Back

Some days, we are just practical | Day 73 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Mar 14, 2023· 3 minutes

Practical days

It is not all beach, UNESCO site, amazing nature, and repeat. Some days, we are just practical. These days are not to be taken lightly. They are important and as adventurous as the overwhelming art, new horizons, new people, and live music.

We had a day of driving to a Decathlon to shop for backpacks for our next level journey: Backpacking. As we plan to go backpacking in September this year, we also plan to rehearse it by using backpacks when we visit the big cities. We also needed a new comb for the Sulaima, our poodle. A shoulder bag and some coffee cups.

We drove through a landscape I had not expected to see in Italy: Flat and with dikes like in the Netherlands. After all the tunnels, viaducts, and mountains over our now three-month journey in Italy, I had not expected to drive in the completely flat landscape. Driving from Ravenna to Venice was special.

Cooking in the big shopping area on the parking right behind Decathlon in the sunshine just after heavy rain, and listening to music is part of the adventure.

Moving on to the campsite overlooking Venice, packing one by one as it is not physically possible to have five open backpacks inside the van while five people move around to decide what to bring, we took turns packing and showering, being ready for a great adventure in Venice.

It is a good day, just being together, solving simple problems, preparing for other days, and getting ready to be ready. In the morning, I had an interesting conversation about how the journey teaches us what life is, what it can be, and how we fit into it. What works and what doesn’t?

In the end, we talked so much, laughed so much, and had dinner very late while the clothes were in the dryer. In bed, we enjoyed Dr. Who.

A simple day well lived. Nothing fancy. The best of days.

Somehow I erased all of the photos of the day so the illustration will be my breakfast and a driveby video you can see on Instagram.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad


Thank you for reading

I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get feedback from you. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

It is very moist here. Rain comes in and out, grass full of dew in the morning, and the marsh vibrating with a baseline of water. We have been told i…Read more
During D-day, one of the parachuters had the bad luck of getting stuck hanging from the church tower. As the village at the time was taken over by th…Read more
To be challenged into a comfort zone is a very healthy thing. When we do things we would normally not do, we discover new elements of our vulnerabili…Read more
The way history is taught in schools, dripping from a curriculum, emerging from books written for “children” underestimating their intelligence will,…Read more
Just like the Hotel Beaumont was in many ways a re-play, we can never enter the same river twice, and watching Star Wars with Fjord was like visiting…Read more
It is so lovely to see a group of teenagers not afraid to show up in their nightgown, not afraid to be silly, not afraid to wear a pink unicorn jumps…Read more
Free play is at the center of Peter Gray's thinking, and I agree very much, especially with the “free” element. Play is this funny adult construction…Read more
On my birthday, honestly, a few days ago, as I was “falling behind,” I did not have to plan anything. The castle stay is already a party, and there i…Read more
What if math was voluntary? What if we recognize the fact that all math, including high school level, can be learned by a motivated person in 3 month…Read more