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(Insert Dora the Explorer song here)

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 Going to keep this short and sweet because 1. I’m somewhere in between exhausted pigeon and sleeping beauty (- the whole prince who kisses me to wake me up from my slumber part). 2. There’s only so many details that I could tell you about our 24,000+ steps day. Needless to say a few days of bad jet lag and now I’m finally feeling a bit normal. Today we spent the day exploring the city. We got to see the Notre-Dame Cathedral in its current state of repair, the Arc de Triomphe, as well as many other various city sights. We also got to visit the Eiffel Tower in which if you spent any time in my house specifically my bedroom from ages 12-28 you know is a pretty darn big deal. I loved every second of it and only regret not taking Angie’s picture out of my bag to document it all.  Unfortunately Paris has has riots for the past few days after a police officer shot and killed a 17 year old at a routine traffic stop so the city hasn’t been the safest. We visited the Eiffel Tower during the da
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Day 3

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  London to Paris We slept in in an attempt to kick any jet lag to the curb. We made it up by 9:45 and were out the door by 10:30ish.    The weight of my backpack gave me flashbacks to last summer’s Camino walk. Achy back and suitcase in tow we headed to London.    A few    train stops away and then we headed straight for the train station so we could check our bags and not lug them around with us all over the streets of London. 3 bag check places later we finally found a spot that had room. The smell of this place resembled a mix of body odor and a potentially decomposing body but in every effort to not lug around 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks we were desperate. Spent the next few hours wandering London, going to see the Crown Jewels and then made our way back to the train station for our journey to Paris. Here’s where things started to get a bit interesting. Due to the long queue at the station our train left later than it was supposed to. We had booked 11pm-1 am tickets to Moulin Roug
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Jet lag kicked our butt

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 6 am airport shuttle pick up then a quick 2 1/2 hour flight to London from Keflavík, Iceland. We went to bed at 11:20 and set an alarm for 5:40 am with our bags packed and clothes ready to throw on. It’s cute how naive we were. Essentially we woke up at 1:45 wide awake from our brief nap. By 3 we had admitted defeat and just planned to stay awake hoping maybe we could get at least a little nap in on the plane. No luck. Our flight landed about a half an hour late and we made our way to the train to go meet Kristi at her work. Unfortunately, two separate trains we were taking terminated before our stop unexpectedly, and we were forced to get off and navigate on our own. And I don’t think that was either of our strong suits. After what should’ve been an hour and turned into over hours later we finally made it to Kristi’s work. Thank God her work had showers because we were exhausted and sweaty from the trek. We finished getting ready and stored our stuff and then went off to a traditiona
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Bumpy start

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Well todays trip was off to a bit of a bumpy start. Sandals left behind made for a quick turn around back home where Aiden had lovingly placed them in the middle of the driveway. Once we got to the airport we went to check a bag which I hadn’t planned or done in MANY years. After checking the bag and heading to SEA Spot Saver ( this is amazing and free if you don’t know about it, thanks Laura it was a life saver) I realized I couldn’t find my wallet. I called Aiden to check my room because I was concerned it somehow hadn’t made my packed bag.. he searched and then texted me this.. Little punk got the prank of a lifetime . Apparently that’s an old photo. A few moments of sheer panic and then he admitted it wasn’t there. Why he has a picture of my coin purse, I couldn’t tell you. Ultimately,  I figured out that it was likely in the checked bag and once we arrived in Iceland I was able to confirm and relax. Thankfully the airport takes Apple Pay because I had to pay a ridiculous 35 dollar
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Agenda

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  Here’s the agenda. Yes, we’re aware we planned a ridiculous amount of countries in a short period of time. Another time I’ll go and stay more central. Current plan (I think) is Greece with Fyfe next summer and with Kristi being there for a bit longer I’ll likely try to visit her and nab her to country hop a bit in the future. I’ve always wanted to travel. My hope for graduation was Paris but then along came Aiden and I’ve was relatively anchored to close to home vacations until Crystal finally convinced me to take a leap of faith and walk the Camino. Grateful for friends who are willing to see the world with me! Life’s adventure is a lot more fun with friends!
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Here’s to planning?

I think the Camino sparked a lot of things for me. It made me realize just how capable I was of doing things on my own and being alone in general. I used to be the girl who sat in the car while verifying the person I was meeting had already arrived. Occasionally that girl still resurfaces, but it’s few and far between these days.  In the past year I have been lucky enough to find a few more people that I feel comfortable being unapologetically myself around. In the past few months I’ve learned a lot about myself too. I’ve found just how much my life was missing adventure and how much I’d rather be outdoors than in these days. Maybe the Camino changed me in other ways? Maybe it brought out the inner outdoorsy girl that had long been lost? I have more than just self reflection to thank for that, and I’ll forever be grateful for the one who unknowingly opened my eyes.  I started planning for Europe last August. And if you know me well enough by now you know that once I set my mind to some
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