World Cup Excitement

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And for once, I don't mean Christmas. I look forward to the World Cup, and I am always so excited when the games begin! As a life-long soccer fan, I thoroughly enjoy watching the tournament unfold. I've had the pleasure of going to several professional soccer matches, but not the world cup.... yet.

It has been announced that the 2026 World Cup will be in the U.S./Canada/Mexico! Come hell or high water, I will be at one of those games. I know it's years away, but it's going to be so much fun. Hopefully, a game will be somewhere near my house (or any of my friends/relative houses!) as I imagine hotel space will be limited and expensive. Still totally worth it.

I've been watching as many games as physically possible and am LOVING the action. It was a bit of a shocker that Messi and Ronaldo's teams were both sent packing pretty early in the tournament. I had the joy of watching the two meet a few years back in El Clasico (See photo below). 

I love watching international matches - the passion! You just don't see that soccer culture here in the U.S. Normally, the U.S. is in the tournament so there's an uptick in soccer enthusiasm, but this year no such luck. None of my top 3 teams (U.S.A, Canada and Holland) are in the tournament so I've just been arbitrarily picking teams and rooting for them. It's so much more fun when you have a team! 

I was really pulling hard for Iceland, but alas. They were knocked out. 

If you'd like to take your family and friends to a World Cup game one day, just let me know! Check out my website at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com for more info. 

2017 Travel Recap

2017 was quite the year for me! While not a record-setting travel year, I still made it to 5 countries (4 if you don't include the U.S., where I live.) 2017 was a crazy year for me - I got married, moved across the country and had a blast exploring the world with friends and family!

First up was our girls' trip to the Bahamas for my bachelorette party! It was my first time on a cruise and it was a blast! It was much more structured than I'm used to, but overall it was still an awesome experience. I hung out with my sisters and my best friend in the sun, enjoying fruity drinks and light-hearted books. 

Next is the reason I included the U.S. in my travel list - we moved! We packed up our belongings and within a week of being married, my husband and I were settling in our new town. We are relaxing in a small town in Ohio right near the river and are loving life.

Next up was our honeymoon! What was supposed to be a quick layover in Madrid turned into a one-day adventure! We missed our connecting flight and were put up in a hotel. We decided to make the best of it and set out to explore some of madrid! We were exhausted, but we still managed to have a blast exploring Puerto del sol and the city center.

We did eventually make it over to Portugal for our actual honeymoon. Portugal is absolutely beautiful! We traveled from Porto to Lisbon to Luso to Lagos then back up to Porto. Portugal is absolutely amazing, and I can't recommend it enough!

Finally, we got to spend some time in Canada! We made a few pit stops in Toronto and Niagra Falls before visiting with family near Muskoka. The weather was lovely and the lake was just gorgeous. We had so much fun and will absolutely be going back soon!

I hope your year was filled with beautiful adventures. If you'd like help planning your next excursion (domestic or international), visit my website at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com. 

Traveling on Christmas?

The holiday season is upon us, and for many that means traveling - either to spend time with friends or family or to capitalize on time off and see the world! I personally love to spend the holidays with my family, but as a professional tour manager, I've had to travel over holidays several time. With younger groups, they are often on vacation right over Christmas and New Year's so that's when we travel!

Traveling on Christmas Day
I've traveled internationally on Christmas Day twice - once from Baltimore to Spain and once from Holland to Spain. Both times were fairly uneventful. While definitely not as crowded as the days surrounding Christmas, it wasn't exactly empty either. Flights tend to be a bit cheaper on Christmas Day as opposed to the days leading up to or immediately following Christmas, which can be tempting for many flyers. For me, I was a bit sad to have to be out and about on Christmas. I much prefer a Christmas Day filled with family, naps and plenty of relaxing. If I didn't have work obligations, I probably would have opted to spend a bit more money and enjoy Christmas properly.

How to Make the Most of a Traveling Christmas
I've spent one Christmas abroad. I knew I had to be in Barcelona on Christmas day for work, so I decided to make the most of it! I have a family friends in Amsterdam (from when my family lived there), so I was able to spend the day with them! I enjoyed a dutch Christmas filled with tasty treats and plenty of laughter. I'm very lucky to have the friends and family that I do to make Christmas so special.

Vacationing on Christmas
Taking a trip on Christmas has become a yearly tradition for many travelers. Whether you are not close with your family or just want to take advantage of your time off, there's no shame in going on an epic adventure over Christmas! I know families who even take a trip together. Whether you want that perfect, snowy Christmas or you head to warmer weather, it can be fun to shake things up! And if you're going internationally, it gives you the chance to experience Christmas in other cultures! For example, I got to learn about the Catalan Tio de Nadal... AKA the poop log. Seriously, it's a thing. 
If you want to make the most of your holidays, I'd love to help! MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com.

Planning Our Road Trip Around Portugal

We are coming up on our honeymoon! We are so excited to road trip around Portugal this September and our plans are finally coming together! Ordinarily, I would have had this trip planned out long ago but we got married and moved so we've been busy! Here's our general gam plan:

Start our in Porto: We are pumped to fly into this city and spend the day exploring (especially the world famous bookstore!!!)

Move on to Lousa and visit Tomar. We are excited to explore some smaller towns on our way down to Lisbon. We are even staying in a palace!! It's going to be epic.

Spend a couple days in Lisbon living the good life! We are pretty excited to dive into the architecture and heartbeat of this city.

Next stop? The Algarve! We will be spending 3 days down in Lagos hiking, laying on the beach and enjoying ourselves. We splurged a little on the hotel and are excited to see what it offers. I'll definitely do a review once we've stayed!

Close out the trip by road tripping back up to Porto. We will be stopping a few local towns to explore along the way.

Lucky for us, Portugal is a relatively small country, so we will be able to cover quite a bit of ground! It's only 5 or 6 hours between Lagos and Porto so we are doing it up right! Hopefully, we've left enough time in our schedule for relaxing. Depending on how we feel, we may even bop over to Spain for a day! We shall see.

We are so excited for this trip,and can not wait to celebrate our new marriage and our new adventures together. Get ready for some Portugal-heavy content coming your way soon!

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.

Spanish Food

The longer I’ve stayed in Spain the more I’m learning that my dislike of all seafood can be quite bothersome in this country. They throw tuna in everything! Order a garden salad? TUNA. (No mention of the pesky fish on the menu of course. Just lettuce, tomato etc.)

What about potatoe salad with breadsticks (what.) TUNA. Why? Or at least notify me of the tuna –ness. As it is I’m lucky I’m not allergic and just am not a fan. It pops up in the most unlikely places!

Same with Paella. Even if it says chicken Paella, you can bet they will likely throw in some sort of seafood… often with no warning.

They are also rather fond of calamari, though I have less issue with that particular dish because it is typically rather well marked.

Enough with the negatives – I have discovered the beauty that is a croquette. SO GOOD. Think mozzarella stick, but more bread than cheese, usually with some chicken, ham or (sigh) tuna thrown in. They are delicious! My one complain (completely on me, not Spain) is that if you order a sampler plate you never know which is which so there is always the lurking possibility that I could accidentally bite into a tuna croquette!

Also, it would be remiss to not mention Haribo. Yes, like the gummy bear. I swear they are so much better in Europe. Haribo is native to Germany and I guess because Spain/England/Ireland are so much closer to Germany than the US that the quality here is vastly improved. They are so so good. I’m not a huge gummy bear person at home, I mean I enjoy one every now and then, but I’m not drawn to them. Here I’m all about them! I’ve tried the variety sampler packs, the strawberries, the sour packs and of course plenty of the classic gummy bears too.

Overall I have had a wonderful time abroad and I’ve done rather well eating wise. I’ve made a point to sample the local cuisine but I could definitely go for a Mountain Dew and some Doritos right about now!

I Have a Thing for Bookstores

Everywhere I go I find myself being drawn to bookshops. I can't help myself - if I see a cute shop or I hear of a unique bookstore I have to find it and go in. Here are some of my favorites:

This picture I am literally planning on putting on a canvas to hang in my house. I just absolutely love it. It's rustic and authentic and represents an amazing memory.

This first three pictures in this post are from Aqua Alta Book Store in Venice. It's off the beaten path but someone I met at the hostel  tipped me off about it. It was so totally worth the venture out past the tourist stops in Venice near St. Mark's Basilica.

This is from a library museum in Venice!

I stumbled on this beautiful little shop in the middle of a walking lane. I love little gems like this. 

That tiny bookshop had books that were hundreds of years old. 

There's beauty everywhere you look, you just need to keep your eyes open.

Malena

A Wonderful Life - How to Not Feel Homesick on Prolonged Travel

I love to travel, but even so I still appreciate home. I was feeling just a little homesick tonight (Skyping with your puppy will do that to you) but here are a few tips for prolonged travelers missing home, but loving life:

1) Skype home. Skype is a beautiful thing. You can have real conversations with the ones that mean the most. I try to make a point to talk with people back home as often as I can. The App WhatsApp is a great way for quick messages to keep in touch too!

2) Do something you would do at home. Something bordering mundane. For me I took a walk to the mall next door and ate some pizza and gelato (okay gelato is still quite travel-y but I mean... gelato. I have a strict "Eat Gelato At Every Opportunity" policy, so let's move along) and just walked around the mall. Sure the language will be different, but the people are the same. Teenagers trying to fit in and twenty somethings desperate for the next Lush product. Although please note trying to read Lush labels in another language is quite challenging... especially when you aren't sure if its in Spanish or Catalan haha!

3) Make the hotel like home. For me that means sweats, country music and a bubble bath! Traveling and exploring go hand in hand but every now and then you need to take a day or an evening off and just be a human. Put your feet up and read a book, ya dig?

4) Watch your favorite TV shows that you've missed while traveling - there are tons of apps that help with this! As for me, I use Xfinity. It gives you a sense of normalcy.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change a thing about what I've been doing and where I've been going. I'm just lucky enough to have a wonderful home to miss.

Here's to a quiet evening and much more adventure to come! I'm off to Madrid in the morning.

Malena

Laundromat Adventure - Making New Friends

I had to do laundry in a Spanish laundromat, and boy was it an adventure. There isn't one close to our hotel so I had to take the metro and explore a bit. Then when I found the laundromat they were out of detergent and so was the market next door. I then had to go around the corner and get more but I got horribly confused about what was detergent and what was softener. After a lot of confusion I bought the world's biggest bottle of what I thought was detergent and headed back to the laundromat where I met the friendliest woman on the planet. She helped me get my clothes going but asked where my soap was... oh no. Yup. Sure enough it was in fact softener I had bought. ACK. Luckily they had loaded detergent into the softener dispenser and my new friend knew that so she helped me out and we got my clothes going.

I then had my very first prolonged actual spanish conversation!!! We talked about the weather, how we missed summer and the beach. We talked about food (I pretended to like seafood because I know a lot of sea vocabulary, haha) and it went pretty darn well! There were times I was just nodding along, but for the most part I knew what she was saying and could respond when she asked me a question! I'm pretty darn excited about this and I think my Spanish is really improving. Who knows - in three weeks when I head home maybe I'll be super awesome at Spanish! We shall see.

Sometimes it's the little experiences that stick out and for me this was one of those. It was so cool to just interact and get to know a stranger in a strange place in another language. I hope this is the first of many such experience

A Unique Christmas 12/25/2014

First let me start by saying that I am very very blessed to have such wonderful people in my life and such wonderful friends that even on a Holiday when I have to be away from my family, I still found some amazing people to share it with.

I woke up in Rotterdam nice and late, just as a relaxing day should start. We threw in some laundry (OK Coletta did it... did I mention she's great?) and then went on a nice long stroll around the city. I had so much fun taking pictures at all the iconic places in Rotterdam! I even wore my shirt from the radio station I work for so they can get an international shoutout (pictures to come once I have a spare second, ha!)

Coletta's son came over and we had a declicious meal! It was a bunch of small dishes but they were so. good. It was a really fun time - we even played some Mario Kart!

Eventually I had to leave for Spain so Coletta and Erwin (And Pepper too!) drove me to Amsterdam Schippol and off I went. I had to get searched (both me and my bag, ha) but I had no real trouble catching my flight. I bought some impusle stroopwaffels because why not, man? The plane was for sure a budget flight...  no TP. NOT COOL. Luckily they had some paper towels, but ya know. I also sort of enjoyed the kareoke bar singer-song writer music they played for like 40 minutes (20 minutes each on take off and landing). I actually started laughing it was so bad. I tried to tune it out and read my book so the flight wasn't too bad.

When I landed I had to wait a bit for the shuttle, but it wasn't too long and I wasn't worried. There are always cabs! I got to the hotel no problems and met with my boss for quite a while. We finalized things and I headed up to bed!

The hotel is pretty nice. Very typically Spanish... except the shower is what I imagine standing in a hurricane would be like. Very chaotic with water seeming to come from everywhere...

Anyway, I'll update more tomorrow!

Malena

Wanderlust

I know the stereo-type is for a 20-something to want to get out and explore, but for me (to be cheesy) the struggle is real!

I recently stumbled across a Bucket List I had made a while back - majority of it is definitely travel-based!

As you can see quite a few things have been crossed off. In the next year I am hoping to cross off a few more! I am backpacking Italy next January and maybe next July I'll go to Greece or Austria. In fact, this August the company I work for has a tournament in Florida and rather than take my bonus and go traveling, I think I might go skydiving! It would be sort of like a birthday present to myself. It's something I've always wanted to do and if not now, when? We shall see.

Right now I am focusing more on Europe-based travel simply because finances are tight and I spend a lot of time there for my work so its cheaper for me to travel close to those spots. As I get a little more established (think build up my savings account and pay off my car) I plan on exploring Africa, Asia and Australia more! In fact I have ambitions of bungee jumping in South Africa. How amazing would that be?

My big problem is that every time I travel, I end up adding more places to explore on my bucket list!

Malena

The Best of Spain

I thought I would collect my favorite photos and memories from each country and make a blog post for each one. Let's start with Spain.

Puerta de Alcala - unfortunately this was taken on the move out of a bus window, but still. This was my first experience in Madrid!

The next day we got to explore a bit more on foot. This is me in front of the Palacio Real!

This was a not so perfect shot, but still Madrid's Cathedral was beautiful. I wasn't feeling very well during this part of the trip so the shot's aren't the best.

This was where we had lunch! It was a market place that you could wander around and pick and choose your meal. Again, not the best picture.

Next stop Barcelona!

We made a pit stop at the Olympic Stadium from the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992

This was a beautiful Cathedral in Barcelona - we had a lovely walking tour all around this area.

The beautiful interior.

This was taken out of a train window from Lloret de Mar to Barcelona. 

Downtown Barcelona! So beautiful. There were lights everywhere.

Hanging in an Ice Bar in Barcelona.

This was a really cool experience and I'm so glad we got to experience Barcelona. 

Overall my trip was fantastic and I can't wait to go back!

Malena