Happy new (Gregorian) year everybody!
A little bit late, but I took the initiative to open this nice thread, in a sense expanding Els's
latest blog post, as you all are probably too busy travelling! :-P
So, how was this year? I'd say busy again. After few months work returned to a normal state and everything was back again in presence, so for me it was again a game of fitting some journeys between work trips & academic tasks. A little less flexibility, but some more opportunities too. Unfortunately, I missed Bulgaria as that conference was the last victim of anti-Covid precautions, but France (Marseille) was safe.
Computationally speaking, all in all I continued being slow and, if I counted well, I personally added only 16 new sites, with no automatic ticks from the WH session, less than last year. I say "only" since for some reasons I had a kind of completionist frenzy and focused a lot on new sites of already visited WHSs: out of ca 63 visited WH
sites (per official designations, because sometimes there are more "unofficial" ones, as e.g. Caserta really is = Reggia + San Leucio + aqueduct), 29 belonged to already visited WHSs, and 8 were plain revisits, with Rome and Istanbul counting twice! Thus, revisited sites were as much as new ones (16). In fact, I felt I succumbed a bit to randomness (Istanbul x2, Rome x2) or focused on very sparse/limited areas (Sudan, Zanzibar, Norway). No European bagging trips. Somehow I did not take off, WHS-ly speaking. I also decided to follow more than to lead: partly more relaxing, but partly I regretted (and suffered) it a little.
So my resolutions for 2023: more mindfulness, more focus & more planning! And less indulging on revisits!
But also: finally finish off Italian pile dwellings (2 left, for the good season) and the last Langobard site (Foggia is far away and I'd like to give that area a proper visit time)!
My
tops and flops for 2022:
- Most fascinating:
Gebel Barkal, with its mixture of archaeology and mystic suggestions of the holy mountain, in a beautiful landscape (Nile and desert)
- Most exhilarating: Norway was, a little surprisingly since it wasn't my first time (4th actually), the overall best trip for me. Might be for the absurdly good weather, or for meeting Svein and Randi at the end ;-) I am undecided between Rjukan and
Ornes, but I'd say the latter: the beauty of the hoary stavkyrkje in the morning peace after a long drive around a glittering fjord (Lustrafjord)
- Most underwhelming:
Stone Town, because of a very hasty and bad visit. I have to go back...
- Most active visit: a rather wild, fast-paced up-and-down hike through
Valcamonica's rock carvings in a searing summer. But actually also the equally searing 20km walk between Musawwarat as-Safra and Naqaa (Meroe)
- Most surprising (T)WHS: again Norway, the millstone quarry at
Hyllestad. Incredible setting, tangible remains and weird, forgotten story. But second also Al-Hassaini national park for the blend of desert, savanna and volcanic landscapes.
- WHS word of the year:
nuraghe :-)
- Completionism: I finally reached all
Sacri Monti! More elusive than imagined, as I am easily distracted when I am roaming around
How will 2023 look like? Travelling seems back to normal again. But despite talking about "more focus" before, I really have no idea personally. The year has unfortunately not started so well, and my travel inspiration is in a kind of
tabula rasa state. I will make up my mind this month... I can only cross the fingers for my possible first visit to the US in March for a conference (Georgetown).
I wish everybody great travels and would be glad to hear how your 2022 was! Waiting for one or two WH sessions! :-)
