When should you spend your vacation days in 2018?

My efficient way of maximizing my vacation days

Okay, this is relevant for Slovenians since it’s based on our holidays. As a travel addict, the first thing I often do in a year is to check how many vacations days don’t overlap with weekends and I make a plan for optimal usage if my vacation days. 2018 is in fact the best year ever - 0 Slovenian holidays overlap with weekends. So, when should you take your days off?

• Friday, 9th of February: our cultural holiday in February (8.2.) is a great opportunity to have a 4-day getaway. I am going skiing with my friends in Austria and I’m thrilled about it.
• Tuesday, 2nd of April: if Easter holidays don’t mean much to you (meaning you can miss out on the family breakfast with eggs and ham), you can get another 4-day getaway for just 1 vacations day. Me and Jost are flying to Montenegro from Ljubljana (we got a return ticket for 80 EUR from Ljubljana, say whaaat?) and it’s perfect: the flight is on Friday afternoon and we’re coming back on Tuesday evening. I am VERY excited about exploring Montenegro, we might also go to Albania and Kosovo, since it’s only 30 minutes away and the mountains there look awesome.
• 1st of May vacations: classic choice, for 3 days of vacation days you get 10 days getaway. I was thinking about going to Greece but then we saw this ticket to Calgary, Canada for 330 EUR return from Venice and we just had to get it! Banff national park in Alberta was on my to-go list for years and now it’s finally happening.
• 25th of June is a holiday and does not require any holidays, of course you can add a day or two, perfect long weekend to go hiking in Bovec or drive to Krk island and swim in the sea for the first time in a season
• 15th of August comes on Wednesday, so taking 2 days before or after brings you a nice 5-day holiday!
• Autumn vacations: calendar is treating us nicely, take a trp from 27.10. - 4.11. (9 days) and spend only 3 days of holidays. Last autumn we went to Tuscany and it was amazing: 22 degrees, autumn colours, low season prices, no crowds, superb food …
• New year vacations: the jackpot of 2018 is new year vacations. I love Christmas and holiday time so I’ve actually never travelled in this time. However, looking at the calendar, we’re definitely escaping somewhere to Asia this year: 22.12. - 6.1., 6 days of vacations for 16 days of holidays!

Thank you 2018 for treating us so nicely.

Perks of travelling the world

(Almost) everyone loves travelling, at least people I know. Exploring new places, eating new food, meeting new people, discovering new cultures, trying out new things. Exciting. Most of us really enjoy the escapism of travelling, go somewhere, forget about our current problems, relax, deal with stress, recharge, sleep, reflect, set some goals, get some ideas, deepen your connections with other people around you.

I often went somewhere, because I saw a preety picture and I said: OMG!! I'm so going there. But then it wasn't about the picture. Now I remember the experiences, people, nature and most of all, I remember the feeling that one place gave me.

I experienced quite some crazy things so far, mostly with Jošt. We were crawling in mines in Bolivia at 4300 m, hardly breating. We road the bike on the most dangerous road on the world, from snovy mountains at 4000 m to th jungle at 700 m. We spent countless hours on shitty indonesian busses, changing tyres, pushing the bus, sitting with chickens etc. We saw orangutans on Sumatra and slept in the jungle on the floor. We discovered a paradise near Sumatra at Tailana island and I cried when we left. We dropped on a wedding on Lombok, Indonesia. We swam with 10 meter long whale shark on Philippines. We were riding a motorbike in Philippines (3 people on one bike), driving 100 kph without helmets. We were scared of dying on the boat ride from Flores to Lombok - the ocean was super rough at night. In Indonesia, we saw mantas while snorkeling and in Malaysia, we saw small sharks and turtles. In Sri lanka, we saw a python crossing a road just in front of our eyes. We tried chewing coca in Peru. I also lived with vietnamese family in Hanoi, saw icebergs in Iceland, talked about sex with girls in Azerbaijan etc. And of course, we met a bunch of really interesting people on the way, ate the best food in our life, connected on a whole other level, talked for 20 hours in a raw and I could go on. It's been 11 years since I first went outside Europe (Cuba, 2006) and my travel list is still very long.

But ... travelling was not about all those experiences.

I see travelling as a school of life. It made me more aware of our planet, nature, beauty and power of earth. We're so small, when we see ourselves and the ocean, mountains, amazon forest. Travelling makes me feel alive and at the same time ashame, since I come from a place where I have everything.

Travelling makes me feel. Travelling makes me feel like a global resident. Travelling makes me appreciate things I already have in my life, since I have so much more than most of the people.
Travelling makes me rethink capitalism. People in southeast Asia are mostly much happier than people in Slovenia or Europe. They work much less and spend more time with their friends, family. Some of them don't know the word stress. I'd say that is preety healthy attitude towards life.

So, the last time I was flying home from Asia, I was wondering: how can I create life, that brings out the best from both western and eastern culture? Can I even live in western world and apply eastern principles? Can I live in eastern world and apply western principles?

In the light of recent events (Trump, Brexit, fear of muslim etc), most importantly, travelling makes me understand other cultures. I have muslim friends. Some of the most friendly people I've met in my life were muslim. They seem way more openminded than most christians I know. Maybe it's not easy to have this kind of attitude, if you haven't met them. So go, if you can. Go, travel. Don't go to Europe, don't go to US or Australia. Go to countries with a truly different culture, different religion. And observe, how much will you change your world views, your empathy, your love towards all people that live on earth.

I'm sure some of you might be thinking - right, Urša, I don't know where you got the money, but it's not so cheap to go to Asia. My answer would be: it's all about priorities. My priority is travelling. I spend everything I have for it (ok, and education). I have a smartphone for 70 eur and it works. My laptop is not Apple and it's great. I don't buy clothes that often. If you own iphone6 and an Apple computer, that probably cost you 2000 eur. The cheapest trip we ever had cost us 1000 eur all together for one month - Sumatra and Bali, Indonesia, including plane ticket. You can travel cheap if you want to.

I can't wait to go on a bus, train, plane again. Currently I really need to escape and travelling can give me exactly what I need - change of environment, recharge, stressless lifestlye, books, conversations, sports, time to think, sleep a lot, eat good food and have fun. So, where are you going next?

Looking back at 2012 - thank you!

I want to thank all the people who made my 2012 really awesome. I will remeber this year by people, events and places, that impacted me the most. It was a challenging year, but I was doing exactly what I enjoy the most - being busy and under pressure. Any regrets? Sure. Not attending TEDxSummit in Doha. You can't have it all. :)

January

In the end of December I became a president at ŠS PRSS (Student PR section) and it was one of the best decisions I've made so far. I enjoyed every minute of it, my board was great and we developed our NGO  a lot, so I am really proud of these intense 9 months. Even though I was really really afraid (of failing, I guess) how everything will be, it turned out that responsibility made me even more motivated to work hard. Now we already have a new board with even more motivated girls and it's a pleasure to observe what is happening this year. Thank you, Ana, Maša, Barbara, Nina, Eva, Milena for reading all emails I wrote and for supporting my crazy ideas!

4 generations of presidents of ŠS PRSS

February

It's not a real year, if I don't travel. But there is one thing I like more then travelling - combination of travelling and education. So Mind the box project on Malta was really perfect - trainings on creativity + hanging out with my Komsip friends + discovering Malta. I will always remember last night. We were sitting in the circle and each person could ask 1 question to the whole group. We wrote a Q on a piece of paper, so nobody knew, who asked what. Group on this event wasn't really connected and we are also not really keeping in touch after the event, but in this evening people really got open and shared their experiences. I can't wait to repeat session like this some day and I still think about the things we talked about sometimes. Thank you, Hanna, for this awesome session, thank you, Mamo, for sending email about the project to LSS group, thank you Demjan, Luka, Urška and Maja for fun times on Malta.

 Our home on Malta

March

March was time for TEDxBled. Biggest TEDx enthusiasts from TEDxLJ team also joined this project, this time in a different role - judges for speakers, that applied online.  We each watched like 50 videos and chose the best candidates. Talks from Hayley Lapalme and Maris Slezins are still in my head. I will also not forget rehearsal in late hours, switching car and amazing Nate Ware, who was the best feedback giver I ever heard. Thank you Dan, for making TEDxBled happen and big thanks to all the attendees of Challenge Future summit, that really inspired me. For sure I'd love to attend next CF Summit!

April

April was TEDxChange@Ljubljana time! While the streaming from Berlin really really sucked, second part with 8 inspiring speakers was really awesome and Smelt location was just perfect. I will never forget rehearsals with speakers and afterparty for the team, where we were reading all the comments from Twitter - great feeling of satisfaction. Big thanks to all TEDxLjubljana team members and speakers who inspired us. Watch Mitja Mavsar (in Slovene) or Jugoslav Petković (in english). 

Speakers and organizers

May

May was one busy month. First TEDxFDV happened and attracted 400 people and I had to stand on the stage in front of them! I'm not doing that again, since I was too stressed, but I am glad to say TEDxFDV is happening again this year! Big thanks to my amazing team (girl power!), help of TEDxLJ and speakers - thank you Sašo and Luka, for getting involved in TEDx world so much! I will never forget cozy rehearsal place at Dlabs, afterparty in Netcafe and all the people who I saw at the event and are now regularly attending TEDx events.

Girl power - top shit organizers from ŠS PRSS

July

I love Indonesia. Travelling there for the third time with Jošt = the best holidays I could imagine. I recommend it to anyone that loves friendly people, green nature, waves on the sea and good food. Summer is my holy time, when I give my hands some rest from all the typing emails, my brain some rest from all the projects and my mind some time to think about nothing. In summer, my project is me. I need to thank my awesome boyfriend to support my travelling ideas.

 What could be more relaxing then

 watching surfers on Uluwatu?

August and September

I moved to Hanoi for 2 months. New culture, new friends, new daily routine. Basically I just needed to take a longer break from exhausting half a year that I had - it was a damn good break, full of extraordinary good food, international friendships and humid weather. Afraid of the upcoming year, where for the first time in my life I could really choose, how I spend my time (no school after 16 years) I cleared my head and came back, with my batteries full. Big thanks to all the other interns, Aiesec FTU Hanoi organizers, but mostly I need to thank my host family for taking care of me!

"Tomorrow, mango juice place?"

November 

My first long-term training event; European school 1 with Aegee Aachen. Another awesome experience, which made my autumn really exciting. Working in a team of 7 trainers on weekly skype meetings and taking care of development of 20 participants of the one week long event. I will never forget reflection groups, feedback groups, trainers meetings, training delivery and all the awesome people I had the chance to work with! Big thanks to Katja, for giving me the opportunity and my best roommates, Anja and Caro. 

My reflection group: Šarka, Bogdan and Farid

December

Gluhwien and parties. Hmhm. Not really. Working hard for TEDxLjubljana: Turning a new page. Really nice ending of this year - limitless energy on the event and even more positive feedback after the event. I will always remember ... speakers rehearsals on IBM, running up and down the stairs in Opera and folding Pocketmod booklets. Honestly, big thanks to all the speakers, that affected my way of thinking and brought me to some important realizations about attitude. Big thanks to the team, for surviving this crazy year with 4 events!

Proud speakers and organizers

On the end I need to thank my friends and family supporting me while rather investing my time in work then in relationships. I guess I need to take another look at this TED talk. Let the 2013 be at least 67 % as awesome as 2012! :)