I started traveling again in late February, with a short visit to the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The end of winter brought more trips, including one to Hong Kong and Hainan Island in China, followed by a spring trip to Norway and Finland. Soon after, in May, I was off to Kenya – among the travel highlights of my year – and then Croatia in early summer.

Back in New York in July, I buckled down and prepared for a project that would take me back to Europe for two months in the fall. This was only interrupted by a short trip to the Catskills for an article but otherwise I stuck to the five boroughs.

The fall trip kicked off with ten days in Portugal for a couple of assignments. Immediately after, I spent six weeks traveling around the region I once called home, the six former republics of Yugoslavia, now independent countries. That journey was the year’s most important, in more ways than I can explain in this post. I’m still mulling it over. More to come.

Work-wise, the above trips and sojourns led to various assignments. I had work published in The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Concierge.com, ShermansTravel, Lonely Planet, Washington Flyer, Fodor’s, Conde Nast Traveler, Hotelier International and New York Resident. These projects ranged from travel articles and hotel reviews to book sections. I also taught three travel writing classes for Mediabistro (online, since I can’t imagine staying in New York long enough to teach one entire eight-week class).

I’m also happy to report that I got a professional journalism award by the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association, for a story I wrote about truffles in Croatia (published last year in The Washington Post).

This year also brought me a new challenge which I’ve been enjoying thoroughly – writing in my native language! Back in the summer, I was offered a travel column in a new Croatian weekly. Except emails and an occasional postcard, I hadn’t written in Croatian for a decade, if not longer. It’s been a joy to write in my mother tongue for this new publication, which is receiving rave reviews.

Looking at the above, I can say it’s been a busy, productive and enlightening year. 2012 promises to be quite exciting, too, with the world ending and all. But before that happens:

In just a few days, I’m heading to Chile till mid-March for a project that will take me to the country’s northern regions. This adventure should be particularly fun since my husband is coming along. We’ll start in Santiago next week, where we are renting a car and then making our way up north all the way to Arica on the Peruvian border, and back down over six weeks. Then we’re staying in Santiago for a couple of weeks, before returning to New York.

More trips are planned for early spring, including a retreat at my ancestral home in Croatia. But – step by step, road by road…

Till my next posting, likely from Chile, I wish you…. see greeting card above.

I haven’t been a good neighbor, in the lingo of a social media guru I heard speak at a writers’ conference last spring. In fact, I nominate myself for the award of the world’s worst blogger and even worse twitterer.

Every now and then I feel a sudden burst of solidarity toward my fellow travel bloggers. When it strikes I manically read a dozen blogs, splattering the interweb with comments, left and right. During that same bout of social media guilt, I frantically participate in Travel Tuesdays, Follow Fridays and start new, although mostly uninspired hashtags.

Typically all that dissipates within a week, two at best. Then I’m back to my passive social media self, hiding away from the noise.

In the process, I’ve become a cyber exile. I now find myself in self-imposed exile on a few fronts – from my actual (not virtual) home country and, as of late, from the social media wave that I was riding high and happily for a while.

Some days I feel like I’m missing one hell of a party. The thing is: I turned down the invite. I know the tricks of the trade and if not all, I know where to go get them. But I chose to remain on the fringes, watching the show from the shadows.

In the meantime, as I let my blog and twitter feed gather proverbial dust, I’ve been doing what I do best and for living – traveling. I’m just back from two months in Europe. A handful of assignments took me to Portugal first in early October. From there, I set out on a journey around my former homeland, Yugoslavia.

The six-week trip involved six countries, 23 long-distance bus and train rides, 18 border crossings and some 80 coffee encounters with sundry characters.

During that entire time, I turned out 12 tweets and zero posts.

This experience-rich journey could have easily led to 100+ tweets and a slew of blog posts. Yet I chose not to spend my precious time on the road reducing complex thoughts into 140 characters or holing up in hotel rooms to produce blog posts. The journey itself took precedence over instant write-ification.

Now that I’ve been back for a few days, I am slowly coming around, waking up to the (online) world. Here and there I want to share a thought, a memory, a view out the back window of the slow train from Serbia to Montenegro….

As the old café carriage attached to the rear end of the train, much unchanged since 1980s, chugged through darkening canyons for 14 long hours, I wasn’t composing tweets. I was on an entirely different train of thought.

I spent a couple of days earlier this month exploring the offerings of Casas Brancas, an association that has grouped the best of accommodation, restaurants and outdoor activities in the region. I loved their focus on sustainable development, something that much of this overdeveloped world is aching for. Here, a few highlights from my brief but delightful stay in coastal Alentejo and Algarve.

The hour-long ride atop Quasimodo was a beautiful way to experience Ilha do Pessegueiro beach, along sand dunes and through patches of bush. Herdade do Pessegueiro offers such quick jaunts, as well as longer rides that last up to seven days.

We met Sofia who runs Burros & Artes, scenic nature walks and trekking with donkeys. I now really want to go back and do one of the longer hikes with donkeys, which range from two to seven days, along hills and valleys of western Algarve.

I spent a night at the adorable Monte da Xica, a rural inn with three colorful rooms and a small pool, located 3km inland from the coastal town of Zambujeira do Mar. I only wish I had more time to spend chatting with Francisca, the vivacious owner who runs the place with love and care.

I loved the dinner at Restaurante da Praia, as the last of the surfers were leaving Arrifana Beach for the day. We spent that warm October evening on the ocean-facing terrace sharing tales over tapas-style dishes. I loved the night cap: a shot of potent medronho, traditional fruit brandy from this region of Portugal, made with the so-called strawberry tree.

There was lots more I experienced in less than two full days, include a walk along the fishermen’s trail just outside Zambujeira do Mar, which is part of the soon-to-be-launched Rota Vicentina. This new network of routes in southwest Alentejo and western Algerve will be unveiled in early 2012. Stay tuned and, if in Portugal, don’t miss it!

Loch Ness and Nessie are probably the first things that come to mind when the word loch is mentioned. So it was for me when I first visited Scotland back in the early 1990s. I had my head full of legends upon legends about this mythical creature and its watery home. I even camped by the lake with my ex-boyfriend and we did a special ritual to invite Nessie to pop her head out. But that’s just us. Even if you aren’t interested in spotting the monster, Loch Ness is a beautiful place to visit.

But the lochs of Scotland are many beyond Ness, and a source of great beauty and pride for Scots.

If you decide to visit Scotland for a tour of the lochs, instead of hassling with the larger London airports, fly out of Bristol, perhaps with an overnight stay at a hotel near Bristol airport. On the other side, once you’ve landed, choose between several airport hotels at Glasgow, should you wish to overnight. Then head out to Loch Lomond, a freshwater Scottish loch, which by surface area is the largest lake in Great Britain.

Loch Lomond offers active travelers the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. Choose between all sorts of water activities such as wake-boarding, water-skiing, and canoeing. Lessons are available for those who are not so sure-footed on the water. The loch is also large enough to play hose to everything from kayaks and speed boats to cruisers, and even yachts. If you prefer to stay out of the water, do a casual walk around the Loch to take in the vistas.

Once worn out, dine out at one of Loch Lomond’s lakeside restaurants. These range from high-end establishments and country inns to local pubs with simple grub and plentiful ale. Have a meal at one of these spots along the shoreline, perhaps followed by a stroll at dusk.

You can enjoy more of Scotland’s famed lochs around Edinburgh. Loch Leven is just an hour-long drive from the center of the city. Enjoy the wild countryside around this freshwater lake and then hop on a ferry that goes across to Loch Leven Castle, famed as the prison that once held Mary, Queen of Scots. While here, don’t skip The Meadows, a pretty park that was once Burgh Loch.

Before exploring more of Scotland’s lakes, such as Loch Dundas or the manmade loch in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, rest up at one of the hotels near Edinburgh airport. And if you end up spotting a monster at one of the lochs, do report!

During these dozen years, a lot happened. In my own life, this city and the world. Loves, breakups, September 11, a divorce, various apartments, deaths of loved ones, visitors, the blackout of 2003, affairs, new starts, goodbyes… A lifetime.

My love and hate relationship with the city continues. I go back and forth, between loving and leaving.

I spent this afternoon with a dear friend who lived in Brooklyn in the early 2000s, when we met. She left for Denmark some six years ago, then Berlin, where she lives now. We spent a few hours wondering around Fort Greene, reminiscing, talking about the changes in the city…

The afternoon made me reflect. So I sat down and clicked through hundreds of photos that I have captured in and of New York since I got my first digital camera in the spring of 2005.

What follows is a selection of New York’s street and subway scenes, skylines and art taken over the last six years. Without further ado, this is New York, too.