A Year - Long Honeymoon Around the World – Part 1

For those of our readers who don't know you yet, how would you introduce yourself?

Hello! We are going to “borrow” everything from our blog: We are Sandra and Bojan, we wander around in constant search for new experiences. On our Earth, we usually wander in the company of an indispensable four-legged member whose name is Nano. Because life is too short to be asking ourselves “what if”, we went on a nearly one-year long honeymoon trip around our planet in the fall of 2018. When we are not travelling, you can find us on mountain bikes, on skis, diving or on a yoga mat (well, the latter applies more to Sandra).

What was your first trip together and in how do you remember it?

In fact, it was a holiday mixed with sports, since we went kayaking and surfing to Pelješac! We had a great time and we already realized then that we would always try to include some sport in our travels, because lying on the beach somehow is not for us. We also remember that we had already booked a plane ticket to Ireland on this holiday, which was then somehow our first “trip” together.

Last visited destination?

Uh, it's been a long time! Christmas markets in Switzerland in December.

Because of the current situation around the world, did you have to cancel any travel plans? How did you work it out?

Thankfully not on our own – quite a few trips and short trips have been cancelled/postponed indefinitely by the organizers, some of the accommodations have not been booked yet, so we didn't have to deal with the cancellation. We were just about to buy the plane tickets when the situation got worse and we decided to wait a few days – well, the latter turned out to be a good decision.

Next travel mission after the coronavirus?

Now too many have piled up! If the situation improves by summer, we will probably try to make up for the “lack” of sports activities first, so we will pick a mountain-bike park in France or maybe surfing in our neighbouring country in the south again. We promised to visit our friends overseas this year – we are really looking forward to it. Plan B is then some kind of diving destination in Asia towards the end of the year, plan C... Well, we don't even want to plan too much for this year, because we've had so many things to cancel and we're pretty disappointed. Hey, but until the Christmas markets everything is going to be okay, right?

One or two interesting things about you?

Bojan loves craft beer, so some breweries are always a must-see feature when going somewhere, but he wants to brew his own beer someday. When he was younger, he did not travel as much, but became more involved in all kinds of sports. In fact, the first trips were all-inclusive, but he quickly realized that he wanted to explore on his own and the local market instead, rather than the big hotel chains.

Sandra recently read her first diary and found something in it when she was about ten or eleven years old. She wrote that the most important thing about her ideal boyfriend was that he would love to travel. She obviously knew exactly what she wanted to do in life! Although she is a pharmacist by profession and she likes to do things in the lab, in reality she is quite similar to her brother who studies languages and history. Even when she was little, she used to say that she would be an archeologist, and she added the Slovenian language, too, next to pharmacy study on her college application. Therefore, in her spare time she learns new languages and it is difficult to get her out of the museum where she reads every line on museum labels (that is why Bojan needs a beer afterwards).

What is the one thing that is most appealing to your followers on your blog Bluemarble vagabonds/Potepuha na frnikoli?

Hehe, this is a million-dollar question – if we knew exactly, we would probably already have a bunch of followers and it would be our only job. Joking. We think they like personal stories and impressions with a combination of beautiful photos the most. It is true, however, that many are also looking for useful information to help them plan their travels. So, you see – it's hard to find the ultimate “formula”!

You decided to go on a nearly one-year long honeymoon trip around the world. How did you save up money, keep track of the costs and how much did you end up spending in the end?

In fact, we have not been particularly saving for this trip, except for the last few months. We always save up because we know that sooner or later we will want something – maybe a new bike, other kind of sports equipment (because we never run out of ideas for new sports) or maybe something more “serious”, as our parents would say. Well, we decided that there would still be time to take the loan from the bank and we would rather spend the saved-up money for a memorable year of travelling.

Yes, we have been keeping track of our expenses all the time – for our blog posts (these are one of the most readable articles!), but also because we could quickly get carried away and we did not want to return home a few months earlier.

We have a really simple way of keeping track of costs – an Excel spreadsheet. In fact, we have become so used to it that we now have a slightly more sophisticated version for our home too – and so we always know where our money goes and how much we can save per month. For the trip, we spent (including all airline tickets, health insurance, buying a van, etc.) just under €32,000 (for both).

To be continued…