#throwback – May 1, 2024
The day has come — May 1st, 2024. Finally, it’s happening. My big journey is about to begin. I’ve taken a year-long sabbatical and I’m planning to walk across Europe for a whole year. You really don’t need to go far to see beautiful things. My only condition: not too cold, not too hot. So, spring and summer I’ll head north (Sweden and Norway), and once autumn kicks in, I’ll go south. Where exactly? No idea yet — I’ll figure that out along the way.
I’ve been running around all day with last-minute prep, but at 19:07 I catch the train from Alkmaar Noord to Amsterdam. Huge surprise: my dad, my aunt, and my oldest sister are there to see me off. Even bigger surprise: at Sloterdijk, my sweet friend J. is waiting to say goodbye. What a beautiful start!
Around 9 p.m., I hop on the Flixbus to Copenhagen. I’m hoping to get some sleep, but that’s not happening at all. Every time we stop, the lights go on, announcements blast through the speakers, and just for fun, at 4:30 a.m., we get a passport check at the Danish border. But honestly? It doesn’t matter. My trip has started. And this grin on my face? It’s not going anywhere for a while.