The best part of travel for me is without a doubt the making of new memories. Be it alone or with company (although with company it is undoubtedly better!), there are so many memories out there waiting to be made, sometimes even from the shortest or the most basic of trips. See below my top five memories from my travels, that I will never forget:

Seeing the northern lights for the first time from an outdoor hot tub

The hotel that I was staying at in Tromsø had an outdoor hot tub, so it would have been rude for me not to try it out a few times during my stay! The evening winds were bitterly cold and the views over the surrounding hills crystal clear. I had got chatting to a local, when I noticed a strange looking “cloud” over the hill. I asked what I was looking at, and much to my surprise they confirmed that it was indeed the northern lights, and my first ever sighting of them at that! It soon became evident that this was a bit too green and fluid in movement to be a cloud, however the lights were fairly weak at this point in time, and I managed to get a much better view of these later on in this trip.

Attending an audience with the Pope in Vatican City

During my stay in Rome back in 2016, I also visited Vatican City. At the time, Pope Francis would give two separate speeches to an audience in St. Peter’s Square each week. I planned my trip to Vatican City to align with one of these dates, and managed to join for one of the speeches. Unfortunately, I did not know what he was saying, as it was in Italian! One thing for sure though is that I felt a lot of strong emotion, probably from being in such a large crowd full of joy and happiness at this significant event. I actually started to tear up, despite at the time having no personal connection to the Pope or the Catholic Church, and I will remember these feelings for years to come.

Snorkeling in Silfra, Iceland

This is one of the most adventurous things I have done in my life to date. During my trip to Iceland in 2016, I embarked on a snorkeling trip to a landmark in Iceland called “Silfra”, which is a water filled rift between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. The rift goes deep, with the deepest parts going down 63 metres, or 207ft, and visibility is second to none at over 100 metres. The waters are some of the purest around, the temperature around 2 degrees C. It was snowing when we took our first steps in, and we had to keep swimming to make our muscles work hard in order to stay warm enough to continue on to the end!

We had a choice of dry suits or wet suits, and we chose wet suits as these allow for a bit more flexibility and freedom of movement, although these do also make for a colder experience, since the waters reach your body. Dry suits on the other hand keep you dry and warmer (you can wear your regular clothes under these), but you can only really bob along and cannot swim properly. We had to change back into our clothes pronto and have a hot drink after the excursion, since the risk of hypothermia is real here. If given the chance, I would definitely do this again, as the sights that I witnessed were some of the most breathtaking in my life.

Paxos/Antipaxos boat trip & swim

An all day boat tour from Corfu in Greece, this experience is forever etched into my memory for all the right reasons. I had never before seen seas this many shades of blues, and so clear as well – they were just beckoning to be swum in… which is exactly what we did! The boat stopped by in the middle of the sea off a beach at Antipaxos, and we disembarked into the beautiful blueness. Colder and deeper than it looked, this experience was a bit of a shock to the system at first, but we soon acclimatised and didn’t want to get out again! It is my dream to one day again swim in such exquisite waters!

Losing a door in Croatia

A bit of an embarrassing one here. After a relatively light evening of drinks on Baška beach in Croatia, my friend and I decided to head back to our Airbnb. After a short walk, we arrived back at the property, however the door was not to be found… to the point where for a millisecond or so, I actually started to wonder if the door had been stolen or just simply disappeared. The sheer panic that came over me at that moment in time was really something to behold… my rational brain was completely non-operational.

To top things off, when we realised we were on the wrong street and finally found our way to the apartment, there was a massive great bug awaiting our arrival in the hallway. I have no idea what type of bug it was to this day, but it was absolutely huge and I honestly thought that it was going to attack. The thing moved a little, and we RAN through the corridor and into the apartment, breaking into hysterics on the floor around the whole situation. Not my finest moment but one that will probably stay with me forever, for better or for worse!

What are your favourite travel memories? Do you have any as silly as panicking over missing doors, or as adventurous as snorkeling between tectonic plates?