More than ten years on the clock, four years of silence, and a new perspective on the world

Where was I ?

If you browse through the archives of this site, you’ll find articles from over ten years ago: stories written (in Dutch, my mother tongue) by a younger version of myself. However, four years ago, it suddenly went quiet around the ‘publish’ button.

Life happened, priorities shifted, and I temporarily traded my keyboard for the here and now. In 2022, we moved again. We stayed in the same neighborhood in Virginia, but this time we bought a house. That’s right, we’re now the proud owners of a typical American, wooden house.

In 2023, I became a mom for the second time: to a little girl. Unfortunately, those first moments with my beautiful baby were less than carefree, due to my medical issues that lingered until mid-2024. These are just a few of the major events in a turbulent time. But through it all, I never stopped traveling. I just stopped sharing it here.

Why am I clicking the publish button again?

The itch to share never went away; it simply evolved. And although it remained quiet here, I was actually still active elsewhere: on Instagram, Facebook, email, or just in person. I still get the same ‘ten most-asked-questions-about-travelling-to-the-US’ as I did ten years ago. It started to bother me that I had to send people to old blog posts that were no longer up-to-date.

I also started to get a lot more questions from American friends, so I also needed my content to be English. (By the way, that old blog post is now updated AND translated! Feel free to click through and read it after this article, at the bottom of that article I even have a small bonus!.) Before I knew it, I was talking non-stop, or I was hitting my character limit on Instagram again because I simply had too much to tell.

I would also like to take this moment to thank my loyal readers for their trust and support. It’s always wonderful to receive a message, whether it’s a travel-related question or just a quick ‘Hello’.

When one plus one became four.

If you’ve been here from the beginning, you knew me as the au pair and backpacker in Australia. The girl who traveled alone to Cambodia and Bali before it was “trending.” You shared in my love for Ghent and took the leap with me when I moved to the other side of the Atlantic.

Today, the luggage is a bit heavier -and no, that’s not just because of my shoe collection! The pace is a little slower, and ‘planning’ usually revolves around finding the best local playgrounds.

Traveling with a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old is a world of difference compared to my 2013 version. It’s less about “What can I do and see here?” and more about “How can we experience this place through their eyes?”

I’ve always said that I wouldn’t stop traveling because of my children, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. But let’s be honest: traveling with kids is often chaotic and exhausting. It’s different. The times you do head out without the kids require extra planning and often bring an internal tug-of-war. Because while everyone needs some ‘me-time’ or a romantic getaway with their partner now and then, being able to share new experiences with your children is one of the most beautiful and rewarding things there is.

What can you expect now?

So, what’s next for Latcho Drom?

A word to you

Whether you’ve been reading along for ten years or just discovered this site today: thank you for being here! The world looks different to me now, but I can’t wait to show it to you.

Where shall we go first?

Let me know in the comments which post you’d like to see appear first!