Just five days until I hit up Las Palmas in the Canary Islands! I can’t wait to wear summer clothes again and walk in flip flops or barefoot. Wow, I’ll miss the beautiful autumn colors here in my hometown though! Such wow…

I hitchhiked to my hometown again today to see more family and friends. Jonas and I have taken the train from Maastricht to my small train station Hollansche Rading. There’s no bus, so we hitchhiked from the roundabout to my mom’s house. This was Jonas’ first time hitchhiking. I think he liked it 😍

I’ll also need to start the packing process, as I will need to gather stuff for a long trip. South America is huge! I also have my new passport since yesterday, which I picked up in The Hague. So R.I.P. old one, but the new one has to have every page filled from top to bottom with fresh stamps 😉 the full-passport challenge is on!

But that full passport challenge will have to wait because the Canary Islands are still Spanish – and hence EU – territory. But once we touch down in Brazil, I should get my first precious stamp in this shiny new document. People often ask if it’s biometric, which it is. I don’t remember a time before biometric passports, to be honest.

But I did a smart thing with this one: it’s valid for 10 years instead of the standard 5. I contemplated also getting the double-paged passport, but I’m afraid it will be too thick to carry around. Also, I really want to have a shot at filling this one to the brim. If I fill up this one passport cover to cover within 9.5 years, I’ll make the next one a double pager.