My January in 2018 was a pretty rough month. I thought that that month would be possibly one of the worst and most stressful months I’ve had. Then this January 2019 arrived and… well let’s just say, it makes January 2018 look like a piece of cake. This month saw a serious and very traumatic experience when Mr. Away With Maja was in a very scary car crash, and I’ve struggled to both get myself to work (our busiest time of the year) and help take care of him. But I haven’t missed a recap post yet, so I wanted to do one this month anyway. I’ve even had to use some photos from my phone, since I barely took any photos at all to be able to put into a post! Here’s what happened this January.

Where I Went

York, Kirkstall, Leeds, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (United Kingdom)

Best Moments

Visiting Kirkstall Abbey. I had a really nice day at the beginning of the month visiting Kirkstall Abbey, just outside Leeds. The abbey ruins are beautiful—definitely some of the best in Yorkshire! The abbey is free to visit, and there’s a free parking lot across the street. It wasn’t a long day out, but definitely worth an afternoon. I had a lot of fun photographing it, and trying to come up with new and more creative content to share. It was a really nice day!

 

I’ve had a lot of love and support from friends and family around the world this month. Thank you.

Worst Moments

Mr. Away With Maja was in a very serious car crash. On Friday, January 11^th, he went to work like normal and ended up with a broken leg, a broken ankle, severe soft tissue damage on his other leg, having to spend a night in Leeds General Infirmary, and having a long road to recovery.

 

To be honest, nearly all of my struggles this month have been repercussions from this very traumatic experience. Mr. Away With Maja is lucky to be alive. He was trapped in the car for over an hour before they could get him out. And they had to cut him out—they cut off his clothes, cut off his shoes, and cut off one of the car doors to get him out. He has been in a lot of pain, but luckily, he is alive and still able to feel pain.

 

You can read about the crash in the York Press, Minster FM, and the Selby Times Facebook page. If you’re wondering, our car was the white car.

He spent one night in LGI overnight, before we could take him home. The next night, he twisted his leg and we thought he had re-broken his leg and I had to call an ambulance (my first ever time calling emergency services) to come and get him to the hospital for x-rays. (Luckily, he did not re-break the leg.) We had another appointment in Leeds, before luckily being able to get everything transferred to York. He had surgery on his ankle, which required another overnight hospital stay. He is still in a lot of pain, and he’s in a boot and on crutches. He’ll be in the boot until at least March 8^th, which is a looooong time. Hopefully the worst is over now for him physically though, and he can start the long road to recovery.

 

In the meantime, we have (of course) had to deal with about a million and one phone calls for insurance, lawyers, police, doctors, hospitals, etc. Financially, things are going to be pretty tight around here as the car is a complete write-off. I spent 3+ hours on the phone with various people at Apple tech support and managed to get his most important files off his ruined MacBook Pro and onto an external hard drive (thank you Martin, Derek, Ricky, and Daniel!). He’ll need a new laptop when he is able to go back to work—and they don’t come cheap.

Unfortunately, we’ve also had to cancel some of our holidays. Mr. Away With Maja was set to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania over Easter. He is unable to do that trekking holiday now. We were also set to go to Greece for 8 days in the middle of February. This is a dream trip and we’ve had to cancel it as he just won’t be well enough and mobile enough for us to go and safely enjoy the trip. The good thing is that we have travel insurance—so all of the expenses that we’ve already paid for that can’t be refunded, we’ll be able to claim through that insurance. (This is why you have travel insurance!!!!!)(Considering travel insurance for your trip? World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 adventure activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.)

 

I have been simply exhausted as this is the busiest time of the year for my work. And while I had to take a few days off (obviously) to help take care of Mr. Away With Maja, I have been back in work, working 6 crazy busy insane days a week—which is enough to exhaust me in the first place! I had to take the days I was off as unpaid (I should be able to claim loss of earnings through our insurance claim), and certain people at work have made a point of kicking me when I’m down, which I really don’t appreciate. Getting myself to work and being able to do my job has been a real struggle.

 

I should also say, Mr. Away With Maja’s grandpa passed away at the beginning of the month. So not only have we been dealing with all of this car crash stuff, but we also had a funeral to go to last week. My mother-in-law has been through the ringer this January—this has been an absolutely horrible month for her.

To be honest, this has been one of the worst months of my life. I haven’t done much blogging since I haven’t had the time, the energy, the motivation, or the creativity to do anything. I haven’t had time to worry about my student loans or renewing my visa. I haven’t had energy to do anything that isn’t taking care of Mr. Away With Maja, and trying to take care of myself. I barely had any “worst moments” to write about in my recap post last month for December 2018—maybe that was a bit of foreshadowing of how January would be! But here’s hoping that the worst is over and it’s all positive from here on out.

Posts Published

I managed to get my big three yearly recap posts published at the beginning on January! Besides that, I haven’t published anything. As I said, I just haven’t had the time or the energy or the motivation to do it. Here are the three posts I published this month:

My Top Experiences Of 2018

My Worst Travel Moments Of 2018

The Best Places I Visited In 2018

 

Instagram Top 3

I haven’t posted on Instagram in weeks—I just haven’t had the energy for it. So I’ve only posted 4 photos from the month. But here are my top 3 photos from January!

 

 

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Running into 2019 like I’m slipping down a muddy hill in a North York Moors seaside village but manage to not fall on my face and even get a half-decent shot for the gram 😂 . I’m trying to make an effort to share more photos of myself here on Instagram. It’s something that feels kind of awkward for me, but I feel like it’s important to be authentic and real and be a bit more personal in this age of fake Instagrammers. . This year has been a big one for me, and has seen huge changes for me. Both in my career/general life, and for my blog. Last week I published a whole new blog post reflecting on this year of big changes, and today I have my first big yearly recap post out: my top experiences of 2018! 🎉 . Link to the post is in my bio 😊 Hope everyone has a great start to the New Year! ✨ . . . . . #staithes #northyorkmoors #northyorkmoorsnationalpark #yorkshire #northyorkshire #visityorkshire #welcometoyorkshire #scenesofyorkshire #bbcyorkshire #visitnorthyorkshire #instabritain #visitengland #photosofbritain #photosofengland #lovegreatbritain #explore_Britain #ukpotd #gloriousbritain #mybritain #mytinyatlas #flashesofdelight #wheretofindme #dametraveler #girlswhotravel #sheisnotlost #ladiesgoneglobal #womenwhoexplore #wearetravelgirls #guardiantravelsnaps #passionpassport

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Jan 3, 2019 at 1:08pm PST

 

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One of the most picturesque places in the North York Moors? The charming fishing village of Staithes! 😍 . I had the best weekend in the Moors before Christmas – we stayed in a rural Airbnb in Fryupdale, had such good pub meals in cute little villages, and came back for a fire in the wood burning stove every night. It was perfection. . And after seeing so many pretty photos of it online, I finally made it to Staithes last month! I love this part of the UK, and I feel so grateful that I live so close nearby ✨ . How’s everyone’s 2019 going so far?! I’ll be working like crazy this January so nothing too exciting for me! . . . . . #staithes #northyorkmoors #northyorkmoorsnationalpark #yorkshirecoast #yorkshire #northyorkshire #visityorkshire #welcometoyorkshire #scenesofyorkshire #bbcyorkshire #visitnorthyorkshire #instabritain #visitengland #photosofbritain #photosofengland #lovegreatbritain #explore_Britain #ukpotd #gloriousbritain #mybritain #traveling_uk #mytinyatlas #flashesofdelight #wheretofindme #theprettycities #dametraveler #girlswhotravel #guardiantravelsnaps #passionpassport #beautifuldestinations

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Jan 6, 2019 at 10:44am PST

 

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Misty days on the North York Moors. I love exploring this part of the country, and even caught a bit of cloud inversion! This is right across the road from Rosedale Chimney Bank. I’d seen pictures of this before, but didn’t realize where exactly it was until we drove around the bend and it was right there in front of us! . I loved this weekend. Get in the car, go for a walk, drive somewhere else, stop at a pub, drive somewhere else, walk around, maybe have another stop or pub or walk before finishing the night curled up in front of a fire, reading a good book. Perfection ❤️ . I love traveling to cities and exploring places with that busy hustle and bustle. I’d say the overwhelming majority of my trips are city based! But I also love being outside, in the wilderness, and going for a good hike and enjoying the scenery. Somewhere I can see the stars and appreciate the stillness and the silence. And this weekend trip was all about the outdoors! ✨ . Do you prefer cities 🏙️ or nature 🏞️ when you travel? . . . . . #northyorkmoors #northyorkmoorsnationalpark #yorkshire #northyorkshire #visityorkshire #welcometoyorkshire #scenesofyorkshire #bbcyorkshire #visitnorthyorkshire #instabritain #visitengland #photosofbritain #photosofengland #lovegreatbritain #explore_Britain #ukpotd #gloriousbritain #mybritain #mytinyatlas #flashesofdelight #wheretofindme #dametraveler #girlswhotravel #sheisnotlost #ladiesgoneglobal #womenwhoexplore #womenwhohike #wearetravelgirls #guardiantravelsnaps #passionpassport

A post shared by Maja Proescholdt (@awaywithmaja) on Jan 8, 2019 at 11:44am PST

Coming Up In February

February will be another quiet month as Mr. Away With Maja slowly recovers, and as I try to get some sort of sense of normalcy back. Obviously, we’re no longer going to Greece and so the entire month will be spent in the UK again. Mr. Away With Maja won’t be returning to work until the beginning of March, so it’ll be very relaxed. Hopefully we can go on some micro-adventures around York and Yorkshire in a bit. We’ll see what happens!

Over to you! What was your January like? Hopefully better than mine! 😉