Hi friends!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog & so I just wanted to check in & say hello. I’ve still been active on Instagram, obviously, since it tends to take only a minute to share a snap & a quick thought there, but trust me when I’ve been saving all the best photos & stories to share here.

Sam & I have been quite busy with all of our adventuring! We got to Switzerland just under two weeks ago & have loved pretty much every moment we spent here, once we got sorted.

Getting sorted was a bit stressful though… We rolled in to Zurich with almost no plans, having booked a place to stay in the city on HotelTonight only that morning. (Speaking of which, if you download the app, enter the code “Adventure25” to get $25 off your first night. Do it now & use it later for either a staycation like we had in Monterey or an emergency-cation like we had in Zurich. It doesn’t expire & I can’t think of a good reason not to…)

Partly that was because we left booking a place until the last minute: Switzerland is really really expensive, we’ve discovered, & so it seemed like everything we looked at was above our budget.

Partly though, we had some bad luck with AirBnB (which has been our main source of places to stay) when we got turned down by two different places in Zurich (one was unexplained & the other was out of the country when we wanted to arrive & had not updated his calendar).

& partly, just to drive the point of how challenging long term travel can be at times (don’t worry, it’s also definitely rewarding, too!), we found out upon arriving in Venice that despite advertising wifi, we had none. Normally not a problem, but when you need to book your next night to stay, it can be pretty frustrating to have to go & find a spot any time you want to search. Pair that with the AirBnB denials & we had a real clusterfuck on our hands. Sorry for swearing, Mom, but we had some difficulty & spent a bit of time wondering if we would be sleeping in a train station in Switzerland or just shelling out a ton of cash to stay somewhere last minute.

ANYWAYS. All that to say that we spent our first night in Zurich booking places all the way through May 9th when we leave Paris (omg!) & then proceeded to have the best ten days anybody could possibly have in Switzerland, exploring the world, getting sunshine, snow (!), & rain, & meeting lots of wonderful people.

This whole traveling thing can be more than challenging at times, but overall I’ve found that I am SO happy & inspired while doing this. I think I say to Sam pretty much every single day that I am having the best “best day of my life.” I say it because it’s true. There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you know that you’re following your dreams & seeing the world. <3

* For more from this backpacking trip through Europe, see here.