30 Years, 30 Countries

Hello from Quebec City, Canada. Today is my 30th birthday!

I was trying to think of something special to write about here, like I did last time I had a milestone birthday. When I turned 25, I wrote about my Top 25 Travel Experiences of that year. (It was a good year!)

For today, I decided to share a goal I’m setting for myself this year — to visit country #30 while I’m 30. At this point, I’ve been to 25, so I’ve got my work cut out for me this year. But it sounds like such a fun challenge, so I’m really excited. Throughout this year, I’m planning to update a new page here on my site so everyone can follow along with my progress: 30 in 30.

I also thought it would be fun to share a little bit about each of the countries I’ve visited up to this point, along with the year I first visited. So, here they are…

1. United States (1992)

Duh. I was born here, in Massachusetts, during a blizzard on this day in 1992. Moving to Missouri as a toddler means that I’m a Midwestern girl at heart, and when people in Spain asked me where in the U.S. I’m from, I didn’t even bother saying more than “el centro centro.” The middle middle.

We all know the U.S. is huge, and I’ve been lucky to see so much of it already! I grew up taking epic road trips across the country with my family every summer, so I’ve visited 49 out of 50 states — just missing Hawaii. I feel like as long as I hit #50 before or at age 50, I’m good, right?

2. Germany (2011)

Things are getting interesting now! Note the fact there’s a full 18.5 year gap between “visiting” my first country and visiting my second. The summer after I graduated high school, I took a two-week trip to Germany to visit my then-boyfriend. He had been a foreign exchange student at my high school during junior year, we started dating, and then took it long-distance when he went back home.

I remember, after his family picked me up at the airport, we stopped in a bakery to buy some bread for breakfast. And I know I was sleep deprived, but I couldn’t stop giggling as I heard everyone around me speaking in German. Oh yes, a world outside of the U.S. does in fact exist. Who knew?

Since that initial trip, I’ve visited Germany a few more times. Most recently (not that recent at this point though), I took a solo weekend trip to Berlin, and spent Christmas in Munich.

3. France (2011)

When you’re 18 and you fly across the world to visit your German boyfriend, you kinda start to realize that places like Paris are suddenly closer to you than they’ve ever been in your life. And you don’t know yet that you’ll live in Europe a couple times during your 20s, so you’re like, “We need to go to Paris!”

So we booked a 12-hour bus trip with a tour group from Germany to Paris. We spent a few days there and dutifully clipped a padlock onto the Love Lock Bridge, flinging the key into the River Seine below. Apparently the city removed all the locks by 2015 (which was the year we broke up anyway, lol).

Now that I’ve been to so many other international cities around the world, I’m really interested in going back to Paris and looking at it through a different lens. I returned to France for the first time since that trip in late 2019, when I visited Lyon for the Festival of Lights. And I’ll be back in France next month — Toulouse and Bordeaux.

4. Italy (2013)

When I was on my way to study abroad for a semester in London, I spent two weeks in Germany first with my boyfriend and his family. We ended up taking a road trip to Lago di Garda in Italy and spending a week there. (This was also a 12-hour drive… in a car that didn’t have air conditioning during the European summer heat wave). However, I’m happy to report the pizza and pasta made the arduous journey worth it. We also took shorter drives to Verona and Venice.

Italy is a place I’ve returned to again and again! I’ve visited Gaia (my foreign exchange sister) and her family a few times as well as gone to Rome twice and Florence once.

5. Austria (2013)

During the aforementioned road trip between Germany and Italy, we took a pit stop in the Austrian Alps to break up the drive… and visit my boyfriend’s aunt in her summer house. Yeah, her summer house was on the side of a mountain that looked like it was straight out of The Sound of Music. Like, we had to park the car and then take a personal cable car to get over to her house.

I also visited Salzburg, Austria, for Christmas a few years ago. The Christkindlmarkt was one of the best I’ve been to!

6. United Kingdom (2013)

The great turning point in my life. The night before I left to study abroad in London for an entire semester, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go through with it. I said my tearful goodbyes to my family and friends at the airport. As I went through security, a staff member asked me where I was headed. “London,” I said. And then I thought… why am I crying about this?

It’s been almost 10 years, but I would be living an entirely different life right now if I hadn’t studied abroad. I met my two best friends, Hanna and Carson, during this trip. I learned what it was like to jet off to another country for the weekend, every month. (This became an addiction.) And I learned that I’m strong enough to survive and build a new life and new relationships, no matter where in the world I am. And also, it’s fun!

I got to go back to London in 2019, as well as this year. And while unfortunately I gotta count it all as one country (UK), I’ve also been to Northern Ireland in 2019 and Scotland this past summer.

7. Ireland (2013)

My first stop on a 10-day, four-country trip for Fall Break with Hanna and another friend while studying abroad. We had to leave our dorm at 3:45 a.m. to catch the bus to the airport… which we promptly missed… and then had to pay for a taxi that cost the equivalent of $240 for the hour-long drive to the airport. And then we still barely made our flight.

But I loved Ireland! The food, the friendly people, and the beautiful countryside as we took a day tour out to the Cliffs of Moher. I went back to Ireland in 2019, including a day trip to the Giant’s Causeway which is in Northern Ireland and technically doesn’t count under this section. And this past summer, Matt and I spent about a week in Ireland with our friends Sarah and Kelan in Dublin. We also took a road trip out to West Cork and spent two nights camping. We love Ireland and we love Sarah and Kelan, so I know we’ll be back soon.

8. Sweden (2013)

Who even goes to Sweden? Apparently we did, and I don’t regret it one bit. Our next stop during fall break was spending a few days in Stockholm, Sweden. Honestly, I’m not sure why we went there. Maybe it’s because we had 20-year-olds-living-in-one-of-the-most-expensive-cities-in-the-world budgets, and we found a cheap flight from Dublin or something. I haven’t been back, but Sweden was beautiful and I’d love to visit again! Also, I’m a big fan of fika.

9. Denmark (2013)

A quick hop from Stockholm, and we were in Copenhagen with its colorful buildings, total maze of cobblestone streets, and a statue of the Little Mermaid that doesn’t really even look like a mermaid at all.

10. The Netherlands (2013)

Our final stop on our fall break tour 2k13. If I said it’s hard to remember much about Amsterdam… like everything was kind of in a haze… do you understand what I mean? Luckily, I went back on a solo trip in 2018 and got to experience it in a different way. But I’d really like to see other parts of The Netherlands someday, too.

11. Czechia (2013)

I’ve only been to Prague, in Czechia — formerly the Czech Republic, formerly part of Czechoslovakia — once, but it was cool to visit an Eastern European country for the first time. My mom’s grandparents immigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia in the early 1900s, so I really enjoyed getting to visit their homeland.

12. Spain (2016)

Big gap! Between 2013 and 2016, I finished up college and started my first job. I had to save my PTO for a year in order to take a two-week vacation. When none of my friends were available to go anywhere with me, I decided to take the plunge into the world of solo travel by booking a trip to Spain — a place I figured I’d feel somewhat comfortable given my Spanish degree and extensive study of the country in school. After that trip, I was like… I could see myself moving here. 👀

13. Canada (2017)

2017 was a great year for travel for me, both domestic and international. I visited Toronto on a random solo weekend trip in April, and then I went to Vancouver with my sister Carrie in August. And right now, here I am in Quebec City with Matt for my birthday trip!

14. Thailand (2017)

First. trip. to. ASIA! By this point, I’m thinking, I’ve got this solo travel thing totally down. Time to expand my horizons. I flew to Bangkok, spent a few days there, took an overnight train to Chiang Mai, fell in love with a handsome British man and had a three-day love affair, and got to play with elephants. All while eating some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life?!

15. Cambodia (2017)

While I was on the other side of the planet, I was like, why not hop on over to Cambodia and visit Angkor Wat? So I did. Siem Reap was totally different from Bangkok and even Chiang Mai, and it was so cool to experience yet another different lifestyle. And of course, Angkor Wat was super impressive. Another highlight of Siem Reap was how easy it was to make friends. I still remember every person who has made my solo travel experiences less solitary.

16. Iceland (2017)

You may know that I used to be a traveling consultant at my old job. Somehow, a couple of friends and I convinced our manager to let us fly to ICELAND for the weekend instead of back home to Kansas City. We arrived in Reykjavik on Friday morning and flew back to Chicago on Sunday afternoon. It’s honestly kind of good we were only there for two days because Iceland is 100% the most expensive country I’ve ever been to, and I could not have afforded to stay longer. But it was pretty to be there during December — although there were only about 3-4 hours of daylight.

17. Mexico (2018)

I would be moving to Spain in 2018, but not until September. In April, I decided to take a solo trip to Mexico City. I thought it would be a great time to brush up on my Spanish and spend some of my remaining PTO, knowing I would be quitting my job a few months later. Also, this was back when Southwest Airlines still had flights to Mexico City, so I was able to use my points and it was basically free.

I loved Mexico City so much more than I thought I would! So this past summer, Matt and I decided to work remotely from CDMX for three weeks. We even had a Teotihuacan hot air balloon experience! Maybe next time I’m in Mexico, we can visit a different part of the country — though Mexico City is so big you could spend forever there and still not see it all.

18. Belgium (2018)

I’d been living in Spain for six weeks when I decided it was time to take my first solo weekend trip. The school I was working at, through the Auxiliares de Conversacion program, was the best school I could have ever asked for. And they actively encouraged me to travel — when I asked if I could take one day off and make it up the next week, my coordinator said, “Of course! That’s what you should be doing while you’re here.”

Here’s how most of my side trips in Spain worked: I’d open Skyscanner, put in my departure city as Madrid, select my dates, and set my destination to “Everywhere.” That’s how I found a $12 flight from Madrid to Brussels, Belgium. That’s why I went to Belgium.

Brussels was cool, and the experience of visiting for just a weekend on my own was new to me, which made it fun but also really chill. I also ended up taking a day trip to charming Bruges at the recommendation of friends. I haven’t been back, but the chocolate, waffles, fries, and beer hold special places in my foodie heart.

19. Russia (2018)

Did I ever think I would visit Russia? I mean, with the expectation that I have a long life in front of me still, I would say yes, I thought there was a good chance I would visit Russia someday. Did I think I would visit Russia “alone” when I was 25? Definitely not.

The reason “alone” is in quotes, is because my cousin, Gillian, was studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, for a semester during the first autumn I was in Spain. I figured I was closer to Russia while living in Madrid than if I were to visit from the U.S. And since we’d be away from our families on Thanksgiving, which we would normally spend at our grandparents’ house in Kansas, why not spend it together on the other side of the world?

So I booked a trip to St. Petersburg. It was quite an arduous process for only a few days there. I had to make an appointment at the Russian Embassy in Madrid, which was a little confusing being a “third country national.” I also had to give them my passport for several weeks for them to give me a visa. And then, when it was finally time to travel, I had a wicked cold that didn’t mix well with many hours on planes and November in Russia. BUT. I’m still really glad I went.

20. Portugal (2019)

Do you guys know the story of how Matt and I got together? We were co-workers at my old corporate job and started casually dating about 3 months before my planned move to Spain. We both knew I was leaving and that was supposed to be the end of it. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way. But during the first 4-5 months of my time in Madrid, it was clear that the “clean break” that we’d attempted wasn’t really a break at all. We were in limbo somewhere.

Until January. Our co-worker and friend, Laura, was coming to visit me in Madrid for a week, and we were going to visit Porto, Portugal, together. Drink some wine and have a fun girls weekend. Laura texted me that morning as arrived at the airport to pick her up. “I’m standing by arrivals gate 10!” she told me. I found gate 10, and as I scanned the crowd for her… Matt walked up to me and pulled me into a hug as I struggled to stay standing. That was the biggest surprise of my life and I truly don’t think anything will ever top it.

Long story short (okay this is already long I know) Laura was supposed to come, and Matt too, but Laura got sick at the last minute and couldn’t make it. Though she did help pull off the amazingly elaborate ruse — a major accomplishment for someone who is terrible with secrets. 😂 Matt and I ended up going to Porto and having a wonderful weekend in a beautiful city. I would love to go back! Hopefully, if we’re able to move back to Spain in 2023, many more trips to Portugal will be in our future.

21. Poland (2019)

 

One winter when I was in northeastern Germany with my boyfriend’s family for Christmas, we drove across the Polish border, ordered pizza, and took it back to Germany with us. I didn’t really count this as having been in Poland, and I didn’t like the ambiguous feeling that I’d been there, but I hadn’t. So when I was living in Spain, I booked a solo trip for a long weekend to Wrocław, Poland. Didn’t know anything about it, but hey… RyanAir had cheap flights there.

Similar to my trip to Czechia six years prior, experiencing this Eastern European culture felt familiar to me, especially in the cuisine. Pierogies have long been a favorite in my household, and I was thrilled to find a restaurant called “Viva la Pierogi” within minutes of my arrival in Wrocław.

22. Morocco (2019)

When Matt came back to visit me in the spring of my first year in Spain, we booked a trip to Morocco! I mean, it is super close to Spain, and the RyanAir flights were cheap (as always) and direct. So why not!?

We visited three cities: Fez, Chefchaouen, and Tangier. Note, we didn’t visit Casablanca or Marrakesh, which I’ve heard are a lot more touristy, which was totally fine with me! I was happy going off the beaten path a bit. Fez was very traditional and didn’t seem touristy at all… Chefchaouen was blue, beautiful, and a backpacker’s paradise, but more difficult to get to… and tropical Tangier, on Morocco’s northern coast, felt like an extension of southern Spain.

That was my first time visiting a country in Africa, and also my first time in an Islamic country. I loved getting to experience a culture so different from my own, and learning the whole time.

23. Vatican City (2019)

Ok, this one is basically a freebie when you visit Rome. Which I did for the first time in 2019. Vatican City the country is literally a courtyard/plaza. But I like being able to say that I visited the world’s largest country and the world’s smallest country within one year.

24. Ecuador (2022)

Hmm, can anyone guess what happened between 2019 and 2022 that may have impeded my travel plans? (I was supposed to have gone to four countries over Easter Break in 2020, which likely would have made this whole 30 in 30 goal unnecessary. Anyway…)

After nearly two years of planning, Matt and I headed out on our biggest-ever travel undertaking (as a couple) — spending 2+ months in Quito, Ecuador, from January to March 2022. We rented an Airbnb and worked remotely, visited all of Quito’s sites, found all the best coffee shops to work from, and even visited the Galapagos Islands for a week! It’s been almost a year since we left for that trip, and when I think about it, it’s still so cool that we did that.

25. Colombia (2022)

The last new country I visited was… Colombia! Yeah, Colombia gets a bad reputation, but I’ve never let that scare me away. When we were posted up in Quito for a few months, I was in full “let’s take a vacation from our vacation” mode and suggested popping over to colorful Medellín for Matt’s birthday. We loved the food, the vibrant culture, the art, and learning all about the Colombia’s history. I’d go back to Colombia and Medellín in a heartbeat!

 

To anyone that read all this, you’re the best and I love you! Thanks for always following along with me and my travels. 🤍 I’m excited for the start of a new decade of life, and I can’t wait to see all the places I’ll travel in my 30s! Plus, stay tuned to see if I make my 30-in-30 goal this year… 😉

-Cathy

Update December 14, 2023: So happy to say, I achieved my goal! Read about it here.

Originally Published on December 14, 2022.