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!)