TravelingLoveBug – Page 2 – Traveling Love Bug

My LOVE/HATE relationship with Barcelona, Spain.

July 31, 2016July 31, 2016TravelingLoveBug

There is no doubt that Barcelona is an absolutely gorgeous city! I mean Gaudi did wonders to the culture, look and feel of the city. To be honest, I really did like my time there. However, when you visit so many other gorgeous cities in Europe (like Amsterdam, Paris, Santorini, Venice, for example) Barcelona (to me personally) falls short. Perhaps I would have liked it more if I visited the busy city prior to hitting up so many other places in Europe? In fact, I wouldn’t visit Barcelona again unless I went FOR FREE (if it’s free, it’s for me). It was unfortunately disappointing, and left us underwhelmed beyond belief. There are simply way too many beautiful places in the world I need to visit before I ever even think of going back to Barcelona.

5 things I absolutely LOVED about Barcelona (in no particular order):

1) The ARCHITECTURE

2) Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi. Did I mention GAUDI? I mean did you see Parc Guell?

3. Barceloneta Beach

4. La Boqueria

5. FC Barcelona Futbol

5 things I absolutely HATED about Barcelona (in no particular order):

In a world full of hate, it is easy to find kindness.

July 16, 2016July 16, 2016TravelingLoveBug

You hear it all the time, and I definitely wont be the first or last person to bring up what a sad time in history it is. With all of the darkness in the world, especially now, it’s hard to think love and kindness can be found in someone you do not know. A stranger, to be exact. We are all guilty of judging others. I unfortunately know I am, especially while traveling. It’s like you’re always second guessing yourself: Should I talk to that person? Will they like me? Are they nice? Will I be safe? Can they speak English? Can I say that one phrase I’ve been practicing well enough? Are they going to think I am a dumb American? These thoughts are normal, and a huge part of exploring abroad because traveling makes you vulnerable, and that is the beauty of it.

Traveling also causes you to get lost… a lot…which I highly recommend. Get lost willingly and purposely, get so crazy lost, you have no choice but to ask a local, and THEN find your way!! AND while you’re finding your way, you’ll find yourself, which ends up being the absolute best part.

Sean and I have been awe struck at how many times complete strangers have shown kindness to us while traveling abroad. Whether we asked, or not.

During our first extended travel trekking through Europe, we found kindness in Paris, and then it happened again and again and again.

Where am I now? What does IT mean?

July 3, 2016July 4, 2016TravelingLoveBug

December 29, 2014: The last blog post published to this page. WOW! Where have I been, and who am I now?! Although highly embarrassed at the thought of how much time has passed since fulfilling my passion of creative life-style writing, I have been doing a lot of living. And by living, I mean getting married, changing my last name, traveling (I guess I wouldn’t be the Traveling Love Bug if I didn’t), and making it happen each and every day. Wait a second, what do I mean by it? IT means life, IT means loving, IT means laughing, laughing really hard until I pee my pants (yes, that’s happened before too, and no, I’m not ashamed), IT means cherishing every moment, IT means taking in every day as if it were my last, and most of all, IT means slowing down and living for now. LIKE, RIGHT NOW, and that my friends, is what I have been up too.

Something special happens when I begin writing, and after re-vamping my page (you like?) and diving back into it, I have finally been able to put my finger on it. Reflection. Reflection happens when I begin writing. Why is this so important? If we don’t take time for ourselves to reflect, to be grateful, to re-imagine and dream, we don’t move forward. It is so hard to stop and take a second to breathe it all in, relax and enjoy. When we do this, we allow our bodies to fill with gratitude, re-charge and most importantly, dream. I have so much gratitude for God, my husband, my family, my best friends, and most of all this beautiful life. I love taking time to reminisce and remind myself how incredibly thankful I am to be living this wonderful life.

Photo by: Daniel Lateulade

Phot by: Daniel Lateulade

Reflections

December 29, 2014June 24, 2016TravelingLoveBug

2014 was my best year yet. Reminiscing all of the good that came out of 2014 is such an incredible feeling. Although a little emotional saying goodbye, I know 2015 will be even better because it’ll be action packed and full of people I love! I think the year-end calls for a plethora of self reflection: What did I do that made my year so great? Who contributed to my happiness? Who didn’t? Why was I so happy? How can I keep this feeling going forever?

Having a deep understanding of what makes you tick on a personal level grounds you. It makes you take a step back and prioritize your life. If something or someone makes you happy, fill your life with them/it. If someone takes away from your best self, drop them and move on (no really….move on). If only life was that easy, right?

I am not crazy (well most of the times I am, but I have never met an awesome person who wasn’t completely crazy in their own way anyways). I know life knocks you out of the driver seat more times than not; however, if you know in your heart of hearts what makes you happy, and you follow it, you are destined for eternal greatness and everlasting happiness. It took me a little bit of time to figure that one out, but I have never been happier since realizing it, and when I say realizing it, I mean truly internalizing and living by it.

What am I most thankful for this year?

Everyone I love is healthy, and for that I am eternally grateful.

As I reflect on 2014, and how special it was to me, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite pictures from each month this year, and the memory behind it. Read more →

West Coast Bucket List

November 14, 2014June 24, 2016TravelingLoveBug

SO when Sean and I decided on actually taking the plunge and moving to San Diego, we were thrilled at the thought of how many doors it could open for us both professionally and recreationally. When we got here, we couldn’t stop talking about how many weekend trips we wanted to take, and all of the places on the west coast that we really wanted to visit. Being in sales, we were always told to write it down and set some goals. However, writing your goals down only works if you truly believe in those goals, and actually want said goals to happen. When I do finally write things down, I look at the list, and think of it as my dream board. A couple weeks ago, I wrote a bucket list for us and I have had it sitting on our refrigerator for us to look at. Since writing it down and having it on my mind, we bought tickets through Sam’s Club to utilize the discount, and went to Disneyland (post to come soon) yesterday. The joy in writing a list is having the ability to cross things off of it. I really wanted to cross something off it, and I have always been a fan of Disney…so why the heck not?

bucketlist — Here it is…our West Coast Bucket List!! Knowing us, we will be adding more and more as we go! I am sure of it.

Feelin’ 25

November 12, 2014June 24, 2016TravelingLoveBug

Birthday week ensues, and I must say 25 has been pretty great to me thus far. I don’t want to say I was nervous about turning 25, because I definitely wasn’t; however, if I am completely honest, I didn’t welcome 25 as I did 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. Before November 10th, I was almost sad to say goodbye to my early 20s. I had the best early 20s anyone could ever imagine. I graduated from an amazing school where I met my fiance, and the world’s most perfect friends. I landed an amazing job that allowed me to travel a huge chunk of the world. I found my furbaby, Tucker and became a Furmama. I was given unconditional love and support from my parents and sister. I followed my dreams to California. I accomplished a lot, and I am damn proud of it! Thinking about leaving this wonderful time makes me a little sad.

Now before you go thinking I am completely nuts, and 25 is still so young, please hit your breaks! I know I have a world ahead of me, and I am so young, and I will accomplish a ton (I know this), but turning 25 was sentimental for a number of reasons. So many amazing things happened at 24. I am sad to say goodbye to 24 because 24 changed my life forever. It allowed me to officially agree on forever with my fiance, and that in itself made my year. PLUS, I really liked saying I was 24. It had a nice little ring to it! 🙂 Every year, not only on my birthday but on New Years Eve, I get sentimental because I loved the year prior. I always tell myself “if this is how 24 or 2013, for example was, next year will be 100x better. Every year that little saying has lived up to its promise, and has been beyond 100x better. I know 25 will bring me and my loved ones nothing but happiness, success, and love.

Venice, Italy: Surprise Engagement!

September 30, 2014June 21, 2016TravelingLoveBug

Exactly 30 days ago the man of my dreams proposed to me in Venice, Italy! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this than to share our special moment with my followers. Sean is the most handsome, special, and caring soul I have ever come across. He makes me feel so at ease, so incredibly loved, so beautiful, so safe, and so special. I am so thankful God brought him into my life. I thank him everyday because it is truly such a blessing. I promise not to get too sappy in this post, but the love I have for this amazing man is unexplainable. Before meeting Sean, I always use to wonder how and why people would say, “OMG like I’m going to marry my best friend, OMG” Honestly, I thought this comment was kind of annoying because I couldn’t relate. I honestly thought that it was impossible! I have my best girlfriends. How could a guy become a best friend? But falling in love with Sean changed it all. He did not take over my best friends’ role of being my best friends, he became my partner, my confidant, my everything….so much more than a best friend. Anything I could ever want in a best friend, he became, and it is so much better than that because we share a one of a kind love that I get to cherish my entire life until we are old and frail. We know I am a hopeless romantic, this is not new news. I have always been a believer in true love, and I believe everyone will find it. However long it takes. I have finally found my forever love. To say Sean and I are happy is a serious understatement. We laugh in normal conversation because we have fallen more deeply in love since our romantic proposal….in just 30 days.

When my parents renewed their wedding vows on their 25th anniversary in Kauai, they said they loved each other so much more than the day they got married. I wondered again how that could happen when “you are the most in love on your wedding day.” I was wrong again. Love teaches your young soul so many things. In just 30 days, I have loved Sean more than when he proposed to me, and a heck of a lot more than when I first told him I loved him on January 2, 2012. I can’t wait to love him more and more each day until our hairs turn as grey as our silver fox, Tucker (cue laughter). I love you, Sean. Thank you for changing my life for the better each and every day. Thank you for being mine.

Eze, France, our little piece of heaven.

August 30, 2014June 21, 2016TravelingLoveBug

Hi Love Bugs! I am blogging to you from TrentItalia, a fast track train to Venice. This trip has been a complete whirlwind. It has been absolutely amazing at times, yet frustrating at other times as most travels, especially long term, tend to be. Up until our arrival in Florence, everything went perfectly and according to plan. If you know me, you know I am a serious planner, so that was fantastic. However, when we arrived in Florence, Vueling airlines lost our luggage. You would probably think to yourself, why yes that is incredibly annoying, but when you are traveling for 32 days you almost have to expect something like that to happen. While yes, this is true (I guess); however, Vueling airlines not only lost our luggage (2 suitcases), but they lost 75% of the plane’s luggage as well! Let’s do some simple math here…you board 150 passengers, and only 20ish suitcases? Hmm. I think you have a problem, better check your clipboard stat! We eventually got our luggage the next evening with ZERO help from the Florence airport or Vueling airlines because their telecommunication systems are completely shot to hell! Each automated message in Italian stated they were still searching for our luggage (ugh no comprendo?). Anyways, Sean and I went on a whim, drove to the airport, and retrieved our wonderful suitcases! If you saw my face when I laid eyes on my beautiful suitcase, it lit up like a child on Christmas. I could finally have my hair products, underwear, chargers, and clothes back! Oh my goodness, heaven! 🙂

After getting back to the hotel, we got ready for the evening, and that is when I started to feel sick. I caught a 24 hour flu bug. It was horrible. Anything and everything associated with the flu you can think of, I got. Let’s not go into details here because it was quite disgusting, but it was not pretty. I felt weak, had no appetite, and was completely miserable. It gets better, the day I got sick (yesterday), was Sean’s birthday and we had a beautiful day planned in Tuscany, Siena, and Pisa. 😦 We unfortunately did not make it to any of those wonderful places, and made the bus driver pull over so I could get off the bus, sick. I felt horrible. We had been looking forward to this forever, and the flu bug had to ruin it for us. I am finally feeling better after forcing myself to eat Saltines and stay hydrated. We will continue the birthday celebrations today in Venice, and as we board our cruise around the Mediterranean. A good friend/mentor once told me bad things happen in 3s, so (1)getting our luggage lost, (2)me getting sick, and (3)canceling our Tuscany trip should be enough. Let’s hope the next 15 days go wonderfully as we are now in the middle of our Eurotrip. Here’s to another great half of the trip.

Now don’t think I was only going to rant and rave on this post, Europe has been amazing. Since last posting Sean and I have had a great time in Nice where we took day trips to Eze and Monte Carlo, went to Barcelona with a day trip to the mountains of Montserrat, and ate our way through Florence, EATaly (before my getting sick of course). Eze is an amazing mid-evil village perched up on top of the mountains overlooking the sea. It is absolutely gorgeous, and I am completely in love with this little town. Eze is about 29 minutes by bus from Nice. Read more →

Chateau de Versailles, Paris, France

August 22, 2014June 21, 2016TravelingLoveBug

Versailles is the most beautiful chateau/castle/home I have ever seen. The amount of gold around the house, fountains, gardens, etc. is truly remarkable. The time that it must have taken to landscape and grow those gardens the way it is today is unimaginable. I can only wish to have something half as beautiful as that one day, and that is a far fetched wish! The line to get into the Chateau is extremely long. If possible, pre-order your tickets or schedule a guided tour. I personally do not like guided tours because you don’t have the freedom to go at your own pace, but who knows it might be worth it to see inside the chateau, something I wish I could have done. Sean and I took the train to Versailles mid-afternoon to avoid lines as indicated on the website and we could still only get into the gardens. The line to buy tickets to get into the chateau must have had 500 or more people in it so we thought the gardens would be just fine, and they were absolutely perfect. Read more →

Je’taime Paris

August 21, 2014June 21, 2016TravelingLoveBug

Can I just start off by saying, I love Paris! Like, I seriously love Paris. I know, I know, everyone says they love Paris; however, recently before leaving, I had multiple people tell me they were disappointed by Paris, they had bad experiences, the Parisians were not helpful, they hate Americans, blah blah. The list goes on. I just want to take a second to thank everyone who told me this because I went to Paris with an open mind, and because of this my expectations were not outrageously high like others might have been. I think this actually made Paris better for me. The city is so perfect with its wonderfully decorated Parisian style, its buttery and extremely flakey croissants, and don’t even get me started on the macaroons and baguettes. Almost every single person (besides 2 🙂 ) that Sean and I crossed paths with were extremely nice and helpful. We even had someone in the subway completely stop what they were doing, take off their headphones, and ask us if we needed help. I guess the extremely perplexed looks on our faces staring at the daunting subway map not only made us anxious, but made others around us anxious as well! lol. This really nice guy went out of his way to speak to us in broken English. He asked us-not the other way around. He ended up saving us 20 minutes, and a bunch of frustration by notifying us the line we wanted to take to Notre Dame stopped running at 5:00pm. It was then 6:30pm. Overall, we met really great people who gave us wonderful suggestions.

Sean and I did so many things in Paris. We were non-stop from the second we got there, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. On our first night out in Paris, we did a Viator Tour that took us to the Eiffel Tower for dinner, than an evening 1-hour Seine River Cruise tour, than tickets to the Moulin Rouge with complimentary champagne, which was amazing. Sean and I are STILL talking about that night. It was a little over 5 1/2 hours, and we were exhausted after, but it checked everything off our list. It also included transportation, and we got to chat with other couples around the world. We met a couple from Australia and a couple from Scotland, and both were wonderful! All in all it made for a great Parisian night out. Read more →