Dear beloved readers, sorry for having taken so long to write about my most recent trip to London, England. As many of you know, I am now back home in Virginia and have begun my summer internship. So it is an understatement to say things have been busy around here. But I promise the following entry is well worth the wait! Wednesday, May 25th: So long Spain, Hello London. I said goodbye to my host family the night before I left. But my host mom, the family memb...

Lisbon is a mixing bowl, a blender if you will, combining all the flavors of life into one refreshing cocktail. The ancient and new, the savory and sweet, and of course, the wet and dry as my weekend came to bear. This weekend turned out to be quite a tasty adventure! Day 1: All in the family. Sam, Emily, and I flew into Lisbon airport and were greeted by Sam's first cousin once removed, Rudolfo. He is a fun and generous man, father of two, and can speak Eng...

Milan At first glance, this city seems very industrial. There are many shops and restaurants like any town, but fewer trees in between the streets and roads. Transportation is very easy and necessary as I took the metro about twice each day. The first night I arrived, our group decided to go into the city center before heading to bed. When we got off at the center stop, this massive, ogre-like cathedral blinded our tired eyes. The Duomo of Milan is quite a sig...

Welcome to Achey Sneaks Guide to Traveling Northern Italy (on a Budget)! Step 1: Choose your companions. Groups consisting of four or less is ideal. This allows you to easily sit together on train rides, at restaurants, book one hotel room to share, and keeps things running smoothly. Choose a range of personalities. Things will never be boring if everyone is a little different. Choose people with a range of skills. Make sure at least one person has adequate or...

Las Alpujarras & La Herradura Over the course of a week, I trekked from some of the highest elevations in Granada to some of the lowest. Alpujarras There are a series of small pueblos in the mountains about an hour outside of the city in Granada. The area is known as Alpujarras and our group took a curvy bus ride up this hillside and spent the majority of the day hiking back down. See my photo album for some beautiful vistas! One aspect that stood ...