Helene Sula - Travel and Lifestyle Blogger

Here’s how!!!! 🥾This ruined me to be honest. The Cotswold Way in England is one of the best experiences of my life! No camping and no hauling your luggage. And amazing meals! I loved it so much I did another walk (Stevenson’s trail in France) and now… I’m doing another! Here’s what really changed my life: Long-distance walking gave me a passion I never knew I had. I became stronger mentally and physically. And yes, I do this completely solo. 12 years ago on the exact day I finished, I was in a wheelchair wondering what my future held. Last year I walked over 100 miles through fairy tale villages and ended at Bath Abbey feeling like I could conquer the world. Your transformation doesn’t have to be 100 miles. It just has to begin. ‼️Comment “INFO” for my training plan and guide! 👉 Follow @heleneinbetween for more epic walks! #cotswolds #cotswoldway #thecotswolds #sheisnotlost #thruhike

I ONLY hang on to things that last. After living for 5 years in Europe and traveling to 60+ countries these WORK!! Comment “pack” for the list! 🎉win carry on of your choice- my rolling bag/backpack or my mom’s hard sided rolling carry on! Just comment below which you prefer!!!

Thanks Michael, I’ll surely cherish these forever 🥹 Most of these are Live Photos I left as their video form because they are just so… 💫beautiful 💫 classy 💫 epic??

This exists!!! AND: the person that cares the most is you!!! We spend so many years worried about the wrong things. Our waist. Our cellulite. The number on the scale. Whether we’ll fit in. What people will think when we walk into the room. One day we’re going to look back and wish we hadn’t given so much of our time to any of it. We’ll wish we’d gone anyway. Worn it anyway. Taken up space anyway. Get on the plane. Wear the swimsuit. Show up. There is so much waiting on the other side of the worry!!!! And the world cracks open the moment you stop apologizing for being in it.

Why do people skip this city?? Everyone goes to Bruges and skips Ghent, Belgium!! It’s so cool and feels like Hogwarts vibes.

People always ask me why I would move from Europe back to Texas. Easy. My mom. Happy Mother’s Day to all!!! Especially to my favorite woman on earth @npflournoy

For most of my adult life, I thought the answer to “are you enough?” lived in what I accomplished that week. Did I hit the goal. Did I post the thing. Did I earn the vacation I was about to take. Europe didn’t fix that overnight. But it loosened its grip. When you sit at a table for three hours and nobody is checking their phone — when shops close on Sundays and the world keeps spinning — when an 80-year-old at the next table is having more fun than anyone you know — you start to wonder who told you that being busy was the same as being valuable. Nobody there is impressed by how tired you are. Or even what position you have at a company. Or the company for that matter!!!

I was wearing pjs in the grocery store for this reel but it’s not uncommon to see that in the grocery store 👀 I know BlueBell is a southern (TEXAS) thing but trust me I’ve tried all the frozen ice creams and this is the best.

So many people skip this city! There is a painting sitting in a church in Ghent that experts call the most influential artwork in Western history. It has also been stolen more times than anything else on earth. Napoleon took it. The Nazis took it — because Hitler believed it was a coded map to supernatural powers. It was hidden in a salt mine in Austria until the Monuments Men found it at the end of WWII. And one panel still hasn’t been found. The theft was in 1934. It remains unsolved. A replica stands in its place today. The Ghent Altarpiece is in St. Bavo’s Cathedral. It’s free to walk into the church. You pay a few euros to see the altarpiece up close. Most people drive straight past Ghent on the way to Bruges.

15 years ago today we got married. It wasn’t Pinterest perfect. Looking back, it was perfect for me. Our wedding was fun and lively and oh my goodness there was dancing. One girl had so much fun she lost her top AND knocked over our rose petals — which is why we had almost none to throw on the way out. 😂 I love everything about it now. Even the things I thought went wrong at the time.

I will never forget going to a sauna at our hotel Austria, it was tiny, and my cousin @cflo8410 and I in our bathing suits and a fully nude man lifting his leg up on the step to talk to us 🙈😂 Americans are prude about some things and I just can’t help it! Telling someone they look tired? Not an insult in most of Europe. Just an observation. Like saying it’s cloudy out. I’ve been asked this so many times in Europe. I mean I am but STILL! Not tipping (or barely tipping). In most of Europe, servers are paid a living wage and tipping is genuinely optional. In Iceland and the Nordic countries, locals will sometimes tell you not to. Or you just round up (my Italian friend said this). In UK often. The service charge is already there. Fully nude at the spa. Germany. Austria. Often coed. Swimsuits sometimes not allowed. The only person uncomfortable is the American clutching a towel like it’s a life raft. Paying for water at a restaurant. “Still or sparkling?” is not a trick question. Tap water with ice is not the default. You will pay 4 euros for a small glass bottle. Nobody is refilling it for free. There just aren’t refills in general. Standing extremely close in line. The American personal space bubble does not exist. They will be right behind you. They are not being rude. But it does feel weird! What have you observed about American vs Europe cultural norms or culture shocks?

I am not at all saying you cannot do these things AND have kids. But my path is different. I so appreciate you raising children. it’s selfless and incredibe. But there are other ways to bring happiness and fulfillment to life. One day this will all be gone, so I’m romanticizing every bit of it while it’s here. None of it is a consolation prize. It’s the life I chose. I hope I get to share a piece of the world with you.