This post is a reflection on 2015, but the featured image was taken in 2010 at a train station in Granada, Spain. It’s a favorite of mine because it’s the best I’ve been able to capture the feeling I get as I’m about to embark on a trip of any kind. The train door stands invitingly open; the low sun evokes beginnings and endings and obscures the horizon, where anything might wait. There’s a sense of movement to the disappearing lines of the train, and it all just makes me want to go. 

New Year’s Eve snuck up on me while I was overwhelmed by holiday reunions and work, but there’s no time limit on reminiscence. In almost every year of my life, some of the most memorable moments involved travel of some kind, and 2015 was no different. Here are five of my favorite travel moments from 2015:

5 Entering the Sagrada Familia before the crowds and marveling at the enormity and bizarre aesthetic of the space, makes the list because it’s rare to get a creative work-in-progress of such magnitude to yourself.

4 Walking across the scrubby landscape of Gozo, Malta, where domed churches are the tallest structures by far, makes the list because I’ve never been anywhere like it. 

3 Sitting on the patio of a country house in Burgundy  after a long day of physical activity, drinking free Chablis and chatting with a friend until it got dark, makes the list because the air was soft and so was the wine, the conversation was good, and my muscles were satisfyingly sore. 

2 Staring at prehistoric paintings deep inside a cave in Niaux, France makes the list because, humanity.

1 Rounding the corner on a bicycle, exhausted and sweaty, to see the first hint of fragrant purple in the field ahead, makes the list because I’m rarely so instantly and fully rewarded for hard work, and because it was a moment of sense-arresting beauty.

Even if you don’t have the time and/or flexibility for long-distance travel, moments like this can happen anywhere, even just a few miles from home. I truly believe that it’s possible to have a life full of travel if it’s one of your priorities. Looking back on 2015 reassures me that moments like these have been worth the trade-offs I’ve made in my own life for travel.

Happy New Year, and happy travels!