With only a few days left until the end of 2015, “How do you find time to travel so much?” I wanted to give an idea about traveling a lot with little permission by writing a summary of where I went this year to clarify questions such as: “I love traveling but I don’t have time” and to inspire those who say “I love to travel, but I don’t have time”.
First of all, let me talk about myself for those who read my post for the first time; I’m an engineer working in the private sector and like many white collars I only have 14 days. In fact, since I couldn’t deserve a leave before my one year was up at my new workplace, he was not there this year, I used an advance request by asking in advance.. So I stole some permission from 2016 I mean, I’m a member of the ‘unhappy’ majority who think they don’t have enough permissions.
Kremlin Palace – Moscow
After stating that I do not have any privileges regarding permission, let’s move on to money. I don’t have a rich family, on the contrary, I support my family.. I don’t have a father’s house either, I live in a rental. Since traveling is my top priority, I finance my trips on my own by cutting back on expensive stuff and making good budgets.. It caught the attention of the Hürriyet newspaper and was reported as “She traveled to 30 countries with the money she earned from her salary”, even a few months ago, here is my interview for those who are curious.
Sheikh Zayed Mosque – Abu Dhabi
2015 has been a difficult year; As I said, I did not have annual leave, and the summer months, which are normally the best times to travel due to the excessively high exchange rates after the June elections, passed with hesitant expectations Still, it was not a very unproductive year; To put it in numbers, the situation is as follows:
– 11 holidays (with at least one night stay)
– 3 domestic, 8 international destinations
– 4 new countries (others I have visited before)
– 34 nights accommodation (I paid for 25 nights, 3 nights are covered by my company, 6 nights are free with friends)
– 8 days annual leave
Now let’s see where I went for each month and how I planned them.
JANUARY
Hungarian airline Wizz Air‘ I bought my Budapest ticket from and went to Budapest for the second time after 7 years.. I took Friday off and combined it with the weekend for 2 nights.
Budapest
FEBRUARY
I didn’t miss it when I saw that Venice is one of the places where Turkish Airlines winter campaign is included and I bought my flight ticket to the Venice Carnival 6 months ago for 99 Euros. When I first went to the Venice Carnival 6 years ago, I only wore a mask, this time I surpassed myself and had a costume sewn and became the star of the carnival with my pink baroque style costume! ok ok not that much. But it was quite fun, for those who are curious and planning a trip to Venice; I look forward to the Venetian articles where everything about accommodation, transportation, food and beverage, places to visit, the surrounding islands and carnival are waiting for you
I took 1 day off by combining the weekend with Monday and I stayed for 2 nights.
Venice Carnival and I..
MARCH
Shall we eat some kebab? By purchasing my Adana ticket for 55 TL one way from THY’s domestic campaign, I visited one of the places that I am still ashamed of not seeing.. Even though it is only a weekend trip, I did not limit myself to food and beverage tourism, and while I was there, I visited places like Mersin without stopping. Of course, we need to melt the kebabs.
I explored the surrounding cities on my trip to Adana.
APRIL
If there is a public holiday that coincides with Thursday, it is very sweet to combine it with Friday and turn it into a 4-day holiday.. By doing just that, on April 23, I set foot in the first new country of the year, United Arab Emirates.. The destinations for my 3-night stay were Dubai and Abu Dhabi for the day.
It’s a bit expensive when you go to rich places. it was a holiday; but especially Skydiving in Dubai was an unforgettable adventure and it’s already been crossed out on my ‘before I die’ list. For those who are wondering what it is, my spelling and jumping video is here, those who are afraid of heights should not watch the video
The most exciting minutes of the year: Dubai Skydiving at
I did a lot of research and prepared guides about Dubai, for those who are curious, the Life and Travel Dubai section is at your service Abu Dhabi is one of the most beautiful mosques in the world Sheikh Zayed Mosque and a fun place with the Ferrari Park, here is the Abu Dhabi guide.
Ferrari World – Abu Dhabi
MAY
Time to go to another place in our beautiful country that I regret not seeing yet! I did some calculations and when I thought about the road and accommodation, it was more convenient to go with a tour; I also took my Cappadocia tour for May 1, which came on Friday.. Turkey trips on public holidays were not for me, it was very overcrowded everywhere.. Still, I am very happy that I can finally go to Cappadocia.
May 19 was among the nice public holidays that could be completed in 4 days by taking a day off. I thought I’d finish it all and not have to stay at home in 2016, and I didn’t go anywhere.
Cappadocia
JUNE
When I said pre-election and post-election, there was confusion, so I thought I wouldn’t go too far. But a weekend trip never hurt anyone.. I explored the vicinity of Bolu-Abant and Sapanca, I wrote down everything there was.. Here you are.
JULY
Without my Schengen visa, it’s barely 6 I lasted the month and bought my ticket to Frankfurt and applied for a visa from Germany.. I couldn’t believe it either and my visa came out for exactly 1 year! I spent the weekend in Frankfurt, and my interview in Hürriyet newspaper was published on that very Sunday.. When I was asked about my travel plans even when I had no idea about Frankfurt, I said “I can go to Europe at any moment” in the interview, and it came across well.
Frankfurt
There was a holiday of 3.5 days with the weekend for Ramadan Feast. I had chosen Moscow as the destination, I guess the international crisis events that will happen a few months later were born to me.. St.. Since I have been to St. Petersburg before, I have no business with Russia for a while, but I hope that the tensions will end as soon as possible and everyone can go to this beautiful country without any problems.
Red Square – Moscow
AUGUST
Dollar pushes 3.20 and Euro 3.50. I have a ticket for September and will need money, I’ll be happy to be home.
SEPTEMBER
The biggest holiday of the year is here! Due to Eid al-Adha, there were 3 days of public holiday, I added 3 days, and with the weekend, I set off for an 8-night Maldives – Sri Lanka holiday.. Although I was a bit unlucky in the Maldives and coincided with monsoon rains and storms, I was able to make my late sea-sun holiday.. For those who wonder how much a holiday in Maldives costs, I wrote this article.
Maldives
Then I spent 6 days in Sri Lanka, an absolutely stunning country. Already 2015 has officially become the year of Sri Lanka and while I thought I would go alone, I started seeing pictures of many travelers in the same places.. I’m sure travelers will want to continue exploring this exotic country in 2016, so I’ve written articles on what to know about Sri Lanka, how to get to Sri Lanka and how to travel.. I even won an award for my Sri Lankan writing in the travel writing competition, here for those who are curious about the article.
Sri Lanka
OCTOBER
Actually, there was an October 29 holiday that coincided with Thursday, but the elections were right that weekend I did not go anywhere. I spent a lot of money on my September vacation and just paid the installments
NOVEMBER
This time I did nothing and the vacation found me and I had to go to Almaty for work. Kazakhstan was never in my vacation plans, so I wouldn’t go on this trip if the company I work for hadn’t bought my flight ticket.. There will be those who ignore the rest of the article saying “Oh, we don’t have such a company” and hang out here; you can think of it like I went somewhere 10 times a year, not 11
Even though I was in Almaty for 5 days, I only worked for 3 days for work; luckily I was able to change my normal return Friday to Sunday and explore the city a bit at the weekend.
Almaty
RANGE
I was actually thinking that Kazakhstan would be the last holiday for 2015, but when the place is festive with Christmas decorations I got into the New Year’s mood and thought I wouldn’t end the year without visiting the New Year’s Markets in Europe.. I started my Germany Romantic Road trip with the slogan of “A Christmas market every day”, started from Munich and finished in Nuremberg, and I saw 5 Christmas markets in 4 days and completed my holiday successfully Thus, I finished the romantic road route in a very cute time.. I also described the Christmas markets and the details of my trip, here.
Year closing: Germany Romantic Road
I hope this article has given some inspiration that having only 14 days of annual leave is not an obstacle to the passion for travel.. I’m working on destinations that I haven’t had the opportunity to mention on the blog yet; By liking the Life and Travel facebook page, you can be informed about my new articles, offers such as cheap flight tickets and holiday suggestions.
Have a 2016 with lots of travel!