Drip Coffee, Glee and a Special Friend in Montpellier

Getting off the train in Montpellier, I knew we had made the right decision to visit Meme. It was a bit more costly, but completely worth it when we were greeted with Twisty Bill screams and excitement. It wouldn't be visiting Meme without being greeted with a 3 euro plastic bottle of wine and an immediate party in the park with 5 other Americans. Although abrupt, it was the perfect introduction to the next week in Montpellier.

When Meme told us her room was the size of Harry Potter's cupboard she wasn't kidding. We made it work though with one of us on the bed cuddling with Meme and the other on the floor. I know a lot of people know Meme but after traveling intensely for a month, there is nothing like being treated by Meme with all of her wonderful love. It was the first time we got to sleep in late and not feel guilty about it. She even let us eat her food for breakfast and we compensated her by buying LOTS of cookies.

One day we looked for a coffee shop that had wifi and drip coffee. We ended up  finding both and a bagel shop next door. Another day we went to a farmers market and discovered a small local bakery. Wandering through the streets on Montpellier was relaxing because we didn't have to find monument or museum. It was the first time we could take in a city for exactly what it was. At night we would grab a couple of bottles of wine, bread, rice, veggies and Meme would make a delicious dinner. The best part was cuddling on Meme's bed a night watching Glee (that took forever to load with its crappy internet) and talking about everything. It was 5 days of heart to hearts, delicious smells, too much wine and so much love.

It's the Little Things in Life

Top 5  little things to rejoice about while traveling

1. When your socks dry 

I know it sounds a bit crazy but nothing is more satisfying than doing laundry by hand and having it dry by the next day. Socks always take the longest to dry (and are usually the smelliest). So when your socks dry in a decent amount of time (aka before you leave and shove them in your pack) it's always something to sing about.

2. Navigating the streets 

Directions seem pretty easy when you live in Arizona because everything is on a grid. Well Europe is a little older, with a lot more confusing, twisting and winding streets. There is a reason people say go adventure into the city and get lost walking through the streets. Although it is a great way to discover a city, it's also not conducive to finding your hostel at 5 am after taking an overnight bus. Not only finding the right street name is to be celebrated but also sometimes the right metro exit. 

3. Hot showers

Although this seems a bit petty, hot showers are wonderous things if you are in a packed hostel (or one with solar water heating). Lot of places guarantee one but that's not always the case. It is something to get excited about if you just got back from walking in the pouring rain and nothing sounds better than a hot shower.

4. Making 5 dollar meal

Although you can always go to McDonalds and get yourself a cheap meal, there is something invigorating about knowing that you made that cheap meal yourself. Lunch is a bit of cheating because we usually do bread/cheese or pb&j, nuts and fruit. Dinner we found that we can cook veggies for really cheap and usually make it with rice or potatoes. Somehow we find it almost always delicious and filling. The fact that we can make dinner on 5 dollars is something to brag about.

5. The sun

In Arizona we take the sun for granted. After spending time in gloomy places with depressing rain constantly, there is nothing more exciting then having the sun peak through some clouds. I have realize on this trip that I truly am a sun girl and every time that its out, all I want to do is bask in it and soak up every warmth it gives. Note: This post is before the Africa part of the trip.

They seem simple but they are the little things I do a small dance for every day.

London Calling

 

After finally getting use to the cold winds of Iceland we left on a morning flight to London. The city first reminded me of New York with it's landmarks like Oxford Street, Picadilly Circus and Tralfalgar Square. Soon though I realized that even the Brit's can't match the city that never sleeps. We capitlized on the free museums, 3 pound lunch deals and were able to stay with friends the whole time.

Our living situation was drastically different staying with friends compared to the hostel in Iceland. The first three nights we stayed with a friend that I met at a MUN conference. Shareen was very busy working and setting up a MUN conference when we were there, so we were almost residents of the house with how little we saw her. It made it easy to come and go but interesting with other renters of the house. After the first day though, everyone just accepted the fact that random people were sleeping in the living room. The last two nights a friend from my freshman year of college came to the rescue and allowed us to sleep on the floor of her dorm room. Huge thanks to both Shareen and Courtney for letting us stay with them!

We spent almost the entire first day wondering through Hyde Park and Kensington gardens, while stopping at the Peter Pan statue. The next day we spent some time in Camden town and discovered thrift stores all over where Lynn bought a coat for 10 pounds and I bought a scarf for one. While we were there we made it to Piccadilly Circus to try Ben's Cookies and quite a few museums. 

Peter Pan

When I was 16, I came to London and was awestruck by it. This time it didn't captured heart the same way. The things that I did fall in love with were Nando's (peri-peri chicken), riding double decker buses, having lunch in Hype park, finding a scarf for a pound, eating at a baklava shop and helping 8th grade students discover Model UN.

Our first encounter with falling leaves!

Beautiful river view

Off to Hogwarts!

J'amie Paris (The Suburbs)

The overnight bus ride from Amsterdam to Paris was shorter than the London to Paris one. Due to the short trip we arrived in Paris in the wee hours of the morning and I felt like I was in a deserted city. After a trip to Starbucks  the city came alive as everyone headed to work.

After not having a phone for the first 3 weeks of our trip, you would think we would figure out how to communicate with people we are meeting. Nope, we failed again. Our friend in Iceland, Francois invited us to stay with his family in the suburbs of Paris. We planned to meet him at a metro/bus/train stop. We ended up waiting for 2 hours in a metro station, I got asked on a date and we missed our friend who was at the bus stop. Due to the miscommunication, Lynn and I went on a small tour of Paris with our packs and met up with Francois a few hours later. This would not be the end of our lack of phone problems.

Francois was an amazing host! he took us out late at night on a tour of the city and to a local college area. We tried a Quake (type of beer) and delicious crepes. Another night we met up with his friends and went to a grungy bar that reminded me of The Buff. It had writing on the walls and interesting characters... He met up with us after work and took us to the Sacré Cœur Basillica that overlooked the whole city. We drank wine on the steps while talking about our futures and watching the sunset. 

One afternoon, Lynn and I went to have a picnic in the park near the Eiffel Tower. We ended up with 8 euros worth of cheese (because Lynn couldn't decide), a bottle of wine, a baguette and fruit. It was an adventure just gathering the items and thrilling to be able to drink in a park. Apparently if you aren't acting like an idiot it is completely acceptable to drink in public in Europe.

Without a doubt, the best part of our trip was waking up on Saturday afternoon after a late night out and eating lunch with Francois family. They had a 4 course meal complete with a round of cheeses and desserts.it was wonderful to talk with his parents and thank them for letting us stay with them. It was truly a French experience and nice despite the lack of French speaking from us. The end of our adventure in Paris reminded us why we were on this trip in the first place, to learn. It was just what we needed to help us keep going. 

Riding in Cars with Boys

Iceland surpassed our expectations in so many ways. We arrived with the idea of seeing some natural beauty, the Northern Lights and Reykjavik nightlife. We not only accomplished those goals, but also learned a lot about who we are and how we travel. First of all, Iceland is EXPENSIVE. Gas is about $10+ per gallon, food in a restaurant is a lot, food in the grocery store is a lot, tours are $70-$100 dollars a day, and getting to and from the airport alone cost $40. To help make this crazy place more affordable we went searching via couchsurfing for some new friends to share a rental car so we could see the highlights of the island as well as discover places off the tourist track. And we could do that for several days for the price of one tour. My online post was answered and after meeting in person, Francois from France, Manuel from Italy, Julia from Germany and the two American girls were new friends searching for Icelandic adventure. The first day covered the most popular route known as the “Golden Circle.” On our way home, Manuel, the navigator suggested a new route. When we hit the curvy, steep, gravel road with few vehicles, the two stressed, backseat drivers (that’s us) began questioning the navigation. I didn’t want to seem like a crazy person so I tried to trust Manuel, but I’m the kind of person who can go with the flow as long as I know where the flow is going. Ultimately, that crazy road led us to incredible views. In the days that followed, wrong turns brought us to perfect rainbows, driving past where I thought we were going led us to the most peaceful spot on the shore of an iceberg filled lake, bumpy one lane road offered us some of the most incredible views of the Icelandic landscape, and staying out later than planned gave us our first glimpse of the Northern Lights dancing across the sky.

 I frequently had to remind myself to trust Manuel and Francois and to be okay with not being in control of the car or the course of our travels because when I let go I got to experience something incredible, something that I would have never been able to find myself. In Iceland we learned that we never get lost, we just find new unexpected adventures.

Got My Vans On But They Look Like Sneakers

New York Shoe Theory:
New Yorkers are all about their kicks. You can tell if someone is from New York or a tourist just by looking at their shoes. After spending lots of time on the subway in the 3 days I was there, I came to the conclusion as to why there is a shoe culture in NY. When walking on the subway, you at first look straight ahead, then when realizing how awkward that is, you look down. Down is more common and comfortable than up. My idea is that through looking down at other people's shoes on the subway, New York created a culture of fly shoes. Maybe it's not a perfect theory but it's a good enough one that if I move to New York, I'll need to go shopping.

Empire State of Mind

New York. We love it here. It is by far the best place we have been so far. Thanks to our amazing friends, we got to see New York like a local (which is better than seeing it like a tourist, in case you were wondering). We stayed with Evan in Brooklyn, saw Spanish Harlem with Leanne, walked around the city with Caty and Zach, and explored so many parts of the city on our own. Thanks to Leanne's suggestion, we saw High Line park which is an awesome city park that rises above the streets of the former meat packing district. It used to be used as a railroad to the port, but was recently transformed to a beautiful walkway through the city. Since it took us several hours to wander from one side of the city to the other, our slow pace was rewarded with a great view of the sunset over the Hudson River. One more reason to slow down and appreciate the city.

The night skyline from High Line Park

And the food! So delicious. We became acquainted with the best Cuban sandwich ever at Cafe Habana, the most amazing dessert at WD50, the most flavorful falafel at the Falafel Shop, our last taco in the US, and the mouthwatering pancakes and egg sandwich at Green Leaves.

Ricotta pancakes with honey butter and berries. 

I don't even remember how Evan described it, but it was amazing

Even though we have an incredible journey waiting for us, we both left New York dreaming of the day when we can return to the city that put us in an empire state of mind.

See the World

Michele and I (Lynn) are writing this blog to share our experiences traveling through Europe and Africa with our family and friends and so that we will always have a reminder of our trip. We'll try to update as often as possible, but due to spotty internet and limited time, that may not be as often as we would like. We hope you enjoy reading about our travels as much as we enjoy traveling!

A little intro to Lynn...It is hard to believe that just a few years ago I had never left the country, didn't have a passport, could only speak 1 language, and had no idea what adventures lay ahead. I was lucky enough to travel a bit as a kid to California for vacations, Florida for family, Hawaii for soccer, and Alaska for volleyball, but it wasn't until college that I really caught the travel bug. As a freshman, I decided to study abroad during the summer which led me to Orvieto, Italy. After spending half a summer learning Italian, eating pizza and exploring the ancient ruins and modern cities; I was hooked on language, culture and long plane rides. I spent a summer in India with my good friend which was extremely challenging and one of the most defining times of my life. A semester in Chile, a few months in Indonesia, and a few more traveling around Asia solidified my love of travel and taught me enough about the importance of traveling light to prepare me to take off on this adventure. I would say that I am taking a break form my life plan, but that would imply that traveling isn't a part of that plan, which it most definitely is. In my mind, the point of this first post should be to explain my reasons for embarking on this journey, so here they are: I like to travel, I want to meet people from all over the world, I want to see as much beauty as I can, and I am too young to grow up and get a job :) Put simply, I just want to see the world.

I suppose since Lynn wrote a little intro I should...I spent a lot of my youth traveling around the US and had my first bit of international experience in high school when I went on a tour of Europe. If I thought I loved traveling then, I had no idea what would be in store. The summer before my sophomore year of college I went to the Dominican Republic for a week to help out at an orphanage. It was difficult at times but it was the point where I realized I love cultures, meeting people who spoke a different language and lived a different way. The whole next year I was determined to go to Africa and summer of 2010, I did. Now two years later I am embarking on another adventure, but this time for much longer and for different reasons. The last couple were for testing the waters, this time I already knew I would love it. The idea of being a backpacker thrills me. Carrying everything you own in one bag, learning to be creative with eating, and freedom to decide your life one day, no one minute at a time. I might discover something about myself along the way, but really I'm here to learn about the world.

Graduation from the University of Arizona, Class of 2012

Laying in the fall leaves in Chicago