Back on the 1st January 2013, exactly 6 months ago, I chose 7 New Year’s (Travel) Resolutions and I think it’s time to look back on them and work out how I’m faring so far.

1. Mix business with pleasure

Back in January I mentioned the 4 work trips I already had in the diary (Prague, Dublin, Barcelona and Munich) and I’ve still got Munich left! I’ll be flying out there in two weeks (the day after my birthday in actual fact) and it’ll be my first proper visit to Germany. There’s also one more trip I can add to this list: back in March I went to Madrid for 24 hours and although I didn’t really get to see any of the city, I did get to practise lots of Spanish (which I love doing).

2. Go skiing

After 3 skiing-less years I did finally make it back to the slopes! In March I went with some of my family to Morzine and had a lovely week of fresh snow and relaxation in the gorgeous Chalet Chambertin. It’s made me hungry for more, however, and I didn’t get a chance to go snowboarding at all, so I’m planning on spending more than one week in the Alps, if possible, next winter.

3. Get outside of Europe

Although the trip to the Far East with university friends that I mentioned back in January sadly fell through, I still won’t have to fail on this particular resolution, as I’m heading to South Africa in October to attend One Young World, after winning a competition at work to be part of the delegation to attend the summit. I’m sure I will have plenty to say about the summit, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

4. Take weekend trips away

I seem to be doing very well with my travel resolutions so far, as this is one I’ve managed as well! I’ve spent weekends in Milan and Brighton and already in the diary for the rest of 2013 are weekends away to Paris, Rome and Pamplona.

5. Maintain my languages

My weekly Portuguese lessons are still going strong and I feel like I am making some progress, although I have to admit that my accent is now more Brazilian than Portuguese. I feel like I’ve betrayed my previous teacher in Exeter who was from Portugal! But when you compare the populations of the two countries (11 million people in Portugal vs. 197 million people in Brazil) it makes sense to switch…

6. Follow blogs about cities I want to live in

Here I haven’t been so successful. I’ve discovered the following excellent blogs about Madrid (Kaley…& Más, Madrid y Yo, Spanish Sabores and Te Veo en Madrid) but other than that not much! I still need to find blogs about Hong Kong, Rome, New York and Rio de Janeiro…

7. Continue to travel vicariously through this blog

Well the fact that I’ve managed to keep the blog going thus far is pretty good evidence that I’ve managed this resolution. I now have a lovely 1,478 followers and my blog actually had it’s first birthday a few weeks ago on 13th June 2013. I can’t quite believe it’s been over a year since I first set up this blog, near the beginning of my summer of freedom in between finishing university in May 2012 and starting my graduate job in September 2012. You’ve now had over 52 postcards and many other posts on everything from which language to learn to mini-video guides to Italian cities such as Modena, where I did my internship at Armani, and Milan.

          All in all I don’t think I’ve done too badly with my travel resolutions. Are you brave enough to revisit your New Year’s Resolutions to see how well you’ve done? I certainly havn’t stuck to all of my ‘general’ resolutions, but I suppose that just shows hows much I prioritise travel over other things!