Originally written on Sunday, November 21st, 2021
When I wrote my first blog post nearly 23 months ago I envisioned I'd be telling all the entertaining stories of my solo travels, something so many people had been telling me to do for years. That I'd relive some of the priceless moments I'd come to cherish of places I'd loved and people whose paths I crossed that I might never have met otherwise that left a mark on my journey. I thought all my stories would be upbeat, positive, and reflect who I am. That they would be light, funny, informative, and provide something (hopefully) entertaining to read. That first post was December 29th, 2019, and I wrote furiously those first few months of 2020. Then we all know what happened just a few months later.
What I never thought would happen with this blog is how deeply personal it's become for me and how therapeutic it has been for me to write. But, the kind words that several of you who regularly read nearly all of my posts send me to say how much you love my stories (you know who you are); allows me to feel like I can share my thoughts, even if they are not as positive and upbeat as usual. If one thing the last 20 months has taught me; it's being real, true, and cherishing each moment, even the tough ones that make you who you are.
Before I go any further. I am fine. I am healthy and everything is ok. And this is a travel blog so the story I'm about to tell is travel related. It's one I really didn't think I was going to have to tell, but for some reason I feel compelled to share the journey so that a year from now I can look back at it (as I have often with my blogs from my trip to Croatia) and smile knowing it all turned out the way it was supposed to, even if it did not initially go as planned and it's still uncertain what the future holds as I write this. So, here we go.
On Friday, November 19th, 2021 @ 1231pm EST, I received the call I dreaded...
I knew as soon as I answered the phone that Emily, my account manager at Go Ahead, whom I'd already spoken to once that morning, was going to share the news I so desperately did not want to hear. Before she could even speak, the first words out of my mouth were, "We're not going, are we?" Her voice was shaking and she confirmed the news, our Christmas Market tour that was slated to leave in nine days was canceled. I could tell she was nearly as upset as she knew I would be. The ironic part was I had JUST sent an email to my 11 travelers not even 10 minutes before her call (and had copied Emily) reconfirming that as of my last call with Emily three hours earlier the operations team at Go Ahead was coming up with alternatives for our tour to still take off following the Austrian announcement of a nationwide lockdown earlier that morning. We were still a go at 930am. Emily shared that she'd read my email to my travelers and thought to herself, "that's perfect, what you wrote." Then only minutes later she received the word we were canceled and her hands began to shake as she dialed my number. The timing was horrible and now 48 hours later, all I remember was pushing this feeling of being completely gutted aside and switching immediately into what our next steps needed to be. This is how I operate. Crisis mode. Deal with my emotions later and get done what needs to be done first.
Let's rewind to late October 2019, first....
Before I tell the story of how the next several hours of that day, just two days ago went, I feel the need to tell the story of how this tour came to happen, because it was a journey in and of itself and while the ending isn't happy (yet); it's one I want documented for years to come to look back on.
In early October 2019; I was sitting on a beach in Sicily attending a yoga retreat. Like most trips, I rarely took off for one trip without having the next one already booked and often thinking what would come next after that next trip. Before I had left for Sicily, I had been considering coordinating a Food and Wine Tour to Uruguay, Argentina and Chile'. The owners of the winery where I work had been raving about Uruguayan wines and the country itself and having worked with an Uruguayan interpreter for years, it was a country on my list. I'd only explored a little of South America at that point and I was ready to go back and explore more. And if you know me, once I get an idea for a trip in my head there's not much that stops me from figuring out a way to make it happen.
At the time I'd taken four tours with Go Ahead under another group coordinator and if you've been reading my blog for a while, you read about the first one to Ireland back in August 2016. So, it was on that beach in Sicily I reached out to Go Ahead to inquire about setting the Food and Wine tour up for February 2021 as a group coordinator. I made that official just a few weeks after I returned from Italy at the end of October 2019. Looking back, I had no idea what I was doing in terms of "marketing" it. But, like most things I was up for the challenge. After the holidays and starting this blog at the beginning of 2020, I decided to hit the recruitment hard in mid-March 2020 after I arrived home from a solo trip to Morocco on March 8th. You can fill in the blanks given the dates on what happened next.
Even though I am ever the optimist and did try to hang on to my Food and Wine tour departure in February of 2021 for a few months, by mid-May I started to sense I was going to potentially have to postpone that tour and later did to March 2022. Around that same time I had already talked to a few people about a European Christmas Market tour. So, deciding I wanted to give potential travelers another option, at the end of May 2020, I added a Christmas Market tour to Germany, Switzerland and Austria for late November/early December 2021. It was an area I had traveled to twice solo and loved and the Christmas Markets had been on my list for a while. So, while most group coordinators were frantically canceling and postponing tours only a few months into this pandemic when the world was still essentially shut down, I added a tour. Crazy? Perhaps. But, I was confident and sure we'd be out of this by the end of 2021.
I created a private Facebook Travel group, added the tour information to my blog website, and got to know Canva, a web-based design site very well (and am now a self-diagnosed Canva addict) to create fun posts. Friends reached out that I hadn't heard from in years and people started to sign up.
By early February, our Christmas Market tour that was to depart November 30th of 2021 sold out and I had a few more signed up on the waitlist. After some strategic planning, I worked with Julianna, my then Account Manager, to shift our group of 14 (including those on the waiting list) over to new dates with a departure two days earlier on November 28th, which also allowed us to open up new spaces on the tour. Things were falling into place.
In the meantime, I found a way to travel.
As many of you might know (or not); I traveled solo three times successfully since the start to the pandemic; to Croatia in September 2020, to Georgia and Turkey in June/July 2021, and Crete and Sicily in October 2021. I was very strategic about my solo travels and learned a lot about pandemic travel from each of these trips; things I'd later share with my travelers to prepare them for tour. I had their trust and confidence and they knew I had their back as did Go Ahead.
And then, we waited.
By mid-June, the EU announced they were reopening just as I was heading to the airport for my trip to Georgia. And by late summer, our tour was nearly sold out with only five spots remaining. Even though we would have to wait a little longer for the "official" word that we were going, I'll admit my gut told me we would be. I was confident this tour was happening.
And the good news....
Go Ahead was making the call on tours 60 days before departure. I had a full six weeks of travel planned to start at the beginning of September. Our 60-day mark was, September 29th, the day before I left for Crete and Sicily. I anticipated leaving for that trip elated knowing my fourth pandemic trip would go. I didn't want to even think if the news would be the opposite.
We found out we were a go two weeks ahead of when I thought we would on September 14th, the day before I left for a girls weekend in Southern California. As Emily shared the news with me over the phone that day; including all the steps we needed to take, I felt invincible. I felt as if I had truly mastered pandemic travel and was more than ready to get my travelers ready to go. I flew to California literally on cloud nine. While I did lose several travelers who were not ready to travel yet in the few weeks after we received our official word; I had a confident group remaining that was ready to go. And initially, while our main tour was slated to go; our Budapest extension was not, yet. And that was ok; I left for Crete two weeks later ecstatic that we were going. It was while I was in Crete that I learned Budapest was a go; so the good news just kept coming.
I returned from Crete and Sicily with just over five weeks to get my group ready to go. I sent countless emails, hosted a Zoom pre-departure meeting, and eased their anxieties as we navigated the hoops it takes to travel right now that have become common place to me; but was all new to all of them. Everything was going smoothly. Every speed bump was crossed easily. Everyone was vaccinated, they all had pre-departure COVID tests scheduled, were sorting out the various entry forms, and had started packing.
Through it all, Emily, my trusted Account Manager at Go Ahead stepped up to the plate during our numerous calls, was a tremendous support and I think almost as excited as I was that this tour was actually happening. She followed up all of our often lengthy calls with an email including everything we talked about minutes after we hung up. To say she was on top of everything and all changes immediately as they happened is an understatement. She was on it. And I'm an OCD detail person so I loved this. Back to just last week when my best laid plans imploded.
As you may have now guessed, in a matter of three hours on Friday morning everything changed in regards to our tour. Emily and I had what we thought was our last "Bon Voyage" call on Wednesday afternoon which was mostly focused on moving my Food and Wine tour for the second time to early 2023 since we knew for sure my Christmas Market tour was a go. Even though I had been certain for a while that the Food and Wine tour might not go in March 2022, I had waited to move it back as I didn't want to jinx it in case I'd have to move the Christmas Market tour back a year, too. On Wednesday, we knew Munich had announced that they were canceling their large market in Marienplatz and Emily followed up the next day with a message detailing the alternative plans the operations team had come up with that would include us visiting several smaller markets around the city that were still scheduled to happen. Thursday, she and I went back and forth about the potential lockdown in Salzburg, Austria, one of our stops. By Thursday night, based on my own research (thank you, Instagram), Salzburg's Market was going to be closed indefinitely and I went to bed that night knowing Salzburg was definitely off the table.
I woke up Friday morning at 530amEST to the news that Austria had issued a full lockdown starting on Monday, November 22nd for at minimum 10 days, and potentially longer. We would be in Innsbruck, our first Austrian stop at the 12 days mark, Salzburg two days later and Vienna a few days after that. Two of my travelers reached out within the next hour and I eased their fears, still confident we'd be going. I emailed Emily who called me immediately after she received my email at 930am and said we were still a go as the operations team was "doing what they do best" and sorting out solutions for us. She and I were hopeful. I started doing things around my house while in my head I started writing my blog about this journey to what would be my first tour as a group coordinator. Even though admittedly my gut was screaming at me to not exhale just yet.
I said I'd send an email to my group (I always BCC Emily as well) and did so at 1215pm, less than three hours after Emily and I had spoken. Minutes later, Emily called to share the news we were canceled as no viable solutions could be determined. And we later learned that Bavaria (Germany) had announced a similar shut down as well. Nine days before departure (and eight for myself and the four others that were going over a day early with me).
That was just over 48 hours ago. Two days that feels like much longer than that. I met with several of my travelers via Zoom a few hours after that call with Emily. While gracious; I know they all were as sad and as heartbroken as I was and still am. I never dreamed that we'd get so close to departing to have it all canceled. But, as we talked I had to remember the one thing I heard over and over again when I took my first pandemic trip to Croatia in September 2020. So many local store owners, restaurant staff and other travel and tourism related people I met said to me, "we can't do another year of this." It made me think about all the Christmas Market vendors, tour guides, hotels and countless other people who's livelihood would be effected for the second year in a row. While I'm still heartbroken that a trip that for many of my travelers was a once in a lifetime journey won't happen this year, I know deep down we were just one small part of the picture of what this pandemic has done to the world as we knew it. The one we're desperately trying to return to in some sense.
Today....
Now, just 48 hours later I finally broke down and cried this morning. It took nearly two days to let the emotions take over. I feel like I am mourning a trip I've hyped up for months; a trip I worked tirelessly to prepare several people to travel with me during this crazy pandemic, all while working my "real" job (the full time one) and my "fun" job (pouring wine). I was absolutely exhausted juggling it all, but can only think that just about now this time next week I should have been laughing and toasting our arrival in Heidelberg over mugs of Gluhwein.
While I know deep down I am truly lucky to have gone over 20 months without having any major trip canceled (save for some creative shifting a few times); it still sucks. And while I know this is nothing compared to the loses so many people have endured during the last 20 months, whether it be loved ones, a job, a home, or many other things they were looking forward to, it still sucks. So while I feel like I was winning the war against COVID, it won its first battle. And hopefully the only battle it will win.
So, what's next?
Shifting. Shifting and Shifting. While I had hoped that 2022 would be my year of solo travels again with two tours planned for 2023; I am now working to see if I can feasibly work in a rescheduled Christmas Market tour for late 2022, which will likely fall very close to my now trice rescheduled Food and Wine tour which I will be launching very soon for early 2023. Ironically, my best laid plans also included launching the dates for my Food and Wine tour on Friday as well. My travel newsletter was written, posts had been designed, all of it. It will still go in early 2023, I just may need to shift the dates a little bit more as I figure out what I can juggle with what I'd hoped I would do.
Will it out work out in the end? Yes. I know that it will even if all I want to do right now is scream, cry and be angry that effects of this pandemic finally broke me.
On the positive side...
Because I always, even when I am at my lowest, have to find a positive angle. Thanks to my amazing Account Manager, Emily and the countless staff behind the scenes at Go Ahead, my travelers, whether they are able to join me on another tour (including a potentially rescheduled Christmas Market tour) or not will be taken care of. Unlike my solo travels where I've had to sort all the details out on my own (and still love the high I get from that); they had our back every single step of the way during this journey and are sorting out the countless details and cancelations for us. And while this tour didn't take off; I know they did everything they could to see if it could happen safely. So while the outcome wasn't what we had hoped; the ultimate result was out of our and their control and in the end we're all safe and healthy.
So even though I am feeling completely "gutted" right now, there is a silver lining to this storm, it just might take a few days to find it.
Most of what I shared above was originally written as a post in our Go Ahead Group Coordinator Private Facebook group as a shoutout to Emily, Julianna and the many other staff at Go Ahead that have worked so tirelessly over the last 20+ months to keep the hopes and dreams of travel alive. It was after I posted it and the many comments I received from fellow group coordinators who have endured similar journey's that felt I needed this to be a blog post, too.
And a little update as I prepare to share this now, on Monday, November 22nd....The Christmas Market tour WILL be rescheduled for late 2022, with specific dates to be determined very soon. And my Food and Wine Tour has officially been rescheduled for February 2023; the dates are set and will be announced tomorrow, November 23rd. Things DO have a way of working out. So, take that COVID. You can't knock me down for long.