Backpacking Europe {Part 1}

When i studied abroad last spring i had the opportunity to backpack

around Europe for 2 weeks, which isn't very long but still long enough to learn a few things.

We went to the following places;

Italy {Milan, Venice}

Switzerland {Interlaken, Bern}

England {London}

Ireland {Kilkenny, Dublin}

Scotland {Edinburgh}

If i could do it again i'd do it so much better.

I mean honestly we did really well considering we had never

been backpacking before, but there's always things you will learn

that you can use to your advantage the next time you go!

Like how much money you will need.

Yea, that's pretty important as you don't want to become stranded and broke.

You'll need to make sure your bank knows you are leaving the country.

This is important because they will freeze your account 

if they are not aware you are in another country!

You need to know where you're staying in each place.

I would suggest using the following resources..

Hostel World

Hostel Bookers

Airbnb

You need to know how you'll be getting from place to place.

I would suggest getting a Eurail pass for Europe.

If you're in the UK look into a BritRail pass.

Make sure you don't show up too early to catch planes/trains.
I know i know, better safe than sorry, but you might get 

stranded at Tours Airport with a serial killer.

Personal Experience....

I would say standard 2 hours before flight and an hour before a train departs.

Research is key!

Don't believe everything you read online about tourist destinations in Europe.

Try to find real reviews on places so you know exactly what you're walking into.

Also look into the politics of the countries you're wanting to visit,

make sure that while you're there, that there isn't any unrest in the country.
Not that thats something you can control...

Don't be afraid to go off the grid a little.

We walked 2 miles down a Scottish road to a castle that we never would

have found if we had stayed in tourist spots.

{see what i mean, you can't beat this}

Same goes for seeking out restaurants.
If you want a real experience with food in another country
go deeper into cities, away from the "Popular" and "Touristy" areas
and you will find cheaper, tastier, more authentic food!!

I hope this helps anyone who's interested in backpacking Europe! :)
I'll be doing a part 2 to this post in a few days about packing
and some more specifics about backpacking Europe!
If you have any questions you'd like for me to address in Part 2
I would love to answer them for you!! :)

Have an awesome Wednesday, I know i will.
I get to skype Tom-tom today, yippee ;)
-Emily

Summer Tans and Tom!!!

I keep telling myself...only 5 more weeks..

5 more weeks of this awful semester,

5 more weeks till summertime!

5 more weeks and i can focus on more important things like a nice tan

and finding the perfect picnic basket, and planning for Tom's arrival!!

In those 5 weeks is 4 projects, two of them individual and 2 of them in groups.

There will also be tests, quizzes and the lovely books you have to read

because your professors didn't want you to read them till the end of the semester...

5 weeks till summer, 5 weeks till summer, 5 weeks till summer!!!

I haven't even had the chance to Skype Tom since FRIDAY...I know i know

It's a hard life i live, right??? ;) 

Well now that i'm on the topic of Tom, have i told you lately just how fantastic he is??

Well.....he is!!

That guy is becoming a really really important part of my story and that just

makes me such a happy happy girl!!!

He will be here in 70 days.

How about another Hint at what we'll be doing while he's here.

If you missed hint #1 you can find it here!

Hint #2 − 4 faces, hard as rock!

hmmmmmmm....

Have a great Tuesday :)

-Emily

{Color}ful fun run!!

On saturday I dragged my family out of bed at 5:45am and we hopped in our super

amazing mini van that still graces our driveway, and we headed to Fair Park in Dallas!

Ok...so they dragged me out of bed, not the other way around.

This was my second Color Run and it was just as amazing as the first.

You show up early, stand around, listen to fun music, get pumped up and get free swag!!

Then they throw you over too the start line where you hit beach balls up in the air, 

dance around to the music and just prepare yourself for what's about to happen!

The Color Run is a 5K fun run, there are 4 color stations in the course.

You get hit with yellow, orange, pink and blue color.

They also had misters out that were spraying you with purple and green, that was new!!

This is pretty much one of the craziest races you can participate in.

I saw all kinds of outfits from tutu's to someone in a wedding dress....

It's such a fun race, the whole family can do it...

In fact we saw a little old grandma being pushed in a wheelchair through the course.

She had multi-colored grey hair at the end of the race! :)

If you're looking for a fun, easy race to get you motivated to exercise this is the one.

You can run, jog, walk, skip, roll through the whole thing.

& it's for a good cause, they pick a local charity to support in each city.

The charity we had was the American Heart Association.

So Check out the Website for the Color Run here.

And see if it's coming to a city near you :)

I hope you all have a great monday....

ok, who am i kidding...I hope your monday is bearable ;) 

-Emily

Skype date + Laundry + Blog renovation!

Yesterday was spent registering at my local community college

so i can take an online English class that i've been putting off for...4 years.

That was more stressful than i had wanted it to be.

So it was nice to come home and open up the computer to Skype Tom.

We talked for almost 5 hours, which is becoming a normal occurrence!!

It's pretty amusing the things we do while we Skype,

Like today he was having his dinner {tea} while I folded my laundry...

Yes i folded laundry in front of him...i mean i needed to do it!

You have to be somewhat productive if you're going to spend 5 hours skyping.

I feel like the laundry took our relationship to a new level ;)

...

Spring is finally here which means things are about to get really colorful.

As you can see my blog has found spring, and it's pretty, and flowery and wonderful!!
I love my blogs new look, i think it's very...Monet ;)
Hope y'all like it as much as i do!!

I'm doing the color run this morning which is another colorful activity.

I'll post pictures and hopefully a video on monday!! :)

Hope you all have a fab weekend!!

-Emily

Cat head on a Tom body!

Two AMAZING things just happened!!

The first amazing thing is...

Remember the other day when i blogged about how frustrated we were

that we didn't get into the apartments we wanted???

Well...that waiting list was shorter than we thought and WE.ARE.IN!

Now i kind of feel like a bratty child who got my way...but i'm ok with that ;)

{LOOK HOW PRETTY IT IS}

Did i mention there is a starbucks already in the apartment complex

AND possibly a Panara coming soon...not completely sure about Panara but a girl can dream!!

...

The second amazing thing that happened yesterday came from Thomas.

We skyped as usual...it was wednesday and it lasted almost 5 hours :)

But before we skyped Tom sent me a selfie,

yea take a look, It's hilarious!!!

His selfie photo fits perfectly to his body in another photo!!

AMAZING!!!!!

This has spawned more selfie pictures to see how crazy we can make Tom's body look!!

The second picture is Tom's cat Barney...we are taking this to new levels...to CAT levels!!!

Also how sweet is it that he was so excited to see meeeeee :)

Girly sigh!!!

 p.s. I'm going home today, Yippee for Fam time :)

Y'all have a great Thursday!!!

-Emily

{Tom}-a-llama-ding-dong

Oh hey guess what??

Only 76 more days till Tom-Tom is here!!

 Whoa..76 days
76 days
did i already say 76 days???

I can remember when we were counting down from like 130 days
so 76 days is pretty exciting!!

I mean i'm single handedly bringing a British guy to Texas...Who does that??
well..apparently I do that ;)

Oh are we pulling the same face?? That's strange...that never happens...{sarcasm} ;)

I'm so excited about our plans while he's here!!
I'm sure you all want to know what we will be up to.
I don't like to just give things away so i've decided to give you hints.
So the plan over the next few weeks is to randomly throw hints at you...like this...

Hint#1 - It's Grand.

ooohhh

I know, don't you wish i'd just spill the beans.
You'll all know soon enough....like in 80 days mwahaha!!

I'm excited!

-Emily

April Fools

It has been a busy busy week...and it's only Tuesday!

First of all i registered for my FINAL semester in College.

Whoa..where did the time go??

4 years ago i was a gothic, depressed, lonely freshman.

Now i'm graduating, Hallelujah!!!

The only problem was, we ran into a small issue with housing. 

The Apartments we wanted were already full by the time we had our housing appointments!

FULL?? 

How does that happen?? 

I'm basically going to be a 23 year old 5th year senior still living in a dorm.

Siiiiiiiigggggghhhhhh

There's an upside, we're on the top of the waiting list so cross your fingers we get in!!!

^^^^ THIS, led to an April Fools Prank...a really mean funny prank :)

Jess our suite mate had her housing meeting first, 

so she went and talked to the lady and got all three of us 

into one of the upper clansmen dorm/apartments.

By the time she came back it was time for Sam and myself to go to our meeting,

just to tell the lady we agree with what Jess chose.

Now at this point we're all riled up because we're so upset we didn't get into the apartments.

So we were stomping around, threatening to break frisbee players frisbees 

and also threatening to push over skateboarders...We are pretty crazy!!

Since we were already in an evil mindset it was easy to come up with this prank.

While walking over i tell Sam that we should prank Jess

by telling her that the two of us got into the new apartments but there wasn't enough room for her.

Mwahahahahahahahaha

...

We went to our meeting, agreed to what Jess had already done.

Then we went back to the dorm room, we walked in and the first thing Sam said was

"this is really awkward"

You could already see panic on Jess' face.

As Sam explained what had happened, she just looked like she had lost everything.

It was heartbreaking and hilarious all at the same time...

I finally called it and we yelled April Fools and all was well.

I'm just impressed that Sam and I even came close to 

fooling her because we were giggling the whole time!!

It was hilarious!

Jess is on the left, Sam is in the middle and I am on the right.

Hope you are all having a great week!!

-Emily