This year I woke up on New Year's Day to the realization that I hadn't set any goals, nor made any resolutions for 2019. Just like the year before. And the year before that one... And the year before that one... I wanted this year to be different though, so I tweeted a call for help to some of my blog buddies. Within no time, Ella from Ella Was Here came to the rescue: "Maybe something fun like visiting a new city every month?" she tweeted. And that's how the Twelve Cities Challenge was born.

The concept is simple: you visit one new city a month. No compensating: going to two new cities in January so you don't have to go anywhere in February takes all the fun out of the challenge. Apart from this one main rule, you're free to do this challenge whichever way you want. Personally, I felt that I needed some more rules. There's this huge grey area on my list of visited cities, which is full of cities I've technically visited, but those visits left me with zero memories. That's why my complete set of rules for this challenge look like this:
          1. Visit one new city each month
          2. A visit must last at least six hours
          3. Going somewhere for a race does not count as a visit
          4. A city is new if A) I haven't visited it before
                                        B) the previous visit was five or more years ago
                                        C) the previous visit was shorter than six hours

The third rule might seem random, especially if you don't know me that well, but I really need it to complete the challenge. Without it, cities like Dordrecht and Gouda in the Netherlands would be useless even though I've only spent time on the track of an athletics club. The fourth rule might seem unnecessary, but let's be honest: How often did you go on a field trip in high school and saw nothing more than one boring museum and the local McDonald's? You technically visited that city. You see, some extra rules were necessary.

With my rules firmly in place, visits to the Dutch cities Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Arnhem, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Venlo are out of the question. Of course I can visit these places, but they won't count towards this challenge. In Europe, the same goes for, deep breath, Berlin, Aachen, Düsseldorf, Münster, Ljubljana, London, Edinburgh, Vienna, Brussels, Antwerp, Leuven, Liège, Helsinki, Moscow, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Looks like Europe won't have many of its cities featuring in the Twelve Cities Challenge... On a worldwide level, I have some no-go zones as well: Lima, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Havana, Jerusalem and Amman. But to be honest, those places are so far away that there's zero chance of me visiting again in 2019 anyway.

To be completely honest, I'm a bit nervous to actually start this Twelve Cities Challenge now. It's an easy challenge on paper. But we all know that life sometimes happens and before you know it, you've forgotten about a challenge. Anyway, I'll worry about that later. Probably in February, because January's trip has already been planned. After this month, I'm going to give it my all and see where I'll end up (quite literally). If you wanna get frequent updates, you can keep an eye on my Instagram page. This challenge will definitely be all over my stories there. Wish me luck guys! The Twelve Cities Challenge starts now!