There are lists all over the blogosphere of things people want to do before turning 30 years old – it seems to be the magic (or rather opposite of magic) number that makes people panic and suddenly realise they’re getting old.
With time running out before my 30th, I decided to leap straight onto the 35 before 35 bandwagon. Anything to help me feel like I’ve achieved something in my life!
You may notice that some of the items on my list were taken from my 101 things to do in 1001 days, which I failed to finish. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with this challenge.
*Update on 13 October 2013* The list is now complete!! Here it is:
- Visit Belfast and see whether I recognise anything (originally visit Ukraine, changed in 2014 due to events there at the time!)
Eat fondue in Switzerland (again)(Done on 24 July 2014)- Learn Spanish
See another musical (I’m thinking possibly Phantom of the Opera)(The Lion King on 5 September 2015)
- Get over my fear of sewing machines and learn to use one
Travel round Britain again(done in August 2017; technically only England/Scotland but I’m counting it!)
Complete a cross stitch picture for myself(finished in September 2014)
- Do 3 OU courses
Make cheesecake(Toblerone cheesecake made on 21 March 2015)- Go whale watching
- Spend a night in a 5 star hotel and order room service
- Ride in a hot air balloon
- Read (or re-read) 50 non-fiction books (Read: 21/50)
Go back to Austria and finally try Marillenknödel(Done on 22 June 2014. Read about it here.)
Read 30 books in German(Read: 30/30) (final book finished in July 2018)
Spend new year in Madeira and see the fireworks display (it previously held the record for the world’s largest!)(Done for New Year 2013/14)
- See a Shakespeare play (not performed by Oddsocks)
Bake 10 different kinds of biscuits(Baked: 10/10) (completed 18 June 2018)
- Find a recipe for garlic soup and make it
Attend a world cup rugby match(Attended three in October 2015)
- Read all those books from the BBC Big Read Top 200 list of books that I haven’t before (132 books – I had read 68 before starting) (Read: 69/132)
- Visit the Postojnska cave in Slovenia
- See the Northern Lights
Go to 5 different Christmas markets (other than Karlsruhe and Durlach)(5/5: Burg Hohenzollern 6/12/2014, Speyer 13/12/2014, Colmar 28/11/2015, Rheinfelden 29/11/2015, Bern 19/12/2015)
- Either attend a cake decorating class or buy a book and teach myself at home
- Paintball!!
- Spend the night in a wine barrel (http://www.tourism-bw.com/Gourmet-Country/Spend-the-night-in-a-wine-barrel)
Play blacklight (i.e. glow-in-the-dark) mini golf(Done on 8 April 2013, read about it here.)
Visit a continent I’ve never been to before (following the seven-continent model, this means Africa, Asia, South America, Antarctica or Australia)(Visited Asia – specifically Taiwan – from 25-30 August 2014)
- L
earn to crochet or knit (or both)(I learned to knit on a loom in 2017 – I’m letting it count!)
Watch 35 films I haven’t seen before(35/35) (Final film watched in May 2017)
Start paying off my student loan(First payment made in August 2015)
- Have a poem published
Drink champagne in Champagne(completed June 2017)
The KVV beer tour (drink a beer in each of the local breweries that can be reached by tram/S-Bahn)(Done on 11 April 2015. Read about it here)
Confuzzledom 
great list! what is Marillenknödel? Austria, nice 🙂
Marille is Austrian German for apricot and a Knödel is a kind of dumpling – so it’s an apricot filled dumpling. It’s an Austrian speciality but I never had one while I was livng there!
ah , thanks for explaining 🙂
What about knit a pair of socks? Travel on the Orient Express? Go on a cruise?
Your list is full of adventures. I love it! What are the OU courses? I am intrigued by #21 and may start to read those myself.
I have to confess, I haven’t started one yet! I had a whole list of ones I wanted to do, but I lost it so will have to look again.
Ukraine is fanstastic, come on over!! : ) Which part of the country do you want to visit?
My grandad was Ukranian and he came from a small village close to Lviv, so I would love to go there.
Nice choice! : )
Phantom of the Opera is definitely a must. Can’t wait to hear how you liked it (or disliked it..you never know), Great list :0)
This is an excellent idea! Great list. I hope to visit Germany and Austria next year. Such a long way for us Australian’s to go!
This is a really great list but….garlic soup?!
YES!! I love garlic 🙂
Well in that case, have you ever roasted whole garlic cloves over a campfire? Uhmazing! You could dip them in your garlic soup. 😉
cool goals! and you’ve already done a lot of them:)
This is such a cool idea! I used to have a bucket list like that and found it pretty motivational, will have to get round to coming up with some new ones
I had to come over and have a sneaky peek at your list. I’d love to see the Northern Lights (should’ve put that on my list!), and playing blacklight sounds fun. Good luck with the rest of them@