Rhossili Bay, Wales (Gower Penninsula)

On the weekend of November 15 and 16, while friends and family at home were experiencing an early snow fall in Canada, we were headed to the beach!  And not just any old beach.  This is probably one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to.  Rhossili Bay which is situated at the end of the Gower Penninsula in Wales was voted Britain's Best Beach in 2010!

On the Friday night, we headed to Cardiff, Wales where our friends Kara and Zac are living.  Although my only photos on this post are of the Gower Penninsula, we spent the rest of our weekend in Cardiff, catching up with Kara and Zac.  We had such a good time (though we continually confused both Zack's by not specifying which one we were speaking to... sorry guys) and are planning to head back there again sometime in the new year!  

On Saturday we were given a beautiful day to take a drive out to the Gower.  Though the wind did pick up quite a bit, the sunshine was perfect.  We explored the cliffs and gazed out to what is called "Worm's head" at the very end of the penninsula.  After a decent hike, we were able to eat a late lunch on the beach, and watched the sunset as we sipped some hot tea.  Perfect day.  

The Highlands, Scotland

We loved the Highlands.  As much as we enjoyed Edinburgh, I really wish we could have spent more time up here.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  There is something about the peacefulness of northern Scotland that I just love.  The downside of not having a car however, is that you can't get to a lot of the remote places (which is where you definitely want to go when you're in the Highlands) so we opted for a three day tour with "Haggis Tours".  There are pros and cons to signing up for a guided tour like this.  The pros being it is all planned out for you, they load you up with tons of history and stories that we otherwise wouldn't have heard (our tour guides were also hilarious), and you make new friends with others on the tour.  The cons being you are on "their" schedule (we became so used to doing whatever we pleased during our summer travels) and somehow the "peacefulness" isn't so peaceful anymore when there's 40 of you filing off a bus to take photos of the same view.  But nonetheless, we were very pleased with Haggis Tours.  It was a fairly young crowd (a lot of new teachers like Zack, because it was half term break) and our guides were native to Scotland which made the experience that much better.  The trip departed out of Edinburgh and we drove a big yellow bus (that read "Young, Wild, and Sexy") up through to the Isle of Skye.  We all stayed at a hostel in Fort Augustus (situated at the bottom point of Loch Ness) where we joined in on an intense pub quiz the first night and heard some live music the second night.  The pub quiz was a particular favourite night of ours and we found ourselves dressed in Scottish Tartan while enjoying some good ales.  Zack seems to have an abundance of random general knowledge so even though our team came in third place, I thought we did quite well.  We met some great people on the tour, and in a total of just three days we saw castles, mountains, lochs (lakes), tasted Scottish whiskey, and even went on a few short hikes.  I think the photos really speak for themselves....

Edinburgh, Scotland

"Fair and full is your honest, jolly face,

Great chieftain of the sausage race!

Above them all you take your place,

Stomach, tripe, or intestines:

Well are you worthy of a grace

As long as my arm"

- Address to a Haggis, by Robert Burns.

That, my friends, is just a small section of "Address to a Haggis" written by Scottish writer Robert Burns in 1786.  This man loved haggis so much that he decided to show his appreciation through poetry.  Scotland is full of old stories and proud culture just like this one here.  Oh- and if you're not sure what "haggis" is, well, just google it.  We ate it twice while in Scotland, and both times we were pleasantly surprised.  Though I can't say I'll be professing my love through poetry like Robert Burns.  I did take a few photos:

London, England

I've actually been to London once before.  It was a stop over on my way to Africa in January 2008.  I hated it.  First of all, I was extremely jet-lagged.  Second of all, I was an emotional wreck- leaving your boyfriend and family behind for three months is a big deal when you're 18.  My (maybe) eight hours of time in London in 2008 was spent following around a few of my friends that I had met through the program, in the pouring rain, carrying my pillow (travel rookie mistake).  I remember sitting on the tube, not impressed with how wet I was from the rain, and feeling so tired I felt that I could puke.  Looking back, I was just an immature young girl not realizing how lucky I was to have the opportunity to stop in London, England- one of the most visited cities in the entire world.  

I am pleased to say that this time around (six and a half years later), I experienced this city in an entirely different light.  I didn't really "count" my stop-over as a legitimate trip to London, so I went in to this weekend trip with excitement.  I was excited to see the famous sights for the "first" time and to immerse myself in the hustle and bustle with my partner in crime by my side.  From Cambridge, it only takes 50 minutes to get to Kings Cross, if you catch the direct train.  So we packed some food and a change of clothes, and off we went.

Peak District, England

    

Saturday is usually a sleep-in day.  But not last Saturday.  No sir, last Saturday we were up bright and early.  Adventure was calling us!  Last Saturday we took the long trek out to one of England's greatest hiking destinations: The Peak District.

From Cambridge, it's about a three hour drive.  We are lucky to have made some friends since being here, and that some of those friends just so happen to have a car.   We are also lucky to have made friends with people who also think it's a grand idea to wake up early to drive a decent way across the country for a day of hiking and adventuring!  To give you a visual of just how far we drove for this one day, I've added a map showing where Cambridge is in comparison to the Peak District:

A day in Oxford, England

We've now been living in Cambridge for one month.  And for one month, I have not left (other than a few bike rides out to some small surrounding towns) Cambridge.  It's crazy how in just one month, I've really found a sense of "home" here.  I have grown to love this place already.  So much, that a day trip to Oxford made me feel a sense of pride for my new home.  As many of you may know, Oxford and Cambridge are home to two of the most prestigous Universities.  The rivalry between the two University towns will always be ongoing.  I was excited to discover what Oxford was like and create my own (biast, obviously) opinion.  But far more importantly, the reason I woke up so crazy early in excitement to get here, was because I was meeting an old friend from Canada, Kara. :)

Kara has been living in Bristol for a number of years (5, maybe?), and is now living with her husband Zac in Cardiff, Wales.  Oxford seemed like a great half way point to meet up for the day.  It is such a great feeling to see a familiar face from home!  I've known Kara my entire life, as our families were great friends from church, and we also attended the same high school.  I remember Kara helping me fix my uniform on the first day of Grade Nine-  just like a big sister would do.  Being two years older, she was much more informed of the "cool" way to wear your uniform, haha.  Our day in Oxford flew by, as we shared many laughs and shared our experiences of moving to the UK.  It was nice to hear about her perspective of the small but unavoidable cultural differences between Canada and the UK.  Just like the first day of Grade 9, she gave me some great insight of things I can expect this year being a new-comer from a different country.

Seven European Food Experiences

We love food.  Trying new foods, cooking new foods, talking about food, I even love pictures of food.  In fact, there's probably not a whole lot of time throughout my day when food is not in the back of my mind.  I count myself very lucky to have married a guy that actually loves to cook.  Though I am doing most of the cooking since Zack started his job, he tells me I am his greatest and worst critic...  I tell him it's just "constructive critisism" :p.  But really, I do love his cooking!  He introduced me to a whole new world of vegetarianism that I never knew was possible.  This summer however, we decided there were no limits.  We wanted to embrace the food of everywhere we went.  We were really excited to "eat our way" through Europe.

Let me clear one thing up before I get into this post.  We were travelling for 2 months, not making any money, just using what we had saved up for the summer.  So as you can imagine, we were forced to be quite frugal in the way we spent.  So how could we afford to eat our way through Europe, rather than just eating beans and rice? (haha, though those were two of our staple foods at times...). We made up a few simple guidelines:

Arriving in Cambridge

Firstly, I appologize for the lack of photos in this post.  Having finished our summer of wandering Europe, our time recently has involved many other "real life" tasks that have distracted me from capturing the beauty of this city.  I promise that once my camera is fixed (which is happening now!  I had to send it away), I will venture out and take loads of pictures.  I can already tell that this city offers some great photo opportunities.

I can't believe we're here.  I can't believe that the summer has passed and that we've made our way up to England.  It's crazy to look back on our lives these past couple months and think of all the places we've been and all we've seen.  What a great summer!!  However, I do have to admit, when we finally arrived in England we were completely content with the fact that we'll be staying here for a while.  And though we of course have been welcomed already with a fair share of rain and cloudy days, we already feel like we have really arrived "home".  For one, English is the first spoken language here.  Secondly, we've already connected with some people that have made us feel like this is where we should be.

Summer in Review

As we have now wrapped up our trip, people have been asking us what our favourite destination was.  This is never an easy answer.  We loved all the places we visited for different reasons.  There is not a place that we visited that we would not suggest someone to visit, it just depends on what you are looking for.  This is why I am going to list what we and I loved about each place. This blog has not yet experienced lists and bullet points and this is because my creative and artistic wife as been posting them. Yes, I Zack am writing this post and hope you enjoy it half as much as Sarah's well written posts.

With that being cleared up, here is a list off all the cities and countries we visited.

Paris, France

Bonjour! 

Ca va?

Ca va bien, et tu?

Sadly, that's almost the extent of our French.  Why oh why did I not pursue this language in school when I had the chance?  Zack even spent four years in elementary schooling doing "French extended",  and still we've got nothing on these Parisians.  In our opinion, French is a beautiful sounding language. Yes, it even beats out "sexy Italian"...  haha.  There's something about the way Parisians communicate that sounds sofisticated and soft.  At least that's what we got from all the people watching we did here (and trust me, we did a lot).  We spent a lot of our time here in Paris, really not doing a whole lot!  I actually spent time reading more than just 5 pages of a novel, and enjoyed the parks and scenery of the city.  Being our final destination before England, we just wanted to soak up the city and not exhaust ourselves before the real world of working and living in one city would approach us.  Unfortunately, the weather was a little cooler than we'd had hoped (I guess we left summer behind in Venice!), but we were lucky to have sunshine for most of the time we were there.

Innsbruck, Austria

I've always loved The Sound of Music.  I have memories of watching that film going back to before I was in kindergarten.  I remember feeling inspired by Sister Maria's love of music and her desire for freedom and adventure... Her clumsiness and her "young at heart" personality is also something I feel like I can relate to (I sometimes feel like I'll never truly feel fully "grown up" :p).  Along with my love for the inspiring story line, the setting of The Sound of Music always captivated me.  Could there possibly such green rolling hills?  Well in fact, yes!  I saw them with my very own eyes this summer while we made our way up to Innsbruck, Austria (the actual setting of the movie is in Salzburg- just over an hour away from Innsbruck).  I know this might sound cheesy, but they gave me goosebumps.

Just like our unexpected stop in Bari, Innsbruck was never a part of our original itinerary.  After rearranging our schedule a bit to meet up with friends in Croatia, we had the (glorious) freedom of asking each other "where shall we go next?".  This has to be one of the best feelings in the world.  We were seriously considering the south coast of France (we went to the extent of finding accommodations in Nice), but after spending a good amount of time in Italy and Croatia we thought maybe we'd switch things up a bit.  Though I'm sure Nice would have been nice (haha, I've been waiting to say that), instead of opting for beaches and warm weather, the mountains were calling.  We had really enjoyed our time in Switzerland and knew we'd probably find ourselves feeling the same thing about Austria.  And I'm happy to say, we were right about that!  Despite the fact that it rained every day we were there and at times we felt like we were stuck in a thick cloud, we loved the town of Innsbruck.  The train ride itself from Venice to Innsbruck was enough to satisfy our excitement for the mountains.

Venice, Italy

When we arrived in Venice, it was 10:30pm we had just spent 10 hours in a car.  I knew Zack was fading, but this was the last night we had with Mel, Keaton and Caiti, so we wanted to explore the city a bit.  Though we were all running on little energy, we trekked into the city.  I have to admit, there's nothing quite like strolling the streets of Venice at midnight.  The weather was still warm but not scorching, and the streetlights light up the canals making them glisten in the moonlight.  The void of cars and other vehicles create such a quiet intimacy as well.  This was the perfect start to our stay in Venice.

I know this might be ignorant, but before coming here I had no idea that the city of Venice is an island (to be exact, it's made up of 177 islands... all linked together by numerous small bridges and water canals.  The city is an island made up of islands!).  I also had a picture in my mind of the beautiful canals, but really thought it would be crowded and way too hot (which I thought would take away from the "romantic feel" of the city).  But to my surprise, we found ourselves loving Venice.  We stayed at a campground located off the island (on the mainland, everything becomes a lot cheaper) called "Village Jolly".  And what a jolly little village it was!  We had made these arrangements kind of last minute, and really did not know what to expect.  Arriving late at night, we were worried we'd have to set up a tent in the dark (which would have sucked.  We were exhausted from our time in Croatia) but to our surprise, the tents they rented out were more like small cabins with fabric walls, and included two single beds!  Now, this is glamorous camping!  Village Jolly also had an outdoor pool and a great breakfast buffet which we made use of every morning.  We took the bus into Venice in the afternoon each day and were able to walk around Venice in the evening, which in our opinion is the best time to stroll.

Dubrovnik & Split, Croatia

Arriving in Dubrovnik still feels like a dream.  We took an overnight ferry from Bari, and just like many other ferry passengers, had attempted to sleep on the floor in the common deck area (where they do not even dim the lights for whatever reason).  I blocked out the light from my eyes and dozed in and out until I heard the rustling of many footsteps just a few feet from my head.  I heard a young girl say "wow, look at that view!", so I slid off my eye mask, looked out the window, and there it was: the beautiful coast of Dubrovnik.  The soft morning light made it look absolutely magical.  The old town of Dubrovnik has high stone walls, making it appear castle-like.  Add in green mountainous landscape and the blue glow of the Adriatic Sea... Well it just doesn't get any better than that.  When we reached the old town, we entered through the city gates and got lost wandering the narrow pedestrian roads.  Though we had already spent time in some walled Italian towns, Dubrovnik felt different.  I felt like I was in a land of ships and pirates.  Just magical.

We're stuck in Bari!

Bari was never a part of our itinerary.  The plan was to leave Rome on Sunday, take a long train ride to Bari and catch a night ferry headed to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We were super excited to get to Croatia.  Not only had we heard that in Croatia we'd find some of the most beautiful beaches on the Adriatic, but we were meeting up with friends from home!  Mel, Keaton and Caiti would plan to arrive in Dubrovnik just one day after us.  Little did we know, Croatia was not to be in the plan just yet...

Rome, Italy

When in Rome... We found ourselves saying that a lot during our stay here.  Should we get gelato? When in Rome!  Splurge on a gourmet pizza? When in Rome!  Should we rent a scooter? When in Rome!  Haha, it  seemed like that was our "excuse" for everything.  We started thinking about why "when in Rome" actually originated in the first place.  We discovered that the complete saying would actually be: when in Rome, do as the Romans do.  So, we'd tried to live up to that while we were here, and that is mainly why we felt we MUST rent a scooter!  We may have spent a little more money than we had planned, so we tried to seek out only the "free admission" touristy things.  And we couldn't have been any happier with that desicion.  In our opinion, there is no better way to see Rome than zipping around the city on a scooter, amongst the many other local (of course) scootering Romans.  

We arrived in Rome late in the evening and made our way to our air bnb.  The apartment was in an excellent location (very close to the city centre, only a 30 minute walk from the colluseum) so immediately we felt the excitement of the city.  To be honest, even  though I looked forward to seeing the sights of Rome, I had been a bit weary about visiting such a busy, touristy spot during probably the hottest time of the year.  We had also been warned many times of pick pockets and theives that seek out tourists.  However, despite the crowds, we found Rome to be a great city to explore even if you have to do most by foot.  The city includes some gorgeous cobblestone pedestrian areas but also has the excitement of a very "happening" city.  The first day we did completely by foot and were able to visit the Vatican City ( we went first thing in the morning to avoid line ups. Had to wait just 10 minutes) and also many other stunning churches.  What struck us about Rome was that you'd be walking down the street, and find that many of the exteriors of the churches would not do justice to wHat you would see inside.  Stepping inside the Pantheon, and walking around the old Roman ruins was even better than we had imagined.  

Lucca & Chianti, Italy

Ahh Tuscany, we're finally here!  It's been months since the beginning of planning for this trip, and Tuscany was always top on our list when it came to our itinerary.  We even named this blog after how excited we were about Tuscany!  So was Tuscany all we dreamed of?  We would have to say yes and no.  We had a great experience, just with a few ups and downs (but mostly ups!).

We arrived in Lucca late in the evening and were picked up at the train station by our host, Giuseppe.  Despite his lack of English, we found him to be an extremely welcoming host.  We stayed at his family's house, 5 km outside the walled city of Lucca.  We enjoyed being in the countryside and they had a couple of bikes for us to use, which we used to ride into the city.  The area was a little different than we had imagined... instead of rolling hills of manicured vineyards, there were unruly wild gardens growing corn, and the bumpy streets were lined with old, weathered looking buildings.  The bikes we rode had rusty old chains and breaks that squeeked (I'm pretty sure the bike that I rode belonged to a child, haha).  The weather was not the greatest either, raining for half of our stay.  I ended up being attacked by mosquitos during the night and woke up to red, swollen bites all over my body. I would post a picture of my face in the morning, but it's a little too embarrassing... haha.  Our host family was not around for the first day and a half though, so it was nice to have some quiet time to ourselves at their house.  The second night we were there, they invited us to join them for dinner and we indulged in Giuseppe's home made pizza.  We enjoyed their company so much and we felt that we were able to experience some true Italian family time!  

Cinque Terre, Italy

I am excited to say we've made our way into Italy.  The air is warmer, the water is saltier, and our foreheads are little sweatier.  We came from Switzerland, where all the log cabin homes looked picture perfect and into Northwest Italy where the colourful concrete buildings look ancient and worn down.  After a long train ride we finally made it to La Spezia, a city just in land from Cinque Terre National Park.  We took a (slightly scary) bus ride up the mountain to our hostel in the very small town of Biassa.  The next couple days we spent exploring Cinque Terre National Park, a huge park that runs along the coast of the Medditeranean Sea.  Here you'll find five colourful villages built right into the cliffs.  There are hiking paths that run inbetween each city (or if hiking isn't your thing, you can take a train).  The first day we did the hike in between the towns which turned out to be a LOT of climbing up and down the steep terrain.  Though our calves were in pain the next day, the views we discovered during the hike made it well worth it.  On the second day, we gave our legs a break and took the train... which was an experience in itself.  Can't say I've ever felt so suffocated in a train before.  Being peak season, unfortunately we found ourselves squished into the train rubbing up against a dozen other sweaty tourists.  If you ever get the chance to vist Cinque Terre, we would highly reccomend waiting until at least September so the crowds aren't so herendous.  But despite the crowds, our experience here seemed a bit surreal.  Wandering through these towns we would find the smallest of pathways in between buildings, ancient looking but colourful architecture,  amazing seafood and of course many quaint restaurants selling pizza, pasta, and other amazing Italian dishes.  I'll never forget when we were making our way down into the second small village (we had just decended down from one of the wooded, cliffside hiking paths) and an Italian waiter swiftly passed us along the cobblestone pathway carrying at least three Italian pasta dishes.  The smell that wafted past us was to die for!  It doesn't get more Italian than that.  Where did he even come from? Haha. Oh how I love Italian cooking.  

Interlaken, Switzerland

                                       

Amongst the most breathtaking views in the world, there are a few things we learned about the Swiss while we were here:

1) There is a VERY specific way to do cheese fondue.  If you stray at all from the proper routine, sorry, it's just not Swiss.

2)  The stinkier the cheese, the better the cheese is.

3)  If you are at all OCD, this is the place to be.  The Swiss are all about order and routine.

4)  If you visit Interlaken or surrounding areas during July or August, you are most likely to be surrounded by South Koreans or Chinese.  This is their number one vacation hotspot.  We were the minority at our hostel.

5)  If it is raining the morning of your hike, it's best to just wait it out-- unless you have full rain gear. 

All these things we learned through personal experience.  I am writing this on the train, as we wind through green, luscious mountain towns.  Every turn we take, there is a new sight to take in.  There are log cabin like homes climbing up steep, narrow hills, goats and cows grazing in the fields, and snow capped mountains in the distance.  Switzerland has been beautiful.  

Munich, Germany

One of the first things we noticed about Munich was how green it was.  Huge parks, everywhere.  Different kind of parks than in Prague though... Prague was perfectly manicured, where as the parks here seemed more... worked in?  The city seemed clean as well, making us feel very comfortable here.  We were here for a total of 2 and a half days and were able to rent bikes (wahoo!) and spend a lot of our time outside the city centre exploring what else Munich had to offer.  Our accommodations were a 15 minute tram ride from downtown (or a 45 minute bike ride) but in the end, we were quite pleased with where we were staying.  Looking back at our time here, there are 3 main highlights that come to mind:  The Tent, The English Garden, and our visit to Dachau Concentration Camp.  

What exactly is "The Tent"?  It's where we slept while we were there!  Zack has been booking all of our accommodations (and doing a fine job of it!), and when he first told me about this one, I was a bit weary.  This is how he explained it to me:  "It's a massive tent just outside of the city filled with 100 beds.  It's the cheapest place to stay.  Or you can pay the minimum and they will give you a floor mat and some blankets to sleep on the floor."  Since he booked fairly last minute, we ended up on the floor.  Can you see why I could have been a bit weary?  But I must say, I absolutely loved our stay at "The Tent".  It was way cleaner than I expected, and the people here were extremely friendly.  It was mostly young travellers staying here and some families as well.  When you arrive, they give you a laminated number and you have to claim your spot on the floor.  They have lockers to lock your bags in which was nice, and the showers and kitchen were always kept nice and clean.  To me, it kind of felt like glamorous camping!  The place was surrounded by nature, and you can also pitch a tent in the back if you'd like.  Every night they have a bonfire and there were gravel pathways throughout the surrounding neighbourhoods and wooded areas that we loved exploring.  There were ping pong tables, badminton rackets, and bikes available to rent.  Maybe it was good that I had such low expectations, because it made my experience just that much better!  I loved it here!

Prague, Czech Republic

Praha (or Prague, as we know it in English), is quite possibly the most beautiful city we've ever visited.  It is one of the oldest, most well preserved cities in Europe, and unlike many other European countries, did not get burnt to the ground durning the World War.  This left some of the most beautiful buildings left in their original form.  Going through my photos after our time here, I found I had photo after photo of the city streets, lined with beautiful architecture.  This city is romantic, picturesque, and includes some beautiful castles, including the Prague castle.  It is small enough that it makes walking around the city quite possible, which I love.  

When we arrived at our hostel on Monday, we were blown away.  Nestled at the bottom of a hill, the old style exterior of the hostel did not prepare me for the modern design of the interior.  Think polished concrete, brick walls, high ceilings and tall windows.  The showers were also polished concrete with frosted glass with rain head shower heads.  White linens were on our bedroom bunks with double sized pillows.  We definitely felt like we were at a hotel!  And it was super cheap!  Zack had booked us in different rooms (haha) because I guess that made it even cheaper.  That turned out to be just fine because my room was all girls and I really enjoyed chatting with the other girls.  I love finding out where other travellers are headed, or hearing about their experiences along the way (and seeing as Zack and I are travelling together for 7 weeks, some time apart probably did us well, haha).  The only negative part of the hostel was that there was no guest kitchen for us to use.  It turned out okay though because they had an all you can eat breakfast buffet downstairs in their (super trendy) basement bar (that I'm mad I didn't get any photos of because it was such a cool space).

Berlin, Germany

Leaving Copenhagen and arriving into Berlin was like leaving a quaint colourful city full of tall, blonde (and quite good-looking) people, and arriving into a massive city of concrete and many cultures.  Berlin is rich with history and there are some extremely beautiful buildings, however we discovered that being here for just one weekend was hardly enough time to feel like we could familiarize ourselves with the city.  We enjoyed our stay at the Amstel House Hostel, though the location was not (ideally) centrally located.  We graduated from cycling around Copenhagen to Metro-ing our way around Berlin; and we most definitely missed having Didde's bikes to explore the city with.  Taking underground transit always seems to disorient me (I can't visualize how to get one place to the next, like I can on a bicycle).  So I was definitely grateful to have Zack there with me!  Exploring this city solo would probably not be something I would try to do on my own.  

Copenhagen, Denmark

I think we've found our happy place:  On a bike, cycling around the streets of Copenhagen.  Cycling is a way of life here, and it's just awesome.  Since there are outrageous taxes on owning a car in Denmark, most people here use a bike as their main mode of transportation.  Business women in high heels, moms pushing two children, younger children, students, you name it; they are all out there on their bikes.  The city itself is designed in a way that makes this completely possible with streets lined with raised bicycle paths, ramps to get up and over curbs, and even metal tracks to help bring your bicycle up and down a set of stairs.  Mix that aspect of the city in with beautiful streets lined with cafes, shops, waterways and colourful buildings, we were in our glory biking around this wonderful city.  

Reykjavik, Iceland

Our first impression of Iceland was barren and desolate.  As we trekked our tired selves out of the airport after our red eye flight,we looked around to see a fairly flat landscape covered with rocks and moss.  Though I hadn't slept all night, we ran outside excited to find our shuttle bus.  And then it hit us.  A cold Icelandic gust of wind.  We were tired, hungry and had no sense of time, but that wind definitely kept us awake until we could check into our hostel.  Reykjavik was an adventure and an awesome way to start our journey.  From the culture and people, the scenery, and the copius amount of daylight, we've loved our stay.  Here are some of the highlights:

What we packed for 2 months in Europe

Now that I've expressed just how excited I was about my backpack, I've had many people ask me how exactly I was going to fit everything or simply WHAT am I going to pack.  Great question!  As we finally were able to pack our items, I recorded exactly what went into our backpacks.  As you will see in the following photos, we were limited on what we could bring and therefore had to choose our clothing items wisely.  As tough as this was for me, I absolutely loved it.  I love the challenge of living with whatever we have on our backs for a couple months.  Our lives can sometimes be so full of stuff and I don't know about you, but this can sometimes make me feel suffocated.  It's time to go back to the basics.  I'm excited to get out into the world with not being weighed down with materialistic things.  That's not to say that I don't love fashion and style.  That brings me to my next point.  How do you pack simply for a couple months in a backpack but yet stay stylish?  Not only do I love wearing clothing items that I love, but we are going to a place in the world that seems to always be a step ahead in the fashion world.  I'd like to think we did a fairly good job of mixing functional travel wear with fashion ( or, I hope we did!).  For example, I made sure to bring simple items that are easy to mix and match and are also easy to accessorize with a fun scarf or headband.  We'll see how it goes....

The Perfect Pack

This past month has been a month of making lists.  Lists, upon lists.  We’ve even created a few spread sheets.  It must be our “inner nerd” coming out in us, haha.  I’m sure my Dad would be proud of us, as he has a spread sheet for almost everything.  Aren’t you proud Dad? (I know you’re reading this).  But actually-  Lists, spreadsheets, etc, they are all so necessary when planning a year like the one that is ahead of us! 

Saying Goodbye to Life on Lowell

Well apartment on Lowell, you've been good to us.  Athough you have your quirks... for example, any time it reaches above 20 degrees Celsius outside you turn into a heat box and force us to eat dinner on our bedroom floor (that's where the air conditioning unit is), you've been great. But really, we've had a wonderful year. I can't say it was our very first apartment together because we did spend four months in London (Ontario), but I can say that it really felt like a new chapter in our lives. A great one actually :). Zack was in teachers college at Brock and I found a full time job that I truly enjoyed.  I felt like we were establishing our own little home.  We spent our first Christmas as a married couple here, watched the seasons change, went on many walks around our charismatic neighbourhood, cooked many special meals here, and would often sit in the living room with a glass of red wine, discussing our days and getting lost in our atlas (it's true. We have become map nerds).  Along the way, we've gathered small items that really made our apartment somewhere that we enjoyed to be.  I have loved creating our home this past year into one that just was "us".  I've posted these photos on one hand to practice using my camera (gotta get ready to take some epic pics!!) but on the other hand, to remember this apartment and this past year in our lives.  I will definitely miss the little things about home.  It wasn't easy for me to completely change direction.  I found a job that was fitting for me, and where I saw a lot of room for growth.  Things could not have been going better.  But life happens. And I am NOT one to turn down an experience like this one.  There are still many uncertainties, but I am taking them on full force.  As of now, I have no idea where I'll be working come the fall, or even if I'll even find work at all.  We don't know where we'll be living, or who we will make friends with.  We don't even know if we’ll like it over there.  Yikes. That's enough about the uncertainties.  When it comes down to it, as we currently are packing our belongings in cardboard boxes, I can't say I'd rather be doing anything else. So goodbye apartment on Lowell, you'll be missed.

Our Itinerary

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read and appreciate our blog.  It is encouraging to hear positive feedback, and I definitely appreciate that!  On that note, I have for you here(drum roll please)..... our summer ITINERARY!  I have not included dates, just because this plan is not 100 percent set in stone, but it is safe to say we will be spending 2-3 days in each of the destinations listed below.  I think my heart just started beating a littler faster.... I am so beyond excited about this!  I can only imagine what I will be writing about in just over one month...

And there you have it folks, our (loose) itinerary!  I am not going to go into detail about what led us to each destination, but I'm sure you can see that we are covering a lot of ground.  It's hard not to get carried away and try to hit up as many places as possible (trust me, I'm currently trying to work Austria into our itinerary).  I have to remind myself that less travel days and more time in each destination will give us the chance to actually take in our surroundings.  We've also read many suggestions like this on other travel blogs.  I'm sure we'll be quite exhausted by the end either way.  However, we're talking the best kind of exhausted :)  

This is it! First post of (hopefully) many.

Welcome to You Me and Tuscany!  AKA.... Sarah, Zack and Tuscany.  AKA Sarah, Zack and a ton of new places.   We actually are hitting up a LOT more than just Tuscany this summer... Tuscany is however one of our most looked forward to destinations.  And we thought it was a decent blog name.  :)

Maybe I should back up a bit.  For those who haven’t been filled in on the details yet, Zack and I are leaving Canada on July 3^rd for quite the adventure.  Zack has accepted a teaching position at a high school in England and will begin his one year contract this September.  You can check out the school website here: http://www.neale-wade.org/.  (Quick side note:  The principal of this school used to be a professional rugby player!  I think that’s pretty cool.  That’s a huge deal in England!)  I am extremely proud of Zack :). I know he’ll make an awesome teacher.  

Though we have been warned that high school kids in England have a reputation for being somewhat ...unruly (we don’t know if this is actually true.  I guess we’ll find out), we are looking at this as a great opportunity.  It is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to challenge ourselves, and to explore parts of this world that we have never been to.  With that being said, we are flying over two months early to backpack Europe!  We are beginning our travels with a layover in Iceland for three days (which we are pretty pumped about), and then landing in Denmark to begin our trek.  We won’t actually be in England until late August.  Needless to say, we are constantly researching, reading, and discussing everything from our summer itinerary, finding housing in England, our packing lists, to all the fine details in between.  Trust me, there are a LOT of details.  I have to give props to my lovely husband for being the one who is mostly on top of things.  I had a lot of fun creating the look of this blog while I’m sure he was researching travel insurance or some other not-so-fun detail.  Thanks Zack. :)

So that is a brief synopsis of what’s going on with us.  I’ll be sure to post our itinerary soon!

(We are actually down to 46 days now!)