Europe Trip: How it started + Belgium

Hello friends! 

It’s been awhile! I thought of this space often during my time abroad and I couldn’t wait to be able to jot down some of the stories and experiences I’ve had in the last three months. I hope this series of posts gives you a look inside my journey, and hopefully gives you some tips if you happen to dream of your own European adventure. 

I guess the real question is: How did this whole thing begin? 

Honestly it’s nice just to remember what a journey I’ve been on in the last 6 months and I know one day I’ll appreciate looking back on the whirlwind of a time I’ve had, so here we go. 

Typically if someone tells you they’re going to Europe for a month, they’ve spent quite a bit of time researching, planning, and preparing before heading off. This was not the case for me. 

It was summertime and the lease on the house I had been renting in a quaint little neighborhood in Florida with a few friends was coming to an end. Life was pulling us all in different directions, and we all knew that the chapter of living together was coming to a close.  I was really the only one that had no real direction. I did feel my time in Florida was coming to a close, which meant I wasn’t really wanting to sign a long term lease on an apartment (not that I could really afford one of my own in that area anyway), but I was hanging on for dear life just in complete confusion as to what to do or where to go. So the summer months slowly went by and I was either house sitting for people who were out of town or renting an air bnb, and pretty much just working a ton to pay rent and stay in the area. When I knew I only had about 3 weeks left in my air bnb I knew it was time to make some real decisions. 

It seemed every other option fell through, and I realized I actually was in the perfect situation to make the dream of traveling abroad a reality. 

No bills to pay, a job I could step away from, no commitments holding me to one location…

When else would I have this amount of freedom again?

After a little push from friends to go for it, I booked a flight to Europe that left in two weeks time, as one does. Right?

I’m not sure when my friends said to go for it if they meant that quickly, and if you don’t know me very well, this is not typically how I do things. I like to plan. I like order and structure and having everything figured out. I’m about as type A as one can get- but for some reason big life decisions or moves seem to happen quite spontaneously and at the last minute for me. To be honest I’m not sure if this decision came to anyone’s surprise or not after the time I had over the summer trying to figure things out. 

So I packed my little car about as full as I could get it, left a few belongings in a friend’s garage, said my goodbyes far too quickly, and then took off to TN where I would stay for a week, see family, say my goodbyes once again, and fly out from Nashville. 

So where to first? 

Munich, Germany

I began my trip by landing in Munch, Germany at 7am. Jet lagged yet full of adrenaline and excitement, I wandered through the airport scouring the crowds for one of my best friends, Allie, who lives in Germany with her husband Josh (and has a blog of her own- ). She and I go way back and somehow between living in different states and then her move abroad we’ve managed to still see each other at least once a year and it always feels as though we never spend a day apart. 

We headed to her little village where we spend the day together planning out our road trip and having a cozy evening catching up and resting before our big trip.

When I was planning my trip I thought visiting my friend would just be a lovely way to start out, and thankfully our schedules somehow aligned where she was free. It was so nice to be able to get some rest and adjust to the time difference in her home rather than managing my way through a huge city first thing.

We both wanted to visit Amsterdam and after a few days there together I would continue on alone, and Allie would go back to Germany. We wanted to break up our road trip, so we decided on a stop in Belgium. Belgium is a country I had never truly thought of visiting before, but I loved what I saw during our short stay.

We stayed in the cutest air bnb in Ghent that had an amazing cafe and breakfast spot right below it. When we went down for breakfast I didn’t really expect too much, but the owner was so incredibly kind, and the food was actually so delicious, high quality, and so inexpensive- I was so impressed. Honestly the city was so charming and beautiful, without the crowds or busyness of Brussels, and I would highly recommend making a visit there. 

We wandered through the old town, had Belgium chocolate of course, and ended our day with soup along the river, soaking in the sunshine and chatting about pretty much anything and everything.

I don’t think it had truly hit me yet that this was happening- this trip was real and I wasn’t about to wake up from a dream. I laugh now thinking back at how clueless I was to the adventure ahead of me… 

We then traveled on to Amsterdam… (coming soon in next post) 

*Travel Tip*

The Eurorail pass- is it worth it?

I decided to use a Eurorail pass that gave me 10 travel days within two months which ended up being perfect for my time. I think it saved me a ton of money in the end since I was traveling by train all over Europe, and it also gave me the flexibility of changing my plans with ease and also changing trains quickly if one got canceled or I changed my mind at any point. 

Knowing I was using this form of travel helped me with planning as I could map out my trip and see which trains and train times made sense/were possible for me. I would HIGHLY recommend this if you’re traveling Europe for awhile- just make sure that you map out your long train rides in advance to make sure there are still spots available on your desired train for railpass holders. 

I would just recommend doing the math and see if the pass makes sense for your trip route as some trains are pretty inexpensive so if you aren’t traveling for multiple days or long distances it may not be worth it for you. 

Also if you are using the pass, sometimes you don’t have to book seat reservations being a pass holder, but I would recommend going online and booking a seat reservation through whatever railline you are taking as some of the trains in busier cities can fill up and you could be left without a seat. Usually this only costs a few euro. I got by without doing this but there were a few trains where I was worried I would have to stand for multiple hours. 

If I was staying in a city for awhile and planning to use the metro/public transport often, I just researched if that city had any type of week long pass or a set of tickets to save money. The only cities where I used the metro daily was Paris, which had a week long pass, and then in Nice I got a public transport card for about $23 which allowed me to use the trams and bus an unlimited amount of times for a month.

Other than those cities I walked, biked, rented a scooter, or bought tickets as I needed to.