• Rachael Zielske
  • Rachael Zielske

Girls gone wild

A 87-day adventure by Rachael Read more
  • Trip start
    May 4, 2022
  • Beach town vibes!

    May 6, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    A little beach walk/DANCE, exploring Egmond ann zee, and drinks back on the beach! A screaming with excitement kinda day! WE ARE HERE!

  • We are explorers :)

    May 7, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    Took the first bus out of town to get to den Haag. We explored the oldest trees in the country (and a awesome playground!), the city, and the beach. After walking MILES! we had to do the Ferris wheel to make it all worth it! 14 miles is getting a little extreme 🤪Read more

  • Surprise food festival

    May 7, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    We took a last minute trip from The Hague to Rotterdam to go to the Trek food festival! Ate a lot of fun things but also waited in a lot of lines. Worth it to say we stopped in another great city of the Netherlands! (And a couple more pics from The Hague)Read more

  • Peaceful days

    May 8, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    We had brunch! Little pancakes for the win! Tanning on the beach when it’s 50 degrees was one of our smartest ideas…! But we did manage to FINALLY get some cheese and we cooked for the second time in our cute Airbnb!Read more

  • First day in Amsterdam

    May 10, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    We left our first Airbnb after trying to get Harry Styles tickets (we don’t wanna talk about how it went). Then we took the train to the big city! It’s so much more beautiful here than I even imagined! We took a canal tour with cheese and wine, and I tried a Heineken. Then we tipsily walked through the red light district, what a day!Read more

  • Walking and Eating!

    May 11, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    We walked all around Amsterdam, just letting the streets take us wherever! We started with pancakes and had pancakes and stroopwaffles in the middle, and ended with a Rice Table! We also watched the most endearing baby duck face the big canal and make it home to its nest with the family!Read more

  • We are bikers!

    May 12, 2022 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Today was the day we became real citizens of Amsterdam! We biked for over 15 miles and saw all the different beautiful parks, and where Mike lived and went to school. I made friends with a duck and we got hot food from a vending machine! We also were in an accident that definitely shook us up and and put a damper on the plans to go out that night. So we had McDonald’s by the canal instead!Read more

  • Belgium, we are here!

    May 13, 2022 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    Our second country officially! And no one has visited here yet! Staying in the diamond capitol, party city of Antwerp! (I was awoken by a snorer and the partiers outside our hostel window at 4am!) We had the best waffles I’m sure I’ll ever have in my life, walked around and danced for hours to the buskers, went crazy at sunset, and saw a lot of awesome old buildings, including our super cute hostel! On Friday nights tho the “crazy girls” shut the window and lights off at midnight even if no one else in the hostel room is ready for that 😂Read more

  • Staying in small town Temse

    May 14, 2022 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    One night and one night only in Antwerp so we are off to Temse! It was a slow day (still 6.2 miles walking), but we got groceries and had a delicious and fun dinner! We could not figure out how to open a door if that gives an idea of how slow our brains are working at this point! Still getting used to all the newness all the time!Read more

  • Good Ghent fun!

    May 15, 2022 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    We made our way to Ghent, Belgium. It has a castle and canals and some great fries, fritten met stoofvleessaus (beef stew)! And imagine that we had more bread and chocolate creations! We enjoyed an audio tour of the castle which told all about the torturous Middle Ages and the days of Count Phillip! We also got to wear shorts for the first time and it was still hot!! Yay! A great day!Read more

  • Going to the UK

    May 16, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    We traveled on the high speed underwater train from Brussels to Paris to London! It was a very smooth journey and we enjoyed listening to music together! We then took the train the Brighton! Such a long day so not very exciting past that, but we had some good dinner and sat on the beach!Read more

  • Brighton Explorations

    May 17, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    So this is a long time coming! as the mirror selfie shows this is pre phoneless days however I wasn’t quite caught up when the tragedy occurred and have been (im)patiently waiting for my new phone, but clearly the world doesn’t want that for me. So here goes me updating my penguins nearly 2 months late. This was a great little town exploring, seaside hiking, fancy breakfast, and pb&j picnicking kind of day.Read more

  • Cheers mates

    May 18, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Started the day with krispy kreme bc why not and then walked along the pier, the beach, and the beach huts, all before getting on the train to London! Clearly that 5 mile morning walk made me a bit tired…. But it was worth it bc the Brighton beach provided me with the rock that I can safely say is my greatest emotional support at this time, love u rock! Got a second wind in time to have g&ts, burgers and absolutely smash that pub quiz! Someone has to get last right?Read more

  • A monumental day

    May 19, 2022 in England ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    London is a very busy city with so much to see tourist wise that it’s a bit overwhelming. Very quickly after we saw some sites we sat in a park (surprise surprise haha)! It was incredibly rewarding thanks to the baby duckies and swans. We made friends (unfortunately not pictured) even a local Londoner! We had drinks at the pubs and in the streets like true brits but unfortunately this was the fateful day when my phone was stolen right out of my pocket, not the way I wanted to end the festivities.Read more

  • London Bridges

    May 20, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Spent about 6 hours dealing with how to get a new phone, definitely thought at the time that was all the time it would take, surely that’s plenty of time and everything must be figured out by the end of that, right?! Oh naive little Rach. Anyway, the rest of the day was a great time, switched hostels, then jumped and laughed across all the bridges in London. Also had some dessert and went back to the pub that evening, thieves can’t hold us back!Read more

  • Paris bound!

    May 21, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    On to the 4th country! Always looking our best on long train travel days obviously. Getting this salad was quite the saga of awkward waitress encounters but it was worth it for those chicken strips! First day doing laundry but believe me we get a lot more bougie from here and want to do laundry ALL the time!Read more

  • Girlies in Paris

    May 22, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

    Wow, we were living our best life in Paris. We followed the suggested major sites provided on google maps in order to see all the classic spots in Paris. Totaling more than 15 miles by the end of the day I think we were pretty successful. We climbed over 600 stairs as well and we were so happy with ourselves for not finding it too hard! We are fit girls! Also a baguette sandwich is the way to go.Read more

  • Forge your own path

    May 23, 2022 in France ⋅ 🌧 59 °F

    We want to be at the beach but if no trains out of Paris want to take us there then we will create our own path from Paris to Marseille on the south coast of France. It took at least 5 trains and waking up at 4:30am but we are savvy travelers at this point so no problems for us!Read more