Year in review: My top ten places in 2010.

“No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.”

— Charles Lamb

As we move further into 2011, I wanted to not only take the time to look back on the year that has just been, but to also say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read these words from the road less taken…it’s been one heck of a ride and I can’t wait to see what unfolds next.

Here’s a look back on my favorite places from 2010:

1. The North Island of New Zealand

The first day of 2010 found me in Wellington, New Zealand, nearing the end of a year-long working holiday.

Although I worked hard through February, growing the savings account as much as possible, I soon pulled up anchor and set out around the largely unexplored North Island. For one month, I hiked up volcanoes and through glowworm caves, slid downhill on sandboards and inside plastic orbs, and got to know the country that had come to feel like a second home.

To any who may say the South Island has more striking scenery to offer than its northern counterpart, I have only two words: Go north.

2. Ahe, French Polynesia

The opportunity to work on a black pearl farm in the South Pacific in exchange for food and accommodation seemed like the perfect way to spend a month between New Zealand and returning home.

My time on the island of Ahe taught me that paradise is more than white sands and palm trees; it’s about adapting to a new way of life and the new livelihood of pearl farming. Being a part of the pearl harvest was one of those times that will remain with me long after the physical experience has ended–waking at dawn, working to the beat of pulsing dance music, and witnessing each pearl emerge from the mouths of oysters.

3. Toronto, Ontario

After a much-needed summer spent at home with family and friends, I headed back on the road, bound for London–but not before a brief twelve-hour layover in Toronto.

From the halls of an exhibit titled Drama and Desire at the Art Gallery of Ontario to the base of the CN Tower, my feet couldn’t move fast enough across the sidewalks of my first Canadian city. I sipped on coffee at Tim Horton’s, skipped along the brick streets of the Distillery District, and stared at the ice hockey players on the country’s five dollar bill–all the while wondering, is this what it means to be a Canadian?

4. Cologne, Germany

Polaroids drew me to Germany, or rather the company responsible for resurrecting them from their untimely death a year or two earlier. Not long after arriving in London, I hopped on the Eurostar and made my way to Cologne to volunteer at an event put on by the Impossible Project. 

Although my first hours in the city were spent slicing rich German bread and entertaining the company’s investors, Cologne was mine for the taking the next day. A climb up the two-towered Dom cathedral, free Lindt samples from the chocolate museum, and the lockets of love on the Hohenzollern bridge were all highlights on a striking autumn day.

5. Liverpool, UK

As exciting as new stamps in the passport are, I returned to England in September with another promise to myself: I would make an effort to get out of London this time around and get to know the country itself–not just its capital. It’s a difficult promise to keep, what with there being no end to what London has to offer and the daunting prices of travel within the UK, but I was determined.

Liverpool proved a worthy destination, and not just because its residents have possibly the most enviable name ever: Liverpudlians. From Beatles culture and the largest Chinese gate outside mainland China to the ever-perplexing “Lambananas” found across the city, there was no regretting this daytrip.

6. Kingston-Upon-Thames, UK

I knew little of Kingston before moving there for a graduate program, only that it lay outside the central London I’d lived in and loved my first time in the UK two years ago.

Now that I’ve settled into life in the outer boroughs of London, I’m starting to believe I’ve got the best of both worlds. Only a fifteen-minute train ride away from Waterloo Station, the capital is on my doorstep and I never feel too disconnected from what’s going on. But living just a little further out makes not only for cheap rent, but a quieter existence and a sense of what English life looks like on a smaller scale.

7. Copenhagen, Denmark

When the Travel Bloggers Exchange announced they were hosting their first European conference in Copenhagen, I didn’t hesitate to sign up. It wasn’t just the chance to dodge bicycles in the city’s morning rush hour or to taste the infamous Christmas beer on J-Day that I loved. It was new travel blogging friends like Joseph, Erin, Justin, and Dylan that truly made it a weekend to remember.

8. Kansas, USA

“You’re moving where?” my brother was often asked after deciding to transfer to a small university in central Kansas to play soccer.

I faced similar questions after I booked my flights home for Christmas–via Wichita, Kansas. It seemed the perfect way to travel home for the holidays–my first Great American Roadtrip. We began in in the heart of the country, in a tiny town called McPherson, Kansas, before making our way east–through Kansas City and St. Louis, where we took an hour to go up the Arch and watch the sun set, and then through the snowy hills of Kentucky and West Virginia.

Twenty-four driving hours and one night in a cheap motel later, we were home.

9. Home

Being able to say, “I’ll be home for Christmas,” never felt so good until I’d missed two Christmases in a row and realized the depression that is spending the holidays away from the ones you love most. I arrived home this year armed with two boxes of mince pies, one Terry’s chocolate orange, and enough Christmas crackers to ensure everyone in my family would have a taste of Britain this holiday season.

But despite sharing the new traditions I’d picked up from my adopted country, I found all I really wanted to do was re-live the things that have always made Christmas what it is to my family, whether it’s quoting every line from It’s a Wonderful Life or building a snowman with my brother.

10. On the road

Goodbyes never seem to get any easier, for me at least. But as I sit in the air, somewhere between Richmond, Virginia, and Chicago, departing for London in the morning, I know one thing is for sure: no matter how difficult it is parting from loved ones, I will go.

A good friend once told me how she views each stage in life as a bridge–a bridge that might often not reveal itself until after we’ve crossed it. With a certain degree of hindsight, we are permitted the ability to turn around and marvel at how that part of our life now makes such sense; how what was begun with such fear and trepidation now actually seems as if we’d planned it like that all along.

As 2011 starts out and another year begins, I am resolving to take each bridge as it comes and trust that peace will come in its own time. 2010 was a year filled to capacity with experiences and adventures I won’t soon forget, a year that leaves me with only one question: What will 2011 hold?

What were your favorite places from 2010? Any places already on your list for 2011? Happy exploring!