Christmas 2020 is behind us, 2021 around the corner. Time to reflect the last year, and what a year it was! I guess what a year it was for all of us… 🤨.

For us, it was interesting… Interesting in any way. From having the time of our lives down under in our little home on wheels, to being bowled over when we all of a sudden had to stop our wanderers life due to Covid-19 in March, to being confident and fully back in Dutch society today. We ticked all boxes. Registration in the Netherlands, health insurance, mobile subscriptions, wifi, a place to live, fixed jobs!, too many wheels to get around, even the revival of our Netflix account is all sorted out. In fact, we accomplished more at this point than we ever dared to imagine. Immigration turned out easier than emigration.

That is said from a practical perspective and in hindsight. Mentally, it wasn’t easy. One, as we didn’t know we would end up as we did and two, as we had to let go of our travel life so abruptly. We’re very grateful that we found the means ánd the courage to travel the world for two years. Nothing can take that away from us. And yet it’s an absolute bummer that we didn’t crossed the Pacific by boat and neither enjoyed a long road trip through North America. 😭 😭 😭

Sure, we enjoy a long afterglow of all the things we did do. The Trans-Mongolian Express, standing in front of Mount Everest at basecamp in Tibet, hiking the Annapurna in Nepal, backpacking South East Asia, sleeping in the desert in Rajasthan underneath the Milkyway, exploring magical India – oh we loved India, there is something in the air in that country that makes you happy – not to forget our intense sailing adventure and becoming an RYA Yachtmaster Offshore, sailing everywhere between Thailand and Singapore, surfing in Indo, living in Bali, Formula 1 in Japan, Yacht delivery from Sydney to Brisbane, Roadtrippin’ Australia, and much, much more. A truly amazing life experience and a dream that came true. 

It’s the exact reason why coming home without a mental get ready process challenged us deeply. We know there are worse things in life if you put it in perspective, but we still felt what we felt. We were not ready to go home. The thinking process did not started. We had done zero preparations. No house, no applications, nothing, nada. The only thing we had done was deciding that we wanted to go home to continue our careers by the end of the summer. Not in march…

The first two weeks we stayed in quarantine at Wouter’s parents home and lived in their attic for another two months. It meant endless games of Catan, zipping tea in the spring sunshine, watching all episodes of Friends, eating potatoes, meeting fam and friends on 1,5m, change shifts who can lie on the couch and getting to know them even deeper…. It was great. They gave us such a warm home. It allowed us to take our time to settle down and digest. Exactly what we needed. 🙏💕 It was equally great when we found our own private place again 😇.

Summer was a combination of applying for jobs, cycling between windmills and cows, camping with the girls, meeting our little nephew – born during our trip – and hanging out with friends and family. Which, after a two year world trip is really really nice. Having them so close by. Call and meet within ten minutes! Amazing. ❤️

From mid summer it was a continuation for me and starting a new job for Wouter. It took a little longer for me to find a suitable job. Simply because there are less interesting seats, even more so due to Covid-19. An insightful experience I must say. I enjoy moving fast forward and now it felt I stood still. It’s different from being a world traveller without a job as there is a lot to gain when travelling. Arriving in new places, meeting new people, new experiences and plenty of ways to challenge yourself.

Now it was me at home. Despite some start-up struggles I found my rhythm: on my cyclocross, in my German lessons, on LinkedIn for jobs and my dear friend and dog supported me by taking me on weekly small road trips to put new food into the eyes. 🙏❤️ Best of all, I realized I was not standing still. I was still a world traveller, still that career women, still Nadine and still moving forward in life. And eventually I moved into a new job.

Winter so far is about work. Onboarding into a new company, job and for both of us a new industry. Finding that work-life rhytm together. We’re progressing well. We know how the coffee machine works. We’re spending hours in ‘Teams’ to get to know our new colleagues and the number of emails with abbreviations we never heard of is reducing gradually. Think we both will settle in nicely and enjoy the exciting challenges ahead of us.

It’s all about life too. This has been more harsh as we lost a family loved one a month ago. Unexpected fast and way too young. An intense sad situation. It’s a private matter… however we want to mention it cause it ones more underlines the importance to stay healthy, to live your life and celebrate it as long as you can.

We will continue to do that, cherish our world trip forever and look forward. So weird, during xMas it was the first time we realized we were in a position to think about planning a holiday again. 😃 Yes, we’re happy to move into 2021 and our brand new chapter in life.

Thank you all for reading, for thinking of us, for the support, for who you are. We wish you a healthy and amazing 2021 whatever you do and wherever you are on this beautiful planet.

Take care.

Wouter & Nadine