ULOG #1: Happiness Is Just Around The Corner

I had to get out and clear my head. Our adventure took us... to a nearby village.

Summer Holidays

These last couple of years, we always took some time off during the summer. Visiting psytrance festivals in Portugal, Hungary or Germany, or road tripping through France, Luxembourg or The Netherlands, ... every year we left our home to create some new, wonderful memories.

But not this year...

Mysery

These last 10 months have been hard, to say the least. Sickness, depression, deaths, surgeries, recovery processes that never end.... I've had more than my share.

During all this time, I barely left the house. My home was my prison.

I was on my way to sink back into a depression after my favorite cat died last week, but fortunately I realized that before it was too late.

I had to get out. I needed a break from everything. I couldn't allow myself to keep running the same, destructive circles in my head, going nowhere but downwards.
I couldn't bear to keep staring at the same four walls I had been staring at for months.

The Next Village

Without overthinking it too much, we decided to take that break I needed so badly. It was a small one: I wasn't prepared to leave my other 3 cats behind for too long, and because of the last surgery, I still can't handle car rides that take longer than 20 minutes.

That really limited our options.

Our fully-equipped campervan, however, makes it possible to go camping with all the luxury my back needs. There's no need to sleep on an uncomfortable air matress when you have a full-sized, real bed, lol.

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So we found ourselves a simple campsite, with a swimming pool and a pond, in the next village. The swimming opportunities were a must, because floating in water is one of the only things that relaxes me completely - and of course it is still extremely hot in our little country.

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11 kilometers or a 16 minute drive and 24 hours was all it took for me to reload the batteries... I feel reborn again.

Our Day

I'm sorry, I actually started this post to show you the pics, but the intro got a little out of hand, lol.

It's about time I get to it and show you how this one-day-holiday in the village next to our own has made such a huge difference.

I guess it is no secret that a combination of nature, wonderful company and a simple Belgian beer can do wonders. Well, they did.

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It was a bit of a bummer that the swimming pond had closed for the public a couple of days earlier - because of the heat, unhealthy algae had started growing. I would have loved to sit on the white sand, drying up after taking a dip in the water. But it was a no-go. All I could do was take a quick picture from behind the closed fence.

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Fortunately, the swimming pool wasn't too crowded, so we did have a great opportunity to cool off.

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We went out for dinner in the campsite's restaurant, and although the food wasn't all that great, the cocktail were. Well, cocktails are always great, right?

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For old times sake, we didn't take any electronical devices, except for our phones.

But we didn't ask for WiFi access, which gave me the opportunity to finally start reading in the newest addition to my Stephen King-collection. I love to read, but these last couple of months, I found it very hard to concentrate.

Stephen King is my favorite author and I've read - and own - almost everything he has written, from the classics like 'It' (which was my first), 'Cujo', 'Carrie', 'Pet Sematary' and 'Christine', to everything he has written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, all the way down to his newer books like 'Mr. Mercedes' and 'Sleeping Beauties'.

I really miss the horror he used to write - I guess you can call me a real horror-freak - and I always end up a little disappointed after reading his newer work, but I keep hoping he will return to the genre one day. So I keep reading everything I can get my hands on, hoping that The Master Of Horror will return to his roots at one point...

And although I already suspect another disappointment will follow, I did enjoy the reading after all these months.

A perfect closing of a perfect day. :0)

After a delicious bacon-and-eggs breakfast, and a last plunge in the pool, we headed home again.

We didn't party on a beautiful festival, we didn't drive across a beautiful country, but for the first time in months, I was able to put all of my worries aside for a short while. I don't have the words to express how that made me feel.

Sometimes, happiness is just one village away...

Images sources:
All images are my own.