Week Eleven (La Fin!)

Norway

Norway and Ireland

Ireland

It's five in the morning and I am wide awake. FIVE IN THE MORNING AND WIDE AWAKE. Those two things should NEVER be allowed in a sentence together. But I arrived home from Ireland last night after 15 hours of travel and clearly jetlag has decided to have its way with me.

Since I'm up dark and early, I figured I might as well take this time to write my final outfit post. Continuing with last week's trend, I've made a series of top-fives about the last three and a half months. Therefore, this post is a bit longer than my previous ones and I do not apologize.

Top-Five Moments
1. The unexpected evening in Felixkirk, England ("population 30-40") where we stayed with a hitchhiking lift and his partner, went to the local pub quiz with them and another couple, and had wonderfully splendid conversations.
2. The impromptu dance party in the middle of a Polish highway.
3. The 2 days of stealth camping in a park 5 minutes from the center of (feckin') Bruges, Belgium.
4. "The best day ever" in Warsaw, Poland in which Kendall and I ate like kings for the price of almost nothing.
5. The 4th of July on which we climbed a mountain, made breakfast for dinner, and shared cocktails the size of my head, all in the company of some splendidly awesome Austrians.

Top-Five Hitchhiking Lifts
1. Ruth and Donna -- the ones who saved a horse in the middle of the road and bought us ice cream.
2. Tim -- the one who was going to raid a castle for his 21st and brought us to see his friend's 10 puppies.
3. The Swedish James Deans -- the ones who owned a caravan of four classic American cars in which we rode while listening to oldies and driving through the Swedish countryside.
4. The Translator -- the one who loved languages as much as I do and seemed just as excited as me to discuss the grammar and best words of various languages.
5. La Maman Belge -- the one with whom conversing in French didn't feel the least bit difficult and who, when talking to her two children on speaker phone, told them about how she picked up hitchhikers on a post-studies adventure and encouraged them to do the same.

Top-Five Cities
1. Paris, France.
2. Edinburgh, Scotland.
3. Berlin, Germany.
4. Warsaw, Poland.
5. Bergen, Norway.

Top-Five Countries
1. Poland.
2. Austria.
3. Ireland.
4. Sweden.
5. Norway.

Top-Five Songs
1. I Love A Rainy Night by Eddie Rabbitt.
2. Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye.
3. That Thing You Do by The Wonders
4. Nosa Nosa by Micharl Telo.
5. Emmy-Lou by First Aid Kit.

Top-Five Pizzas According To The Country They Were Consumed In
1. Austria.
2. England.
3. Denmark.
4. France.
5. Scotland.

Top-Five Airlines
1. British Airways.
2. British Airways.
3. British Airways.
4. British Airways.
5. British Airways.

Week Ten

Sweden

Sweden

Sweden

Since I only have a handful of days left on my journey, I've decided to take a page out of Kendall's bookand create a top-five list of things that I'm looking forward to upon my return to the States:

1. Being in the presence of some of the spectacular people who have been missing from my life since May 16th. But, duh.
2. Not having to lug around my backpack. I overheard another backpacker on the start of this journey talking about how he had taken a long trip with only a backpack and how pit had kind of become a part of him and he almost missed it when his trip was over. I suspected it then, but I am certain now--he was some kind of crazy person. I am in no way attached to wearing my backpack and I'm so excited that after Wednesday I'll never have to strap it on again.
3. My wardrobe! In particular my maxi dresses and heels. But also anything that isn't streched, hole-y, or faded from being worn far too often during the last three and a half months.
4. The most recent season of HIMYM and pumpkin curry pizza. My day after I return to the US tradition.
5. My mom's pasta salad. I'm just as surprised by this one as you are. But I got a craving for it about halfway through my trip that I haven't been able to shake since.

Week Nine

Sweden

Sweden

Sweden

If it hasn't become obvious to you already, I'm starting to have to get quite creative to complete this outfit challenge: sweaters have become dresses and shirts have become skirts. And now, tutus have become shirts. This newest invention is thanks to my oldest sister (coincidentally, the giver of said tutu...actually the giver of an entire BAG full of colorful tutus for my most recent birthday. Best sister ever? Well, top 5, for sure.) who, well discussing my difficulty piecing together my remaining outfits during a recent Skype conversation, showed me how she wears a tutu like a shirt.

After putting together a tutu-shirted outfit for myself, I was unsure about whether I liked the whole ensemble better with or without my sweater and I emailed her asking for her opinion. Not only is she the giver of the most perfect birthday present--a bag of them--but also perfect fashion advice:

"For overall everyday chic, I prefer the sweater. The color and print on the bow in combination with the sweater gives it the perfect touch of ironically preppy, without seeming too forcefully ironic. As if you're saying: 'Psssh. You THINK I'm a nonsensical child for wearing a tutu, but if that's true how do you explain my dignified librarian sweater? Hmmmm?'"

Well? Clearly there's no explanation. Dignified librarian sweaters with non-sensical tutus it is!

Week Eight

Sweden

Sweden

Sweden

Socialist nightmare FTW.

That is all.

Oh, and, as always, God bless Ikea.

Week Seven

France and The Netherlands

The Netherlands

The Netherlands and Denmark

Here's a fact: Vibrant orange henna-dyed hair is much much harder to coordinate clothing with than vibrant red hair. 

Here's another fact: Vibrant orange hair, though more difficult to properly coordinate overall than red hair, does go spectacularly with neutral colors (brown, cream, etc) as well as blue (but, duh, UF figured that out ages ago). Neither of which I have an extraordinary amount of on this trip. Not that I have an extraordinary amount of anything on this trip, really.

Looks like I'll just have to channel my inner Tim Gunn and make it work.

Week Six

Switzerland and France

France

I hope you didn't miss my hair bow in the bottom middle photo. That is a result of my body deciding to wake me up well before my co-travelers leading to a morning spent pinteresting (because even across the ocean pinterest is still hands down the best way to kill time). One pin led to another, and I wound up learning how to make a hair bow with my own hair. I'd like to pretend it was uber difficult and I have awesome hair bow making skills, but it wasn't. And I don't. Mostly I just have too much hair and too much time on my hands. But I say that could be some sort of skill in its own right.

Week Five

Germany

Germany and Switzerland

The list of things that I've come to genuinely appreciate while hitchhiking through Europe is fairly predictable, such as access to free and functioning toilets, the guarantee of a warm and dry place to sleep, a good cup of coffee (ironically harder to find in Europe than you might think), etc. One thing you might not expect to make this list, however, but one thing that is most certainly on there, is my tutu.  

Let's face it, a tutu is definitely a non-essential when backpacking through Europe. Which is exactly why it has become such an essential for me. It's a completely frivolous item at a point when frivolous items are rare.  Every time I wear it, I feel delightfully fancy even if I haven't showered since who knows when and have been eating mostly apples and bread. But really, when something is made of that much tulle, how could it not be wonderful? Hm, maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that it makes my list.

Week Four

Austria and Germany

Germany

The black skirt/dress (skiress?) is definitely my favorite clothing item that I brought with me. Mostly, this is because I can wear it a plethora of ways: in the first photo, it's a dress; in the second photo, it's a shirt (with pockets, at that!), and in the last photo, it's a skirt. On top of it's wonderful versatility, it's also super comfortable (and therefore has become my staple hitchhiking outfit) and it doesn't wrinkle. I fear that I make my other clothing feel inadequate with the amount I wear this skirt. But maybe if they got their act together, I'd wear them a little more too.

Week Three

Czech Republic and Austria

Austria

I hope you all are noticing the awesome tan lines my sandals are giving me. And by awesome I mean slightly unfortunate but mostly hilarious.  

Being that I just drew your attention to my feet, you probably also noticed my footwear-less ensemble in the last photo. After spending the morning climbing a mountain in Austria, all I wanted in that moment was to eat breakfast for dinner and drink cocktails the size of my head all while wearing a comfortable, footwearless outfit. Really, was that so much to ask for? No, no, it wasn't. Which is exactly why that's what I spent my evening doing.

Week Two

.
Poland

Czech Republic

Ok, ok, I confess! Iworeapairofmyfriend'sshortswhichclearlyarenotincludedinmy20items.

Whew, glad I have that off my chest. Now, I know you might be thinking, "it's week two and she's already cheated at her own game! How can I ever learn to trust her again?" My apologies might seem weak, but I do have a legitimate explanation that I hope will suffice. You see, it just so happened that on that day every other article of clothing severely needed to be washed. This is also why I wore the same shirt (which is technically a skirt) 3 days in a row in Czech Republic; it was the only things that wasn't wrinkled/stretched/dirtied beyond wearability.

Do I have your forgiveness? I promise to try better next time. Cross my heart.

Week One

Week One of 20 for 80

....I need to find a better name for it, I KNOW. But my creativity seems to fail me after trying to put together a multitude of outfits with a limited number of clothing. If you're feeling particualrly creative, how about sending me a suggestion...yes? I'll even give you a prize if I like your name (a prize which will most likely come in the form of a virtual high five accompanied by a "shuuuh--weet, thanks!". But hey, a prize is a prize). Or keep your suggestions to yourself and silently mock me about my name choice. I don't blame you if that is more appealing.


Edit: Huzzah! I shall call this little project of mine "Suitcase Style." Looks like I will be the receiver of my own high-five and expression of thanks. Go me!

Belgium and Luxembourg

Germany and Poland

20 for 80?

Helloooooo dear readers (most of whom, I believe are random pinteresters. But, hey, you're here, and that's what counts, so I'm not complaining)!

Here's the deal: I've been hitchhiking around Europe since May 16th and have therefore been poorly neglecting my blog. As I've gotten into the swing of traveling, however, I've decided to start writing outfit posts again. You have to put clothes on every day either way, right? (If your answer is something different, then a fashion blog probably isn't the best website for you...then again, if it'll teach you to put on clothes, maybe it is.)

I like the challenge of living out of a backpack for a summer without looking like I am living out of a backpack (minus the horrid and unavoidable wrinkles). In a Kendi-esque fashion, I've decided to see how many outfits I can make out of a limited amount of clothing. I've packed the items below (20 articles of clothing in all, 2 belts, 2 pairs of shoes) and I'm aiming to wear a different outfit everyday between now and September 5th, roughly 80 outfits total. Now, I know 20 for 80 doesn't quite have the same ring to it as 30 for 30, but I hope you'll still find the idea just as admirable.

When I return to the States, I will blog about the places I've visited (17 countries in all!) with recommendations for things to do and see. For now though, I'm sticking with the much simpler and less time consuming task of taking photos of my outfits and posting the week's worth on Saturdays (Cassie will continue to post recipes on Fridays and a random post of her choice on Tuesdays).

Wish me luck!

Tops
(starting in the top left and going clockwise)
Forever 21, Old Navy, Lacoste, Thrifted, and Forever 21. I also packed a white button up Lacoste shirt which I forgot to photograph.

Bottoms
Forever 21, Loft, Thrifted, Forever 21, and Hot Topic

Jackets & Dresses
Thrifted, Abercombie, Cotton On
Leggings/Tights
Mostly Target. Thelacy tights are from dELiA*s.
For shoes I have a pair of black flats and a pair of black gladiator sandals.