lake Bohinj, Lake Bled and Ljubjljana in Slovenia, and Zagreb in Croatia. We then high-tailed it back to Prague! Our final trip was a quick stop in Paris on the way home to Vancouver.

Travel Superlatives

After all of those trips, Colin and I sat down to award our travel superlatives. Find out the winners below!

Best food

Colin: Pizza in Naples. We sampled a few different pizza places and they were all amazing!

Riana: Pastries in Madrid. I fell in love with the Chocolate Napolitanas from La Mallorquina.

Worst food

Colin: Sushi in Munich. We made the mistake of going for sushi on one of first nights in Europe and it was awful.

Riana: Our first dinner in Copenhagen. It was expensive and involved some very dried out fried pork.

Place most often visited

Both: Salzburg. We ended up visiting Salzburg three times in our year living abroad. It was one of our favourite places!

Place I can’t wait to go back to

Colin: Prague. We still have a few things on our Prague bucket list to scratch off and it will be interesting to see how the neighbourhoods have changed by the time we get back.

Riana: Seville. I fell in love with Seville and am plotting a way for us to live there for a couple of months.

Place I never want to go back to

Colin: Venice. It was crowded and didn’t live up to the hype.

Riana: Vienna. We visited twice in our year abroad and both times I was disappointed.

Place I most want to live (besides Prague)

Colin: Seville. (Riana: I convinced him!)

Riana: Ljubljana, Slovenia. I kept saying that Ljubljana felt like my heart city during our time there.

It’s the perfect mix of Austria and Italy, it’s lively but still small and walkable, there’s an awesome market and outdoor living atmosphere, and it’s centred around writing.

Most scenic place we visited

Colin: Driving through the Austrian countryside was always so beautiful. I’m really glad we went on two road trips through Austria.

Riana: For me, it’s a tie: Tuscany or Chefchaouen. Both were so beautiful!

Most dog-friendly place in Europe

Colin: Prague. There were lots of parks, free poop bags and Ellie was welcome in most restaurants. Servers would even bring her water!

Riana: Nuremberg. I felt Ellie was super welcome in Germany and especially in Nuremberg.

I remember when we went to get ice cream to go, one of the workers filled an ice cream cup with water and came out to play with Ellie while we were waiting in line.

Best value destination

Colin: Morocco. It was very affordable! At one point, we were both eating dinner for less than $5 each!

Riana: Budapest. It’s a lot cheaper than most mainstream European capitals and there’s still so much to see and do.

Place I didn’t think I would love but I did

Colin: Slovenia. Riana had talked about it a lot but I didn’t know much about it. I was really surprised by how much I liked it.

Riana: Madrid. I didn’t love Madrid when I first visited in 2012 but really loved our visit there this February.

Place I thought I would love but didn’t

Colin: Venice. Everyone talks about Venice but it was underwhelming.

Riana: Copenhagen. I really thought I would love Copenhagen but our one day there wasn’t as magical as I had hoped. Would be happy to try again!

Worst accommodation

Colin: The airport hotel in Prague we stayed at on our way home to Vancouver. It was one of three hotels open in Prague at the time, the airplanes outside were so loud, the room was hot and we had to order overpriced room service because everything else was closed.

Riana: Our Venice hotel. The wifi didn’t work, the space was very cramped for four people and it was super loud first thing in the morning.

Best accommodation

Colin: Our villa in Tuscany. The house itself was awesome and the view was incredible!

Riana: Glamping in the Agafay Desert. I’ve never glamped before and it was a really cool experience.

Most memorable trip

Colin: Our escape from Croatia was memorable, but probably not for the right reasons. I didn’t think I’d be able to drive the eight hours back to Prague straight!

A trip that’s memorable in a good way would be our trip with our moms in September.

Riana: The most memorable trip for me would be the Spain trip with my siblings.

I’ve never travelled with them before and it was their first trip to Europe, so lots of great memories made!

Biggest travel fail

Colin: Our May family trips that had to be cancelled would definitely be a big fail.

We had planned to host my mom in Prague and meet up with my cousins in London. Lots of disappointment and money lost.

Riana: Vienna felt like a travel fail both times we visited. The crowds at the Christmas markets were awful.

Another big travel fail would have to be not being able to leave Prague on the original flight we booked!

Biggest travel win

Colin: Cesky Krumlov. We visited in the winter when there were no crowds. We signed up for a free walking tour and ended up being the only people there, making it a private tour!

Riana: Dresden was our first overnight trip from Prague and it was awesome. We got upgraded to a really nice hotel room with a view and a little bed for Ellie!

Biggest culture shock

Both: Morocco. Morocco was totally different from anywhere else we travelled to in Europe.

It was both of our first time travelling to a Muslim-majority country, so that was really cool and interesting. Hearing the call to prayer throughout the day always reminded us we were somewhere new.

Best travel experience

Colin: Wandering through Pompeii and Herculaneum was really cool. I also loved the World Juniors hockey game we went to in Ostrava.

Riana: I was really blown away by both the Cathedral and Alcazar in Seville. They were so much more impressive than other churches and palaces we had been to before that.

Worst part of expat life in Prague

Colin: Being separated from friends and family at home was really tough – especially with a nine hour time difference.

Riana: Not enough Asian food. To be fair, there was great Vietnamese food and we found some good Korean food too. But I missed my sushi and Chinese food!

Best part of expat life in Prague

Colin: The freedom to travel whenever we wanted and so easily all over Europe.

Riana: I loved all of the old buildings and beautiful parks in Prague. It really made daily life feel so much more special.

Best local trip or experience

Colin: Kutna Hora. The Sedlec Ossuary (bone church) was really cool and one of the first little trips we went on.

Riana: I loved our winter weekend in Cesky Krumlov. In Prague, Vysehrad is definitely one of my favourite places.

Most popular blog posts

Here are some of my top blog posts from 2019/2020:

• 19 Things No One Tells You About Being an Expat
• 7 Things You Need to Know Before You Visit Stockholm
• 17 Things I Didn’t Know Before Living in Prague
• 11 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Moving Abroad

So people like posts that start with numbers, eh?

Craziest thing I did during our year abroad

Colin: Escaping Croatia, driving eight hours straight and getting to Prague before the borders closed was crazy. Also, packing up our apartment in less than 24 hours to get on a flight home.

Check out our entire saga of leaving Prague in March 2020 here!

Riana: It wasn’t exactly crazy but the fact that we went to Oktoberfest sounds kind of wild for us!

Best thing I bought

Colin: We bought magnets and postcards in every city we visited and then put them up in our apartment in Prague.

We just put them up in our Vancouver apartment; I like having that reminder of our trips.

Riana: Just before we left for Prague, I bought an e-reader which was amazing. I managed to read 40 books last year which would have been impossible without the e-reader.

Practically, we also bought a vacuum which was very needed with my hair and Ellie’s fur all over the house!

Wrapping up our travel superlatives from our year abroad in Prague

Despite having to leave Prague in a hurry and not getting to finish out our full year thanks to the pandemic, looking back I am so grateful for everything we did get to experience.

We travelled all over Europe (and parts of Africa); enjoyed trips as a couple, with our dog, solo and with family; found and left jobs; took trains, rented cars, flew on planes and sailed on boats; adapted to a brand new life in Prague and made the most of our year abroad.

Reading these superlatives lets me relive all of our best (and some of our worst) moments. Despite some of the lows, I wouldn’t trade our year abroad for anything. And I can’t wait to do it again sometime soon!