Big stuff is happening behind the scenes over here and as a result I’ve had to go back and look at a lot of the old content on the site. With seven years of content, there is a lot to look back on.
Looking back, I noticed something funny. Some cities I write exhaustively on, like Rome with it’s ancient ruins and marvelous foods. And some cities, believe it or not, I barely mention at all. Places I spent a significant amount of time getting to know, and just never felt inspired to share.
Today I thought it would be interesting to take a look at which ones never made it on the blog, and why.
Contents
Berlin
I spent a week in Berlin in the winter of 2013 attending ITB, the biggest travel trade conference in the world. I was mostly working but I did get to see a little bit of the city via a freezing cold beer biking tour, a freezing cold East/West Berlin Tour and a lot of donor kebab eating.
So why did I never write about it? Honestly Berlin was too big, too varied and diverse, and I struggled to even wrap my head around it. I couldn’t even figure out the subway map and I had to follow Mike around like a puppy. I felt like I barely scratched the surface of the city during my very brief time there. I mainly remember being very tired and very cold. I will have to go back again to truly do the city justice.
Sydney
Sydney is a very cool city, the kind I just love. Big, diverse, pretty. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Sydney I was so burned out from our terrible, rainy, Australian road trip that I didn’t feel like writing another word about the country. Sorry Sydney.
Helsinki
I wrote half a dozen articles about my crazy experiences in Finland, but barely touched on Helsinki, despite the fact that I got to spend a couple of days on there on either end. It was such a neat, orderly capital city- an interesting cross between Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. We were there doing a pop up food festival and spent an afternoon eating random snacks in parking lots and shopping malls.
Truthfully, I ate some pretty good meals in Helsinki but didn’t really do much else. Most of my days there were spent nursing Mike who had managed to come down with the flu while he was traipsing around the coast. Having the flu is not glamorous or worth writing about.
Girona and Lloret de Mar
I have been to Costa Brava twice and never really managed to write anything about it. Both times were for travel conventions so while I spent most of my time working and networking, I did still get a pretty good snapshot of the area. Lloret is your typical resort town but Girona is just beautiful (there is a reason they film Game of Thrones there).
So why didn’t I write about them? Funny thing is, when you go to a convention with hundreds of other travel bloggers, they all publish the exact same content. I couldn’t think of anything original to say, so I kept my mouth shut.
Macau
My cousin took me to Macau on one of my solo jaunts to Hong Kong circa 2011. Macau has good egg tarts and one pretty UNESCO site but that’s pretty much it. Giant smoky casinos don’t make for interesting writing.
Vancouver
We spent a lovely week in Vancouver in 2015, centered around watching the USA win the Women’s World Cup. I wrote about that surreal experience but never covered the rest of the time we spent there. Mostly because all we did was work, eat heaps of Asian food and go to soccer games. And because I got lazy I guess. I apparently never even edited the photos of the trip.
Portland
Bad habits die hard. We took a family trip (all four of us!) to Portland in November. It was our trial run for traveling with a baby and a dog- it turns out the baby is much easier to travel with than a dog. We perused the Saturday market, ate pok pok and donuts, hung out at Powells, the works.
This was actually the third time I’ve been to Portland since we moved to Seattle and I’ve written about it… zero times. I don’t know why, Portland is interesting! Maybe I need to go back one more time for research…
If I’m being honest with you guys, I will probably never write about any of these places. The moment has passed, they didn’t inspire me then so they aren’t going to suddenly pique me now. Instead I’ll probably go right 10,000 more articles on Italy…
It’s never too late to write about these spots! I feel the same way–I have SO many places I need to scribble about. Berlin’s on my list to write about (although I spent half my time there with the flu!). Great post.
I love this post, I knew I wanted to read it the minute I read the title. I love Italy but for me, Rome was the place I just couldn’t write about or feel inspired to take photos of. I live in Seattle as well and have been to Portland probably… about twice a year since I was born. I love Portland and every time I go I have every intention of writing about but then I get so sucked into my routine and being “comfortable” I just forget.
Is it ever too late? I’m trying to be a better at blogging and am constantly thinking back to all these amazing things we did, but never shared. First world problems?!?!
I think it’s not too late if you feel like you have something worthwhile to say! I just never got it together on these places and now my memory is shot.
Man, I lived in Berlin and I still have NO idea how to write about the city, haha. There are shockingly few blog posts on my site.
It’s a puzzle!