Ahh Europe. I really hope I get to explore more of you this year, And as of today (which is now a few days ago) Slovenia have just declared themselves to be the first European country to beat the virus. Much of Europe are easing their restrictions with social distancing still playing a key role in everyday life. None the less, at the time of writing (nearly a week before this is posted) there is almost 1.3 million reported cases of Covid-19 across the continent.

If you’re just joining the series you can catch up here on Asia, Oceania and Africa!

You will notice that the UK is not featured on this post. That’s due to the fact that I decided to give it its own post (mainly due to the fact that most of the people I follow are from the UK). The countries that are featured here are; Austria, Croatia, Holland, Italy, Romania, Spain and Switzerland. Again, I wish I could have got more, however there were a lot of people who didn’t want to be involved (or just ignored my message).

Again i’d like to highlight the fact that these are all real people who are not experts , they are discussing their real lives and they are simply answering the questions I asked. Those questions were;

1. How has this experience impacted you and your daily life?
   
   
2. What is the general feeling of the lockdown situation in your part of the world?
   
   
3. What are you doing to stay positive/active in this weird time?
   
   
4. What are you missing most from ‘normal life’ and what will be the first thing you do when this is all over?
   
   
5. What are you missing most from ‘normal life’ and what will be the first thing you do when this is all over?
   
   Again, please remember that English might not be the first language of these amazing people so be mindful and kind if there are any grammar or spelling issues.

Vanessa, Vienna, Austria

Hi! My name is Vanessa, I am a 21-year-old communications student. I live in Vienna, Austria and am currently on Lockdown with my father and younger brother.

It has widely changed my daily routine. Instead of going out everyday, I work from home and have online class. I cook lunch for my family everyday, instead of everyone having their own separate lunch. I can’t see my boyfriend or friends, which sucks. But for the most part I have adjusted well to staying home and keeping myself busy. The weirdest part was celebrating my birthday in quarantine! I ordered in food and video called my friends.

It was very intense in April but with May it has loosened. Lots of shops have opened back up and restaurants are following. My country acted quickly and shut everything down middle of March. Lots of people were scared and confused in this strange situation and took it very seriously. However, with the regulations being less strict now, it feels like the nation is split into two groups of people: the one being people who think this is “over”, going to parks and hanging out with friends and the other half of people who still stay home as much as possible, in fear of a second wave coming.

I am investing a lot of time in my hobbies. I love baking and cooking, so I am using my time at home to embrace doing more of it. I also workout and stretch everyday, which keeps me fit and healthy. To stay sane, I make sure to talk to my friends as much as I can and video chat with them about once a week. I am balancing my time between family, friends and myself. For much needed self-care time I like to do face masks and read to relax.

I miss hanging out with my friends and my boyfriend! I also miss going out to restaurants, which I look forward to doing asap! I had to change my food blog which was based on meals at restaurants to posting more home cooked meals which was unusual for me, so I look forward to getting some nice food pictures again.

You can follow Vanessa on Instagram here: instagram.com/veganxvienna

Gabrijela, Pozega, Croatia

I am Gabrijela from Croatia, I write a travel blog about outdoors, flowers, mountains and do a summer job in Croatia. At the moment I’m with my parents.

Generally, I have more time to work with my blog or online job. But without friends, it’s getting really confusing. I miss travelling. Also, I’m loosing at job as I was already supposed to do a seasonal job at the hotel.

People have fear but sometimes don’t believe this is the real thing.

I am keeping busy and creative

I am missing travelling and friends

You can connect with Gabrijela here:

BLOG: https://underflowerysky.com/en/about/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/underflowerysky/

Evie, Amsterdam, Holland

Hi I’m Evie. I live in Amsterdam and I am locked down with my boyfriend.

Work related it has impacted me that I work from home now. I work as a copywriter in e-commerce so my work still continues since everyone still shops online. Me and my boyfriend are now 24/7 together which never happens before but I don’t experience as something negative.

I live in Europe and every country deals with the situation differently. The first feeling was scared and panic. Since this week they start easing on the restrictions step by step and people feel hope and positively again.

I try to stay positive by FaceTiming friends and family, eat healthy (which is a big challenge) and go outside for a bit everyday. I listen to podcasts and try to create content for Instagram at home when I’m bored. We live near the water so it makes me happy to look at the sundown. I’m not very active these days.

I miss visiting my family since they don’t live next door, I miss my yoga and spinning class and I miss social life like going to events and having drinks with friends. 
The first thing I will do when this is over is: drink wine on the terraces and visiting my mom. I also can not wait to travel again.

You can follow Evie on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/downforamin

Jessy, Liguria, Italy

Hi I live in Italy, Liguria. I’m in Lockdown with my husband, my son 5 years old, my daughter 4 years old my daughter 22 months and our cat.

At the beginning it was not so difficult, we were afraid but we tried to lead our lives as normally as we could. Not panic and we take care.

I was very sad about the selfishness of many people, of buying the whole supermarket and leaving other people with nothing. Also that we are vulnerable and that we need more solidarity.

I do a lot of sports, we leave so much stress of having the perfect house, of filling the children with schoolwork’s! we take everything very calm, we do what makes us happy

to have contact with other people, to walk calmly. And my mother she lives in Switzerland and cannot visit us. The first thing I want its my mom comes to visit us

You can follow Jessy on Instragram here: https://instagram.com/just_jessy_life

Denisa, Moldova, Romania

My name is Denisa Andreea, I’m 26 years old and I live in Romania. I’m a dentistry student in the final year.
I’m locked down with my boyfriend because he moved in a couple months before this thing happened. And the funny thing is that we barely support each other now because of spending too much time together.

This experience changed me a lot and when I say this I mean it.

The most important thing I have learned is that family is the most important thing and friends are just passers in our life. Until this lock down I was focused on friendships and often left my family in second place.

Another important thing that I have learned is to have more patience with everything, even with myself.

And the last one but not the least thing is about managing my time. I found that I can do everything I have proposed in one day without postponed it.

Also I have negative sides: on some days I’m being lazy and I don’t do nothing at all and I sleep a lot.

Briefly, this lock down helped me somehow to discover myself.

In my country are 2 types of people: those who think that the virus exists and follow the rules strictly and those who don’t believe it or think it’s a conspiracy.

However, people are fearful and they have seen that social distance is very important in order to prevent infection with this Coronavirus.

Yet when you get out onto the streets and seen that they are empty, you feel your soul empty and full of sadness. I almost can’t believe that I live in these times…but that’s it, it’s almost over in my country and I hope that won’t be another lock down.

To stay active I did aerobic, walk the dog and doing some research online about influencer marketing.

What I miss the most is going outside with my friends and socialise. This will be for sure the first thing I will do when all will be over.

You can follow Denisa on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/denisse.a_insta

Lizz, Marbella, Spain

Hey, I’m Lizz, a Norwegian girl living in Marbella, south in Spain, and I’m so grateful to be on Lockdown with my roomie which is also my best friend and business partner.

Even though I already work from home, it was really tough in the beginning. Spain is super strict and affected hard of COVID-19. In the beginning, it was messing with my routines and sleeping habits. But as soon as I started to accept it and started to adapt to it, I have been more effective and try to use the time to be creative and come up with new ideas. I work with online marketing so I feel like this is the time to grow personally and build new skills while I  grow my business. My focus and goals are now much clearer than what it was before this entire situation

Here in Spain, we have had 50 days with complete Lockdown, only being allowed to go to the supermarkets or the pharmacy. Now we are allowed out for 1 hour a day, walking 1 km from our homes. it looks like we still gonna be in phase 0 for a while. So it has been a big challenge to accept it and adapt to it. But now I’m really grateful for everything the situation has taught me about the world,  about me and how it looks like people are taking more care of each other. ( the majority at least)

It has been really important for me to stick to my routines and work with daily to-do lists!  Focusing on my goals has also been a big game-changer for me. Because we haven’t been allowed out of the house, I’ve also have had more focus on taking breaks and reward myself for having a good work week.  As a digital nomad I also really love the fact that people now are pushed to become more online with business and communication, and can’t wait to see how people and businesses can grow and develop from this.

In the beginning, I missed everything! Restaurants visits, changing different office locations on a weekly basis, beach walks, friends and family, and so on. But now I  really don’t miss too much anymore. I’m adapting to the situation and I think the first thing I’m gonna do is have some days off and take a long hike and a full beach day to get some head space and a change of environment! I also have a list of my favourite local shops and restaurants  I want to support,(which I already do whit those who are open through their online services).

You can follow Lizz on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/lizz_the_ambassador/

Sharmin, Bern, Switzerland

I am living with my husband in Swiss in capital city called Bern. Our lockdown is not so hard as our neighbour countries. We are still able to go out and walk around

We are a married couple and it was a bit hard for the past 2 months to don’t hang out with our friends, at restaurants etc.

But thanks god its possible again, but max 5P.

Also it is hard for my husband, he was lucky that he came to Swiss before the corona stuff came out. But since February he is not seeing his family, also my mother in law had to cancel her visa. So after all done, we will visit his family members in Turkey

Since last Monday the restaurants opened their doors again, so we are again able to hang out

Also we opened our borders, but you can leave the country, under diverse conditions

We wanted to have our wedding party in April in Istanbul with all our friends and families which got cancelled, so we had a hard time too

The first thing after all is over we will have our wedding party and go to Istanbul

You can follow Sharmin on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/travellustiger/

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this post! And thank you, for reading it too. I hope you’re enjoying the series so far and stick around for the rest of the week! Don’t forget to subscribe below for updates on the rest of the series, and you could always follow me on Instagram too!

Stay Safe, Stay Home

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