#4 - Lovis, how are you?

Tell me Lovis, how are you?

I get this or similar messages a lot lately. And I try to ask myself this question again and again. Not only to be able to answer it to friends or relatives, but also to know for myself how I am doing.

So:

I'm having a hard time coming up with a single answer to this question:

Good. Complicated. Overwhelmed. Overburdened. Glad. Thrilled. Happy.

There's just so much happening lately. We've been traveling for over five weeks now. 5 weeks of traveling, planning, discovering and adjusting to new situations.

And now finally some rest and time to write a blog again. But the first 5 weeks are still to be processed and described in the form of blogs.

Dieses Bild ist komplett zufällig entstanden und ist und ist nicht gestellt ;)

I feel - and I often discuss this with Alex, who is in a similar situation - in a constant balancing act. A balancing act between the role of caregiver for Alex, as a still inexperienced "content creator" with a new work colleague and as a world traveler. Three different roles that I try to reconcile every day. Not an easy task. I was aware of that from the beginning. But I am also happy to be able to experience all of this.

However, I don't want the wrong impression to be created. I am more than happy to be in this situation. I am grateful for all that I am allowed to experience. The many people I get to meet. New places I am discovering and experiences I am gaining.

I sometimes have a hard time really grasping it all. That's why I'm often sitting in an Airbnb, hostel or café and catch myself saying to Alex:

Alex, we're just in Sydney right now. Picture this.

I try to soak up as much as I can. The experience I'm gaining from caring for Alex, that we have to crouch on each other 24/7 and get along, and that I'm learning so many new things.

I think I've slowly arrived on this journey.

And for me, that also means becoming aware that I need time for myself from time to time. Or rather, we both need time for ourselves. And out of this need of both of us, Alex had the idea one morning that we simply go our separate ways for an afternoon.

On the one hand a nice idea. Not having to worry about stairs, obstacles or elevators for a few hours. However, also the certainty that I can not really go away, because I have to "stay within reach".

However, the almost 5 hours in the end instead of the planned 1.5 hours was still very good for me. I didn't get much done. I just let myself drift. Walked at my own pace through downtown Sydney. Sometimes in here sometimes in there.

I think in the end it was less a good time because I was not in the role of the companion with Alex, but because it was just nice to spend half a day alone.

I used the time alone for example to take pictures without thinking much about whether we have to publish them somewhere. That I now publish them here is then somewhat funny again :D

After some time we talked briefly on the phone and Alex even drove alone with the bus to our meeting point at the end of the quite long time. We somehow found each other again and somehow I was also glad to be with Alex again.

Glad that he is doing well and glad to be able to drink a beer together with him now, to chat about the experience in a relaxed way and to realize that in a few days we will already be in a new place again. The traveling continues.

Lovis