March 16, 2015. With trembling fingers, I click that “publish” button. As if someone will open and read my first blog post in that very minute. Not really. Except for my mom, aunt, and grandmother, no one will probably read it in the next few hours. But it’s still kind of adrenaline-pumping. It’s the first time I’ve written and published something publicly in such a digital form. My first blog! And it’s been exactly ten years since then today. I can hardly believe it, but it’s true. What all happened during that time, why did I start writing in the first place, how has the blog changed over time, and where do I see it in the future? I’ll tell you all about it and more in this special anniversary post.
Why did I start writing this blog?
In 2015, I had been living in Germany for 4 years, I was as a mom to three-year-old Lukas and a wife to my now already ex-partner, and I worked as a landscape architect in a firm. Everything seemed great, but something was always missing. I then successfully filled this gap with creative writing, photography, and improving different design skills. This blog was and still is my mental escape. I also always thought it would be great that Lukas would be able to read about his travel experiences one day. By writing in Slovenian and English, I also maintained contact with my native language while abroad. And I really needed all of this at that point in my life. Some time for myself, where I could be creative, without leaving the house, buying new equipment, or paying expensive membership fees. I really wrote for myself first and foremost, and now that I look back, my time at the computer after everyone else was asleep was somehow therapeutic.
So it started out completely innocently, but in ten years the blog has grown into something bigger. Into something truly beautiful. Into a digital book of unforgettable memories and a treasure trove of ideas for trips and travels.
What is Places in notes all about?
Those first posts were of course more beginner-like, today I have much higher standards for both the texts I publish and the photos, so sometimes I really shake my head when I see an old post. I believe that in the eyes of the average reader, these older posts are still good, but I know that all these years of blogging have shaped me into a better storyteller.
In that period of my life, the main FOCUS OF THE BLOG was logically focused on FAMILY TRAVEL. In 2015, there were only a handful of such family travel blogs in Slovenia, so I hit a good niche with this. Unfortunately, at that moment I had no idea about marketing, nor was it my goal to make something big out of this blog. But despite the fact that I didn’t put any extra effort in this direction, the blog was well-read from the beginning and somehow everything developed organically and it grew slowly but steadily.
After Oman, Morocco and Singapore, Bali was our first longer trip with Lu outside of Europe
Of course, I also wrote about my previous INDEPENDENT TRAVELS before I became a mother, there were also more and more posts with TRAVEL TIPS, I wrote a lot about GERMANY, because we spent most of the weekends exploring the country, which I now know very well because of this. Some posts also relate to my LIFE ABROAD in general, some also include MORE PERSONAL THOUGHTS and reflections, there is also plenty whose purpose is simply INSPIRATION.
Later, I added a lot of posts on the topic of TRAVEL WITH KIDS FOR SINGLE PARENTS. I’ll tell you more about why this was so below, but it’s not hard to guess. followed by more posts about CAMPING, HIKING, different SPORTS ACTIVITIES. There were also more and more posts about SLOVENIA, my home country. Since 2019, I have had a whole bunch of posts about ROAD TRIPS and OVERLAND TRAVELS with our LR Defender, as well as about converting our vehicle into a camper van, equipment, VANLIFE adventures and everything that goes with it. During the pandemic, I also published some CULINARY CONTENT, followed by a few posts on the topic of MOVING TO SLOVENIA. Currently, I’m back in the FAMILY TRAVEL PERIOD, because we are enjoying adventuring with with our 3-year-old Mila and 1-year-old Leo. At the same time, there is also more and more content about FRANCE, Charlie’s homeland. Articles about HOUSE RENOVATION and our NEW BUSINESS PATH are currently awaiting publication, so more about these topics coming up soon.
What do you read the most on the blog?
In ten years, OVER 500 POSTS have already been published, which is huge and I better not calculate how many hours were invested in this. Especially since I rarely publish anything superficial, short and “just for the sake of it”. I really try to include a lot of useful information and at the same time weave in our personal experiences, feelings and impressions of the destinations we visit. And of course, choosing and adding photos is a big part of a travel blog too.
By far the MOST READ POST of all time is the one about 50 IDEAS FOR TRIPS IN SLOVENIA. I really covered so many ideas here that you are sure to find something clever. If we stick to Slovenia, it is followed by the one where I wrote about the MOST BEAUTIFUL SLOVENIAN LAKES, and a really extensive post about our home KRANJSKA GORA.
You also click a lot on the 25 TOP ROAD TRIPS IN EUROPE and posts from PORTUGAL, ALBANIA, MALLORCA, SCANDINAVIA and the SOUTH PACIFIC.
What else happened in these 10 years?
THIS BLOG HAD A DIFFERENT NAME INITIALLY. Who remembers what it was? It was really a bit complicated and hard to remember. There is a cute story behind the choice of this name, but from a marketing perspective it was of course not the most optimal. The name “FINDING MALOKOKO” fit my concept, where I didn’t want to expose us (not with our full names, not with our faces), but it really isn’t SEO friendly.
Exactly two years after I started blogging, Lukas’s father and I divorced, and at that point, to be honest, this blog was the last thing on my mind. Plus, the blog had always been about family travel, and now my family was suddenly gone. So what else was I supposed to write about?
A ONE-YEAR DIGITAL ECLIPSE followed. But this silence only reigned online, my private life was really blossoming at that time. Although I wasn’t the one who ended the relationship, I recovered fairly quickly after the initial shock and really started living. During that renaissance of mine, or my second puberty, as I jokingly like to call it, I accumulated over 70 flights in just one calendar year, I was really everywhere, except at home. Lukas and I went alone to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu when he was five and six years old. We bought a tent and started camping, hiking in the mountains and such things. People told me how brave I was, but some also how irresponsible I was. I didn’t think of myself as either one or the other. I just kept living, the best I knew how. And it was a truly special time for us, and I’m so grateful that I dared to step outside my comfort zone.
The other side of the world, Aitutaki, Cook islands
Over time, these “MOM AND SON ADVENTURES” of ours gave me new energy. At that time, I felt really at the peak of my life, I was in my early thirties, I looked good, I lived in my own house, I had a good permanent job, a child and a lively social life. Slowly, the desire to write also returned and the blog came to life again. But this time under a NEW NAME and with a NEW LOOK. PLACES AND NOTES. I thought it sounded nice and that it summed up the point of the blog well. Clear and simple.
At that time, Lukas and I were joined by CHARLIE, whom I first met back in 2007, somewhere in the Mekong Delta in Laos. Ten years later, we met again in Berlin and have been practically inseparable ever since. Together, we also fulfilled one of our wildest dreams: buying a 4X4 VEHICLE. We have both always been attached to DEFENDERS, so there was no dilemma about which brand and model. We converted it into an (almost) self-sufficient camper by ourselves, I quit my job and we had a lot of plans.
Our first long wild camping trip with the Defender
Until we were shocked by the news of the PANDEMIC shortly after. At that time, we were in a very special bubble, which unfortunately gave me probably the most difficult period in my life. In addition to the fact that, like it happened to many others, literally all our plans fell apart, I also had to go through a mentally very difficult process of a CUSTODY FIGHT in the German courts, in addition to the fact that I was unemployed, because well, I had other plans when I took this decision.
At least we were experimenting in the kitchen and ate sooo good during the pandemics.
At that time, I really felt an even stronger need to return to Slovenia. The desire to move had been present since the divorce, but as you know, it’s easier to stay in a routine than to start from scratch somewhere else, so I insisted on living in the north all those years. Unfortunately, the court ruled that the conditions for raising a child in Germany were better than in Slovenia, which meant that Lukas had to stay in Germany, with his father, despite the fact that we had and still have shared custody. Since this blog is of a travel nature, I never wrote about it at length, and in a way I probably repressed those events a bit and pushed them into the farthest corner of my head, but I had nice conversations with some of you about this topic in private messages. I’m always happy to reply to you there if you are in a similar situation or just want to talk about it.
We decided that if we couldn’t travel as we had planned, we would just expand our family, which was planned for later anyway. MILA WAS BORN IN GERMANY, and then when she was five months old, we finally MOVED TO SLOVENIA, where we have been for a little over three years now. Although I lived in Ljubljana most of life, I have always been attached to both the coast and KRANJSKA GORA, where we also temporarily settled in our apartment where I spent a good part of my holidays as a child. And we soon realized that we lacked nothing here. Nature and fresh air did us good and we started feeling at home right here.
First snow for Mila on our courtyard in Kranjska Gora
In addition, during the pandemic, I had to do something career-wise, so I entered completely new waters and probably put my profession of LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT on hold forever. After my maternity leave, I opened a small company in Slovenia, through which I work as a copywriter, create digital content, manage social networks, and such.
Meanwhile, we BOUGHT AN OLDER HOUSE in Rateče, near Kranjska Gora, and threw ourselves into renovation. The project is much bigger than we initially thought, but we are almost done and we are moving soon with Mila and baby Leo, who joined our family last January. Since the house itself is quite large and our family does not need that much space, we will also RENT out part of it TO TOURISTS. We also have an apartment, which is occasionally available to all users of the HOME EXCHANGE PLATFORM. So if you would like to visit our area, take a look at our profile and follow the information about the official opening of MAISON LENKA.
4/5 because we don’t have any pictures with all three kids and us together.
Lukas, who will be 14 years old this autumn, visits us several times a year during his German school holidays, and in between we stay in touch via video calls. That’s why sometimes we’re in photos with three children, sometimes with just two, and I believe it’s often confusing for new readers and followers. Although it’s not the easiest, we’ve all somehow gotten used to this situation. We had no choice but to continue living normally.
About blog-related social media
Nowadays, of course, social media is kind of more prominent than blog websites like mine. I started blogging back in the golden age of FACEBOOK, where I also created a special Facebook business page. There I still share links to new posts in Slovenian and English and report live from the road.
Later I also added INSTAGRAM, at that time the focus of Instagram was more on great photos than short video content and stories and I admit, that old format was more to my taste. Nevertheless, Instagram remains my favorite social network, where I am also the most active. I have never used Snapchat or TikTok, but for a while I was quite active on Pinterest, which still brings readers from the USA to my blog.
I believe I would have more followers on social media if I had exposed ourselves more, but I have had a limit from the beginning when it comes to posts which include my children, especially in the stories on IG and FB. Over the years, this limit has softened a bit, but still. I don’t like posting photos of faces, especially close-ups, and I really try to keep the focus on my travels. Here and there I do post some, for some special occasions and memories.
“Hey how much are you earning with your blog?”
I’m glad that I started blogging solely as a hobby blogger and not with the intention of making money. This is usually a slow process and requires quite a bit of effort. Of course, it’s not impossible, but it’s also not as easy as some people think. Nowadays, the easiest way to succeed is through social media, where you usually have to expose yourself a lot for this purpose, which I, as I said, try to avoid.
Nevertheless, I earn a little bit here and there THROUGH COLLABORATIONS, occasionally with a DISCOUNT CODE, AFFILIATE LINK and such. More than that, the blog has allowed me to make a lot of new acquaintances and connections, some of which have ultimately led to NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES. So I don’t live directly from blogging, but sometimes it brings me some extra money that goes into the savings account for future trips. You can read more about my services and possible collaborations at the link below.
Let me also point out that writing and editing a blog on a website also costs something on a annual basis, unless of course you have a free version of WordPress, for example. The latter then does not allow various options and you are quite limited.
What did I learn while blogging?
In addition to the creative aspect of writing, improving my photography skills and digital design, editing websites, managing social media and such, I have also built a thick skin. Because not everyone will like what you do. And I always say this is a good thing because it is great that we are different. But some people constantly feel the need to express their opinions out loud or even impose their opinions. Fortunately, this has happened to me on extremely rare occasions, but I heard horrible stories from others. The best is always to just ignore such comments. Blogging also pushes me to read and investigate more about certain places which I might not have done otherwise. Because I first write a diary during our travels and then blogs once we are back home, I also remember every little detail of each trip a lot more.
Plans for the future?
Right now I would love to have a little more time for myself, and also for this blog. But I will have to wait another year, with a three-year-old and a one-year-old who is not yet in kindergarten, everything can’t be done at once. I hope to continue writing this blog for at least the next 10 years, because it is such a fun constant and a part of my life now. But if there ever comes a time when I need a break from the digital world, I will definitely take it without a bad conscience, because I am aware how important personal well-being is.
We already have a bunch of ideas for the next few years, especially longer overland trips with our Defender that we’d like to take before the kids start school. We also want to do one really long trip – we have three scenarios, but I’d rather not say anything about that so as not to jinx anything.
In the short term, we need to bite our teeth a little more time and finish renovating the house, so that the second half of the calendar year can be more dedicated to traveling. I think we will also treat ourselves to a tropical vacation, because we haven’t had one for a while. In fact, the goal is to treat ourselves to something like that once a year. In principle, we like to discover new countries, because it is still a little more exciting than traveling somewhere we have already been to. Nevertheless, we want to return to a few destinations we have already visited. I am a big fan of New Zealand and the South Pacific islands, we would like to take the kids to Laos, where we met, and the Caucasian countries as well as Scandinavia will definitely see us again in the coming years. We regularly return to France and Germany, and I also have nothing against visiting Croatia every year during the summer season. We are also looking forward to trying out exchanges via the Home Exchange platform.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!
I have to end this anniversary post, with a big THANK YOU TO ALL READERS AND FOLLOWERS! I’m still writing mostly for myself, but I won’t lie, it does feel good getting positive feedback from you, which also gives me the motivation to continue posting. If you know anyone who isn’t following us yet, but you think they would be interested in our content, I’d be happy if you spread the word 🙂
p.s. Thanks also to everyone we’ve met in person over the years! Some of you have been in touch with us for so long that we’ve forged real friendships. It’s not something that can be taken for granted, and I’m grateful for you.
