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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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

Getting to your destination is arguably the most difficult part of traveling.  Whether you lose your favorite water bottle (me), your bag doesn’t arrive at your final destination (me) or the grumpy lady at the Delta help desk decides to tell you you may not be able to enter another country because you don’t have a flight home, not to mention that you only slept for 2 hours on the redeye last night (also me), traveling isn’t always as pretty as it seems.    

But the time spent getting somewhere is one of my favorite parts of traveling. This is what I wrote in my journal during a layover:

“I have a 4 hour layover here NYC so maybe I will spend that time praying that they let me into Italy”