Notes From Here
is becoming
Notes From Europe

A letter from the editor, Angela Hanyak

When I first moved to Europe, I began to write monthly dispatches about where I’d traveled, what I was reading, and what my hopes were for the upcoming month. 

I published these on my personal website, with my name as the URL. 

This web address, angelahanyak.com, had hosted other short-lived blogs over the years, but none of them stuck. 

For one thing, I was in my twenties, trying to figure out my trajectory, my career, and who I was. It sounds indulgent, but that stuff takes up a lot of time!

But the other reason my past blogs were unsuccessful was because I wasn’t entirely comfortable with consistently publishing on the internet, and the thought of dedicating myself to any one thing felt both limiting (“what about all my other interests?”) and exhausting (“creating content is never ending”).

Eventually, my curiosity began to outweigh my worries. 

I wondered what might happen if I expanded my monthly travel dispatches into a real travel blog, less focused on cataloging where I’d been and more concerned with helping others explore those places, too. 

All those past blogging failures were top of my mind, though. 

So I made a deal with myself: I would focus on writing helpful posts for travelers who were specifically traveling to Europe, and I would suppress the perfectionist tendencies that routinely got in my way. 

That meant no more agonizing over less important stuff like site colors and logos. So I kept the name “Notes From Here,” and continued to use it on my personal domain URL. I built my own brand identity in Canva. I just got started, wrote like crazy, and tried to prove to myself that I could create a successful travel blog.

And a full two years after starting, I can say that I have. Notes From Here has tens of thousands of readers a month, and it’s allowed me to connect with curious travelers from all over the world. 

But as the blog’s readership has grown, so too have my ambitions for it. 

The more I daydreamed about these ambitions, however, the clearer it became that some of my “just start” decisions were not aligned with long term growth. 

Like the blog’s URL. It was always a little, unaligned, shall we say, to have it on my personal domain. But at the start, I wasn’t sure if I was even going to keep the name Notes From Here. Every attempt to resolve this chicken and egg problem left me exasperated. (eggsasperated? 🙊) 

That was the beauty of the deal I made with myself at the start of building this blog. I could just start, and figure everything out later. 

Now that “later” is finally here, I’m happy to finally share the news about a few small changes that will be taking place with the blog over the next few months.

  • Notes From Here is becoming Notes From Europe

Notes From Here alluded to the fact that I live in Europe, and while my residency status won’t change, I want the blog to have an instant connection with the Continent in its name. 

The blog and its related properties will be rebranded to Notes From Europe by the start of 2026. I’ll redirect the old urls to the new site, so that any saved or bookmarked posts will load on the new site even if you use the old link.

At the same time, new projects like the podcast and youtube channel are being launched entirely under the Notes From Europe name.

If you’re looking for blog posts, they still live here on Notes From Here.

Thank you for understanding that the new Notes From Europe site is still a work in progress.

You may encounter broken links, missing images, or outdated branding as we transition to the new name. We’re working hard behind the scenes to make the experience smoother and more inspiring for travelers like you. In the meantime, feel free to explore what we’ve built thus far, and follow along as Notes From Europe takes shape.

Thank you so much for you support!

Sincerely,

Angela