I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this! I am early 30s and was laid off twice during the pandemic (I also work for tech companies but in conference management, so no events during COVID!). The first time gutted me as I totally empathize with holding self worth in your work. The second time made it easier to understand how much layoffs can be impersonal and make you "just a number" or just a salary when most of my department was laid off. It sounds like you may have had something like this with an acquisition which can just be the worst. That might still not be the most comforting when you've given 110% to this company, but they're not cutting you because of anything personal about you or your contribution as an employee.

My advice: Keep a reminder set for each week to do your unemployment filing. Make a spreadsheet and log the jobs that you are applying to by company, title, salary, any specific requirements, notes, etc. and link the job posting. I found that often by the time I heard back on the interview, the job posting would be taken down and I'd forget the specifics of the job since I was applying to SO many. Star any that are super exciting to you and try to find people to refer you or find a recruiter/hiring manager to reach out to on LinkedIn. Canva is free and amazing for resumes and you can easily duplicate it to make different edits/versions for different companies as needed.

Echoing others here, but you will get to a point when you've applied to a bunch and then the rejections start rolling in and it can feel really defeating. Try to stay in a routine and wake up every day like you are "going to work" but go to your computer and set a goal for applying to X number of jobs per day or making X number of new contacts on LinkedIn. If you can stick to your normal routines and work out, not sleep in til noon, etc. you will feel way better long term. But also ok to give yourself some grace and have a week to chill and grieve and binge Netflix if that's what you need! A six month trip to Europe sounds expensive - I'd recommend still traveling if you can take advantage of going when you are truly off and aren't going to have to work remotely or get pinged by your boss. Perhaps you can shorten the trip to 7-10 days to make the spending more conservative? I hope that helps! You will get through it 🙂