Last year, I travelled too much. By my final trip to Kiev almost exactly a year ago, cities and trips were blurring into one another, I was on first name terms with most of the easyJet cabin crew, and I'd re-qualified for my gold frequent flier card with several months to spare. I was so sick of being away from my family that I would catch the 6am flight to my destination and the 11pm flight home the same day, in a vain attempt to minimise my time away from home.
My year in cities 2013
As I stepped off my final flight of the year, I have no problem admitting I was a little emotional. Not because the year's travel was coming to an end but because I was reminded that just a few years ago I was so scared of flying that the very idea of getting on a plane was enough to make me feel nauseous. Overcoming my fear of flying remains one of my biggest personal achievements. I'm proud of myself, quite frankly.
My year in cities 2011
I'm able to write this post a little earlier than usual as my trip to Istanbul was my last trip of 2011. This is the fourth year I've done this summary but I used a new tool to come up with the miles. In the past I've used the awesome Great Circle Mapper but this year I stumbled across OpenFlights which is a bit more weapon's grade. It spits out neat analysis of all the flights you enter, some of which I've listed below. So for 2011 I did 29 flights covering 80,732 miles, down substantially from last year's 103, 828 miles on 36 flights. But still a heck of a lot of travel. I made a conscious effort to travel less this year so I could spend more time with my wife and son and it seems to have worked.
My year in cities 2010
My year in cities 2009
My year in cities 2008
2008 was a ridiculous year of travel. Nearly 100,000 miles. Multiple, non-consecutive stays are noted with asterisks. London, England *
San Francisco, California *
Livermore, California *
New York, New York *
Boston, Massachusetts
Marrakesh, Morocco
Paris, France *
Amsterdam, Netherlands *
Helsinki, Finland
Los Angeles, California *
Long Beach, California *
Cancun, Mexico
Stockholm, Sweden
Budapest, Hungary
Johannesburg, South Africa
Manchester, England
Antwerp, Belgium
Bruges, Belgium
Helsinki, Finland
Newcastle, England