Vacation in Europe v.2021…

Vacation in Europe… Not easy to travel in times of covid. Two vaccinated adults, one not vaccinated teenager, one 10-year-old. Rules were changing daily. Luckily we didn’t have any problems, but we were facing unwanted quarantines, PCR tests, and we were never sure if we would get where we wanted. Very uncomfortable. I guess we have lived to the times where comfort is not relevant anymore. We should be happy that we can travel at all! We were looking everywhere for traces of post-pandemic emptiness, but, as much as Schiphol airport seemed a bit quiet, the rest of Amsterdam was very crowded, noisy, and smelly. Or maybe it was just us. We were exhausted, cold, and unimpressed with good old Europe. After 10 hours of flight in economy class (and 2 years away)? we should consider ourselves lucky that we got on the right train to Germany to meet my Mom and Dad. 

Cold

Amsterdam welcomed us with ugly 18 deg.C (64F), Germany added only few more. Natasza got cold first. The day after arrival at my Mom’s. Thanks to our friends, we could test her for covid (luckily negative, but it is crazy how regular “cold” triggers panic these days). Then Vincent got a running nose. Imagine his surprise. The last time he got sick was more than 3 years ago. So… what to do with that annoying fluid that is constantly coming out of your nostrils? Plug it! After we dealt with that drama, we filled ourselves with honey tea and vitamin C, we went shopping for some shoes and clothes that were more suitable for the so-called European summer. Just in case, we borrowed some more (good call), we put woolen hats on and drove away to the promised summer heat in Poland.

drink, dance, sing, and tell silly stories…

Yep.. that was a plan, and despite the crazy tempo and number of chores, we managed to do it all. Maybe not every day. Ok… not even once a week, but in homeopathic quantities, we had our fair share of fun all the time. I’m not gonna bore you with details. This is a quick summary of who, where, what, and why…

We said hi to…

Parents and Grandma, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, first and second cousins, high school friends, uni friends, work friends, travel friends, just good friends, neighbors, the insurance guy, local grocery shop owner, orthodontist, dentist, optometrist, surgeon, gynecologist, podiatrist (finally sea urchin is gone from my foot!), chiropractor, masseuse, beautician, few celebrities, that we actually were not aware of their fame, and several strangers, who attended the boat show.

We visited places like….

Toruń, Gdansk (twice), Mazury (twice), Warszawa, Katowice, Gdynia, Szczecinek, Kraków, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Haarlem and Wertheim

We went to…

1 boat show (we even gave an interview!), 1 political demonstration (still same sh*&^ in Poland), 1 silent disco, 3 vodka-only bars, 1 beach birthday party, 10 movies, 3 concerts, 1 comedy stand-up, 5 art exhibitions and multiple street art places (which has been our thing for a while and therefore new photo gallery with our findings is now published HERE).

We were called…

crazy, colorful, sunny, glowing, sooo tanned, too tanned, not tanned enough, saucy, damn liberal, non-patriotic, leftist youth (I took it like a champ, especially the “youth” part 🙂 ), impossible, crazy, True Viking, eh…Kaha, OMG-you’ve-grown-so-much, Yiiiiii!!!!!!!, Why-didn’t-you-call-me, so-you’re-back, are-you-finally-done-with-that-sailing?, Hmm what more….did I mention crazy?

We ate

50kg of Polish white cheese, 100 pieces of pierogi, 20 meters of kiełbasa, few gallons of beetroot gazpacho, and half a truck of bread… and a lot of other yummmm!

We bought…

3 pairs of shoes + socks (also 5 pairs – 2 socks were lost to the hungry wash machine), new mainsail, 20 books, tons of drawing supplies, 1500 pieces world map puzzle, 3 pairs of glasses, new lenses for the camera, 3 new hard drives, new pads for Nintendo, 10 bar shampoos, 10 jars (yes, glass jars!) of toothpaste, sanitary fittings for kitchen and bathroom, local sweets, instant barszcz/żurek (those soups are super polish and we need some comfort food for Xmas), whole new supplies of medicines, a new huge box of Lego (don’t ask), new passports and 3 litters of vodka. In total 22.8/23kg in one baggage, 22.9/23kg in second, and 28kg of the mainsail (+125Eur f^%$^$%^)

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But the most important: we could spend some time with our parents. 50 days with my Dad! I bet we’ve been that long together for the first time since high school! I loved it, and I am delighted that he liked it too… 3 wildlings for almost 2 months – that’s a lot! We miss our parents a lot, and being far is probably the most heartbreaking part of our cruising life.

Cold again

Right after I finally managed to restore my body temperature, and shortly before TV announced the 4th wave of covid, the summer was over. Over-over, like below-15deg.C(60F)-over. I borrowed my Dad’s winter jacket and didn’t leave the house without my woolen hat. OK, I looked like an alien, but I was COLD! And cold, my friends, cold without any reason (read: snow) triggers some nasty panic in my head. Luckily we got our new passports on time, and we were free to go back to our Happy Boat on the Happy Island of Aruba.

The vacation was almost over. With mixed feelings, we hugged goodbye:
the family, and friends in Poland, then…
the family, and friends in Germany, and then…
we went back to Holland… to hug goodbye even more friends! A lot of hugging for a couple of days, I must say! 🙂

Questions

Yes…. we were asked a lot of questions, but this is for a separate post. Now we are back in Aruba, where we intend to wait up the thunderstorm season in Colombia. Fingers crossed it won’t be as long as it was last year.

Meantime, we are exploring Aruba with Samuel and Laura, whom we met back in June. The island turned pretty green when we were away. Some photos are already available in our new photo gallery! We hope you’ll enjoy it! See you soon…

Yo-ho!

thawed, melted, heated, pre-boiled, hard-cooked in September sun
– White Dog crew