Just Back: 3 Weeks Backpacking through Europe

Europe was a whirlwind and a blast. Our favorite cities were Rome, Budapest, Split, and Cinque Terre - what amazing places, we'll definitely be back to those! 😍❤️😍 We made so many memories and had so many crazy adventures - nightlife and river cruise in Budapest, swimming to a stunning beach in Croatia, drinking a bottle of peach Bellini's in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, an AMAZING time in Rome seeing the sights, drinking wine, eating food, and just exploring together, Karaoke and getting lost in the streets of Florence 😂, hiking to a remote house at the top of a mountain in Cinque Terre where we snuggled up in sleeping bags under the stars, giggling on the beach and throwing pebbles into the ocean at night in Nice, fastest self guided tour and tapas in Barcelona, sitting on the second row of the soccer game in Valencia game and catching the ball/throwing it back in to the team, a Spanish doctor adventure in Madrid, visiting a small German town and drinking banana beer from a bowl, a beach bar in Berlin, and seeing the sights in London including a quick trip to the tardis and kings cross station for a photo opp with platform 9 3/4!

So many experiences. As with any trip - nothing is perfect. We had our fair share of crazy travel issues, partially my fault for the oversight of not thinking I'd need cash. We had no cash in Split and didn't realize that they basically don't take cards (an issue we ran into again surprisingly in Germany too!). Mom and Becca had to western union money to us and we literally had to borrow money from a hostel roommate to pay for our dinner 😂😱. We had a doctor issue at the beginning of Spain and spent several days finding someone to see us - I've probably been in more different clinics than anyone I know in Spain! We finally found one and it was easy peasy from there on, and man medicine is CHEAP there! We had a crazy hostel experience in Berlin, it was the one place we hadn't booked one and of course they were all full for Octoberfest so we had to look online and book the only available beds we could find. We were in the East Berlin area and the hostel was SKETCH. Felipe didn't even brush his teeth because they put us in an all male room with a bunch of really creepy people and he didn't want to leave me alone in there. Remember the scene in Eurotrip when they arrive in Bratislava? That's about what the feel of this hostel was 😂😱. The area seemed pretty safe, it just had such a sketchy feel and we were glad to check out the next day. Our biggest issue (and most expensive) was an immigration issue preventing us from going through Canada on the way home, forcing us to buy two new one way flights from London to New York, rent a car, and road trip it home. As frustrating as that was and is - I'm glad it came at the tail end of our trip so it didn't taint everything else completely. We also got our first experience renting a car and motel on the fly, and buying a ticket directly from the airport counter! So check on those life experiences 😜.

Now to Fashion! As you may recall, I took on the ridiculous challenge of wearing a different outfit EVERY DAY using only 12 pieces of clothing (read about that insanity here!). It went really well - I have a feeling that the more dressed up you are, the better you get treated - I never had any issues using restrooms in stores or being viewed as an annoying "traveler" since I generally put some effort into making sure my outfit was nice and not frumpy comfy (all while also being comfortable!).

I took one pair of shoes. ONE. They started to smell but we washed them and they held up insanely well (aside from the slight tan line on my feet - good thing it's fall coming up 😂😂). They took me through 462,586 steps over the trip (yay Fitbit) and I even hiked through mountains in Cinque Terre without any issues! I am obviously throwing them out now that I'm home, but I'm thinking about going and buying another pair because I liked them so much.

I had some favorite outfits, but I can genuinely say there wasn't one that I hated or disliked. I also got multiple uses of every piece I took which I LOVE, it feels so good to plan well and use everything even down to the jewelry! Every piece was LuLaRoe except for my swimsuit, bralettes, mustard tank top, black shorts, and kimono.

Check out all my outfits! Felipe is so sweet and awesome pointing out great photo locations and snapping photos like he's a fashion photographer. It's cool not feeling silly because you literally know NO ONE and don't care what people think.

Side note: It was really really convenient to use the stylebook app. Every day I already had an outfit planned - it really is crazy how planning ahead helps you to remember all the outfit combinations and styling ideas in the moment. I'm actually hoping to get my fall wardrobe organized and start using stylebook to plan my outfits during the week! If you want to check it out click here, it comes highly recommended!

Another side note: Seriously EVERY country in Europe we visited was so dog friendly. I'm definitely used to my USA comforts and wouldn't want to give those up to live elsewhere (like free water in restaurants and using credit cards for everything 😝), but I would love if the US let us bring little Toby out like you can in Europe!

Mustard Tank Top: Old Navy

Black Shorts: JC Penny

Swimsuit: Cupshe (online)

Kimono: Target

All Other Clothing: LuLaRoe. Find new patterns weekly at Shop LuLaRoe MGWells!

#travelstyle #clothing #lularoe #style #fashion #eurotrip #wanderlust #adventure