3 Weeks, 3 Girls, 300 Bottles of Wine

Munich, Germany was our final destination.  The train ride there was hot and crowded and extremely miserable very hungover.  I wrote in our journal, conversed with other Americans and stared out the train window, listening to music and had some reflection time.  The song I listened to over and over again was "Caring is Creepy" by the Shins.  That song definitely changed me, it puts me in such a happy place and makes me feel giddy about the world.  We arrived in Munich and continued with our daily routine - finding our hostel, checking in, showering, grocery store trip to buy brie, salami, baguettes and wine and preparing for an evening out.  We hung out with locals, met many people traveling alone and shared our stories all night.  

From just the beginning of our backpacking trip to the end, it truly changed my life, my character and how I viewed the world and those surrounding it.  As a 21 year old girl, completely taken away from my comfort zone, this backpacking trip taught me so much about myself and life lessons. From cancelled trains, to being a broke college student, to being lost in large cities, to throwing out our entire itinerary the first day of arrival, to falling in love, to eating so much delicious foreign food, to sitting on a mountain overlooking Prague’s city picking apples off a tree for hours, through all the bad and the good, I relied on social survival skills to get through it all. No matter what happened, it was an experience and has shaped my personality today.

Sitting in a park in Zurich, just the beginning of our trip

For those that have never gotten the opportunity to travel, this whole blog should inspire you to!  It is such freedom not having an address and gives you such a thrill!  

 

Praha

loves,

Prague, Czech Republic. I loved, lived and learned. The train to Prague was one that I will never forget. Drunk Gothic Slovaks scaring the living shit out of me and the girls. I've never felt so scared or uncomfortable! I got hissed at, called a dark angel, got shown knives bigger than my torso, was shown pictures of bathrooms with blood everywhere, snakes and then he fell on top of us. There was a guardian angel traveling with us and saved us from the evilness and if I ever see him again (chances are never) I will thank him a million times!

Anyway, as usual, we had no idea how to get to our hostel - hours later we find it and we are in such a great location and have an entire apartment to ourselves... LOVE the exchange rate. Our neighbors were the craziest Italians ever - 8 of them. Our other neighbors were 2 Americans named John and Brian who were absolute geniuses. We all gathered for the evening and went on the Prague Pub Crawl (yes, this is our 3rd one). So much fun happened.

Crazy Italians - such a disaster lol

The next day was life changing.  Brian and John took us around Prague since it would take us hours to get to one place, they decided to be our own personal tour guides.  First things first, these guys are so smart and we had the most intense, deep and inspiring conversations.  We went on a small hike up a hill to see a breath taking view of the city of Prague.  We finally made it to the top, picked apples, reminisced, spill our guts out about life and realized how lucky we were to have an experience like so.  I literally felt on top of the world.  

Imagine .... 

After sitting for a few hours, Brian and John took us to the famous Prague Castle - oh baby that was gorgeous and the church was out of this world!  After we ate interesting food, bought absinthe and souvenirs for our wonderful, selfless families.

Life is so beautiful.

And onward we walk.....the future awaits us! 

Just Breatheee!

Our many nights in Prague pretty much blur and blend together.  One of the nights, the last night actually, I met a beautiful French man that eventually (in a later post for more stories) was in my life for a few months when I got back in the States.  We met at a 5 story club that had hundreds of people in it.  We chatted and exchanged numbers and facebooks.  He's now just a memory.  Life happens :)

Me, the beautiful Francesca and Fabio - Miss you we will meet again soon <3

Reflection should be apart of your daily routine.  I was out of my comfort zone and looking over the most beautiful sceneries can truly calm your soul.  It takes you to that happy place :)

My journey home is next!  Anndddd my travels throughout my senior year! :)

When In Roma!

My adventures continue onward to the land known for its delicious cuisines and the finest wines, the beginning of time, architecture, art and the most beautiful men known to mankind - Italy!!

Now, since my two friends and I were still with our Stetson friends we all decided to venture together.  Overnight train ride with about 15 of us = disaster!

This is the crew in the train station, missing a few travelers :)

We arrived early in the A.M., checked in our hotel where way too many of us in a room but still managed not to get kicked out.  We had a guided tour of the coliseum and the ancient city.  After this our crew was dead tired and we all wanted to rage that night.  

history <3

Raegan (my sorority kiddo) and me inside the Coliseum! (it was so hottttt)

Me, Rae, Coleman, Carley overlooking the ancient city - beautiful moment

The whole gang cooling off in a fountain!  Love you all!

We decided to take the whole gang out on the Spanish Steps bar crawl.  Waiting for it to start, Jennifer Lopez was in the one of the stores for an interview and all the italians were going crazy!  She looked elegant as usual!  The bar crawl was quittte the adventure, here is everyone on the way to the Spanish Steps.

The next day was one of the top three best days I had in Europe (The others were in Venice, Italy and Prague - will get to later on).  The day started off reunited with all our friends and the restaurant right next door to our hotel.  The owner of the restaurant loved us and brought out plates and plates and bottles of champagne - one right after another.  We all sat down for 3 hours and just talked about stories from the night before, our make-believe university we go to and random stories of all of us.  It was a great way to start off the day (kind of have to be there moments)!  

@ the restaurant next door - champagne toast to Europe and BEST friends

After our lovely meal, some of us split up.  The day consisted of me, sarah, carley, Italy (ian .. hes from italy and got us around) and coffers.  We decided to go to the Vatican only a short few steps from the longest line ever and they told us we weren't allowed in due to our inappropriate attire.  Shame on us.  We then said, "now what?"  Us girls trekked down a shopping street while the boys stopped at every other bar... how perfect?  The day turned out to be awesome, shopping and local bar hopping.  We ended up at the Trevi fountain and Pantheon which was absolutely epic dealing with drunk people.  

Me, Carley and Coleman in front of the Vatican!

Me and Carley inside the Pantheon

Italy, me, coleman and Carley in front of the Trevi Fountain (see mom I did go see the historical sights!!)

Our last night in Rome was pretty epic, Carley got to take a ride on a vespa with a beautiful Italian man (straight out of a movie) and I got violated by a man selling children's toys - we won't get into details.  Our next stop was Rimini, Italy and boy was that fun.  We relaxed on the beach and went to a HUGE party at night that was on the beach.  We drank 4 buckets, BUCKETS of long islands.

self explanatory.

We said our last good-bye's to our Stetson friends because this was the last time we would see them.  For us girls, our journey moves on without them :(.  We were now off to Venice, Italy.  Funny story we stopped a town outside of Venice and we thought we were there.... hmmm where was the water and gondolas?  A man asks... "So, you think you are in Venice?"  OOPSSS!  Finally we made it.  It was a relaxed day but OH so beautiful.  This is by far the most magical beautiful city I have ever been to.  There was one thing missing... a man to share this romantic scenery with.  I will definitely be coming back here with that special someone...

breath taking

Us girls have now been traveling for 2 weeks and we sure were exhausted.  We decided to take it easy and spend 4 nights in Czech Republic to gain so energy back.  At this point I have learned so much about myself and my surroundings.  I learned patience is key and to be empathetic with people.  Feel for them and be there for them 100% especially when not in your own element or comfort zone.  

Until next time! xo

Belgium & Innsbruck....

After the magnificent Amsterdam trip, me and the girls traveled to Brussels, Belgium to sight see, eat delicious waffles and french fries, sip the most delicious beers and enjoy the french language.  We get there and find out that I booked the wrong date at the hostel, oops.  Lucky for us, they were able to accommodate us and even gave us a great deal.  We took the time and explored the beautiful town.  It was around 5 o'clock when we walked into a cute bar that looked like a great place to visit later that night.  Little did we know, we hear a boy, Charles and a girl, Geraldine tell us to come sit down and take a shot with them.  We ended up socializing with them for hours and then they offered to take us on a quick tour of the town, as we bar hopped.  We went to the Delirium bar which was famous for the beer of course and it's 2,000+ paged alcohol menu.  We met Moroccan immigrants and we watched the light show at the square of the town - beautiful.  We ended up having a great time especially when Carley made Kebabs late night at a random Kebab shack.  We had our alarms set at 5:00 am to catch a train.  Knowing us, we were late waking up, ran to the train station and of course we missed our train when Carley realizes she lost her camera.  So now hours go by, we have no idea when the next train is leaving to go to Innsbruck, Austria to meet up with our friends studying there.  We ended up taking 4 different trains and getting to Innsbruck at 10 at night.  It felt so good to be back there and to see where I spend my summer the year before.  We went out at the Hofgarten with our school friends and I loved showing my 2 friends all around.

royal palace, Brussells

royal palace

me in front of the cathedral

love this spot in Innsbruck!

Golden roof in Innsbruck

the most beautiful mountains ever!

peace and love!

A Great Beginning - A.M.S.T.E.R.D.A.M.

My addiction to traveling became severe after my European backpacking excursion in summer 2009.  And I just want to add that this was the most eye-opening, craziest, thrilling, confusing, fun, mind-blowing, loving, out-of-this-world experience.  I went with my two best of friends, Carley and Sarah who are the most precious humans in the world to me, absolutely nothing can come between us.  All three of us are so uniquely different and special in our own ways.  Carley, a hippie, artistic princess from Maine who's love for people is greater than anyone's I have ever seen.  She loves the finer, simple things in life and will  never leave your side.  Sarah, who has been there for me since day one of college - 4 years and going strong.  She's the most brilliant, determined and selfless person I have ever met.  Will do absolutely anything for a friend and what I love most about her is her wisdom and ways she gives advice she can calm and comfort anyone.

Picture this: three 21 year old girls, backpacks larger than our bodies, broke and lost 24/7.  The stories from this 3 week adventure are absolutely unreal.  Picture the sisterhood of traveling pants meets the hangover meets eurotrip.  I have never laughed so hard, cried so hard, felt so lost and not in control and yet - so unbelievably free.

The day we arrived, everything went wrong, from the moment stepping into the airport.  We couldn't even find the exit to it.  We finally found the train station (2 hours later) and tried to get us a overnight train to Amsterdam to meet up with our 15 friends from back at school (who were studying at the University of Innsbruck).  No luck.  We had to take a 9 hour train during the day after our 16 hour flight and jet lag.  On our way - just our luck again, the railroad catches on fire a few miles away from our train.  We are stuck in bum fuck Germany for 5 hours.  We have NO idea what's going on and if we are ever going to make it.  We finally meet a sweet boy from Amsterdam that tells us everything is okay and to just listen to him.  Our instincts should be hmm should we believe him? But he was completely harmless and was our first guardian/trial angel. We finally arrive to Amsterdam - delirious, drunk, lost, tired and dirty.  Everything turned out A-okay, of course!

We wake up in beautiful Amsterdam with the sun shining on our faces and we decided to do the best thing ever.  Rip up our entire itinerary.  We decide to wing the rest of the three weeks.

In Amsterdam we met up with all our friends from Stetson.  All 15 of us went to get breakfast at the most delicious pancake restaurant.  We all explored the cobblestone streets, walked the Red Light District, explored the Van Gogh Museum and Heineken Brewery tour, sat in the famous Vondel Park and people watched.  At night of course we went on a Pub Crawl and had some extra wild adventures after :)  This was my second time in Amsterdam and it was great to be back.

The whole crew in front of the famous sign! ^^^                Me, Callie and Coleman - loving life!

Sarah, Carley and Me in front of Van Gogh        The was the best and most special moment -so FREE!

                         Vondel Park

                  The canals

                   Going to bed as the sun rises <3

By the end of this journey, us women left with many new experiences and learned an immense amount our lives.  Some of us learned that maybe love doesn't exist, to love more than we could ever love before, and when you think you lost that person so special to you - that there IS someone else out there and there is more than one soulmate.  We became the best of friends and I could have never done this trip without these two amazing women.