October 2014 - Lost with Yvonne

Month: October 2014

Paris and London – My first European Trip

Bonjour from Paris!

I know I haven’t really updated since I left the States to go on my European trek, but when you have limited Wifi you can only do so much. But my Wifi has finally worked here in the hotel and I decided to update you all on my time here in the beautiful Europe!

For more up to date info check out my instagram and twitter!!!

My first day in Europe was in London and it was a short trip until we come back for two days for our flight home on our last leg of our vacation. We were able to master the tubes and trains just fine and not get so lost that it became frightening. And even though it was a short trip, we were able to see the Tower Bridge and then get some Fish N’ Chips and everything was great.

The Tower Bridge, beautiful.

Best meal in London.

After London, the next day we needed to catch a bullet train on the Eurostar to Paris at the St. Pancras International railway Stations and the station itself was just beautiful!

Every building in London were HUGE!

And since we had some time on our hands, the Harry Potter Geek in me had to check out Platform 9 3/4 at the Kings Cross Stations just across the street from St. Pancras.

Just on my way to Hogwarts as a Gryffindor.

Overall, London was amazing and I can’t wait to explore the city more next week. I’ll give you more details in later posts of my first day in London.

As for Paris, we are still here and it has already captured my heart. I am loving the city more and more and it makes me not want to leave.

Alex and I celebrated our one year anniversary today and it was an amazing way to celebrate in this beautiful city. We went to the top of the Eiffel tower and saw the Louvre and wrote our love on the Love Lock bridge (unfortunately we forgot our locks and most of the locks are now boarded up). But it was an amazing day, I wish we didn’t have to leave tomorrow. But it’s time for Amsterdam and then Italy! I am excited for what the rest of our trip has for us.

I’ll post more details on Paris and London later, but for now here’s some beautiful photos to pass you over!

I seriously Love Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

Luxembourg Gardens in the Fall is wonderful to walk through.

My boyfriend makes the Louvre and all its tourists tiny 🙂

No Love Lock Bridge for us, but we made the best of it and still wrote our love in Paris

Celebrating a year of our love at the Top of the Eiffel Tower.

Bonne nuit!!!

22 October, 2014 by Lost With Yvonne | 1 Comment

London Baby!

In the words of Joey from the show FRIENDS “London Baby!”

To all my friends and family and to all my travelers in the world, I am officially at the gate waiting to board my first European trek.

I am so excited I cannot contain it!

As I go through my 2 week European adventure with Alex, I will keep everyone updated with photos, videos and random posts of my time in a foreign land.

I hope everyone is having a lovely day as for tomorrow I will be in London enjoying the fall air.

Cheers my travelers! My next post I will finally be in London!

For now check out my other posts about Dreaming big and where I will be in Europe these two weeks.

Also check me out on Twitter and Instagram for up to date Europe post!

CHEERS

19 October, 2014 by Lost With Yvonne | 0 comments

The nightmare… packing.

I figured since I need to pack for Europe tomorrow, why not suddenly get inspired and write a blog post, procrastination at its finest.

SO if you’re anything like me, packing is an absolute nightmare (Especially since I am going full minmalist and taking only a backpack!). Clothes everywhere, falling asleep on your comfy bed, having random dance parties as you try to do the laundry you should have done last week because there are outfits in there that you wanted to wear on your trip. Well I feel for you.

I got caught up in the ‘I’m just going to close my eyes for 10 minutes, don’t worry I set like 10 alarms.’

DON’T FALL FOR THAT TRAP, because for me, four hours later, here I am procrastinating more on my packing. So I decided to devise some little tips and tricks on making packing suck less.

1. Blast music and make it a fun time – I was stupid and put in a movie and ended up getting engulfed in it. So music is your best bet because you may get sucked into a small dance party to that Shake It Off by Taylor Swift, but at least that’s only a 4 minute song and you can move on rather than ending up watching a full 2 hour movie not making a dent in your packing.

2. Don’t pack near your bed (or couch) – I try to stay on my feet the whole time. Even when I say I’ll just sit on my bed and look at my closet to see what to wear. It will suck you in and next thing you know you find yourself snoring with an empty suitcase.

3. Make a List – I started doing this awhile back and it works so damn well because I AM a very forgetful person and if I take one good look at that list, there is always at least one or two things I forgot to pack that if I didn’t write it down I definitely would’ve forgotten it. But also beware of the list ’cause if you’re like me you still forget to write certain things down on your list and you think ‘Oh I’m good’ – Wait my toothbrush’.

4. Do the quick pack and then re-pack – While in my lists I do write down outfits, it doesn’t always go as planned. Like I find random cute outfits I forgot I had or the one I wanted to bring is at the bottom of the laundry stack. So I do the quick pack, as if I had only 10 minutes to pack and pack anything and everything in sight that’s clean and throw it in my case (while still trying to follow my list). I then take a quick break, not anywhere near my bed, and re-group and look at every outfit I put in that suitcase and wonder if I really need a pair of heels for my hike.

5. Try to pack a few days before or invite a friend that is a pro-packer with you to your house the night before and have a pack all my crap into my suitcase party – They’ll love it.

What are some tips and tricks you do to not make packing your nightmare? Comment below!

Giving you som happy European Cheers! Happy Travels. I can’t wait to be on my way to Europe for the first time tomorrow! I AM SO EXCITED! I promise to keep everyone updated as much as possible! Mucho besos <3

18 October, 2014 by Lost With Yvonne | 0 comments

Knott’s Scary Farm 2014 Review– Theme Parkaholics (Halloween edition)

Boo!

Happy October my fellow theme park lovers and travelers. For those not following me on Instagram or Twitter, October is quite a busy month for me. And an awesome month, if I must say so myself. (EUROPE NEXT WEEK EEKKK)

October has always been my favorite month of the year, and it’s not just because my birthday is on October 14 (oh my, that’s tomorrow!). But because Halloween and all things spooky come out this time of the year!

With that being said, I went to my second Knotts Scary Farm Halloween Haunt event. It’s in its 42nd year, for those who would like to know! Last year, my boyfriend took us on our first date to Knotts Scary Farm and as a rookie, I didn’t know what to expect and how freaky it was going to be!

So this year, being a veteran and all, I decided to give you a review of all things awesome and all things scary at Knott’s Scary Farm 2014.

Just feeling like a badass at Knotts Scary Farm.

During this Halloween haunt, Knott’s Scary Farm added three new mazes: Voodoo, the Tooth fairy and the new interactive maze, Special OPS: Infected.

And yes, we did all three. We started our night by getting tickets to Special Ops: Infected first before starting any rides or mazes. That is after we took our picture together by their photographers (we had an awkward kiss on the hair first date mishap last year). And in this year’s haunt, there are a lot more scare-actors in the front trying to freak out haunt goers as they first walk in.

Just taking a new less awkward picture together.

We got our Special Ops tickets for 11:45 pm and that’s even after we got to the park 10 minutes after 7 when the park opened. So as a side note: Get to the park at 7 and go straight to the Specials Ops to get your tickets, they will go quick. There is Special Ops: Alpha right by the front gates at the start of Camp Snoopy and Special Ops: Beta near the end of Camp Snoopy by the western gates! GO TO SPECIALS OPS FIRST IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE AWESOMENESS IT HAS TO OFFER!

These tickets were like the golden ticket, gotta keep them safe.

Since we went on a Thursday during the second week that it ran it was much less crowded and we are basically able to go through all the mazes before our 11:45 meeting with Zombies.

Ready for zombie killing.

Keep Reading →

13 October, 2014 by Lost With Yvonne | 0 comments

Europe Itinerary

Passports ready to go!

With Europe being such a big dream of mine, it took a long time for Alex and I to finalize our itinerary, but everything is finally official and we have all our accommodations and transportation all set up and ready to go!

Since we’re only going to be there for a 2 weeks, we decided to hit up most of the major tourist destinations and get our whole tourist-y European let loose. That way we have more reason to get up and explore Europe in another year together.

Here are our main stops in Europe:

Stop #1: London, England – Since our plane arrives in Gatwick, it only made sense to start in London. Our first night will be spent there where we will try to adjust to time and probably get some Fish N’ Chips.

Stop #2: Paris, France – We’ll be hitting all major spots: the Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, The Louvre,etc… We will also enjoy the city of lights and enjoy the French cuisine.

Stop #3: Amsterdam, The Netherlands – We’ll only be here for a night before our flight to Italy. But we’re going to make the day and the night count completely.

Stop #4: Milan, Italy – The bulk of our stay is in Milan for we are staying with family.

Stop #5: Nice, France – My best friend and fellow Krazy Kappa line sister is studying abroad near Nice and we will make a Nice pit stop in the south of France.

Stop #6: Pisa, Italy – A few hour day trip to the leaning tower before Tuscany.

Stop #7: Florence Italy – From Pisa we go to Tuscany and see the Piazzale Michaelangelo and enjoy the city of Florence at night.

Stop #8: Venice, Italy – Straight from Florence we jump on a train to Venice. We’re going to only go for a night during our week stay in Milan, but riding a Gondola is definitely on our radar.

Last Stop: London, England – Our first night in London is just going to be a time to adjust to Europe time and adjust to foreign land. The last weekend we are in Europe we will spend in London and that’s when we’ll be doing our sight-seeing and Halloween partying.

Do you have any advice, tips or cool places to eat or see for this girl and her boyfriend traveling to Europe for their first time? Comment below, send me an e-mail at lostwithyvonne@gmail.com, or tweet me @lostwithyvonne.

Cheers!

6 October, 2014 by Lost With Yvonne | 5 Comments

Always DREAM BIG

I’ve seen the Vegas Eiffel Tower enough times, time to see the real one.

As I have mentioned before, don’t be afraid to dream big.

And one of my biggest dreams is finally becoming my reality.

While I’ve achieved quite a bit of big dreams of mine (graduate high school and graduate college with honors), there has always been the dream of traveling on my mind. My biggest travel dream was to go to Europe and spend a good amount of time there to explore.

And yes, my travelers, I am officially going to Europe in the fall of 2014 in October! And that is exactly two weeks from today I will be boarding on a plane to London, England.

I’ve seen numerous of my friends and family who have traveled to Europe multiple times. And as much as jealousy sat in me, it also drove me more to try and get my feet on European land.

But before anything, I’d like to give a big thanks to my boyfriend, Alex. He’s always pushed me saying ‘we’re going to Europe, we’re going to Europe’, and while I kept putting it off saying I don’t have the funds, one day BAM he got us tickets to Europe. In all honesty, this is all thanks to him that I am finally achieving my big dream.

So yes, while I did make up many excuses to not going to Europe this year, like money, money, money, and time, I always knew that one day my excuses will run out and I’d be left with just going out and doing it. And, once again, thanks to Alex, it became a now situation and now I am going to be living out my dream of living in a foreign land for 2 weeks!

While I am one lucky girl to have someone get me my ticket to Europe (And for the record, we are not trust fund babies, we struggle and have money hardships, but since we want it enough we go for it).

I want to say that it’s never too late to dream big and share your dreams with others because you never know who just might help you get to that first step to achieving that dream.

But no doubt in my mind, do I think that the hard part is over. Because as much as the hard part of setting a date and actually getting to Europe has been fixed, there is still so much that needs to be done before I leave in October. Money and time is still a big issue. But I keep my head up because I know everything will work out in the end.

Always dream big my fellow travelers. Once I do my European trek who knows what will be my next big dream. But for now I focus on this dream and keep fighting through all the excuses of money and time and then one day you’ll be seeing me in front of the Eiffel Tower smiling big knowing that I achieved a dream that I’ve been dreaming of since I was a young girl.

Cheers to European travel.

6 October, 2014 by Lost With Yvonne | 4 Comments