Category: Trips

Quit your job & go backpacking

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For a long time I wondered: “What do I really want? What do I want with my life? With my job?” I started to work for a Dutch television company in The Hague and had a good time. Even though my colleagues were fun and I learned a lot, all this time I knew this wasn’t my dream. I wasn’t born for this kind of work. I switched jobs in September 2015 to work for a great company in Amsterdam city center. It was such a relief hopping on a bike instead of a one hour drive.

It was a job with new experiences, new challenges, great people and a lovely working environment. But I still had the feeling something was missing.  kasnick2

A few years ago I talked about travelling the world one day with my boyfriend Kasper. Make a trip together and leave everything behind. “Maybe in a couple of years” is what we said. When I told Kas I was a bit restless, he told me he felt the same. And that people.. was a big relief. Every single day, my day feels the same. I wake up, go to my work, come home, have some dinner and go to bed. I don’t want to live like this at the moment. It’s not challenging enough.

After talking together for a couple of days – yes we did make this decision in a couple of days – we decided to make a one year worldtrip. ONE YEAR! We will have one year to do whatever we want. We resigned from our jobs, found a new place for our cat and booked a ticket. I felt the adrenaline running through my body. A feeling that I didn’t feel for a long – long time.

On the 4th of April 2016 our plane goes to Moskou – Russia. From here we will take the Trans Siberian express to Bejing. And afterwards? We will see.. One thing we don’t want is making plans. I think ‘We will see’ is our new motto this year.

Do you want to know what we are doing and where we are? Please take a look at this website, we will keep you posted!

Previous: We have a wedding to attend! – St. Martin

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16-04-2013 until 16-06-2013 

“We have a wedding to attend!” Our trip to St. Martin started with this news. My brother and sister in law (to be) were living on St. Martin and were happily in love, engaged and were getting married on the 18th of April 2013.

Our arrival at St. Martin started a bit messy. I loan a suitcase from my friend – so I could take a bit more stuff – and unfortunately this suitcase looks a bit ‘general’. The suitcase I have is pink and is very noticeable, you will never miss it. Obviously; you can miss the suitcase of my friend.  I think you already see where I’m going.

When we did arrive in apartment – which was crazy beautiful, but later on more about this – I tried to open the suitcase but it didn’t work with the code my friend gave me. I tried it for a hundred of times but it still didn’t work… Jep. I took the wrong suitcase. Perfect! Lucky me, my mom was at the apartment too and she drove me back to the airport. I felt like the most luckiest girl in the world – they still had my suitcase. Unfortunately for the people of the suitcase I took, they had to take another flight and took this flight without their suitcase. Yes. I felt guilty. Super guilty.

Anyhow. The apartment! We were staying at Les Balcons in Oyster Pond.  It was lovely. We had a giant bed, a lovely bathroom and we had our own terrace – with a barbecue and two sunbeds. If you are planning to go to St. Martin and still looking for a good stay, I obviously recommend Les Balcons!  

The bachelor party was a huge success – for both groups. And you could notice this the next morning – especially the men were having a great hangover. We decided to take the boat to Pinel – it was a perfect day to do absolutely nothing except from eating and sleeping.

And then.. It was THE day. The day of the wedding. I love weddings, especially when the wedding is on the beach. This day was like a fairytale. Michiel & Roos were the most beautiful Newlyweds I’ve ever seen. There was a romantic ceremony, a great dinner and afterwards a big party.
The day after the wedding it was time for a big lunch at Pinel with the family – including fresh lobster, sun and sandy toes.

Together with my other brother and his girlfriend, we decided to go to Anguilla on our last day. You can take the boat to Anguilla at the French part of the Island: in the harbor of Marigot. It’s only 20 minutes by boat. The water was quite rough and it is possible you’re getting a bit seasick. Yes – we experienced this ourselves.

I can tell you: the Island Anguilla is worth it. White beaches, blue water and a lot of deserted beaches. We visited Anguilla just for the day, but if you can spend more time here – please do this. It’s so pretty!

What else did we do in St. Martin? Honestly, not that much. We slept, eat, drink – a lot, and enjoyed the sunshine. St. Martin thank you for this perfect stay – hope to see you soon!

 

 

Our first trip together – New York

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Our first trip together – New York

12-04-2013 until 16-04-2013. 

Day 1.
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The 12th of April we flew to New York. NEW YORK! I love New York so much and I hoped  Kasper would like this city as much as I do. Because when he does, there will be a small chance we will move here one day – you know when we win the lottery or find a bag with a lot of money ;).

In New York we booked an apartment with Airbnb. It was a tiny apartment but on Times Square and not super expensive – which is quite an exception in this city. We had exactly three days to explore NYC and we started our first day – of course – visiting the Empire State Building. The view is fascinating and – secretly – I think I love this place so much because it reminds me of Chuck and Blair. Yes, this is the place where Chuck waits for Blair to say the three magic words – 10 point if you understand this.

Afterwards it was time for New York’s symbol. If you want to visit Liberty Island you have to take the ferry in Lower Manhattan. Unfortunately the statue was under construction so we couldn’t get off the boat. This didn’t mean it was less special. The Statue of Liberty close enough to touch, the sunshine on our face and a great spot on the Skyline of New York..

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As soon as we got off the boat we walked through some shopping streets – we didn’t shop a lot, because my love doesn’t like shopping (at all) – and we ended the day at the M&M Store. At the end of the day we decided to relax a bit in the apartment and in the evening we went out for dinner in a real American restaurant: big portions, a lot of meat and huge beers. Yes, it was a good ending of our first day.

Day 2.

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The second day we visited the Brooklyn Bridge. We decided to go for a walk because we both don’t like the public transport. For the ones who never visited New York City: this is quite a walk. What is more fun than walking through New York – and burn some calories in the meantime? Walking through SoHo made me realize I need to live here – maybe in another life, but one day I will live here.

Before going to the Brooklyn Bridge we visited the 9/11 memorial and of course the Financial District. Especially Kas was very impressed by the Financial District. I think he could walk here around for days.

After the Brooklyn Bridge we walked to Meatpacking District where we met a friend of Kas – this lucky bastard is living my dream and lives here. We met at The Standard and as soon as I walked in I realized this was the kind of place you expect in New York. When I decided to smoke a cigarette, the friend of Kas looked at me like I did something really bad. “That’s not done in New York”. If I really wanted to smoke I could walk to the end of the street where a smoking area was. Suddenly I didn’t want to smoke anymore – you would say this stupid trick of New Yorkers work, right?

As soon as we asked the waitress for another round – it would be my 4th glass of wine – you could see she thought we were stupid tourists. When I looked around me, I indeed saw all New Yorker’s were ‘nipping’ their wine or beer. Something we Dutchies don’t know. When we received our check we understood the ‘nipping’. We had a check of 200 dollars for just a couple of drinks. But we had fun. Allright it still is a shitload of money for a couple of drinks. Fun or not.

After this expensive liquid dinner, Kas and I decided to walk home over the High Lane. This is an old railway that hasn’t been used since 1930 so they decided to change it into a park. It is great: you walk over the busy streets of New York and through all the high buildings. And tadaaaa: you can find this High Lane in Meatpacking District. Just where we were!

Day 3. 

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Day three was a relaxing day and it was exactly what I needed. When I woke up I had the feeling of running a marathon the day before and the liquid dinner wasn’t really helpful either. But the good news was: we were still in New York and the sun was shining! We decided to go to Central Park. We bought a coffee, there was a man playing guitar and I had a great spot in the sun. Does life get any better?

After walking through the Central park – very slowly, because my body still felt like I run this marathon – we bought a great lunch at the Whole Foods. We bought two very small – which is exceptional for the USA – boxes of Sushi. This Sushi was super tasty and it was the best Sushi we have eaten in a very long time.

All good things comes to an end – so was our trip. We had to leave the lovely sunshine to pack our stuff at the apartment and go back to the Netherlands.

New York, you were great & now I love you even more.