How to Actually Get Some Sleep On a Plane

If you're anything like me, overnight flights are your worst nightmare. Luckily, I've had my share of overnight trips and have become a bit of an expert on sleeping in awkward positions - I was even quoted in Readers Digest! How cool is that?


Tip 1: Win the airplane lottery. 
By this I mean getting 2 or more seats in a row all to yourself! I myself have won the airplane lottery exactly twice - that should be a decent indicator of how rare this actually happens. I must say though, when I had those seats....It. Was. Amazing. I am a fairly small person and am able to curl up in a ball easily so I just stretched across those seats and made it work. 2 seats can be a little tight, but if you somehow manage to get 3 seats to yourself, you are golden! Just be respectful and keep your feet and head out of the aisle and other people's space! Also, don't be afraid to take advantage of a half-full plane. You can politely ask your flight crew if it's alright to move and odds are they will not have a problem with it. Use that space!

Side note: I once saw someone who had an entire MIDDLE ROW to themselves. They slept sitting upright. They even sat in a middle seat so I couldn't even use the outside few seats to lay down. It was torture. THEY WON THE LOTTERY AND COULD NOT CARE LESS. Anyway.

Tip 2: Use a quality eye mask and/or ear plugs
As I talked about in Reader's Digest (did I mention how cool that is?), I'm a firm believer in an eye mask that soft, comfy and fits snuggly around your nose. Other eye masks can let in light through that little gap and make it much harder to sleep. Also, if you need complete silence, don't be afraid to spring for some quality earplugs or even noise-canceling headphones.

Tip 3: Experiment with sleeping positions (respectfully)
Always, always, always be respectful of other passengers, but don't be afraid to get creative when it comes to sleeping positions! Two of my favorite are: Knees up with blanket over head and facedown on tray table. A few things to keep in mind - It's definitely possible the passenger in front of you can feel your knees so be aware of that. If you feel the seat is thick enough they won't notice, be gentle and don't fidget. It doesn't hurt to just ask them if they can feel it. As for the head-down-on-tray position, WIPE THAT THING DOWN FIRST. Seriously. People change their baby's diapers on it so there can literally be fecal matter on that tray that you are shoving your face on. Don't be afraid to be that person wiping down their seat area. That's what I do!

Tip 4: Plan your pillow
Sleeping on overnight planes can be really difficult, and a lot of people like to use travel neck pillows; however, I've found that unless my head it lower than my body, I really can't sleep. Thus I tend not to use those. I have, however, used my sweatshirt or a spare blanket as a pillow, because let's be real - those tiny pillows they give you are kind of questionable. Just know your sleeping style and  have a game plan going in.

Almost no one emerges from an overnight flight well-rested, but whatever you do, try to avoid weird naps! I'm talking a nap at 8am or a 6-hour long nap. Try your best to adjust to the new time zone and enjoy your trip!

Check out my company at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com. I'd love to help you plan your next adventure!

Malena

Venice Day 2

 Today was a pretty great day. I started off on the right foot by going up the Campanile Tower with hardly any wait. I got some pretty phenomenal photos! Afterwards I headed over to Doge's Palace and again had no wait because I booked online. I had a wonderful time. I just went my own pace and took in the beautiful art. On top of that I got to go to 3 more museums for the cost of the one! And even then it was discounted because I'm under 26. SCORE! One of the bonus museums was even a historical library which is pretty darn awesome in my book. I definitely enjoyed today. I came back to the hostel for dinner and ran into some nice girls from South Korea and Michigan. The Korean girl had had her entire luggage stolen! But from the street, not the hostel. She left it for just a few minutes to get a coffee and it wasn't there when she came back. I felt bad for her, but hopefully she learned not to trust cities! She still had her passport and she has a friend in Milan who speaks Italian so she has some help in filing police reports. 

Me and the girl from Michigan tried to help her out a little - she had just been in Australia and South Africa or something so she had a skirt and flip flops in her purse which she had with her. So she has that and what she was wearing and that's it. The other girl gave her some pants and a flannel and the hostel even let her dig through their lost and found so that was really sweet of them. I luckily had an unopened toothbrush that I gave her so I'm glad I could help at least a little bit!I felt so bad for her. At least she had her passport in her purse. That would have been a disaster.

She also had her phone and charger so that's good! The Michigan girl told us about this beautiful bookstore in Venice so I think tomorrow we are going to try and go find it!!

I need to leave the hostel for the train station by 11am so hopefully we can make it!

Hostels are really a wonderful place.

Malena

Planning Our Backpacking Trip Through Italy

Things are starting to seem real! This December I will be going to Barcelona and likely London. After the work portion of my trip I will be backpacking through Italy with a friend. I can't wait.
We started sketching a rough outline of our Italy trip! It's shaping up to be about 8 days of taking the Euro rail from the North to the South of Italy. We think we want to fly into Milan stay there for a day, head over to Venice the next morning and hang out there. Then we might go to Florence and combine cities that day and hit up Pisa the same day. After that we are Rome bound! After a few days in Rome we want to visit Naples for a day before going back to Rome for one last Italian day before heading home.
It is quite a packed agenda and is very rough at the moment but I'm glad we have started the planning process! We originally were toying with the idea of having a friend drive us through Italy, but it looks like we may just stick to trains for this trip. We will be staying in hostels which I am all for, so that should be fun and interesting. I have really been liking hostelworld.com for research and ratings. The hostel I stayed in, in London was only OK but other than that I have been happy with the hostels I've booked off that site.
I plan international trips for a living so this is just more of the same - except I have full control (with my friend's input of course) over what cities and sites we see :) I'm so excited!
I'll keep updating my blog more as I get ready for what is shaping up to be a month- long euro trip.

Malena