Europe or BUST

I decided in 2011 that I wanted to finish my last semester of undergrad doing my Student Teaching Internship in England instead of at home in Vegas. My last semester of school wasn't until Fall 2013. I had lots of time to dream. 

Originally I planned on spending the summer prior teaching English in Italian summer camps, but the program fell through less than a month before I was planning on arriving. The economy there was in the decline and there wasn't enough enrollment to give me a job. I wasn't just NOT going to get on the plane, but I had been counting on the money I would have made working. I went from having 6 weeks paid with accommodation funding my 6 weeks frivolous travel to having nearly 3 months in Europe with practically no money. I knew I had to get creative.

Google led me to plenty of blogs that got my creative juices flowing on how I could make my trip work with very little planning. (If I can remember the specific blogs I checked out, I will link them!) 

My Couchsurfing and workaway profiles went up almost simultaneously and emails were being sent around the world at the speed of lightening. I looked at a map of Europe about 75% of the time my eyes were open and my mind rarely strayed from the subject. Within a week I had a rough outline (and I mean ROUGH) of where I wanted to be and when. 

When I finally returned home I came across my rough draft while cleaning and thought it would be fun to go over the plans (with orange pen) with where I had actually ended up being. Being flexible allowed me to tailor my trip as I went along. I loved not feeling confined by plans. 

I traveled alone the majority of the time, only meeting up with friends every so often. By no means did I ever feel truly alone. There was always someone, or something to keep me company. Hostel roommates, strangers, store clerks. People watching, park dwellings, and cemetery wandering were a few of my favorite pastimes. 

Couchsurfing was a savior! I am going to get into way more detail about this online wonderland of international friends in a separate blog post, eventually. There is no easier way to make new friends and experience local culture. 

For the beginning of my summer I found a host through workaway.info (which will also get its own blog post, respectively). I lived in a little Italian village for a few weeks and took care of some kids in exchange for accommodation and a stalked fridge. Thinking about these first few weeks of my trip brings back such fond, humbling memories. 

View of Bagni di Lucca from Montefegatesi - Italy

Then I partied my way through Portugal and Spain with friends. A LOT of friends. 10 of us in the group total. There were a lot of lessons learned on this portion of the adventure. 

Mallorca, Spain

I took some down time with a friend who lives in Germany. He is stationed with the army in Kaiserslautern. Wine festivals were plentiful and we went to Nature One, a music festival where we camped and partied and got pleasantly rained on. 

Burg Litchenberg Castle, Kusel - Germany

Spent a whole 16 hours in Zurich because a friend and I decided last minute to take a seven hour train to Switzerland for the Street Parade. We had nowhere to stay and no money to afford anything in Zurich (McDonalds was even out of our price range), but our hopes remained high! Plus, neither of us saw the harm in sleeping at the train station if it provided necessary. Which it did. I wish I had photos of us curled up along the lockers along with hundreds of other parade-goers who had the same carelessness. 

I made my way slowly but surely through Germany, peaking over to Austria and Amsterdam. I had a pit stop in Paris on my way back down to Spain (I HAD to go back), where I couch surfed and bathed in tomatoes. 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Paris, France

And then to my host family in Sheffield, England. I lived there for three months while teaching 9 year olds about King Henry VIII and the metric system. Money at this point was dwindling, so the amount that I would have liked to travel England was minimal - but it just made Sheffield feel that much more like a home away from home. 

Ecclesall Woods, Sheffield - England

Manchester, Durham, and Liverpool were lucky enough to enjoy my presence. Scotland got a big dose of me as well. I took a tour from Edinburgh through the Highlands to the Isle of Skye for my half term break. It was literally magical. 

Sligachan, Scotland

Our tour guide told us this river contains Faerie magic. Upon sticking our faces in the water for 10 seconds, we would be granted the blessing of not aging for a year! 

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And there you have a very condensed summary of what my 6 months in Europe looked like. It's crazy to think about all that time, all the things I did and people I met, summed up in one blog post. 

Hopefully I will have more in depth accounts of my experiences abroad, as well as advice and tips and resources and anything else I can think of to flood this blog with and occupy my time. 

Throwback // Amsterdam

I visited Amsterdam in August of 2013, towards the last leg of my three month Euro-trip. I was previously in Munich with my friend, Lillie. She had made some new friends there and decided to stay longer. I, on the other hand, was ready to move. I let her know where I was staying and then I was off. 

After a long train ride I made my way to Hostel Utopia, whose reception area conveniently doubled as a coffee shop. Which is exactly why I chose to stay there, not gonna lie. I ended up sharing a room with 3 young Italian men, and a mysterious man who resembled Snorlax. He also snored, a lot. None of them seemed like they cared to be my friends, which was fine because I had just made my first special Amsterdamian purchase and wanted to make use of it.

I spent the whole next day doing nothing but wandering, sitting, watching, and smoking. I couldn't get over how incredibly aesthetically pleasing this place was. The buildings all had an old-time attraction to them. Around every corner was another cobblestone street lined with bicycles and filled with character. I made my way through the maze of canals and bridges, turning which ever way my little heart desired, no care to look at a map.  

 

And then, as I was relaxing in my bunk bed one afternoon... who walks into my room? LILLIE DOES. I wasn't expecting her. Actually, I had just spent the last 48 hours worrying about where she was and what she was doing, considering I hadn't heard from her since I left Munich. I had no idea when she was coming, or if she even was. Her arrival was met with shouts and squeals and a lot of hugging. Luckily, the room had been deserted by the other guests before our reunion took place. The next few days were filled with narrow staircases, dutch pancakes, and coffee shops.

Our days didn't differ much. We found so much enjoyment in just walking around and checking things out. People watching, drinking coffee, and seeing what kind of trouble we could get into. We hung out at Vondle park quiet a bit, and still didn't even make our way around the whole place. The pace of life here was perfect. Everyone seemed so content with just chilling out.

Oh, and did I mention all the cheese shops? Where you could just walk in and sample loads of different cheese and other things that you can put on top of the cheese. If I remember correctly, we went into 3 or 4 different ones within 30 minutes. And then we got french fries covered with mayo, in true European fashion.

 

We spent a whole hour walking through the Red Light District, with intentions of coming back later for a "night out". However, we made the decision of purchasing a space cake upon arrival to the hostel.... and never made it out. We passed out, hard. I believe we both woke up at one point and decided that we couldn't possible leave, and went right back to bed.

And then I woke up with a cat in my bed.  I like sprawling my clothes out among the bottom of my bed, really helps me keep things organized. So, I was in the process of waking up when I felt something soft and furry. I didn't remember having any furry clothes, so I mustered all the energy I had to take a peek at the bottom of my bed. Unfortunately, after snapping the picture below, my new friend realized I had woken up and darted away. I assume the little guy came in through the window, but I don't think he escaped that way. I wish he would have stayed to cuddle a little longer.

So there it is, a measly account of my time in Amsterdam two + years ago. That's what I get for waiting too long to write a post.