Our 2020 Review: The Most Challenging Year Of Our Lives
Each year, we review our year - our travels, life updates, and general happenings in the life of The Common Wanderer. Enjoy our 2020 overview, the toughest year of our life.
Ahhh, 2020. What a year.
Every year, somewhere between the food coma of Christmas and the hazy days of the New Year, we sit down together to do our 'year in review' post.
Normally it's a chance to reflect on a whirlwind of travel, work and general life over the last 12 months, and we enjoy the chance to reflect on the achievements and progress made over the year that was.
We probably don't really need to say that our 2020 review, much like the year itself, has been a pretty unusual one!
Like literally every person on the globe, we had big plans when the clock struck midnight on Jan 1 this year. It's safe to say that, like all of you, the reality was that it ended up being our most challenging year, both professionally and personally, ever.
So grab yourself a wine, aka the saviour of the 2020 sh*tstorm, settle in on the couch, and enjoy our year in review, and our (tentative) plans for 2021.
2020 IN REVIEW | THE GOOD, BAD AND 2021 GOALS
THE GOOD
Let’s start with the good, shall we?! All things considered, 2020 was okay for us - we got to see family and friends, we achieved some huge milestones on our blog, worked with amazing clients, won an award, snuck a few local trips in, and realised how damn fortunate we are.
Read on for more!
JANUARY 2020 | OUR BEST MONTH EVER
After a fun-filled Christmas with our Aussie friends Michael and Paula in Budapest, we jetted to the UK to spend New Years with our faves Andrew and Emily in Shrewsbury before the four of us popped across to Wales for a quick country getaway for Mim's birthday.
As far as promising starts to the year go, it was perfect; surrounded by friends, good food, wine and gin, interspersed with country walks, board games and long chats by the fireplace.
This time also coincided with our biggest days ever on our blog. And by big, we mean 180% up on the previous year. Obviously, this was met with excitement, happiness and a sense that, finally, after years of hard work, perseverance, and pain we'd finally 'made it's in the blogging world. It felt good. Really good.
We can remember how positive we felt at the time - the twinkle in our eyes, the excitement for what was to come. It feels really strange, writing this now, to remember back to this time after all that has happened this year.
Soon after returning to Budapest, we jumped on a train to western Austria to work with one of our favourite clients, Visit Vorarlberg, learning to ski for a week. In terms of dream jobs, this was it - being paid to learn to ski while relaxing in some of the finest alpine hotels and eating exceptional food. We'll never forget one day, in particular, snowshoeing through the heaviest snowfall we've experienced, surrounded by towering larches and almost a metre of snow. That day our smiles were as wide as they've ever been, and looking back we're so happy that we were present and content because we had no idea that this would be our last travel job of the year
At the end of it all, January concluded with our highest ever blog traffic, highest ever monthly earnings, and our highest ever optimism.
It was also at this time we heard murmurings of a virus in China.
WE WON TRAVMEDIA BLOGGER OF THE YEAR
As we sat at our gate in a disconcertingly quiet Heathrow Airport in early March, readying ourselves for the 24-hour flight from London back home to Melbourne, we found out that we’d been announced as the TravMedia Blogger of the Year for 2020…!
The TravMedia Awards recognise the ‘finest journalistic, influencer, and PR achievements across the travel sector’, and were announced at the IMM Travel Conference on 10 March.
In our industry, awards like this are kind of the ’travel Oscars’ - a huge recognition of what we do - and we still can’t quite believe that we actually won! Needless to say, we’re also very sad not to have been able to be there to collect it on the night and celebrate with many of our friends who were there too.
This little corner of the internet is our baby, and we really do pour our heart and soul into each day - so this is a huge thank you to every single one of you who reads our articles, follows our adventures, leaves us comments, messages, emails, carrier pigeons, etc.
We are only able to do what we do because of you guys, and we’re so very grateful for your endless support!
ps. special shoutout to our friend Macca from An Adventurous World for picking up our award for us!
A WEDDING IN AUSTRALIA WHICH LED TO...
We were always meant to return to Australia in March for a close friend's wedding, but as the news started to spread about this new virus, we held off booking flights until necessary.
By late February we really couldn't hold off any longer, so we finally sat down to book our flights home. We actually debated long and hard about whether we should actually travel given that the virus was really starting to spread through Asia. But we figured it hadn't really spread further afield, and the wedding was too important to miss. So we booked our flights through the Middle East (avoiding Asia at Mim's insistence - a very good call in hindsight!). I (Mark) am happy to admit I was a little blasé about the whole thing - oh how wrong I was.
Between the time we booked our flights to the time we left Europe, the virus spread rapidly throughout the world. Our flight back to Melbourne felt like a race against time, as countries began to report cases and discuss lockdown measures.
Still, like everyone else who's lived through 2020, we had no idea what was to come when we landed back in Melbourne and enjoyed a wonderful, if not a little jetlagged, the wedding with some of our nearest and dearest friends. We also managed to spend some quality time with family before, a few days into our visit, Australia began reporting cases and slammed their borders shut.
4 MONTHS IN AUSTRALIA
Our quick two-week trip back home ended up with a four-month stay in Australia. We weren't allowed to leave, nor was Hungary allowing foreign nationals through their borders. Unfortunately for us, we also hadn't organised our official Hungarian residence permits yet, so had little choice but to stay in Melbourne and ride it out.
We'll never forget the time we got to spend with family - it was the most time we'd spent home in five years and it was wonderful. We spent almost every night chatting with our respective parents, we got to spend time with Mark's niece and nephew (when allowed), and even helped both of Mark's parents move into new houses as lockdowns started to ease!
In between lockdowns, we also got to spend time with our best friends (albeit way less than we'd hoped) and meet their latest additions (everyone's having kids!), which was unforgettable.
When the national lockdown eased and Victoria opened up, we even managed to go on various covid-safe road trips through the state, including the Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island, Healesville and the Yarra Valley, Loch Village, and Wilsons Prom. And by the way, Victoria is one incredible state!
That content is now ranking very well on Google, and driving a LOT of our website traffic and income, so we're super happy/proud to see the rewards of putting in the long days and hard work to make that happen!
All in all, four unexpected months in Australia was kinda wonderful.
BACK TO HUNGARY, FINALLY
Arriving back to our flat in Budapest was joyous.
We yearned for our own space when we were back in Australia; somewhere we could cook in our own kitchen, work in our own office, and just be normal 30-something adults without living with parents, so when we walked back into our apartment it felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders.
Our friends Michael and Paula helped us through quarantine (thanks guys, we owe you!) and before we knew it, our 14 days were up and we were out exploring the city once again.
We fell in love with this beautiful city all over and even managed a few regional trips. And we also managed to fill our apartment with lots of plants..!
OUR SUMMER BALATON ROAD-TRIP
Between trying to stay COVID-safe and our fear of being locked out of Hungary again, we decided to keep our summer travels within Hungary.
Fortunately, there's a pretty popular place where all the Hungarians go for their summer - Lake Balaton. Ironically for a landlocked nation in Europe’s centre, life between May to September revolves almost entirely around this huge stretch of water in the heart of the country.
Surrounded by fertile plains and stunning vistas, Balaton is our idea of heaven - good food, good wine, long summer days and a place to cool off. Sure, it's not the Med, but it's certainly got similar vibes and truly is wonderful.
In terms of our top experiences in 2020, our trip to Balaton was right up there. From the fertile grape-growing hills of Badacsony, replete with wineries and world-class dining, to the Mediterranean vibes of rustic stone villages and lavender fields, plus lazy lake days our time in Balaton was dreamy.
A Balaton summer is a sacred ritual for every Hungarian and might be for us depending on how long we stay here.
WE FINALLY STARTED SELLING LIGHTROOM PRESETS AND PRINTS
One benefit to the self-isolation was finishing projects we’ve been talking about and working on for some time, and that’s creating prints and presets for sale.
We’ve had hundreds of requests over the last few years for us to sell our own Lightroom presets, and we were stoked to finally start selling them in April. The sales blew us away and inspired us to finish off a few more preset packs for Autumn.
So if you’re looking to improve your photography, your editing style, or you’re just looking to make your travel photos pop, check out our new presets here, and follow our new presets Instagram page here
We also made a collection of prints available for sale through Darkroom, who print, frame (if you want), and post the prints globally. We've actually put some up around our own apartment and we love them!
We’ve got some of our favourite photos ever for sale, so if you’re after a self-isolation pick me up, a present for a loved one, or even just some damn cool artwork to adorn your walls, purchase one and support our small business.
CHECKING OUR PRIVILEGE
The Black Lives Matter movement, which catapulted to international consciousness after the unnecessary death of George Floyd, was a huge eye-opener for us.
The more we've travelled, the more we've been confronted by the far-reaching consequences of centuries of racism and white privilege, from centuries-old oppressive systems to blatant racism, whether in Cape Town or Budapest, Melbourne or Dar es Salaam. It exists everywhere.
We always thought of ourselves as open-minded, liberal, and progressive individuals, and we've approached our travels and interactions on the road with an open mind and open heart. But the protests forced us to open our eyes and confront the hard truths - while we aren't racist, we also hadn't been actively anti-racist.
We decided things needed to change, so we set about reading everything we could get our hands on, watching documentaries, listening to our BIPOC brothers and sisters, and tried to educate ourselves to understand and ultimately be an ally in the fight for equality. Hard conversations were had, and tense arguments ensued, but in the end learning and growth only happens from delving deep and confronting hard truths.
We don't pretend to understand what experiences BIPOC have endured, but we do promise to be actively anti-racist, continue to learn, educate, and fight racism amongst our family, friends, fellow travellers and global citizens.
We hope you do, too.
REALISING HOW MUCH WE LOVE WHAT WE DO
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone"
Just as Joni Mitchell waxed philosophical in 1970, the same rang very true for us in 2020.
From the outside looking in, we know the life of bloggers can look shiny and full of 24/7 fun - on more than one occasion we've even been asked if we ever actually work. The answer is yes: it is fun, but 99% of our time is actually spent at our desks trying in vain to get through an endless to-do list, trying to meet deadlines, and chasing invoices just as any other small business does.
Sometimes when we've been in the midst of a stressful work period or teetering on burnout through months of work travel, it's been tricky to step back and appreciate that we get to work for ourselves doing what we love every day.
But as we watched our planned jobs fall by the wayside, our travel opportunities slim, and restrictions limit the time we could even spend outside, we realised the simple act of being able to pick up our cameras and head freely out into the world was something we miss more than anything.
The more we couldn't chat with locals, learn about new cultures, document daily life, and share those stories here, the more we realised how much we deeply love this colourful, crazy life we've built together over the last 5 years of grit and grind.
If nothing more, 2020 has definitely taught us to be grateful for every opportunity to be outside doing what we love, and we're entering the new year with a new perspective and a huge appreciation for that.
THE BAD
Unsurprisingly, a few shitty things happened this year.
But when we sat down to write this, we realised that, although there were some bloody big negatives for us personally and our business, we also need to recognise that both we, and our family and friends, are fortunate to have health, a roof over our heads, and food on the table. Being grateful for that is an extremely important takeaway from this year.
So all in all, while this year was bad, it wasn't that bad all things considered.
CORONA-HELL FOR OUR BUSINESS
Of course, some good things came out of 2020, but, like most, we had a pretty shit one during the pandemic. Of all the contingencies we considered for our business, a global pandemic that would shut down the entire industry we operate in was not one of them. No amount of planning could have prepared us for that!
Almost overnight our business lost over 90% of its income, our website traffic fell from over 8,000+ visitors per day to 900 (we can actually pinpoint the day - March 12, on our analytics!), all future jobs we had lined up were cancelled (10+ projects), and our mental state/motivation fell away with it.
If we're totally honest, things aren't much better now - until a very recent uptick, we've hovered at around 30% of our expected revenue and website traffic. All up, we suspect we've lost more than £70,000 of business income at a minimum this year, which definitely bites. Until the vaccine has been rolled out globally and the world has recovered somewhat back to normal, we're not expecting our business to recover fully until 2022.
Ultimately, while it's been hard to focus and motivate ourselves, it has allowed us time to take a good, long hard look at our business and our future goals, something that we may not have had the time to do otherwise. It also gave us space to work on other projects and revenue streams, which will no doubt hold us in good stead come the rebirth of global travel, whenever that is.
A graph of our blog traffic in 2020. Notice the highs of January, and the lows of March - June!
BEING STUCK IN AUSTRALIA FOR FOUR MONTHS
Yep, while being in Australia for four months was an unexpected blessing, it also was very, very hard mentally.
Firstly, we still had rent and bills to pay in our flat in Budapest, not knowing when we'd be able to return (if ever). Besides, our lease was expiring in June, and we had no idea when we'd be able to get back. Our apartment also had all of our belongings, personal and business (all our hard drives!), so this was a super tough predicament. Ultimately, we extended our lease until December 2020 just to manage the process.
Secondly, we'd only visited Melbourne with a carry-on, so were thoroughly ill-prepared for a four-month trip! And thirdly, despite the wonderful support our families gave us, we desperately wanted/needed our own space again, and while we looked for short-term rentals in Melbourne, it just wasn't financially viable to pay for two rental properties, especially with no idea when our business would start to recover.
While this sounds somewhat trivial in hindsight, the stress, anxiety, and uncertainty this brought us really made for an extremely difficult mental space for us both at the time.
FLYING BACK TO BUDAPEST
It sounds weird, but flying back to Budapest was one the most confronting travel experiences we've ever had, and made us realise how troubled the tourism industry really is. Arriving at Melbourne Airport felt like arriving into Kabul - it resembled a military zone, with police-manned checkpoint after checkpoint for departing travellers.
We needed multiple letters of approval, both to leave Australia and to enter Hungary before we were allowed to make our way through the dark and empty airport to our gate.
We spent the hour before the flight teetering on the edge of tears and panic, half-joking about ways to escape and stay in Australia. Once we boarded the flight, it felt like some dystopian nightmare - we had to wear a face mask, and mouth coverings the whole flight, while the crew were dressed head to toe in PPE.
Thankfully, the Qatar Airways staff were amazing and the trip, albeit uncomfortable, was totally fine. That being said, we really don't want to do that trip again anytime soon.
WE POSTPONED OUR WEDDING
If things were normal right now, we'd be back in Australia right now, preparing the final elements of our wedding in late January. Mim would have her dress sorted, I'd be frantically trying to find a suit (I leave important things to the last minute), and we'd no doubt be deciding where to honeymoon. But we'd be excited beyond reason!
Unfortunately, as this year wore on, it became clearer to us that our 2021 wedding wasn't going to happen. In September, with things so uncertain in Australia at the time, we decided to postpone our wedding to 2022.
This decision sucked. We spent hours and hours deliberating this decision, but when we realised that it'd be hard for us to enter to Australia, let alone family and friends from around the world, there just seemed no point. A non-negotiable minimum-spend was also a sticking point, especially when Covid-19 has affected our industry (and bottom line) so much.
Any excitement we once had about our wedding has completely dissipated, and it now just feels like an unnecessary luxury. We're frustrated at not being able to move onto the next chapter of our lives and all that comes with it, but trying to remain upbeat about working out a new plan.
Either way, what's important is our future together - and we're still very excited about that!
OUR 2021 GOALS
Normally we'd have some pretty lofty goals going into a new year, but realistically we're just not sure where our industry is going to be at - at least for the next six months, to set unattainable goals.
So, we've decided to look internally at our business and use the time we'd usually be on the road to improve various internal and external facets of our business.
UPDATE OUR WEBSITE AND BRAND
We've decided that 2021 will be the year of taking our brand, website and other important facets of our business to the next level. Expect to see a website refresh, and more consolidated brand look and feel by mid-2021.
RUN A LONG-AWAITED GROUP TRIP
If 2020 had been a normal year, we'd have run a group trip to Nepal in November, so that plan is now shifted to November 2021 (if COVID-safe). Nepal means the world to us, and we want to share our love for it with some of our readers and followers. We'll partner with a local on-ground operator, and try and rebuild Nepal's tourism industry in our own, small way.
ps. if that sounds amazing and you'd like to join, keep an eye on announcements soon!
FOCUS ON VIDEO/YOUTUBE
Every.single.year. we commit to creating youtube content and each year it falls by the wayside. Sure, it's super daunting and a whole other level of work, but we're super excited to delve into Youtube this year.
We're super keen to start a series on Hungary, showcasing what we believe is an underrated European country, while also focusing on other important facets of our business, including responsible travel, sustainability, and photography.
If you haven't already, subscribe to our channel here!
TRAVEL AGAIN... ANYWHERE
There's really not much more we can say about this, and we recognise it is a privilege (but also our job and business!), but gosh we can't wait to travel again.
Spring hiking in the Dolomites, Summer in Croatia and Latvia, regional trips in Hungary, weekend trips to Vienna or Lviv, a train ride through the alps, and stroll with ice cream on a hot summers day, a hike in Nepal, a road trip through Slovenia, a bus ride through Laos, meeting our friends in Pordenone (northern Italy), Shrewsbury, London, Innsbruck, the French Alps... anything, anywhere.
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