Blog updates, life updates, and a new focus

It’s been over a year since I moved to Berlin and over a year since my last post. Coincidence?

I actively decided to take a pause on blogging because I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it anymore. It started to become a hassle and a chore, and I couldn’t find inspiration whenever I sat down to write. I would always find an excuse to do anything else. My focus last year was to do well at my new job, make friends in Berlin, and get to know German culture better.

I barely traveled in 2019, other than visiting Zurich for a few days, Mallorca to see a friend, and Barcelona for an end-of-the-year celebration/birthday celebration with two of my friends. I guess you could count my trip back to NYC, Massachusetts, and Taiwan as traveling last year, but those all feel like going back home to me, and not really as “new” places.

This is all to explain that my priorities have not really been in keeping my blog and readers (hi, mom) up-to-date. Since last year, my interest in travel blogging has changed quite a bit. I still love traveling and I still love writing, but at this point in time, I feel like I’m meant to write about something more meaningful.

I want to write about topics that I care about presently, and ones that others will also find useful. I’m currently toying around with some topics in my head, such as living more sustainably and creating less waste, mindfulness and meditation, and book reviews. And, I want to focus more on things to do in Berlin, kind of with all of the previously listed topics in mind. For example, there’s a zero-waste restaurant here that I would love to check out and write about! I love the idea and concept. That’s an example of something that feels aligned with my personal values and interests.

My idea of travel blogging always had to be this big thing; I always thought a “good” post had to be SEO-friendly, and include a “top 10” list for me to even post about it. But going on vacation and having to go to 10 cafes in a span of 6 days is both exhausting and stress-inducing (learned this the hard way by visiting 6 cafes in one day Cape Town). That said, I give a lot of credit to other travel bloggers who can manage to do the planning and work, of going from place to place with enthusiasm to shoot, edit, write about, and post all the places they end up in, but that’s just not me. I want to enjoy the time spent wherever I go, and not always have to be thinking about whether or not it would make “good” content.

This mentality reminds me of the time I started my year-long trip, which eventually led me to move to Berlin. During the first half of my trip, I was so excited to just go to as many places as possible and in Europe, it was especially easy to do so. I binged on one destination after another, not always giving myself enough time to take everything in, but kind of going through each place in hyper-lapse mode. In the second half of my trip, I started getting really burned out, and that’s when I decided slow travel was more my speed ;) I took at least a month or more in the places I visited after Europe, with a couple of exceptions (Namibia and UAE), but it felt so much better to do so. It just feels less panicky to rush from place to place.

Long story short–I’ve been focusing more on living my life in Berlin and less on writing in my blog for the last year and a half. However, I would like to get back into blogging by writing about topics that now have more value and importance to me. Part of that will include taking my sweet time visiting and actually enjoying the places and experiences that Berlin has to offer!

Stick around for some exciting new posts coming your way. I can’t wait to share my thoughts, ideas, and European travel experiences with you again.

xx,

Steph