Tag Archives: Blogging

Life & blog update: May 2020

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one of the pretty houses that we saw on our day trip to Istria region

Life & blog update: May……was a month of the end of the lockdown. Finally, almost all the restrictions were lifted in three phases. A new normality, as they said. By the end of the month, everything looked and felt more or less normal, you just had to disinfect your hands wherever you went.

I missed my friends so much. I can’t describe exactly how I felt when we finally got to see our friends and when our boy finally got to play with other children. After almost two months of feeling more or less anxious, frustrated and powerless (just to name a few of my feelings during the lockdown) I finally felt normal, I dare say, even happy. Our first outing to the beach after it was officially allowed to actually spend more time outside was a strange affair. It was a nice Sunday and I must confess seeing that many people in the same place made me feel uneasy. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed ourselves very much. I felt a bit wary at our first children’s birthday party after the lockdown too. I was uncomfortable with the idea of shaking hands with complete strangers but most people there didn’t share my feelings despite the still ongoing corona virus threat.

We weren’t allowed to leave our town without a permit during the lockdown so it felt extra special when the restriction of movement was nullified and we were able to go to our summer house. Furthermore, we even went on a day trip to the smallest town in the world- Hum in Istria (Croatia) on the last Saturday in May. It was my baby girl’s first proper day trip. I will blog about it eventually. Suffice to say, we had a great day out.

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Life & blog update: April 2020

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Life & blog update: April 2020

Wisteria hysteria…I took this photo on a walk in my neighbourhood

Life & blog update: April …was the dullest month ever. A month spent at home because of lockdown due to coronavirus. I like to travel in April. Last year my husband and I went to Berlin and we had a wonderful time exploring it. It was our first trip together after becoming parents (however, we weren’t completely alone on that trip, it was us and my baby no.2 bump). In 2018 we took our son to his first trip abroad to Udine in Italy. Another great April trip was Stockholm in 2016 while in 2015 I fell in love with Brugge. Oslo was a pleasant surprise in April in 2014. This year, I travelled to kitchen from the living room via the hallway. Needles to say, I didn’t even need a cabin bag.

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Corona virus in Croatia & our life in lockdown

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beach in my hometown in Croatia

At the moment of publishing this post there are 1,343 corona virus cases and 19 deaths in Croatia. First case of corona virus in Croatia was confirmed on 25th February. I originally wrote this post for a fellow travel blogger (check here) but I have decided to add some more personal content and to post it here on my blog as well.

I live in a seaside town in Croatia with my husband and two small children. Our life has changed dramatically and we are now practically in a complete lockdown. As everyone else in the world we heard about corona virus in China but didn’t think too much about it. After all, China is far, far away from our small country. In the meantime our small country wasn’t that far away anymore from the virus because the virus came to Italy. Oh, that’s too close! And yet the government didn’t think about closing the borders with Italy and the first confirmed corona virus patient in Croatia was a guy who returned from a trip to Milan, Italy. And then there were other people who got back from holidays/ski trips/business trips and had corona virus.

So, things happened fast from then on. Everyone who got back from abroad had to be in self-isolation for 14 days and report to a doctor. If they had severe symptoms they got tested for corona virus. Then, the government decided to cancel/postpone all events that gathered more than 1000 people, than that got reduced to a 100 people. Schools, kindergartens and universities were ordered to close for 14 days. Then, all restaurants, cafes and shops and some other businesses got closed for 30 days which meant that all education facilities were also going to be closed for longer (this is valid until 19 April, further decisions are awaited). Read more

Life & blog update: March 2020

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out&about with my baby girl at the beginning of March

Life & blog update: March 2020…what to say? You know what, I’ll write about corona virus and our life in lock-down in a separate post. Here I’ll write only about the first part of March when everything still had some semblance of normality.

We managed to have a couple of board game nights with our friends. We had several play-dates with our friend’s kids. My husband made some beer with his cousin (they have done that before too, their beer is all right). We went to the beach several times. We saw the grandparents. Our toddler had fun at the kindergarten. I managed to go on a friend’s birthday lunch and went out for a walk by myself. How all this seems surreal now!

My baby girl turned 6 months old in March and I blogged about her. We went to meet my friend in a cafe in the city center and that was the first time that we went to a cafe without the rest of our family. She’s growing all the time. Call me a bad mum if you want but I finally got to see her turn from back to tummy (previously something or someone else distracted me and I’d just find her in a different position). She’s reaching out to grab toys when she’s on her tummy and moving her legs and arms but she’s not crawling yet. She likes to eat (it seems that enjoying good food runs in our family, even our cat eats loads 🙂 ). Unfortunately, since her brother’s at home due to corona virus (all kindergartens and schools closed in mid March) she can’t sleep during the day because he keeps waking her up. She’s teething and I’m looking forward to her first tooth because then she won’t be in so much pain anymore. 

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If I could travel now….

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mona lisa with face mask

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

If I could travel now…I’d explore a castle with my family

If I could travel now… I’d go to London with my best friend and have a drink at our favourite pub

If I could travel now…I’d visit Finland for the first time and meet up with my blogger friend from Helsinki

If I could travel now…I’d enjoy a weekend trip just with my husband

If I could travel now….I’d go on a work trip to the same places I usually go and love it as if I’d never been there before

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Life & blog update: February 2020

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Life & blog update: February 2020

sometimes all you need to feel better is a cake:)

Life & blog update: February 2020….was a short month, what a surprise! Nevertheless, we managed to have some fun and to meet up with friends. I’m not a very adventurous eater but as I grow older I tend to try more new foods. We went out for Valentine’s Day with friends and I tried sushi for the first time. Now, I’m not a big sea food fan despite living by the sea so I didn’t expect to like sushi but at least I can say now that I have tried it and that I didn’t hate it. 🙂 I liked mochi for dessert though.

My hometown Rijeka is the European capital of culture for 2020 together with Galway in Ireland. Throughout the year there will be many interesting cultural events. The grand opening was on 1st February but we didn’t attend it because it was a bit impractical to be among the crowd in downpour with two small children. Luckily, it was sunny for the children’s carnival parade which we went to see and our boy loved it. He was too young last year to really enjoy it but this year he liked it and we also went to the children’s costumed dance (he wore a tiger costume and our baby girl was a Christmas reindeer).

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Life & blog update: January 2020

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one sunny Saturday in Kostrena, Croatia

Life & blog update: January 2020…was a slow month. A beginning of a new year, a new decade but ultimately it was quite a boring month compared to December. Though, we had a great New Year’s party with a couple of friends playing board games.

Again, for the most part of the month our household fought unsuccessfully with various children’s illnesses. At one point I felt very low and full of self-pity. When will this end? The toddler gets sick (because he has to get used to the germs at the daycare), then we all get sick and the baby girl coughs often too. We had to cancel many plans for outings and had to stay in instead. But we are all healthy and to moan about this is so wrong when there are people who deal with real health issues in their lives.

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