Hey! How is everyone doing? Things are starting to turn back to normal, though they are calling it ‘the new normal‘ in my country. We’re going to have to keep working from home and keep a meter and a half distance between ourselves. The phrase ‘the new normal’ is a way of saying: just get used to it.

But things are looking up. Schools and libraries are open, as well as dentists and hairdressers. This week museums and restaurants will open up as well and every few weeks we’ll get some new liberties. Traveling outside of your own country, however, is still on hold, though I have heard some desperate cries from countries that offer to pay you back a part of your travel costs if you’re visiting this year, so they can get income from tourism. Maybe there’s hope after all.

So maybe it’s time to start dreaming again. Here’s my top three places I want to visit when I’m allowed again!

Iceland

We’ve planned a 10 day roadtrip through Iceland for the end of June. We have booked our flights, our hotels and the things we want to see: Waterfalls, volcanoes, puffins, witchcraft museums, a whale watching tour… I was so excited! Iceland is such a beautiful country and we had a list of a hundred things to see.

When Corona hit in the beginning of march, we thought that it wouldn’t be this bad. I remember saying: Oh, but we’re going on a trip at the end of June, that’s more than four months away. Surely we will be able to go!

The longer this lasted, the more we worried about our trip. We have four weeks left now, and still, it isn’t clear if we’re able to go. So far, only one hotel has been cancelled, but our flights and the other hotels are still set. The blue lagoon is closed, but will open up June 15th, same goes for the whale watching tours. There’s just a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of hoping that we still will be able to go.

Nice

I mentioned this amazing city earlier. It’s the one place that I have been dreaming of for years, but I never traveled back. I can hear that gorgeous blue see calling me and there is no place I’d rather visit right now. I already bought a travel guide and the second I hear that I can go, I will book that flight!

Florence

My bucketlist is a few kilometers long at this point, for I want to visit every city and every country in the world. Sometimes, one of those places just pops up in my head, like a compass of my subconsious, saying: you’ll have to go here NOW.

Quite literally this time, because Florence came to me in a dream. Usually, my dreams are weird and I have no idea what to make of them (like the time I dreamed I opened up Pandora’s box and a lot of gigantic Pokémon came out), but this one had a clear message.

I dreamed I was in a city, I think it was London or something, and we were solving a murder. At one point, we had to catch a flight to Florence. When we were there, dream-me walked under an archway and then the city came in sight. At the sight of it, I fell onto my knees and wept at the beauty of the city.

Now, I’ve never been there before, so I have no idea if my dream image is anything like the city itself, but the message is clear. I have to go to Florence!