Howdy pretty babies!🤠

For those who follow me on Instagram, you’ve most likely already seen a lot of pictures coming up from my worktrip throughout the US. Which was one hell of a trip! Starting in Amsterdam, we flew out to Houston, Texas. Here we rented a car and drove all the way to Wimberley, close to Austin. We staid in a beautiful mountain lodge and saw the idyllic ‘Western’ side of Texas, which I swore could have been a set for a Disney cowboy movie. From there on we drove back to Houston to catch the flight to Miami, Florida. A week later we flew to Nassau, Bahamas. Then back to Miami, back to Houston, back to Amsterdam. So you can imagine that it took a while to settle in the right time zone and climate again. So finally, you can read all about it now – in parts, on the blog starting with part I: Texas baby! 🌵🐎🇺🇸

Once upon a time in the West… Well, the 6th of February to be precise. Honestly I just wanted to make a movie reference for no actual reason. 🤓                                   Anyhow, February 6th this gypsy soul was eager to collect some new stamps in her passport. Since my other passport expired, I was travelling with a relatively empty passport, with blank pages waiting to be hit with a shot of government ink. And so after a 10 hour flight, with absolutely no sleep, we arrived in Houston, Texas. Jetlagged as we were, we decided to not go to crazy and just grab some dinner and go to bed.

Honestly, Houston didn’t really amaze me. A lot of traffic and buildings, not too much character I’d say. A few days later we took the car to Wimberley, an idyllic village which could have been designed for a wild west cowboy movie. The sense of community very strong around you. Next to that, the drive up there I was shocked by the extreme poverty of the houses. Very hillbilly inspired I’d say. With souvenirs in every shop selling the local mentality: We don’t dial 911 – with massive guns to support the iron letters in cowboy fond. The hostess of our mountain lodge told us proudly of her wedding gift, a huge gun – with which she posed in her wedding dress on her special day.

I loved the authenticity and tranquility of this cute small village Wimberley, with handpainted store signs and Mexican influences, as it is close to the Mexican border. Somehow, I fell as if I was in a village, untouched by the ‘western civilization’ or the likes of globalisation. Maybe people were just happy with how things were there, it made me wonder if I were wrong to judge them for their strong opinions on guns, the environment and food, as that was normal to them, and people seem to be happy that way. Their hometown still had this original, romantic appeal – that reminded me of my grandma’s stories on the good old times where people simply didn’t know the things they know nowadays. But they do, they simply disagree or deny it, which to me gave me a twisted feeling of a surreal illusion of a timeless place.

Another thing that caught my eye was the water damage. You could tell exactly where the rivers had broken through, leaving a trace of a sad confrontation how mother nature rules it all. Throughout the village artists had painted these big country boots and sold them to diverse entrepreneurs and organizations to raise money and awareness for the countless victims of the floods.

Overall, this piece of Texas really made an impression on me. The people were very caring and sweet, giving you a very homey and welcome feeling. However, there are just many things that confronted me on a daily base with the cultural differences such as insane amounts of plastic and food waste, gun laws and outrageous portioning of everything, the toxic taste of food and amounts of sugar in literally everything, that always make me long for the ‘real world’ again.

To be continued….

FFTS