- Countries Visited: 35
- Travel Wishlist: French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Mexico, Kenya and Tanzania
- Locked down in: Novo Mesto, Slovenia
“If a plan A doesn’t work, use a plan B. If that doesn’t work go with plan C, D, E … if even that doesn’t work change the alphabet.“
I know James was asking me to write this for more than a month now.
I think now I am finally able to do it now.
Where to begin?
I just got home from my Grandmas funeral. She died from Covid-19.
And right now, I don’t know if I am sad or angry or pissed off or happy or depressed or …? I don’t know what I am feeling or what to think about everything.
I just heard on the news (19. November) that we have the most deaths from Covid-19 in the whole Europe. Again, no idea if I should be sad or happy or pissed of or proud? Sounds weird right?
For all of you who don’t know, I come from Slovenia. Small country with only 2 million people, stuck between Italy and Croatia. We are also a young country. I was not born in Slovenia. I was born in Yugoslavia which most of you will recognize. So for us to be number one is great, in most cases, not in this one.
But before I get you even more confused … lets fast forward back to the beginning of the year 2020
Happy New Year 2020!
Woohoo!
I moved back to Slovenia in 2019. Travelled around for the past 10 years and lived abroad for the past 5 years. So, I moved back home. I was sure that I will want to stay here.
And to be fair at the beginning of the year, my life looked like it will be a pretty good year! Maybe even the best so far! Who else thought that?
I worked (yes, past tense) as a tour guide, I had tours booked thoughout the whole year; Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Jordan, Greece, Iceland, Scandinavia, Seychelles, 2x Japan, Thailand … it was looking so good! Not just good! Too good!
I had just came from my first tour from Thailand and the hell broke loose. It started with earthquakes mid February, falling meteor hitting about 5km where I lived and then Covid.
Living so close to Italy and Milan (6 hours driving) we went to a full lockdown really fast. Everything closed, no supermarkets, no bars, no restaurants… no schools, no jobs, no money …
I ended up living back in my old room (whare I still live atm) at my parents house. But back then, in March, we were all super optimistic and proud of our government and the ways they were trying to restrict/prevent the spread of the virus. Some of the measurement were harsh! But we were all following them. No exceptions.
Then there was, April and May and June. Kids were out of school since March, economy was shit, unemployment rate jumped off the roof … Longer we had the virus, more we saw that our Government is clueless. I mean, our GOV was the 1st one who declared the end of the 1st wave (July and August are School holidays here and Government has 1 month of holidays). We were trying to be optimistic and then we said, OK, they have 2 months (July and August) to prepare for the 2nd wave. We came into the 2. wave lockdown before the rest of the World even ended the 1. one. (If you ever heard me swear this is where I start swearing) *!?F#*MO#&!***
They introduced all different suggestions how they will save Slovenian tourism and bla bla bla …bullsh*T! Until July our borders were closed. BUT.
I did mention we were a part of Yugoslavia right? Well, that means that a lot of people have holiday homes in Croatia and/or other EX-Yugoslavia country. Including people in our GOV.
Summer months is also holiday time for Government. Guess what ‘we’ did. We reopened our borders so people were able to travel to Croatia and abroad. (Not to mention that we were allowed to travel to all countries that were on RED list!) We were once in the same country. So for our politics to open borders and to save Croatian tourism was a logical thing to expect. Let’s help them save their summer season. Except, it didn’t make sense.
There was no quarantine required after coming back to Slovenia!
Besides those ‘crazy’ GOV decisions life in summer was almost normal.
And then came September.
Kids were back to school … not for long. When most of the countries started to loosen up restrictions from the 1st wave, we got into the 2nd lockdown. Everything closed again. Kids back at home. Shops closed. The only difference is, that now government should have a plan on how to deal with home schooling and all the rest of it. Well, they kind of prepared plan A, B and C in summer. Guess what!? They decided to go with plan D and now they think that plan E will come in place. And, plan E is to close all types of schools and to send kids to work! In hotels and resorts!? Like WTF!? Seriously!? And with plan E they would save tons of money because they would not have to pay teachers for working from home. (swearing again)
We have a 9pm curfew for the past month and a half. Whole tourism sector is closed. We are not allowed to go outside of our Community. But kids will start working so the country will not have to pay teachers!? No common sense!
Oh yes, to explain this absurdity even more. I was not allowed to go outside of my Community borders. Not allowed to go to the capital Ljubljana, which is 45min drive away. BUT I would be allowed to go to Croatia or Bosnia or Serbia… if I owned a weekend house there. That rule was in place until November 1. Why? Because the last week of October we have school holidays wink**
(remember what I wrote before, politics …)
At the beginning of November there were some serious Riots in our capital Ljubljana. There were also two lawyers who decided to sue the country of Slovenia because of the whole lockdown strategies were/are restricting basic human rights.
At this moment we are in full lockdown, our health system is on the border of collapse (government excuse is that they were surprised!?) really!? REALLY!?, restrictions make no sense what so ever and it is just shit…
Our health system is collapsing. Back in March we had 30-40 new cases daily … now, in November … we have 40+ deaths daily! That is how much things got worse. In one town they don’t even have any space left to store the bodies. Hard to comprehend! Sounds like a scene from a SCI-FI movie.
I am living back at my parents house and I live a fairytale life. I have been unemployed for the majority of 2020, no idea when I will have a job again. I have my own room and I cook and clean. Irony is that our house is actually near a really old castle ruins. How about this for being a cinderella? The problem is that I forgot where I left my shoe. J
To be fair, I have to admit that I was never happier that we live on a countryside. The whole lockdown is not that hard to digest when you are surrounded by forest and meadows and no one to control you.
What I could also say is that I was never more fit in my life! And my bank account agrees! We are both slim and fit.
And the longer this is going the more I think I am in some sort of Sims video game where they are just playing with all of us like we are animals. First masks, then cage. Now they are thinking of restricting us to only be allowed to move 1km outside your home. Absurd! ?!#AGSGS**
On a positive note. In September I started to working online. I am now a Social Media Manager and Coach. I take care of people’s social media accounts and/or I teach them how to run them and post on their Social Media. I didn’t really think this will work, but I am almost fully booked now. My clients are from EU, Canada and USA. I also just opened new IG dedicated to just that (@yoursocialarchitect). It is still tiny because I am more focused on producing content for my clients than for me. J
So far our restrictions have made no sense whatsoever. They are only made and designed for the politics. No idea what will happen. Health system is collapsing. My uncles and cousins have cancer and they can not be operated on because they’re are not performing those operations now.
All I know is that I don’t want to stay or live here and I will be on one of the first planes to leave this country. It is shit!
