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Who needs an Airbnb when there’s a train station

Who needs an Airbnb when there’s a train station

by | Jun 15, 2019 | Europe !!

Hi from cutest cafe in Manchester ✌🏻 

So picking up where we left off, after London we headed to Vienna. We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the day…. and the night because we didn’t have anywhere to stay for the night!! Yes, you read that correct. So when we got to London we had booked a night in a hostel in Vienna because we knew we would be getting in late butttt we didn’t know how long we were going to want to stay there so we didn’t book 2 nights. Well long story short we also booked a bus from Vienna to Prague at 5:00 am on following morning so we needed a second night Vienna. THE WHOLE CITY WAS BOOKED. I guess it was a holiday so even the Airbnbs were $300 for a private room. Our solution you might ask? Well in classical college kid fashion we decided we would stay out at the clubs and bars as late as we could and  then sleep at the train station for the remaining time. Honestly our plan worked out pretty smoothly. We stayed out until 2 AM and then went back to get our bags from the hostel. I would like to give the nice front desk lady that let us in a quick thank you because she definitely could have just left us outside with no bags at 2:30 in the morning. We made it to the train station by 3 and Claire slept for an hour while we waited for the sun to rise. Then it was 5 am and headed for the station. We thought all was going well until we still hadn’t seen our bus and realized we missed it!! So we got another ticket for 6 am and made it on that but we were soooo exhausted.

 

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Okay okay yeah so had to get that chaotic, dramatic story out of the way real quick.

The city was so so pretty tho. I really feel in love with Vienna. The buildings were prestige and the people were absolutely beautiful (especially the boys haha) and I need to take a quick moment to TALK ABOUT THE DOGS. I swear they have been breading the same dogs for the past 2000 years because these dogs looked like they just walked out of dog show they were so beautiful. We mostly just spent the day walking around running into the sites and spending time laying parks. We found a garden with probably over 100 different types of roses and ahhhhh so pretty. Vienna was liking walking through a fairytale. Overall I would definitely recommend a trip to Vienna if you find yourself in the area. 

 

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And then we were off to Prague. Prague was pretty amazing because I have never seen a city like it. It gothic and old yet colorful and playful. One of the best parts of prague is spoiled ourselves with a very nice airbnb. Claire and I booth had a queen size bed as well as a full kitchen, washing machine and even a piano. We dropped of our bags and headed to get a traditional Czech meal. I would give it 7 out of 10. Our waiter was very sweet and read each dish word by word for us because they didn’t have English menus and I ended up getting these fried potatoes cakes with cabbage. We went back to the airbnb and got some rest before heading into the city. We walked to the beautiful church a top the hill and saw some pretty stuffing views before heading down to the John Lennon wall. We ate at this restaurant called Birstro Monk IT WAS SO SO YUMMY I 10/10 recommend. We booth got beet burgers and sweat potatoes fries mmmmm thinking about it makes my mouth water. We called it an early night and passed out in our big beds. 

 

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The next morning we woke up late and got some homework done. Yes we are booth enrolled in 2 online classes so we have to carve some time out for that but I also came to the realization that it is a good way for us to slow down. It never occurred to me before that we can’t just go go go for a month straight and that we will have to give ourselves lazy mornings and early nights. So we got the city around 12 and head for the Dancing House by Frank Gerry. This one was fun for me because I remember seeing picture ever since I was little and now I was seeing it in real life. We treated ourselves and a good boujee lunch at the top of the dancing house and topped it off with a ‘gastro punk dessert tray’ which was drug themed hahaha. We spent the day walking around but it was pretty quite in prague because it was Sunday so we ended up at a park writing in our journals. 

 

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We topped the night off renting a paddle boat and talking dinner on the water with while the sunset in the background. It was so so pretty but one little detail that hindered our plan was our pressecco bottle. We thought it would just pop off like all tops butttt we wrong. So we spent half of our time on the boat trying to open the bottle with a key until we eventually gave up hahaha. It was a pretty memorable experience though, we loved it.

 

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We finished off our time by going to this 5 story club in prague. Our problem is we aren’t exactly on the whole European eating schedule yet we get to the clubs at 10 and literally no one is there yet. Sooooo we hung out for an hour and then called it quits to get more sleep before we board the bus to Berlin at 6 the next morning. 

 

Per usual, love and miss you all lots 

gabi 

I think it’s the other way…

I think it’s the other way…

by | Jun 3, 2019 | Uncategorized

HELLO HELLO FRIENDS. I am currently on a bus from Prague to Berlin and I have been meaning to write this post for a couple days now but we have really just been on the run. I am back in Europe for the month and so so happy to be here, I have missed the little things like sparkling water, not having to tip, and VERY cheap flights (like we are talkin $13 cheap).

 

First off, we need to introduce CLR (or Claire haha) We first meet playing soccer when we were kiddos and stayed friends into college. We now live together as well as work at the same restaurant soooo we tend to be hanging around each other a lot. Right before I left for Singapore I found affordable tickets to London and I immediately texted her. A couple days later we were sitting on our couch buying tickets and now we are here!!! 

 

 

Now to our adventures!!! 

Our trip started out by driving to San Francisco because that’s where we were flying out of. We made spent the night in Tahoe with some friends of Claire’s. The cabin we stayed at was so so pretty and right on the water. We were so grateful.

 

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The next morning we got up and made our way to San Francisco. The drive went pretty well and we got a good night’s rest before we headed out the next morning. We had a quick stop in Toronto before we arrived IN LONDON at 9am. We hopped on the train and made our way into the city to our hostel. We stayed in Shoreditch and spent the day walking around the neighborhood going into all the eclectic stores, fun bars and vintage shops. Let me tell ya… if we weren’t constricted to our already very very tightly-packed backpacks we would have bought that entire neighborhood. We also had a super yummy ‘mushroom raclette’ with truffle tater tots. We finished off the day by LEGALLY enjoying a beer and some snacks from this really cool bar called Brewdogs. 

 

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We were up early the next morning and headed to the tower bridge. After a couple pictures, we walked over to Borough Market, which we absolutely fell in love with. From the yummy food to all the pretty flowers, it was truly a dream. We headed to the Tate Modern to look at some art and the walked back to the market to grab some lunch (lol that shows really how much we loved it) We grabbed cherries, a baguette, and some mushroom patte. Now, originally, our plan was sit by the thames and enjoy our lunch. But being the idiots we are, we didn’t bring jackets because we were too lazy to walk back up the stairs to our room. IT WAS SO COLD. We sat down and tried to start eating but our short sleeves really just weren’t doing the job, especially when it started to rain!!!! So we walked through some shops and waited for the sun to come back out, even for a second. Not to our surprise, the sun didn’t really come out so we ate as fast as we could. Lets just say that the lunch by the river wasn’t quite as nice as it sounded when it was overcast and windy. Then we walked around the city doing some shopping, passing the Eye and Big Ben (which was under constructions, so super cool) and then eventually hit the sacks. 

 

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After getting of plenty of sleep, we got up and headed to Peggy Porschen’s for what we thought was going to be breakfast. Lol it was actually a tea and cake shop but it was honestly 10000 better than any breakfast we could have asked for and was also so so cute. Then clr and I got a little ambitious and decided we would ride bikes to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. Hahahahah was this a sight. I would like to thank the Range Rover that drove behind us on the really busy street of London because, without him, we probably would have been hit. We really had no idea where we going, so we started going around this roundabout WHERE LITERALLY EVERYONE WAS WAITING FOR THE GUARDS, little did they know they were going to get see CLR and Gabi attempt to bike around the square as well. We found this place to watch the guard change.

 

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After our earlier biking experience, we decided to stick to the parks and made our way toward Kensington Gardens and Palace. We did some writing in the parks and laid in the grass. It was a nice break from the big city. That night, we headed for Ballie Ballerson (yes very creative), a bar that has 2 huge ball pits. As Claire put it, this was a like a childhood dream. The bar wasn’t busy but we didn’t care bc we were havin fun in the pits. 

 

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And then it was time to pack up :(( so we stuffed everything back into our backpacks and dropped our bags in the luggage storage before heading out to the city. Not a lot to report for this day. We headed to the British Museum to look at some art and then grabbed some lunch from Pret A Manger (if you’ve never been here, think Whole Foods’ already-made food section but $3 and on every corner in London) and walked to the park. We did some people watching before heading to the airport. Let’s just say that this was little bit of stubble but it is all apart of the adventure. Long story short, we waited for 2 different buses then finally got one but didn’t know you had to pay so ended paying $40 to get into the airport, which isn’t terrible still. Then, at the airport, our food came as the plane was boarding so we downed our food and started to head to the gate when we noticed that we have to take a train there!!! Nevertheless, we made it and landed in Vienna safe and sound.

 

So why’s this post called ‘I think its the other way…?’ Well, let me tell ya. If I had a dollar for everytime I had to tell Claire ’wait stop, I think it’s the other way,’ I would be a millionaire. Let’s just say Google Maps and I are still working things out and it’s so hard to read. My goal: be able to master Google Maps by the time we leave Europe.

 

love & miss you all lots 

 

gabi

Note to self: Don’t bring pepper spray to Singapore

Note to self: Don’t bring pepper spray to Singapore

by | Mar 21, 2019 | Asia

Hello hello again family and friends, long time no see. After coming home from Italy things were in full swing again. I started working and after the holidays the semester was off to the races. With all the craziness of being home and I found that writing just didn’t make the top priority list. So how am I finiding time now you might ask? Well lets just say I have found a couple minutes to spare on my 11 hr flight from Singapore to Honolulu ;))

 

As most you know (all 20 of my loyal subscribers) I was in Singapore for spring break. How exactly I ended up in Singapore, with the business school I might note, is still a mystery to me. Never the less I want to share my adventures with all my favorite humans who supported me and my crazy self over the last couple months to get here. 

So where to start?? Well I’ll just do a quick intro of the friends I made. I didn’t know a single soul going on the trip and I’l tell ya it was quite intimidating walking into the airport. But I did it!!! I made some life longs friends I am so so happy I met. Here they are:

 

 

Katlyn & Rachel (and others in the next post)

 

 

 

Singapore, as you might guess, is not just a quick hope across the pond but rather a 17 hr flight out of SFO that is actually the 4th longest non stop flight in the world. Nothing crazy to tell here. Lots of sitting, watching movies, a little bit of sleep and some teeth brushing.

 

 

 

We landed in Singapore around 8 am and got settled in our hotel. Now I wouldn’t naturally spend up time talking about details of hotel but let me just tell you, courtyard Marriot you OUT DID YOURSLEF. So I really didn’t take many pictures myself but shout out to the other kids in my group for sharing. Our views were insane, and the infinity pool on the top of the building was honestly one of the highlights of the trip. In the morning I would go for a little swim and do some yoga, I don’t think there could have been a better way to wake up.

 

 

 

After getting lunch, we went to the botanical gardens which was like walking into the jungles in the middle of a huge city. The plants were amazing and it felt so alive. I was only there for a brief moment before I met up with Nancy, my mom’s cousin. I am honestly not entirely sure of the family connection but she is a professor at the the National University of Singapore teaching International relations which is a program that is tied to Yale. It was amazing to spend time with her and the family, I hadn’t seen them since her wedding 10 years ago. We ventured to the Artscience museum (20/10 recommend if you find yourself in Singapore) and then she treated me to delicious dim sum. I headed back to the hotel in major need of sleep having run around the city all day and only getting 6 hrs of sleep on the plane. As I got to the hotel, I ran into my friends who were headed to a hawker market. If you have read or seen Crazy Rich Asians WE ACTUALLY WENT TO THE ONE THEY GO TO. So when Rachel and Nick first arrive in Singapore their friends take them to go food and that is where we went!! My friends and I got some film pictures so I’ll post those on the blog once Rachel gets them developed. So so fun.

 

 

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The next morning we had a tour of the city from one of our professors friends who is a native to Singapore. He took us to the to of the marina bay sands, around downtown, and finally Chinatown where we enjoyed lunch. Here are some pictures from our travels along with one of our group. While I have never been a big “flash the u” fan, it was fun to with a group that was so enthusiastic about being traveling with our school and it definitely rubbed off on me. After lunch, we meet with John Lee, Director of the digital department for Singapore power. There is no way I am going to be able to explain what he does properly but essentially he heads up a team that is finding ways to use blockchain for green energy power sources. Singapore Power literally provides energy for the entire country so it was an amazing oppurtinty to get to talk to him. He has done everything from staring is own company to working for the big guys like Microsoft and HP. My biggest takeaway form his stories was the way he talked about his failures. The 8+ different companies he was worked for or with he told us about how it failed and what he learned. I don’t know if it was just his openness or the difference cultures but I think this is something we really lack in the United States. I absolutely loved it. 

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So long story short, after lunch I ended up at the interanational furniture fair Singapore. After talking to one of the German designers who is working in Indonesia, I found out that it was national design week in Singapore. This was one of those times where I was just walking around in awe because what are the odds I end up on a trip with the business school, half way across the wold, in one of the most innovative forward thinking countries in the world and in their national design week??? Excuse me what. So after spending time pursuing the furniture and talking to some really really cool people (and possible getting myself and internship in Indonesia with this German designer) I head to meet my friends at the Gardens by the Bay. Another Crazy Rich Asains scene!! So you know where Colin and Arimenta hold there wedding reception with the huge trees and also where Nick’s grandma and mom tell Rachel about her real father? This is the place hahaha. It was unworldly… not even joking. I walked from the marina bay sands to the gardens on a bridge that runs high across the city and was shocked becasue I thought I could be on another planet. I’ll just let the pictures show you.

 

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Stunning right? 

The next morning we spent our time packing up our suitcases and shopping. Sorry, not sorry it is in my blood hahah. We enjoyed lunch at the electric ‘my awesome cafe’ and then met up with group later that afternoon before we headed to the airport for our next adventure in Southeast Asia. Can you guess where?? More coming sooooooon.

 

Well while going through security my bag got pulled. Honestly not a major shocker I feel like it always gets pulled because I have lots of food in there, or forget to take a cord out or something. So they kept asking me ‘where is the spray’ and I was so confused because I was like spray?? Turns out pepper spray isn’t allowed in Singapore so the police had to come interview me and it was this whole ordeal. Haha really not tooooo crazy, I didn’t get get charged or anything but I am officially on their records and now have to “be careful” with what I bring into that country.

 

 

 

 

 

Missed writing so thanks all for listening,

gabi 

 

 

ps: notice how I didn’t mention the heat at all? 

Well during the week we were in Asia it averaged 90 degrees WITH 80% HUMMIDITY. If you know me (which pretty much everyone here knows me this well) you know that I DO NOT do well in the heat. Like mental breakdowns, don’t do well in the heat. 

That fact that I didn’t talk about the heat once really goes to show you how much I loved it here.

How to entertain yourself during tornado warnings

How to entertain yourself during tornado warnings

by | Dec 26, 2018 | USA baby

Ciao from not so sunny southwest Florida! Thank you to my loyal 23 subscribers who are staying to tuned for my adventures back home in the US. I still have a couple stories I want to tell about about Italy but I wanted to take a quick break to catch up on my latest adventure. This adventure is a little different than my past travels across Europe, but definitely just as exciting. So cute little Benji got invited to play on the west region team for the olympic development program (in soccer) and the family decided to make it a vacation. On the 16th I spent my day hostessing up in Park City before I returned to the valley around 10 pm to finish up some school work. BIG SHOUT OUT to Hayley for meeting me at school and helping me. By the time everything was printed and we were walking out of the architecture building it was 1 am. I got home, finished up my packing and then woke up two hours later to head to the airport. I was not entirely sure of what I packed because I was using my phone as a flashlight while Grace slept. My only rule was that I had be able to EASILY zip up my suitcase meaning I could not spend 5 minutes sitting on it getting it closed. Lets just say that lugging 300lbs across the Atlantic ocean was a traumatic experience and I was not about to do that again. (also what is my deal with getting negative hours of sleep before a flight/big vacation? that is some backwards thinking on my part)

We arrive in Florida welcomed by blue skies and 70 degrees weather. Our drive from the Tampa Airport to Anna Maria Island was beautiful. It has been while since I have been to this side of the country. I was met with green palm trees, blue oceans, and white sand. We made a pit stop in Saint Petersburg for a 4pm linner. One theme you will see on this trip is we have a hard time “staying on schedule” with our meals, sorry grace. Anyways while we are eating we get a call from our hotel saying their office closes at 5, but here is the code to get your key.  Huh, interesting but we finish our food and head back on the road. Upon arriving at our hotel, more like a small bed and breakfast, to find that we are the only ones staying there. Now this was a first for all of us, and felt a little weird especially for the more experienced travelers like dad. But we weren’t complaining; it felt like our own little resort with a pool and palm trees completely surrounding us. We then crossed the street and headed out to what is probably one of the most beautiful, dreamy beaches I have ever seen. 

We even got to catch the sunset. lucky for us because IT LITERALLY RAINED FOR THE NEXT WEEK WE WERE THERE. Yup thats right. and not only did it rain but there were also 3 tornados that touched down in Tampa!!!! Hahahah so a week is a little dramatic. The next day we woke up, had a nice beach walk, and took Ben to meet up with his team at IMG Academy. This is where the interregional camp ben was playing in took place and where he was staying for the next couple of days. Now if you have never heard of IMG, think $55,000 (a year) boarding school for top athletes around the country sponsored by both under amour and gatorade. Very futuristic, very boujee. Let’s just say ben took soccer a little farther then I ever did (proud big sis). After saying goodbye we headed south to Sarasota where we enjoyed yummy food and some shopping. We drove back up the key during the sunset and woke up to more blue skies, but this only lasted about an 3 hours before the rain took over our lives for the next three days. despite our best efforts lets just say the entire state of Florida spends its rainy days inside. Not that we really need to go into details but many of the cafes/restaraunts we tried just weren’t even open and then the one we did find closed half way though the day. Us Utahns were not used to this reaction to bad weather. I mean I have never once in my education gotten a day off of school for because of the snow. It’s okay tho, we made the best of it taking naps in the car, going to see a star is born and mom’s personal favorite: driving around in the rain seeing many of Florida’s exotic birds in peoples front lawns.

Once the rain had finally subsided and ben was able to play we went to watch his game. needless to say these kids were very talented and it was the first time in a while that I actually enjoyed watching a game of soccer. We picked him up from camp and headed back to the hotel to spend the last day at the beach. I got in the water even tho it was freezing. The next day we headed up to clearwater to see the manatees (definitely one of my new favorite animals) and go on a dolphin speed boat tour. 1000/10 recommend this if you want to be smiling for an hour and a half straight. Dolphins are so playful there is no way you can’t smile. We ended the last day with a family outing to Creed 2 and dinner. Then another early morning for a 5 am wake up to get to the airport whichhhhhh leads me to where I am now finishing up this blog post on the plane. overall you could say it was not quite the trip we expected but it was just nice to be hanging out with the family.

side note: for anyone who find themselves in the Southwest florida Area here is a list of my favorite places that we ate.

Hawkers – Saint Petersburg

Shore – Armond Circle, Sarasota 

Poppo’s taqueria – Anna maria 

The Donut Experiment – Anna Maria

Grillmaster – Tampa

Smoqe House – Bradenton 

this was our 2nd favorite and there is a another location in saint paul, mi should you find yourself in the area

Fresh Kitchen – Tampa 

our favorite literally so good especially if you are gluten free and/or lactose intolerant (lol me)

honestly this note is mostly for myself but there for others if ya need it 

also shout out to my mother and father because these are literally all their pictures. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL

love gabi

One of those times I will never forget

One of those times I will never forget

by | Dec 20, 2018 | Germany, Italy

You know how there are some memories you will truly never be able to recreate even if you go back to a place on the same day or with the same people. For some reason on that day the stars the aligned and the memories you shared can never be recreated. Well I can tell you that our trip to Germany was one of those weekends. 

Now when I say the stars aligned, I mean they really aligned because I am surprised we even got to Germany.

The trip started out a little something like this:

(an excerpt from my journal)

So here is the story of 3 idiot college kids who were out at the bars until 2:30 am with their new German friends.

Yeah so this is Blake, Jayde and I. Once we get back to the villa Jayde and I are laying in bed when I realize that we should probably check into our flight that leaves from Pisa at 7 am. I go get Blake and we are sitting on our computers completely exhausted going through the steps when Jayde goes “Um my name is spelled wrong on my boarding pass.” There is a dark moment of silence. I then look at my boarding pass and realize that my name is also spelled wrong… it’s a long story. So we stay up for another 2 hours calling Ryan air, trying to figure out how to change it online and pretty much running into the the dead end of its going to cost 250 euros to fix our names. (our flights were 80 round trip so you can understand our dismay) Finally forfeiting we go to bed and wake up an hour later to catch our car to Pisa. We get to the airport ready to except the high fees or surrender and not go at all. The nice ryan air lady makes some calls and waves us off telling us “its okay for now.” We go to security praying they won’t notice and again we get through fine. We take a minute to just sit and chill. The last point we need to get through is the checking in at the gate. Here are the faces of three dead college kids hoping they will get on the plane to Frankfurt

 

another excerpt

I hold my breathe as the gate attendant swiftly hand my passport and boarding pass and then checks Jaydes. HAHAH GUYS… it worked and I am not sure if we are living in an alternate reality or if the birthday gods actually exist (oh yeah it sept 7th aka happy bday Blake) We’ve got a wild weekend ahead.

To say this weekend started with a bang is an understatement. So we land in Frankfurt where we met Blake’s friend Jannik. JANNIK WAS OUR HOMIE for the weekend. Not only did he literally plan every second of the trip but he also drove 2 hours to pick us up in Frankfurt AND THEN DROVE ANOTHER 6 HRS to Berlin. We got to drive on the autobahn which was easily the prettiest drive I have ever been on in a really long time and exactly what I needed. We drove through green fields of trees and windmills. We arrived in Berlin around 9 pm and checked into our hotel. Since it was Blakes birthday we hit the streets and got to see some of the most amazing architecture and sites around berlin. I loved it. Just getting to see the city by night was a dream. Words won’t do it justice and neither will these pictures but at least you can get idea of it all. 

 

We head to bed and wake up early the next morning to go see more sites. Again the city just never stops delivering. I think my favorite part of berlin was how it felt like they weren’t trying to hide their history. There was this amazing remains of a church that had been bombed during world war 2 and I was so eye opening. After walking around  we head to Lollapalooza Music Festival… the reason we came to Berlin. I honestly don’t think that it is possible to put the things you feel during music festivals into words. One of my favorite parts of the music festival was that it was at the olympic stadium which added to the entire grandness of the festival. Here is the line up and some other pictures from the festival.

 

I have learned that my favorite memories in life often include good music and good people. After drinking great beer, dancing to the best music for 2 days straight and experiencing some of the most eye opening sites it was time to head home. on monday morning janik drove us the 5 hours from Berlin to Frankfurt. And lets just say that getting back to the frankfurt airport was just about  as dramatic as getting there. Another long story but pretty much we arrived 15 minutes after boarding was closed. Yet we still some how made on the plane and made it back to dinner in time for dinner at Massimo’s.

 

Berlin you hold a special place in my heart… until next time.

gabi