What I Did Instead

It's taken me quite a while to make myself sit and write this post.  Mostly because it's still just raw and difficult.  Back in November I talked about the difficulties of my first  year in Italy.  But Jack was doing well and I was looking forward to another trip with him to the mountains to celebrate his 6-month cancer survival and my birthday.  He didn't make it.  And my heart, which was already in a million pieces over the loss of Cheyenne, was suddenly in a million more.

Oh how I miss that sweet face!!!

Our last walk.  It was cold but clear and beautiful and perfect.

I don't want to relive the whole thing but we had several wonderful days where he got to do all his favorite things including going for long walks, going for car rides and eating pizza.  I was incredibly lucky to have him for the time that I did.

For the first time in over 13 years, there were no dogs in my house.  I didn't know what to do with myself.  But I had time off work already scheduled and it was use-or-lose.  I couldn't just sit at home and I'm lucky enough to live in a place where I get travel easily.

I went to Innsbruck, Austria.  The weather was highly uncooperative as far as the spectacular mountain views were concerned.  At least, I hear there are spectacular mountain views.

There are mountains there somewhere...so I'm told.

So I tried going up the mountain and this is what I could see looking down.  It was so thick that the cable car going further up was closed and all the skiers and snowboarders were just stuck waiting around in hopes that it lifted and they could go.  

I did have an amazing apple, beet, lemon tofu salad for dinner one night.  I'd go back just to have that again!  And maybe to get a better view next time.

I went to Modena, Italy.  It's a quaint little town with almost no tourist presence which was just fine by me.  If you've seen Master of None, it's where the Italy episodes are based.  I learned the difference between tortelloni (cheese inside) and tortellini (meat inside) and that you can easily pay over $100 for a small bottle of balsamic vinegar.

I went to Garmisch, Germany.  I know it's very popular with Americans due to the Edelweiss resort but I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about. I also got food poisoning so that might have clouded my impression.

I dog sat for people wanting to take trips and I've fostered a few dogs needing temporary, emergency housing.  It's getting more and more difficult to fly with pets and as much as I want to get another dog RIGHT NOW, I know I'm not ready.  Traveling helps ease the pain of being in an empty house.

I hope to get back to blogging again.  I knew that I had to write this post and I kept putting it off because I knew how difficult it would be. I promise that my next post will not contain sadness.  I'm hoping that 2018 is little kinder to my heart. 

I've been to the US twice (it was supposed to be one trip but a one-day government shutdown recalled me back to Italy and I had to go again) and I'm going next week.  I've been able to see a lot of friends (one whom I haven't seen since 2008) and family and that's been great.  Mom and Gran are coming to Portugal in June.  I have tickets to see Hamilton in London in October (I WILL conquer my dislike of that city!). I'm already working on memorizing the soundtrack :D  I'll be in Amsterdam again in 2 weeks (my return flight from the US happens to go through Amsterdam so, of course, I can't pass up the opportunity to spend a few days there). More adventures to be planned...stay tuned!