48. Try five new restaurants

Every time I make a Day Zero list, I make a goal to try five new restaurants. Every time I forget I like to eat out when on holiday, and thus accomplish the goal within one trip abroad. Alas, it is what it is. I will keep adding to this list, though, and I hope I am also able to add some local restaurants.

Lisbon!

At the start of November of last year Alieke and I went to Lisbon for a long weekend. We’d both never been there before and wanted to visit someplace with nicer weather than the Netherlands.

The Baltic States and Poland!

For last year’s summer holiday, I went to the Baltic States and Poland. I’d never been to the three Baltic countries and had wanted to go for a while. Initially, I thought about going in the winter, since I’d seen a lot of very cozy and picture-perfect photos on Instagram. However, since I had no other plans for my summer holidays, I decided to go at the end of August/start of September.

When planning this trip, I looked at flying into Tallinn (Estonia), and flying back from Vilnius (Lithuania). But the more concrete my plans got, the more I didn’t want to fly back from Vilnius. I wanted to expand my trip a bit more. So, looking at the map of Europe, I picked two more cities in Poland to visit. With my travelplans in place, all I had to do was wait for the end of August to come around.

New Day Zero List

On October 26th 2023, my old Day Zero list ended. I knew this was coming, of course, so I had a new one ready to start at October 27th 2023.

Having over a decade of experience with compiling Day Zero lists by now, I’ve tried to come up with a realistic one. To be fair, they’ve all been more realistic than my first list. One of the goals on that one was to visit all continents. Save to say I didn’t manage that. Also save to say, I’ve never put that list online. However, I’ve still never been able to fully complete a Day Zero list. Not that that’s necessarily my goal, but I do still want to give it my best. So, I’ve once more come up with 101 goals to accomplish before July 24th 2026.

80. Visit five new cities or places in The Netherlands

Even though I’ve lived in the Netherlands all my life, there’s definitely more than enough places I’ve never been. I wanted to challenge myself to visit some more places in my home country, so that’s why I added this goal. It still took me a while to complete it, because I honestly do prefer to visit a new place abroad when I have the chance. However, in the end I did fulfill my goal with one extra to spare.

55. Try three cuisines from regions or countries I’ve never tried before

Like many people, I like to try new foods and cuisines. When I lived in Amsterdam, it was pretty easy to try something new regularly. Sadly, the selection in Hoorn is much more limited, so that’s why I added this goal. I want to still try more things I haven’t tried before, even if I have to go through a bit more trouble to get them. In the end, I think I did pretty well!

70. Visit five other countries

When I made this list, many COVID restrictions were still in place. I had honestly doubted that I would be able to complete this goal. Thankfully, even though COVID hasn’t gone away, it’s much less present nowadays and practically no restrictions remain. I have been able to travel to nine countries for this Day Zero List, of which there’s four new countries I’d never been.

Norway! (but in the winter)

At the end of last year, my friend Andra and I agreed that we would go on holiday to northern Norway. We both wanted to cross the arctic circle, hopefully see the Northern Lights, and visit the North Cape. We spent a bit of time planning it all, and the second week of March this year it was finally time to go!

2. Get my navigation license

Ever since I can remember, sailing has been at least a small part of my life. My parents own a sailboat, and the summer holidays from my youth were always spent on the boat and on the water. I have nothing but fond memories of those summers. My parents do still own this boat, and every now and then, when the weather is nice enough, I will join my father on a sailing trip for a day.

Norway!

Last year I could finally go on holiday abroad again. Probably don’t need to mention why that wasn’t possible in 2020 and 2021, right?

I’ve always wanted to go to Iceland. That’s not where I went, though. When I spoke about this with friends, I was told that I really should visit Scandinavia before going to Iceland, because seeing Iceland first would ruin the other counties for me. Honestly, I do not think that’s the case, but I did also want to visit Scandinavia. Since I only wanted to go for about a week, I decided I would visit Norway. I want to go to Iceland in the next two years, but I would like to be able to go a bit longer than just a week, and that was all I had for now.