Things to Do In Austin, Texas

I recently spent a week hanging out in Austin with my husband's family. It was my first time in Texas, and I had a blast! I highly recommend checking it out if you ever get the chance. Before I dive into our activities, I do want to preface this by saying we only had a few days to actually explore the city. We were in Texas for the Formula One race, so that took up a lot of our time. There is SO much to do in this town, so don't limit yourself to these!

First and foremost, go see live music! Do it! Austin, like Nashville, is a very musical city. We actually managed to see live music three times: once at Antone's ( a blues type club), once at a saloon (a real saloon!) and once at the raceway (Brittney Spears, no less)

Antone's is a great place to visit if you like more blues-type music. You just need to make sure to get there early! There are only a few tables, and they go fast. They also don't serve food, but you can bring your own food if you want to. We brought in some pizzas and it worked out perfectly. Be sure to look up parking before you go, because it is in the city. We managed to find some nearby for relatively little money.

This little saloon was great! It was small, authentic and had plenty of people in cowboy boots two-stepping away! (I don't know if they were actually two-stepping, but that was my best guess)

Next, we went to the Bullock Museum, AKA Texas State History. We really enjoyed our time here! It's a pretty big museum and we were tight on time, so we only hit the highlights. It is definitely worth checking out. They have rotating exhibits on the main floor, and while I was there, it was rodeo themed! Super interesting and very appropriate for Texas.

The museum also had this amazing mosaic on the floor of the lobby. As you moved up the museum, you got a better view. It was incredible!

Side note: I really love to knit so I had to make a pit stop at Hill Country Weavers. They were named one of the best yarn shops in America. Truthfully, I was a little underwhelmed and one of the attendants was a bit snarky. It's a nice shop, but they were not very newbie-friendly.

Finally, I have to mention the Circuit of the Americas! This was the Formula 1 track where we spent a lot of our time. It was a very cool experience, but there is a TON of mud. Just be extra careful and wear boots if there has been any rain at all. I was not even a big race fan before this experience (my husband's family love F1), but after experiencing it, I am definitely interested in it now!

There are so many attractions in Austin I would have liked to visit (like the bat bridge!), but we squeezed in what we could. All in all, Austin is a very cool place. Check it out if you can! Or I'd be happy to help you plan your trip. Visit my website at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com. 

City Highlights - County Wickland, Ireland (The Monastic Site at Glendalough)

I recently toured through Ireland, Wales and England and we took a lovely day hike through the Monastic Site at Glendalough in County Wickland, Ireland. It's just outside of Dublin and was so much fun! Word to the wise - when they say easy, they mean challenging. My group happened to be a soccer team, so fitness wasn't an issue, but ooh man! Those Irish folks must be in mighty fine shape if they considered that hike to be easy! It had steps and rough terrain galore. 

There weren't any giant waterfalls, but the nature was absolutely gorgeous, nonetheless. As is the way in Ireland, it was a bit rainy, but nothing we couldn't handle.

We even got to see some wildlife! If you look carefully in the picture above, you can make out several wild mountain goats. 

And this picture I think captures the hike perfectly. It literally looks like a painting! 

All in all, this was a beyond beautiful experience and an easy drive outside of Dublin. If you have a free day in the city and are looking for a bit of adventure, I highly recommend exploring this area!

If you'd like some help setting up your trip, I'd be happy to help! Visit MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com.

City Highlights - London

London is a beautiful city and one worthy of exploring! Over the past few years, I've found a few of my favorite spots:

Starting out with the classics - first up, The London Eye. This ginormous ferris wheel is absolutely worth a ride. Each capsule is fully enclosed in glass and unless you pay through the nose for a private ride, you'll be sharing the experience with at least 20 or so other people. Like most major tourist attractions, I recommend buying your ticket ahead of time online and skipping the line. The ride lasts about 30 minutes and it provides some of the most amazing views of the city. 

The London Eye

The London Eye affords a magnificent view of Big Ben, but it's definitely worth checking out up close as well. It's absolutely beautiful, especially at night! Something to note - you won't actually be able to go up inside Big Ben, so just be ready to enjoy the splendor of the clock tower from down below.

Big Ben across the water

Finally, I recommend just exploring the city and soak in the culture. Ride in a black cab, visit Harrods, take a bus tour and find yourself a telephone booth!  I made some truly amazing memories just by wandering through the streets of London with friends and family and seeing what we stumble across. We've found amazing little pubs with huge, amazing English breakfasts , unique specialty she eps and even found hole-in-the-wall museums!

A fun shot of me by the classic telephone booth! Although inside was a little gross - I'm talking needles, beer bottles and who knows what else! Be careful.

London is an amazing city with plenty of sites to see! You can't forget to make a pit stop to places like the London Tower, The Globe Theater and Buckingham palace, but the London Eye, Big Ben and general exploration are my top three must-do's while checking out London.

City Highlights - Barcelona

I'm starting a series where I'll be covering the highlights of some of my favorite cities. To kick things off, I thought I'd dive into one of my absolute favorite cities: Barcelona. There are so many places in Barca that are worth checking out, but here are a few of my favorites!

#1 - The beaches! Even in the wintertime (which is predominantly when I've spent time in Barca) the beaches are absolutely gorgeous. You can relax and soak up the sun in the summer, or in the cooler months just take a stroll and enjoy the view. There are even spots along the beach with make shift soccer goals set up and workout equipment.

 

 A shot of some beautiful beaches during sunset - taken from a train

#2 Ice Barcelona - If you are into the night life, Barca has several unique clubs and bars, but my favorite is the Ice Bar, aptly called Ice Barcelona! It's a lot of fun! The walls, chair, bar and even the glasses are made of ice. They give you fun, puffy silver jackets to wear along with some gloves. It was a ton of fun!

Hanging in Ice Barcelona around Christmas time

#3 La Sagrada Familia - The legendary Barcelona Artist, Antoni Gaudi designed several structures throughout the city, and arguably his most famous work is La Sagrada Familia. This breathtaking (and enormous) church is an absolute must-see; just be prepared to see some construction since it will be another 10 years or so before the church is completed.

The beautiful (and hard to photograph) La Sagrada Familia

#4 Park Guell - If you want an idyllic view of the city, Park Guell is the place to visit! Like the Sagrada Familia, it was designed by the magnificent Gaudi. The tiling is beautiful and there are some beautiful hikes as well. The outer area is free, but if you want to get the best views you'll have to pay just a few euros to enter the center area.

Park Guell at sunset is my favorite

 #5 - Camp Nou!!! - FC Barcelona, the professional soccer team of Barcelona, is the heartbeat of the city. If you don't have a chance to go see a game in person, at the very least it's worth touring the museum and stadium. Soccer is a huge part of the culture in Barca, so even if soccer isn't your cup of tea, I still recommend checking it out!

Down on the field during the tour

I had the time of my life at El Clasico! If you're not familiar, it's a legendary game between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. The atmosphere was unlike anything I've ever experienced.

I'd love to help you plan a trip of a lifetime to see the sights of Barcelona. Give me a shout at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com.

Adventure Vs. Relaxing Honeymoon - Which is better?

My fiancé and I are getting married in June and we are so excited for our honeymoon! We both love to travel and adventure, but we know after the craziness of our wedding, we might want to relax on our honeymoon. That sparked the great debate: Adventure vs. Relaxing honeymoon - which is better? There are definitely pros and cons for both, so I'll walk you through our decision-making process.

Let's start with relaxing. After a crazy 6 months of wedding planning, we are already starting to feel burnt out. If we had a few days to just get away from the madness and celebrate our new marriage, we both know that it would be amazing. We both love a good beach day, but aren't sure if a resort of beach town would be the best use of our time off; we really want to make the absolute most of our special trip.

As for adventure, we just had the trip of a lifetime in South Africa this past August. We went bungee jumping, hiking, visiting with elephants and monkeys and even shark cage diving! It was insane! By the time we made it back to the US we were almost more tired than before we left. It was an absolutely amazing trip, and we definitely wouldn't trade it for the world.

We ultimately decided to compromise and do a little of each! We will be going on a road trip through Portugal! There are plenty of beaches where we can rest and relax, but there is lots to see and do as well! We will be splitting our time between slow, relaxing days and adventuring days exploring local towns and immersing ourself in the culture. We may even take a day trip over to Seville in Spain! It's going to require plenty of planning, but I'm up for the challenge. 

I'd love to help you plan your special trip! Check out MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com for more.

Top Tips for Thailand

I had an amazing time in Thailand with my fiancé Schuyler. We primarily stayed near Bangkok, but we did manage to travel a ways outside of the city too. There are a few things you should know before heading off on your own adventure!

1) Be wary of street peddlers and taxi cab drivers. It's a fairly common occurrence for merchants and cab drivers to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists. It's nothing too scary, but you should be aware of their games! We had a cab driver try to convince us that he needed to make a pit stop for gas - he didn't! The scheme is to "stop for gas" and then try to sell us an experience or take us to a certain shop. Just insist they keep going or drop you there - that's what we did and SHOCK he made it to our destination just fine. We also had a similar scam when we bought a water bottle off a street vendor. He asked where we were going next, and we said Wat Pho, he immediately had a counter offer. He was trying to convince us that the temple was closed. He proposed we go on a tuk tuk tour that would drop us off at the temple when it "reopened."This was completely a total scam. While we may have had a nice tour with this convenient tuk tuk driver, we knew very well that the temple was open. We had just visited and needed to break our money so we had the correct change, which was required to enter the temple.

2) Carry smaller bills. There were several occasions where we needed to break our money because several attractions required exact change. I highly recommend carrying small bills whenever possible so you don't find yourself wandering around searching for anything small to buy, just to break a bill!

3) Tuk-Tuks are terrifying and fun all at the same time. - but worth it. Yes, they weave in and out of traffic, but hey. We survived. You can also haggle with them, and usually, they'll drop the price quite a bit!

4) Thailand is cheap, so treat yo-self! We ended up at a REALLY fancy hotel for only $40USD a night! To give you an idea, the toilet had like 30 buttons and a seat warmer... it was pretty ritzy! AND the hotel had TONS of free snacks! Of course, we stocked up on those before venturing out each day.

5) Embrace the culture. Like anywhere in the world, it's going to be unique and probably pretty different from your home town. Embrace the experience and go into it with an open mind. I also highly recommend doing your research ahead of time so you are more familiar with that country's cultures and customs. Enjoy yourself, but be respectful!

If you're up for an adventure, check out MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com

International Road Trip?

My fiancé and I are officially getting married this June (YAY!) and that means it's time to get cracking on planning our honeymoon. We've tossed around several ideas, one of which is an international road trip! Doesn't that sound like a ton of fun!? Even if we don't end up doing it for our honeymoon, I think we will end up doing it eventually.

There are SO many places that we want to go, but I think we've narrowed it down to eastern Europe - specifically Budapest, Vienna and Prague.

I think the trick to a successful (and relaxing) road trip is to not hit too many cities. By keeping it to just 3 cities over the course of 10 days, we get to spend 3 days or so in each place. These cities are also close enough together that we won't spend all of our time on the road, but far enough apart we'll get a taste of a new culture at each stop. 

It's also important to note that there are some inevitable challenges that come with road trips, especially when in a foreign country! You must tlearn all the rules of the road in each country - they can be drastically different than what you're used to! This will take quite a bit of planning. It's advisable to do research and learn what is required to rent a car and what's needed to take said car and go across country lines. 

Be prepared and bring plenty of snacks and you're sure to have a blast!

If you want help preparing for your own international road trip, my company can help! Visit MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com.

Table Mountain - Cape Town, South Africa

Our trip to South Africa was pretty jam packed, so we wound up only having a few hours of free time in Cape Town. We put that free time to good use by visiting Table Mountain! It was absolutely beautiful and the views were amazing.

Essentially, you can either hike or take a cable car up to the top. Then, up at the top there are some beautiful trails for you to hike!

On one side of the mountain is the ocean and on the other are some pretty spectacular views!

The Ocean Side of the mountain

My sister and I on the city side of the mountain

You can even see the world cup stadium! So cool!

Cape Town has a bit of a reputation for being dangerous, but we kept our wits about us and didn't go out after dark. We, thankfully, never felt unsafe and had no problems when traveling through this beautiful country.

Our trip was a blast! And don't forget, if you're loving these travel posts to check out my travel company at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com.

Bloukran's Bridge Bungy Jump in South Africa

I've been lucky enough to have some pretty amazing adventures recently, but I must say one of my absolute favorite experiences was bungy (That's how they spell it in South Africa) outside of Cape Town! 

It was terrifying and absolutely exhilarating. I'm just surprised that I got the whole group to do it with me! 

First, they walked us out alone this absolutely terrifying/beautiful walkway that led out to the middle of the bridge. We were literally underneath of where cars were driving. It was pretty scary, but also awesome. Cars were just driving along while we flung ourselves off the bridge.

The whole gang before we jumped!

Before we went they weighed us and put our weight (in kilos) and our jump order and time. I weigh 63 kilos, I was Jumper 2 and our jump time was 9 a.m.

My "I'M SO NERVOUS" smile

Getting hooked up! I definitely asked them to make sure I was hooked in nice and tight. They then waddled me over to the edge and counted down, "3-2-1-BUNGY!" They didn't give me time to think AT ALL (Probably Definitely a good thing). When they said "BUNGY" I just did it! I even managed to leap and sort of swan dive off this HUGE bridge!

I DID IT! 

After you jump they lower someone down to help reel you back in. 

We are working on a YouTube channel where the full video will be posted soon! It's pretty epic.

Bungy jumping has been on my bucket list for a very long time and I am SO happy that I was able to finally cross it off! Bloukran's bridge is the world's largest bungy. How cool is that? It was my first time ever bungy jumping, so why not go big? It was such a rush! The free fall was far and away my favorite part - the dangling afterwards? Not so much. Though my sister was the exact opposite. 

Overall, I absolutely recommend doing this jump if you're ever near Cape Town. Something to note is it is a bit of a drive outside the city - like 4 or 5 hours. We broke the trip up with some fun stops along the way. You'll  learn all about those in upcoming blog posts!

Meanwhile, check out my company at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com and sign up for an adventure of your own!

Lots of love,

Lena

Barcelona Baby!

I love this city. Upon arrival we did a lot of recon around the hotel were the team would be staying in Placa Espanya. I'm slightly exhausted from running around so much, but it was great to get to know the area.

Since we've been in Barcelona we have hit all the hot spots: La Rambla, La Sagrada Familia, the Olympic village/ port and I even got to see an FC Barcelona game in person! It was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. I got to see Messi score three times! It was phenomenal.

Tomorrow we are off to Park Guell (One of my favorite spots) and to tour the FC Barcelona stadium. It should be a good day.

I'm loving this city, but boy am I tired! My knees and legs are slowly giving out. I'm hoping to get some serious sitting time done in the relatively near future so I will be ready to go for Madrid!

Malena

Roman Recap

My time in Rome flew by! I had no trouble navigating the trains but I had one heck of a time finding my hostel. I don't know what it is about Rome but I found it quite hard to navigate the city. I can find my way around just about anywhere but I don't know if it's because I was tired or what, but eventually I found my hostel.

The hostel was rather small and unremarkable. It had a kitchen which is always a plus in my book. I saved quite a bit of money by packing my lunch and cooking my own dinners. I basically just bought gelato food-wise.

I hit pretty much all the major attractions in Rome - The Spanish Steps, The Trevvi Fountain, The Roman Forum, The Coliseum, The Vatican City among others.

The Spanish Steps were far and away my favorite spot to visit. I loved to find a nice perch and read my book and watch the sun set over the city. I went back there three different days just because I absolutely enjoyed my time there. Reading in a new environment, especially in a fulfilling cultural space, is something that I absolutely love to do. I think its important to not just tick the boxes when you travel, but take the time to stop and appreciate the culture and the atmosphere.

The Trevvi fountain was under construction so that was very underwhelming. I'll need to go  back for sure.

The Coliseum was so cool! I had managed to go the whole trip without waiting more than 10 minutes for an attraction, but alas the Coliseum got the better of me. I had to wait a whole 30 minutes. It was packed and not very well organized outside, but once you get inside it was quite amazing. I opted for the audio guide just to try to be able to understand what I was looking at a little bit better. It definitely was worth it, though the stops weren't well marked so that got confusing sometimes. I spent the better part of the day wandering through the Coliseum and the Roman Forums. It turns out my ticket for the Coliseum also got me into the Forums! Sweet!

Another notable stop was of course The Vatican City. I toured through the museum with an audio guide (again, very useful) and had a lovely morning just exploring. I ended up coming back later to see St. Peter's Basilica. I must say it was totally worth coming back for. That is probably my favorite church I've ever been to. I had a great time just taking it all in.

Anyway, I will probably go through eventually and up date all my recent posts with pictures one of these days!

Lots of love,
Malena

Spain: The Recap

Once I landed in Barcelona it was quite a whirlwind... So much so that I hardly got a chance to sleep let alone blog. Basically the tournament went well, but as with any event, there were some hiccups.

Here are the tour highlights:

Park Guell was absolutely phenomenal. Megan, another staffer, came with me to help and it was a good thing too! We made it by like 30 seconds!  I had to run ahead but we got in. Park Guell has super strict windows of time for groups.

In the end the run was totally worth it. The sight was breathtaking. It looked out over the city and the wall itself was inspired by Gaudi. It was so beautiful. I had a great time taking pictures and helping the teams. There were little paths that went off that were fun to follow too!

FC Barcelona Stadium Tour 

I did this last year, but it was fun! It was really neat to get to go through it again. I do love soccer but what's cool is that it touched on other sports in the club as well - like hockey and futsal!

28-30 Tournament - Pretty much just worked!

30 evening - Outing to Girona

Girona was beautiful. It's a little town 45 minutes outside of Lloret de Mar which is where the tournament is. It has winding little streets and is definitely a place that I would love to get lost in for a day. The parents got to shop and the kids got some insight from an expert on futsal. I think we will probably keep this stop on the tour for next year.

31 - Today was mad busy. Training and transfer to Barcelona first thing, then we went on a beautiful bus tour that was truly phenomenal. I love to learn the history of things! Then we got to explore Las Ramblas which is always fun :) We ended the night in quite a fancy NYE party! There were 4 glasses - white wine, red wine, water, and champagne! The food was top notch for sure. It worked out very well!

1 - This was an easy shopping day - except that the soccer store wouldn't open. My goodness. Spanish time can be frustrating because they don't really pay start times much mind, but it all worked out in the end and I even wound up with 2 new pair of shoes! We capped off the trip with a stop at the Ice Bar for the parents. It was great last year and I'm glad we decided to go back! Everyone seemed to have a blast and I'm overall happy with how the trip went.

2 - NO SLEEP FOR ME. I was up late at the Ice Bar and got up to send off both teams at 4am AND 7am... needless to say I straightup slept till noon after I got back from the airport. I met up with the other staffers for one last night in Barca. We walked all over the place! I love to experience a city up close. We ate at Les Arenes which was neat - its an old bull fighting ring that was turned into a mall. The restaurants are on top of the mall on a terrace. We then explored around the Olympic Stadium before heading back to the apartment the group had rented. I managed to do my laundry and headed back for  bed - I had to catch my airport shuttle at 5 the next day... yayyy

The Ultimate Day Pack

I have discovered the secrets to the perfect day pack: Support, Size, and Stow-ability.

Enjoy this terrible mirror selfie (at least there is a world map in the background!)

Support - Get a pack that has a frame with hip and chest support straps. I can't emphasize this enough! For my job I have to carry quite a heavy load of things. I made the mistake in past trips of not investing in a "backpacking backpack." Instead I opted for a cute little leather backpack. While the backpack did mostly hold up, it ended up ripping slightly from the weight AND my shoulders ached horribly.

This trip I invested in a sturdy backpack and it worked like a charm. If at any point my hips got sore, I would unhook my waist latch and let more weight rest on my shoulders and visa versa.

On top of the Blankenberg Castle in Germany

Size - Figure out exactly what you need to carry, then add enough room for a jacket and hat (good rule of thumb even if you are traveling in a warmer climate! It is always good to have a little extra room). In my case I have to carry things like a med kit, iPad, camera among other documents and binders for work. As a result I prefer a larger bag. Now my pack is actually one that was on clearance so I'm not sure of the model (you won't be able to find it at any rate) but I knew it would be too big to count as my "purse-like item" for the plane. 

Stow-ability - I solved this problem by simply packing my day pack inside of my big pack for airplane trips. I unloaded some of the bulkier items into a small sling bag to stow under the seat in front of me on the plane. It was the perfect solution! I could have my big day pack for the duration of the trip but I could still carry all my luggage on the plane and thus avoid checking a bag.

Those tips are what worked for me! If you are traveling with a small enough pack, you will be able to just stow it underneath the seat in front of you for those pesky plane rides.

All the best,

Malena

Last Days in London 4/30-5/1

 4/29

Today we set out to accomplish as much as possible in London. We started out the day by going to Buckingham palace for the. Changing of the guards. It was really neat but very hard to see what was happening because it was so crowded!

Next stop, Harrods! We wandered around and it was HUGE! We had a great time exploring all the departments and I picked up a few things for my nieces. Afterwards we decided to check out the local shops: boots, super drug and Primark. I picked up a sleek blush that you can't get in the US. 

Next we hopped on a bus (did I mention the tube strike was going on so we had to walk or ride buses a lot?!) and made it just in time to go up in the London Eye. It was twilight and just beautiful. Once we got down we walked along the bridge and saw Big Ben by moonlight. 

Then it was time to call it a night. We made our way back to our hostel (did I mention the stop by the hostel was closed because of the strike? Ugh!) 

Malena

4/30

Today was another busy day so we got an early start. We headed out to see the other attractions I had bought tickets for: The Globe Theater and the London Tower. I absolutely loved both of them! Jonas stayed behind for the Globe tour because he had just been there last year so we met up at Starbucks afterwards and grabbed some lunch. We had a great time exploring The London Tower in the afternoon. We saw all the big ticket items like the Crown Jewels and the Wall Walk. We even caught a mini performance by a marching band while we were up on the wall! So cool!

After buying a postcard on the way out e were able to use the tube to get at least much closer to the hostel. It was time to pack up to get ready to go home. 

We rounded out the night by getting some pizza. It was supposed to be while we watches the Chelsea game, but seriously what sports bar doesn't have the channel that shows the game? Fail. The booths were really cool though because they were set into the wall away from the crowds. The whole bar was Shakespeare themed which was pretty neat. However, the waiter wasn't super friendly so we decided to stop at a different pub on the way home for one final beer (ok diet coke) in an English pub. 

Now I am headed home! I walked to the (now running) tube station by the hostel to make my way to the airport. It was raining and my umbrella was packed so I was mighty glad that the nearby station was running today! 

Security was a bit of a hassle (apparently you have to use their ziplock bags for liquids, not just any bag- even if they are the same size).  But overall I had no problems getting on my flight! Only something like 4 more hours until I get picked up at the airport! 

I had a great time and can't wait to travel even more this year :)

Malena

Touring Cologne 4/23

This morning the kids had training like usual then we went downtown for lunch. One of he German coaches was very nice and helped us translate the menu! I (think) I had a chicken kebab- not too be confused with kebob. It was German-Turkish and was served in a pita. It was delicious!

Then we got back and hopped on a bus to Cologne! It was so beautiful!

They even had a lock bridge like they did in Paris.

Lock Bridge in Paris

Lock bridge in Cologne

We toured through the city center and went in the cathedral. It was huge!!! And so so pretty. Because we were with the kids we didn't have as much freedom to explore but I am still so glad we went. Tomorrow is the stadium tour! Woohoo! Nw I will have seen Madrid, Barcelona and Cologne's stadiums :)

                                                   

Anyway, I am very tired - long, but fun, days mean I sleep well at least! I have to get up early to arrange laundry, so goodnight!

Malena