planning

WE MAY STILL FEEL CLUELESS

Our European adventure started as a pipe dream for Kim and I. Taking the dream and making it our reality was the real challenge. Kimberly was working as a Nanny for the cutest family there ever was, aka her sister, in Northern California, and I had just signed for an internship teaching special education. We figured that now, as we are about to be making somewhat of "big kid" pay checks, would be the prime time to start our planning our trip.

We searched through countless travel books, Pinterest boards, and travel blogs. We watched every episode of "Rick Steves Europe," and asked anyone I could find about their personal experiences. Other than the tips and tricks recommended from well-traveled relatives, the information in Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door 2017 was the most helpful tool in easing the anxiety of planning a 45 day vacation.

(another post about this incredible book to come!)

Click to Purchase

Our first real step was choosing the countries we HAD to see, then those that we WANTED to see. Together we came up with a wishlist of 11 countries in 50 days. This was our tentative plan for the summer, but we knew it needed some tweaking. Kim and I were saving nearly every penny we could manage, and spending all of our free time chatting on FaceTime, deciding where our wanderlust would take us.

As first time backpackers, we knew we needed to spend our time researching the ins and outs of navigating a foreign country. No matter how many years of Spanish we studied, "hi, my name is...," or "where is the bathroom," with the WORST accents ever is still all we can manage. I won't even start with my lack of knowledge on how to read a map that isn't on my iPhone or how to order vegetarian friendly foods in my native language. Basically this trip could turn in to a disaster real quick. Rick Steves' book was our go-to for all things travel, including learning how to order pizza and coffee in different languages (the real priorities.) Every page has something important highlighted, and there are nearly 100 colorful tabs sticking out of pages that were extra helpful. If you are planning a trip and, like us, have no clue what you're doing, GET THIS BOOK. It was well worth it.

If you know me, you could probably guess that I wanted to plan these two months down to 15-minute increments (100% truth, I tried.) My Kimmy was quick to remind me the real purpose of our adventure is to feel free and empowered, which would mean that there would be less planning, and more "just going with it." This is going to put me outside of my comfort zone by a mile, but it will be just fine because I've got Kimberly by my side. She suggested that instead of planning our hearts out, we should take the leap and just start booking.

We initially anticipated that we would be in the UK and Ireland during the first few weeks of June, but as we were searching every flight comparison website Pinterest suggested, we found that it would be cheapest to start in Copenhagen. We would work our way down through Italy then back up again through France to the UK. We booked our flight from OAK to CPH which cost around $350.00 per person compared to $500.00 minimum to LHR, (big thanks to Norwegian Airlines.) This flight was our first big purchase of our trip, and the largest commitment we would make throughout this process. 

HOSTEL BOOKERS offers booking and comparison 

services for hostels around the world.

AIRBNB:offers sleeping accommodations and

local services for travels with all budgets.

Now that we will officially be flying 12 hours across the Atlantic Ocean, we figured we should continue on our booking spree. One thing we didn't want to leave to wayfaring was our sleeping accommodations. Over the next 6 months we frequently checked booking websites. we found AirBnB and Hostel Bookers be the most helpful, trusting websites that scored us the most affordable, safest accommodations. We anticipate these sweet, private hostel rooms, or studio apartments, to be the perfect places to rest our heads after days of walking around city streets and staring at infamous sights.

Kim and I are currently reserving our spots on trains, planes, and (most importantly) to all of the incredible attractions in each country. Although these purchases could, and most often do, happen at their ticket offices, Kim and I want to spend as much necessary money before we head out so we can avoid risks accompanied by packing a large amount of money in all of the 5 local currencies. This will also give us the opportunity to skip lines for purchasing tickets which means more museum time and less standing around time.