2018 summary – my year in Luxembourg (and 11 other countries…)

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When I came back from Montpellier, where I spent my Erasmus, I was worried that it would never again be so easy to have a normal life and travel all year round. Then in 2016 I got a dream job for two French cooking schools and I moved again to the sunny south of France. It’s impossible to describe how amazing was the time I spent there. I made one of my dreams come true and about one year later decided to go back to Poland.

I didn’t have to wait long till another great opportunity came up – in September 2017 I moved to Luxembourg. I had a full-time job but at the same time I could easily visit my home country each month, which was pretty amazing! Besides flying there for a weekend each 3-4 weeks, I managed to visit many other places in Europe. Together 36 happy flights and about 6 longer car drives (to England, Italy or the south of France).

Even though I decided to leave Luxembourg after one year and move again, the 2018 was definitely an unforgettable year!

Somehow I never had enough time to publish travel pictures on a regular basis, so I decided to finally put them together in this post.

Enjoy!

PS Later in 2018 I moved to Yorkshire, England, that I currently call my home. My post-Montpellier dream about living again by the sea – checked! More about it soon…

PPS I started using this funny Instastories thing – if you are curious where I’m going or what I’m cooking (and I’m cooking and baking a lot these days!), check out my Instagram profile.

Let’s start from the beginning…

In the end of January we flew to Barcelona (more here).

From Barcelona we flew to Porto (more here).

From Porto we took a train to Lisbon (more here), where we celebrated my birthday.

One Friday afternoon in February I spontaneously decided to catch a blablacar to Paris and spend a weekend there. Decision made at 5pm, car booked for 8pm and at 11pm I was already there. I visited some of my favourite places (like E. Dehillerin) and met with old friends from the cooking school I used to work for.

In April we visited Scarborough (more here) and Whitby.

In the end of April we drove through Switzerland to Italy. We stayed with friends in a beautiful Tuscan house, about 40 minutes from Florence. We spent one day admiring incredible Val d’Orcia (stopping in Montepulciano, Pienza or Montalcino and then Siena) and another we took an express (only 1h30min) to Rome. Walking around favourite places, eating great food or visiting my friends’ cooking school in Trastevere, that I once had a pleasure to photograph. If you’re ever there, be sure to check them (Grano & Farina Cooking school) out! Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to attend any class (even though we were invited for Italian desserts class and really tempted!), but hopefully next time.

On the way back to Luxembourg we stopped in La Spezia and spent one day in Cinque Terre. Later we split our car journey again and spent a weekend with my family on the French countryside.

After three days of working Luxembourg was celebrating another long weekend in May so we decided to do the same. We headed to Calais (France), where little dog vaccination problems delayed our ferry trip to the UK and stopped us for 24 hours. We used this day to see Brugge (Belgium).

Later we finally got to England and visited Winchester. As my job was calling me back, I took a low cost flight to… Paris, spent two days there and came back by car with friends.

Later the same month I crossed out another European city from my list – Amsterdam – what a beauty! The distance from Luxembourg, a lot of blablacar drivers and cheap direct buses make it a perfect spot for a weekend getaway.

In June we took a ferry to the UK again and spent a great weekend camping and barbecuing in the south of England. Not just a small BBQ though, actually a HUGE party with quads, homemade hot tub and live music.

In July we had an amazing time at the Rock Werchter (Belgium) music festival. Ben Howard, Angus and Julia Stone, The Kooks, The Killers and others!

In August, during my monthly visit to Poland, we were celebrating my sister’s birthday. We went out for a dinner and drinks but… we suddenly landed at the Off-Festival to enjoy Aurora and Charlotte Gainsbourg live! A proper girls’ night out, haha.

Later in August we were invited to an incredibly beautiful French house (near Toulouse area) for family holidays. After that, on the way back to Luxembourg, we stopped for two days in my beloved Montpellier (more here), another previous home – Uzès (more here) and again French countryside from my childhood.

In September I was invited to one of the most amazing weddings you could imagine – a surfer’s wedding at the Polish seaside! Everything was unbelievable there! We slept at a camping site just next to the beach, where also the whole party took place. I never before felt such a relaxed atmosphere on the wedding morning – most of the guests were chilling and hanging around the beach and the groom was still surfing around three hours before the ceremony.

Going there seemed to be also a great opportunity to visit Gdańsk and Orłowo.

From there I flew to my new home – England, where I spent the rest of the year (okay, with small trips to Malta, Poland and Slovakia).

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