“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”
– Lao Tzu

February 26th 2019 I will officially have been travelling for two years. I am writing this blog post a little ahead of time as I am getting ready for my trip to China. I’ll be arriving in China second week of February to teach English for five months and travel around for one, therefore I’ll be in the middle of introduction week and course when this blog post was supposed to go up. I decided to be efficient 😉

STATS YEAR 2

Countries visited: 11
Myanmar, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, Greece, Norway, France, England – (Macau & Hong Kong aren’t countries per se, they are “special administrative regions”… I count them as “stops”… Shoot me)

Flights: 16

Distance travelled: 37013 km / 23145 miles (flights/long distance buses/trains)

Injuries/Disease: None

Spontaneous music concerts: 2 – Demi Lovato in Cologne and Hozier in Paris

Visits from home: I met up with La Familia in Italy, then again in Paris where also Thomas, Janne, Ragnhild, Tia & Rune visited me and I met people when I had to come home for Eystein’s funeral. Not the best circumstances, but I spent time with loved ones.

Trips back to Norway: 1

Time spent deleting spam-mail: Not as many as last year… Maybe they’ve realized my budget doesn’t allow for penis enhancements…

COSTS

ACCOMMODATION: 87578 NOK / $10312
(Not including Norway (friends) & England (housesitting))
MAJOR TRANSPORT: 36905 NOK / $4345 (flights/long distance buses/trains)
FOOD: 30272 NOK / $3564
DRINK (incl. non-alcoholic): 5895 NOK / $694
VISAS: 394 NOK / $50

NECESSITIES: 16266 NOK / $1915
(Big category, guys. It includes f.ex. shampoo, toiletries, replacing stuff that breaks, medicine, birthday candles, sending stuff home etc)
TAXI/UBER: 9375 NOK / $1104
EXCURSIONS/MUSEUMS: 8559 NOK / $1008
CLOTHES: 8394 NOK / $989 (some of these are “souvenirs”, but I’ve put all clothing bought in this category)
SOUVENIRS: 6238 NOK / $735
TIPS: 2046 NOK / $241
CHARITIES: 1004 NOK / $118
LAUNDRY: 659 NOK / $78
WIFI: 41 NOK / $5

EXTRAS
Japan Rail Pass: 4700 NOK / $598
I cannot recommend this enough if you are staying in Japan for a while and seeing more than Tokyo-Kyoto. I travelled from Tokyo all the way down to Nagasaki and back up again and this pass saved me hundreds of USD.

HIGHLIGHTS

Bucket List highlights: Inle Lake (Myanmar), Hiroshima & Kyoto (Japan), pretty much all of Vietnam, but particularly Tam Coc, finally living in Paris for 4 months learning French. That point has been on my bucket list for nearly 20 years.

Favourite countries on this leg: Vietnam, Japan, and France always makes the list 😉

Same message as last post: I want to thank all the awesome people I met on my trip who helped make it fantastic. And thank you to all my friends back home who send me pictures and messages of encouragement ❤ This adventure would feel a lot lonelier without you.