OFF TO MEXICO...TO GET MARRIED!!

We are finally off to MEXICO!

I cannot believe the day is finally here #holycrap. We are so excited to lounge around all week with our family & friends. This week will be absolutely incredible.

Soon after, we throw on our backpacks and leave for our 6-month Asian adventure. 

Wedding craziness. RTW trip craziness. Getting used to not being in Amsterdam craziness. I hope to be back ASAP to provide a little update but no guarantees ;) we will be soaking up these next few weeks as much as possible.

Lately, I've been enjoying this beautiful lil love snap Emma took of us a couple months ago during our Parisian picnic ;). 

Check our Denis and Emma's blog here for some ridiculously awesome travel posts.

You can also follow me on Instagram for snippets of our wedding week in Mexico and of the first stop on our Asia trip: NEPAL!

And to Denis & Emma: wish you guys were here but SEE YOU IN BANGKOK!!! 

Eeeeeeeep!

Amsterdam Family

My gosh, how time has been flying! We are now down to our last 10 days living in beautiful Amsterdam. Am I getting excited for California? The wedding? The big trip? Everything coming up?! Absolutely! But lately, I can't help but focus on just how sad I am to leave Amsterdam--my most favorite city in the world. But it's not just that, it's also leaving the life we created here--the life we created from scratch. Not knowing anyone, not having work experience or a paycheck, not having a favorite bar or restaurant, not knowing even who I was to become in the years I have been living here. I've conjured up such great friends who have become my overseas family. How lucky I feel to have so many close friends who have contributed to my years in Amsterdam--people from Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Australia, England, and so many other places as well as from the good ol' US of A! Tangent: but on the other hand, I wonder the world of possibility/friends/good times which is waiting for us over on the West Coast? Hmm..food for thought and perhaps worthy of a separate post, I'd say!

Something I never imagined was feeling a pull between two places--from my home in California and now feeling the pull from my home in Amsterdam. It's the limbo between California and Amsterdam and leaving a piece of my heart in each place.

I saw the above quote on Pinterest around the time I started feeling this way--and it cleared things up a bit. But will I ever feel fully at home again? Maybe. Maybe not. But if I don't, then atleast I know I will always have family in both places :). Encouraging me, laughing with me, drinking with me, celebrating me, consoling me and enjoying life with me.

Last week I joined a couple friends who are a part of this 'Amsterdam family' at one of our sneaky spots along the Amstel river. It's incredible how much fun a random Thursday night can be when you combine a couple of friends, a sunset, some bottles of prosecco, a tripod and a city view. I'm looking forward to filling up these last 10 days with each of the friends I've come to know and love in Europe...and savor every. single. minute with them. Miss you already, friends!

Holla at ya, Lily Wanderlust!

Snacking in Camden, Lounging in South Kensington

A few months ago I found dirt-cheap overnight bus tickets from Amsterdam to London for last weekend--I scooped them up before I could give a second thought about what an overnight bus to London actually entails (which I found out later was 5 hours to Calais, 1.5 hours on a ferry to Dover, and 2 hours to London..ugh...but on the bright side, they still sell pints on the ferry at 4AM...eh why not?). I justified it by saying it would be great training for overnight bus travel in Asia, although I'm sure this bus is a luxury. Although I have heard Thai buses are pretty fancy too. This bus to London also meant I could visit my favorite Aussie friend!

I had 36 hours in London with Courtney and we really no had plans on the agenda. As in no. plans. whatsoever. We walked around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (which is where Will, Kate and lil George live! I love Kate!), ate lunch at Camden Market (my god, the choices!), got afternoon tea around the corner, ordered Indian takeaway at the hostel and just chatted about anything and everything while walking around South Kensington and Notting Hill. 

TRAVEL TIPS

Hostel: Astor Hyde Park...fun staff, perfect location by Hyde Park and pretty fancy

Bus: Eurolines.com, only 18 EUR...just couldn't pass it up. I also took a roundtrip bus to Bruges, Belgium, for only 25 EUR

Camden Market: come hungry and snack away!

Soon, I was back on the bus en route to Amsterdam (then off the bus, to metro, to work...why do I always do that to myself?). The best part of the weekend wasn't only seeing my fave Aussie, snacking on warm scones with cream and jam or chowing down on Venezuelan arepas at Camden Market--it was at the end of the weekend, before I hopped in a cab driven by a jolly Englishman, when my Aussie friend and I got to say 'see you in Mexico!'

Because that Aussie friend o' mine is one of my bridesmaids! So the 'See you in Mexico's' have begun...

Picnicking in Paris

Sometime during our Icelandic roadtrip with Denis & Emma, we got on the topic of those amazing Parisian wine bars they took us to last Fall and where we should meet up in Asia next Spring. Then before we knew it, Christian and I had found semi-affordable train tickets to visit Denis & Emma in Paris a few weeks later. We tried to justify the cost by saying it would be our last European weekend trip before moving to California. Oh how I will miss these weekend rendezvous' in Europe!

The weekend worked out exactly as we hoped it would and we did just that: wine-bar hopped and plotted our reunion in Asia next Spring :).

We shared several bottles of wine (maybe more than several), charcuterie boards with pretty spreads of cured meats and cheeses and spent Saturday picnicking by the Eiffel Tower. 

Good friends, good food, good breakfast (thanks Emma!) good wine and trip planning? Life does't get much sweeter. And when Denis & Emma dropped us off at Gare du Nord for our return trip, the smiles on our faces couldn't get any bigger as we said the words "SEE YOU IN BANGKOK!"

My favorite wine bar of the weekend: the cute and bohemian Les Caves Populaires.

Enjoy this short video Christian whipped together from our Parisian weekend!

Into the Jungle

My favorite day in Costa Rica involved a jungle right next to the beach, pitchers of sangria and monkeys! The four of us set out on an adventure. We walked beyond the beaches of Puerto Viejo and into the jungle. The beach came right up to the edge of the trees and the seaspray lingered above the waves. Thirty minutes into our trek, we spotted a sign 'Pitcher of Sangria - 4500 colones'--only $9!--one pitcher turned into two and two pitchers turned into three. Somewhere during the 2nd pitcher, we spotted movement in the trees above and a band of monkeys were on the move! They swung from branch to branch and before we knew it, they were gone--but our giddiness remained. Then more monkeys came! It was amazing. In the jungle, sipping on sangria with my BFFs with a view of ocean.

We enjoyed this little jungle hut, their sangria and the sweet lady behind the bar so much, that we returned later that evening for dinner and feasted on grilled lobster and sea bass. Our previous nights' of street food meals freed up our budgets a bit and we splurged! Even with homemade guacamole, grilled lobster, dessert, sangria and pina coladas, we still didn't pay more then $30 per person. Oh I love that mysterious little jungle hut. 

The next morning we took the same route through the jungle and paid a visit to the rescued animals at the Jaguar Rescue Center. Highly recommend it! And sloths and baby monkeys are just so damn cute...