January:
The start to 2022 as a good one. I rang in the new year at home with a friend and had a wonderful evening. I did not do much else in January. It was cold and there was snow. I spent time with my friend, took walks in the snow and relaxed. The lack of photos in my camera roll tell me just how little I left the house. However, in January I had high hopes for how the rest of the year would go.
February:
After successfully avoiding covid for 2 years I finally got it in February. Thankfully I was fine and I didn’t really have any symptoms but it did lead to me being quarantined for my birthday. Not ideal. So for the second year in a row I didn’t celebrate my birthday outside of my apartment. I also said goodbye to someone who had pretty much become my best friend. They moved away and our friendship changed, as adult friendships often do. There were more snow walks, lots of puzzle building and reading.
March:
Oh, look! Another month where I didn’t do anything. I went out for brunch, the weather started to warm up, and I made some new friends. Also, I spent some more time building puzzles and reading. Sense a theme here?
April:
April brought puzzle building, reading and a random day of snow. The weather had started warming up so I started going for more coffee and walks with friends again. I swear most of my year was spent building puzzles and reading. Also, April brought Easter.
May:
In May I went to the Kraków zoo on a school trip. Seeing the look on my children’s faces when they saw giraffes was adorable. When I told then that I had already seem them in real life, back home, they were absolutely amazed! Seeing those animals in a game reserve is such a different experience so the zoo wasn’t as exciting for me. But seeing my children’s reactions were priceless.
June:
In June I tried a new doughnut place in Kraków. Yes, that makes my highlight post. That’s how uneventful June was. The main highlight of June was going to Zakopane and doing the Morskie Oko hike. Yes, the highlight was hiking. The weather was pretty good and we started really early which made a huge difference. The views were absolutely beautiful and it was so peaceful. I definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a day trip but go early to avoid the crowds! On the way up there weren’t many people but when we were going down the mountain there were loads of people going up.
July:
I was finally able to travel again after 2 and a half years. My sister and I headed to Prague (one of our favourites), Brno (a place that I fell in love with), Bratislava (where I won’t be heading back to anytime soon), and Budapest (just as beautiful as I remember). With the exception of Brno, my sister and I had visited these cities before, in Winter, and wanted to experience them again in the Summer. Just a word of warning, walking around in Budapest in 40 degree weather was not fun – no matter how beautiful it is!
August:
After 3 years I finally made it home to South Africa. I spent 3 wonderful weeks travelling to Port Elizabeth, Hogsback and Cape Town. I got to catch up with some friends and see my family. It was so great to be back and hang out with people and spend time with some special friends. A huge highlight of my trip had to be spending time with my beautiful cat though!
September:
This was the beginning of the new school year in Poland. I got to meet my new children and we spent time getting to know each other. I also went to Warsaw to celebrate a friend’s birthday and spent the weekend staying with my sister.
October:
October brought with it teacher’s day in Poland. This year we had a wonderful spread of food prepared by the PTA and I got some lovely gifts from some of the children in my class. My children also drew some pictures of me for this day and they were adorable!
November:
My sister and I travelled to Ostrava for a few days. It is such a cute city and I’m pretty sure that we walked around most of the city. They also have Tesco and Marks & Spencer and my sister and I love grocery shopping on holidays – seriously. These are also our favourite shops to do food shopping at so we were very happy! Did we walk 6kms just to get to Marks & Spencer? Yes, yes we did. Also, we stayed at the absolute best place. Ostrava is a small city and honestly there isn’t much to do there but it’s the perfect place for a relaxing weekend.
December:
Apart from work, which was crazy, December was a pretty relaxed way to end off 2022. I finally got to go to the hairdresser and my hair was refreshed in time for Christmas. I decorated my Christmas tree and made my apartment look more festive. Christmas Day was very relaxed and I spent it eating some good food and watching TV. I went to Warsaw for New Year and spent the weekend staying with my sister. While I was in Warsaw I went to see the Garden of Lights – it had a Snow White theme. It was so beautiful, and definitely worth a visit!
Now on to 2023. Do you have any goals for the year? Let me know in the comments below.
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