My Week with Girl Gone International

Last week, I got a very exciting email from Bonnie Rose asking me to guest post for Girl Gone International's Instagram account. How could I say no to that?! I loved the user engagement on the account (people actually answered the questions I posed in my captions!), and I found a lot of great new wanderlust accounts to add to my personal feed. For today's Travel Tuesday post, I wanted to share with you my posts at @girlgoneinternational from the past week:

Travel Tuesday: Where in the world? {reveal}

image via @mcstroup on Instagram

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday, a weekly link-up to share all your travel posts! No rules: Just share any post from your blog relating to travel. Last week, I posted ten photos from ten different European countries and asked you to guess the city. If you didn't get a chance to play last week, check the photos out here first! Then read on after the jump to see how well you did. :)

Travel Tuesday: Where in the world?

Greetings, fellow travelers and wanderlusters! Welcome back to Travel Tuesday, a weekly link-up to share all your travel shenanigans and expert tips. Before we begin, I just wanted to note that I revealed a very special project earlier this morning on the blog. If you like to read, you'll definitely want to check it out. :) And enough with the shameless self-promotion! Today, I'm trying something a little different for Travel Tuesday: a game!

I've selected 10 photos from my travels, and I thought it might be fun to have you guess where each photo was taken! I'm looking for the city names, but if you also know the specific landmark (if there is one pictured), more props to you! Hint: Each photo is from a different European country. If you need more help, I've listed 15 possible countries at the bottom of this post to choose from (not all countries are pictured). Let's see how this goes! :)

A:

Cityscape on Camera: Budapest, Hungary

So Christmas Eve probably isn't the best time to bring back Travel Tuesdays, but my Timehop feed has been full of pictures and tweets from my trip to Budapest last Christmas, and I realized I never blogged about it! This post will be short and sweet so you can get back to the holidays with your family. Enjoy more pictures after the jump!

Cityscape on Camera: Evian, France & Vevey, Switzerland

Today is the final installment of my European Extravaganza recap series. I've actually been writing these posts since late July, but it still seems weird to think I'm already done recapping all our fabulous adventures. Of course, there's only so much you can fit into a picture, so I hope I told you enough stories that you could really get a feel for each city and country.

After leaving the Azores (and spending a very long night in a children's playpen at the Lisbon airport), we went back to my mom's condo in Switzerland for a few short days of relaxation and re-packing before heading home to California. My sister's high school friend had flown over to visit her before traveling through Europe with her parents, so we all took an afternoon to take advantage of the warm weather and swim in Lake Geneva ... where we got chased by a swan. And got to see lots of confident Swiss women proudly showing off all 80 of their years. (Don't worry, there aren't any pictures of the latter.)

Islandscape on Camera: Pico, Portugal

After spending a few days with Jonathan's dad's family on the Azorean island of Terceira, we hopped over to Pico to see his mom's island. One of the neatest parts of visiting this island was getting to stay in his grandparents' old house. It has electricity and running water and everything (although the hot water was veeeeery limited), but there were some quaint aspects of the house, like the chickens a neighbor still raises at the house and the well outside where we washed our beach towels from Greece. :)

Islandscape on Camera: Terceira, Portugal

I can't believe I only have two more posts after this one to finish up my European Extravaganza recap series. I know I've been recapping this trip for quite a while (since July 23, to be exact), but there is still way too much to fit on any blog. I am so grateful I was able to take this trip, especially with my fiance and siblings by my side. :) Anyway, enough sappiness. Like I said, I still have two posts left! Today, I'm sharing photos from my time in the Azorean island of Terceira.

image via @mcstroup on Instagram

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Azores, I like to refer to the islands as "the Hawaii of Portugal." This archipelago is composed of nine islands and located about 900 miles southwest of Lisbon in the Atlantic Ocean. Jonathan's parents were actually both born in the Azores and emigrated to America. His dad was born and raised on the island of Terceira, our first stop in the islands. (His mom was born in Pico, which I'll share with you next week!)

Cityscape on Camera: Lisbon, Portugal

The final big European city on our backpacking trip was Lisbon. Abby, Jonathan and I took an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon for a few days in the Portuguese capital. Unfortunately, we didn't book our tickets much in advance, so there were no beds left. :( We just sat in regular train cars for the 9-hour trip. It was still way more comfortable than a plane, though!

Patterned leggings are a cultural experience in Lisbon. ;) via @mcstroup on Instagram

Cityscape on Camera: Madrid, Spain

After nearly a week in Andalusia with the entire family, Mom took my little brother back to Switzerland with her while Jonathan, Abby and I continued on to Madrid. (Don't worry, Michael was leaving for a study abroad trip at a cheetah rehabilitation center in South Africa. So it's not like his trip was being cut short.) We caught a train from Ronda straight through to Madrid and checked into our hostel. We were able to find a very affordable hostel within walking distance of two major plazas in Madrid (Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor), the major shopping street (Gran Via) and the main city park (Parque del Retiro). I highly recommend Room007 Ventura Hostel if you're ever in the area. We even had a great roommate from Brazil, so Jonathan got to practice his Portuguese and we had a friend to explore the city with.

With our Brazilian roommate at El Tigre bar. Now THOSE are tapas!

Cityscape on Camera: Granada & Ronda, Spain

Next stop(s) on my European Extravaganza recap: Granada and Ronda, two beautiful towns in the Andalusian region of southern Spain. Seville, which I recapped two weeks ago, is the capital of this region.

Granada is most famous for being the home of the Alhambra (which is where all but a few of the photos below were taken). We also shared a memorable night with Jose, a local gentleman who insisted on showing us the local bar scene. Before you jump to any conclusions, let's just say Jose told me he was sixty ... and then laughed. Because he was definitely older than that. Also, he spoke zero English, so my siblings and I got really good at our conversational Spanish that evening. (Or at least we felt like we were really good from all the vodka-tonics he kept feeding us.) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that night (just videos haha), but I had to share that story. Meeting locals is definitely the best way to party!

Cityscape on Camera: Seville, Spain

I planned to share photos from my time in Seville, Granada and Ronda today, but there were just way too many photos. So today your get a special dose of Seville, and the other two Andalusian cities will be showcased on September 24. Next week is another topic-based week (see bottom of this post for the prompt).

Photo via @mcstroup on Instagram

Cityscape on Camera: Rome & Vatican City, Italy

Next up in my European Extravaganza recap series: Rome, Italy (including Vatican City)! I'm pretty late getting this Travel Tuesday post up, so it's going to be heavy on the pictures and light on the descriptions (but you only come for the pictures anyway, right?). If you want to know anything more about a specific picture, please ask! And make sure you're not a no-reply blogger so I can actually respond to your comment. :)

Photo via @mcstroup on Instagram

Countryscape on Camera: Greece

I've decided to combine all my Greece recaps together into one post so we can have a themed Travel Tuesday link-up next week! This means I'll take a little break from my European Extravaganza posts and ask you all a question to answer for the link-up, like the old days of Travel Tuesday. :) Be sure to check the bottom of the post for next week's topic!

Image via Instagram

Countryscape on Camera: Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, Switzerland

Note: If this post is too long for you, at least skip to the bottom half to see my special announcement! :)

After a week traveling through Amsterdam, Prague and Berlin, we headed to my mom's condo in Switzerland for the weekend. She moved to Switzerland a few years ago when she received a promotion, so this was the second time I'd gotten to visit her new home. I had also been to Switzerland once before, in high school, when she took my brother and me along on a business trip.

This weekend was the perfect little break, especially for Jonathan and me. My sister and brother had been able to fly to my mom's first with big suitcases and then pack in smaller backpacks for specific trips, but Jonathan and I had had to bring everything we needed for the six weeks in just backpacks. Because the cities we were visiting ranged in climate from Amsterdam (rain jackets and boots) to Sevilla (shorts and tank tops), it was pretty challenging. After our first week, though, we got to leave most of our warmer clothes at my mom's, which made our backpacks so much lighter. :)

Enough of the logistics: I know you only come for the pictures! ;) Below are views of Lake Geneva from my bedroom at the condo and the deck, a photograph of the marina we walk by any time we go into town for dinner, and some French Harry Potter books I found at the farmer's market in Montreux.

Cityscape on Camera: Berlin, Germany

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday and the third installment of my European extravaganza recap! Today I'm giving you a photo tour of the 48 hours we spent in Berlin, Germany. As always, you are welcome to link up any travel-related post you've written this week or even further in the past. All I ask is that you include the button at the bottom of this post and link back to my blog. :) I can't wait to hear your travel stories! Continue reading after the jump for more pictures of Berlin.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe via Instagram

Cityscape on Camera: Prague, Czech Republic

It's time for round two of my six-week European vacation post series, which I have affectionately dubbed my "European extravaganza." (You can even search #europeanextravaganza on Twitter and Instagram to see my posts from the trip, though I know I'm not the only person on social media who has thought of that alliteration haha.) This post is also part of my Travel Tuesday series, so feel free to link up with any travel-related posts you've written in the past week at the bottom of this post. :)

We spent less than two days in Prague, which was easily the most beautiful city we visited during the trip, but we were still able to see just about everything by taking advantage of a free walking tour (which we were then sure to make a habit of during the rest of the trip). Below is one of my favorite pictures from our short time in the Czech capital, then continue after the jump to read and see more:

Cityscape on Camera: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! As I mentioned last week, the next few months of Travel Tuesday will be occupied with recaps of my recent six-week trip to Europe. Today, I'm sharing photos from the three days I spent in Amsterdam. My last day as a traveling consultant for my sorority was May 10, so I flew from my sorority's headquarters in Atlanta to Amsterdam with my boyfriend to meet up with my sister, her boyfriend and my brother. My sister and brother had already enjoyed some time in Switzerland and Italy together, but Amsterdam would mark the beginning of our trip as a fivesome. I'll start this post with my absolute favorite picture I took in Amsterdam during our stay:

A bicycle, tulips and a canal: How more quintessential Amsterdam can you get?! Continue reading after the jump to see more pictures of this beautiful city.

Cityscape on Camera: Vienna, Austria

Over winter break, I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Vienna, Austria, and I wanted to share some photos with y'all. If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen these first four photos, but there were plenty more waiting on my iPhone to be uploaded. :)

Clockwise from top left: The Christmas market near our hotel; tiny mocha drinks; the gorgeous interior of St. Stephen's Cathedral; and Hofburg Palace.

Vienna City Hall, the backdrop for the Christmas market.

Travel Tuesday: Week 7

Welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! This week's (suggested) topic: Where's one place you have absolutely no (or very minimal) desire to visit? Why? As usual, please link up with your travel-related posts below, even if they're a different topic than the prompt I provided.

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First, let me start by saying I can't think of any place I would absolutely not visit. If I could visit every single country in the world, I think that would be phenomenal. That being said, there are two countries that come to mind right away when I think of places I really wouldn't mind not seeing before I die: England and Australia.

Travel Tuesday: Week 5

Welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! This week's prompt deals with food! A few example questions I provided last week: What is the best food you’ve ever eaten abroad? What American foods do you miss the most when you’re traveling? What foreign cuisine do you like to make at home? How do you feel about eating McDonald's in other countries? As usual, please link up with your travel-related posts below, even if they're a different topic than the prompt I suggested.

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I traveled internationally for the first time when I was 10 years old. My family was heavily involved in the dairy industry during my childhood (yup, as in cows), and almost every year we traveled to the national American Jersey Cattle Association convention, which was always held in a different state. (See how many states I was able to visit through that opportunity here.) In 2000, my mom decided to attend the international convention in Italy, and she took me with her! Lucky dog, right?