And the beat goes on…

Howdy!

 

Third blog entry about to be made! Oh how time flies, doesn’t it?? I don’t even know which day it is today…

 

Last week I completed my first support leader trip. Support leader, meaning that I am a third leader on a trip but I’m only supporting. 

I was actually quite nervous before the trip because I thought I would f*ck everything up etc… Sometimes I can get a bit paranoid over things like that and can often be a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist isn’t always so great but in times like that I have to grab myself from the sky and put myself to the ground and repeat to myself that if something goes wrong it will not be the end of the world but another kind of experience or challenge that I’ll have to face in order to grow stronger. 

So off I went in the Backroads van with a bunch of bikes on the roof, driving through the steep hills and hairpin curves of the Dalmatian coast and you know what… I survived! It was challenging at times, but I made it and I couldn’t be more prouder of my tiny strong viking body. 

After my first van support trip I had some time off and I really wanted to travel around but my body and mind were exhausted, I guess it was some kind of an aftermath after all the stress I had experienced, so I tried to enjoy myself by going to the beach to receive a chocolate skin from the sun. I also went to Dubrovnik(the city where they filmed King’s landing in Game of Thrones!) with a couple of friends. 

The sad news is that these past 2 days my body has been feeling really strange. I think I might have a flu of some sort, my whole body aches…. Maybe it’s the flu that’s been going around. But whatever, a flu is a better then a cast on my hand…

Now i’m currently getting ready to go on my second van support trip which will be on the 28th of June and then I’ll finish the 2nd of July and on the 3rd of July I’ll head back to Iceland. In Iceland I will lead my first trip, I’m real real excited about it!

 

I also wanted to write down some personal thoughts that go often through my mind when I take on new challenges. So very often I can be too harsh on myself, frustrated and not understanding why I just can’t be good at things i’m doing for the first time! 

I always have to remind myself on how these thoughts are completely wrong and think ” Girl, who is good at something he/she has never done or isn’t used to do in life?” The frustration often comes when I start comparing myself to other people that have maybe been doing this kind of work for 3 or more years….( duh!) Don’t ever compare yourself to others, think about yourself and what your strong sides!

We are all different on learning new things in life. Through my 23 years of living I have started to understand certain patterns about myself. I’ve started to understand that I need time to figure things out and I need a lot of patience. But hey, that’s just how I am. We are always learning, aren’t we? I actually find it really fascinating how we start to understand ourselves. Some people go throughout life without ever understanding themselves or acknowledging their strength and weaknesses! 

If you’ve already started to get yourselves then you’re on the right path 🙂

 

Enough on personal thoughts, this will be the end of my third entry, hope you’ve enjoyed it and I hope it wasn’t too cliché-ish!

Final words on this entry are: ” Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea that their journey is all about.”

Peace out y’all! I’ll post some photos here below.  

 The coolest bar in ” King’s Landing”.

 

 Enjoying a good swim in the Adriatic..

 

 Booyaa!

 

 Hvar

 

Sunset in Cavtat

 

The happy camper. 

 

 

Is this real?

Good evening everyone.

 

Now I have decided to write my second blog entry!

 

I completed my exams on Thursday and Friday in France and I made it through! YAY!

So where am I now? I am currently in Croatia at the moment. I just arrived on a saturday night(very late) and was welcomed by my Croatian team, they are so sweet and caring and I instantly felt like at home! 

So today, Sunday the 8th I woke up quite early and started doing some homework on my upcoming trip here in Croatia and I also looked around the area, did some grocery shopping etc. My team here found out about my birthday and they sang my birthday song and bought an ice cream cake AND made a poster to me with red and white wine bottles taped to it saying ” Happy Spirit – Journey Formation Anniversary ( that phrase came from my good friend Will who’s one of the team, such a fantastic spirit!) Guddy!! Welcome to the team.”  I was not expecting that at all but once they came out and sang my birthday song I couldn’t believe it, and I actually just wanted to cry because I was so grateful for it!! I want to say again, Thank you thank you my dearest team members, you really made this day special for me!

 

In the afternoon I decided to go for a walk to the “beach” with my friend Tyler who’s from Australia. We were given directions to where we should go(we walked by the way) and off we went! And wow…. I was completely blown away by the beauty that awaited me. I had no idea that Croatia was such a beautiful country!!!!We walked down a very steep gravel road until we reached the rocky coast by the sea. From there we jumped into the sea which was so clear and blue and also very nice! We stayed there for a while until we got out and sat on the rocks, listening to some good music and watching as the sea would punch the shore. It was quite amazing and I still can’t believe that that just happened today!

 

Tomorrow I am going on a GRAF(Guided regional area familiarization)  which means that I will travel with other leaders that are going to do trips here, and we’re going to go through all the trips that are running around here in Croatia for Backroads, I think it’s a very good thing that we’re doing this because then we get more sense for the area and knowledege. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. After that we will start leading or supporting trips. Exciting times!!

As I said in the beginning, this is a short entry but I will try to write another one as soon as I’ve finished my first trip. 

 

Hope you are all well wherever you are!

 

Vidimo se! 

p.s Below you can see pictures from my day and videos! Enoy!

p.s 2 here are videos from my day today, one is in Iceland(sorry!) and the other one is just me and Tyler soaking it up. 

 

Myself and Tyler

 

Life!

 

The way down

WOW

Happy camper!

 

There and back again…

Greetings friends and strangers from around the world!

I’ve decided to make a blog since it’s been on my agenda and I’ve been quite excited about for a very long time!

So! What has been up with me these past months?!

I’ve been attending a school called Keilir which offers a school program in adventure studies through the Canadian school Thompson River University. It’s been one hell of a ride, I can tell you that! I’ve been through every kind of activities, everywhere from walking on hard ice to surf on a sea kayak! I was going to finish the first year this May but another thing came up in my life. It was actually a life changing opportunity and that opportunity was a job offering from an American travel company called Backroads which offers multisport, biking and hiking trips. Sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it?

 

Now, one of my biggest dreams these past year has been to travel around the world and suddenly this dream is about to come true with my new job at Backroads. 

This year I’ve traveled to Florence in March where I did my job interview with Backroads and within a week I got the call where they decided to offer me a trip leader position! I couldn’t have been more happier and excited!

So after this I flew off to France in April where I did my two week training session! The training went real well except for the part when I fell off my bike and hit the pavement real hard and ended up fracturing my right arm and 3 ribs! Yay! So unfortunately I couldn’t complete all of the training….BUT wait the story isn’t over. 

I thought that the company wouldn’t want me for work anymore but on the contrary, they supported me all the way which I was so grateful and happy about. They gave me a schedule for June since it would take almost a month for my arm and ribs to heal. I went back to Iceland in the beginning of May to recover and help with the lambing season at my farm which was so much fun. I love the lambing season even though it can be quite tiresome to stay awake many nights in a row. I find it a very giving job to be a midwife for the sheep. Maybe one day I can become a midwife for women even though it’s almost not the same thing as with the sheep! hahaaha

Now I am currently back in France to finish my training and then I’m back on track with work and my next travel destination is Croatia! I’ll leave next weekend, i’m soooo excited! I’m going to be working in Croatia until the beginning of July and then I’ll leave to Iceland to work there until the beginning of August. 

So… How do I feel about all of this? To be honest, i’m quite overwhelmed, I still can’t believe that this is real. This might sound a bit “cliché-ish” but I guess that if you keep repeating to yourself something you really want, it will come true. 

Hope you’ve enjoyed this entry. I will write another one very soon, hopefully before I leave for Croatia or after I’ve settled in Croatia.

Remember to stay positive and laugh!

yours sincerely, Guðbjörg