This year has certainly been full of highs and lows, but as always it helps to look on the bright side of life. In this article, Jaclyn from the UTracks team in Australia does just that as she shares what's been keeping her active during Covid and reveals what she's missing most about Europe.

 

 

 

 

I am used to being busy so working part-time has been quite an adjustment. I am cooking all the time including pickling & fermenting. I play around with watercolours. I read a lot. I am drying and pressing flowers for my Christmas gifts and (hopefully) get-togethers with friends. 

 

 

A road trip into western NSW turned up all sorts of treasures including tracing my family history around Tamworth. Hiking in the Warrambungles is now up there as one of my favourite walks anywhere in Australia.

 

 

I’ve leant a lot about using Zoom!

I have started a garden bed & am studying permaculture online – fingers and toes crossed for some homegrown veggies in the months ahead.

I failed at keeping up my Kayla Itsines fitness app & have some extra ‘covid kilos’. A walk or cycle in Europe is usually my midyear trip (& winter escape) so I would build fitness in the lead up to the trip and come back feeling energised and inspired to keep fit, so I really missed that this year.

 

 

Oh my, everything. I miss sitting in a piazza people watching. I miss big old wonky cobblestone paths under my feet. I miss hearing the language being spoken especially the fast and impassioned conversations you hear in Italy and Spain. I miss long days - I love how it doesn’t get dark until 10pm in the European high summer. 

 

And don’t even get me started on the food – there is absolutely nothing that compares to French bread and pastries. Or grilled meats & fish with all the salads and sides in Greece or Italy, my love – all the pastas, flavour packed tomatoes, cannoli, fresh sardines, prosciutto, gelato.

 

 

Italy, always Italy. I am Italy obsessed. I was booked to walk the Way of St Francis through Umbria in June so I will get back to that as soon as I can. Sardinia is now firmly on the list too. Also Corsica in France and Cyprus. *Editors note: so everywhere in Europe really :) 

 

My way of coping when my trip to Italy was not possible was to buy & read cookbooks about Italy. Then I had a very long Italian lunch (with 2 guests as was permitted at the time) to celebrate/commiserate the day I was due to fly out to Florence to start my two month, long service leave travels through Italy.

 

 

That’s a really hard question. It’s been an unimaginable event with so much loss and hardship but strangely yes there are some good things, mostly in terms of perspective, support and appreciation.

Our team have learned to adapt to a new style of working with online systems and meetings and even with the enormous challenges of the past six months we all still love travel & the industry & really look forward to seeing our travellers return to Europe.

On a personal level, my entire family live in WA & so I haven’t seen them since February, I will no longer be taking for granted the freedom to get on a plane and visit them or fly my mum over to stay with me.

I definitely have an appreciation of how fortunate I am & to make the most of every opportunity as life and the world is more unpredictable than I ever thought. Travel has become a largely affordable luxury that so many of us enjoy, it was such a shock to have that taken away so suddenly. It’s made my travel wish list bigger & my desire stronger.

 

 

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We can't wait to resume exploring Europe either. Take a look at our worry-free booking guarantee which allows you to book trips with confidence in 2021. With our flexible booking conditions, if the trip doesn't work out, you won't lose out.