Back then, I did not know about blogs, flickr, youtube and the likes, so my website was very basic. My journal was on just one page, and I had to add each entry manually to that page. My photos were hosted on an external site, which collapsed a long time ago which means I lost all the galleries I had. Instead of comment boxes, I had a guestbook in which I was able to receive messages. A lot of the time, I had to write my journal entries in the Guestbook, because my editing website was down.

I did receive a warning that the hosting site I used will be taken offline at some point in the future. So I decided to set up this blog and import my Gap Year journal post by post so I don't lose all my precious memories. These will be all blog posts dated between 2005 and 2007. The newer posts are all my travel related memories and updates since the end of my Gap Year. I have called this site Gone Walkabout, because it is the closest translation to the German title.

Check out the summer issue for hip festivals and Caribbean volunteering projects!

Today, Shoestring Travel Magazine celebrates its FIRST ANNIVERSARY with the fourth issue out now!

With thousands of readers from all over the world and hundreds of interested contributors, this free project has come a long way! The funny thing is, my lecturer, a retired newspaper editor, only gave me 65 points (out of 100) for the original issue. He felt I was a little too progressive for his liking, experimenting with styles, colours and - this is not a joke - quotation marks which were outside the norm.

But this overwhelming success Shoestring has had until now sure proved him wrong. Shoestring works, and in 365 days, I have not had negative feedback concerning the look or content of the magazine.

Have a look at issue #4 and tell me how you like it!

So without further ado, I present the third issue!