Feelings about Freelancing

May 23, 2019

“So what do you do for work” is probably one of the least favorite questions I get from people at this point in my life. I’m proud of the work that I am doing, but my response is one that usually gets silent judgement because it’s different than what the cookie-cutter college grad society produces. I am a freelance graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, hand letterer, an event production artist, and a retail associate with the dream of becoming a full time travel blogger/photographer and digital nomad. Yes, it’s a mouth full, but I’m pursuing jobs that I genuinely love and I wouldn’t trade any of them in for that traditional 9-5 routine or lifestyle.

Even though my grocery list of employment makes it seem like I have no freedom whatsoever, in reality it is the opposite, I have all the freedom in the world! Most of my work falls under the umbrella of freelance designer and creative, which is a job I can do from anywhere in the world as long as I have internet connection. And my part time job as a retail associate is what I do for fun, at a store I love, and it’s something that takes me away from the computer screen so that I can socialize.

My brain is wired to work, and to keep pushing myself to be better. Even when I don’t have paid work, my mind is always busy. I enjoy creating designs to keep my skills top notch, learning how to hand letter new fonts, and I’m writing pieces for my blog and other big names like Student Universe and We Are Travel Girls! Working multiple, remote jobs on a part time basis allows me time to dedicate to my blog and instagram. I have the freedom to travel whenever, wherever, as long as my bank account can support it. I can go home for a long weekend or a month if I want to or I can plan a vacation and leave tomorrow (hypothetically). Having this flexibility keeps me motivated to find more clients and further monetize my ability to work from the comfort of my own home.

This ideal was instilled in me at a young age. Watching both of my parents run their own companies, they were able to take long weekends, go on more than one family vacation a year, and spend 3 long weeks at our beach house every summer, something for which I am forever grateful. I knew from a young age that I wanted this life, this flexibility, but I also knew the hard work, sacrifices, and dedication that it would take to create this lifestyle. I witnessed it first hand at age 6, when my mom started her first company and again at 16 when my mom started her second, independently run company.

At the time, I didn’t realize how important and influential it was to have a female creative, bad ass, entrepreneur as a mom, instead I was more upset when she couldn’t attend a field trip because she was filming a commercial for FURBIES or meeting Destiny’s Child (like how ridiculous am I???). In the grand scheme of things, one field trip to the Franklin Mineral Mines would not provide the amount of knowledge and motivation that my mom instilled in by showing me not only how to be a successful business woman, but also achieving that success in a creative field.

I wasn’t kidding when I said she was out jchillin with Destiny’s Child!

It’s definitely not the easiest route by any means, but for me, I think it will be the most rewarding route. There are still days where my head is filled with doubt (especially days when I check my bank account) and in a panic, I apply to about 10 corporate jobs in an attempt to obtain the security of a full time position. Then there are the days where it’s especially hard to be around my friends living that 9-5 corporate life, enjoying their steady paychecks, while I experience a pang of jealousy as I wonder if I’m missing out on the corporate office experience.

There are days when freelancing is amazing. When the weather is nice and I can do my work sitting in a park enjoying the sun. When I can work on a passion project and know that it is still considered valuable portfolio work that can get me more clients. I don’t need to worry about PTO, or sick days, or coworker drama. I can even workout and go to the gym and have it not be swarmed with people on their way home from the office (big bonus for me, i hate working out with other people around!!!).

But the truth is freelancing is hard, I always feel the pressure to be doing work, even on the weekends. The income isn’t a steady stream either, but it’s a challenge that my brain loves. I am always on my toes for any networking opportunity, because you never know who your next client is going to be. I’ve learned that I need to be bold and shameless to get a potential client's attention. I recently put PHOTOS of MYSELF on a cover letter to get noticed at a large company, and let me tell you — IT WORKED. As a self proclaimed introvert and shy person, I am forced out of my comfort zone almost every single day in this life of freelancing, but it’s all preparing me for a successful future as a business owner and embracing a digital nomad lifestyle.

10 Reasons to Study Abroad in Australia

May 16, 2019

Looking back at old pictures from my study abroad experience, I can’t help but grin. My time spend in Sydney was a very special 6 months that I truly will never forget. From endless beaches, to a slower pace of life, Australia is a great study abroad spot. I recently connected with the blog Student Universe to write a piece about 10 reasons to study abroad in Australia and it got published here!

Or keep reading below to see why its truly the best!

When choosing a destination to study abroad, lots of students flock immediately to Europe for the quintessential study abroad experience. Filled with baguettes, wine, and city-hoping, there’s no doubt that Europe is a great place to live for a semester. But often Australia gets overlooked as a study abroad destination, but it’s never ending beaches and young history will make you think twice before deciding where to spend your semester abroad.

1. Beaches for DAYS

Having gone to school in the midwest, I was ready to trade a harsh winter for a semester filled with sun and beaches. I chose to study abroad in Sydney, Australia and it was the perfect location as there was sun and sand as far as the eye could see. The best part was heading straight from the classroom to the beach to soak up the sun! Some of my personal favorites in Sydney were Manly Beach, Bronte Beach, and Coogi Beach!

Photo from a road trip down the Great Ocean Road in Melbourne, Australia

2. Explore great barrier reef and other amazing nature

Exploring the Great Barrier Reef was definitely on my bucket list, and studying abroad in Australia gave me the opportunity to travel to Cairns and see this wonder with my own eyes! It truly is a special experience to see the reef in person, but the great barrier reef isn’t the only natural beauty Australia has to offer. There are beaches, national parks, coastal hikes, pink lakes, and more to explore. So if you are an outdoorsy person, Australia has plenty to keep you busy.

3. Spend time living in your city

Since the size of Australia is similar to America, hopping on a plane every weekend wasn’t always convenient or affordable. Compared to most European study abroad destinations where weekend travel is easy and often, studying abroad in Sydney, Australia truly allowed me to immerse myself in the city. This is one of the main reasons I chose to study abroad here, because it gave me time to learn about so many parts of the city that I wouldn’t have otherwise. By the end of the semester, my friends and I all felt like Sydney locals, we knew which bars, restaurants, beaches, and neighborhoods weren’t touristy.

4. Acai Bowls and Smoothie Bowls as Far as the Eye Can See

One of my go-to dishes in Australia for every meal of the day became acai bowls. They are ever present throughout Sydney, and I swear I never had a bad one. If you ever wanted to change up your eating habits, this is the place for you, as there are tons of vegan and vegetarian cafes catering to all your dietary adventures.

5. Commit to the Time Difference

Simply going on a short vacation to Australia is quite difficult with the time difference and the amount of time it takes just to get there. However, studying abroad is truly the best time to take advantage of this and commit to the time difference. The 14/16 hour time difference makes your window of communication to the USA difficult at times, but it will truly push you to connect with friends in Australia and the city around you too.

Photo from a day exploring some lesser known neighborhoods and beaches in Sydney! This one happened to be a nude beach #whoops!

6. Unique Cities to Explore Across the Country

When you do want a weekend getaway, there are tons of unique, modern cities to explore! Sydney is comparable to a San Francisco and Melbourne is comparable to NYC, but there are other unique cities like Perth, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns, Newcastle, Adelaide, and more, each boasting their own personality and worthy of exploring! Take the time to do your research and figure out which cities interest you the most before planning an epic weekend! During my semester, I made weekend trips to Melbourne, Uluru, and Whitsundays!

Brighton Beach Boxes, Melbourne, Australia

7. Aboriginal culture and the history of Australia

I didn’t know anything about Australia’s history when I first arrived. But throughout my entire semester I learned so much about the country and its new history, specifically the aboriginal culture! The aboriginals are the indigenous people of Australia.

8. Uluru + The Outback is unlike anywhere you have ever been before

The Outback is a place I had only heard of in terms of the American Steakhouse chain and a mysterious place with Australian cowboys and kangaroos in the middle of the country. I was determined to experience it and it was beyond my expectations. The Outback is an arid dessert located in the Northern Territory, it is home to Ulluru, a large rock formation is of immense spiritual significance to the Aboriginal people. If you visit the rock, you can learn about all the stories, legends, and traditions centered around this spiritual place!

Riding camels in the Outback was an experience like no other!

9. Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and Oceania are easily accessible and cheap from major Australian airports!

From Australia, taking a flight to Southeast Asia or New Zealand is similar to hoping on a plane to Europe from New York City. So even though you probably won’t take many weekend trips while you study abroad, you can take spring break in Thailand, Vietnam or Bali or you can take a long weekend trip to New Zealand. It is monumentally easier to visit these corners of the world with Australia as your home base. The flights are affordable and shorter, allowing you less time with jet lag and more time exploring these beautiful countries you wouldn’t be able to otherwise!

I took my spring break in Thailand, and then three weeks to explore Vietnam and New Zealand at the end of my semester before heading home! These trips were some of the highlights of my study abroad experience.

Play with elephants in Chiang, Mai, Thailand

10. You’ll leave a piece of your heart here and always want to move back

The best reason to study abroad in Australia is that you will most definitely leave a piece of your heart here, and forever will feel a pull to go back whenever you have the chance. The easy going pace of life, endless beaches, and beautiful seasons will always have you thinking about the special place down under.

A very special beach box at Brighton in Melbourne, Australia

Love Letters to My Favorite Places

February 14, 2019

Love Letters to My Favorite Places

In honor of Valentine's Day, I wrote some love letters to my favorite countries. Each destination holds a piece of my heart and is always on my radar to revisit in the future. Get ready for some major sappy vibes as I pour my heart out for New Zealand, Portugal, and Australia….

Dear New Zealand…

The astonishing beauty held on your tiny island to this day still blows my mind. While driving through your roads, there was never a moment I didn’t want to stop for a photo and take in your beauty. Every turn held an immeasurable amount of awe for me, a girl loyal to big cities and bustling crowds, thrown into a landscape where I was the only occupant. You changed my perspective, on life and nature and our place in this world.

I hope to return to you one day, with endless amounts of time to explore every crevasse, to dive into every pocket of wonder that is hidden in this corner of the world.

Dear Portugal…

I heard you were cheap and easy, literally (#sorrynotsorry but ballin on a budget is kinda hard when you want to explore the world). But my mind has done a 180 as your beauty, food, people, and charm bursting from your seams showed me you are rich with culture and full of rustic, unique cities, or should I say HARD AF wanna-be stairmaster workouts. I still think about your mouth-watering bifana sandwiches and cookie cake, your fresh sparkling vino verde and port wine, and your small, hilly cobblestone towns that literally got my booty in the best shape EVER (not even joking).

On the edge of the map, you are often overlooked, but those who get to know you will never underestimate the magic inside. I know that I will return to your soon, oh portugal, how you stole my heart in just two weeks.

Dear Australia…

It was only 2 years ago today when I first landed in your beautiful country. I was shocked by the heat and the lack of ozone, but the sun warmed my skin and my soul. Thousands of miles away from my family, friends, and familiarity, I immediately felt right at home. Exploring your beautiful coastlines and basking in the sun, I loved that your “winter” only meant 50 degrees and rain.

There was always an adventure to be had, always a beach to explore, and always an accent that melted my heart. But most importantly, I gained the most beautiful friends in the process. I constantly wonder if I come back will you be as good, without the people who made you so special.

From Sydney, to Melbourne, to South East Asia and beyond, you gave me the adventure of a lifetime that I will never forget. Something about that summer down unda, will stay with me forever…

2019 Travel Goals

February 6, 2019

There are a lot of places in the world I want to escape to and explore, I can’t scroll through my instagram feed without the urge to book a spontaneous instagram trip to Europe or Asia or Australia or anywhere really. Thinking about my next trip, saving for it, planning for it, and envisioning it are all a part of the process and the primary reason why I started up this blog again. My hopes are to one day turning traveling into my full time job. It is a pretty lofty goal, but one I am extremely confident that I can achieve if I set my mind to it. And thanks to my dad, once I set my mind on something, I have laser focus on only that goal.

Even though I am a little late to the game with New Year’s Resolutions, I am still going to create a list for my travels and explorations to keep me working towards my goal a little bit every single day. I still am pursuing design as my primary way to make money because I do truly enjoy designing, but deep down I know my heart lies in a life of travel. And if I’ve learned anything over the course of 2018, it’s that nothing happens overnight, so I’m dedicated 2019 to making my dream job become a reality and using this post as a benchmark. On December 31st, 2019 I can see just how much I accomplished.

I’ve split the following section into two categories, my Design to Explore goals for the growth of my instagram and blog, and my actual travel goals outlining the places I visit and experience.

DESIGN TO EXPLORE GOALS

Reach at least 10k followers on instagram

Maintain 10% engagement rate on instagram posts

Make first profitable collaboration on instagram

Increase traffic on web blog

These goals are pretty self explanatory, but the overarching goal is essentially the same. I want to increase engagement and get people to follow me and my story. I promise to deliver exceptional content always, and provide you with the best information about traveling, from planning tips, to packing tricks, to hostel hacks, I have the experience and I want to share it with you so that you can have a great trip yourself.

TRAVEL GOALS

Park City, Utah, USA

This trip is PLANNED! At the end of February I will be heading out west with my Muther to hit the slopes! Excited for this action packed week on the mountain.

photo from our last ski trip to park city in 2017!

Rome + Florence, Italy

This trip is PLANNED! Mid-April, Steven and I will be heading across the pond to Italy! This will be Steven’s FIRST trip outside North America and we are oh so excited about it. We will be hitting Rome and Florence and potentially some other smaller Tuscan towns and villages along the way. Actual planning is still in progress.

National Parks out West, USA

On the anniversary of our trip to Iceland last year, my cousin is taking a grand trip out west and I am dying to join her for a week or so to experience some of the natural beauty America has to offer! Having been to different international locations, I realized I haven’t explore many parts of the USA and I’m excited to see it on this adventure!

Lake Michigan, Michigan, USA

After my first lake trip last year, I’m excited to return again to Lake Michigan at some point this summer for a weekend! It definitely contrasts the ocean of Long Beach Island that I am used to, but it is still spectacular nonetheless.

Long Beach Island, NJ, USA

Ahhh, my favorite place on earth and the only place on earth you will find me on 4th of July, ever. Mark my words. No matter where in the world I may go, 4th of July you will aways find me in LBI. A magical dot on the jersey coastline, I might be biased having spent every summer there my entire life. Hoping to make my way out there for 4th of July for a long vacation this summer.

Weekend Trip to California

Deep down, I am a beach girl at heart, probably due to the fact that LBI is essentially my hometown and I spent summers on the beach. I want to take a weekend trip to California, undecided on which city, but most likely San Francisco, to experience the West Coast for a change.

Weekend Trip to Seattle, WA, USA

Seattle is a pretty mysterious city to me, to my knowledge its home to tech because everyone I know from school who major in a tech related field has found their place in Seattle. I definitely want to go and experience another city and also take advantage of some of the beauty the Pacific North West has to offer.

2-4 week Trip to Australia

This trip is on my radar because of $500 ROUND TRIP TICKETS FROM CHICAGO. Like WTF, have you ever heard of such a thing? Contemplating making the move to revisit the land of my study abroad adventures, the endless sunshine, and amazing landscapes.

2 week Trip to Europe (Amsterdam, Croatia, and ???)

As one of my friends from childhood might be moving to Europe for her job in August, I am definitely blocking out some time to visit her in her new digs and of course squeeze in another adventure along the way. With the proximity and easy transport of European countries, I can definitely see this trip happening.

So my travel goals are pretty insane at the moment, but it’s something to strive for. I know I might not be able to make all the trips of my dreams happen, but I’m determined to see as many places that I can this and keep creating content along the way. It’s my passion and I’m going after it with all I’ve got.

6 Breathtaking Stops on the Great Ocean Road

January 29, 2019

The Great Ocean Road is a beautiful coastal drive located on the southern tip of Australia outside of Melbourne. It’s packed with amazing scenery from beaches to rock formations to waterfalls and is the reason I fell in love with scenic road trips. Back in the spring of 2017, I took a road trip along this great drive with fellow friend, traveler, and videographer Monica!

From the learning to driving on the other side of the road, to learning that you need to pack snacks for a road trip, it was definitely an action packed trip, and I even made a video about it (link at the end).

So as the temperatures drop WAYYYY below zero in Chicago, all I can seem to think about is the warmth of other places I’ve been as an escape. If you need motivation to get your butt on a vacation or to a beach, I hope these next 6 stops I took on the Great Ocean Road will convince you to do so!

BRIGHTON BOXES: Although not *technically* on the Great Ocean Road, the Brighton Beach Boxes are just about the cutest thing you ever did see in Melbourne. These beach shacks, all painted in unique ways, allow for plenty of instagrammable moments on the beach that don’t face the ocean! Instagram or not, this place is really special, walking along the boxes feels like you’re in a game of candy land, and really makes you want to downsize your entire life into a cute lil box on the beach.

AIREY’S INLET: Our first official stop on the great ocean road was the most picture perfect lighthouse I’ve ever encountered! Set against the coast, you get panoramic views of the beach. The white lighthouse is quite possibly too perfect for words.

LORNE: A quaint town set on the coast, small shops and great views. The best part about this town, to Monica and I however, would have to be the trampoline park hidden within a beach club. As we spotted the trampoline park from the road, we made a quick u-turn and had no problem paying $10 for 15 mins on the trampoline.

Even crazier was the fact that this trampoline park didn’t require you to sign your life away or wear protect gear as you went to jump. A seriously foreign concept to me, as any activity in the US means signing your life rights away so you don’t sue.

TWELVE APOSTLES: This is the most popular stop of the Great Ocean Road and rightfully so! This stop will be crowded no matter what time of day you get here, but if you want to see something really special then you have to go around sunset. The beautiful colors were insanely special and made me feel like I was transported into a painting.

THE GROTTO: Intricate and larger-than-life rock formations against the coast, you can get up close and personal to the waves and the ocean. I really was moved at this location by the shear power of the ocean that I have never experienced anywhere else!

LAVERS HILL: On our second day on the road trip, we were heading back to Melbourne to return the rental car, so had to skip going back along the great ocean road, and instead drove through the countryside. We had low expectations going in for Lavers Hill as how could it possibly top all the amazing coastal views that we saw? But guess what, it DID. The green country, the farm animals, and in the distance the coast, was one of the most confusing sceneries to be stopped in, but definitely an amazing one. The contrast between the lush land and the ocean was purely amazing.

So there you have it, 6 stops that if I haven’t convinced you that you need to go on an adventure, I don’t know what else to tell you! The natural beauty in the world is stunning, amazing, and unique, go out and experience it for yourself and lmk how it is :)

10 Reasons to Visit Porto!

December 19, 2018

After years of travel and lots of writing and blogging, I finally decided to take just a small chunk of that experience and channel it into a purposely blog post aimed to be a guide for future travelers. The finished product is an article titled, “10 Reasons to Take Your Next Trip to Porto, Portugal” (OG title was 10 reasons you’ll leave your heart in porto on your next trip).

Just a few weeks ago, I submitted this article to a travel site called “We Are Travel Girls”, their content aimed at empowering women who travel and support the women who do so. I submitted their article, carefully selecting the photographs and fine tuning my recommendations before I finally hit submit. It was pretty anti-climatic, as the next page told me it could take up to 3 months to hear any response. So i honestly forgot about the article, as I got busy with work and life in Chicago.

Until TODAY, when I sat down at my desk and opened me email to say that my article was PUBLISHED! It’s now live on the We Are Travel Girls website which you can see here :)

Check out the article and give it a read! I truly put my heart into it to create an informative article that really sells a small city and country that go overlooked when planning Euro trips! I’m excited for 2019 to write more articles, go on even more adventures, and really give you guys on the other end some really cool and unique content. This small step is a big motivator, to keep going. All I can say, is there is so much more to come from design to explore.

Iceland Video!

November 28, 2018

In May of 2018, I embarked on a 5 week backpacking trip through Europe, the first stop of that trip was to Iceland! Captivated by its beauty, I created a short video to commemorate the experience there with my cousin Kristen.

A dedicated Iceland blog post is coming soon :)

Welcome to (rebranded) Design to Explore!

November 9, 2018

Welcome to design to explore! This is my first post for this blog and I am oh so excited about it! After traveling, exploring, and designing over the past 4 years, I decided to put all my experiences into words and help people design their perfect exploration.

So I’ll start off by sharing a little bit about myself! My name is Juli and I’m a designer, artist, photographer, dog lover, travel enthusiast, beach bum, and book worm. I have traveled to lots of places around the world and had some pretty remarkable experiences. I am truly grateful for all the adventures in these countries - Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Iceland, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ethopia, Gabon, and the good ole US of A!

Amsterdam, Netherlands. 2018

Adis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2015.

Gabon. 2015.

Melbourne, Australia. 2017.

Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2017.

Queenstown, New Zealand. 2017.

Nimh Binh, Vietnam. 2017.

NYC, USA. 2018.

London, England. 2018.

Porto, Portugal. 2018.

The name “design to explore” was born from the idea that as a freelance graphic designer, I use my design jobs to make money to go explore the world. But as I thought more about it, “design to explore” has lots of different meanings to me, just like this blog will serve a variety of purposes.

DESIGN TO EXPLORE as in design your exploration: First and foremost, I want this blog to serve as a resource for anyone trying to book a trip and have the adventure of a lifetime. From booking flights, to hotels, I want to help you every step of the way to make trip planning feel less like a chore and more like an adventure of its own.

Lots of times in my trip planning I would look to instagram or pinterest to figure out what I wanted to do. I felt like lots of pages presented the idea that it is more fun to simply wing it with travel plans and I could not function like that! #sorrynotsorry I need organization, lists, calendars, to-do lists, basically I can be a stickler for schedules and don’t feel comfortable leaving my trip to the power of fate. And it took me a while to realize that THAT’S 100% OKAY! Winging it can often lead to opportunities missed and wasted time trying to figure it out on the fly. Having a plan and structure are totally acceptable, and you can create an epic, wanderlusty trip and still have a schedule that doesn’t make you feel like you are in summer camp.

DESIGN TO EXPLORE as in designing beautiful photographs from your trip: The biggest compliment I get from most of my travel companions is that I give them lots of instagrammable photos. This makes me feel great, but I also know that with a few tips and tricks, you can be equally as good with a camera and collect all thos instagrammable photos yourself.

DESIGN TO EXPLORE as in there is beautiful art, design, and culture all over the world that you need to explore and you can do that from the comfort of your home - courtesy of me :) : There is tons of beautiful art, design, and culture all over the world, and I am here to show it to you via this blog and instagram! Travel photography was my inspiration for all of this and being able to showcase the photos I have taken and curated all over the world, and have a platform to present my personal art and design is what brings me joy.

In the end, I just want to share my creativity, my discoveries, my travel know-how and my observations of the world with you

L A G O S

June 7, 2018

June 3, 2018 - Lagging to Lagos

Today marked the beginning of steph and I’s last leg of the trip together as we headed to the Algarve Coast to Lagos! Our day started extra early that usual as we had a train to catch, but we made it to the station and on the train, but apparently, there were train strikes happening. So our train just sat on the train for almost an hour before actually leaving the station. It was complicated figuring out this was going on because no one in our car spoke very good english, so they were trying to translate the issue for us.

Once we were on the train, it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. We made it to Lagos and to our hostel successfully before heading out for some lunch at Harley’s Cafe, which we later learned was the American diner in town. I got a really great chicken sandwich while Steph got some fruits and yogurt before Juules picked us up for a little afternoon trip to Sagres.

Sagres is this area with really beautiful cliffs that borders the Atlantic Ocean, and Henry the Navigator used to call it the end of the world, and you will be able to see why from these photos. It was really cool being out on these cliffs, also a little risky, as again, no railings or safety enforcements around.

Afterwards, we went to a beach area with some cafes and bars to meet up with Juules cousin for a drink. It was super nice out, but the wind was biting so we only stayed for one drink before heading back to get ready for some dinner. Then ensued our daily task to find a good restaurant, with decent portions, at a small price. Its a very tricky thing to do, and we walked around the main city center before stumbling on a Chinese restaurant menu. It advertised a scenic view, so we walking into the tacky temple door up the stairs and were seated with an awesome view (considering it was a Chinese restauarant).

At that point, we pumped ourselves up about getting Chinese food and were reall5y excited for our meal. I got some classic chicken fried rice with dumplings, while steph got a tofu dish. We were extremely satisfied with our meals, along with the change in cuisine. So we walked around the town a little longer before heading back to the hostel for the night.

June 4, 2018 - willing a beach day to happen

Today was our first full day in Lagos and we were excited to hit the beach. But, the weather wasn't exactly cooperating, so we started by going on a walk at Ponta de Piedade. There were these cool cliffs and rock formations similar to the rocks at Sagres, we walked along the top before following a path down to the bottom where we found a really beautiful secluded beach.

We walked back up, and it was quite the steep trek, before we headed to the other side of the cliffs. This area was more touristy as the rock formations form bridges and boat tours can take you through the rocks from the water. So we walked down there too to check it out and it was also extremely cool and beautiful.

After that, even though the weather was not cooperating, we still wanted to push for a beach day so we headed to Praia de Camila to attempt to have a beach day. We set up our towels, and even despite the extreme cloud cover, I sunscreened up. I think we lasted a solid two hours before the wind and the clouds made it too cold and we decided to head out.

We went to grab lunch around Praia de Luiz (where we went yesterday for drinks with Juules cousin). We sat down at a nice place along the beach and once we were done eating, the sun peeped out from the clouds and we essentially sprinted to the beach to lay out as quick as possible. The sun blessed us for a solid 20 minutes before strong clouds came back, but we were thankful for the rays we could get.

That night, Juules invited us to her grandma’s place she was staying at to eat dinner with her and her cousin Dominique. So after our sad attempt at the beach, we went there to hang out for the night.

June 5, 2018 - when the weather gods answer your prayers

Today, the weather gods answered our prayers. After sleeping in later than usual, we evaluated the weather and even though it was cloudy at the moment, there were some pockets of sunshine and decided to try and do a beach day yet again (especially cause theres not much else to do if it isn't a beach day).

So we got all ready to go, and on the way to the beach, we found a lil grocery store where we bought a few fruits and snacks for breakfast. And as we were turning away, I spotted people eating some baguette sandwiches and then a lil baguette stand that was completely a hole in the wall. Then we saw the sign saying these large baguettes were only 3euros, and we were sold. We bought some sammies and headed to the beach.

It was only a 15 minute walk or so and when we finally did get to it, it literally looked out of a magazine or something cause the scenery was so unreal. Giant cliffs and bright blue oceans, it was incredible! But was wasn't incredible were, again, the no railings no safety stairs to get down to the beach.

Once we made the trek down and found a spot, it was pretty much smooth sailing. Except for some dudes blasting their EDM music unnecessarily loud, we made it through the day. At one point, we traversed some rocks to a different beach just to check it out and take some pictures, but the rocks were pretty treacherous without shoes, again NO SAFETY IMPLEMENTATION AROUND, its just an American law suit away from happening.

We were chilling at the beach for around 5 hours before we headed back, as I was feeling myself getting a lil crispy from the sun it was probably perfect. Back at the hostel, we finally got around to doing some laundry and chilling before going to grab some dinner. Luckily, we quickly found a restaurant called Saibos and it was a cute cafe right off the main drag where we got a delicious meal along with some delicious desserts.

We spent the rest of the night walking around town, the sunset left a beautiful coloring in the sky, and then we found some orange trees. Steph tried to climb them to get an orange, but almost whipped herself hard into the trunk on the way down, only to find out the oranges were really gross and definitely not worth eating.

Then, we were doing our last rounds around the town before heading back when we stopped into a convenience store as we have been on the HUNT for candy we had in one of our uber rides. At this point, its probably the 10 or 11 places we went into to look and low and behold we walk deep into the store to the counter AND WE STRIKE GOLD. we found the candies we literally hit the motherlode. Both steph and I used all the change we had in our wallets to buy as much candy as we could and I most definitely will be going back to stock up before we leave.

So then we decided to end the night on a high note, and an even HIGHER NOTE when the one and only Steven West got a full time job offer back in the USA!!! So proud!!!

June 6, 2018 - asking for the weather gods again

Today we woke up and were sad to see the clouds were here and in full force. Steph was contemplating going to a yoga class, and i decided to pack up my suitcase and get organized since we were leaving tomorrow anyway. But steph came back and said the sun was out, so knowing the unpredictable weather, we quickly got our beach stuff on and power walked to the closest beach.

We got to the Praia de Estudantes and it was still pretty cloudy and the sun went away, but we weren't going to give up. We snuck on the beach chairs that you had to pay for and tried really hard not to get cold in the clouds and the wind. But by the glory of the weather gods, the sun CAME OUT TO SHINE. We were asked to leave the beach chairs cause we didn't wanna pay, so we laid our towels out and got a solid 2 hours of beach sun and it was amazing. Even when the sun receded, we stayed and enjoyed laying on the beach before heading back.

That night we met up with Juules for one last dinner in Lagos and we went to a place called Havaneria, I got a really delicious quinoa Mexican bowl while Juules and Steph both got Thai Chicken Curry, apparently the place is tackling a lot of different ethnic foods at once, but honestly, they killed it.

Steph and I finally wanted to have a night out and considering tonight was our last chance (as steph flies out at 7am the day after next). We got ready and Juules cousin Dominique who is a local showed us the ropes. She took us from bar to bar and got us probs the cheapest drinks I've ever drank since southeast asia! At 2am, I decided to head back and get some sleep since we had a 7:45am train, but Steph stayed out a little longer #badass.

June 7, 2018 - a blah day as we transfer back to Lisbon

Today we woke up early, and it was pretty painful trying to catch our train. It was an ORDEAL as we got on the train at the wrong car and then needed to walk through all the cars to find ours, which resulted in my getting extremely motion sick. But luckily, I passed out really hard on the train and woke up once we were in Lisbon.

We had to come back to Lisbon as tomorrow Steph heads out to go back to the states :( sad I'm losing my travel buddy, but my trip still isn't over! Tomorrow I am headed to Brussels, Belgium for the weekend before I meet up with the most notorious parenting duo in the world - TOM AND HELEN POLISE!!!!!!!! So, if you stick around because you are in for a COMICAL few blog posts to come as we tackle Amsterdam and Paris together.

L I S B O N

June 3, 2018

May 30, 2018 - Lisboa

We started our day by getting our way to the train as we were headed to our next stop, Lisbon! It is just 3 hours south of Porto so the train wasn't a huge inconvenience, especially cause the train was so freaking nice OMG. Nj/Ny transit really needs to step up their game in comparison.

I, as usual on moving vehicles, passed out and was asleep for most of the train ride, except for when the woman behind me was recieving a phone call cause she had her volume at FULL STRENGTH and didn't pick it up till the last second, and it was one of those super tacky ringtones cause Im pretty sure it was a flip phone….

Anyway, we got in a uber and went to our hostel. But when we got to reception turns out we were at the wrong location, so we called another uber and guess what, it was the same uber driver as the first ride! I was very excited about this cause he had an amazing candy selection and promised myself I wouldn't leave Portugal without this candy.

Once we were finally at the correct hostel, we loaded into our tiny room before heading out to explore. The first thing we did was get some food from Panaderia Portuguesa, it was essentially the equivalent of an Au Bon Pain in the USA, so nothing super special about it, except that they had amazing fresh squeezed orange juice which I indulged in.

Then we just walked around the city, it was in an extremely better location than the first hostel was located, so it was a happy accident. We went around the Bario Alto neighborhood, its very hilly, not a good neighborhood for old people, YET old people are everywhere. We made our way to a cool lookout point across the northern part of the city, then found another lookout point in a park area looking over the south side of the city towards the water. Very cool, the city is very similar to Porto but a whole lot bigger.

We walked along the water for a while and enjoyed the sunshine before heading to the Time Out Market. Its just a giant marketplace with different restaurant stands that you can order from. We were overwhelmed with the amount of choices we had, but eventually I settled on chicken pad Thai and Steph settled on some pork pancake/omlette thing. Both were very delicious and we planned to come back tomorrow.

We started to walk back, and we wanted dessert, so we started checking out different pastelarias. Unfortunately, we walked into a super sketchy one where I almost got pickpocketed and reaked of cigarettes, but we walked out immediately and landed on a different pastelaria closer to our hostel called Sacolinha. I got a box of treats and so did Steph, so we just sat in the plaza and enjoyed our desserts as the sun went down.

Tired from the day, we decided to head back to the hostel and relax for the remainder of the evening (it was about 9:30/45 at this point). So we showered and got ready for our day tomorrow by planning out what we wanted to do.

May 31, 2018 - the stair master aka Lisbon life

Since this hostel doesn’t provide a free breakfast and isn't as bougie as our last hostel, we started our day going to the GoNatural grocery store to buy some granola bars and fruits for us to eat in the mornings. Once we loaded up and were ready to go, we hit our first stop which was the Castelo de Saint Jorge. It’s basically this giant castle grounds that you get to explore with incredible views over looking the city.

We walked around that and it was really cool. You could see a bunch of the archaeological ruins from when the castle was in actual use, and you could climb up most of the castle walls, although, these stairs were most definitely not up to code. They even had signs that suggested you might plummet to your death, despite that, we took this risk and went on to see some amazing views.

There was one part of the castle on the map that we really wanted to see, because it seemed to be the best lookout point separate and far away from the castle. HOWEVER, this map did a POOR job of indicating the fact that it was about a MILLION flights of stairs to get to this lookout. We walked down it, and then had the freaking CLIMBBB on the way up (buns of steel are most definitely starting to form). Again, these stairs were NOT up to code either, but we didn't let that stop us, and still this place was flocking with old people and I have no idea how they were making it through as I was struggling at times lol

One we hit all the stops, we continued on to our next stops for the day. We visited yet another church before heading to a flea market for an outdoor food market. But once we got there, there was nothing going on! We then remembered how it is actually a national public holiday today in Lisbon, Corpus Christi day, so it was probably closed because of that, sad.

So we went on to see the National Parthenon before looking for a spot to stop and eat lunch. Again, we were finding that a lot of places were closed because of the holiday, but we ultimately decided on a place called Wine and Burgers. It was empty and immediately regretted our decision to eat here, but then the food completely shocked us! It was way better than expected, I got a Portuguese burger with beef, egg, ham, lettuce, tomato and it was great.

We kept walking along and eventually made our way to the water where we found a nice spot to lay down away from the crowds. We sat, and put our heads back and caught some rays. It was nice, but then the path started getting crowded and it sounded like all the bikers and walkers were about to run over our heads.

So we walked around a little bit more, before heading back to the hostel to shower and regroup before heading out to dinner. We decided to go back to the TimeOut Market cause we both saw things we wanted to try, so I ended up getting some strawberry and ham salad and Steph actually got the same, didn't even plan it.

At this point, our switches flipped, and we got sick of how crowded and overpriced the market was, so we headed back to our neighborhood to find a pastelaria for dessert. Tonight was quite the hunt, since it was the holiday, a lot of local places were closed, and the ones that were open had the smallest selection. Eventually, after walking into over 5/7 places we found one near our hostel called Pastelaria Benard. I got two slices of cake, one cookie cake and then a smaller chocolate cake and it was honestly the perfect combo.

We ate our sweets outside in the plaza before heading back to our hostel and calling it a night. We wanted to get to bed early cause we were planning to wake up early and head out to the mountain outside Sintra for a day of hiking and fun.

June 1, 2018 - el dia de ejerciso numero tres

Today we were up early for our day to Sintra! We got on the train at 7:11 and both fell asleep pretty much until we arrived at the final station. There was a cute cafe, so we stopped for a quick caffeine boost before really starting our day.

Our first thing on the agenda was to see the Castello de Dos Mouros (the moorish castles). This was quite the hike, as you could see the towers from the train station and it was p much a straight vertical incline. So we climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and we finally made it to the castle. And then we had to climb some more stairs again to get to the watch towers, but the watch towers had the most incredible views. You could see the city of Lisbon and the Atlantic ocean from the top of them! But it was also kind of scary at the same time because there was no railings and it was super windy, so getting close to the edge felt v risky.

Then to make matters worse, we got a burst of rain, clouds, and chills. Steph and I were wearing workout clothes while everyone else visiting was wearing winter gear, even though climbing up the mountain we were overheating. So, enjoy pictures of me crouching away from the rain, then steph basking in the sunlight moments later....

We walked around the castle and enjoyed the views before heading to our next point, Pena Palace. When we got there it was PACKED with tourists. SO MANY. It was because it was one of the only attractions where you could take a bus or train right up to the entrance rather than hike it. So we waited inline for about 20 minutes before we heard a couple say “sad how they don't realize how much longer they have to wait”. So then I went to check out the line and we weren't even halfway to the entrance, so Steph and I made a game time decision and decided to skip the tourist filled Palace and head to Cruz Alta.

This one we knew wouldn't be crowded cause its pretty much a straight vertical incline to get to, but once we got there it was empty and beautiful. From there you could see the Atlantic ocean and the city of Lisbon so it was quite beautiful. We hung out up there and enjoyed the breeze before heading back down. On our way, we spotted a tiny rock formation area with a bench and climbed through some bushes to get to it, and again it was an amazing view, with a bench.

We continued our way down and walked through a crazy fern sanctuary garden, literally wall to wall with ferns I never thought I would see so many at once. So we kept walking until we hit the road back down, but somehow we missed the walking trail down, so we ended up walking down the car road where theres no side walk but plenty of cars whipping around sharp turns. A little scary but we managed to survive as we ran from turn to turn so cars could see us.

Eventually we made it down, and a bunch of the tour guides were stopping people from walking up the road we had just come down, and as steph said “some might call us dumb from walking that way, but Im gonna call it badass.”

We were going to hit another spot in Sintra, but it was packed and you had to pay to get in, so we decided we didn't need to see it that bad. We walked back through the cute town of Sintra before heading back on the train.

At the hostel, we were able to recover from the day as we had climbed 180 flights of stairs, and then headed to dinner. We went to a Mexican place called Pistola y El Corazon. As we got there 5 minutes after it already opened, we were surprised at how crowded it already was, but we easily got a table. Five minutes later, all the tables were full and the place was bumping. But we sat down, ordered guacamole IMMEDIATELY before picking out some tacos. I got the carnitas and steph got the spicy Tinga chicken, and clearly she hasn't learned her lesson when it comes to spices cause she was crying and sweating after only a few bites.

Afterwards, we decided to walk around a bit, but classic Portuguese people, they don't start doing things at night till like 11pm, so nothing was really happening. That didn't stop us from walking around, but we knew we wouldn't make it to 11pm out tonight considering the physically exhausting day we had. So we went to McDonald’s to grab a McFlurry for dessert (lol) and sat in the plaza before heading back to the hostel to go to bed.

June 2, 2018 - Belem

Today, naturally, we slept in. We needed it. Then we made our way to the train station because we wanted to head to Belem, another town within Lisbon that was just a little further away. Here, is the home of the original Pastel de Nata, its the unique Portuguese pastry that has a fluffy, croissant like shelf, and a custard innside. Its delicious, IF you have the right one. Ive had about two, and they were eh, so I was excited to try the OG and the best apparently as Pastelies de Belem. The line wasn't too long, they had a freakin SYSTEM when you actually got to see the inside, so we each bought a pastry and then sat at a Starbucks table to enjoy. It was amazingly perfect. Do not eat any other pastel de nata if it is not from this place.

We continued to explore Belem, first walking past the monastery before heading to the botanical gardens and the national palace. But, it honestly wasn't that exciting. The gardens were cool but other than those three places, there wasn't much north of the city. So we headed back down to the main street where, we shamely/no shame at all, got lunch at McDonalds. Everything in the area in terms of restaurants were clearly overpriced tourist traps, so we settled on a nice American classic before walking down the main strip of Belem along the water.

This road had a lot more to offer compared to the north part of the city. We saw the statues of the Padroas de Descubriemientos (Fathers of discoveries), which was really cool as I believe 34 major Portuguese discoverers, scientists, intellects, etc. were sculpted into this structure.

Walking along the water the rest of the way we saw the Torre de Belem, basically a watch tower. At that point, we were kind of done with Belem so we decided to head back to Lisbon’s main center on the train. It was actually really nice that we went back early, because we stumbled across a couple of small street shops opening up in the city center and found some cooler, more authentic souvenirs than the ones in the typical souvenir shop.

We decided to wander our way through the shopping district for the rest of the afternoon, we didn't have any big plans to shop, but we didn't get to see the area that much in the past few days, so we figured this was a good time. We soon realized why we didn't bother come here, cause its packed!! Not quite Times Square packed, but just wall to wall of people.

Because we just had to, we made one last stop in our favorite grocery store, go natural for some last minute snacks for our train ride tomorrow to Lagos before heading to dinner. Steph used the power of yelp to find local restaurant of Lisbon called Beira Gare, and it was AMAZING. Similar to our last meal in Porto that was the mom and pop shop, this was the equivalent. It was packed with local people all eating then Bifina sandwich, which was their special pulled pork. Instead of the sandwich I got the bifina platter and it was TO DIE FOR. One of my favorite meals of the trip so far, the pork was seasoned in such a unique way I was all about it.

Of course we needed some dessert afterwards, so we went back to Scalofina from our first night and got some sweets while we watched some street dancer. He was trying to get us to interact with us while he danced but we were more concerned about eating, lol. We have an early train tomorrow, so we decided to go back to the hostel and get packed and situated since we got an early wake up call. But, we made it to our last stop in Portugal - Lagos of the Algarve Coast! And as always, I will keep you updated.

P O R T O

May 30, 2018

May 26, 2018 - viva a Porto!

Today we started our journey to Porto, Portugal. Let me tell you about this journey. The flight from Barcelona to Porto was THE most ROWDY flight I have EVER been on. First, we got on the plane and boarded and I passed out completely, like HARD. I was so asleep and I had fallen asleep for what I thought was 15 minutes, but it turned out an hour had passed and I woke up and we hadn't even taken off yet. People were talking, everyone was standing up, there was no sign of taking off in the near future. I was very discombobulated.

20 more minutes passed before a flight attendant finally went on the speaker to say that we were taking off, an hour and a half late. So i went to email our airport shuttle pick up before we took off to say we were going to be late. All good to go, we took off, BUT there was no safety briefing, no turn off your cell phones, no NOTHIN.

Once we were airborne, it was a whole new situation. People got up and were hanging out in the aisles talking. One couple popped champagne and so many others were buying beers. It was literally a party on the plane. I was in shock, I had never experienced such a loud flight before. Poor Steph couldn't even read her book cause a couple in front of us was making out.

Finally, we landed and we had to deplane onto the tarmac. As we were walking into the airport people legit started having a photo shoots in front of the planes. Like who the hell is on this plane, who are these people.

We luckily get our luggage with no problems and we got to the car pick up area and there was no one there to pick us up. Turns out, the shuttle responded saying they cancelled our shuttle and wanted us to respond, WHILE MID AIR FLIGHT, to tell us the updated time and if we wanted the shuttle. SMH @ Europeans, cause I specifically said, we needed the shuttle an hour later than planned and they just cancelled it.

So we got an uber driver who was super nice, gave us this really delicious candy and we made it to our hostel, yay! Our hostel is SUPER nice, we got a private room and its huge AND no bunk beds so we are happy no one has to climb for the time being.

We met up with Steph’s friend from Pittsburgh, Juules, who is also on a Euro trip and we went to lunch at this place near our hostel called Conga. we all got these 2euro pulled pork sandwiches and they were melt in your mouth delicious, my GOODNESS. From there, we just walked around Portugal and literally I’m gonna leave this city in the best shape of my life with the amount of stairs and hills in this place. Literally.

We walked down to the water, then across this crazy amazing bridge and drank some coffee and ice tea on the water. It was really nice until Juules got pooped on by a bird, so we decided to clean her up and get out of there before another bird bowel movement.

From there, we walked up a vertical hill, literally, to get to the top of the bridge we crossed to get some amazing views. It was absolutely stunning to see the city from above and get a complete look at it.

Since it was a saturday, we wanted to try and experience the Porto nightlife cause it seemed extremely unique, apparently everyone just drinks on the street outside bars (shout out to no open container laws). However, there was a really big soccer game, so all the places we were gonna try for dinner were PACKED with soccer people watching the game. huge crowds and the restaurants brought TVs outside for people to watch as well, still not on the level of a gameday. but it was unique in its own way.

We eventually decided to eat at a pizza place that didn't have any soccer on, so it was empty. We got two pizzas to share with beautiful white wine sangria and enjoyed it all. Then we went to Anegada Leonor, a super tiny hole in the wall bar where we met probably the MOST ANNOYING AMERICAN WOMAN TO EVER EXIST. I will not go into extreme details, but her every other word was “likeeeeee”.

We had a fun night, we took a shot of absinthe which, on top of the pizza, absolutely ruined my stomach, and I was in so much pain that we left and that was pretty much the night.

May 27, 2018 - tour de porto day

Usually, Im not about tours, but today we did TWO. I know, I shocked myself. We started off with a walking tour of Portugal (after most travel blogs recommended it since we Americans know very little about Portugal’s history). I didn't have super high expectations going it to it, but it ended up being amazing. Our tour guide was really funny, this young dude who was just a goofball. He kept telling us gossip about JK Rowling (cause she lived there for a period of time) while also giving us some cool info about Porto like the following…..

Porto had a law that landlords couldn't raise rent back in the day, so up until recently some people living in older houses were paying 1Euro - 7euros maybe a little more, for their apartments. The landlords hated this rule so they started purposely destroying their units until the law was changed, and thats why some of Porto looks so run down.
Theres a mural in the Sao Bento train station made of cobalt tiles, and the artist wanted to stay humble so he purposely messed up multiple tiles so that the wall isn't completely perfect
Blue tiles are also a signature of Porto (and my favorite thing I've ever seen) because they use cobalt which is cheap and lasts long
There were so many churches in the city, that eventually they made some law that prevented anymore churches from being made. But there were still some stickler nuns around who didn't wanna lose their churches, so they just had to wait for the nuns to die before they could start repurposing the churches.
One of the bridges, the Eiffel Bridge, which is made from the builders of the Eiffel Tower. But, this bridge is SO structurally unsound that they cannot use it. Lol, good thing they stepped up their game for the Eiffel Tower.

After the tour, our tour guide showed us to a nice restaurant for lunch. I got some meat (I cant remembered what), with a really delicious salad and fries. We had some time to killed before our second tour, a Port wine tour, so we went back to the big bridge to take some photos since it was nice out. We didn't realize how windy it was on top of the bridge so we struggled more than expected.

Then time for the wine tour. I’ve never really had port wine before but I was down. The first stop we had one glass and it was actually pretty delicious, and after complaining about how little wine we got, we learned that port wine is super strong and equivalent of a shot. So good thing they aren't filling glasses to the brim or else we would have hit the floor after the first stop.

Our second stop was a museum, it was honestly so boring and we all started to lose our buzz from the first stop. But luckily, we got two glasses of wine, a red and a white. Yum! Both were super strong, I killed the white and was excited for the red when one sip it I was a complete klutz and dropped my glass and it shattered everywhere. sad. But apparently it was super good…..

Then we went to our last stop which was a bougie port wine store, gallery, and roof bar. We got FOUR glasses of wine here with crackers AND chocolate, so basically heaven cause food + wine. Here our tour guide taught us how to properly taste wine and distribute the wine all over our mouth, which results in the most unattractive facial expressions you could ever create. I was skeptical of his methods until I tried them for myself and WOAH I got aLLL them flavors in my mouth. Im feeling good at this point and #loving Port Wine.

We got to drink our final two glasses on the roof. The view was spectacular, the weather was beautiful it was perfect. However, I got the case of the klutz round two and dropped yet ANOTHER glass. I went up to our guide with the broken glass and said “i did a thing” and handed him the shattered glass and walked away. Good thing I still had one left.

So overall, the wine tour was great, super knowledgable in Port wines although I don't know how often I will ever drink Port wine. Who knows, maybe ill be super bougie post grad and have my chocolate with a nice vintage bottle.

We needed to get some food, so we headed to Pedro de Frangos for quite possibly the best rotisserie chicken I have ever eaten. I also got a side salad, but it was more like a bowl of olive oil with a side of lettuce, so I didn't eat too much of that. Since we were all pretty tired from our day, we came back to the hostel to hang out in the lobby area before heading to bed.

May 28th, 2018 - the kindness (and malicious) of people

Today was an ambitious day. We wanted to hit a lot of spots and walk to the beach, so we did. Walking to our first stop, we got stopped by a man that called out to me “bag open! bag open!” And I thought at first my bag was open and I was like oh how nice, but then I got a better look at the man and it was a dirty homeless man trying to pick pocket me. I was caught off guard, when I heard this asian couple saying “no no no!” andmotioning my to run away. So I did, not that I was going to open my bag for a pick pocketer, but on the homeless mans part like thats not a great tactic for pick pocketing people…. But also shout out to the asian couple for helping us out.

So our journey continued, we started by going to the Crystal Palace Gardens (no not the alcohol for all my Michigan people). Most of the garden was closed, but we got to walk around and use a great public bathroom all while a class trip was screaming around the park. So not super enjoyable to have to witness Tweens all over the place, but we made it work.

Our next stop was the Mercado de Bom Successo (bomb name if i do say so myself). It wasn't like our fav Boqueria Market in Barcelona, it was more defined with restaurant shops throughout the complex. I caught my eye on this beautiful quiche beef, taco and knew it was exactly what I wanted for lunch, so I went for it and got it, and it lived up to the hype. It was pretty damn amazing.

Next, we went to these large botanical gardens and got to walk through a ton of cool plants. There were beautiful flowers, and cactuses, and lily ponds, and just some really cool sites. On the down side, it was right next to a highway so it was pretty loud and that disrupted the tranquility of it all..

Then we kept walking and Steph and I had to pee so bad that we ran into a shopping mall center to use the bathroom and it was locked. As we stood there, we noticed two older woman sitting in a cafe knocking on the window to get our attention. They were motioning to us to get a key for the bathroom and they did! Bless the old ladies.

We continued our journey, and we sat down along the river so that Steph could eat a salad she bought at the Mercado. But, we encountered this homeless woman who was super aggressive and kept asking us if we had food in our bags and to give her money. We walked away but she advanced and kept asking so we just walked faster and kept saying no. she was pretty scary all tatted up we thought she was gonna hit us or like grab our bags and run. Luckily, we survived to tell the tale.

So we sat along the water and it was great. The weather was perfect, the sun was out and we got to enjoy the day before we kept walking to the beach. And once we got to the beach it was amzing, it was still pretty cold, but we were able to lie on the beach for like 20-30 minutes with sweatshirts on and be completely fine.

We stopped for a quick juice, before embarking on an hour and a half walk back to the hostel. It was a long and hot walk, we even encountered the weird homeless lady, who followed us for a little bit. By the time we got back to the hostel, I realized how much sun I had gotten and looked ay myself and I was a literal lobster with the most unattractive tan lines in the world. I literally had a tanline from MY BRAID.

Anyway, there wasn't much I could do for that after the fact, so I just had to soldier on and aloe up (which I did about 10 times). We went to dinner at a restaurant called Tasco, which was a recommendation from our wine tour guide. It was deeeeelish, I got pulled pork with a salad and again, another great meal.

After dinner we decided to walk around to the shopping street of Porto, even though most of the shops were closed, we wanted to look around since we were planning to have a little shopping day tomorrow. We went into the few stores that open, before heading back to the hostel to grab clothes and do some laundry.

Somehow we found this really nice laundromat, so we were able to clean some of our clothes, especially after the sweat fest that has been our walking around Porto. While we waited, we got “the best chocolate cake in the world”. Gotta admit it was pretty good, not sure if greatest in the world.

Once our laundry was done, we headed back to the hostel to get some rest. I aloe-ed up about 5 more times before actually calling it a night.

May 29th, 2018 - our FIRST day of bad weather

It is crazy to believe that I made it to DAY 18, and today has been the first really bad day of weather (besides Iceland where terrible weather is just a normal thing). We didn't let that stop us from hitting the stores, and as Helen Polise always says “money is only good if you spend it” so spend it we did. Well we didn't go crazy, we are two college grads on a budget, but we did treat ourselves to a few new clothing items. For some reason the shopping in Europe is much better.

once we shopped till we dropped, we headed to the Traveler’s Cafe for lunch and it was honestly amazing yet again. For some reason I wasn't expecting the food scene in Portugal to be that great, but here I am, meal after meal saying whatever I had eaten was to die for. So, I went basic bitch from American and got an egg sandwich with bacon and cheese along with a fresh squeezed juice. I also indulged in a small piece of carrot cake to curb my recent obsession with the treat, again amazing.

From there, we headed to the Clerigos Church Tower where you walk up like 25 flights of stairs to get a panoramic view of the city. We did it and were expecting to be dead from the stairs, but it actually wasn't too bad. And despite the weather being crappy, it wasn't completely foggy and we were able to see some of the views.

We walked through the rest of the church too, which was also cool to see. Then we kept on walking to the Ponte Luis Bridge for one last view since it was our last day here. And it was starting to clear up so that was nice!

Exploring the other side of the bridge, which is a new city, not Porto, was fun, but there isn't a ton to see. There is one strip of commercial type area, before it gets v residential. There was a cool food market with restaurant stands, but we ended up just getting some tea and sitting outside.

We made our way back to the hostel and got some suggestions from the front on where to get dinner, the dude was chill and recommended Casa Bracganca (pronounced bra-gan-zzah). It was this tiny lil place that was family owned, and there were only locals in there. I ordered a traditional Portuguese cut of steak while Steph ordered the octopus. Both were delicious. Our next course was dessert where I got a cookie cake and Steph got an Oreo mousse, and again, to die for. At this point we had gotten all buddy buddy with the waitress, so as she gave us the check she gave us a shot of alcohol. We thought ah so nice, and she listed off all the ingredients, “cinnamon, honey, apple…. and fire water” AKA ABSINTHE. Steph took a sip as I took a sniff, and it was a no go for both of us. So we paid in cash and darted out of the restaurant while she wasn't looking. Overall though, one of our best meals in Porto.

We walked around the city, getting our last glimpses in before heading back to the hostel to plan the next leg of our trip - Lisbon!!! Porto was great, not gonna miss the absinthe that did me dirty, but I will miss the incredible tiles and design sprinkled throughout the town.

B A R C E L O N A

May 25, 2018

May 21, 2018 - the journey to Barca!

We got up and immediately had to go to the airport for our flight to Barcelona, the airport was super quick, and we are starting question why American airports are terrible, especially the new york area airports.

After sleeping through the flight and going through customs, we were good to go and hopped in our uber to the hostel. Our uber driver arrived and gave us the ultimate chauffeur experience, he was wearing a tux and carried our bags to the car, but he didn’t speak any english. Fortunately, Steph and I have over 6 years of Spanish schooling from high school, so we were hoping that we could put it to good use, and we did!!! We were able to sustain a full conversation for our 30 minute uber ride, granted it probably wasn't our best Spanish grammar, but our driver loved chatting with us and pretty much understood everything we were saying.

We got to our hostel, checked in and tried to run some quick errands, but we quickly discovered everything was closed and it was mid afternoon. We assumed it was just because of siesta, the Spaniards taking a nap after lunch tradition, but then we found out it was a holiday so everything was super closed. Oh well. We threw some laundry in the machine, then headed out to meet up with my friends from Michigan, Amos and Josie, for dinner.

They were chilling at a Catalan restaurant called 3Focs. We had some complications ordering, but everything we were fed and satisfied. We decided to then walk Las Ramblas, the famous street in Barcelona with a bunch of shops and stores. We got some gelato and sat in a beautiful marble stoned park to eat, before heading back to the hostel cause we were a bit tired from traveling and OH, our snoring friend kept us up for almost ALLLLLL hours of the night before our flight, so we were running on low energy and were feeling blessed we had a private room.

May 22, 2018 - bench hopping to the Sagrada Familia

We started today trying to buy international SIM cards for our phones so that we could actually get directions and not be stranded in Europe without a solid mode of communication. I successfully was able to get a SIM card and a new numero (so if you have been trying to text me on my American number and haven't gotten a response that is why).

Then we met up with Amos and Josie for Lunch at this place called Lazaran for menu del dia. This is basically a three course meal for about 10 euros, its a pretty good deal. So we found Lazaran, which essentially seemed like a Spanish version of Applebee’s after we analyzed the meal, but it was still really good. I got carbonara pasta, then a meat dish, and a cream custardy cake to finish. All in all it was great, and I was definitely ready for a siesta afterwards and understand the concept after all.

We just walked around the rest of the day honestly, hopping around from park bench to park bench until we had our Sagrada Familia Tour at 6:15.We got the tickets ahead of time and went into the church that has been under construction for over 100 years, woah right!!! It was absolutely stunning inside. We did a few laps and really took in the architecture cause it was literally stunning, cant say it enough. The stain glass windows created this amazing light in the place, and we were just in awe of everything we saw.

On our way out of the church, we noticed a sign for a museum and were expecting this tiny little place with a few fun artifacts about the construction process - WRONG. This was a full fledge, intensive museum about the entire creative process of Antoni Guadi. It took us a solid amount of time to get through it, and then when we were 75% done, the place was starting to close so we had to shimmy our way out of there.

After re grouping, we met up for dinner at a small cafe that i never got the name of, but we enjoyed some authentic tapas and wine for dinner. It was delish, we got patatas bravas, croquettas de jamon, and hummus (pronounced UUUU-mmus here lol). We then headed to the Dow Jones bar which is super fun, all the drinks are priced and function like stocks, so when one person buys a certain drink, its stock goes up and the price goes up. Then, every 30 minutes to an hour, the “market crashes” and all the drinks are dirt cheap. Since it was a Monday night it wasn't crazy packed, BUT every single person in this bar was American. Literally. So that was weird but funny at the same time, came all the way to Spain to hang out in the American bar.

We were gonna try and go to clubs, but no one was really into or dressed for it, so we called it a night at about 1:30 (which is VVVV early for the Spaniards, oops).

May 23, 2018 - el dia de ejercicio

Today was quite the day. We started off going to the Park Guell, Gaudi’s mosaic park at the top of the city. Emphasis on “top of the city” cause our walk was 40 minutes and 20 minutes of the walk was legitimately going up a straight vertical hill. Being extremely out of shape, tackling this hill was one of the most physically daunting tasks I had partaken in in QUITE SOME TIME.

Once we finally got to Park Guell, sweaty and worked out, we got to explore the most architecturally beautiful park. The arches made out of rocks were insanely cool, then the mosaic garden on top was absolutely stunning, but we got unlucky as a majority of it was closed off for repairs :( very sad. We continued to walk around and just enjoy the park and the sites before we went into the Gaudi house museum. We were prepared this time, especially after the Sagrada Familia Museum surprised us with its length and intensity. But it was more just a cool architectural house Gaudi designed with cool window views of the mosaic park aspects.

We felt as though we thoroughly took in the Park, so we decided to head back and grab some lunch on the way. By wandering through the DOWNHILL streets, we finally found a cute little cafe in a courtyard to eat at. We got some bocadillos (sandwiches) and enjoyed sitting in the shade, not sweating, and not being on hills.

Our next plan was to go to the beach and have an afternoon. But we had to stop home and change, then on our way to the beach through Las Ramblas we spotted an outdoor market and I felt that in that moment I needed some fruit or else I wouldn't be able to function. So i quickly grabbed some fruit only to realize this was a GIANT market called La Bouqeria. We lost Amos and Josie for a minute, as then went to find some classic Spanish Chorizo.

Then we continued our walk, which ended up being another 45 minute walk just to get to the beach. Let me tell you that LBI is forever and always my favorite beach and gosh darn it I am spoiled for it because this beach was GROSS in comparison. We found a tiny little spot in between hoards of people to put our towels down and lay. It was enjoyable for the first five minutes until heckler people started coming around offering us mojitos, and beers, and cervesasssss and massages in annoying homemade jingle form. We said they should offer a service where you pay to have them not ask you 40 million times if you want an uncertified back massage.

I took out my crossword book and we attempted some crosswords for a while in attempt to drown out the noise of the people. But after about an hour and a half we were all about done, not the most relaxing beach day, but still kinda nice in its own way. Then we also realized that our feet were completely brown from the sand, like WTF.

So, after getting annoyed with the heckler salesmen, we decided to leave an head back. Thus commenced the hour walk home in the heat. As I said, it was el dia de ejercisco.

It was Amos and Josie’s last night in Barcelona (and Europe as they had been traveling for three weeks), so we went to our last dinner together at Tagliatelle, an authentic Italian restaurant where we all got some nice pasta and sangria. Needless to say it was a great night.

May 24, 2018 - walk it like i shop it

Today we slept in, after our exhausting day walking, we needed some rest and our bodies definitely took control as we overslept our alarm by an hour. As we slowly got up, we decided to head down las Ramblas and get some breakfast in La Boqueria Market. It was the place we went to yesterday before the beach, but we wanted more time to explore while more shops were open and it was the perfect time.

I started with a strawberry and pineapple smoothie, then I got some classic chorizo which was absolutely delish. Then we walked around some more, and I got a baguette with prosciutto and cheese. ALL TO DIE FOR. We sat down on a curb of las ramblas and enjoyed our breakfast lunch meal.

Then we walked through the Gothic Quarter, which is an area off the side of Las Ramblas that is a throwback in time. Tiny streets, with tall, classical buildings and cool shops lining the road. We found a cool American Thrift Shop called the Flamingo Store which was really fun, you could buy clothes by the kilo so we really wanted to get some but couldn't find anything that fit quite right.

We kept walking around, again roaming with no plan in the beautiful streets as the weather was absoultly amazing again. What luck we are having!!! We eventually walked down so far that we hit the beach. Even though we said we wouldn't come back because of the dirt factor, here we were. We didn't stay for long as we didn't feel like dealing with the hecklers, so we kept walking around and found ourselves among some really cool stores again. We even found another market for groceries, but like raw fish and meats which was cool.

Eventually, we made our way back to the main strip of land and went into this cool store called Pull and Bear. It was reminiscent of a Brandy Melville, but cooler cause its in Barcelona. Steph and I shopped around for a whlie, even found a New Jersey sweatshirt scattered among the merchandise as something to buy, LOL. Having no luck in the women’s department, I literally went upstairs to the mens department to find a long sleeve t shirt, because the evenings here are quite chilly. After trying on multiple shirts, and getting yelled at to use a dressing room, I found the perfect shirt, yippeeeee.

Once we were finished shopping, we realized we were actually SO HUNGry. So we went back to the hostel to shower and change before heading to dinner. Ultimately we decided to go to a burger place, called Oval, because we needed to change it up a little bit from the tapas again. The burgers were create your own type of deal, but being who I am, I kept it extremely simple with a classic cheeseburger and fries. While we waited for our food, we did some crossword puzzles out of my book, they are making more appearances than usual lately, but they are helpful cause they make the waiting go by faster, highly recommend to anyone who has to do a lot of waiting in lines on a day to day.

Once our classic American dinner was complete, we figured we keep the train going by getting some ice cream. We went to a Haagen daz, where they almost DUPED US HARDCORE. but we are smart, or at lease Steph was because they had in store service, where you sit down and have a waiter for ice cream, but they overcharge you AF for the same things if you were just taking out. what a scam. so we ate on a park bench right out side of the store so take THAT.

We were stuffed at this point and decided to go back to the hostel and plan our day for tomorrow cause we hit all the main points that we wanted to in the past three days.

May 25, 2018 - el dia de ejerciso pt. 2

Originally, we were going to start the day at the Bouqueria Markets again, but decided to check out a different market in a different neighbor, so we ended up al El Mercats de San Antoni instead. It was about a 20 minute walk from the hostel, but once we got there it was pretty cool and extremely similar to La Boqueria.

As we walked through the space we realized that these markets were definitely more locals, grocery centered rather than like eat your way through the market type deal. But we found some solid food options anyway, I got a smoothie and another bocadillo with prosciutto, yum.

Unfortunately, the market was super crowded with old people and their damn suitcase roller bags, so we had to leave because it was getting unpleasant. We hit up a coffeeshop and sat and ate our newly found goods before heading out to the Montjuic Castle.

It was a freaking CLIMBBBB to the castle. Like natures stair master, we now have buns of steel kind of uphill climb. Potentially more physically taking then when we walked to Park Guell. We made it to the top sweaty and enjoyed the strong breeze that awaited us at the top of the castle. It was a beautiful view of the ocean from the castle, but semi ruined by allllllll the factories and cruise ships lining the coast. oh well.

We kept walking around and just seeing where the road took us, we wanted to eventually get to the Olympic Stadium, but somehow we managed to find our way into a cemetery because we thought it looked cool from afar (this was before we realized it was a cemetery). So we walked through it hoping to get a cool view of the city, which we did.

Then we started our long journey back, we attempted to go see the Olympic Stadium but it was so closed off and uneventful that I didn't even take a picture. So off we went, and we walked through the Plaza de Cascades which had the most stunning view of the city. We stopped here for a moment to enjoy the view and take some pictures. We also had a pretty funny experience here, as all the street vendor dudes who sell stuff outside the plaza saw the cops coming and someone screamed and they all IMMEDIATLEY picked up the corners of the towels and bunched up their products into a Tom Sawyer type of satchel and started SPRINTING out of the plaza. I guess whatever they are doing is illegal lol

We realized we were a bit hungry, so even though we swore we were done with Las Ramblas, we werent. We went back to the Bouqueria Markets cause they are just bomb. I got another smoothie, Steph got duped and spend 9 euros on about 20 chocolate covered almonds, then we called it a day and headed back to the hostel to shower, change, and get ready for dinner!

We hung out at the hostel and packed our bags cause were off to our next stop - Portugal!! Well be there for about 2 weeks going to Porto, Lisbon, and Lagos! Subscribe to get allllll the updates!!!!

L O N D O N

May 21, 2018

May 18, 2018 – an interesting night

Before I get into the actual specifics of London, I need to explain what happened the night before...... I greeted Steph in the hostel around 11:30pm and showed her to our 4 share dorm room. We walk in and all the lights are off, but we see someone rummaging through their bag and she whips her head around and we are greeted by an Asian lady doing a face mask only illuminated by her phone flash light, so, naturally, it looks like a freakin murderer in the room. But only a tiny Asian woman doing a skincare routine at midnight, how normal.

Then Steph and I gotta rummage through OUR belongings to get ready for bed. And this is no easy task, our hostel provided us with cages to put our luggage in so its an ordeal to get anything in or out and god forbid you forget one thing then you have to start the process over of rolling it out from under the bed, unlocking it, taking out the bag you need, finding the thing you need, closing the bag you used, fitting your bags back in like puzzle pieces, looking for you lock, locking the cage, rolling it back under, all in the dark, all to realize you forgot just ONE more thing.

But, we finally get through it and we get nice n comfy in bed yippee! As we are drifting off to sleep, our other hostel mate, a large man, starts snoring like a freaking bear. Not even a joke OR an exaggeration. I had headphones in playing my sleep music v loud, but nope, could still hear it. I took a melatonin and focused so hard to fall asleep and finally did. But to no avail. At 3am the snoring got EVEN LOUDER, I didn’t even know it was possible for someone to snore that loud, I was border line concerned for this man while also extremely livid. So I decided to pick up my water bottle, and completely throw it on the ground as hard as I could from my sleeping position, then, I picked it up and rubbed it against the locker cages a bunch of times, as if I were grating cheese for a nice chicken parmesan, and finally slammed it down on the cage like a judge trying to bring order to her court as a final attempt to wake him up momentarily. It worked, and yes it was ruthless, but when you are staying in hostels it really is survival of the fittest.

And that was only the first night. Seeeeeeeeesh.

May 19, 2018 – Wandering the streets (literally)

After our interesting experience in the hostel bedroom last night, we decided to have a later start to the day, we didn’t have to rush for anything so we took our time getting ready. But because of this we were starving by the time we left and went to the first place we could find which I would equate to a crappy diner in NYC. Pretty solid food, but with more research we could have found something better, I just wanted some plain eggs and toast so it was the perfect place.

Then we were walking around the hostel neighborhood, Elephant and Castle, and found a cool street market, but it was again, a crappy street market. And by that I mean they were selling knock off shoes for 5 euros and weird blankets, and the people were so aggressive, my lawddd!!! One of the vendors started yelling at the customers for dropping his “precious” products, like dude you are selling 10 cent dish clothes from China chill out. Then another woman and a random man almost got in a fight, it was a crazy scene and I later renamed this experience, “the aggressive market”.

From there, we got a bus pass and went on to see Big Ben, woo first big sight! Wrong. Big Ben is under renovation and has scaffolding surrounding everything but the clock face. Even the parliament building had scaffolding ALL OVER. Like come on, and people were still taking serious pictures of it.

We were hitting a lot of L’s that morning, but we just kept walking around. We walked through a park to Buckingham Palace, Steph admired the pristine mulch (so much so that I took a snapchat of it and it went on the Buckingham palace story and got over 7k views lol). Then we just kept walking, we didn’t have a plan just wanted to explore the city.

I did want to go see Notting Hill (cause who doesn’t look a good 00’s romcom) so we hopped on a bus and our day took a turn for the better! Notting Hill was absolutely adorable, and at first we missed the rainbow hill area, but we were still walking through gorgeous streets full of beautiful architecture and it was awesome. Eventually we made our way to Rainbow Hill to discover the Portabella Markets going on (no not mushrooms).

It was street after street after street of vendors, selling all sorts of stuff. Food, crafts, jewelry, textiles, souvenirs. It was awesome, we just walked through the market talking and looking at everything. At one point Steph asked me why I was making so much noise the night before in the hostel, and I explained how I was trying to wake up the beast, and we both had a moment where we burst out into hysterical laughing for a solid 3 minutes, we literally couldn’t contain the laughter.

We kept walking, hit a thrift store tent and bought a cool shirt before ultimately stumbling upon and international food market, it was a branch of the Portabella Markets, but on a side street. We hit the jackpot. Steph got some rainforest bowl and I got some dumplings and we found a little park and enjoyed our food. It was amazing. Our day went from like kinda crappy to awesome.

At this point it was almost 4, so we went back to the hostel on probably the hottest public transport bus ride of my life, showered, changed then researched where to get dinner for about an hour. We even recruited help from the wonderful foodie Steven West all the way back in the US to help us, before we ended up picking a Thai restaurant called Basaba in Soho. It was super trendy and cool, the tables were all communal, which made the meal especially hilarious when Steph accidentally ate a chile pepper and was on fire. As she was chugging water, I could not stop laughing, I think I was crying harder from laughing than she was from the spice that my abs hurt.

Afterwards, we got Doughnut Time and walked through Picadilly Circus, Soho, and Convent Garden. We just wandered the streets with no real plan and it was pretty great. We finally ended up on the water looking out over the London Eye, before heading back, cause tonight we are trying to beat the damn bear to sleep.

May 20, 2018 - The never ending search for WiFi

Today, after getting a solid night of sleep after taking some melatonin, we were well rested and ready to tackle the day. We started just by going to St. Paul’s Cathedral, but on our walk from the bus to the cathedral we were so hungry and found this amazing brunch place called Bar One. It was empty, we were concerned, but were too hungry to look for another place.

First, I ordered tea and damn I'm gonna miss the way the British do tea, cause its damn delicious. Then I ordered some pancakes and fruit which ended up being to die for. Steph ordered a veggie breakfast and two bites in completely flipped her plate and spilled all of her food on herself and the floor. She salvaged what she could and ate it, but boy oh boy she is having trouble with her meals (after last nights Chile pepper escapade).

Full and ready to tackle the day, we went on to St. Paul’s Cathedral, but when we got there we found out that on Sunday’s the church is closed for visitors, because ya know Sunday is the gods day of rest. So we admired the beautiful architecture from the outside, walked through the gardens and moved on with our day.

From there, we walked down the Thames River along the water which was really nice, it was a beautiful day, high 70s and the sun was shining. We made it all the way to the London Bridge and the Tower of London. We stopped for a quick photo op before walking over the bridge and exploring the town across the river.

We wanted to go to the Borough Street Markets, but when we got there we were disappointed to see that they were closed (cause Sunday). So we kept walking before we finally decided to go back to Soho, the area we were in last night, because all the stores were closed last night and wanted to go back to explore. This also gave me the opportunity to go to Fortnums and Mason, the go to tea place of London.

We got to F&M and I just about died and went to heaven, it was tea lovers dream. After traveling to places were they are known for coffee (like is everywhere known for coffee) I was pumped to have a place I could THRIVE. I was fangirling it up, smelling all the teas they had to offer before settling on buy two containers of english breakfast tea (can’t go wrong with a classic, am I right???).

Steph and I had no plan of action for the rest of the day, just to walk around and see where it took us. We walked all through Soho and ended up going to a super early dinner at 4pm because we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We stopped at a place call Bill’s House Soho where we had a great meal, we appreciated the fact that our waiter was super honest in telling us his favorite dishes and steering us away from bad ones.

Eventually made our way to Convent Garden. There was cute shop after shop and it was cool to see all the petite little stores lining the street. Somehow we ended up wandering into a giant market place. It was awesome. It was a mix of stands along with permanent brick and mortar stores under these large canopies, it was just immaculate. One store had free tea samples which got us into their store where they had at least 10 - 15 teas, coffees, and more hot drinks to sample. It was a great time, I was thriving again.

We walked around a little bit more, before deciding to head back to the hostels to charge our devices and take a break. Once we were all charged up and ready to go, we went to get some dessert cause going to bed at 8pm was a little too early, were not old people yet. So we went to get dessert at Kaspa’s, where I got a cookie dough bowl and Steph got a brownie bowl, which is basically exactly what it sounds like - absolutely delicious.

Afterwards, we power walked our way back to the hostel and packed our bags because we were traveling to our next stop, Barcelona!!! Stay tuned for more updates as always :)

I C E L A N D

May 18, 2018

Where in the world is Juli Polise? I just finished and EVENTFUL 7 days in Iceland and here is everything that i did. The week was full of laughs, sceneray, horses, beaches, mountains, bumble, and more...... May 12, 2018 - Reykjavik, Iceland

The first day of traveling is historically the longest day of my life every single time. Boarding our flight from JFK at 9 and arriving in Iceland at 6:45am, meant only 5 hours of flying with only a few hours of actual sleep. But, we arrived nonetheless and went through the most BEAUTIFUL airport ever. The design was immaculate, the wayfinding system was so communicative and effective, my designer brain was so thrilled.

After experiencing the most wonderful airport, it was time to get our rental car and as we waited we met a Grandma, who’s name I never caught, with an adorable little baby who was almost one year old. We started chatting as we were waiting and the grandma had a thick russian accent and was very friendly, asking what we were doing and telling us to put our coats on before we go outside.

From there we got our rental car, where the guy helping us get the rental car saw my NJ driver’s license and looked up at me and said “ey Jersey, I’m from there too”. Turns out he grew up in Moorestown, NJ, came to Iceland for youth ministry, then went to college in Alabama where he met his wife who was Icelandic, they got married and decided to move back to Iceland when the had kids. Let me tell you, his appearance did not match this description, he looked like a backup guido on the Jersey Shore.

We get in our car, which is a manual transmission (whoops on my part for booking the wrong type of car) but luckily, thanks to Helen and Tom Polise, I was taught stick shift and this problem wasn’t so much a problem. However, my skills were a bit rusty and I stalled a few times on the way out, but finally got the hang of it by the bigger roads.

We got into Reykjavik around 8:45 and it literally felt like the afternoon since we have already had a day and a half. We paid $20 for probably the worst, most bland breakfast of my entire life at the hostel we are staying at, it looks WAYY better than it tastes. But our hostel is pretty damn cool.

After that, we decided to walk around the town and see what was up. It’s pretty small but its really cute, with tiny shops lining the cobblestone streets. At the top of the hill was a church, the main architectural piece of the town. We kept walking around, grabbed some rip off coffee (we now have extremely low expectations for food + drinks).

Next, I decided to embrace the lifestyle of an Icelandic mother and I drove to drop Kristen off at horseback riding! I decided to opt out of horseback riding cause I dont really like horses and yeah I went and took a 20 minute nap and checked into our hostel.

The rest of the night flew by, we showered, got dinner at a vegan restaurant, then went grocery shopping in preparation of the beginning of our road trip around the island. Now I am writing this from our hostel were it is 9pm and still daylight out cause FUN FACT there’s only 4 hours of nighttime during the spring/summer season in Iceland, so shout out to black out curtains for simulating nighttime for us tonight.

May 13, 2018 - Water Water Water

After sleeping like absolute rocks, we woke up ready to take on the day. We made some oatmeal and hit the road and were off. Immediately we were stunned by the natural beauty outside the city and were excited to see what was to come.

Our first stop was a waterfall, the Seljandafoss Waterfall. It was this massive waterfall that fell off the side of a mountain cliff, and the best part was that there was a path that let you walk all the way around to the backside of it, which, of course, we did. It was super fun going around and getting close, the water was splashing so loudly and of course splashing us that we ended up being completely drenched by the end of the 10 minute walk.

To dry off we walked further down towards two smaller waterfalls in the sunshine, they were not as massive or accessible like the first, but they were still extremely cool. We got back on the road to hit our second waterfall of the day, but before we did that we stopped off to see some horses. But as we got out, the barn people (idk the proper terminology) were beginning to herd the horses to another location and we were stuck in the middle of a giant horse herd going down the highway. It was pretty surreal driving alongside the icelandic ponies.

Then we hit our second waterfall of the day, Skogafoss. It was equally as giant, but no path to get around. But that didn’t stop me, I just went right up underneath it to get the true experience. In the end, I got even more drenched but it was totally worth it.

From there we were supposed to go see a plane crash, but as we were about to start the walk, Kristen read the sign and it said to see a freakin plane it was a 2-3 hour walk. For a crashed plane? No thank you, on to the next stop.

Then we hit Dryholee, they are cliffs of the black sand beaches were next and we layered TF up because it was windy as HELLLL. Legit the wind is so strong the doors of cars can be blown off (as per our rental car guy told us - holla NJ). But it was extremely pretty looking over the black sand and seeing the giant waves crashing, so naturally our next stop was to go onto the beaches, Reynisfjara. Again, extremely windy even down there, but the beach was cool and the sand was black, but mostly it was just giant stones. So i grabbed a few for capn tom driftwood designs.

We were close to a big town, Vik, so we headed there for dinner and found the cutest little place that SHOCKED us with amazing food called, Halldorskaffi. I got a burger, cause I just needed it and Kristen got a salad and some lamb, and we finished the meal with a meringue cake that was DELISH.

Our last and final stop of the day was the Seljavallalug Swimming Pool. This was recommended to us by Conrad, and it was a 20 minute hike and we were walking for what seemed like forever before we hit a concrete pool that was nooked into the side of the mountain. There were changing sheds, so we shed allllllllll our layers in this janky shed. It was comical, Kristen and I were trying to not hit the ground but we kept dropping our clothes and boy oh boy, the experience only got more crazy.

We head to the pool and got it, in was warm like bathwater BUT, the ENTIRE GROUND AND WALLS OF THIS POOL WERE COVERED IN ALGAE. It felt not super pleasant to be honest, but the scenery was insane so it was worth it, but as you can tell from some of our faces, it was a lil gross. So we only lasted probably 20 minutes before we head to dry off and head back down the hike.

Luckily our hotel was on the same little road near the swimming pool and it was beautiful. It was again, another tucked away place and it was super nice inside. We were going to go in the hot tub, but we felt like we needed to wash off all the algae off all the nooks and crannies of our bodies. We were pooped from the day, because at this point it was 11:30pm by the time we finished showering and even though it was still light we PTFO-ed.

May 14, 2018 - Sun Chasers and Birthdays

After getting solid rest after a hectic day, it was time for another adventurous day AND it was Kristen’s birthday! So we headed to our main stop of the day which was Skaftafell National Park for a hike and we saw some amazing views on the way!

When we got there it was rainy and gross and we could see the sunshine, but it looked like we just missed it. So we sadly ate our lunch of bananas and PB+J and waited out the weather. Within 15 minutes the rain had let up! It was still a small drizzle but we were tough enough to face it, so we went along with our walk to the Skaftafellsjokull glacier. It was a pretty easy hike, nice and flat but quite long to get out to the glacier, but once we did we were the only ones out there. The glacier was insane, surreal even, and after we were done being in awe, we collected some water from the river to drink and it was the best damn water I’ve ever had.

We were driving to our next stop when we saw a parking lot full of cars, so we decided to pull off cause that must mean there is something to see. We walked through some gravel hills to discover a beautiful, icy, glacier lagoon! The water was so blue and there were actually icebergs that Kristen and I both referenced the Titantic at the exact same time (shout out to Jonathan for making me watch the Titanic movie 5million times as a child, but only the second VHS when the destruction and chaos happens…..)

Then we were walking back to the car talking about our next planned stop when we realized the glacier lagoon was our planned stop, Jokulsaron, we didnt even realize! So that was comical, and at that point we were only an hour away from the hotel so we just drove our lil booties to Hofn where we are staying at a quaint, posh-ish hotel on the water.

May 15, 2018 - the open road

Today was our first really big long day of driving since we had about 4.5 hours of driving between our starting point and ending point. We were planning to drive through the east fjords of Iceland and then through the mountains to Lake Myvtan. It was aggressive, but we had faith that we could complete it.

The weather was beautiful when we started our day, we made small little stops to take pictures because the scenery was absolutely glistening in the sunlight and was just screaming at us to take pictures and stop. We had fun during one of our stops in the middle of the road (cause it was v barren and empty).

We were driving and so distracted by the views that we passed one of our points of interest by an hour. We were debating going back, but it would have added way too much extra time to our trip, so we kept going which allowed us to come across some unexpected sights. Our first cool, unexpected stop was in Djupivogur since Kristen and I both had to use the bathroom. We found one, and then found a cool grocery store. But the town was adorable! It was a harbor and there were tons of boats and it was just so picturesque. And 15 minutes down the road was a pull off onto the coast to some cliffs and beach, so we stopped there too to take some pictures and explore a bit before continuing on the long drive.

The driving was getting a bit long and tiring, so we had to take a stop and we had a little dance party in front of some extremely temple-esque mountains. It was much needed and beautiful, despite the rain we needed to stretch out a bit. The fjords were long long long thats all I can say, but finally we had come inland to the mountains which were snowcapped and absolutely stunning. They blended right into the clouds and were panoramic, surrounding us on all sides it seemed.

But once we passed the mountain ranges, the inland part of Iceland is pretty barren farmland. We stopped in Austerland for some snacks and were hit with a WALL of MANURE SMELL. IT WAS EVERYWHERE. We were honestly shocked and had to run from our car into the gas station cause it legit was disgusting.

BAck on the road Kristen was looking up directions and she stumbled upon a place called the Mytan Nature Baths. We did a lil research and found out that our hotel was located next to these geothermal baths and immediately we knew we had to go there. Knowing there were baths at the end of our car ride gave us the motivation to finish the last two hours of the car ride, we listened to some comedy and PUSHED THROUGH to the end.

When we finally arrived at the nature baths were were exhausted but excited to relax and unwind, our backs needed it. We had to take showers before we entered, which was reassuring to know that it wouldn’t be gross like colony pool (my chatham peeps will understand this). It was nice and quiet and relaxing and much needed after a long day in the car.

Afterwards, we settled into our nice hotel, had a wonderful dinner where we listened to a british man explain ALLLLL the dating apps to his father at the table next to us. It was quite comical and we had to hold our mouths closed so we weren't audibly laughing at them. If you want to recreate this experience have a young person explain dating apps in a DEAD QUIET dining room to an older person. viola. guaranteed laughs all around. and went to bed.

May 16, 2018 - country roads, take me to my airbnb

Today we had the longest drive ahead of us - 6.5 hours of driving thru mountains and cliffs. After accidentally turning off my alarm this morning, we slept in a little bit before grabbing breakfast and hitting the road.

Our first, and pretty much only substantial stop, of the day was the Godafoss waterfall. Woah. It was huge, from afar I felt like it looked like a smaller version of niagra falls which was pretty cool. We walked around and got to experience the falls, there were even some stairs leading down to the river the waterfall went into and you could legit just climb down there, no signs, no railings, no safety message, clearly we are not in america since I didnt have to sign a waiver before going down these giant stairs.

We hit the gift shop after before embarking on the rest of our journey, which was 5.5 hours, lol yes we made it so far without making a stop…

The rest of the drive was uneventful, the landscape was beautiful but the drive was still long and for the most part rainy. We listened to some comedy to pass the time which helped and suddenly we only had an hour and a half left, but I needed a break, so we stopped for some coffee at an adorable little B&B type in Borgarnes.

This place was so cute, and there was an adorable baby who crawled right up to me and made my day, along with the brown sugar meringue pie that was ABSOLUTELY TO DIE FOR. At this point, I just wanted to get to our AirBnb, so we hopped back in the car, threw on my throwbacks playlist and carpool karaoke-d our way to our stay.

Our airbnb is located across the water from Kirkjufell Mountain, an extremely famous mountain. And it’s super modern and clean and, for Kristen, there are horses located right near us. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of nowhere so we did have to venture back into the car to grab some food, but after that we just laid horizontally and did a lot of back stretches.

May 17, 2018 - one last drive

We woke up this morning with plans to hike the national park that we were staying by, but the weather did not want us to do that. It was rainy and windy and really gross, so we decided to drive through the park instead. Unfortunately, the park was flat and the road didn’t go through much of the park part, so it was mostly a flat road like the rest of our drive.

We stopped at a cute coffee shop and decided that we should just head back to Reykjavik and then hang out there around the town instead of trying to see nature while the elements were against us. So we went on with our drive, and about 45 minutes in we saw some people pulled over petting horses. Naturally, Kristen had a heart attack and we pulled over to interact with them.

These Icelandic ponies are pretty cute I have to admit, but still not a big horse person. While Kristen was in heaven, I was just trying to figure out where to pet the horse with it hitting me or licking me with its giant tongue. It was still super cool and surreal getting up close and personal with those horses.

Then, we just went for it and finished our drive. It was nice to have the car parked and not have to get in it and drive for multiple hours, so I could successfully say that our road trip of over 1000 miles was finally complete, multiple back knots included.

We decided to walk around the town again and do some shopping since the past ⅔ days were spent mostly in the car. It was nice to be out and about in a city rather than the tiny towns we were stopping through, even though the weather was still absolutely disgusting. Kristen and I bought cool matching rings to signify our trips finish.

Dinner was had at a thai restuarant that was actually amazing, then we spent the rest of the night exchanging photographs and videos and chilling in the hotel while Kristen helped me massage out my back knots that were absolutely KILLING ME. Literally I could feel the knots myself BLEH. I never wanna drive again...

May 18, 2017 - on to the next.....

Today we had to catch morning flights, so Kristen and I said our goodbyes and parted ways. She back to America and me off to my next stop on the list - London!!!

To Iceland - thank you for the views, the nature, the peace, no thank you for the food, I need sustenance that doesn't cost a bajillion dollars.

Make sure to subscribe to get all the updates on my future euro adventures coming up! :))))

My European Adventure Starts TODAY!

May 11, 2018

Hello friends and family! Today I am reviving my travel blog as I'm back on the road, embarking on new adventures in Europe for the next five weeks! First, I'll be in Iceland doing a road trip of the entire island, from there I will be bouncing from London, to Barcelona, to Porto, to Lisbon, to Lagos, to Amsterdam, and finally, to Paris! This blog will be your one stop shop to all my adventures, pictures, and videos so hit that subscribe button to get updates along the way, or follow my instagram @jpolise_fotos for more real time updates!

in the land of kiwis (aka New Zealand)

June 18, 2017

This past week I spent driving through New Zealand with my two best friends of abroad, Monica and Eva. We started in Queenstown, then rented a car to go to Mt. Cook, Wanaka, Franz Josef, Christchurch and a million views in between. It was the most amazing week, so read my post then check out the video I made documenting our week at the end! 6.09 NEW ZEALAND

Today we left for New Zealand, Monica, Eva, and I were about to embark on the trip, and classic, we all waited until the morning of to pack, so that was extremely stressful, but we all managed to finish right on time to head to the airport. The flight was pretty short, but soooo bumpy for the last hour that Monica almost vommed and I wasn’t feeling too hot myself, but we made it in one solid piece.

We got to Queenstown and dropped our bags off at the hostel before heading to Fergberger, which apparently holds the world’s best burger according to CNN according to Eva. We immediately went and were so lucky that there was no line and a table to sit at, as all of our friends who went previously informed us that they waited over an hour and ate on the sidewalk. The burger did live up to its expectation. Was it the WORLDS best burger, not sure, but was it a really good burger, 100% YES.

After the burger, we went back to the hostel to attempt to pregame and go to a bar, but we were so full and tired, that we ended up just walking around the town and hanging out before heading back to get some sleep. We had a big day ahead of us tomorrow and we needed all the energy we could get…

6.10 adrenaline and exhaustion

Since Queenstown is the adrenaline capital of the world, today we were all off to do adventure activities. Monica was going to do the world’s first bungee jump and Eva and I were off to do the world’s biggest swing. I was super excited, especially after skydiving I was ready to do something crazy, but Eva on the other hand was pretty nervous, since I kinda forced her into doing it whoops!

We got strapped into harness and then walked out to the swing through a very tiny cable bridge. Once we were out there, I volunteered us to go first, against Eva’s will, but it was better to go first than to watch people plummet into a canyon, so we got strapped into the swing and we were off…. The video does the whole ordeal justice…..

It was so much fun, and I really think Eva enjoyed it too, at least just a little bit. So once we were done and all reunited, we headed back to Queenstown to hike the Queenstown Hill. To do this we too the gondola up-ed halfway, because we didn’t have time to hike base to summit. We started hiking an accidentally got on the wrong path, but luckily Eva and I noticed so we headed back before it was too far to get on the correct path.

This hike was the most vertical hike I have ever encountered, and it was called an “easy” hike. I swear, we would hike for 2 minutes before Eva and I needed a breather, meanwhile, Monica was legitimately high off of nature bolting up the mountain, leaving us in her trail dying and gasping for air.

Eventually we made it to the saddle and it was great, the views were absolutely insane. It was also pretty cold, and gusts of wind would just absolutely freeze us to the core, but it was all worth it. The pictures don’t even do it justice…..

When we started to walk down, we realized how far we had hiked, as it felt like we were walking down the mountain for what felt like forever, we got to see some sheep in the wild and we got to pee in the most scenic spots. By the time we reached the gondola lodge, we were all pretty frozen and pretty exhausted from the 4 hour hike, and this is just a warm up for what we are going to do later in the week….

Since we skipped lunch, we thought we deserved a huge ass dinner and headed to a fancy ass restaurant (without knowing it) in our hiking gear for some ribs. Little did we know, that these ribs were absolutely MASSIVE. Eva and I spit a rack that was GINORMOUS and Monica got her own rack that seemed to be double the size of her head. Easily the most delicious ribs I have ever eaten, but we were definitely in food comas.

Because the food comas had commenced, there was no way we were able to go out. We attempted to hit the bars, but none of us could stomach a beer without the risk of throwing up the delicious meal, so we just decided to get some shut eye as we had another long day planned.

6.11 milford sound

After facing a car catastrophe the night before, we had woken up and gotten our rental car for the day and our plan was to drive to Milford Sound, go on a cruise and drive back. Even though Milford Sound was technically 46 miles away, because the road is so windy it took us 4 hours to get there, and we stopped maybe twice as we had a cruise to catch.

We literally were driving for an hour before I needed to take a break and nap, so Monica drove for a bit while I got some rest. After I got some rest, I took over the driving, and we were driving through the most beautiful landscapes ever. The roads were pretty windy and sharp, but we made it in one piece, and JUST IN TIME for the cruise, as we hopped on board and they pulled away a minute or two later.

The cruise was also amazing as the views were spectacular, but of course, there was a PA system were some lady was being a tour guide through the entire ride, giving us lots of random facts about the lake we were motoring through. If you tuned her out however, it was quite a peaceful cruise and again, stunning views.

When the cruise was over, there wasn’t much to do, so we started our drive back. Since we weren’t pressed for time, we took it slow and were able to stop along the way to take some photos and enjoy the scenery. When the sun set, we started jamming out to One Direction (because that was the only music on Eva’s phone and she needed to use the USB to charge) and here we discovered how inappropriate some of their songs were, we were all EXTREMELY shocked.

By the time we got back to Queenstown we were pooped and hungry, so Eva and I went back to Fergberger for another burger. This experience was not as pleasant, but nonetheless, I was hungry so I enjoyed myself. We ended up walking around queenstown that night and just chilling in the hostel as we were exhausted from the 8+ hours of driving and sitting somehow.

6.12 queenstown to mt. cook

The day started with us getting on the road to Mt. Cook and officially starting our New Zealand road trip. We even had such luck, that five minutes into driving we spotted a rainbow and made our first photo pit stop on the side of the road. Then we continued on our way to our first stop Lake Wanaka. Again, we cannot get over how beautiful this country is, as it feels like we are driving through a post card, the mountains and the clouds all together is just crazy insane. Even though in some patches we hit rough weather, we were able to enjoy it and make many stops along the way.

When we got to Wanaka it was down pouring, so we sat along the lake and ate some snacks. Monica decided to get out and go for a walk despite the rain, while me and Eva chilled in the car and just walked a little bit before wanted to return to dryness. We continued our drive, continuously driving through different sections of sun and rain, we drope the the Lindis Alpine Pass which was pretty beautiful, as it was full of dusty orange mountians, but the shitty weather at this point hindered our ability to stop and really capture the moment.

After about three more hours of driving we made a stop for lunch at a random place called “Wrinkly Rams” where we found the best meat pies and chocolate chip cookies. We hung out here for a half hour or so to take a break from the driving and it was quite the nice pit stop.

Eventually we made it to Lake Tekapo and thankfully it wasn’t raining at all! So we took advantage of the dry time to go and explore the lake a little bit. We first just looked at the lake, then headed to the main street to use the bathrooms. Eva found some tour information, and learned that there was a small church along the water, which was extremely beautiful, then we walked towards the water a did a lil photoshoot. Monica was really struggling as she was freezing her ass off (she’s from south Carolina and hasn’t really experienced a true winter, so Eva and I give her crap for it in the best way possible, also its like high 30s here and the wind chill does get cold, but its not that bad).

Also at this pit stop, I went into the most futuristic bathroom that I have ever experienced. It was a cubicle thing, I pushed a button to go in then an automated voice goes “The maximum occupancy of this stall is ten minutes, the doors will open after that” and then midway through me going to the bathroom the voice COMES BACK and says “Please move around the stall to indicate occupancy or the doors will be opened”. So there I am on the toilet, FLAILING my arms around trying to indicate my occupancy and what comes next? The speakers start playing fake nature sounds like a bubbling creek and birds chirping. WHERE THE HELL AM I? ARE THESE THE PUBLIC RESTROOMS OF THE FUTURE? Overall, the weirdest bathroom experience I have EVER encountered.

After this we were headed to Mt. Cook, it was about a three hour drive and it became pretty painful near the end because it started torrential down pouring. This made me slow down a lot as a driver because windy roads + rain + driving on the OTHER side of the road isn’t easy, but we made it to our hostel in one piece. The weather just got worse after we got there, so we decided to stay in and make some ramen noodles for dinner and hang out.

6.13 inclement weather and adjusted plans

The original plan for today was to hike Mt. Cook, but as we woke up the weather wasn’t any better. When we looked out the window you could barely see across the parking lot as the fog and rain were so heavy, and then the hostel man told us that hiking was not a good idea and suggested we go to a museum. We said F THAT and got in the car and drove back to Wanaka, where we would be staying that night, as the weather reports said there would be good weather there. So off we headed, and we never even saw mt. cook because of the fog… smh….

We drove along and already within 30 minutes the weather was monumentally better, cold but better. So we made a stop around Lake Pukaki, it was a glacier water lake making the water extremely blue from glacier flour. Then we stopped along the side of a lavender farm, although the smell of lavender wasn’t overwhelming, when the wind was strong enough you could get a slight wiff. We stopped a few more times on the way before heading back to the Wrinkly Rams for food, as the day before it was just so good for some reason.

Doing this, we missed a major rain storm, which was great to be inside for, and we got some solid breakfast food. We didn’t stay too long, as we didn’t want to miss our window of opportunity for good weather, and we were on our way. We stopped at the Lindis Alpine Pass along the summit, since the day before we had terrible weather, and then eventually made it to Wanaka where the weather was actually extremely nice.

We checked into our hostel and dropped our bags before heading off to do a quick 2 hour hike. Eva and I again struggled within five minutes of the hike, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as the Ben Lammond Trail in Queenstown. When we made it to the top, we stopped for some photos (here we realized we are basically doing a photoshoot around New Zealand, but why not???). We hung out at the top of the hill for a while, met a nice older new Zealand couple who let us pet their dogs and give us some dinner recommendations.

The hike was pretty short, so afterwards we drove to the famous Wanaka Tree. At first from far away it was an underwhelming tree, but as we got closer and saw it with the mountains in the background it was quite beautiful. It’s this random, leaf-less tree in the middle of the lake essentially, and because it was low tide, we were able to walk out to it. All in all pretty cool.

We still had some time to kill before it was an acceptable time to go eat dinner, so we drove around the town and sat by the lake and just hung out. It was cool to drive around and see some of the local houses as they had some interesting designs and were super modern for such a small town.

6.14 making (glacier) shit happen

We woke up at the crack of dawn and were on the road by 6:45am this morning, as we planned a glacier helicopter hike in Franz Josef, which was a 4 hour drive from Wanaka, where we stayed the night before. So, we took our groggy asses out of bed and started driving. I was unusually awake and peppy as I blasted Hamilton through the car, and gave Monica and Eva a lesson in American history (thanks to Tommy, shout out).

We saw some amazing views on the way, but since we were pressed for time to make it to the glacier tour by 11:30, we made limited stops. By the time we got there, we were a little bit pooped but ready to start the adventure, until we walked into the tour office and a big sign saying “We apologize but todays tours are not operating due to weather conditions”. Cue huge disappointment considering it was the most beautiful day weather wise that we have been in New Zealand. The skies were clear, it was sunny, somewhat warm, and just beautiful so we were completely confused.

Upset and tired, I wasn’t taking no for an answer, so I suggested we find another helicopter tour as we could see helicopters IN THE AIR FLYING AROUND. Literally the first store we walked in told us they were doing scenic flights and could put us in the next group, so clearly we took that opportunity. We paid, and walked out to the helicopter, it was pretty cool and there were two other people in our helicopter, a mom and daughter from Texas.

Once we got up we flew around for a bit and it was pretty incredible, there was so much snow and we were so close to the mountains. Halfway through, we were let out and allowed to hang out on top of the glacier and take some photos. There was about a half foot of fresh snow and we were like kids playing in it.

We got back in the helicopter to finish our tour, and this is when Monica and I got soooooo motion sick. The pilot was weaving in and out of the glacier and it was just extremely unpleseant. When we landed, Eva said it looked like we were hungover despite the fact that we haven’t touched a lick of alcohol all week.

To settle our uneasy stomachs, we went to get some solid food and then headed to the hostel to take a quick nap before we went on a hike. The hike was to a different glacier viewing area, and we went pretty late in the day so we just hung out since the track was empty. We climbed up on these mountain of rocks and just chilled.

Considering all these little towns we are going in are basically one road, our options are pretty limited in terms of nightlife, so we just got dinner at a bar restaurant before heading back to the hostel to hang out and get ready for our last day on the road.

6.15 last road views

Today we graciously let ourselves wake up at 8am, which was pretty luxurious compared to our 6:15 wake up calls we had been doing throughout the week. We got all packed up and had a quick breakfast before heading back out on the road. The only deadline we had today was making it to Christchurch by 5pm to drop off the car, so we took our time driving the 5 hours to get there making lots of stops.

We stopped in one town called Hokitika for lunch, and it was a cute beach town. But other than that, we didn’t really do much except drive and take in our last views of New Zealand.

6.16 well Christchurch is um interesting

Today was our last day in New Zealand L We had a flight for 6pm back to Sydney, so we had some time to kill in Christchurch, but we haven’t heard great things about the town before coming here, we had just been told that theres nothing to do. Little did we know, that everyone was right. There literally was nothing to do, we even asked people working at the coffee shops and they just told us to walk around……

So that’s what we did, luckily we stumpled upon a little market with a bunch of food trucks, and since we literally knew there wasn’t much else to do, we hung out there for like two hours. We walked in and out of the stores and sent some post cards, overall we just had a chill day because the past week was pretty action packed.

We headed to the airport that evening, and I had to say goodbye to Eva at this point. She was heading to the north island to do a 10 day tour and I won’t see her again because I will be back in the USA by the time she gets back to Sydney. So there Eva, Monica and I were all hugging in the Christchurch airport as this was the final time our trio would be a trio. We shed a tear and then went our separate ways and it was pretty sad….

If you want a more visual experience of my travels across New Zealand, take a look!

https://vimeo.com/222045739

sydney + whitsundays

June 7, 2017

5.25 reunited with a familiar face After the wonderful week with my parents, I had to grind through my schoolwork considering I didn’t touch it the entire time they were here, and to make it even better, I’m entering finals season…. Oh well….

But despite that, I only have like 10 days left in Sydney, so im clearly going to make the most of it, starting with seeing and old friend. Kellye was my freshman year roommate at Michigan, and she was spending the month of May studying abroad an hour south of Sydney in Wollongong. After multiple attempts at meeting up, our dates finally clicked and we were able to hang out for the first time in a loooooong time. I met up with her at spice alley for a nice Asian fusion dinner, I got to meet all of her friends from her program and hang out with them for the night.

Then we went to a cool bar called Soda Factory, probably now my favorite bar in Sydney after this night. It’s a tiny little, hidden place, that hosts different live music bands. Monica and I had been there a few weeks earlier, but this time it was amazing. The band was sooooooooo good and they were playing the best songs that we had an absolute blast. Kellye got to meet all my Australian abroad friends too, so she was finally able to connect faces to names.

5.26 vividly high

Today was a chill day of doing homework in coffee shops and trying to catch up on all the work that’s due in the upcoming week. But at night we were able to take a break and do some fun touristy things, the Bridge Climb!

Stef, Monica, Eva, Jess and I all signed up to do the bridge climb and today was also the first day of Vivid Sydney. It’s a light, ideas, and musical festival that goes on for three weeks where they basically light up the city in neon lights, what a perfect time to climb the bridge.

We got to bridge climb literally right on time, which was not the ideal time, but the front desk lady was able to slid us into the group and we were good to go. We got suited up in these gross gray jumpsuits that made us feel like we were in ghostbusters, but they somehow worked, Then we got accessories, and not the good kind ladys, we got straps and bandanas and headsets and harnesses, I easily had added another ten pounds to my body in accessories.

At this point, this is where we met our guide Mitch, he was really fun and from the start was making fun of us Americans, but in a good way. Once we started the walked we were at the front of the group, and I was first in line so I had a good view, and I also was able to give him intel about the rest of our group, especially talking about Eva, who he then continued to give a hard time which was hilarious. We climbed the bridge and he told us all these interesting facts about the bridge construction, while also informing us of ways that people fell during construction and died. What pleasant stories to hear as we are climbing this bridge.

Walking up the bridge the views were incredible, the entire city was lit up and it was gorgeous in a whole new way that we’ve never seen before. The opera house had animations all over it, and all the skyscrapers were lit up in different colors, and all the boats on the harbor were in different colors as well. Overall, incredible to see from above we were all in such shock.

Once we got to the top, we got to hang out on the dance floor, and we had a little dance party. Of course, being the americans, we brought the party and were clearly the center of attention as we were busting moves, while still buckled in to the railing, so not our best moves but still moves. We even got Mitch to bust a move or two as well and he joined in with us. Walking down was pretty fast in comparison to the way up, but still pretty fun. Having Mitch as our tour guide was definitely a major plus, we would have not enjoyed it nearly as much if we didn’t have him. At the end me and him were chilling waiting for everyone to climb down the hard ladders and he was a cool guy, we ended up taking a picture with him at the end of the climb and his coworkers gave him shit for it, but totally worth it.

We were all going to go out after the bridgeclimb but we were all pooped and hungry, as the climb was 3 hours long and we finished at 11pm. So, we decided to go to pancakes on the rocks, a 24/7 dinner right on the water with to die for pancakes.

5.27 80s style

Today Monica and I woke up and headed to the Glebe Markets, which are the thrift shop stands, to find some cool clothes. We both really wanted 80s windbreaker, fresh prince of bel air style jackets so we hopefully headed out to find them. Luckily, there were like 10 stands with 80s inspired clothing and vintage, so we knew that we would be able to find them. And after a little hunting we did!

Afterwards we went to a taco stand and sat in the park and hung out and listented to some live music.

5.28 beach dayyyye

Today we headed up to Manly Beach, one of our favorite beaches but of course one of the farthest beaches from our apartment. It was Taste of Manly today, and we thought that meant it was a food festival and were super psyched, but it ended up being a wine and alcohol festival, mostly for people to try lots of different alcohols and get drunk. None of us were really feeling that, so we just got some food and headed to hang out at the beach.

It was sunny and warm, so we were even able to tan and lay out which was nice. Of course Eva doesn't like the beach so she was fully covered as usual, we still don't know why she decided to study abroad in Australia......

Monica met up with us later in the day and we had a really nice chill day of hanging out on the beach and relaxing together, enjoying the nice warm weather as we enter the Australian winter here.

5.29-31 school school n nothing exciting

I basically just worked on school and didnt do anything too crazy or exciting. I needed to get a lot of my work done because I was going on a weekend trip!

6.01 the beginning of a weekend to remember……

Today I embarked on my first really solo adventure of my time down under, going to the Whitsundays on a sailing trip for the weekend. For those of you who don’t know, the Whitsundays are iconic islands in Australia with famous white sand beaches. So enjoying adventure and the ocean, I booked this two day two night sailing trip and I was so excited!

The day started with me waking up at the crack of dawn to catch a 7am flight. Luckily, I slept the entire flight and woke up but unfortunately woke up to rain. Regardless I went on about and checked in for my boat, where they told me I should probably buy a sweatshirt since it would be cold on the water. Then I spent the next two hours until the boat departure trying to find a damn sweatshirt, and let me tell you this wasn’t easy for some reason. The touristy stores didn’t sell anything heavier than a t shirt and the clothing stores sold cropped sweatshirts, like why what is the point of that???

Once I found a winner, which ended up being an XL mens sweatshirt, I was on my way to the boat. Along the way I met Dan and Matt, two brits traveling together and we talked while trying to figure out where this boat was supposed to pick us up. Once we did, we were off and on our way.

Of course, as soon as we got on the boat the sun disappeared (and this was legitmatley the last time we felt the sun until we docked at the end of the weekend). The weather was horrid, the sailing conditions were awful, so the boat didn’t even end up sailing, we just motored our way to the islands. One poor kid got so seasick he was puking off the side of the boat, literally, the entire 2 hour trip.

Eventually we made it to our stop for the night, as by now it was about 5 oclock. We all needed a break so we decided to go for a dip, especially because the water was warmer than the temperature outside. They had a plank which was pretty hilarious, so people were able to jump off of it and stuff. The water could stay warm only so long, so we all got out and started the evening festivities, which was drinking.

I wasn’t super keen on getting drunk on this boat, so I just tried to socialize with the other people on the boat, there was about 32 of us on board, plus 4 crew members. I went to bed with my fingers crossed that the weather would be good for tomorrow.

6.02 white sand, hella rain

Woke up, and the wishes did not come true, as it was extremely dark and gloomy, we woke up for the sunrise but couldn’t even see it. After breakfast, I ended up going back to bed until we made it to our first stop of the day, Whitehaven beach, the one with the gorgeous sand. We all disembarked onto a dinghy boat and headed to the island, where we hiked for about 15 miuntes to the lookout point. Despite the awful weather, it was insanely beautiful, the white sand swirls throughout the cove and its just amazing, I’ve never seen a beach like it.

When the time came for us to go down to the beach and for a swim, of course, it started torrential downpouring. I kid you not, we were soaked from rain before we even hit the water in the ocean. We hung out for a little bit and tried to put on our best faces, but everyone was pretty miserable and we had to get to the boat before low tide, so we left the ocean.

We then sailed to another area of the island, where we could snorkel. I decided to go in and it was cool seeing the reef, since we were on the edges of the Great Barrier Reef. The last time I swam the reef was back in February for orientation, which literally FEELS LIKE JUST YESTERDAY, but its not. Unfortunately, the reef actually is super dead and its pretty much just gray coral and fish, but still pretty cool nonetheless.

They then took us to another snorkel location, but it started raining and was cold again, so I opted out… Since the weather was shit, we all hung out inside and people started drinking, so I just kinda sat and hung out with everybody because still didn’t really feel like drinking on a boat.

6.03land (and sun) ho!

Today we were sailing back to the mainland (thank goodness!). After two days on the water, and with a bunch of interesting European frat stars, I was ready for a break and some Internet service. Of course as soon as we docked, the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful. So after I checked into my hostel for the night, I headed around town to explore.

At this point I realized how destroyed the town was, because about a month ago there was a really bad tornado. So about half of the storefronts on the main strip were closed and the main beach was also closed off for repair. So I ended up going to the shit beach (that is its nickname) and Im guessing because it’s the shit beach that’s why it was completely empty and I was able to get some peace and quiet. I ended up taking a lil nap, before heading back to the hostel.

This hostel was pretty cool, it was organized like a resort so there were multiple cabanas which the dorm rooms were in, and then there was a pool and hammock area, so I went over to hang out and ended up running into a couple of people from the boat. Shockingly, even though I wasn’t their biggest fans, I hung out with them and then ended up going out with them that night.

It was an interesting night to say the least, we got a ton of free booze from the tour company, which was super nice, so we got those free drinks at this place called Shed Bar, which was basically just a picnic area that sold booze. Then we headed to the beach to hang out and drink more which also was a ton of fun, before we headed to a club called Boom. This place was god awful, it smelled, no REEKED of vomit and the smell just didn’t get any better. It was your stereotypical club, and it was fun night to say the least, made a few friends even though the boat tour and entire weekend was not great.

6.04 back home (to Sydney)

Not realizing how much alcohol I drank, I woke up pretty hungover and my timing was pretty poor because I had to take a flight home back to Sydney that day, and hungovers + Juli + planes = AWFUL. But, I was able to soldier through and make it home.

Once I was home, I literally had to do all the homework and final projects that I should have been doing that weekened, but was sailing instead… whoops. I also ended up planning out my entire week because its my last full-ish week in Sydney, and I needed to make sure I hit everything that I wanted to do before I leave.

Being back in Sydney, now it's my last week :( Saving that post for the end of this week before I head to New Zealand for my next adventure!!!

New Video!

May 29, 2017

As you all know, I traveled to Thailand for my Spring Break and one of my roommates, Monica, created a video with all the footage she took throughout the ten days of our backpacking experience. Here is the video, you all should definitely check it out because im a starrrrrrrrr https://vimeo.com/217461297

Stay up to date on all my adventures on Instagram @DesigntoExplore!