Back in Provo, Vacation is Over

Well it's been a good last little bit. We finished our trip by spending time in Pittsburgh, Seattle and Portland. 

We didn't go sight seeing or do any Couch Surfing, but we spent some well needed down time with family. 

We are now back in Provo to move into a new house, start work and start a full load of school. It is going to be a busy few months but we feel like we have had our fun and it's time to focus in on serious stuff again. This does not mean that the fun is over. We have lots of camping and crafts planned for this summer. But for now we plan to stay put for a while.

Here we are in Pittsburgh:

After over a month of traveling, here are several things we learned about cheap, efficient traveling:

1. Plan way way ahead: We started this Europe planning two months before. Fact is, most people pay a billion dollars for tour guides and tour buses etc. When you don't have resources like that you need to plan quite a bit so as not to miss out. 

2. Ryanair/EasyJet: If you are going to Europe you need to know about these low cost airlines. If you plan ahead you can get flights for super cheap (Dublin to Berlin 24 Euros!) What's the catch? Well there are several hoops you have to jump through to make it worth it. I'll leave it to you to look up the tricks to winning with Ryanair but basically you have to pack light, show up early and be willing to sit in not the most comfortable airplanes. Worth it!

3. Learn to eat local picnics. Restaurants were not really an option for us. Instead we bought bread, cheese, fruit etc from the market and just snacked on that all day. This is a way you can save a lot of money

4. Couchsurfing.org: This is a social network that allows travelers to connect with people all over who are willing to open up their home to you. Again you can check out the details with some research but basically you get a place to stay, sometimes a meal and usually a cool new friend and experience. We did this everywhere we didn't have a connection and ended up only paying for one night of accommodations during our month in Europe. Needless to say this is our number one money saver. Check it out, it's not as sketchy as it sounds

Those are our four little suggestions on getting around Europe when you're poor and ambitious. Good luck

Keep tuned in for our summer fun here in Provo,

I&J