Upon arriving at the place from which we'd been posting breathtaking mountain photos, I had a mental breakdown in our 2×2 metre room with a shared kitchen for 40 people and one mouse. "I want to go home. What was I thinking!" I screamed during our first hours in the staff accommodation in the forest above Banff, where we were supposed to spend 2.5 months.

Most of the time I see mountains when I close my eyes: Tunnel Mountain, Rundle Mountain, Sulphur Mountain. Here are three tips for beautiful hikes around Banff, Canada.

There are thousands of beautiful places in the world, but it wasn't the postcards that kept pulling me back to Canada — it was the extraordinary Canadian friendliness that makes it a country where people still genuinely enjoy living.

At the end of January, Lukáš and I headed on a trip to Riga, Latvia. It probably wasn't the best time to visit — it was freezing cold and rainy — but Riga has its charm even in the worst weather.

Two ten-year-old girls ran up to me. "Got a cigarette?" The cute blue eyes of the blonde girl certainly didn't match any stereotype about socially excluded families. This isn't a world of stereotypes — this is reality. Defaulters don't come in a designated skin colour, hair colour, or eye colour. They're simply defaulters.

Hotel Condor seemed to be the only oasis of civilisation for miles around. Oravita turned out to be a town where nothing exists. (Lesson learned: pointing at a map and saying "we can sleep here because it's halfway to point Y" is not an ideal way to plan a trip.)