A lot of moments, new people and 15 different countries made some sort of impression on me in 2013, and I really can’t pick only one occasion and photo per month to highlight like I did last year. Click the links and photos for the full stories, and I hope you will enjoy the trip!
January
January started off very well with me being introduced to Josie’s mind-blowing mousse on New Year’s Eve. After that, it was a cold and gray month where I was based in Sweden and occasionally managed to get away to some of my favourite people in Stockholm and Cicirella’s Copenhagen SPA.
February
February was a grey and slow month, so I went to visit my grandparents in Wroclaw, Poland.
March
In the end of February, however, I suddenly got an email – and a week later I was working for UNICEF in Nicaragua. I used the Easter holidays to explore neighbouring Costa Rica – spent some days in the sun with the two happy Ka’s and lived the Pura Vida lifestyle with my old friend Frank in Tamarindo.
April
April was a month of work, work and work. Then there was some occasional dancing, the Managua carnival and a friend’s wedding.
May
In may I found a couple of days to escape to the beautiful Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. I took a long and exciting trip and found some very sweaty and dirty dancing on the Palo de Mayo festival in Bluefields, and a well needed dose of hippie Island bliss in the paradise of Corn Island.
June
June was marked by the arrival of my dearest Renata and Den. Renata came first, and we went together to surfy San Juan del Sur, and when Den also arrived I couldn’t have been happier to be in both of their hilarious company in beautiful León. “WE SO FUNNY!”
July
In July, Camila came to join me in Nicaragua and we started off by travelling to Tola for work on Sociopreneur. Then we went for a completely insane barefoot hike in the Miraflor Reserve and for a beautiful weekend full of butterflies on Ometepe Island. By the end of the month, my contract with UNICEF Nicaragua finished.
August
On August 1st, I jumped on a bus headed west, and passed by enchanting Guatemala and it’s Maya pyramids hidden in the jungle in Tikal. I crossed over to Mexico and visited the Palenque pyramids and waterfalls with Chema, and went south to what became my favourite city in the country – San Cristobal de las Casas. We continued to the in many ways bizarre Mexico City, and went to see Chema’s mother perform in Cats. I also found out that I had been a surrogate mother for meat-eating myiasis larvae and filmed their murder. (Haha!)
After two weeks in Mexico, I boarded a flight – and found myself in New York. Reunited with Den and Renata, and overwhelmed by the city’s awesomeness.
September
I came back to Sweden on September first. And took my mother to India only six days later. (I still haven’t shared all of the stories from that trip.)
October
October started off with me randomly saying: “Hey, I want to go to Berlin” and Avina answering “Yay, let’s do it!” So we did a 10-day Berlin, Wroclaw, Torun and Warsaw tour. I went back to Stockholm for Avina’s birthday, and stayed an extra week for a great Halloween party with our Warsaw friends.
November
Suddenly it was November, I went to Gothenburg to do a workshop and then my mother said.. “I have some days off and I’m very curious about Istanbul..”
December
The end of the year came along with a new and inspiring smile. I travelled to Amsterdam and spent three days in a beautiful apartment and in much appreciated company, and after a couple of days of being back in Malmö, I thought “Nah..” and hopped on a flight to Marseille for a mix of sun, work and accompanied leisure.
It’s been a year that’s been very intense and tiring – but at the same time enriching and wonderful. Finding the opportunity to fill all free moments with pleasure and new impressions without loosing balance has been the key, and I am very much looking forward to the way I have chosen to end it.
