I really miss Europe at the moment

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

we've lived in LA for the last 2 years - don't intend to stay forever but so set plans of when to leave or where to go. We're going back to the UK for 5 weeks in the summer but it's a mish mash of weddings and crossing the country to see everyone (usual stuff) and I can't help but think about the summer holiday we'd be planning if we lived in the UK still - you know, the long weekend in Barcelona or staying in a B&B in Italy - made worse because FIL and his GF have just bought a holiday home in France for "the whole family to use" and we won't be able to.

I don't know - I'm not massively homesick for the UK, not in terms of I wish I was living there, just feeling a bit expat-adrift and really really missing having such quick, easy and (relatively) cheap access to other countries and cultures. For such a big country, America feels so isolated

[butterfliesinmytummy]

I know how you feel op. We moved from Asia to texas last summer and realized that we'd have the same issues. We miss long weekends in Thailand, Hong Kong etc. we decided that we'd spend no more than 10 days with each side of our family (mine in England and dh in Scotland) then 2 weeks in Europe. This year we've rented an apartment in Paris (where dh and I met and married) and next year it will be Istanbul.

We know from bitter experience that a summer with just visiting family is not a holiday so normally take some time at the end just the 4 of us. Any way you can steal some time after the uk for a break?

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

sadly not - not this time anyway. Next summer I fully intend to though, but that's a good 15months away

[butterfliesinmytummy]

That's a shame. I know it's not Europe but can you take a road trip in the USA? I forget where you are. We have planned a road trip to Florida for time on the beach at Easter, should be about 10 hours drive, plenty long enough for dd2, we just need a change of scenery. Can you drive or camp or hire a camper etc?

[MasterOfTheYoniverse]

Know how you feel!
After 7 years in Asia we so miss it too. We've come to almost resent going back to see the family.
Go up to san fransisco and nappa for a few days? Maybe montreal and quebec. Its lively in the summer...goid festivals and your fix of french!

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

We get around California a fair bit and have a trip to the grand Canton coming up - but I just wistfully miss the summer holidays of pottering round villages in the south of France (my parents used to live there) and currently have friends living in Rome who I'd so love the opportunity to go and see.

I do like CA but it's just this particular brand of home sickness - missing my whole part of the world and the Europe-isms....in some ways France and Spain feel less "foreign" than the states - does that make sense?

[helzapoppin2]

I love your name, and spent five years in the States, so know what you mean. We had a good holiday in Canada! We went to Montreal and Quebec, and it was French! French language and food, just enough to assuage some of the homesickness for Europe.

[kodokan]

I'm with you on this. We lived in Switzerland for nearly 4 years, from 2008 to 2011, and are now in Phoenix, AZ. It's mostly lovely here - weather, laid-back attitude, very friendly locals - but when I get pangs of homesickness, it's not for the UK, it's for 'Europe'. Perhaps I ought to try the French Canada trip, pour écouter de français.

[kodokan]

Or maybe le français? Du français? See, that's the problem with being out of a French-speaking environment for several years.

And drinking wine.

That's not helping.

[HerRoyalNotness]

I hear you. We've been out of UK 5.5yeRs and I just want a euro holiday, except this year DH insists on a us road trip, bleurg. Funnily we just spent 5 years I montreal and yes summer there is fab, with jazz fest, Franco folies, film festival, F1 and osheaga all going on.

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

I would love to see Montreal, and have family in Toronto so it ought to be possible. Except all "big" holiday time and expenditure is spent on going back to the UK

[kodokan]

Our next planned UK family-visiting trip is 2015. I'm putting aside a bit extra each month, and hoping to be able to extend it from 2 weeks in the UK trawling around relatives' houses, to 3-4 weeks during which we go to somewhere in Europe for a week or two. All the major expense is in the flights there, so it should be doable. I REALLY don't want to spend all the holiday budget during the whole kids' childhood on sitting on people's sofas, drinking tea, whilst it drizzles greyly outside.

Hubby will only be able to get two weeks off work, but could perhaps do one UK week (he sees the family semi-regularly on work trips anyway) and one Euro week.

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

this is the ridiculous thing - we're going back for FIVE WEEKS in the summer!! DH is back for 3 of those and working in London for one of those, but every weekend is spent at a wedding or trawling to see his family. Lots of weekdays at my parents but as my Dad uses up all his leave coming to see us I have to make sure we spend one weekend with them. I do have one long weekend booked with the DC to go to the Isle of Man for a full on reunion with my closest mum-friends (handily some of my closest friends full stop)

I think I'm going to plan better next summer. If DH can work for his company from London again that gives us a good week or two based there so we can catch up with our friends, then book a week abroad - his dad and his gf just bought a holiday home in France so we could double up seeing his dad and sister and getting a european break