Travel with me

And the 2nd in the travel installment is here… At a reasonable time?

So now I’ll go into the trips of Austria – both Vienna and Graz, Colorado, and then to France – St. Sorlin D’Arves.

So for Christmas and New Years I had the plan of celebrating the holidays over in Europe. But soon everything kind of went to shit. The Netherlands went on a full lockdown a bit earlier in December and it was not looking like it would open up soon at all. That meant my sweet cousin, Keigs, would not be able to visit for New Years. I had to make a plan for me because I wasn’t about to bring the New Year in alone… After a quick chat with my mama, we decided i’d come home! First, I had to continue with my OG plans: going to Austria to visit Anna!!

I first went to Vienna and it was such a sweet time, I had a couple of finals to get done after getting in, so after arriving at Anna’s place I got straight to work, taking breaks to chit chat and catch up. We decided we needed a walk to stretch our legs and get some fresh air and she took me around to show me a couple of her favorite places. The next day I had my deadlines so I took a test and turned in a paper just crossing my fingers that id pass my first semester at UvA. We did so much in our short 2 ish days in Vienna- tried some traditional holiday treats, attended the huge markets, and was even able to go to a museum. Everything was very sweet and pretty, saw some odd sights and some beautiful. I think the museum I went to was one of my favorites i’d gone to in a while – and of course it was Modern Art.

We then traveled to Graz, which is Annas hometown. Thankfully Anna has a car and her boyfriend offered to drive us. It’s way more cozy to be in a car rather than train. I had a warm welcome into her home and getting her wonderful family, some of the kindest souls I’ve encountered. Over the next few days I tagged along and acted like I was a long lost sister. Anna was a little worried about her family being able to communicate with me, just because she wanted me to feel comfortable. But, it was so easy to feel comfortable with her family- they also spoke English very well. We spent the next 2ish days celebrating Christmas with all sorts of different combinations of the families I had met. Received and gave presents, laughed, drank, and ate repeat. The coziness and warmth of her family made me so excited to see mine and hug them all. I sometimes forget that just a simple hug can make you feel 10x better and you didn’t even know you needed it. The day before I left, we went to a little village next to Graz (where Anna’s bf is from) and went up the gondola to a cafe where we enjoyed a little snow and coffee. I got inspired by the glasses we were drinking from to go to an antique shop to find my mom a cute Austrian souvenir, so the next day before I left we ran into a little shop to get something. Of course after taking like less than a minute in the store, I had found like 12 items I wanted for a future home. Then I said my goodbyes and thank yous, got a ride to the train station and took a train back to Vienna to catch my flight.

Now this turn around was 12 hours. I had packed my bag for the states before I left for Austria. I didn’t pack many clothes because I knew I’d be bringing some bulkier stuff back with me. I got back into Amsterdam around 10pm and my flight left at 10am the following morning. I had to get a covid test before goin got my flight so I woke up early, got my test, ate a little breaky, and called an uber to take me to the airport. Normally I would take public transport but I was running in a hurry so I couldn’t do that to my anxiety lol. First flight went well, but I always forget that I like to do my connecting flight in the EU so I don’t have to do customs until arriving in Denver, its must easier. But I had my connecting flight in Utah and was still In line for customs 15 min before my flight took off for Denver. Thank god I made it but I don’t think I have ever been that anxious before. My time home was relatively normal and fun and good. I had a great New Years in Denver, got to see everyone I wanted – besides Hanna:(. Got surprised by the Oklahoma fam ( Trev, Madi, and Meg). I did end up changing my flight to a few days earlier because I was starting to get worried about catching covid and entering The Netherlands from the US. The Netherlands was still in a full lockdown and I didn’t want their restrictions to change, even though I am legally staying there I didn’t want an issue (I also had my ski trip to go on, a week later.) It was sad to squeeze Rose and my mom goodbye, but I was also so excited to be back home.

After Arriving back in The Netherlands, I had a week of down time to prepare and too chill for before leaving for France. I had no idea what to expect for this trip at all, all I knew was that I had Marlein and shed be my buddy. This trip was with Offscreen and was well worth it. We got to travel to a little ski town in France for a full week. The downers – bus ride that took around 12-15 hours, the grocery store that was over priced, the workers there who thought we should all defiantly be fluent in French, and the deepest fee that I didn’t get back. The uppers- everything else, the weather was perfect, the people we went with were so much fun, and I was able to add another place to my travel log. I tried lessons, which were fun and entertaining. Was hard as hell though, I had never used the muscles before so it was just a different feeling lol. I had a little battle with myself for feeling let down because of my expectations and my reality. I still had a blast, I also had a deadline that week so had to read a lot and do a review over that. We partied at night and I did lessons during the day. I will say I probably should have pushed myself to get on the slopes a bit more but I also was listening to my body. It was a circle of thinking and I ended up usually going every other day.

The views were insane, like usual at a ski resort or mountain town. Our last day ended up being the longest wait ever, we had to check out of our rooms at 8am and didn’t get in our bus until 7pm. Insane… My room and roommates were ripped off because the pull out bed in our room was broken when we didn’t even use it. So we call didn’t get our deposit back which was stupid. I was wayyy too tired to give shit and was so ready to to leave. I got on the bus and slept the whole way it felt and got into Amsterdam it record timing:)

I have a couple more trips coming up and ill go more into those when they arrive. Ill post more about everyday and party scene and all of that. I love all of you ❤