#relax – Avenue 23

Welcome Back

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 by Avenue 23, posted in Lifestyle, Travel

After a 3 month hiatus, I am officially back!

So, where was I for the past 3 months? I was working. I overwhelmed myself with too many shifts in order to pay for my trip to Europe and had no time for anything except for eating and sleeping. It was a painful couple of months!

Then I went to Europe! I was gone for 6 weeks and if you remember my previous post, then you would see that we went everywhere and did everything! I had the most amazing time and came back with a lot of things crossed off my bucket list. However now, I’ve added even more things to my list!

I have so many things to tell you! So many tips and tricks, and places to visit! I’m so excited to share everything with you! If you follow me on Instagram, thanks for keeping up to date with all my stories and pictures from my trip! (If you don’t you, you can check some of the pictures out at Avenue23blog). I also have some more personal and lifestyle posts lined up as well!

Thanks for standing by, it feels good to be back!

Europe 2018

March 8, 2018March 8, 2018 by Avenue 23, posted in Travel

Hey Everyone:

I know I have been talking a lot about going to Europe and haven’t really informed you about the trip and where we are going! There’s only 54 days until we go and I am super stressed about making payments and Saving enough money for bills when I’m gone, etc! But after next week’s payday, I’ll have it paid off for the most part and I’ll be ready to go! Super excited!

So, my best friend and I are going for a month and half to Europe! We’ll be travelling all over the place! I have been waiting for my chance to go on a Europe trip FOR YEARS! My biggest regret is that I never went after high school, but then again I probably wouldn’t have a degree. So I’m going now!

We are not going with a travel group. There’s just too many places we wanted to hit and I wanted to stop and time out places on what we wanted instead. Nothing against travel groups, it’s just how we planned it!

In no particular order, this is where we’re going:

1. Germany 🇩🇪- We’re hitting three stops in this beautiful country! We have a day to go see Neanderthals in Dusseldorf, and some ancient forums. Next up will be a week in Berlin, and a week in Munich after that! We have so many museums and castles lined up! I’m so freaking excited! Germany has been fun to plan! I love history, so I’m looking forward to it! Also, Germany is actually a good place to travel cost wise too! I’m finding a lot of the museums are cheap or free even depending on what you’re seeing!

2. France 🇫🇷- There’s a lot we’re looking forward to seeing in France, and so we have 3 stops on our journey! We will be stopping in Lyon for three days! We are just going to hang out and maybe do some wine tasting (I’m not the biggest fan of wine, so a lot of people who know me are probably rolling their eyes at me right now!), and I’m excited to hit up the beaches in Nice! I’m extremely excited for Nice. It looks beautiful and also there is more archaeology there (hope my friend doesn’t mind!). If you’re wondering what’s their for archaeology- homo ergaster. Anyways, next up on the trip is Paris for a week! Of course! I’ve been wanting to go to Paris, since forever! Once again, we have a ton of museums and beautiful places lined up!

3. United Kingdom 🇬🇧- We’re only making one stop here, and of course it’s London. That’s right my UK friends! I will be there for a week! We plan on doing a day trip out to some cool sites like Stonehenge (this took a lot of convince for my friend- she will probably laugh when she reads this!), Westminster Abby, and Bathe! We also have a few stops we plan on making!

These are the big places on our trip! It’s the places we’re spending the longest amount of time at! We are also briefly spending time in a few other places too!

4. Netherlands 🇳🇱- We are spending a couple days in Amsterdam! I’m excited to just hang out and do a couple museums, but really just experience the place!

5. Italy 🇮🇹- Milan! Italy I have missed you! We’re only there for a day or so, but whatever! I’ll take it! Pizza and cappuccinos here I come!

6. Austria 🇦🇹- We have planned to stop in Salzburg for a couple days, because we both need to feel like we’re in the Sound of Music! But also, this is such a beautiful place! I’m excited to go there and relax.

7. Switzerland 🇨🇭- Zurich! I have been through Switzerland three times now and never been able to stop! It’s a beautiful place and I know we’ll need a day off of museums and travelling so Zurich is a great place to stay for a day! it is expensive, but I think the fresh air and the views are worth it to go and relax! No pressure to do anything at all!

That’s it! It’s a lot of places, but so worth it! The thing about going to Europe is that you feel like you can add a lot into your trip and you never want to stop adding places! I think we’re hitting a few key places that we both have wanted to see and I can’ t wait!

I’ll keep you posted on the trip and with a few dos and don’ts as well for travelling! Let me know if there’s anything you want me to try out!

Herbivore

January 11, 2018January 11, 2018 by Avenue 23, posted in Beauty

Hey Everyone!

After a long, busy, couple of weeks, I was looking up some vegan friendly bath supplies to throw into the mix and came across Herbivore on Pinterest!

Herbivore is a cute site that has some very good products. They also have a blog section with some very good reads!

One thing I found, is that some products are a little more pricey. However, I live in Canada so the shipping is probably the biggest thing. For my lovely American friends, they’re an American company so it will be easier and probably cheaper for you guys! Regardless, the products are worth the price! Honestly though, it’s probably the same amount I would spend at Lush.

I bought 2 items: a coconut milk bath (Which I’m surprised didn’t get flagged over the border as it was white powder in a jar 😉 ) and Detox Eucalyptus and bath clay salts. Eucalyptus is used for a number of ailments and I was sick before Christmas, that I need ALL the Eucalyptus! As for the coconut milk bath, it is amazing for your skin!

Both of the products smell AMAZING, especially if you mix them together. I found that you don’t need to use much of the product to get the benefits. It kind of depends on you! If you want a bath with a strong aroma, use more. The coconut milk bath you will have to use a lot to get a nice aroma, but the salts were fine!

I seriously loved both products, I will be buying them again and trying more out in the future! Just as a quick note, the products are vegan and the jars are reusable if your New Years Resolution is to use more vegan products and be eco friendly 🙂 !

https://www.herbivorebotanicals.com/

Are there any products you like you want me to know about?! Let me know in the comments! I LOVE recommendations!

Villa Pollio, Sorrento, Italy

March 21, 2017December 7, 2017 by Avenue 23, posted in Travel

Hey Readers!

So one fun fact about Kathleen and I is that we lived in Pompeii, Italy for the month of July doing archaeological work at the ancient ruins. In Pompeii, we shared a basement suite with five other people who also worked at the site with us. We had weekends off, so on those weekends we would jam pack them with trips around Italy, such as Milan, Venice, Rome, Florence- basically the works. Our first weekend we were supposed to go to Milan and Venice, however, when we got to the train station I found that my Eurorail was missing. I felt so guilty, and was so disappointed that we had to miss Milan, but in the end it was worth it. I did find my Eurorail later, but in the end we realized it was so much better that we ended up staying back! We became excellent friends with our roommates and ended up spending the weekend getting to know them. We went out to the beaches and went for drinks. The one day we were there, one of the girls who had already been to Italy took us on a day trip to Sorrento, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trips.

If you are in Naples, it is an easy train ride from there to Sorrento. It’s about an hour and a bit to get there on that train, but it is worth it. This post is dedicated to our swim at Villa Pollio. It is a collapsed, ancient, roman villa that has been filled in with ocean water. It is the most amazing swim ever. To get from the train station to the Villa, we walked for about an hour. You could probably take cab and hire someone to take you up and show you where to go if the hour walk is not ideal, but definitely research how to get there.

The swim and the walk up was beautiful and well worth it. It looked like something out of Pinterest (I will be pinning the pictures). In the rock there was a massive crack in the wall where water and light come in and fill up the villa, so you could swim through into the ocean. The waters were a little rough for me that day, so I swam back and just floated in that swimming area. It was extremely relaxing and soothing. Pack lightly as there is only rocks to store your stuff on, and do not expect to be able to read or be on your phone lots. The area is all rock, so there is no beach to sit and read and tan on. Personally, I preferred to stay floating in the interior area, because there were no waves and large rocks in the middle to stand on if you wanted to sit in the water. My friends swam out, though, and were able to swim around close to the exterior of the villa and around in the ocean.

I highly recommend checking out Villa Pollio in Sorrento. It was one of the best parts of the trip and also a happy mistake. I am very thankful that I lost my Eurorail for only that weekend so that I could explore cities closer to Pompeii.

– Erin