Life Is Measured In Adventures

Welcome to my biggest tips on traveling, budgeting for trips, and the things I've learned along the way. Life is much too short to stay within your four walls!

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Transcript

Hi, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Unrelatable podcast. I'm your host, Hannah. And, oh my gosh, it has been so long. Hi. How are you?

What have I missed? What is going on in life? If you haven't listened to my last few episodes, I updated you kind of weekly. I've been out of town. My last 5 episodes were pre recorded, but we are back.

We are back in the States. We are here. We are better than ever. And today, I am talking traveling. I know, I know.

2 travel episodes back to back. But I have received many messages asking how we are able to travel so often. And I don't ever want to put across the wrong message, not be transparent about how and why we are able to travel because I believe that adventuring, that traveling, that having experiences outside of our four walls and the cultures that we are used to is so important. So in this episode, I will be giving you so many details. We will have 3 parts to this episode.

The first part will be how we travel, details on specific trips and how you can do it too. This is this sounds like an MLM. There is no MLM. There's no multilevel marketing in this episode. I'm so sorry.

They're just going to be the tips tips and tricks of how we have been able to travel, but also just kind of putting a magnifying glass to it and showing you that it is everyone has different situations. Everyone has different scenarios. In fact, let me give you a warning about this episode. These tips are going to be 50% satire. And so if I say something that sounds out of touch, don't stop the episode, just hear me out.

Alright, because we're gonna get a little sarcastic here. The next part to the episode I'm gonna share is about the most recent trip that I did, things that I learned on it about traveling. And then the 3rd part will be an updated list of what not to forget on any trips out of the country. Basically, I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna give you the details of how you can travel as well. I know that it seems very daunting.

It seems very expensive. It seems like a lot. And, in fact, it is to a lot of people, because we all have different scenarios happening in our lives. So we are going to jump into it again. If I say something a little out of touch, just hear me out.

Alright? I am so excited for today's episode, and I know that you are going to love it too. And with that, I just wanna say, say it with me. Welcome back to the Unrelatable podcast. First of all, I have to say something.

My last travel episode was raw, and I mean raw. I did not edit out any stumbling across words. I didn't edit out any heavy breathing as I do a heavy breath right there. Oh, my gosh. Okay.

I didn't edit out any umms. You guys, I really just wanted to practice. I'm really trying to practice doing this in one take. I'm really trying to practice not overanalyzing my episodes. And so I hope you still like me.

And if you are here, I'm assuming you do. So thank you. And that's all I wanna say. Okay, let's jump right back into it. I missed you.

I'm excited to finally chat. And one of the biggest questions I have been asked is, Hannah, how are you taking off so much time at work? How is Kaden take taking off so much time at work? Well, now is when I tell you that today today, you are stopping comparing your traveling or trips to anybody else's, because everybody's situations are so different. And so with that, my first tip is to quit your job and become self employed.

No, I'm just kidding. But when we come when it comes down to it, you're you're either working for yourself or somebody else. When you work for somebody else, you get to come home from your job. When you work for yourself, you're working 247. Your job never leaves you.

You're constantly thinking about everything you have to do. Your employees are reaching out 247, all the things, but you exchange things in the process. You make sacrifices both ways. You ex you exchange the control of your schedule, which can be a good or bad thing depending on how good you are with your time management. And then you also exchange being able to come home, leave your job in the back of your mind, and be present at home, be present in your life.

You also exchange health insurance, job security, responsibilities. You know, I was talking to my friend about this the other day. The level of sacrifice each way is just different. For example, Caden and I have moved to 6 different states. We have spent a total of 32 months living in different states, away from family, kind of isolated, going to new gyms, figuring out new grocery stores, new schedules.

That's Kaden working 60 to 70 hour weeks. That's no weekends off, literally just midday on Sundays. Sometimes not even the whole day on Sundays during those 32 months. And that doesn't count the 2 summers that Caden and I spent apart when he left for sales, the two times before we got married. And you're probably thinking, well, Hannah, what about the off season?

What about after the summer when he comes home? Don't you just not work for the rest of the year? Well, lots of sales reps, door to door summer sales reps are able to do that. And typically what they're doing is going to school, so they're not just taking off time and doing nothing. But Caden's made a career out of summer sales.

And so he's always been recruiting, training, managing, all those kinds of things. And so he hasn't ever really had an off season. Even during the year, it's been 60 hour work weeks. Weekends have been dedicated to team building activities. Holidays, always having a team building party, not a lot of time to spend with your close friends and family in the weekends.

Right? And in exchange, 7 is it 7 years later or longer? No, actually, I think it's 8 years later because he yeah, it's 8 years later because he has 10 years of summer sales experience. And we got married after his 2 summers. Okay.

So 8 years later, now we finally get to control our time off and take off 2 weeks, a few times a year. But again, even when you have a career, let's say you are a doctor. Oh, my gosh, you've sacrificed so much time with your loved ones going to school, studying, working your butt off. Now you're working so much, you are making these huge sacrifices. And so, you know, you sacrifice either way.

You have health insurance, and you don't spend as much money at the hospital or bills, or you don't have health insurance, and you just take that risk. Right? No, I don't suggest that. And when we have kids, we are probably going to have to get health insurance. But, yeah, there's just a big dynamic difference.

And so don't compare yourselves to people where they do social media as, like, their social media influencer as their full time job. And so when they go on vacations, their videos are popping off. Their videos are what pay for their vacations. And so and it's an exchange of time. That's basically them on the job.

And so you can't you can't be mad at yourself if you're not able to travel as much as they are when you just have 2 totally different career paths. And actually, anyone can become an influencer, I'm convinced. So all you gotta do is put yourself out there. That's really it. Okay.

So this next one, this next tip is to not have kids. Be children free so you can travel. No, just kidding. But really, we don't have children. And it's not that we don't have children so that we can travel.

It's just we don't have them yet. That's automatically 100 of dollars cheaper for any destination. And if you have more than one kid, it's probably up there in the 1,000. Don't let that discourage you though. Okay?

This means that when you are bringing your kids to places with you, when you are experiencing new places, you're not only seeing it through your own eyes, but through theirs. And from what it sounds like, it sounds like a really special experience. So hopefully, your kids have a really cool auntie or grandparent that can watch them. So the 2 of you can take some time off together. I really think that this is overlooked a lot because, like I was just saying, there are a lot of mom influencers on the Internet, and they're all from Utah and Arizona.

They're all from Utah and Arizona. I don't know what it is, but I I feel well, actually, I do know. It's because most of them are stay at home moms. You get bored. And you're thinking, okay, I want my own income.

I want my own monies. I want some fun spending money. So I'm gonna go and create this create this job opportunity for myself. And they do. And guess what?

They reap the rewards from that. And so and when I say mommy influencer, I don't mean broadcasting your children on the Internet. I'm not saying that I support that because I don't. I really don't. There's there's so many videos out there.

There's so much information out there where you already know. You already know. We don't support we don't support an account that if it didn't exist without your children, would it be successful? If the answer is no, then I think you already know that you're exploiting your children. Okay?

No more no no more about that. Alright. So the next the next tip is to budget. How helpful is this? No.

Hear me out. It's worth it. If you save $50 a paycheck, and you get paid twice a month, easy math here that I do with my calculator, that's $1200 a year. And you know what I hear with that amount of money? I hear flights from home or pomelo flight to Spain.

I hear a ultra cheap, rickety rental car on the island of Madeira in Portugal. The next thing with this budget is that, I'm so sorry, you have got to lower your standards. You have got to lower your standards. You need to ask yourself what the purpose of this trip is for. Is it to relax?

Is it to adventure? Is it a mix of both? Listen, we are not going to be traveling like, like the Kardashians. Gotta let it go. The sooner you realize this, the better.

You know what they say. You don't realize how low your standards can go until you start traveling. Because this is the thing. I don't need to travel to Rome and stay in the most incredible place. All I need is a cheap ticket there.

I need a cheap hostel or hotel. Again, I don't mind hostels. Even still after that experience I told you in the last episode, hostels, honestly, I would probably prefer just my own room and that might cost a little bit more. But again, I digress. The cheaper you go, the better.

When you realize that the exciting part is not where you're staying, but outside of the doors, and you're able to kind of lower your standards a little bit, sit in those economy seats on the plane, you're going to be able to travel to a lot more places. Because, listen, resorts will always cost an arm and a leg. But if you're willing to book a mid motel or hotel, I'm not I'm not telling you to get bed bugs. Okay? Listen, I'm married to a pest control guy.

He's not wanting bed bugs either. Alright? But if you're willing okay, losing my voice here. Excuse me. If you're willing to book a mid hotel, since you'll barely be in it anyways, rent a cheap car and drive yourself to the beach.

Listen, it's always just as good as resort beaches. And you're saving 100, actually 1,000 of dollars by doing a little bit of the work yourself. And yes, I agree. Cruises. Listen, cruises are fun.

I'm not a cruise hater. What I prefer any other form of vacationing over cruises? Yes. But that that doesn't mean I don't dislike cruises. They are fun, but they are a very unnecessary amount of money.

They're convenient. You don't have to pay for anything. You don't have to book a taxi or a bus or a train. You hop on, you hop off, suddenly, you're on different soil in another country every 12 hours. It's great.

I get it. I understand. You don't have to cook. You don't even have to pick the restaurant to eat at. There's a 20 fourseven buffet.

But here's the kicker. None of that is actually free. That 247 unlimited, quote, unquote, free food and free service is not free. You're paying for it. So, yeah, you could do a cruise.

But you can also travel for way, way, way, way, way less than that. And, again, maybe you'd prefer a cruise. But I'm just saying, maybe you wanna do 2 2 trips a year instead of 1. So maybe you take out the cruise and you do 2 different destinations. Okay?

Listen, our Portugal trip costs the same amount as if Caden and I were to go on a 7 day cruise to the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Okay? We looked into it. We looked into it. 2 weeks in Portugal.

We've also done several trips to Tulum and Cancun for under $1,000 total. That's not to say we haven't splurged on trips. You know, we've splurged, obviously, in Switzerland because you cannot save money in in Switzerland. I mean, the gondolas alone to take you to the top of the peaks of the mountains to start your hikes are 50 to a $100 each a pop. Yeah, I know.

It is kind of insane. But we, you know, worked that into our budget. And I just wanna say that if if you want to travel, if you want to have these experiences, you're going to have to be a little bit flexible on the dates that you go. So maybe you meet with your partner or your girlfriends, whoever you're wanting to go with, and you have some block out dates during the year. You plug in to Flights From Home or Pomelo because, honestly, that's just what I use.

And you wait for a deal to pop up. Oh my gosh. You can go to Cancun sometimes for, you know, less than $250 each round trip. Well, guess what? You pay $40 a night for a hotel, and you go to the beach every day.

That's less than $1,000 for your trip. It's very, very, very accessible, at least in my opinion. Again, it's not gonna come without doing a little bit of work, but you gotta work for what you want, and that includes traveling. Okay. So the 3rd tip I have is to max out your credit cards.

I'm just kidding. But if you're not using credit cards in 2024, what are you doing? I get it. I was always told to avoid credit cards. And that's because we were never actually told how they work or how to use them, how to utilize them.

So many people think it's free money and that you pay it back when you're rolling it in 10 years later. But interest was never discussed. So now, you know, you hear about tons of horror stories about people investing in different courses, in products, in buying new things constantly and not realizing the consequences of interest and spending money that you don't have. So don't do that. Okay?

That's a given. But if you pay them off weekly, and you don't spend money that you don't have, then you don't have anything to worry about. I'm gonna let you in on a secret. We used to use the envelope system. Hi, Dave Ramsey.

How are you? We were loyal to you, Dave Ramsey. I used to tune into channel 792 and be amazed at the advice given and listened for hours to teachers that are now millionaires sharing how they saved their money. Amazing. But do you know what else Dave Ramsey is?

He's 63. You might say, a little out of touch. Credit card education, Dave Ramsey, would be a little helpful in this day and age. Just a little helpful. Might it be something that I suggest for your next episode?

So Kaden used to really fear credit cards because of all the horror stories that we've heard. Right? But do your research, educate yourself. Google is free. As Maddy Murphy says from the bad broadcast, ABG, always be Googling.

We used to do the envelope system, which is where you take out the exact amount of money in dollars that you would spend in a month on all of your expenses. So, obviously, housing, your electricity, plumbing, whatever, you wouldn't take out. But we would take out our weekly allowance, actually monthly allowance for groceries, for date nights, for gas, and we would pay everything in cash. When I tell you the amount of times I've had to walk into the gas station, give them a 20 and say, hi, can you please put this on pump number 4? Do you want a receipt?

No, that's okay. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Hated doing it every time. But this is the thing.

If you go a little bit over 1 week, you have to go under the next week. If by the second week of the month, our date money in the envelope under the date category has run out, then guess what? We're doing a $0 date night. We are doing a free date night. We are walking along the river and picking flowers from from the freaking mountains.

You know what I'm saying. Right? So we had $30 a month allowed for personal use. That was our allowance, our monthly allowance for personal use for fun spending, whatever. And so, you know, lunch with friends, clothes.

Obviously, that doesn't go very far. But we were newlyweds at the ripe age of 1920. So we had to budget accordingly. And yes, of course, this envelope system worked out very well for us because it allowed us to literally never spend more than what we budgeted for, for years years years. The way that I put it to Kaden when I was pitching him a credit card, because I had several several people in my life where they were able to save up so many credit card points, and that's how they were traveling.

I was seeing it on YouTube. I was seeing it on Instagram. And I convinced him by saying, you know what? We budget the same. We still do our monthly check-in.

We're spending the money anyway. And we're also giving the government so much money and taxes. Why not have it make us some money back, earn us trips, and be able to go into the lounges at the airport because that changes the game. When you go into a lounge at an airport where they have an high where they have a high quality of unlimited meals, drinks, coffee, whatever you want, comfortable chairs, charging stations. There's even little rooms that you can go take a nap in if you have a long way over.

Come on. Isn't that enough to make you want to have a credit card? So obviously, most credit cards cost money for their annual fee, but they will always give you rewards that outweigh the costs that you pay. So we have the Amex Gold and Platinum cards. These are what work for us right now.

And we actually have over 500,000 points that we're saving for a rainy day. And actually, Amex just raised their annual fee. And so I'm not sure if we will be doing it in the future when it's time for us to renew it. But I have heard that the Capital One Venture card is really popular. And I'm going to tell you, there are so many travel accounts that will teach you how to use credit card points to travel.

And one that I can confidently share with you is nomad points guide on Instagram. This is Giddey's husband, Jace. And if you don't know who Giddey is, she runs the Adorns studio, she does piercings, she does tattoos. They owned the cute cafe in Logan called Crush. And they know everything about everything.

I trust them with my lives and their Instagram at nomad points guide. They show you how to do trips for free by using the points you accumulate accumulate by groceries, by eating at restaurants. And that is how they're able to travel all the time with their kids. And so just think about it. Think about it and and, really, really start a credit card because you're spending the money anyway.

Budget accordingly. This is not something free. It's not something where, you know, you're doing Afterpay, and you have Afterpay on a 100 different items. If you don't wanna pay for it in full, don't buy it at all. Sorry.

This is not a spending budgeting episode, so I digress. Okay. So the next tip actually, really fast. I'm gonna add to that last one. Flights from Home and Palmetto, they have a paid plan where they will send you deals that you can use with points.

And I haven't paid for it. I think it's $50 a year, but I think I will soon because it is time that we start cashing in our flight points. And so just know that there are so many resources out there. There's so many accounts that share when flights are cheap. There are so many accounts that share how to use credit card points, how to utilize everything, how to use it for kids, and, yeah, that is just a tip that I could not keep to myself.

The next tip is to pick an airline. And, yes, you know you're an adult when you become loyal to an airline. And that's not to say you have to only pick that airline and only fly on it and become, you know, that person that's, like, oh, I only fly Delta. But I'm gonna be honest. You can get really good deals when you have a silver or gold medallion status at Delta.

Same with Southwest and other other airlines. Now, this tip is honestly pretty optional. And we don't ride or die by this, but we have had a lot of benefits with Delta that have come in handy. Canceling trips and having a 100% refund or, you know, a free upgrade in seats. We really appreciate how convenient the flights, with Delta are because most of the time, it is a direct flight.

And so time is money. Time is money, baby. When you're in the air, you're not making any money. No. I'm just kidding.

But really, that one is completely optional. So the last and final tip, and this is for my girlies that are young, not married. Maybe you are married, and guys too, obviously. Maybe you are married. Maybe you just graduated college.

Maybe you're taking a gap year. Well, one website that is very, very, very, very, very, very highly reviewed is Worldpackers. Worldpackers. Now, this has an annual fee of, I think, $50 just because they pair you with people, but essentially, the stay is free. So you just gotta get yourself on a flight to Spain.

And what Worldpackers will do is they will pair you with a hostel, with a hotel, with a family. You go and you stay with them completely free, and you work part time. So maybe 4 hours a day on their farm or on their in their business, in their coffee shop. Maybe you're working at the hostel, checking in people and organizing events. But this is a great way to travel.

If you don't have kids, if you have a gap year in college, if you're trying to solo travel for a few months, I know you can even teach English to students. And that is that is something that I feel like is very, very has so much potential. Very potential. Sorry. My my words are all over the place today because I have so much to say.

I have so much to say, so it's fine. We are rolling with it. Okay. So we are going to jump into the second part of this episode, which is my most recent trip, how and why I went on it, and an updated list on what not to forget on your trip out of the country. Because I know that literally last week, I gave you or maybe it was 2 weeks ago.

I gave you some some tips on things to bring. I raved about some products. Well, I went and I realized that I forgot some things. So I will be sharing those with you. Okay.

So when I tell you, I took 15 flights in the last 3 weeks. I might be dead right now. I'm not sure. I will try to explain what it was for really quick. So my trip was with a nonprofit called One Heart Bulgaria.

It's actually expanding to One Heart Children's Foundation. And it's my mom's nonprofit. She's run this for about 21 years. And she's been helping children with, or orphans really with special needs, orphans all around ages 0 to 18, even support after they leave the orphanage, young moms, the Roma people in in Bulgaria and Albania, which are or were known as gypsies, you're not really supposed to use the word gypsies anymore. But there's a lot of racism against the Roma people, and there's not a lot of support.

And so, oftentimes, they give up their children. There's actually a lot of reasons why they give up their children. These girls are having kids starting at ages 11 and 12. And so it is a huge, huge, huge problem. And so the big goal is to support at risk families.

These Roma girls' children with special needs. I'm sorry. I'm, like, trying to remember everything because everything is so fresh in my mind right now. I could say a 1,000 things, but I will keep it quick. Essentially, the goal is to provide a meet to provide means for these families to stop abandoning their children in Eastern Europe.

And my mom served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in Bulgaria. That is how she got introduced to these issues and these problems. And last year, they expanded to Albania, which, as you know, is my family's heritage. It's where my grandpa's from, and so it's really exciting to be able to start working in Albania. The problems there, they still have really big problems, but the system is a lot different than in Bulgaria.

Because in Albania, you can really, really, really tell that the director of social services, the director over foster care and children with special needs, and all the directors over these orphanages. They love these children so, so, so much and they are so happy to have help. They're so happy that One Heart Albania, which is another sub, nonprofit that we've just not not we, that my mom has created. And when I say we, it's because I'm running their social media. I haven't gotten to that part yet.

But they are so excited and happy and grateful to accept the help. And so working in Albania was so much easier because it wasn't as you don't have to sit there and convince them to help the children because they want to help the children. Whereas in Bulgaria, the problem is that these people, they wanna be paid for their work. Right? They want to be paid for helping the children.

They want it to be their job. They want it to be a salary. They don't necessarily want to adopt children to adopt children. They wanna be paid from the government. And so these directors, the biggest part is they're trying to become a part of the European the European Union.

And under the European Union, it states that you can't have any existing orphanages. And so what they'll do is they'll put them into these quote unquote homes, where they're technically not an orphanage because they're calling it a home and they have fewer children, but they have more of them and they're all spread out. So they are orphanages because these children don't have parents. And a lot of them are children with special needs who, from the time they're an infant, are left alone in the crib because nobody knows how to take care of them or how to help them with their needs. So they're left in the crib.

They are barely moved around hardly ever, so their bones can't grow. Their muscles can't grow. And typically, a lot of times they don't survive to their adulthood. And a huge program that my mom does in Bulgaria, which she wants to eventually implement in Albania is physical therapy for children with special needs. And so a lot of our work in Bulgaria was centered around that and around training different physical therapists and around educating social workers in different, in different municipalities in Bulgaria.

And really just what you have to do is you essentially have to convince them to care about the children in order to change the system. And in order to convince them, they have to think that it's their idea to change the system because they will benefit from it. Does that make sense? So it was totally a different approach than Albania because in Albania, they care about the children, and they care about, you know, the 25 babies that are ages 0 to 2 years old that are being abandoned daily. You know, they really, really care.

They want them to go into foster families. They want to get them out of the system, not because they're gonna make more money, but because they actually really want these children to have a happy and good life. Whereas in Bulgaria, yeah, I'm sure they do care. In fact, I know that I know that I'm kind of, generalizing here. Because there were there were women there that said, I was an orphan.

And I am so grateful for my foster family for really actually caring about me. But a large amount of them think that it's impossible and think that it can never happen. And so that's kind of where my mom comes in and where her organization comes in. And the board of directors comes in, and they kind of share, hey. This is possible, and this is going to help you become accepted by the European Union, and therefore, be able to raise tourism in your country, bring in more money, help the poverty level, because I think they have the fastest declining population in all of Europe, if I'm not wrong, or in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

And so, anyways, that was kind of a long explanation of what the organization was. Sorry. I meant to keep that short. But what my job is is I do the social media, and I document what happens at the meetings. And so I'm sitting there using Google translate and translating everything and writing down these notes.

I'm taking pictures. I'm doing their social media graphics and all of that jazz. So if you want to learn more or follow our accounts, there 1heart Bulgaria, 1heart Albania, and then we're just beginning the 1heartchildren'sfoundation Instagram and Facebook. At the end of the day, that's what we did. My flight was paid for, and my work was donated.

You know what I mean? I mean, I'm paid a little bit of money, but I would say that about I don't know. Let me type it in because I want it to be exact. So I donated about 50 hours a week of work, which was great. And I was so excited and grateful to be able to do that and to go on that trip.

And, again, I've only posted about my vacation part of it. And you're really not supposed to post about the children and to share about those things, and I don't wanna, you know, exploit any of the orphans. And so I really won't be posting those things on my personal pages. Again, if you want to see any information about that, you can go to those Instagram pages. We are going to move on to the updated travel items in our traveling list.

The first one is dehydrated hand soap. I can't for I can't believe that I forgot to tell you guys this. So it depends on where you're going, but a lot of times, there's not gonna be any soap in the bathrooms. It's gonna be out. There's not gonna be any soap.

I actually used this in Rome when we were looking at the ruins. We went into a bathroom. There was no soap, and there was no toilet paper. But guess what your girl had? She had dehydrated soap, and she had tissues.

So always pack dehydrated soap. You can buy them on Amazon. They're just these little sheets. You place it on your hand, you get it wet, and it, you know, foams up, does its thing. And then, of course, tissues are a no brainer, but I didn't mention that.

It's the little things. It's the little things. And then the next one that kinda goes along with that are dehydrated laundry detergent sheets. Listen, You do not want to take up any extra liquid space. Because if there's one thing we don't have enough of, it is allowed liquids.

And, actually, can I tell you a secret? I brought 2 times the allowed liquid limit to Europe, and I got away with it. I don't know how. I mean, kind of I do. It was actually really lucky, but I'll tell you.

So I was wearing my backpack on my back. Right? The really big MLC luggage carry on backpack. And then I had to bring my camera with me since I was taking photos on this trip. And so I had my camera backpack on the front of my body.

And so I put a set of liquids in my back backpack and in my front backpack. And I'm assuming that it didn't get caught that it didn't get caught that it didn't get caught because they probably thought that the backpacks belong to 2 different people, and so it was pure luck. But the only thing that I have to say is that would not fly in the London Heathrow Airport. If you're ever flying to the London Heathrow Airport, don't bring any liquids that you care about because they are so so so strict on the liquids that are allowed. Even one of the airports in Bulgaria, I don't remember which one it was, but they made me throw away so much of my liquids because I had it in a United States approved TSA bag, but it was apparently bigger than that one specific airport.

And so I had to throw away several things, and that goes on to the next tip or traveling items, and that is to not overpack. Just don't do it. If your bag is even a little difficult to zip at all, if you have to use any force or adjust the bag to zip it, take things out and redo it. I promise. I promise it's worth it because you, no matter what you say, you're going to want to bring some souvenirs home.

I told myself I wouldn't bring home any souvenirs because, listen, I don't like knickknacks. I don't need knickknacks. I don't need something that says Albania on it a 100 times. I mean, I do like to get a patch from each country that doesn't take up any space. But you will end up finding something that feels really meaningful to you.

For example, in Vienna, I bought we went to this really big palace thing. I don't remember what it was called, but they had these wax stamps. And so, of course, I got an f for felt, and I got this wax thing, and it's really cute. It's really fancy looking, and now I can stamp my letters with a cute little wax stamp. Did I need it?

No. Does it bring me joy? Yes. That's the kind of souvenir I'm talking about. I also collect bookmarks from different countries.

Because, listen, I'm gonna lose my bookmark anyways. I might as well buy a $1 bookmark from a country, and use you can also store them in books. And so it doesn't take up a lot of space in your home. But, yeah, I promise you are going to wanna bring home a souvenir that you didn't think you'd want, and you are going to regret over packing. Alright?

So the last the last item is something I need to reiterate, and that is compression socks. They saved my life on those 15 flights. Alright? They are going to help you with swelling. They're they they will save your legs.

They will save your energy. They will they will save you. Buy white ones if you don't wanna mess up your fit or whatever. But bring at least 2 pairs so you can always have a clean pair. They're worth it.

Your feet will thank you. Flying is not easy on our bodies. Save a varicose vein today and wear compression socks. Okay, so next up are some things that I've learned while traveling. I know we're kind of going out of order here.

But I have realized that my endurance has to be 10 out of 10. There are so many stairs in Europe. There are hills everywhere you turn. So take it from me, working out daily, even 3 times a week will prep you for your vacations, not for your body. Alright?

Because everybody is a summer body. But because the rest of the world isn't built like the US of A. They ain't built like us. These Europeans are walking everywhere. They're biking everywhere.

They're fit. They can take on the hills of Lisbon. No problem. You know, I really need to post a video of what it was like driving in Albania because there were so many seniors over the age of 70 riding their bikes in the roads. And this is all great.

This is all fun. I'm super stoked for them that they are fit at that age to hop on and off a bike and to cycle around. But there are no laws. There are no traffic laws. They're popping out left and right.

They're driving in front of you. You're merging with 15 other cars and there's like 18 bikes. Now, I'm being a little bit dramatic. But your endurance has to be up there. No one talks about it.

There are so many stairs in the Amalfi Coast. I I think it's about time for me to post my vlogs from the Amalfi because your girl was 99% sweat. There was 1% Hannah and the rest was liquid. And it was because of these stairs and the heat, obviously, but there are so many stairs. I thought I'd be fine.

I thought I was in good shape. But don't make the mistake of not being physically capable of your heart not being physically capable to have the endurance to move around. Okay, the next tip is to understand, to accept, to be okay with sitting for long periods of time. Flights, buses, trains, unfortunately, you are going to have to use some modes of transportation to get places. And with that being said, you also wanna work in your transportation days into your schedule.

I'm sorry. I don't want any less than 10 to 14 days to travel. Alright? So I have to make sure that the travel days are accounted for, so that I can have my feet on the ground for 10 to 14 days. I'm getting my money's worth out of these tickets.

Okay. So the next thing that I have learned while traveling, this is something that I thought was really naive of me. I thought that I was just dumb for only knowing one language. You know, I took Spanish in school. Mister Hamilton, if you're listening, hi.

How are you? You are the worst Spanish teacher I ever had. If you know, you know. You know, I I used to think that I was naive, that I was dumb, that I just didn't care about the world. And I just wasn't educated because I only spoke English.

And I've actually spoken to so many people in Europe and it would always come up about how Americans only speak English. And they would say, well, of course, it's the world's language. You don't necessarily need to know any other language. And this is not an excuse, but it made me feel educated because guess what? I don't know how I didn't realize this.

You probably already know this. But how do the French people and Swiss people communicate? They speak English to each other. How do Portuguese people and people from Albania communicate? They speak English to each other.

And so it made me feel a lot less bad and a lot less uneducated for only speaking English. Because I might be speaking English to someone that speaks French, but guess what? The French people are not learning Albanian. The French people are not learning German or Swiss German. And so you can't be mad at other countries and, you know, English is just English is just the world's language.

And so if you feel bad about not being able to speak any any other language, I hope that makes you feel a little bit better. Again, not discouraging you from learning a different language. 10 out of 10, great choice, really cool thing. But just don't feel bad and don't feel dumb if you only speak English. Alright, now these things are a few funny things that I have learned.

And that is that escalators, in many countries, they're not broken. If you see them and they're not running, as long as there's not something blocking the way, they're not broken. They are just very efficient, and they only run while people are walking on it. So once you start approaching it, it will actually start moving. I learned this in Germany, and then I forgot about it.

So myself, good old Hannah, in the airport in Bulgaria, I'm walking up to these escalators to go up these stairs, and they're not they're not moving around. And so I start walking up the stairs, and this person next to me just walks right onto the escalator, and it's moving, and it takes them up to the top. And I'm sorry, but your girl didn't want any more exercise for the day. So I really would have appreciated if I had remembered that the ex escalators work. You just have to walk up to them.

Come on, US. Come on. We gotta be a little bit more efficient in these, in these what are they called? Malls? Yes.

In these malls. So one thing that happened that I have to tell you guys is that you know my resistance to heat. My body overheats very easily. I am a warm blooded woman, and the Bulgarians believe that a draft will cause you to be sick even in the summertime. So they don't have air conditioners running.

They don't have the windows running. They don't roll down the windows in cars. Yeah. That was a really fun fact that I learned as I was sitting overheating in these meetings filled with 20 plus people. I tried to have the air conditioner on, and one of them, like, waved to me because I was taking photos and they could communicate with me like that, and they pointed at the air conditioner.

When I tell you it was not even hot I mean, it wasn't even cool in this room. They just didn't like knowing the air was flowing. Yeah. Yep. I I passed away at that moment in time.

I did. The next one that I wanted to tell you guys was that I got my hair done for €10 in Albania, or I guess, technically, 10, what would it be? A 1,000 lek? Because a 1,000 lek is equal to €10. So when you're traveling, look up how much it costs to get your hair washed and dried because I'm sorry, but I've gotten to that age where it's actually really nice and it feels really good to, you know, when you arrive to a new country.

If they've if it's an hour long and they've got an opening at the most convenient time when Caden's taking a nap, I'm gonna go get my hair washed and styled for €10. And then I'm not even going to have to spend any time for the rest of the week, even looking at it because it's gonna look look all cute. I know that might sound a little high maintenance, but it is nice. And if it's only €10, take my money. Take my money.

Okay. This is the last thing I have to tell you. This is the most important news of the entire episode. And it is that when I was introducing myself to the board of directors of social services, of foster care and child protective services in Albania, they said, oh, your name's Hannah? Hannah means moon in Albanian.

And that just made my heart so happy and they were so happy to hear that my name was Hannah. Apparently, Albanians oftentimes will name their children after the sun, moon and stars. Okay, how cute is that? And it's going to be my entire identity from here on out. So prepare to be sick of me.

But no, in conclusion of today's episode, I just wanna say work within your circumstances, not against it. If you have a lot of kiddos, it's time to start researching about different credit cards and how to utilize the points so that your kids can buy for free. Of course, when I say use credit cards, don't spend money you don't have. You already know this. Budgeting.

You spend money on what is the most important to you. You know, I thrift a lot of my clothes because I would rather spend money on traveling. And that isn't any better or worse than someone that doesn't. But if you feel like you can't budget, if you feel like you have nothing to give, just take a look at your spending habits. Take a look at eating out.

Maybe you and your husband decide not to eat out for 6 months in order to go on a special trip together. Because at the at the end of the day, eating out costs so much money, and I love doing it. But if I had to choose 1 or the other, eating out in Europe. Doesn't that sound nice? Okay.

Lastly, don't compare yourself. It might just not be the time in life to travel. Job security is not amazing right now. Interest rates on homes are very high. Medical costs, emergencies, schooling, there are so many things that everybody is handling.

And so if it's not the time, then don't make yourself feel bad for not traveling. There's there is a time and a place. You can't just drop, you know, go at the drop of a penny and travel. People from all over the world will go to Utah for its national parks. The US has amazing places to see.

The Redwoods, you know how many people have told me that they want to do route 66? You think I'm kidding. But every time I'm having a conversation with a European or someone I've met traveling, all they want to do in America is to come to America, rent a car and drive route 66. It's that simple. Car camp, tent camp, weekend hikes.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to go on adventures. And obviously, this episode is kind of been dedicated to tips on international trips, but you can adventure from your back door. As always, I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. It is so good being back. I missed you guys and tune into our Instagram story for future story submissions.

We're gonna get back to the nitty gritty details of life, and I will talk to you soon. Byeeeee