Travel memories…those moments that remain in our hearts for years and which make us warm up when we recall them.

I have been traveling independently and without my parents, since I was 19 (so that’s pretty much 12 years already). During those years, a lot of memories started to pile up, which makes it’s quite hard to easily write about my top 5 travel memories. Each time I do something new and amazing, I know that something I’ve done in the past doesn’t live up to the new experience.

Number 5. Seeing the baby panda at Vienna Zoo in August 2008.

I am a sucker for baby animals and at one point I was a sucker for the zoo, too. Now…not so much, I would rather go on a safari. Anyway, pandas have always fascinated me and I was lucky enough to see a baby panda when I visited Vienna in August 2008. True, he was perched on the top of a tree, snoozing away when we visited, but I saw it. And the parents were cute and cuddly, too.

Number 4. Spending a day at Pompeii and Herculaneum, September 2014

We have planned our trip to Italy in 2014 around visiting Naples and the famous ancient sites nearby, before heading to the coast. I’ve done my research and figured we could visit both Herculaneum and Pompeii in a day. We did. It was extremely tiring but also amazing. My favorite memory is from Herculaneum. It has been drizzling all day but now it started to rain as I was approaching the caves where skeletons of women and children still exist. I could feel their terror of not knowing what was happening.

Number 3. Walking in the Ancient Greek Agora in Athens, March 2012

This is huge coming from someone who didn’t exactly enjoy the Legends of the Olympus. But, roaming endlessly in a historical site such as the Ancient Greek Agora in Athens is something I will remember my entire life. Plus, we had the site pretty much for ourselves and we could daydream about what it would have looked like during its peak years.

Number 2. Visting Alberobello, Italy, May 2016

Having been transiting through Bari before we decided that, for once, we should make plans to go to Alberobello. Tiny, charming, and easily reachable from Bari, Alberobello was the perfect end to our wedding anniversary trip in 2016. It was warm, it wasn’t that crowded, and we found some nice alleys where we could play taking selfies completely alone.

Number 1. Alex drawing a heart in the sand in Vieste, March 2012

I am not, I repeat: I am not, a beach person. Nor a very romantic person for that matter. Or maybe I have different views of what romantic is all about. Either way, between watching the sunrise together at the Adriatic Sea and Alex drawing a heart in the sand in Vieste…I certainly can call that ‘beach vacation’ romantic and incredible.

This article was first published in Sep 2012; edited, updated, and republished in Feb 2017.