2016 Musings and 2017 Travel Resolutions

I can’t believe that my last post went live in October. That’s over two months ago, so it’s really been a while… But when don’t I start a blog post without saying this? I often break the cardinal blogger-rule which is to post often and consistently but this time around, it’s not just because of laziness. After coming home from the honeymoon, things have been crazy. Work and life was hectic, as per usual and I had an exam to study for; it all became too much. Full disclosure, I spent part of November and December recovering from burnout.

That is the first (last, if you want to be chronological) musing of 2016. Burnout is a bitch and the only way to beat it is by taking care of yourself. So that’s what I’ve been doing the past weeks; taking time away from work, spending extra hours at the gym and basically doing nothing most of the time. I thought I would go crazy doing nothing at all but as it turns out, being the opposite of productive was just the cure. Now I am (almost) back and (a little more) energized and hopefully, I can be better blogger, or at least a better Karla, in 2017.

January – March

2016 started out well with us coming from an absolutely awesome trip to Dublin and as always, like I mentioned in my post how to beat the post-vacation blues, we immediately started planning our next trip… by eating Turkish food.  Otherwise, it was business as usual with a sprinkling of bowling with friends and a proposal! I’ve been carrying on about this event for months on end, so I’ll quickly hop on to the trip that never was; Istanbul.

Istanbul was a crazy story. A week before we were supposed to go, there was a bombing in the city center. As much of an explorer I would like to think I am, I wasn’t going to start exploring cities that had just been bombed. Well, I wasn’t actually too averse but better safe than sorry, so we booked a trip to Brussels instead. But then that went boom as well, so we decided to cancel all plane tickets and hotels, pack the car and just head south with no real plans other than having steak tartar at Cannibale Café, if we happen to stumble upon Paris.

And we did just that; together with Cologne and Amsterdam. This road trip inspired us to do a road trip for our honeymoon. We loved the freedom, flexibility and not knowing where we’d be the next day… heck even the next hour. This surprised the type A(nal) planner in me. Sure, I still love to plan and organize the living shit out of every future trip but there’s something liberating in letting go of the control and Kerouac’ing it for a while.

April – June 

Early summer was, as usual, my favorite time of the year. Not only are both Martin’s and my birthday during this season but I also have more energy when the sun is shining and the days are longer. I therefore go out more, actually see people and do things that are out of the ordinary, like go to literary lectures (voluntarily) and help random people roast a pig.

Warmer weather and socializing means more al fresco dining – another one of my favorites. We discovered many new good places this year, among these where Berkeley, which I will be talking more about, when my Copenhagen guide goes live. However, I just want to quickly say that they have the best sandwich in town.

Together with our own wedding, which I planned during this time. We attended 7 (seven!) weddings this year. The first two, we attended during the summer. And while I don’t feel comfortable sharing people’s wedding pictures here, and without their permission, I don’t think any of us would mind me sharing the yummy food we had at the different bachelorette parties and weddings.

We finished June and started July with me celebrating my birthday at home. Most people thought I was mad for planning a big-ish birthday party while planning the wedding (and other ladies’ bachelorette parties, mind you). I kept telling them that planning and organizing  gave me energy so I really didn’t mind but I hadn’t accounted for the time all of this actually took me. I must admit, I hope 2017 will be spent on less planning and more on actually enjoying things as they are happening. That accidentally sounded like a John Lennon quote; sorry for the cheese.

July – September 

Late summer and autumn was crazy busy. So many bachelorette parties, weddings and eating, as you can tell. I fee like all I did was eat. Eat when we had to sample cakes and ice creams for our wedding, eating during all the social events and eating al fresco while taking advantage of the Indian Summer.

All those weddings! While it was lovely watching almost all my closest friends get married this year, it was also crazy exhausting. I can’t control when people want to get married so if I could do it all over again, I would have moved my own wedding so that I could have enjoyed each wedding more. It would also have stressed me out a little less and enjoyed our engagement a little longer.

Our own wedding left me with many mixed feelings. To my mother’s dismay, I’ve never been the kind of girl who dreamed about or planned her wedding since she was a little girl. However, I’m no robot, so naturally, I’ve been programmed by media to expect certain things. It was supposed to be the most romantic day of my life. It was supposed to be perfect, emotional and filled with moments memories are made of…but I must admit, I was stressed and nervous for the majority the time; so many things went wrong and I sweat like I’ve never sweat before. Since that day I often joke to Martin, that the next time we were getting married, it would be just us and Elvis. And a couple of stiff drinks.

The honeymoon however, was perfect. I wrote about it shortly earlier and several posts will be shared here at a future date so I’ll just say, THAT was filled with moments memories are made of.

October – December 

Coming home from our honeymoon was, as mentioned, rough. Not only was it hard getting back into the daily grind but it was also crazy stressful having to study for an exam while getting acclimated back into a life with no more parties, weddings or other “looking forwardings”.  Everything seemed bleak and even though Martin tried to cheer me up by taking me out to eat, to concerts, movies, even museums(!) and by being his usual best self, nothing really worked; I was sinking into a funk. All this is evident from the lack of pictures I’ve taken – or at least shared on Instagram.

Then it happened; I burned out and had to take a few weeks off work, friends and anything anxiety inducing. I won’t bore you with the details but most of the winter has been affected by my condition. Much time was been spent twiddling around at home baking, enjoying all the flowers people sent me, playing (a shitton of) mobile games and upping my workouts. I can’t say I’m completely un-burned out but I am back at work now and my thighs are bigger than ever. In a good way.

Other than that winter was as it always was. Dark(er than usual), boring and stressful due to Christmas, which was spent four times this time around #killmenow. We also attended the seventh and last wedding of the year, spent a lot of time at home eating all my baked goods while watching TV and just waiting for the new year to start.

Looking back (despite all my whining) it was actually a good year. I spent a lot of time with people I care about, tried new things and, as I keep forgetting, got married; a huge milestone which I never thought I would ever get to. Not that it is an achievement in and of itself but I feel it’s a sign of maturity and therefore makes me feel like I’m getting really good at this adulting thing!

Next year’s travel resolutions

Last year I wrote that I wanted to go to any city in the US, Amsterdam and Istanbul. We never made it to Istanbul due to all the unrest but we made it to Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Phoenix and Los Angeles. I know it sounds like a lot but I only travelled twice this year. I would like to have been away more but alas, getting married is tres expensive; hopefully next year will be better.

We already have one trip booked; the second week of January we will be heading south to the Canary Islands. I’ve never been and I am a bit skeptical but it will be really good to get a bit of sun on my skin and a break from that darn daily grind. I didn’t pick this destination as we were invited by Martin’s parents so it’s not really in my resolutions but the places I really want to go are:

1. Lisbon, Portugal. I blame this dream on Anthony Bourdain as I’ve never really wanted to go here before I heard him talk about Ginjinha. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I want to visit Portugal to get crunk on cherry liqueur.
2. Road trip from New York City to any city in Canada. I’ve taken this trip before, but I really want to take Martin with this time around. Also, we really want to eat Shake Shack and let’s be honest, we want to Kerouac it again, all day, errday!
3. Oslo, Norway. This is somewhat a wild card to throw in but at the same time it’s not. Of course I could have thrown in Tokyo, Bali or even Goa but my recent obsession with Skam and newfound aiming-a-bit-lower-so-as-not-to-get-burnt-out-attitude, I think this seems just right. Me and my main bae Jill  have been talking about taking the ferry, eat the awful food, dance with old dudes and spend a few days in Oslo just for the heck of it, for a very long time. We’ve never come close to doing it even though we keep saying we will. Maybe this year, we’ll make it happen. In fact I’ll text her right now.

Wow. Longest. Post. Ever. And I actually have nothing more to say, so I’ll wrap it up quickly now by saying next year, I am expecting next year to be The. Best. Year. Ever.

’till then…