There isn’t a single person I know, one way or the other, that hasn’t asked me how many vacation days I’ve got. And they’re all shocked by the answer – 20 days. And no one believes me. “Well, you work only occasionally”. I wish it was so, that I was travelling around the world, and didn’t have to worry about finances, however, the reality is a little different. I don’t have the freedom to say goodbye to everything, I’m off to see the world. Not yet!

I have a full-time job, Monday to Friday. I don’t work on weekends, public holidays and 20 vacation days. When you calculate this, that’s 52 weekends a year (in 2017), 9 days for public holidays and 20 vacation days. When you combine your days off, with public holidays and the weekends you can easily travel as many as 9 times a year. Which, you will admit, is quite a lot.

A simple example – two non-working days for the 1^st of May, a weekend before, that’s already 4 days for a mini city break. If you add two vacation days, you get 6 days to visit a big city…. e.g. London.

I remember flying for 8 hours, followed by a 3-hour layover, then flying for 2 and a half, and coming directly to work and working for 8 hours. Nothing was too much trouble for me. I was coming back from New York, full of impressions, energy and although I couldn’t sleep a wink on the plane because there were too many good movies, I worked for those 8 hours with all my might. I don’t take vacation to sit at home or rest after travelling. There’s no such thing. I have weekends for that. Besides, I’m only 30.

If you work for a company which allows you to work on Saturdays and then later take those days off, use it. If you don’t have that possibility, maybe you should introduce it.

Last year I spent 3 weeks working abroad. I spent the weekends all over Europe – Annecy, Geneva, Bruges, Paris, Dusseldorf. The tickets were cheaper from Berlin and the cities much closer, so it would have been a shame to miss that opportunity. It feels good to work in a different environment, to change the routine.

My job allows working remotely. If you have the same possibility perhaps you should think about asking your boss for permission as early as tomorrow. Be the driver of good, new ideas.

All photos from my travel collection