Saturday 11 January 2014

My travel year, a look back and a look forward



Tallinn in winter.
This past year has been pretty good for me as far as travel goes. I managed to visit three new countries—Estonia, Slovenia, and Austria. In addition I got in some other smaller trips such as visiting an Italian book festival to celebrate the translation of one of my books, did lots of caving, saw Edinburgh, plus the usual visits to Oxford and London. I also visited Tangier three times. I’ve really fallen for that relaxed Moroccan port and I’ve been getting a lot of work done on a novel set there.

Sadly, there was no great adventure travel in 2013. In 2012 I got to visit Iraq and the year before that I spent a couple of months living in Harar, Ethiopia. This year I spent entirely in Europe with a toehold in Africa. Am I getting old? No, it’s just that my travel funds are drying up thanks to my main sugar daddy, the travel blog Gadling, closing up shop.

This is going to make 2014 a tight travel year. Oxford and Tangier are in, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford much more than that. Both of those will be working/research trips. Beyond that, I may just hole up in my apartment and write a ton of fiction, like I mentioned in an earlier post.

Of course, the New Year might bring some surprises. Who knows where I may end up in the next twelve months?

What were your big trips in 2013? Anything good planned for the New Year?

2 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

Sean--My biggest trips were small ones...a writing retreat in Conception, Missouri...a trip to see my daughter and her family in Florida...a workshop in Santa Barbara...

I have no plans for a big trip this year, because I'm saving to take my daughter and granddaughter to southern France (my favorite place in the world) in 2015...

Oxford and Tangier sound wonderful (said the woman stuck in the Midwest). I hope you have some great travel surprises that fill 2014, along with lots of writing jobs...

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hope you get to make it out for some other excursions. Perhaps your wife's job will take you on a trip? And if not, well this just might be the year you produce a lot of written work!

Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Civil War Horror blog, where he focuses on Civil War and Wild West history.

You can also find him on his Twitter feed and Facebook page.