Stream of Consciousness: Post-Holiday Maintenance

Jul 26

Or, how to land back in your own life after two weeks of mountains, metal, and the Italiano sun.

Yesterday I returned from a wonderful trip through Germany, Switzerland and northern Italy.
Together with my boyfriend I went to Lago Maggiore and Luzern.
We visited some long lost relatives of mine in in Switzerland, and attened a System of a Down concert in Germany.
I have a thousand stories to tell and they will probably come onto this blog in due course.
But today I want to focus on thee gentle art of putting yourself back together after living out of a suitcase for two weeks.

Step one. The Great Decontamination

We returned yesterday after six hours in the car, and the first thing I did was take a long, long shower. I washed my hair thoroughly with the fancy shampoo I’d left at home and finally properly shaved my legs.
Got out, put in a nourishing hair mask, just a Dove one.
This is not about the products. Anything will do. It is about the steps, or ritual I you may.

While the hair mask did its thing I put nourishing lotion on my face and body, tinted my eyebrows, plucked them a little, and did a very light bentonite clay mask.
One or two minutes only, because my skin was still sensitive from the sun.
Then back into the shower to rinse out the mask, some more scrubbing and shaving.
Out again, and I lathered myself in a combination of coconut butter and aloe vera, face included.

Is this excessive? Yes. Did I feel like a new person? Also yes.

It was heaven to be in my own bathroom again.

Step two. The Suitcase Reckoning

Now for the less glamorous part.
The light summer dresses went on a steam program first and got hung out, and I worked my way through the other washes from there.

I always travel with a food bag ( because of my celiac disease) and an entertainment bag filled with books, notepads, a Game Boy and a Nintendo Switch.
Quick question for the class. Do you still call it a Game Boy or do you just say Switch these days?
I still call it a Game Boy. Let me know, I need to settle this. I pout everything in it’s fixed place again.

This is not discipline, this is a survival method. if I fail to comply my life falls apart. Kidding.
Equally for the important things. Passports, jewellery, the items that actually need to go back in their proper place before they vanish into the chaos.

And right on cue, the universe called.
The Airbnb rang to say I had forgotten my head pillow. I had also left one of my new favourite sweaters at my family in Switzerland.
And my electric toothbrush is... somewhere.
I had a small meltdown about all of this and then remembered that I always leave something somewhere. Maybe one day I will succeed, but there is no use crying over spilt milk.
Besides the sweater may find its way back to me after all.
For now it’s simply the tax I pay for travelling. If that's the score, so be it.

Small update on the pillow. The Airbnb host said he had given it to the cat. Honestly? The cat deserves it.

Step three. Collapse (this is a mandatory step)

Then I crashed on the couch and watched the Formula One qualification.
A lot of penalties, once again. How about that.

If you want to read more about my Formula 1 writing, check this out.

After a quick supermarket run I made fried rice with chicken satay.
My boyfriend, who had driven the entire way because I do not have a driver's license, had passed out on the couch by then.
We started Watchmen but he did not make it through the first act, so I sent him to bed and did not see him again for the rest of the evening.
Respect. The man earned it.

Step four. The Body

Yogurt with collagen powder and a little maple syrup. A matcha tea.
Vitamin C as a fizzy tablet, plus magnesium and extra zinc. I really love zinc, it restores your cells after all that sun and travel.

And then a lot of fizzy water. I will dedicate an entire article to this, but the short version is that if you really want to rehydrate, I swear by sparkling water.
My experience is that it does not just flush straight through you the way still water does.
Full deep dive coming, I promise.

Because honestly, hydration was my weak point this trip. I ate plenty of vegetables but barely any fruit, and I kept forgetting my water bottle in Italy and even while hiking.
Notes have been taken. On the other hand, I was fully immersed in the experience, and I refuse to feel bad about that.

The trip itself, in fast forward

So you have some context for all this maintenance.
We started in Wuppertal because of the System of a Down concert in Düsseldorf and booked an Airbnb nearby for two nights.
The concert itself was wonderful, something healed in that crowd.

………BUT!

The logistics, however, were another story entirely. Everyone who was at that Düsseldorf show knows what I mean.
Terrible, horrible, genuinely traumatising.
I’m a frequent guest at Rammstein concerts and I think I know metal crowds a wee bit, but between the heat, and the bad organisation this was intense on a whole different level.
Still… good times. Good times. I was scared for a hot minute but I’m all good now.

Then we went to Baden-Baden and slept three nights in a hotel.
We visited a spa, an old castle high in the mountains and played in icy glacier water.
Exceptionally beautiful and very romantic. Wink, wink.

Then we continued to Switzerland, where we met up with my family.
We hiked, and we took a ride on a Dampfschiff across the lake, which was an absolute highlight.
I felt like a baroness from the nineteen twenties and I loved every second of it.
Wonderful food, wonderful company each with precious stories of their own.

Next up we moved our asses to Lago Maggiore.
We played in the water, visited old castles and chapels, ate the most wonderful food in the entire world, and watched the most intense lightning show I have ever seen.
Just love and happiness throughout.

On the way back we booked one more Airbnb in southern Germany to break up the drive.
A beautiful little house, where a friendly German waited for us and said follow me, then joked, do you want to stay inside or outside, while pointing at a tiny wooden door.
Reader, I was scared out of my wits. Is this how I die?
We went in anyway, because why not, walked through an actual barn and I fully expected to sleep with the cows, but he guided us through another door into the cutest little apartment he had built himself inside the barn.
Ten out of ten weirdness, ten out of ten romance.
Did we escape a serial killer? Probably not. The camera roll is amazing though.

And a word about the driver. My boyfriend drove us everywhere, every kilometre, and he is the best driver you have ever seen.
End of discussion. The way he maneuvers through narrow Italian mountain passes, no fear, one hand on the wheel, the other on my upper thigh.
This man is a superhero.

The lessons

Post-holiday maintenance also includes reflection, so here is my honest debrief.

Get a bigger suitcase.
I had a lot of bags and things got lost and mixed up constantly.
This was the trip of losing things, or at least of feeling like I was constantly losing things.

Pack per stop.
If your trip has multiple stops, pack a bag per stop.
We hauled every single bag out of the car at every location, even for two or three nights.
Big mistake. Never again.

I read zero books.
I used to be the person who reads ten books on a holiday like this.
I almost finished one.
I got the most beautiful Apple headphones for my birthday, the best headphones I have ever owned, and I did not touch them once.
The reason is that I had the best company in the world, which is a completely new experience for me.
So the lesson here is not really a lesson. It is just... I definitely love him.

Plan your water and your toiletries.
I never planned carrying water and I never organized a proper toiletry case, so I was constantly hunting for soap, my toothbrush, my hair goo.
Small stress, entirely avoidable.

Four eyes see more than two.
Let your partner do a final sweep of every apartment before you leave. Otherwise you may forget your favourite pillow.

Switzerland is expensive.
We budgeted everywhere except Switzerland. We thought, we're staying with family, those few dinners, who cares.
No. I once asked for a gluten-free burger, because celiac, and the waitress said yes, we can do it without the bread and the fries.
I literally received a burger patty on salad and paid almost thirty euros for it. I should have planned this a little better.
Celiac in Switzerland was genuinely hard. Northern Italy, on the other hand, felt like coming home.
Little Miss Celiac will report further.

The actual takeaway

So that is post-holiday maintenance.
Water, vitamins, lotion for your body and your hair, laundry in sensible batches, one mandatory collapse on the couch, and honest reflection in your diary.
And one more thing I genuinely recommend. Watch some films, sit close to your person, and just enjoy the memories together.
Right now I am tired, drinking a kurkuma latte for the extra vitamins, about to lather myself in coconut butter one more time.
The last bits and pieces can wait until tomorrow.

Pictures below, to give you an impression of everything we did and saw.
More stories soon. Sleep first.

Thank you for enjoying my stream of consciousness.

(✿◕‿◕)♡