2021 in review

Unlike 2020, where it was almost impossible to travel, 2021 was a pretty busy year for my travels. Consequently, that also means that besides the updates on the website itself, it was a busy year here in publishing posts. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean it was smooth sailing. I managed to travel to some of Australia’s best spots and tick more places on my travel list in Australia. But, it came with constantly avoiding snap lockdowns. I had to cancel my New-Zealand plans for the third time, and I almost got caught in Sydney‘s most prolonged lockdown. But, all is well that ends well, and the year ended where it started, on King Island. It can be unclear where I have travelled if you haven’t followed me. Below is a map of the places I visited this year to make it more straightforward. Here is for you, 2021 in review! 🙂

The year started on King Island in Tasmania, and after a tour with my local band, Yentl As Anything, I had planned to go back to Melbourne. Covid struck, and I flew to Hobart instead. From there, I made a loop around Tasmania. Kickstarting the trip was Bruny Island. The South Coast Track marked the middle, and it all finished in the North. I did manage to fly into Victoria afterwards, and my journey continued. After a short visit to King Island in between, I made it to South Australia and then the Northern Territory. My trip to New Zealand got cancelled, and I suddenly ended up in Queensland for about two months. Thinking ahead for 2022, I went back to King Island to work and to save up again!

As of 2022, my website celebrates its tenth anniversary. Notwithstanding, I made plenty of changes over the years and 2021 was probably the year it changed the most. From its start in 2012 until the end of 2018, my website only focussed on my music career. It contained information about music projects, upcoming and past gigs dates. When my travels started in 2019, I decided to start over and change my yentldoggen.be web address to yentldoggen.com. My first year of travelling, and therefore, plenty of travel blogs and vlogs made it onto the website. It felt wrong that my new website left out everything before my travels, and in 2020, I added a music- and online education section. In the end, I still wasn’t happy. The combination of music and travel made my website a complete unorganized mess.

In 2021, my life was a fantastic combination of travelling and playing music. In addition, while being on the road again, I got inspired to use my website differently. I had planned to make travel videos and travel guides for a long time now, and it was about time that my experiences in both travelling and music could be helpful for other people. But, I first had to get rid of that unorganized mess. I changed my website from a hosted service to a self-hosted site about halfway through the year. It’s far more complicated to manage but also gives me more options. And, in August, with the help of some friends, I changed the whole layout and started to re-write my older posts. My website at the start of 2022? Everything I ever wanted in a website, but it took me the entire year of 2021 to get there 🙂

Travel videos in 2021

My first attempt at making travel videos for this website failed. About three years ago, at the start of this trip, I intended to make videos out of every destination that I visited. In reality, I never got any further than two videos in Thailand and an after-movie for Melbourne and the Great Ocean Walk. But, 2021 was different. Over the previous 12 months, I was able to add ten new travel videos—seven of them were from my trip to Tasmania and three were shot in Victoria. There are still plenty of unpublished and unedited videos. In addition, I’m sure I can double that amount of videos in 2022. But for 2021 in review and a year full of changes on this website, it’s the progress that counts. Below, I like to share some of the most amazing videos of the year, 2021!

Travel guides in 2021

Adding the travel guides section to my website was probably one of the most meaningful steps in 2021. Whenever I travel, I heavily rely on other people’s guides. You know, those guides that include all the usual things that help to create a great itinerary! The must-do‘s, the best things and the why’s or what’s of the destination I’m about to visit. I’ve wanted to start writing my own lists for a while now. Over the years, it was the same things holding me back. Firstly, English is not my native language, making the barrier even bigger. Secondly, I wasn’t happy with the way my old website was built and organized. So, with re-making my website, it was just the language holding me back, and after some trials in 2021, I’m pretty confident 2022 will get me started on more and better! Below I’ll share some of last years guides.

Music updates in 2021

For living on the other side of the world in the middle of a pandemic, I’m pretty happy about last year’s music calendar. My band, Yentl As Anything, had multiple concerts spread out over the year. Logistically, it was sometimes a bit of a mess, as I had to fly in and out of King Island numerous times. But, it also allowed me to play with a couple of other people and projects, making 2021 an excellent year for music. Besides, most of those gigs came with fantastic pictures and videos afterwards. If that doesn’t make for the best travel souvenir’s ever, I don’t know what will. Unfortunately, the music education section on my website wasn’t updated at all. I have plenty of plans for 2022, so I hope to find some time to work on that part as well. I’ll add the highlights for 2021 below.

Blogs and vlogs in 2021 

After vlogging daily in the first six months of my trip, I was done constantly editing them. I did have plans to pick it up again in 2021, but, in review, I never did. It’s a bit unfortunate because I even recorded vlogs on both the Larapinta Trail and Fraser Island. It’s not that I didn’t want to publish them; I just that I didn’t have any time yet to edit all of that. For 2022, I have some great things planned, and even the vlogs that are behind from last year should eventually make it onto my blogs and vlogs page! 🙂 In saying that, I did write blogs in the first part of the year. My whole trip to Tasmania was pretty easy to follow. Besides, I got my first sponsored post in 2021 and added some recipes to the website! Way to go 🙂

At the moment it is hard to plan out a future in travelling. While most borders are slowly opening up and the vaccination rates are getting higher, it seems that changes are always around the corner. Just like in the past two previous years, we don’t know what will happen. Despite that, we also can’t keep waiting. I’ll be working on King Island in the following two months, but my itineraries are slowly taking shape for afterwards. It is not impossible to travel; itineraries just have to be very flexible. You will find out what the plans exactly are on this website, and with a second writer, Avalon Stones, I’m sure many posts will follow. Besides, I made a publishing schedule, meaning that my website, socials, and newsletter should be updated consistently. Bring it on, 2022! 🙂

Are you enjoying seeing our website evolve? Please let us know in the comments below! There are multiple ways to help this music and travel platform grow even more significantly. To keep up-to-date with future adventures and travel guides, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or subscribe to our newsletter. We can’t build this platform without our readers, so we thank you for your continued support. Stay tuned for many more adventures to come!  Furthermore, I would like to wish you a great 2022, and I hope that our paths will cross somewhere at one point. If anyone wants to come and visit me, please do! Thank you for all the love and support. Happy New Year, everybody! Thanks for reading, 2021 in review 🙂