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Kirsten

I’ve seen all the pandas in Europe*, what next?!

When I made my visit to Madrid in June 2023, that checked off visiting all nine* of the panda zoos in Europe (*with the exception of Russia)! Of course, now all of that has changed – at the end of 2023 Edinburgh Zoo no longer has pandas (it was the end of the loan agreement, contrary to what many people were saying online, China were not recalling all the pandas, it was the end of loan agreements for several zoos), and in February 2024 Madrid sent their family of 5 back to China as well. At some point this year it also looks like Vienna will be sending their panda pair back too. Pairi Daiza will also be sending their 3 cubs (who are no longer cubs at all!) back this year too. However, already Madrid has a new young panda pair! And it’s been announced that there will be a new pair for Vienna too. Sooo … looks like more trips need to be planned^

After seeing all of the pandas in Europe, I ended up being in China in September 2023 and all my panda content from that trip has been posted over the last few weeks. But seeing the pandas in Edinburgh Zoo at the start of December, well that’s now been the longest gap I’ve had where I’ve not seen a panda … so what’s next?!?!

Starting next week I will be sharing about my incredible trip to see pandas in China in May 2024 – so much content to share, but before diving into the pandas (and there will be a lot with all of the recently returned pandas to see) I’ll start with travelling and staying at Shanghai Disneyland for a magical third trip^

Kirsten

One Year Without Travel

The last time I travelled was my trip to Copenhagen at the end of January 2020 – that ended a busy month with 3 ‘long-weekend’ city breaks which included visiting Belgium and Germany. I got back home on the 1st of February and had no idea there would be no travel for such a long time. I had one trip planned for 2020, in June I was to stay at the Pairi Daiza Resort in Belgium. Luckily that was the only one and it was easy for me to get refunds/vouchers and hopefully the trip will be possible in the future. Also luckily, I hadn’t yet planned anymore travel, but since the lockdown, travel is all I’ve been thinking about!

At first it was quite nice to be at home for a while and being settled – despite loving travelling, there is a stressful element to it – but after a while it’s just been very demotivating with the ‘not knowing’ of when travelling can be possible. I used to live for my holidays – whether they were a real break or even just travelling for a conference – they were really what motivated me at work as something to look forward to, and now there’s nothing like that to look to. But obviously, I’d rather sacrifice not travelling at the moment for a year (or two, but I really hope not more) so that it can be possible again in the future. Without any travelling to actually do, I’ve planned so much theoretical travel that I don’t think there will ever be enough time to get it all done, but I can dream!

I think it’s unlikely I’ll get to travel anywhere this year, sure I’d like to make use of my voucher to visit the Pairi Daiza Resort (and stay in the most amazing hotel with a room looking onto the polar bears) but that will still be there in the future. For the meantime, I’m in my final year of laboratory work for my PhD – not being able to travel is the perfect reason to get my head down and get on with my long to-do list, and in 2022 I will then be working on writing my thesis. I’m hoping if I work hard now, then by the end of it all I can enjoy the perfect trip away. Japan in the dream! Luckily without travel or socialising in the past year-ish, I’ve been able to make some great savings and really work towards making my ‘I finished my PhD trip’ a reality.

I’m glad my last travels before the pandemic were great ones, and I saw pandas, what more could I ask for? But it’s been a year and I’m having some panda (especially panda cub) withdrawals. I still have quite a few posts to share about my travels in the past few years, I hope those will see me through until I can have a new trip to share about.

Do I wish we could have all been out and enjoying the world, of course, but it’s important to think of the bigger picture at the moment still. Keep safe!