In The Wild / A Month in Europe
This summer, I spent several weeks in Europe meeting family, exploring with friends, and leaning into the sense of playfulness that I hadn't experienced in years.
during travel, life events and projects, i find it more and more difficult to remain in the present moment if i’m sharing online during the actual happening. these next several weeks, i plan to sit down and share some of my favorite projects, writings, and experiences with you all from 2022, in blog format.
Our ITINERARY was as follows:
for those of you wanting specifics of travel ITINERARY only, scroll a bit more
Those of you hoping to read some journal thoughts, sketchbook inserts, and film, keep on scrolling with me xx
When I started really placing travel at the forefront of my life priorities two years ago, I noticed a pattern immediately. I would wake up camping in a beautiful wooded area, stand over the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, or catch my breathe in London and think wait — I may never be here again, in all my life. This is it.
I have to take in every possible detail and entrain them in my memory so well that I never lose the sense of standing right here. As someone who has never been able to afford weeks off at a time or a month long trip in a van, I would send myself into a panic thinking “this is it. this is all you’ll ever see. so you better remember it”
What’s worse than grieving the loss of something while you’re still actually in the moment of that something? traveling brought this thought pattern to the surface. how often am I doing this in my other areas of life? living in my head, waiting for the shoe to drop.
No one can experience full joy living their life tiptoeing across eggshells.
It’s taken me awhile to adjust and rest into the fact that I can enjoy the moment passing, without strangling it or
worrying about the next time I’ll stand in front of the world in awe again.
This trip was that for me. release the need for control
Trip Details
Bri and I left Charleston to head to Venice, Italy. There, we met my parents and split a quaint little Airbnb in the heart of the city— a balcony to overlook the canals. We spent two days experiencing the city (mostly eating croissants and gelato and pasta) before picking up our rental car as a group.
venice to dolomites
We drove four hours north to the Dolomites, where we’d spend the next few days hiking and exploring the most beautiful scenery in the world. Normally for a hiking adventure, we’re all about the camping and backpacking— but with my parents in the group we all decided it would be best to grab a comfortable Airbnb for the group.
We rented a beautiful apartment overlooking the peaks and were able to cook cozy dinners each night and enjoy the view after a long day of hiking. cooking and buying groceries always helps cut costs, ESPECIALLY in a group setting.
at the end of our time in the dolomites, we got our covid-19 tests completed at a local pharmacy and signed off for our travel back home and into portugal. it was still required at this time to have testing done, regardless of vaccination status.
HONESTLY, with all of the hikes and details of just these five days alone, i think i’ll do a SEPARATE post on this. sharing hikes, areas, tips, etc
dolomites to padua
After this, we drove back as a group towards the venice airport and stayed in padua, italy. This city is just outside of venice and made the perfect pit stop. our airbnb stay for the few hours we were in it, 10/10.
TIP:
it’s good to note here that renting a car in italy can be tricky, mostly for parking. we chose an airbnb that gave us directions to a local parking garage. we tend to never check large luggage and only travel with duffles that fit on our backs soley for this reason: dragging heavy baggage any distance- down cobblestone streets - or city subways - is always more of a hassle than it needs to be.
By the time we made the several hour trek back, it was dusk. we were exhausted by couldn’t let the time pass us by. we checked into the airbnb, took a quick shower, and grabbed a delicious dinner around 10pm. being a friday, the streets were filled with people enjoying music, dinner, drinks. we got to enjoy some of the architecture and CATHEDRAL before crashing in bed.
venice to lisbon
up at 4 am for our flight, we drove towards the venice airport and dropped the rental car before going our SEPARATE ways to catch new flights. Bri and i headed towards portugal, landing in lisbon. quick and inexpensive flight (around 65 dollars each) put us in lisbon around noon. Here, we met up with Lindsey and Rachel at the airport and picked up our new rental car.
driving the streets of lisbon was exciting and kept it interesting (shout out to linds for being a trooper) the insane traffic circles and crowded streets kept us on our toes for sure. we dropped our bags at our hostel hotel and headed out into the city to explore.
Lisbon to Alentejo, Portugal
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast the next morning before packing our bags again and heading back into our rental car. Driving just over 3 hours towards the coast of portugal. here, we stayed at a retreat center, cocoon portugal, for an entire week. this yoga retreat center is located on the breathtaking coast of portugal, and the drive there was through the beautiful countryside; with many stops to overlook cliffs and rocky shoreline. cocoon is a 275 acre coastal farm + retreat in the Alentejo region, which is known for its long stretches of untouched coastline and charming white-washed villages. the views from the hikes we experienced here were truly magical; and so insane to see so much beach empty for all of the nude bathing.
staying here for the retreat was the best bang for our buck: all farm-to-table (literally!) meals, three times a day, room, and yoga classes were all included for our weekly rate. we spent many days hiking the world-famous fisherman’s trail (a must see*), tanning on nude beaches, playing with the baby goats, and even horsebacking riding along the cliffsides of the rocky coastline. after hopping to a new place every 2-3 days, this was the reset we needed.
travel can be EXHAUSTING and DEFINITELY isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay! this leg of the trip was the first trip i had ever taken where i stayed still for longer than 4 days in the same place, with a bed and shower. it was such a treat! Highly recommend any of the experiences that cocoon offers.
Alentejo to lagos (day Trip)
on the last day of our stay in portugal, we drove to lagos for the day to see Ponta da Piedade, explore old lagos, walk camilo beach, and INDULGE in way too many Pastel de Natas. This area is DEFINITELY more tourist-based, but would still highly recommend! we ended our trip by returning our rental car in lisbon and hopping on a flight to ibiza.
Ibiza to Valencia
Being this close to spain, the three of us have always had an island off-the-coast on our bucket list. we hopped on another cheap flight directly from lisbon to ibiza (it might have been the smallest plane i’ve been on) and enjoyed a few days here. while ibiza is known mostly for it’s party scene / the crystal clear TURQUOISE water makes an insanely beautiful summer vacation spot. we ended up doing a SNORKELING tour of the islands’ PRIVATE beaches and sandbars, and it was one of the highlights of our trip.
Ibiza to valenica to charleston
ibiza is too small of an airport to make it all the way back home, so we made a pit-stop in valencia, spain. only being here 15 hours, we took time to explore the city’s food, get our covid tests (which was an adventure all on it’s own), and of course… get tattoos. Our airbnb was beautiful and i wish we had more time in it, alongside this lively city.
some travel honesty of the trip:
because we packed light for such an extensive trip with such a variety of experiences to dress for, we didn’t bring our hiking boots; but our hiking sneakers. the hikes we chose in the dolomites were very high elevation, and still had a lot of snow melt on the loose rock. would DEFINITELY RECOMMEND the proper gear going forward
on our second to last day in the dolomites, my dad, bri and i were all running down a steep trail (feeling ourselves and shouldn’t have) my dad jumped off a rock, that moved, and fell— breaking his ankle. of course, he continued to hike on it for two more days and didn’t get it properly looked at for a week after returning home :’)
when we arrived in lisbon, we realized as a group we had miscalculated and not booked our hotel and car on the right day (so many moving parts for a long trip like this!) and had to find a new hostel. luckily there was also a car available at the airport!
at one point in the dolomites, figuring out how to pay for gas was confusing. they also mainly speak german in this area, so our italian was useless.
traveling between countries with so many different covid-19 rules and regulations was stressful to navigate, not to mention the hope of not contracting it and being unable to get home. luckily for us, we all tested negative at the end of the trip!
in our last city, valencia, it was difficult to find a test. once we finally did, the language barrier made it easy for mistakes to be made in terms of getting our VERIFIED results. lindsey and i received ours, and when bri’s didn’t come through... she had to run across the city, making it to him just in time before he closed. stressful for sure!
linds got food poisoning in Ibiza and was a total champ about it… being that sick and away from home is never easy.
our flights back had multiple layovers both abroad and new york. customs is always backed up in nyc, so we had to cut lines in tsa and sprint several terminals before making our last flight. we’ve missed many, many connections this way :’)
all and all, we made it through many flights and car rides without any big issues…which is always a plus!
Exploring does the same thing that art does for me. It puts be back into living mindfully. Bearing witness.
Bearing witness in our lives takes many different forms. Staying present in a difficult conversation, even when we are bored/angry/hurt. Not skipping to the end to see how it all turns out. The 3 am lure that craves something familiar, something to love that the light hasn’t touched. How we can notice when and why the ache stems from. Witnessing the way my grandmother’s wrinkled hands pass over the recipe card for the last time, without knowing that it was so. Accepting that there will be many more last moments. Scribbling on a page with no outcome. Sitting in traffic and smiling at the stranger next to you. Witnessing the dissonance of both the harshness and beauty in a direct collision: the symmetry and asymmetry of all things, including ourselves.
photo dump + real moments:
