I’m back, and I’ve learnt how to embed gifs. So watch out!

Why haven’t I written a post in my travel blog for two months? Because I haven’t travelled anywhere obviously! I’ve also been preoccupied wallowing in the associated melancholy caused by not being able to travel anywhere for two months.

I make light of it, but actually I’ve generally been in quite a low mood this entire time. It goes without saying that lockdown/the pandemic has been challenging for everyone. I’ve been extremely fortunate (touch wood) that no one I know has suffered seriously from the virus. I’ve also been ‘fortunate’ that I’ve kept my job and not been furloughed, so actually during this time I’ve been able to increase my travel savings.

But all of that doesn’t take away from the fact I still hate my job and am desperate to quit (as I have been for 6+ months). It brings my mood down most days. There’s not much I can do about it though, except complain all the time obviously. You can trust I’m doing that.

Anyway I didn’t just come here to moan. With lockdown loosening just ever so slightly, I have been able to plan a couple of staycations with some friends. While visiting the home counties isn’t exactly what I had planned in terms of travel for 2020 (my post, 2020 – Travels Aplenty hasn’t aged well…), I am grateful that I can make more memories with the lovely friends I have here in the UK.

In terms of when I can do any international travel… that’s clearly still up in the air. It looks like the EU is opening its European borders on July 1st, so I’m thinking about maybe spending some time in the countries least hit by the virus. I’m looking at this EU website which shows the travel restrictions in place for each country, and this stats page showing the number of cases/deaths per country. But we’ll see. I’m not going anywhere for the time being. Sadly.

It’s frustrating when you set yourself up to achieve a big life goal, putting everything else on hold to do so, but then suddenly the opportunity is snatched from you. It’s like I reached the top of a rollercoaster, was about to experience the exhilarating downward ride, but it stalled and I’m stuck at the top. I can’t go back or go forward. So, just gotta be patient I guess!