Munich, Germany
We took advantage of a two week long school break to finally see my cousin in Munich and then some friends in Sweden. Here’s part 1 of that vacation.
Sharing the journey of becoming an expat and the growth that comes with it.
We took advantage of a two week long school break to finally see my cousin in Munich and then some friends in Sweden. Here’s part 1 of that vacation.
Getting to visit a new city and country is always exciting. Getting to do it with friends is even better. Getting to have built in local tour guides is as good as it gets and we had all of these things built into this experience.Cover photo in B&W by Florian Henning
It has been a while since a Hays family life update. We’re getting so very close to the end of
Why Champagne? Well, why not? This was planned somewhat spontaneously. We’ve come to appreciate that several places in France are 4 or less hours away. Totally drive-able for quick trips. Josh and I both enjoy Champagne wines, and it has been a bucket list item for us to go, taste, and also cycle in the region. We checked all those boxes and I’m happy to say it lived up to the self-created hype in our minds.
Melissa invited me to travel with her to a small village in southern Sweden to visit her grandparents. Who can say no to Sweden with your best friend? I felt so lucky to spend time with her and her incredible grandparents. I learned about FIKA, stugas, herring for breakfast, and heard all the stories of growing up in an immigrant family.
Sometimes Josh gets an itch to get out of town and this trip was exactly that. He started researching national parks within a drivable distance and settled on the Voges du Nord area of France, about a 3.5 drive (4 with kids) from Maastricht. He found a cute small hotel with good reviews in the village of La Petite-Pierre and we packed our bags.
We have just passed the two month mark here in Maastricht. What have we been up to? We’ve done a good bit of travel as well as a lot of hanging out together in our home here over the last two months. We’ve also started trying to integrate ourselves a bit better into the community. We want to know more people- families at the school as well as Dutch families who are living here. Here’s some of the things we’re doing to put ourselves out there. I should say, it isn’t always easy. It feels a bit vulnerable even. But, I feel like it will matter in the long run when we look back on this experience.
I’ve delayed writing about our weekend in Luxembourg not because it wasn’t blog worthy, but because it
Our final 3 nights were in luxurious Santorini. I felt like we went from the equivalent of Islamorada in the Florida keys to South Beach. From a laid back vibe to high end everything. I’ll admit, getting off the crowded ferry at the port, I questioned our selection of the island. There were so many people, buses, drivers, it was hard to even pick your name out from the sea of name plates being held up.
Today is one of those days of travel that becomes a good “story” later on. In the moment(s), though, it is often frustrating, tiring, and throwing kids’ feelings into the mix is just icing on the cake.
We started our trip with a hired driver to take us from Maastricht to Brussels airport. While the train can
Fitting in what we could on a 24ish hour trip to Amsterdam.
We keep thinking we had all we needed and finding out we are lacking something. Here’s our journey to opening that darn bank account!