What I did in 2020 – update

Many of you have been asking me about my trips in the past few months. Well, we are all familiar with the situation around the world which really made my traveling more complicated than usual. So how was my 2020? I decided to write this post to give you an update about my life.

Keep reading to find out what I did and where in 2020. How did I spend the entire year?

on the beach in Vietnam

First half of 2020

Let’s start from the beginning… January 2020.

As my family celebrates Christmas also on the Three Kings Day on the 6th January and a few days after that, I stayed at home with them for holidays. Then I had enough of cold winter weather in Slovakia (that’s my home country if you didn’t know) so I flew to Vietnam for a month.

I was incredibly grateful for having enjoyed most of my days there on the beach on Con Dao islands and in Vung Tau city. I still smile when I think of those sunny and calm 4 weeks in Southern Vietnam. The information about the virus started spreading already when I was still in Vietnam but personally I had no problems with anything.

Vietnam Con Dao island An Hai beach

An Hai beach

Once my tourist visa was over, I made my way back to Slovakia in the end of February. Initially, I was planning on going to another beach destination in a few weeks again, but my intuition was telling me NOT to buy flights as of yet. So I listened. And later on, it turned out to be a good thing to do.

I dedicated the next 2 weeks to my family, teaching yoga and speaking about my travels at different travel conferences around Slovakia. Exactly after my last travel presentation, we heard the news about many places having to close down due to pandemic in Slovakia. On that evening I took a train back home from the city where I presented at the travel festival. That was the second week of March.

And then the lockdown in Slovakia began. We were forced to stay mostly at home and get out only to buy food. Now, thinking back, I don’t even know what I did all those days until May. The time flew by.

I remember mood swings … anger and frustration on one day, while happiness and the feeling of ”finally not having to do anything” on another day. I guess you can relate.

I had to stay at home with my mother as we own half of the apartment each, so when I am in Slovakia, we share the apartment. When the lockdown started, I was scared we would not manage to spend weeks together so close to one another without killing each other.

You know, we have the best relationship ever, my mum is like my best friend, but still… I’ve spent the past 18 years mostly abroad so just the idea of having to spend so much time with my mum and not being able to ”fly” away as soon as I had enough, seemed rather scary to me. 

And to make it easier (or more difficult?), I decided to practice yoga for minimum of 60 minutes per day, and do intermittent fasting every single day. Otherwise I’d put on weight and become lazy while mostly at home for a couple of weeks. Plus, I was reading a lot, walking a lot, working on my blog a bit, spending some time with close family and friends, etc.

yoga in my home town

TIP 1: Here’s more about what I did while in lockdown. Get back to this article once you finish reading this one.

Second half of 2020

Until July I was mostly in my home town in Eastern Slovakia and the surrounding villages. I really did not feel ok going anywhere further with all those restrictions. Then in July I spent 2 weeks traveling around Slovakia with my family, mainly in the Gemer region and the capital Bratislava.

And after that we relaxed on the beach on the Greek island Rhodes with my best friend.

Rhodes beach

beach on the Rhodes island

sunset on the Rhodes Greece

In general, I am not into short getaways like that but the 2020 summer situation was quite unpredictable. To be sure I would not get stuck somewhere in the middle of summer, I took a flight back to Slovakia shortly. 5 days on the beach were far from enough for me, especially after almost 5 months without any beach time, but I wanted to enjoy summer days in Slovakia without worrying of getting stuck elsewhere who knows how long.

August was all about sunny days at the local swimming pool in my home town Snina in Slovakia. As the weather was quite pleasant, I did not work much online. Instead, I spent the month sunbathing, swimming, walking, practicing yoga and with my dear ones. There were very few restrictions in Slovakia in August which is why it was easier to visit family.

enjoying summer in my home town

On the contrary, September and October were too busy. As part of an online collaboration (yay, finally!), I spent days hiking around the Poloniny National park in Eastern Slovakia. Then it took me loads of time to publish everything from the trip on my social media.

mount Durkovec in Poloniny

Poloniny national park in Slovakia

Both months were too stressful so once I was done with the collaboration in October, I went to a small village Runina in Poloniny close to the border with Poland. I loved my days there alone in a wooden cabin so much that I went back again in November. Twice.

Digital detox for almost 3 weeks altogether within 2 months was the best idea ever! There’s no wifi and I didn’t even have any phone signal either while in the village. Finally I could switch off my mind and disconnect from the outside world which, to be honest, was more than necessary.

exploring Poloniny

Poloniny in autumn

In December I realized I did not finish many online things in 2020 so I was trying to catch up with emails, blog and social media while back in my home town. I only visited a couple of towns in Eastern Slovakia to soak in that Christmas atmosphere and then spent the holidays with family with some offline time. 

Recap of 2020

If you take a look at my blog, it’s obvious that I did not publish many articles in 2020. Not that I did not have anything to write about. There’s still many past trips I could mention on my blog.

However, I simply did not feel very motivated when global tourism industry kept shrinking the entire 2020.

People were traveling less and thus reading less travel blogs. On one hand I felt frustrated to lose big part of my online audience I’ve worked for years; on the other hand I really didn’t feel like publishing much on my blog.

Sadly, there were months when I earned nothing… but well, I was not the only one. Unfortunately, many other people around the world lost their jobs completely, or a huge part of their salary. We were all forced to deal with the unexpected situation the best way possible.

Countries I visited in 2020

1. Vietnam (only South for 4 weeks)
2. Greece (only the Rhodes island for 5 days)
3. Slovakia (my home country – most of the year)
4. Poland (only the mountains on the border with Slovakia while hiking… Does that even count?)
5. Austria (only Vienna airport which I do not count as a visited destination)

Speaking of my trips in 2020, I spent the least time on the road and visited the least countries out of all the years since 2009. Ouch! But on the other hand I was able to spend loads of time with my family. A lot more than in the past 11 years. That’s one of the benefits 2020 had.

Poloniny close to Runina village

TIP 2: If you’d like to support me for all my online efforts, you could buy one of my ebooks and learn something new at the same time :) I’d be eternally grateful.

TIP 3: Do you ever wonder about my travel expenses? Here you can find out how much I spent in Vietnam in 4 weeks.

TIP 4: Not sure if to visit Vietnam or not? I mean, once it’s fine  to go there:) Here’s my article about 7 reasons to visit Vietnam which might convince you to go.

TIP 5: In 2020 I had a lot of time to explore Eastern Slovakia. One of the places I truly fell in love with was Stuzica primeval forest in the Poloniny National Park.

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Príspevok, ktorý zdieľa Alexandra☀travel, health, yoga (@crazysexyfuntraveler)

And how was your 2020? Hopefully not too bad :) Please remember, always focus on the good things.

Posted in changes, personal, travel Tags: 2020