I came back from Sweden a week ago, and it’s country 24 on 25-country travel goal!
I experienced all the four seasons in one weekend but I still had a great time in Stockholm.
But I’m not here to talk about my trip to Sweden (sorry readers, but I’ll keep it for other blog posts).
But while on top of the Gondolen view deck overlooking the Stockholm twilight, I realised that my 25-country goal is soon coming to an end.
Rewind back to five years ago, I never thought that travel will play a large part of my young life. If I asked my 19-year old self then, “How I see myself five years from now?” – I can say “starting a career as a lawyer or a journalist” – a statement with no trace of travel aspirations.
I never thought I would travel as I had now. This 25 countries before I turn 25 goal is far-fetched and a goal reserved for globe-trotting travel journalists, National Geographic documentary filmmakers or young millionaires, but not for a Filipino guy who just graduated from university.
Society dictates that we must follow a normal pattern to life. It starts with graduating university, getting job, growing a career and raising a family, then once you become successful, you may travel and see the world!
My life started the same way but I made a choice. I am not waiting until the end to see the world.
I am still working on a full-time career, working at a 9-6 job and clocking in my timesheet everyday.
And still, I travel and have no thoughts of stopping. I’m happy to continue to have a balance of travel and work.
But it didn’t come that easy. Working on a full-time job, the amount of holidays to map out and the money to pay for travel, made it difficult to achieve my goal. But after three years and looking at my list, I feel that I accomplished a lot already.
And now, I am one country to go from achieving my list – and it feels great! And to help sort things out, here’s a simple Q&A just to explain my travel plans for country 25 and the destinations after that.
What will be Country 25?
To be honest with you, I am still open to options on where to go. All I know is that it’s in June – I am going to make it!
I’ve already have a few destinations in mind. Romania, Serbia, Portugal, Iceland and Norway are some of my choices to cap off my 25 country adventure.
How would I make my choice? It really boils down to the activities available in the country as well as my financial status. I have a little over a month to decide but regardless of the decision, I think it will be an epic trip!
What’s next for 25 travels?
Well, of course, obviously my website is named 25travels and have been built on the foundation of my 25-country challenge, it’s a question on what will I do next with my blog.
Just to assure you, I will keep on travel blogging and I’ll be keeping the name! But the idea of having 30travels lingers in my mind 😉
What will be my next goal? 25 countries in the next 25 years? Maybe. I have already something in mind, but I will keep it for now and announce it soon!
Where are your next travels after Country 25?
Finishing my 25-country goal doesn’t mean that I am stopping my travels. It’s motivating me more actually.
After visiting Country 25, I’m set to travel to Thailand in July for a two-week trip.
I’ll be hitting the UK late summer to see the Paralympics with Neil of Backpacks and Bunkbeds (@packsandbunks) too. And definitely, I’m open to doing trips around Europe – Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland and Estonia perhaps are on my list. And a possible return to Budapest (yes, again!), Prague and Berlin. I still have to hit Barcelona too!
These are just ideas – if you have destinations that you like to suggest –feel free to comment!
I think I’ll leave it to that – and as always you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook for updates.
Happy travels!