My top 2019 highlights

It’s so weird to write highlights from last year because 2019 felt like two different years entirely! I started the year living in Denmark, then spent a couple of months in Portugal then back to Denmark briefly to say goodbye to everyone before moving home to Auckland.

Caught on film; Josepha and I admiring the sunset on a rooftop in Aarhus

I moved home from Europe at the end of September when my Danish Working Holiday Visa came to an end and my finances were looking dire. I would've liked to stay on for much longer but without a more permanent situation, it's a little hard. This is why it feels like I’m only a few months into a new year, I guess because I’ve started a new chapter in my life. Anyhoooo, here are the highlights of my 2019:

5. New job

From past experiences, there's nothing more soul-destroying than job hunting as I find it very hard to sell myself and buff up my achievements and skills. There’s always the awkward interviews, the stress of what to do, say and wear, followed by the horrible, indefinite waiting period as they decide your fate. But anyway, when moving home started to look more and more like a reality I decided to put the feelers out for full time marketing jobs in NZ. I only applied for three that I was really interested in, interviewed for two and was offered one before I came home. That definitely made going home a lot easier as money was no longer going to be an issue. I am now the brand manager for a company that owns bars & restaurants around the country, definitely one to make the highlights, I’m pretty stoked! 

I’m really enjoying creating content for the brands I run as part of my new job

4. Experiencing snow

In the past, the most experience I've had with snow was trips to the mountains for snowboarding, but in the north island of New Zealand, we only have the one mountain range and I've never been in the depth of the season. I've also never just walked down the street and seen snow up to my knees, so when I went to Tallinn and Helsinki it felt like a winter wonderland. Sadly we only had 2 days of decent snow when I was living in Denmark so my snow days there were limited. But the snow in Tallinn and Helsinki was just magical, I loved walking through the fresh powder, my feel absolutely freezing, probably causing alarm from onlookers who are probably more accustomed to it than me. Europeans aren't too fazed by snow, used to the downsides that it brings, but for me it was like being in a fairy tale. 

Looking out over beautiful Tallinn, covered in snow

3. Holidays with friends

I really loved being based in Europe because it meant I had the ability to go on holiday with the friends I made there. This was one of the big highlights from my time in Europe. I wrote about being a solo female traveller a while back and I made the point of it getting quite lonely on the road when you’re solo, but on the flip side you can be really flexible and when you make new friends, it’s really fun to make plans with them. I went on two trips away with friends that I met in Denmark, one was to Norway, another was to Austria, and then on my way to Portugal I stopped in Berlin to see a friend I’d met the year before when I was in Porto.

2. Surfing in Portugal for 2 months

For a large chunk of my twenties I've gone surfing only a few times a summer, but in the last couple of years I started to put more effort into it and in July-August I really kicked it up a notch. I spent those two months helping out at Algarve Surf School in Sagres, Portugal and when I wasn't needed at the hostel I was surfing. There I had access to surfboards and lessons from really good teachers and my surfing abilities just improved tenfold. When I could jump in on a lesson I was being taught better techniques and the teachers were awesome at picking up on bad habits I needed to shake. It was an incredible experience and one that I’m so grateful for.

Surfing in Portugal

1. Coming home

For the wonderful time I had in Europe, it really has been lovely coming home to see my friends and whanau again. The first month was classic NZ spring with constant rain and I was feeling a bit down because of that but once the weather picks up, so too does my outlook and I was quickly feeling pumped to be back. It’s weird though, in some ways it feels like I was never gone. Or maybe just gone for a quick break and then had a job change.

Bonus: Watching my friend’s fall in love/get married. In the last few years I’ve become a bit pessimistic about love but this year I’ve watched several of my friends in various stages of love and it’s actually been super sweet. There’s been an international romance bloom and travel across oceans, a work romance that I totally called between two people who were just made for each other, one of my friends reluctantly falling for a guy who she thinks is going to “find someone else” but he’s been talking to her every day from a different country because he totally fell for her too, and one of my long-time, dearest friends marrying her adorable hubby and him saying how much he loves her boobs in his wedding speech. There are actually quite a few more sweet stories but this post is getting super long.