Was there any family travel during Covid? Not much, sadly.
This is our first post after a really long time. Since Roaming goblin is a family travel blog and we were staying at home most of the time, there was not much to write about. Our trips weren’t exactly exotic and mostly walking in the local woods, visiting our favorite museum in Ljubljana again and again or playing outside our house. Most travel bloggers in Slovenia started writing about going to the same local places and that is something we really didn’t want to do.
How was famous 2020 for Roaming Goblins?
Our plans in 2020 were more travel, since kids were sick a lot in 2019 and the last trip in 2019 was a disaster. You can imagine it didn’t go exactly as planned.
2020 was mostly daddy goblin working from home and mammy taking care of little goblins, since kindergarten was closed. Goblinette has also written new short book for children and really should edit it one of this days. There is also our online store with cloth diapers, cloth pads, natural deodorants and other nature friendly products. The store is called Tidy Owl and we mostly sell to Slovenians. For other countries in Europe, please check delivery price with us first.
Always wanted to work as a digital nomad, from different places, while exploring. 2020 and the Covid pandemic motivated us to improve our home office. This is where Goblinette writes.
Luckily we have a big yard, so staying at home wasn’t that bad. We started using our two garden boxes and planted things, mostly to entertain and educate the little goblins and local snails. Kiddos learned to ride roller skates, scoters and different balance bikes and toy cars. Sadly we didn’t spend enough time with their little goblin cousins, since we weren’t aloud out of the region most of the time.
We managed to be healthy most of the year, but a little lonely and sometimes scared. Some of the friends we meet during Airbnb hosting were Chinese and the news we got from them were not something to look forward to. Goblinette spent to much time online and was panicking long before most people in Slovenia have heard of Covid. So she also stopped panicking long before majority of her friends did.
Where did we travel in 2020?
Since short spontaneous trips became a problem, we did a few longer ones. We spent some time next to the sea. Two weeks in Debeli Rtič in Slovenia and a week on Croatian island Pag. We avoided tourist attractions and crowds of people and mostly swam, played with Lego bricks and read books in the shade.
Slovenian goverment gave us some vouchers to spend in Slovenia – plan was to help Slovenian tourism. We managed to spend all, even the ones gifted from our grandmother.
Sadly, there wasn’t much to choose from. We hoped to use Vouchers on renting a travel van, but this was not allowed. Since most Slovenians were staying on Slovenian extra small coast, everything with reasonable price was booked. So were the farm stays and such. We were frequent Airbnb and Booking users, but most of these we couldn’t book with vouchers without extra hassle.
We spend two nights at a great b’n’b at Črni kal. It was near the border with Italy and we spent next day visiting Venice and Italian coast. It was a lot less crowded and better organized than the ones on our side of the border. Venice was lovely, almost empty, but little Goblins got used to being at home all of the time and behaved horribly. We didn’ t take many photos, since they were fussing or trying to jump in one of the numerous venetian canals most of the trip.
We visited and swam in river Kolpa a few times and of course in a few local lakes. Day trips only.
We hate staying in large hotels
We used the last vouchers in a spa last weekend before everything closed down until spring 2021. It was probably the worst vacation ever. Masks inside, dusty rooms since cleaning ladies avoided going inside to avoid catching Covid 19 and so many rules: when we could go to the breakfast, when or where we could swim, where we could play. We received plenty really evil looks from older ladies who read in the newspaper little kids are super spreaders of diseases. Little Goblins had fun, mom not so much.
It is almost summer in 2021 now
In 2021 we try to do sports that we couldn’t do during to many partial lock downs in the last two years. Recently we started using pump tracks or skate parks in Ljubljana and near it. Of course we avoid the crowds and posibly Covid. This sometimes means turning back and changing plans, when we see long line in the front of something. We hate queuing anyway.
Our plans for this summer? Hopefully:
- some camping near the water
- a few days in a overpriced Slovenian hotel with a Olympic sized pool with sea water
- mini trip to Austria to a park we hope will be open then
- perhaps some time in Croatia – we will see
Planning trips with kids became a lot harder than it was the old days. Rules for crossing the borders inside EU change daily. One shot of Astra, two shots of Pfizer, all shots of everything and extra tests for booking a room and two more to go home. It is not budget travel after you count in all extra tests.
We surely miss spontaneous travel and booking a room during a road trip, changing plans according to weather and our inspiration. I guess those days are gone. For now.
