dear darlings

so i am very behind on my blogging! i feel like i say that every post, but hopefully i'll get better!

anyway, i'll start from where i left off!

europe stole my heart. really, i loved it so so much! it was such an amazing experience that i will never forget. i learned so many things from the different cultures to practical street smarts! like, always keep your purse in front of you and be suspicious of everyone! sounds harsh, but i learned that lesson fast! we were in madrid and saw a gypsy steal from a lady's backpack right in front of our eyes. i was semi-shocked and felt like i needed to see that so i would be smarter.

anyway, i feel like this europe trip came at a really good point in my life. i was so grateful for the opportunity. it made me realize the important things in life. there were some hard times where i just wanted to be in my own bed (venice bed bug night! i will talk about that one later) or wanted to eat my own food or missed my family. there were times where i was just plain amazed by everything i was seeing and doing. this was the case most of the trip. i feel very fortunate that everything went pretty smoothly and we were all able to just roll with things.

going to europe has been a dream of mine for a long time and i couldn't believe i was actually there half the time! i could not believe i was looking at the eiffel tower, watching the sunset on le seine, watching the olympics in london, making friends with people from all around the world, hiking around one of the most beautiful places i've been too--cinque a terre, walking through ancient ruins, sleeping in hostels with random people haha. there were so many breathtaking moments where i just wanted to take a mental picture and remember forever because cameras could not even do justice to these places .

i struggled with the decision of going to europe. i was worried about money, my job, timing, etc. with everything said and done, it was way worth it! i would go again in a heartbeat and hopefully i will go back again soon!

because i am feeling quite lazy, i am not going to post every picture because there are a lot on facebook thanks to the lovely alejandra! you can also reference our trip blog which again, thank you ale for updating it. it's actually really ale's blog. haha http://cakeineurope.blogspot.com

here are some from each place we visited.

dublin, ireland

our hostel

getting certified for pouring the "perfect pint"

ran into our flight attendant!

our hostel friends!

london, england

our haunted hotel.

going to the Olympics!

fulfilled ale's dream to see les miserables...we were so tired we ended up sleeping through half of it! haha

abbey road

our favorite london hostel. too bad we didn't even sleep that night!

madrid, spain

with ale's cousins/tour guides

tapas!

big spanish family dinner!

barcelona, spain

it was deathly hot. thank goodness for the beach!

met our favorite italian boys here!

paris, france

first meal!

bike tour

our tour guide-carl. he was great.

we went thrifting! i actually got this dress :)

picnic at the eiffel tower

mona lisa!

venice, italy

scene of the bed bug hostel!

romper twinsies

so we discovered bed bugs in our hostel so we decided to sleep at the train station and take an early train out of there! these steps smelled like urine, there was a family of 4 sleeping there, a lady sleeping with a knife, and lots of other people just sleeping/hanging out. it was terrible. haha

kim was completely knocked out! i tried to sleep...but it really wasn't that comfy!

breccia, italy

after the worst night ever we met up with these boys and they treated us to the best pizza of the trip and a chill lake day! it was perfect! and yes, i ate all of that pizza! nom nom nom.

we got a paddle boat

just some random ruins. so cool.

cinque a terre, italy

meet franco. super funny/creepy old man who was flirting with us.

hiking through the 5 villages! i think we can all say we have never sweated so much in our lives before. it was super hot!

Add caption

me trying to be like the little mermaid

don't judge our appearance. it was hot!

florence, italy

we had to be covered up to go some places so this is what happened!

meet dario our pub crawl leader. mario with a d.

rome, italy

the end!

this time next week i will be on my way to europe!!! i am SO excited!!! we are going to ireland, england, spain, italy and france. i am going with Ale, Kim, and Erin. ale put our first initials together and found that our initials spells CAKE. so we are going to have a blog while we are there to keep family and friends up to date on our travels: http://cakeineurope.blogspot.com/

so excited to see this

anyway, this is my first time leaving the country and am semi-freaking out that i'm going to forget a billion things and be totally unprepared, but regardless i know i'm going to have a blast and its going to be an adventure. there are just so many amazing places in the world i feel very very grateful to go see some of them. i can't wait to meet new people, try new food, and just be amazed by everything around me.

here's some pics of the girls of CAKE at various get togethers.