September has been a really nice and relaxed month. The month started by finishing up a fantastic two-week trip to the Balkans! I also had a fantastic weekend away in the Lake District for my birthday. Here’s what all I got up to in September!

Where I Went

Kranj (Slovenia)

York, Kirkstone Pass, Great Langdale, Crinkle Crags, Little Langdale, Blea Tarn, Wrynose Pass, Castlerigg Stone Circle, Tan Hill Inn (United Kingdom)

Best Moments

Celebrating my birthday in the Lake District. For the past three years, I’ve gone to the Lake District for my birthday weekend in September. It’s an annual tradition now, and I love it! This time we stayed at a super cool place, and went to see some really amazing things. I loved it! The Lake District is one of my favorite places and I love each and every time I visit.

The walk up Crinkle Crags and the views! For my weekend in the Lake District, we planned one long walk on the Saturday. We decided to explore Langdale and head up Crinkle Crags. It was a great walk, and the views at the top were amazing! We could see for miles. I had never been to Langdale before but I definitely need to go back now to explore more!

Staying at the Kirkstone Pass Inn. This is definitely one of the most unique places I’ve ever stayed. The Kirkstone Pass Inn is the highest pub in the Lake District, and the third-highest pub in the country. It was so fun staying here! The barman, Chris, was such a cool guy, and the pub is really remote and rural. The food was amazing (especially the full English breakfast in the morning) and it was a such a great experience. I would absolutely recommend this place!

A lot of events as an official blogger! I had two events in York for the York Food Festival this month, which was a lot of fun. There was a press preview event, with plenty of delicious nibbles. I also went to the Wine Fair, which was so much fun. It was great chatting to suppliers and learning about a lot of wines—including local wines from Yorkshire!

I also had a fantastic event in Leeds for eShores, a travel company, to learn more about their US multi-center holidays. It was SO much fun! The event space (Lambert’s Yard) was gorgeous, the food was phenomenal, the cocktails were excellent, and it was so much fun to meet other bloggers in the area. It was really intimidating for me to walk in a room where I knew absolutely no one. But it ended up being such a fun evening and I enjoyed it so much!

This was a big month for events and I (finally) felt like an actual blogger. It was huge for me!

Lots of new things in the Lake District. I had so much fun in the Lakes, and I got to do a lot of new things that I hadn’t done before. I finally got to visit the Lakes Distillery—not only did I get to try some fantastic whisky, but I learned all about their restored building. I admired the view from Surprise View and finally got to see Ashness Bridge. There is just so much to see in the Lake District and I’m glad I had the time this trip around for some new things.

Visiting the Tan Hill Inn. After staying at the Kirkstone Pass Inn, I really wanted to visit the highest pub in the country. That would be the Tan Hill Inn in North Yorkshire! After driving for 20 minutes off the main highway, without seeing a single structure and just a few other cars, we made it to the pub. It is SO remote and a really unique place to visit. The fire has been going for 100 years, and the porch is always open as it’s a refuge point for distressed hikers. I loved this place!

Worst Moments

It was really tough coming back to work after holiday. I really struggled during the beginning of this month going back to work after the end of a fantastic trip. I felt like my trip in the Balkans was me in my element. I was (quite literally) living my best life and felt that being on the road was where I was meant to be. It took me the first few weeks to settle back into my work schedule and not dwell so much on where I’m not.

Hurting my ankle in the Lake District. While it wasn’t anything serious, I overdid it with my ankle during our big walk up Crinkle Crags. It meant that I really didn’t want to do any serious walking on our second day, and had to pass up a shorter walk on our second day. Of course, by the next day after we got home it was completely fine! But it was annoying when it happened.

There’s been some drama at work. I can’t say too much about this, since I do try to stay professional on my blog. But there’s been some issues with pay at my work, and only recently I found out just how big of an issue it is. Hopefully it’ll be sorted for the start of November. But it definitely doesn’t make me feel valued or motivated to go to work.

Posts Published

I went on a huge posting spree this month! I’ve been trying to publish lots of posts from my Balkans trip, and not leave them so long. Here’s everything I published this month!

On Visiting Every Country In Eastern Europe: My Biggest Travel Accomplishment To Date!

What To Do In Skopje, North Macedonia’s Funky Capital

13 Tips For Surviving Life Abroad

Matka Canyon: A Perfect Daytrip From Skopje

The Best Cafes And Bars In Pristina, Kosovo

Hostel Review: Shanti Hostel, Skopje

Event Review: eShores USA Travel Evening In Leeds

What To See In Pristina, Kosovo: One Of Europe’s Coolest Cities

Hostel Review: Oda Hostel, Pristina

A Daytrip To Prizren From Pristina

The Complete Guide To Applying To Renew My UK Spouse Visa

Instagram Top 3

I’ve been very hit and miss with Instagram lately. Here are my most popular photos from the month!

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I’m trying so hard not to be devastated to be home from a trip but…. It’s not working very well 😂 I’ve had so many people watching my stories and following along on these adventures, and I think it’s been pretty obvious to you as much as it is to me: traveling makes me happy. I am in my element on the road. It’s what I’m meant to do and where I’m meant to be. ✨ . The post-trip blues hit me so hard every time, but REALLY hard right now. Especially since this is the longest trip I’ve had since last summer, and the longest trip I’ll have probably until next summer. (Mr. AWM is a teacher and so we try to do a big trip during the school holidays when he’s off.) Despite having some pretty exciting (shorter) trips booked for the rest of the year, I so desperately want to go on longer trips where I can explore deeper and discover more places. I try to be really positive on IG but sometimes I think it’s important to keep it real – this is tough for me, and I’m struggling right now. ❤️ . How do you deal with the post-trip blues and post-travel depression?? What makes you feel better? . . . . . . #ohrid #lakeohrid #visitohrid #ohridlake #ohridcalling #macedonia #northmacedonia #ig_macedonia #discovernorthmacedonia #macedonianplaces #exploremacedonia #thebestofmacedonia #mymacedonia #mysticmacedonia #sharemacedonia #macedoniatimeless #balkans #balkanstrip #discoverbalkania #mytinyatlas #flashesofdelight #dametraveler #womenwhoexplore #wearetravelgirls #womentravelphotographers #thewomenwhowander #girlstraveleurope #beautifuldestinations #passionpassport #guardiantravelsnaps

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Sep 4, 2019 at 11:44am PDT

 

View this post on Instagram

 

WEIRDEST DAY IN ALBANIA! What’s the craziest daytrip/excursion you’ve ever done? Going to Blini Park and the boat trip on Lake Koman in Albania was mine – which looked like this: We got picked up from our hostel and got driven in a minibus on narrow winding mountain “roads” (playing fast and loose with the word “roads” 😂) for an hour and a half. Got dropped off at the boat launch, no clue what was going on but some random guy said to get in a boat so we did, had a beautiful hour and a half boat ride on Lake Koman. We pulled up to the landing beach and everyone goes off wading through the river – so we followed them and waded through beautiful crystal-clear FREEZING water (waist-deep at some points!) because that’s what everyone was doing. Got to a resort in the middle of fucking nowhere (35 minutes of wading through a river from the nearest boat access), where the sun is shining, music is on, all the Albanians are dancing, and it’s me and Adam, a German couple, and a Finnish guy who have no idea what’s happening 😂 besides that this place is LIT 🔥 we spend the afternoon chilling on the beach, swimming, hanging out, then wading back to the boats, boat trip to the next landing, and another 1.5 hours on mountain “roads” to get back to Shkoder. I had no idea what was happening most of the time, but this is where I got to spend the day so 10/10 would recommend 😊👌🇦🇱 . . . . . . . #albania #blinipark #shalariver #shqiperi #beautyofalbania #visitalbania #discoveralbania #travelalbania #explorealbania #sharealbania #beautifulalbania #albaniatourism #albaniagoyourownway #smilealbania #balkans #balkanstrip #discoverbalkania #mytinyatlas #flashesofdelight #wheretofindme #dametraveler #womenwhoexplore #sheisnotlost #wearetravelgirls #womentravelphotographers #thewomenwhowander #girlstraveleurope #beautifuldestinations #passionpassport #guardiantravelsnaps

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Sep 8, 2019 at 11:02am PDT

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I had the most amazing few days in Kosovo, definitely one of the highlights to this trip to the Balkans! I honestly didn’t know what to expect but what I found was an incredible place, with beautiful (and sometimes tragic) history. People were so friendly, whether they were helping me jump onto a moving coach bus (because when in Kosovo 😅), or offering me a free shot of rakija, the brandy-like liquor beloved in the Balkans! 😊 I genuinely just loved my time here and wish I’d had had longer. . This is from Prizren, with the fortress looming above the city 😍🇽🇰 . . . . . . #prizren #prizrencity #visitprizren #visitprishtina #visitpristina #goprishtina #instaprishtina #kosovo #visitkosova #visitkosovo #imageofkosovo #explorekosovo #kosovoisbeautiful #instakosovo #vividkosova #balkans #balkanstrip #discoverbalkania #mytinyatlas #flashesofdelight #wheretofindme #prettylittletrips #dametraveler #girlstraveleurope #womentravelphotographers #lpfanphoto #natgeotravelpic #beautifuldestinations #passionpassport #guardiantravelsnaps

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Sep 10, 2019 at 10:43am PDT

Coming Up In October

I’ve got some really fun plans coming up in October! I have a weekend in the Peak District planned, which I’m really excited for. For my birthday, Adam got me a navigation course in the Peaks, so we’ll be doing that with Pure Outdoors for one day! The end of October will also see a very exciting long weekend trip: I’m headed back to Northern Ireland! I visited here in 2011 on my first independent trip abroad and haven’t been back since. I’m so excited to visit Belfast and explore more of the Causeway Coast!

What all did you get up to in September? Any exciting plans for October?!