I arrived in Boston yesterday, ate some amazing crab cakes and lobster, and checked into Travel Con! I’m very excited to meet other people that share my passion to see the world! There’s going to be great key note speakers, sessions, meet ups, and parties! I’ll be posting some of my notes here for y’all throughout the weekend!

For my summer European Road Trip in 2018, my friend and I created a blog that we ended up seldom using. But I still wanted to post about it because it does have our route map, a list of every city we visited, and ideas and information about how best to go on your own European Road Trip.

Click here to view that blog!

And click here to view the instagram!

A year ago today Raleigh and I went to visit Auschwitz in Poland. It was one hell of an impactful day. Tickets to visit are free if you accompany a tour guide with a group. So we arrived at the front gates to Camp 1, where we received our tickets but were told there was not a tour available for another 3 hours. We hadn’t planned on waiting 3 hours, we had to still drive to Budapest that night to keep on schedule. It was now or never for us. I’m not sure it’s something I’m proud of, but not many people can say they have done what we did. Instead of leaving or waiting 3 hours, we snuck into Auschwitz. We decided to blend in with a group of teenagers on a school field trip and once past the gates, left the tour group to peruse on our own.

It was incredibly daunting passing under the gates that read, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, which in German translates to, Work Sets You Free. The Nazi officers intended it to mean they must find the path to virtue through labor. But the prisoners saw it only as an insult, knowing once they passed the gates that held these words, their only freedom would be death.

As we continued walking the premises, reading signs, walking through the barracks, we saw many disturbing things. There were piles of glasses, bowls, and crutches taken from prisoners upon their arrival. There was also a display of how tightly packed the people were inside of the train cars that were delivering them. There was a display of dozens of prisoner outfits on mannequins lined in rows, with hundreds of photos of people’s faces along the walls. In the beginning of the war, each prisoner was documented with their information and a photograph along with a numbered tattoo. But toward the end of the war, the camps were taking in too many people and stopped recording who went where. I also saw diagrams of the multiple types of people and what badge they were assigned. For example, everyone knows Jewish people had to wear a yellow star; but political prisoners had to wear a red upside down triangle, criminals a green one, a blue one for immigrants, the Romani people had a black triangle, homosexuals a pink triangle, religious prisoners had purple, and so on.

It started to rain while I stood outside in a courtyard reading about the pointless drills they endured every day. The guards were so bored they would force the prisoners to line up multiple times a day for hours until every single person was in their correct numbered line. These drills were in between tireless days of hard labor; but if you couldn’t stand up on your own or fainted or fell in any way, they would kill you, and start the count all over again.

As it rained it grew dark and muddy, the chain wired fences seemed smaller around you than you realized. Raleigh and I talked about all the reasons we would have been taken there during the war; being queer, a religious prisoner, and a political prisoner. We also noticed a few handicapped visitors not being able to go inside the barracks to view most of the exhibits; I understand the integrity to keep the site original but to not add ramps for the handicapped in the present era felt like an offence the Nazis would have agreed with. It angered me to see them sitting outside in the rain by themselves while the rest of their tour group walked around inside the buildings, that felt more like Auschwitz than anything I saw there.

I understand why some people wish to never visit Auschwitz and witness the horrible atrocities that were committed to humans, it can be very hard to see it all. But I still recommend it to anyone able-bodied. I believe it helps to understand more fully what humans are capable of. We are capable of committing unimaginable heinous acts against each other; but some are also able to survive them. That power to survive and carry on is what we must all find in ourselves when all feels hopeless.

-June 25 2019
Allie

I had to pack for a 5 month trip through Europe, I left mid May and I’ll be returning to America mid October. Packing for such a trip can be extremely daunting. Even before this I travelled about once a month for work or fun, I got so good at packing for all different kinds of trips and traveling through airports so much I felt like George Clooney in Up in the Air.

For a trip lasting more than a month, I suggest a lot of practice packing. I find practice packing to be really fun. I like imagining where I’ll be going and what I’ll be doing, the different scenarios that I’ll need different things for. Practice packing is just packing fully for your trip ahead of time, this really helps so that the day before you leave you aren’t panicking because you need something from the store but the stores are closed or you can’t find that one item of clothing you swear you need. Try practice packing at least a week before your big trip minimum. Also the best way to practice packing, is to have a calendar out to look at the days and time you’ll be gone, and most importantly to put on fun dancing music! If you ever get stressed out, dance it out!

This is my favorite magic packing video by YouTuber Biaggi Luggage

In the video, you can see she rolls up all her clothing, I’ve also found this is better than folding when it comes to fitting a lot into a little space. Then I recommend using packing cubes, they are miracle packing bags that help save a lot of space! Click Here for a link to TripSavvys best packing cubes to buy.

I recommend packing the smallest amount possible for a long trip, you can always find laundromats and stores to buy things you need along the way! If you’re like me you might always be thinking, but what if, while packing. But what if I get into a situation where I need this exact dress I own, but what if I get there and regret not bringing my favorite pair of shoes, but what if. The best way to combat the “what if” voice inside your head is to practice packing multiple times before your trip. Start by packing two weeks ahead of time, then again a week before you leave, than again three days before you leave where you can then just leave most of the stuff in your suitcase. Always pack less than you think you’ll need. I had such a struggle. Originally I wanted to bring four shorts, five dresses, seven shirts, etc., etc. But after thinking about it and making decisions for a few days, I realized I could live off half that if not more than half. Keep in mind the bare essentials that humans can live on and keep in mind there will always be shops and laundromats. I was finally able to fit five months’ worth of clothes & hygiene products into one backpack and one hard-sided 4 wheel suitcase I got from Target.

My best advice is to keep this mantra in your head every single time you pack, and just keep repeating it: Pack light, lighter than that, even lighter, just the bare essentials!

Good Luck
– Allie
July 15th 2018

When you decide to embark on a trip like ours, deciding on the best transportation can be tricky. Our choice to long term rent a car was a pretty quick decision because we both decided we wanted the freedom to choose when and where we go, instead of being weighed down by tickets and timetables and carrying luggage around. Also paying for gas seemed cheaper to us than buying train or plane tickets as well as hotel rooms. But I know a lot of people that travel Europe who prefer to do it via train because it gives them a chance to relax. Some people choose planes because they are the quickest, and can be cheapest, way to get around Europe. It all depends on your preference for what kind of trip you want.

If flying is something you enjoy and choose to go that route, we have already published a helpful guide to cheap European airlines in a post that can be found here. Flying from city to city or country to country in Europe can be the fastest and cheapest option a lot of times. If you aren’t in a hurry, I suggest looking at the airlines calendars for cheapest flights of the month, and use that to plan your trip. Our problem that we have encountered with planes is that we frequently miss the flight because of small mistakes like parking, being late, or not checking in on time. Most of the flights aren’t refundable and if you miss a flight, your entire schedule can be affected.

Trains can be also very fun experience if you don’t mind being stuck on one for many hours. Trains can be a good idea if you want to stick to the ground and see the countryside, without leaving the relaxing comfort of your chair or couch or bed. The food can possibly be pricey or not great, so I would suggest stocking up at a grocery store before a long haul. I find trains to be a fun trip all on its own, if you do as well I suggest these European rail companies.
RailEurope
GoEuro
For the UK, NationalRail
For Youth/Student discounts, EuRail

If you decide to rent a car and drive like we did, gas prices can very country to country,  plan to spend almost half of your expenses on gas. We liked the idea of a car because we could leave all of our luggage in the car and not drag it around all the time. We also liked the idea of camping whenever we wanted and going wherever we wanted. We used AutoEurope and decided they had the best long term prices and benefits. When it comes to finding places to park your car for free or overnight, I suggest the app/website Park4Night or Parkopedia, but also use your best judgement, if you get somewhere and you don’t feel comfortable, leave.

For driving, buses, planes, trains, or ferries Rome2Rio is an amazing website. You plug in where you want to go to and from, and it shows so many different routes and prices for every transportation option. You’ll receive a list of cheapest airplanes, bus routes, train options, or something that incorporates all of them together!

Feel free to contact me for any questions or if you wish for more information.
Good luck and stay safe!
– Allie
July 10th 2018

Greece was the country I was most looking forward to on our big summer trip. The things I had heard about it made it sound like a summer tourist’s paradise. What ended up happening was a whirlwind of surprises. There are things I hated about Greece, and there are things I loved about Greece.

The Greeks have never heard the phrase, “it’s rude to stare,” or the phrase, “personal space/personal boundaries.” The amount Greek men stare at you, no matter who you are, or what you look like, becomes so intense after a day or two that you want to scream at them, “What are you looking at?!?!” It continues, no matter what city you are in, they stare at you as you walk past them and minutes go by. They don’t seem to mean it in a sexual or predatory way, rather as just a looking into your eyes for too long as to leave you stripped of all privacy sort of way. Besides staring, Greek men also spend their days talking. They wake up, go to a cafe with their friends, talk until the afternoon, go to the beach and talk until the evening, and then go to a restaurant and talk until they pass out from lack of breath, and continue the cycle again the next day. They talk and they talk and they talk and they don’t talk with the intent of having a conversation and listening to you, but rather for the sake of talking. I joked with my mutual philosophy friend from college that they all must have inherited it from Plato, and if Plato talked so much that he annoyed the Greek government to the point of execution, that I can only imagine how much I also would have chosen to sentence him to drink the hemlock. The personal boundaries, or lack of boundaries, come with rude and personal questions. Numerous Greek men asked my male friend about the state of his genitals, something no one in America would ever think to do, considering it is not any of their business. The final thing about Greek men that drove me to hatred was the amount and locations they smoked cigarettes. I want to clarify that I have sympathy, since many years ago I smoked for six years but have long since quit. But every single person was constantly smoking, on the streets, in the cafes, in their cars, in the bars, in restaurants, in the bus, etc. Most of my time in Greece I had a headache from all the smoke. If you cannot or do not wish to handle that amount of smoke, I don’t recommend visiting. I also received quite a bit of hostility, lack of smiles from customer service workers, and all around grumpy behavior.

*Release of deep breath* Now, the things I loved about Greece. I fell in love with the Aegean Sea, I could have happily lived in that sea. The food was delicious and cheap. The July sun was extremely hot, the beaches not too crowded, the views spectacular, and the history breathtaking. In Thessaloniki we spent most of our time on the beach or in cafes. In Athens we saw famous Greek ruins, walked through streets and streets of markets, ate good food, and enjoyed the views. Santorini is very touristy, and the main cities don’t have great swimming it is more expensive than necessary. For Santorini I recommend splurging on a nice hotel or condo and possibly a scooter or small car. I enjoyed my time there very much but when I return in another time in my life, I would definitely take  more money to spend. The areas that aren’t cities are just intense desert.

Greece is an interesting country full of ancient lovely things. Beautiful landscape and a long history with intrusive people. It’s not what I expected, but I enjoyed it all the same. I recommend going if you have the money to spend to be comfortable. Try taking a cruise through the islands, there are so many of them you could easily get lost for 10 years trying to find your way back.

Once you’ve picked a destination, the next thing to do is look into flights. It’s best to use incognito tabs on your browser because everything you search and every airline website you go to will be shared to always keep the ticket prices high in order for the airlines or third party companies to get more money. If you open an incognito tab (by clicking the 3 vertical dots under the X to close the web page, and selecting new incognito window)  it will prevent your computer from remembering the websites you visited and the things you searched, thus being able to stay up to date on the ever changing airline ticket prices. Continue to check in on them about once a month during the year previous to your trip.

Picking an airline or a third party website to use can be stressful and tricky. At first, I tried a lot of third party websites like Kayak or Expedia and soon noticed the trend of WOW Airlines always having the cheapest flights. Based out of Reykjavik, Iceland, WOW Air is the type of airline where you can find $100 tickets from LA to London easily; but it’s also the type to charge you extra for everything. For example, we decided to fly from Toronto to Reykjavik, and instead of a long layover we are staying two nights there, and then flying into London, our total cost for two people for all those flights came out to $645; but no matter how cheap the flights are they trick you a bit by making you then pay extra for your seat, meal, luggage, etc. Since we are on a tight budget we didn’t pay for anything fancy or even a meal, just buy food & snacks at the airport and take it on the plane, for us a few hours of discomfort in a small seat is worth the price when you can then use that money to do fun activities later in your trip.

If WOW Air doesn’t reach your desired destination, I suggest using it to get to the correct continent and then use a small European airline to get where you want to go if it’s too far by train. There are many small European airlines that fly from country to country for very cheap. I suggest Ryanair, Norwegian, Wizz Air, or easyJet to find very cheap tickets for country hoping in Europe.

For a fairly full list of inexpensive international airlines, visit: https://www.smartertravel.com/2017/06/19/international-discount-airlines/ 

If you aren’t in a big hurry, I suggest while searching flights, tell the website you are open to any dates and view their calendar of prices. The calendar will show dates and prices for the next few months for your destinations. You can then see when the cheapest one is and schedule your trip around that.

Don’t forget for your flights, download the airline app when you book your flight, check into your flight minimum of 24 hours before it boards, and continuously double check your flight details to make sure you know where you’re going and there are no changes!

Good luck and safe travels!

UPDATE: In 2019 WOW Air shut down and is no longer available. Other options include Kiwi, Momondo, Scott’s Cheap Flights, Agoda, Hopper, & Skyscanner.

Our trip to Reykjavik was quite upsetting and left us wishing to just get off the massive island as soon as possible. We arrived at 4am and couldn’t check into our hostel until 3pm, luckily we were able to at least drop our bags off at the hostel. To our dismay the 25 minute taxi ride from the Keflavik airport to our hostel was a total of $150 and included a very rude and transphobic driver. In Reykjavik during our stay the sun rose around 3:30am and set around 11pm, never actually getting fully dark. Originally our plan was to drop our bags at the hostel and immediately go out hiking, but the weather decided to ruin those plans. It would incredibly cold (around 35F) with high winds and rain. Disgruntled we try turning around and heading back to sit in the lobby of the hostel, only for it to become sunny 10 minutes later, so we try heading back out, only for it to start raining again five minutes later. So we pop into a cafe for about an hour, the rain stops, we head back our toward our desired hiking destination, and you guessed it, it started raining again. In the end we just continued on our way and it turned sunny and only light rain for the majority of the hike. We spent $20 on a Little Ceasers type pizza, walked back to the hostel and spent the rest of the night napping, eating, watching Netflix, and getting to know our hostel bunk mates.

The second day was our only full day in Reykjavik, it was freezing cold and rainy again. Our original plan was to find a natural hot spring to swim in, this turned into a disaster of getting very lost on an expensive terrible bus system which led us to a beach that surprisingly had a free outdoor hot tub. Before getting there  went into downtown to a cute hipster cafe and paid too much money for a Skyrkaka (a small cheesecake type thing), spent $20 each at a fish and chip cart for one piece of delicious fish and small crunchy fries. We ended the night at sunny 10pm going to a few local expensive bars.

Trying to get to the airport our last day was another nightmare. We waited at a freezing cold rainy bus stop for two hours for a $30 bus. At this point all we wanted to do was leave as quickly as possible.

We were upset about the weather and frustrated with the cost of everything. Two days in Reykjavik I spent such a large sum of money I’m considered for the rest of the trip. And there are not really any cheap alternatives to anything there.

The only thing I can recommend if you really really are dying to go there, 100% rent a car, we immensely regret not doing that. If you don’t have a car and cannot leave the city, you will be miserable. Reykjavik itself is a one day trip, spend the rest driving through the beautiful countryside. Also if you insist on going there, have a very large budget, you will be surprised how quickly it will deplete there. The only good thing about Reykjavik is the view of the beautiful mountains and how LGBTQ+ friendly the city is. But in general, I can not recommend Iceland, I hope I never have to go again, and I regret ever stepping foot on the Island.

Toronto, Canada has a lot of cute novelty shops and restaurants that make it a fun place to explore. After you visit all these odd quirky locations it tends to feel like most other large waterfront cities, akin to a mix of New York City and Seattle.

We walked to all of our destinations in Toronto in order to save money for something else in the next three months. Our motto is, if you can do something for free, why pay for it? The true attitude of a budget traveler.

For our first night there we went to a popular burger joint called The Works recommended by Raleigh from the last time he was in London. Absolutely incredible burgers with what feels like hundreds of burger options to choose from. They have everything from veggie patties or Elk patties to brie and arugula or peanut butter and jam options. The burgers are only improved by their alcoholic slushies or milkshakes. Definitely worth a visit.

Our only full day in Toronto was spent walking a total of nine miles all around the city. We started by getting breakfast at the legendary Tim Hortons just so I could say I’d been there because I never had. Then we walked north through the beautiful University of Toronto to the Poop Cafe in Koreatown. Yes, you heard that right, Poop Cafe. The Poop Cafe is filled with humour things like toilets for chairs to sit on, drinks served out of small urinals, coffee served out of miniature toilets, and the walls filled with pictures of piles of poop. If you are too refined and grossed out by saying or looking at poop, I don’t recommend visiting. On the other hand, if you like a good laugh and delicious milkshakes or donuts or ice cream, I suggest stopping by for a pile of thick poop.

We then walked down Younge Street which is clearly the Times Square of Toronto, filled with big name stores and giant light up billboards and a massive amount of what feels like thousands of people all around you. There was rumors of a Deaf staffed restaurant where the customers had to use sign language to order their food, which was our next goal. But online it seemed quite confusing, Google and Yelp said it was permanently closed, Facebook and Google Maps said they were open and there were Yelp reviews as recent as February, our only way to discover the truth was to go and see for ourselves. Sadly the entire building was demolished, a disappointment to the Deaf Toronto community I’m sure. Instead we headed to the glorious Nutella Cafe filled with a large menu of Nutella crepes, paninis, donuts, and “pizzas” (squares of phyllo dough with nutella and fruit on top). Incredibly delicious, I recommend it if you have a sweet tooth. We then went grocery shopping for some food to bring to Iceland where we plan to do a lot of hiking and saving money. On our final day in Toronto, our flight to Reykjavik didn’t leave until 7pm so we spent it eating poutine and visiting Graffiti Alley.

With small beautiful British style brick buildings nestled alongside massive skyscrapers, Toronto is a mashup of new and old, beauty and danger, and small within large. This ends up creating a city where anyone can find anything they like. The diversity allows any type of person to be able to find their niche and home inside the city. Add a little hockey and poutine and you have a city worth visiting.

I am a multifaceted aquarius being who is most happy when with friends, animals, books, or nature. I’m a reader, a writer, watcher, a traveler, and a filmmaker. The ocean is my mother and the moon is my goddess. Sometimes I want to quietly live in a cabin in the woods with my wolves and black cats while I grow my own food and create my own earthly life. Sometimes I want to live in the center of a big city and dance the night away, constantly trying new foods and making new friends, and eventual see every square inch of our beautiful round Earth.

Currently I spend all my time and money travelling, and I love sharing my stories with everyone! Summer 2018 I planned a 6 month European road trip with my friend! I had the time of my life and ended up visiting 90 cities/28 countries in 78 days! We created a blog and instagram to accompany our trip that you can see by following the links.

I’ve caught the travel bug and have become an assistant guide for Global Palate Adventures where I have accompanied them on trips to Lisbon and Sicily. We are currently planning a Croatia tour for fall 2020!

Last summer I lived and worked in Edinburgh for a month during the Fringe Festival & at an inn in the Scottish Highlands! I’ve fallen in love with the country and am returning to work during the Fringe in Edinburgh again this year.

I’ll also be attending the International Guide Academy next year and then will start my own travelling company for budget friendly travelers who usually backpack on a tight budget. I’ll be starting in cities I know very well and have spent a good amount of time living in, like Edinburgh and London!

I’m very excited for what’s next to come and for all my future endeavors!