"the hills are alive with the sound of music..." ♬

SURPRISE!

We will be adding another country to our list... 

We can't even handle our feels for this unexpected day trip.

Thank the lord for the internet, and for crazy cheap inter-European travel. Kim and I were stalking our favorite day tour website, Viator, about a week ago looking for a decent priced day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle from Munich, Germany. While sifting through the different opportunities and services that Munich had available, we came across a beautiful picture of the Lake District in Austria. This picture led us to glorious news. A day trip to Austria was well within our budget, and would fit (tightly) in our available time in Munich. Via Viator day tour, we will be able to see not only the Lake District, but also Salzburg and some of the Sound of Music sights. The reviews were great and the price was right, so we took the leap and booked ourselves an 11-hour stop in the Mozart's home country.

Kimberly had expressed earlier in our planning that she would KILL to be able to see where the Sound of Music was filmed. Even though we didn't plan to make this happen, we are stoked beyond belief that we get to cross another thing off our bucket lists. 

Expect to see many photos of Kimmy and I frolicking through the Mirabell Gardens singing "Do Re Mi"or twirling like Julie Andrews in the Austrian countryside.

Auf wiedersehen!

♥

Photo

Photo

♥ ♥ ♥

thank goodness for rick steves

Although it would have been much more spontaneous to just book a flight across the Atlantic and go where ever the wind takes us, we decided to reference a travel expert to plan our adventure. We have watched plenty of episodes of Rick Steves' Europe so we figured any resource graced with his name would be reliable.  Europe Through the Back Door 2017 covered everything we needed (and wanted) to know about how to travel Europe. As first time travelers to this part of the world, we felt that we needed to gain a higher understanding of the logistics details. This book of absolute gold includes information on everything from how to order coffee in other languages (one of our largest concerns) to how to stay connected to family and friends while you're away. The most interesting part to read was the "Back Doors" section. These chapters have in depth information about each country including where to eat, where to stay, and what to see. The most helpful pages in this section prioritized the different cities of interest. It rated the destinations in each country on how high they should be on your wishlist, and listed how many days Rick suggests you would need to see the sights. These maps were extremely helpful in identifying what you NEED to see and what you SHOULD see if time permits.
This resource may or may not have been one of three books I have read in nearly two years, but I couldn't put this one down.
There is something about planning a trip of this magnitude that has made Kim and I so thrilled we could burst into tears at any moment, and at the same time, given us anxiety that we can only manage by pinning all of the Europe for Beginners posts on Pinterest and reading the reassuring words of Rick Steves.

If you're considering traveling through Europe, I would highly recommend purchasing this book.

BUY FROM RICK STEVES

Rick Steves, you may have saved our lives.

♥

the friendship behind it all

With 759 miles and 2 years between us, we were a very unlikely duo. I was a freshman in college from an incredibly conservative town in Utah, and she was a transfer student from just outside of San Francisco. We met during our first few weeks at Utah State University after we accepted bids from the same sorority. Like any young people would, we exchanged phone numbers and Instagram handles. Little did we know that for the next two semesters, we would spend every single day together. From sorority meetings and movie marathons, to study sessions and dance parties, we were the perfect match. We shared celebrity crushes, favorite movies and food, clothing styles (and sizes what up...), a crazy desire to travel the world, and most importantly, the willingness to fight for the
                           friendship we shared.

That next school year Kimberly ended up moving back to Northern California, while I stayed at USU and finished my degree. It was quite the transition, going from spending hours with someone everyday to only talking on fleeting phone conversations in between classes and work, but I knew that our friendship was too important to let it slip by. Since those long college nights that we wished would never end, our friendship has only grown stronger. We now spend most of out time together on FaceTime, chatting about our new romances and work struggles. We have witnessed each other's best days and worst days; both the heartbreaks and triumphs. Kimberly has been the light at the end of my darkest tunnels and my partner in crime on my craziest nights. We have drained endless bottles of wine and eaten way too many McDoubles, and now, almost four years later, were planning our dream vacation to EUROPE. 

My Kimmy is my soulmate, and there is no one else I could spend 45 days in 12 foreign countries with. 

For the next few months you will be reading all about our planning and preparing for the trip of a lifetime. We hope you enjoy our little story about our BIG adventure. 

Cheerfully, 

McKenzie