Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Guest Post || Katrina from The Thrifty Gypsy's Travels

Today I have a special treat for you!  My friend, Katrina, from The Thrifty Gypsy's Travels is guest-posting on my blog.  I'm not sure exactly how Katrina and I found each other in the blog-o-sphere, but I'm so glad we did.  Her blog is filled with travel tips, stories, and adventures, ranging from Europe to Africa, to her own backyard of beautiful Virginia.   I loved her posts about braving your fear of heights, tiptoeing around Mt. Vesuvius, and her greatest adventure of all.  I hope you enjoy this post.  Take it away, Katrina!




Our #EurSoGypsy 2015 adventure




What happens when Alone With My Tea meets with traveling tips and haphazard, pizza-throwing vacation stories?  A guest post exchange, that's what! Hi, I'm Katrina, and I blog about international and backyard traveling on a budget at The Thrifty Gypsy's Travels (TGT). I'm one-third of a traveling ninja team that includes my Bavarian Southern Gentleman husband, Danny, and our as yet passport-less Baby Gypsy, due to arrive at the end of the year. I've been following Julie's lifestyle and travel stories for over a year now and am excited to swap blogs for the day to introduce myself!

These days, the internet is absolutely saturated with travel blogs for every niche and cranny. So you're probably wondering what in the world makes TGT worth checking out. Well, for one, you'll find that I'm absolutely hilarious, the most modest chap you'll ever meet, and beyond fluent in sarcasm in at least three languages, including Pig Latin. If that's not reason enough, perhaps you may want to read about travel mishaps such as when I elbowed a waiter in the groin  or had a genuine Italian bird "baptize" me while in Rome. But if those noteworthy reasons still fail to sway you, perhaps you want to know how my husband and I managed two different trips to Europe while working low-wage jobs and even when unemployed?


Honeymoon in Germany, 2010

If TGT were to have a mantra, it would be "live within your means, so you can travel beyond your dreams" -- right behind "drink all the wines," that is (just not when pregnant). I'm a firm believer that anyone can travel so long as they make it a priority, and that is the recurring theme of TGT. You don't need to be rich in order to travel, but you do need to be disciplined and plan according to your budget limits. As I hinted above, my husband and I managed to visit Germany for a three-week honeymoon in 2010 when I was earning low wages at an Italian ice shop and my husband was working at a grocery store while also going back to school. To say that money was tight would be an understatement! Or there was the time that my husband became unemployed within two weeks of our trip to Europe, but thanks to having carefully budgeted and paid for the trip before departure, we were still able to make some great memories howling at a blue moon in Prague without dreading the credit card bills on our return. While our financial standing has (thankfully) improved since then, we still live carefully within our means and budget our time and money to support our travel addiction without endangering the future of our daily lives.

So basically, TGT stands out from other travel blogs because we're just an average Joe and Jane with a dog, a kid on the way, and a passion for traveling well within a reasonable budget. We work our 9 to 5 jobs like everyone else while spending our weekends and coveted PTO exploring our backyard and the world beyond it. If those aren't good enough reasons to check us out, well then, maybe you'd like to know where you can swim in your very own mermaid cove that also once used to be a Roman villa?

The Bagni della Regina Giovanna is one of Italy's hidden jewels.
Like Bilbo Baggins said so well, you never know what will happen when you step outside your front door.  You, too, may be changed in ways you could never imagine!

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I hope you're inspired by Katrina's blog!  Make sure you follow along with her adventures:


Did you like this guest-post?  You could be next!  Send me an email if you're interested in a guest-post exchange!  alonewithmytea (at) gmail (dot) com.

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