It's Setting In

Tonight it really set in. We've had our final dinners with our families, we've chatted about future travel plans, remembered past ones, and toasted to a smooth and amazing trip. And now, tomorrow, we set off.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little hard and scary knowing that this is the true beginning of pushing my comfort zone. It was nerve wracking going away to college, but at that point in life 'everyone is doing it.' This time, I feel like we're taking a big leap. Tomorrow we leave our family, our friends, our adopted dog, and the home that allowed our love and dreams of adventure to grow for the past two years. But pushing your limits and getting out of your comfort zone is what creates a person and makes you interesting.

When your walls are blank and the photos, posters, tapestries and everything that made your house a home are taken down and stored away, you're left with nothing more than thoughts of what you're leaving behind-- Everything that made living here so great. We've had supportive family living close by to troubleshoot any arising issues. We've had our closest friends all within an hour's drive or less (minus you- CK, GK and NM..). We've had the ocean and mountains all around us to cater to our every adventurous desire. And we were raised here, went to school here, and have called here 'home', which accounts for so much of who we are.

We are so excited for tomorrow, please don't take this sappy and 'missing home' post otherwise. But it really set in how long we'll be away (and really far away) when we put into perspective that 3 months is the equivalent of July 1st to now-- do you even remember what you did mid-July? We love our family and friends, and we'll miss each of you lots. But this trip will be amazing, and we are going to live for us, live in the present, and take full advantage of this amazing opportunity we've created for ourselves.

Tomorrow (TOMORROW!!!) we set out to discover Europe's nooks and crannies. Tomorrow we change our lives. We'll become more cultured and knowledgable of distant places, and have stories of that 'one time we met a man named Bernard at le disco.' Tomorrow we leave our beloved apartment behind and when we come back to the USA, a new flat (I'm so Euro already), that we haven't yet seen will be called 'home'.

Europe, you've been a long awaited dream, and tomorrow you're our reality. Bernard- we're coming for ya'.

Update: Travel To-Do's

Being in transition is the weirdest. We left our jobs this past Friday, and Saturday was super bizarre. Saturday was just another weekend following a full work week, but we were way more bored and moody than usual because there's nothing we hate more than waiting around. 

In an effort to 1: not be bored to death, and 2: get our lives together before we set out for Europe, we did one of my favorite activities - made a list. 

The main To-Do's were to figure out our money/bank situations as well as look into data plans. Two daunting tasks but they surprisingly fell right into place!

Monday was for money. Through TD Bank we both opened premier checking accounts. This account reimburses all foreign ATM fees and foreign transaction fees and has no monthly maintenance fee as long as you keep a minimum balance of $2,500. I also got the chase sapphire preferred card, which has excellent travel rewards.

Tuesday was for tech. If you don't read anything else in this blog, read this: T-Mobile is the bomb. For $60 a month, Mike joined T-Mobile and received unlimited talk, text and 3GB of data as well as unlimited data while we're abroad. He gets free music streaming (so it doesn't cut into your data usage when back in the states) and a new iphone (an additional $10/month to pay this off). They also bought out his Verizon contract and Verizon cancellation fee. His old Verizon line would've cost $100/month with no international coverage and requires a 2-year contract. A no-brainer to make the switch.

The rest of this week will be spent spending time with family and then attending Boston Calling this coming weekend. Next week we pack up our apartment, have our final family dinners, and set out for Iceland and beyond. 

T-minus 8 days! 

Holy Sh*t

Today is our last day of work for months. It's totally crazy. It feels like the last day of school before summer vacation, except more exciting and also terrifying because we don't have the comfort of knowing that we'll be returning to a familiar way of life after our trip. This is it. Today is the last day of our ordinary lives (and our last paycheck.....).  Tomorrow we start organizing our lives so that we can get lost in the tangles of travel. We start packing up our apartment, we have to keep tighter track of our spending and saving, we start soaking up the last few visits with our family and friends, and then we go!

When we tell friends and coworkers about our upcoming travels, it's easy to think our lives are always this exciting. Two kids up and dumping their jobs, heading out into an unknown foreign land, with no sight of the simple life in the near future- that's pretty awesome and we seem pretty damn cool (toot my horn). But what people don't realize is the very boring, very ordinary lives we've lead up until now.

Up until this point, my life has been on a path that I've more or less been blindly and mindlessly following. Sure, I got to choose my college and my major; I decided which jobs to apply for and which opportunity to pursue. But each day has been planned out for me, whether it was school for 22 years or my marketing career for the past year. Monday through Friday turned into a repetitive whirlwind where each day molded into the next, and only the weekends had a unique event to breakup the otherwise indistinguishable days. 

If you know me, or even just read my bio, you know I'm everrr so slightly anal retentive (you probably know that's an understatement... And that it's genetic). I enjoy being organized to a T, knowing when and where things are going to happen, and asking the annoying questions that everyone hates to be bothered with, "So when should we expect you?" "Have you heard back from your boss if you're getting this weekend off? I'm just trying to get a head count so I can meticulously plan my grocery list 4 days in advance." It should be no surprise that my predetermined days for the past 23 years haven't been met with much resistance- although boredom has certainly come into play- because I enjoy a schedule. 

But now that Mike and I are pulling the trigger in the dark and setting out on this amazing journey, I'm faced with a whole new version of myself that I haven't met yet: Easy Breezy Emily. Each day will be met with an open mind, an undetermined plan, and an unknown destination. I won't be able to get anxious about the answers I don't know because it will be completely out of my hands. My heart says 'yes' but my planner says 'NO'. Unattached, disheveled, lost, unorganized, carefree- not words I've ever used to describe myself, but in a couple weeks will be the epitome of my life in the best way possible. 

Today we celebrate our frugality. We give ourselves a pat on the back for sticking to our goal and aiming big- and getting there! Today is the true start of something incredible. And in two short weeks our far-fetched dream of travel becomes a reality.

Holy shit.

Don't Forget to Submit A Bucket List Suggestion!

Here's to Now

Before our instincts fall out and leave us with nothing more than what we already know, we're going to set out and put them to the test. With the last week of real world work upon us, the reality of change sets in. While folding the final hand and letting the world deal the next round it's important to take in the final bits of security that a steady job gives and prepare for the freedom of uncertainty!

I can't picture what it will be like to wake up everyday and have nothing binding us to one plan and have no schedule to follow- besides the ones forged in the fires of the immediate. The laws of direction will go haywire: left goes right, up goes down, and a straight line could make us run in circles. All the time in the world, no matter the time zone, has made its anonymity known to us, while in the same instance being virtually non existent because we choose whether or not to recognize its beckoning.

With that being said, I'm definitely not the kind of person who can sit around and relax letting the time get away for too long. I have to be doing something- constantly feeding some part of my hungry being that needs to be nourished. That is what makes these circumstances so opportune. With the pressures of time erased, endless possibilities are written.

So my advice to myself and others like me reading this, is to do the age old zen buddest pursuit of happiness thing and live in the now, making any scenario possible at that moment. There isn't really any other way to travel. I know there are a million inspirational quotes and life guiding mantras that revolve around the same principle. We all hear them and try our hardest to practice truthfully, but more often then not get swept away in the flood that is future and past. I believe the adventures that lie ahead will test, and help strengthen my practice because there is an art to getting lost in life's distractions. A way to which you can use them to burn away the feeling that your just clawing your way through. Hopefully I can find that method, and give other travelers and adventure junkies some insight.

So crack a beer or raise whatever drink you're holding, if you have none grab one. Here's to now!!

Stay lost my friends.
Mike

It's Just the Bones We're Made Of

Why do we do what we do? I don't just mean Em and me- humans; what drives us? Do we base our decisions off nature or nurture? I believe there is no simple answer. Some people seem perfectly content doing the same thing every day. Clock in and clock out. The assurance and safety one gets from certainty can be comforting, I guess. Let's throw that out the window, turn it on its head. What are you left with? Uncertainly, chaos, excitement and adventure. Yes! I want that!

For my whole life-well let's be fair- since I can remember, I have wanted something different. I've worked hard my whole life, done it all: from farming, construction, restaurant jobs, small home towny grocery store, college, corporate office grind, and, again, back to construction. Never though, have I stayed in one job longer then three years, nor was I satisfied. I just couldn't do it. I would reach a point of insanity in monotony. I couldn't help thinking, "This can't be it, there's no way this is what it's all about. We were not put here for this." You know, your typical deep and angsty mind vomit. You also get to a point in a job or trade where you take all that you can from it. My thinking is learn what you learn and get out. So I would leave in search of something different. Truth is, I never strayed too far. Besides the weekend adventures, and fleeing whenever I got the chance, I would always find myself back home. That's the comfort in safety- I also call it being comfortably fearful.
 

So it leads me to think, "People are happy with their jobs, right? They're making money, buying nice things, they're really doing it!" Sure, I guess for some people (most people that I've grown up around). So then I ask, "Why won't anything give me what I need? Where's the satisfaction in my everyday?" I feel alive on weekends and holidays when I'm out exploring and doing all the things I love, but then the reality of life comes back and tears through my tissue-paper happiness with its jagged brutality. It shan't be like that.
 

I find out now, it was useless confusion. The answer was right there at the end of every chapter. It was in the small pangs of anxiety I got between jobs, the wonder, the hope, the not knowing what was next. That's the spice!​

So with that in mind I put my thoughts and admirations out into the oh so mysterious universe, and let the wind take them where they needed to be. It brought me what I needed. A like minded companion, another wishful wonderer, my EM!! We met and with haste started spilling our souls and thoughts to one another of a different far off world where you didn't have to work and you could be in a different place every time your eyelids peeled away from one another if you fancied. Thanks to her my dreams came true. Christmas morning she surprised me with not one but two, one way tickets to Iceland! The only catch, the second ticket belonged to her, shit did I say catch I meant my other present. (Just kidding digs, wouldn't be here without ya) We quickly began working towards making our dreams a reality.

There's that word again, "work". It can be an ugly one when applied in certain context.
Here's the reality though, I say we started working towards making our dreams a reality because that's exactly what we had to do.
Two one way tickets to Iceland- check. Epic plans to travel for months on end- check. Enough money in the bank to support us- yeah not so much, bummer. We have been working and saving as much as we can for a about a year and a half now. We are travel monks, basically. That means we work our asses off during the week and sometimes weekends, and we sacrifice going out on week nights. We eat tuna and ramen, watch Netflix until our brains melt, and dream of days to come. But, alas, we get away on our weekend adventures, sticking to budget of course. Em and I jokingly say, "Sell your soul to travel the world" and sadly it's a truth, but an exciting one! BECAUSE ITS ALL WORTH IT!

So what drives us? It's just the bones we're made of, it's needing nothing but wanting to be a part of everything. It's the spice!

Stay lost, my friends!
-Mike

To see more photos from our weekend in Maine head over to our gallery page

T-Minus One Month

We set out in one month from yesterday **que stomach twang** . We are so excited, but also super anxious. In 29 days we begin a 5+ month life-changing adventure, most of which is still unplanned and merely a loose idea that we hope to figure out along the way.

Phase One: Europe
We start in Iceland- that much we know. October 1, 2015 we leave Boston at 6:55pm and arrive in Keflavik, Iceland around 5:00am their time. We'll spend October 2nd - 5th in Iceland sight-seeing, hiking, and eating fermented shark, and then (as of 8:00pm last night when we booked our flight)  head down to Amsterdam. Here's our loose plan: 

October 1, 2015 Reykjavik, Iceland > Amsterdam > Bruges > Brussels > Berlin, Germany > Prague, Czech Republic > Budapest, Hungary > UnknownLocation, Croatia > AllOver, Italy > make our way up to Paris, France > Dublin, Ireland > Boston, Massachusetts December 22, 2015

||Stay tuned for updates and stories along the way|| 

Phase Two: Jamaica
After our EuroAdventure, we have tentative plans to volunteer down in Jamaica for the month of January (if our post-Euro budget allows). We have a family connection to The Rockhouse Foundation, which is an amazing group that helps to open, maintain, and support early childhood schools in Jamaica. If all goes as planned, we would be given the opportunity to create and facilitate our own after-school programs and hopefully help them in their efforts to launch a special needs school. If you're interested in getting a picture of The Rockhouse Foundation, the video below is beautiful, inspiring and gives you a great idea of the work this team does. 

Phase Three: Bend, Oregon
Then, after Jamaica (sometime at the end of January/ early February) we make the cross-country road trek out west to start a new chapter in our lives. Moving to Bend, Oregon is both the end of one adventure and the start of a whole new one. We have no plans for jobs or housing yet, but we're hopeful that everything will work out in our favor when the time comes- one adventure at a time!  

Photo from vistitbend.com

We hope you'll follow our journey both here and on our Instagram @LevartTravel. We've been saving up to have an adventure like this for a coons age now, and we hope to inspire others to make their dreams become a reality. 

Cheers to travel!
Mike and Em

HomeSweet Hacienda

Rustic Rancheros

The Hacienda is my family's little cabin in Strafford, New Hampshire. It's mismatched furniture and curtains, odd paintings and middle school art projects make this quirky cottage a special piece of my family's story. It sits on a beautiful piece of land with a pond, paths all around, fire pits, and the remainders of old snowboarding grind rails. 

It's always been important to me that the people who come to visit for the weekend appreciate the simplicity, quirkiness, and beauty of the property. I met Mary when we were studying Public Communications at the University of Vermont and she's always been a lover of the simple life (not the reality show with Paris Hilton). We took many classes together during our time at UVM, one of which was a food blogging class.

Sharing our love for photography, good food, writing and our recently started blogs, Home Sweet Mary and I decided to make one of her delicious recipes while practicing our photography, and writing all about it. With that, I give you Rustic Rancheros (find the recipe on HomeSweet).

Disclaimer: I am by no means a whiz in the kitchen. I love to pretend I'm a chef and simply being in the kitchen, but I am 75% awkward in all cooking situations ||what do I do with my hands||. Watching Mary slice, dice, dash and dance around the kitchen (and outdoor fire) was a great sight. At just 23 she has the confidence of an aged chef and her food creations are no exception.

This San Diego, Cali girl-meets-Vermont Mountain Mama combined her love for spicy, beanie Mexican food with the rustic charred taste of a campfire, and the result was the most gourmet breakfast The Hacienda has ever experienced.

This beautiful and unbelievably delicious breakfast was a huge crowd pleaser (which was a huge feat as we were feeding three hungry, and very patient men).  

After breakfast, Mary and I went for a lovely four-mile walk with Hogan, while the boys float n' soaked and digested in the pond. It was a weekend full of laughter, life-sorting conversation, and dreaming of the future, but we enjoyed every second with wonderful life-long friends. 

Thanks for delicious food and more simply perfect memories , Mar- Cheers!

Love, Em

|| To see more photos of our Hacienda weekend, head over to our gallery page ||

Where Do We Begin?

"Saving" has become our middle names over the past couple years.

When we reconnected over cheap beers one 2013 October night in Warren, Rhode Island, we were drawn to each other by our mutual, burning desire to set out in any direction we could- to move out west, backpack Europe, play on the playas of South America, surf in Costa Rica... anywhere and everywhere we wanted to explore! 

Now that we're one month away from our first of many adventures, we're faced with the daunting task of figuring out how exactly to do all of this. Where do we even begin?

Here's where we're at: 

• Using SkyScanner, we found and bought cheap one-way tickets to Iceland, departing October 1, 2015 ($315 for both of us!).
• We've budgeted $7,000 per person, which should last us just under 3 months abroad.
• We have our gear/backpacks/clothes to bring

We've been trying to dedicate at least one night per week to researching places in Europe that we want to visit, average costs of hostels, AirBnB, modes of transportation, etc. Based on our budget, we have allotted ourselves $130/day (combined), which, based on our frugal way of living, is generous. 

Our greatest challenge, thus far, is deciding which Eurail pass we should purchase, or if we should merely buy transportation tickets along the way (planes, trains, buses, etc). We plan on visiting lots of outdoorsy locations, while also seeing the meccas that have become tourist destinations for historic and beautiful reasons. We don't want to break our budget by purchasing more than we'll need, but at the same time, we don't want to over-pay once we are over there. 

We welcome and encourage any tips you guys might have!

Cheers!
Mike and Em

The Moment is Now

You're gonna need to watch this.

The message that Jim shares which resonated with us starts at 10:18 if you want to jump ahead and really get into it.

We've been so excited about the future - our dreams of travel, dreams of moving, our change of lifestyle - that we often times lose sight of how awesome life is right now. We are both semi-spiritual people, in that we believe in the power of the universe and believe in asking for the things in life that you want to achieve, accomplish, and gain.

Jim Carrey's commencement speech really struck a chord for us because we have been asking for exciting and obtainable lifestyles, and it feels as though we are hitting checkpoints and our dreams are falling into place. 

Our Inspiration wall in our Rhode Island bedroom

I'll keep this post short so that Jim's words can resonate with you, but Levart Travel is about "setting out in any direction," whether that be traveling or choosing a life path (which will hopefully have many forks in the road to keep it challenging and exciting). But whichever direction you choose, be present, make sure you are fulfilled, believe in the goodness that life is, and have faith that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Stay inspired, my friends.

Em & Mike

Free + For Sale

Spoiler: We aren't giving away or selling anything.. (sorry)

After buying Loretta (our used 2005 Subaru Outback), it was time to make up for our financial losses. We invested in our adventure mobile and didn't have any regrets, but we hoped to have a little more money before even thinking about planning two life-changing adventures (a EuroTrip followed by a cross-country road trip to our new home in Bend, Oregon).

I graduated from college in May 2015 and was very fortunate to be gifted a solid chunk of change from my generous family members. So, while we may be in a better financial situation post-Loretta than we had initially imagined, we are still extremely mindful of our budget and spending. Every morning I wake up and open my calculator app to add up how much money Em and I should have by the time we leave. 

To help add to our savings (because, com'on, who doesn't like a little extra cash in their pocket?) we teamed up with Em's parents to have an early June yard sale. We did an insane purge: clothes, camping gear, miscellaneous trinkets, etc.- anything that we hadn't used in the past few months/year was donated or set aside for the yard sale. We were very mindful of how many of our things we'd be able to fit in Loretta when we eventually set out on our cross-country road trip to Bend, Oregon. 

We may not have made a significant amount of money from the yard sale (and then post-yard sale Craig's list sales) but every dollar counts. Every couple dollars we make is another croissant in Paris we get to enjoy (a joke Em and I share when we're trying to justify our frugal way of life while we save/budget). 

Don't be afraid to get rid of your stuff. We were actually extremely relieved when we got rid of a lot of the extraneous THINGS that were just laying around our room. When we stopped thinking "we might need this at some point" and realized that we didn't use it in any of our daily situations within the past year (i.e. through each of the seasons), it was clear it wasn't a necessity. 

So go and purge and sell! Make a few extra dollars off of the things that you don't need. Make room for the new trinkets and memories you're going to invest in. Craig's List profiles are crazy-easy to set up and sell things on. So do yourself a favor and make some extra money this weekend. 

Cheers, Mike

Buy an Adventure Mobile: Check!

Meet Loretta! Our new (previously owned) 2005 Outback! She's got a good chunk of miles on her, but she runs like a youngin' and we're so psyched to have a car to call our own.

We knew it was time to spend money on a car when Mike's 1999 Audi's wheel fell off in the middle of the road (exaggeration? not totally..) and my 1999 VW Passat wagon had every light on the dash illuminated and blinking. We've been car-pooling to work together for a few months, which is really great financially when you're budgeting, so we realized we only need one car for now. As June crept closer and closer, meaning our inspection sticker also grew closer and closer to expiring, we knew we had to do something.

After 1 scam, 2 "we just sold it"'s, and 3 weeks of looking on Craig's list for a Subaru within our $4,000 budget and in descent condition, we found Loretta. Her smooth ride, moon roof, tight steering, and CarFax dating back to 90 miles sold us. $3,800 later (plus $500 for insurance, registration, and a pain in the ass- Mike's new slogan for the DMV is "Good Luck") we have an adventure mobile to take us far and wide!

(( *Things people fail to mention when giving advice on buying your first car:* ))

• If you plan on registering your adventure mobile under your own name, you need your own insurance. Nope, being on your parents insurance doesn't work. Joke's on us!
  • Unless you want your parents to own the car and to forever be indebted to them, buy your own car and drivers insurance. Check out some online quotes, but get an insurance agent. We met with Barb at AAA and she was great at helping us settle on American Commerce insurance ($120/month for both of us, $60 each monthly). Plus Barb and the ladies at AAA thought we were adorable for being clueless- so you might make some new friends!
• When you register the car, make sure your license is clear. If you have any boo-boos on your license there may be additional fees to settle at the DMV ("Good Luck"). 
• If the owner of the car won't be present at the DMV when registering it (i.e. Loretta is under Emily's name and couldn't take time off from work to go to the DMV, so Mike had to go alone) make sure your paperwork is notarized. We got ours notarized at TDBank, but you can go to the town hall, or call your bank to check if they have a notary on staff. 

Dream Road Trip:

Buying Loretta made dreaming about where we want to live next (Bend, OR) feel so much closer and more attainable. We wanted to make sure that after spending this chunk of change on a car, and potentially traveling before moving that we would have enough money to get out West. Using RoadTrippers we mapped out our Providence, Rhode Island to Bend, Oregon path and expenses. It estimates that we'll spend roughly $700 on gas, and then I'm estimating an extra $300 for accommodation and food?

Let us know if you've ever planned a road trip! How far? How much? What tips?

Cheers!
Em and Mike