Well, what a month. What an insane, chaotic, crazy, horrible month. I’ve spent the entire month here in the UK on lockdown. We are only able to leave our house for essential shopping items (aka food, prescriptions, etc), to give essential care to someone else, to go to work if you are classed as a key/essential worker, and for one daily exercise (run, walk, bike) per day. What a fucking shitshow—I’ve hated all of it.

This has without a doubt been one of the most stressful and trying periods of my entire life. I hope in the weeks to come that the lockdown restrictions ease and I can see friends/family again, drive somewhere that isn’t the grocery store, go for walks outside of the very small radius of my house, and work can be less stressful.

Like March, I debated whether or not to even do a monthly recap. I haven’t gone anywhere or really done anything. This has been one of the worst months of my life and I don’t really want to remember it. But to be honest, I’ve done so many recaps through the years that I feel like I need to. Here’s what all I got up to this month.

Where I Went

York, Osbaldwick, Murton (United Kingdom)

Best Moments

Lots of great walks in York. Trying to stay positive, at least we are able to go out once a day for exercise here in the UK. And I am so thankful to live in a city as wonderful and beautiful as York. Since driving to take exercise isn’t allowed, I have only been going on walks that I do from my door. I have therefore spent a LOT of time exploring new places in and around York! I have had the opportunity to visit lots of other places in York and enjoy some of the paths/trails around the city. There are so many great places I had never been to!

Trying new recipes every week! In an effort to mix things up, Adam and I have been trying a new recipe every week. We started out the month by making adjaruli khachapuri, our favorite Georgian food. So many people asked me about it on social media, I did my first ever recipe post! We followed it up the next week with pierogi, which were amazing. Then Hungarian goulash, and then khachapuri again. Since no one can travel now, it’s a fun way to try something different!

Worst Moments

The lockdown. Nothing is more soul-sucking, draining, or depressing than the lockdowns we have been through across the world. I know so many people are feeling the same way I am—and I know so many people have it worse than we do in the UK. I’ve struggled so much and it’s made me miserable. I hate feeling so trapped, I hate not exploring. I miss my friends, I miss seeing people, I miss eating out and going to the pub.

It is so hard. It’s hard on all of us. The worst is not knowing when it’ll be over, when things will get back to “normal” (if “normal” is even something we want to get back to).

Work. My job has been so incredibly stressful this month. I’ve had multiple breakdowns and during the beginning of the month I cried a lot. As in, I cried like all the time. Work has never been worse for me—I’ve been calling out on customers and some of the calls have been so tough. I’ve been shouted at and dealt with so much unnecessary rudeness. My workload has been so overwhelming and most days I struggle just to make it through to 5:30pm when I can sign off for the day. It’s been tough. What I’m doing isn’t my actual job and what I actually do at the office, and we’re all just doing our best. I am so ready to not have to deal with this anymore.

Canceling more trips. My trip to Norway was canceled last month—and I’m still waiting on a refund from Ryanair. Thankfully it’s not very much money, but it’s still annoying having to chase them for it. We had to deal with canceling Adam’s trip to Kilimanjaro, which was supposed to be over Easter. This is the second time we’ve canceled this trip, since he had originally booked it last year but had to cancel after breaking his leg and ankle in a car crash.

We had an amazing trip to Orkney in Scotland planned for the end of May. About half-way through the month, our ferry booking was canceled, as the ferries are only operating essential lifeline services. I completely understand it, but it was still a huge disappointment.

I’d been looking forward to this trip for months. Since I came back from Rome at the end of December, I’ve been working my ass off. I only had 4 days off during the month of January, and I was so looking forward to my trips to Norway and Orkney. So it’s a huge bummer to have to cancel trips. I know that there are a lot worse issues people are dealing with. But it’s still so tough for me having to cancel trips I’ve been so excited about for months and months.

I’m grateful that my family and friends are alive and healthy. But this has been such a tough month, and I am ready for both this and this horrible time to be over.

Posts Published

This month has been my lowest blog views in over a year, since February 2019. As my blog traffic has essentially tanked thanks to the ‘rona, I haven’t been motivated at all to write or publish any of my travel posts. So I published a new reflection post and focused on my recipe posts. My recipe posts have been some of my most popular posts this month!

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay

Recipe: Adjaruli Khachapuri

Recipe: Polish Pierogi

Instagram Top 3

I’ve barely posted on Instagram at all. While I’ve been posting on Instagram Stories almost every day, I just haven’t had the energy to post on Instagram. I only posted 4 photos on my feed all month! Here are the top 3.

 

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York’s empty streets… I can’t believe how quiet the city is. I tend to complain endlessly about the crowds in York and how annoying it is 😅 and now I think I’d give anything for that back, for busy streets and tourists everywhere and to be able to explore places myself! ✨ . Things have been really tough since the lockdown but I’m just taking it one day at a time 😊 each week seems to get just a bit easier! With how stressful work has been I’ve been living for the weekends more than ever – it’s almost Friday! Hope all of you are doing okay and able to find a bit of peace amidst the chaos each day ❤️ . . . . . . . . #york #yorkminster #yorkeyeview #onlyinyork #visityork #cityofyork #gloriousyorkshire #visityorkshire #welcometoyorkshire #scenesofyorkshire #bbcyorkshire #weareyorkshire #instabritain #visitengland #photosofbritain #photosofengland #lovegreatbritain #explore_britain #gloriousbritain #thisprettyengland #ukhiddengems #charmingbritain #mytinyatlas #darlingescapes #flashesofdelight #dametraveler #girlpowertravel #sidewalkerdaily #guardiantravelsnaps

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Apr 23, 2020 at 9:02am PDT

 

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Trying to stay positive is tough these days. I have to say, lockdown has made me really appreciate where I live here in York ✨ There are some really amazing walks and as shit as it’s been, it’s been great to be able to go outside in the first place, and to explore so many new and different places on my daily exercise around York! . . This photo is one of my new favorite walks in York 😊 It’s along the River Foss – even though it’s right by busy streets it’s really quiet and so pretty! I love these blossoms on the tree 🌸 . Hope all of you are doing okay! One day at a time ❤️ . . . . . . . #york #riverfoss #yorkeyeview #onlyinyork #visityork #cityofyork #gloriousyorkshire #visityorkshire #welcometoyorkshire #scenesofyorkshire #bbcyorkshire #weareyorkshire #instabritain #visitengland #photosofbritain #photosofengland #lovegreatbritain #explore_britain #gloriousbritain #thisprettyengland #charmingbritain #ukhiddengems #ukpotd #mytinyatlas #darlingescapes #flashesofdelight #dametraveler #girlpowertravel #passionpassport #guardiantravelsnaps

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Apr 26, 2020 at 9:45am PDT

 

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What’s the best food you’ve ever eaten?! For me, it’s probably adjaruli khachapuri from Georgia 🇬🇪 this is a cheesy bread boat topped with an egg and butter. I saw it referred to once as “a carbohydrate canoe” 😂 the first time I had Georgian food and adjaruli khachapuri in Moscow in 2017, and not gonna lie it was a huge inspiration for my trip to the Caucasus in 2018! 🙌 . I made my own khachapuri this weekend and SO many of you asked for the recipe! So it’s finally here: my adjaruli khachapuri recipe post is now live on the blog! Link is in my bio so go check it out 😊 if you make it, definitely tag me in pictures – I’d love to see them! . PS. This was one of the best adjaruli khachapuri of my trip to Georgia – it’s from Cafe Pavilion in Tbilisi! 😍 . . . . . . #tbilisi #adjarulikhachapuri #georgianfood #tbilisiphoto #tbilisigram #tbilisilove #visittbilisi #toptbilisiphoto #tbilisitravel #wowtbilisi #tbilisilovesyou #tbilisimania #georgia #georgia🇬🇪 #visitgeorgia #georgiagram #georgialove #georgiatravelmoments #georgiaonmymind #caucasus #caucasustravel #mytinyatlas #wheretofindme #flashesofdelight #dametraveler #girlpowertravel #womentravelphotographers #guardiantravelsnaps #beautifuldestinations #passionpassport

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Apr 9, 2020 at 10:35am PDT

Coming Up In May

Who knows what this month will bring. I honestly have no idea. We had planned on our amazing week-long road trip and camping trip to Orkney in Scotland, which we now won’t be doing. I hope to leave the York and the YO postcode in general at some point if lockdown restrictions are lifted and I’m able to safely go other places! I would love to go for a big walk somewhere. But my main goal this month is to survive work, and make it through this. Here we go!

How did you manage this month? Anything you’re looking forward to in May?