The final trip of 2018!

I’m not one of those travel bloggers that “work from anywhere” – there’s definitely something about that which is appealing but I just work a regular office job, Monday to Friday.
Therefore the secret to traveling as much as possible is generally maximising my annual leave and making use of the public holidays. It’s something I’ve generally been good at and I perfected it last year.

You can read more about that here (A 2017 summary) but I made sure to take advantage of the time off around Christmas / New Year, I made sure to go away at Easter, I escaped to Germany over the May bank holiday and my annual leave (26 days) seemed to go a long long way last year.

This year has been the complete opposite. My company offer a scheme that allows you to purchase an extra week of holiday, which I took up this year, but with 5 extra days I don’t feel like I’ve reaped the benefits this year.

I booked two weeks off to visit Washington in February and then four weeks off work to visit the USA in the summer and ‘POOF’ – where’d my annual leave go? I got back from the US at the end of August and already had no remaining annual leave for the rest of this year. It has meant FOUR straight months without a day off and that won’t seem a big deal to some of you, particularly having had six weeks off this year but damn.. it has genuinely felt like a struggle.

Work, work, work, work, work and repeat. I can’t pretend to have any regrets about taking a month long trip, it was a sacrifice I willingly made but you don’t appreciate how valuable a single day of annual leave is until you don’t have it.
One day of annual leave can quickly translate in to a Friday or a Monday off work and suddenly you’ve got the opportunity for a long weekend somewhere.

Sadly I don’t have that luxury but similarly I couldn’t wait until January for the next trip. If all I’ve got is a weekend to play with then so be it, I’ll go somewhere for a weekend. Obviously that has some restrictions, I won’t be flying to Australia or anywhere far-flung. I knew I’d be restricted to a European weekend trip but it’s a big old continent to go and explore so I wasn’t short of options.

After browsing through various options I found suitable flights and on Saturday morning I’m flying to Warsaw in Poland. On Sunday evening I’ll be flying back to England. It’s my first time in Poland and I’m gutted I’m not going to be able to enjoy it for longer but it is what it is. Hopefully I’ll be able to make the most of my limited time there and look to return at another point in the future but for now it’s a quick little trip.

Any recommendations for Warsaw or traditional Polish delicacies to try are greatly appreciated!

Up next on the blog? Georgia, USA!

Stay tuned!

Jason