Not all who wander are lost...

SO, I've been giving advice to people thinking of moving to the Netherlands for a bit now and thought I would share some of my thoughts. On the Weather: Buy a great raincoat. I know the Dutch don't do it, but invest in a pair of rain pants. Get a set of Frogg Toggs or something. I know they bike in the rain, but seriously, wet jeans suck and it rains a lot here. This video is not lying. On the Food: It sucks. There is no happy medium here. If you are used to flavour, spice, anything...this is not going to be your happy place. Find an ethnic grocer like Oriental Express and order your ingredients and learn to cook. Ordering is expensive and options are limited. The y have even managed to make Domino's Pizza suck worse than in the US....I didn't know that was possible, but they found away. The only food here that you will be super excited about is the frites (fries) and they can be 4E a cone, ouch. On speaking English: Of the EU countries I've been in, ...

I lived in San Francisco and the surrounding area for 5 years. I was actually married there. When we first moved from Florida to SF, we lived with friends in the Pacifica hills. My husband actually had us stop on the side of the highway and take a photo when we got there. We had driven from Tampa, Florida across the Southern U.S. on I-10 all the way to CA, where we turned North and took the Grapevine through LA and then took the 5 up into SF. There were times, shoved into his little Honda Civic that I thought we'd kill each other on the 3.5 day drive. Most notably when we hit El Paso and this boarder check on the edge of Mexico. He'd had me drive the car, which was a stick shift that I didn't know how to drive. It was late at night, pitch black but for the lights of cars and the flash of fireworks at a Bullfight across the border. I pulled into the line of cars waiting to be checked by the military...and promptly stalled the car. Over and over. It was one of thos...

I hear all these awesome stories from other travelers, but I like pictures. They give me ideas and spark my imagination, so here's a bunch of travel/experience pictures I've collected as my absolute favorites over the years. I don't know where I've collected them from, but if they are yours and you want me to take them down, just let me know.

Starbucks in Budapest The problem with not keeping busy, for me, is I start travel planning. That might not sound so bad, but I have a habit of implementing said plans without thinking of other activities in my future...like paying rent. How does one go about traveling the world without a paycheck? Without massive credit card debt or someone 'back home' paying for it? Currently, I'm a student in Europe and my husband is back in the US working to pay for my education. The way the VISA works, you have to prepay each year ahead of time including living expenses like rent and food. So that's the money I'm working off (mostly) when I travel. The day-to-day money spent during the trips is from my budget each month and the flights/hotels/hostels are from our savings. Mainly because I put those on credit cards (for safety) and then pay them off that payday. Still, it doesn't seem fair to the hubby who is working so hard to send me to school. Of course, he activel...

When I was first looking at housing overseas I did all the things I thought were right: I joined my school's housing site, t he school's housing FaceBook site,  several real estate sites, and talked to friends in Europe or that had lived abroad. I asked questions of potention rental units about terms and leases, furnishing requirements, smoking/non-smoking, pets, municipality codes, etc. I asked about availability of parking and distances from school, who was responsible for utilities and how they were managed, I reviewed contracts and agreements and subrental paperwork, etc.  I thought I was golden. Yeah, not so much. I swear, one day I'm gonna write a book.  I moved, by myself, to the Netherlands for grad school. The week before I was to arrive I still hadn't found accommodation. I was on the school's housing sites, the realitors, everything. Finally a girl messaged me that she had an apartment for subrent if I wanted to do that. It was two bedrooms and ...

After reading way more travel blogs and FB posts than is probably healthy, I started looking at my packing list. I think it's pretty comprehensive, so I figured I'd share. There are two versions: Ultra-light and Comprehensive. Comprehensive Kit: Gear 4 U cooking series- bag bamboo spatula 2 collapsible silicone cups 2 plastic bowls 2 sporks scrubber collapsible ladle frying pan 1L pot Mepal Bamboo plate Sawyer mini water filtration system Snugpack Traveller w/built in mosquito net sleeping bag Vaude Performance 7 Medium air chamber mattress + pump sack that doubles as a compression bag Vaude 35L Brenta backpack (comes with rain cover) Eaglecreek Pack-it system cubes for organization Umbrella (compact) Sea to Summit Aeros Pillow (blow up) Buff U/Water resistant reversible (self-storage) bucket hat Small, lightweight travel notebook Earplugs Pocket sized grocery bag Plastic/Rubber sandals for hostels or the beach Toiletries Kit Adventure Bath...