Challenging 2024 – recap of my tough year

enjoying an e-bike in Watamu

Why was 2024 year so challenging?

Challenging 2024 year travel recap

• Slovakia (Europe)
• Tanzania (Africa) for 7 weeks
• Slovakia (Europe)
• Croatia (Europe) for 3 weeks
• Slovakia (Europe)
• Hungary (Europe) 1 full day – my flights to Kenya were from Budapest
• Kenya (Africa) 85 days
• Hungary (Europe) 1 evening – my flights from Kenya were to Budapest
• Slovakia (Europe) 9 days
• Turkey (Asian part, not European) 19 days (the rest of the 3 months is in in the beginning of 2025)

I took 11 flights.

2024 year highlights

• I successfully finished a 60-hour power & hatha yoga teacher training (online in a Slovak yoga school).

• I realized that family problems were not going to solve by themselves so I took a very heart-breaking decision to quit talking to my parents in July. We were together on holidays with dad and my little brother in Croatia and I just couldn’t stand dad’s zero respect towards me so I told him to pack his things and find a different accommodation for the rest of the Croatian trip. I haven’t seen him ever since he left the Croatian apartment half an hour later while I was trying not to have a full breakdown crying in the shower. And then a month later, I also decided to stop talking to my mum (they are divorced so it was for different reasons but similar in a way = not enough respect towards me overall and both my parents were always pretending they never did anything wrong and I was the only one who wanted to discuss and change our problems because they didn’t even seem to admit we had any problems in the first place). But in that case it was a lot worse for me and not only because our relationship with mum was deeper and we were in touch a lot more often than with dad. Mum and I used to share an apartment in Slovakia for approx. 17 years. It was actually the same apartment where I was raised since I was born. All my stuff was there in the half of the apartment I owned and I would stay there when I was in my home town in between the world trips. So I had to move all my belongings that I accumulated in almost 40 years out of the apartment asap, pretty much in 4 days after the decision of “I’ve seriously had enough” was taken. TBH, the first 2 days I just spent crying without a break. Ever since all my material belongings have been a complete mess packed in many boxes and spread around a house of a family member wherever we found some space for them. Now it’s a nightmare to find what I need/want there but at least I have a place to leave all my things for now when I’m traveling… which makes me grateful.

had to sold my snow globe collection

• I got unexpected help from many people after having to move out of the apartment. Some people helped me moving out my stuff, others offered me accommodation for free for a few days until I’d figure out what to do next. Thank you so much!

• I both donated and sold some things that meant a lot for me (good memories from many destinations, e.g. my big collection of snow globes from around the world, Pisa tower lamp, peculiar statues and unique souvenirs).

• I posted less blog articles than any other year before. Most probably the least blog posts per year out of 14 years of travel blogging. With all the troubles all year round, plus slow wifi and frequent power outages in both Tanzania and Kenya, I simply didn’t even find motivation to write online as much as I used to.

• I recorded videos for a Slovak online course about reducing stress (the course is not finished yet).
• I spent very little time with my best friends in person. Maybe we even talked online less than usual.

enjoying scooter rides in Zanzibar

• I did a week darkness retreat in August in Slovakia. That’s right, one week alone in complete darkness without any lights, phone, laptop, wifi etc. Yes, eating, brushing my teeth and using toilet in pitch dark for the whole week. Oh wow, what an unforgettable and divine week it was! I experienced peculiar spiritual things which opened my eyes to other perspectives, and changed me big times. But at the same time my senses got even stronger after the darkness retreat which in the case of hearing is a huge disadvantage in the modern world. All the noise around me was driving me even more nuts both during the day and at night for the second half of 2024. And I still don’t know what to do with it to hear less or to be less bothered by noise.

• I think I’ve never slept as little as I did in 2024. There were many nights of only 2 up to 4 hours of sleep, and even that was usually with many interruptions. I was very unlucky to find really quiet accomodations to sleep well, no matter how many reviews I’d read or how many times I’d ask the owners/receptionists beforehand if it was really quiet there. It was almost never quiet enough for me to get a proper sleep. And not getting enough sleep was eventually making me even more nervous, emotional and also hungry over time.

challenging 2024 year – a scar I got in Kenya

• I’ve been disturbed and harassed in both Kenya and Tanzania million times, no kidding. For a single solo woman it could get truly unbearable, trust me. And being 180 cm tall and white made me stand out more than needed (for them that equals rich and someone they just want to marry to get a better life).
• I injured myself several times. 2 scars are now left on my body from my Kenyan trip. Right, physical reminders!

• When walking from my hotel to the Old Town in Mombasa, Kenya, I was told that I was super lucky that no one hurt me there. Apparently, it’s very common for some local guys and even kids to attack people in that area with guns or knives trying to rob them, or even something worse. So thankful I was safe.

Kenya has great avocadoes

• I made new friends and spent quality times with cute local kids.
• I ate many avocadoes. For some reason they are very good in Kenya, Turkey and Tanzania.
• I enjoyed many scooter and motorbike rides around Tanzania, Kenya and Slovakia.

• I loved going around Watamu on an e-bicycle.
• I sunburnt in Zanzibar like never before.
• A wild chameleon walked all over my body in Zanzibar. Unforgettable!

chameleon in Zanzibar

• All the difficult situations made me a lot more angry, nervous, unhappy and unbalanced and that’s NOT who I want to be any more. But until I really shouted at those local African guys who were harassing me, most of them would never stop.

• I was physically attacked by a 25-year old Kenyan guy Chai on the Garoda beach in Watamu because I said I didn’t want to have anything physical with him apart from the professional relationship we had (he was a tour guide who took me on a few trips to promote them). He does nice tours, that’s for sure, but what he did and said to me was NOT ok so I cannot recommend going on tours with him (found as ”chai_adventures99” on Instagram).

• Turned out that another Kenyan guy Vic, the owner of the Fit like Vic gym in Watamu, who I thought was a true friend of mine, wanted to just get me in bed. I didn’t want to even though there was a strong physical connection between us and we both admitted it. But I knew Vic was not the guy I’d like to be in a relationship with so I said NO to him every single time he tried to make a move on me. In the end I found out he was not even single and after he treated me badly several times (as a woman, as a friend and as a human being in general), I found courage to speak about it online. Afterwards, Vic threatened me saying that his lawyers would contact me and for a while I was even scared to stay in Kenya after that. But I did anyway and thankfully, he did nothing. Oh well, except for him getting married to that woman he was officially with just a few days after I spoke online about him trying to cheat on her with me. I think this says it all…

• I wasted way too much money on vegan chocolate, ice cream and chocolate sweets. Surprisingly enough (or not really because I’m just a human, too), I couldn’t handle the emotional eating in challenging 2024 and my usual strong will power was thrown out the window. It was just all too much for me to deal with. And let me tell you, changing the diet to worse even though still vegan had a bad effect on me, obviously.

at a local school in Kenya

• I spent my 40th birthday alone in Diani beach in Kenya, swimming and chilling on the beach. The only people who congratulated me in person were the hotel staff and other hotel guests. Yes, I did receive more than 800 online birthday wishes (from my parents included) which I truly appreciated but you know, not the same like in person. But I admit I did burst out in tears when the hotel staff was singing “happy birthday to you” to me over a vegan gluten-free chocolate cake they made for me even when it came from complete strangers. I did have a very lovely and peaceful birthday regardless.

• Grey hair decided it was time to call my head home. Thank you, stress and sleepless nights! So not ready for that color yet. Not ever I guess…
• I finally went on real safari tours to see the big 5 in nature: lions, leopard, buffaloes, elephants and rhinos in various national parks in Kenya. I so love animals in their own habitat and nature in general that it was one of the biggest highlights of my 2024.

with elephants in Tsavo East NP Kenya

• It was the first year ever for me to willingly decide NOT to go to Slovakia to celebrate Christmas with my family as I did all the years before. Yes, it was mainly because of the problems with my parents as in the beginning of December we were still not talking. So I flew to Turkey on a whim… I did not celebrate Christmas time at all in 2024 and spent the second half of December 2024 on my own in Turkey instead.

• I earned almost nothing. Financially, 2024 was the worst year ever for me. It was so frustrating you have no idea. But I just didn’t have any extra energy to focus on work with all the problems in my life. On top of that, the previous pand*mic years changed all my online business in a very bad way. And honestly, in 2024 I was not ok mentally nor physically to dig in for hidden source of energy and throw it into improving online things. I had to take care of myself first even though my savings were disappearing faster than I’d like to.

• In December I was supposed to have a collaboration with a Czech guy Ondrej, the co-owner of Editee AI app, who ordered a new phone for me. I was super happy. But the Alza delivery company was late for a few days and they wouldn’t deliver it on time until I had to leave to Turkey. So we cancelled the order and that guy never ordered a new phone for me that I could just pick up at the store in person before going to the airport. But he did nothing but laughed at me with “lol” and called me a psycho when I was trying to solve it all out last minute on my last day before flying out from Slovakia to Turkey. He didn’t even say sorry to me, and did not even reply t my last messages at all. That attitude, first the unprofessional delivery company with a 4-day delay, and then the so-not-cool way Ondrej handled the situation caused me many problems on top of losing the collaboration worth 1,900 euros. Sorry, but after that experience I can NEVER recommend those 2 companies: Alza and Editee.

• My DSLR camera lenses broke (bad timing when I had to do safari trips in Kenya without taking close-up photos of wild animals), so did my gopro a few months prior to that. And both my laptop and phone are super slow, barely functioning at this point. And my watch is partly broken. Really the worst year ever for having to replace all my electronics at once when I earned close to nothing, and definitely saved less than nothing. So I still haven’t got a new camera, gopro, laptop, watch nor phone at this time.

challenging 2024 year – injured in Kenya

• I’m an introvert who needs/wants to spend most of my time alone to feel ok and balanced. But the challenging 2024 really made me even more introverted (if that’s even possible). I’ve never wanted to spend so much time alone and in silence as I did throughout 2024. If only I could, I’d spend 99% of the entire year alone as far from the civilization as possible. Ideally with no signal and no disruptions around me (especially no noise). In silence I can find peace, growth, answers and harmony. In silence I can rebuild myself.

• I saw many magical sunrises and sunsets on the beach and spent a lot of time on the beach.
• I read 45 books.
• Another year without alcohol, smoking, drugs, coffee and cosmetics with chemicals for me. Yay!

1 of many nice sunsets in Kenya

on the Zanzibar beach

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