Ten Favorite Things

"To be wise, a man should read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles." - Li Bai

Travel is something I have always believed in. It creates memories, adds new perspectives into your life, and lets you explore this huge world we all live in! So, when my friend Kailey told me about a link up that one of her blogger friends was doing I knew I had to participate.

My first ever link up is with Brianna from Endlessly Beloved and this months topic is ten favorite things.. travel edition! Wooooo yeaaaah!

One. Being inside of the airport. I am a people watcher (not in a creepy way!) and airports are filled with emotions of people reuniting and people separating. It just makes me really happy to see people love people lol!

Two. Exploring a new hiking trail in the destination I am at. Being surrounded by nature tickles my insides in a happy way.

Three. Watching the sunset from a new location. This is such a calming feeling if you ever need something relaxing to do while traveling.

Four. The deeper bonds created with the people traveling with you on road trips! There is something so real about the connections made and the openness allowed by being stuck in a car with somebody.

Five. Collecting souvenirs from the places I have visited. The types of souvenirs I love to buy are little representations of the major landmark of a city. I have a snow globe from Chicago with the Chicago skyline in it, a statue of Liberty from New York, the Eiffel Tower from Paris, and a little palm tree from some island my friend got for me in middle school! All of these souvenirs sit in the same area of my room and it just makes me happy looking at them.

Six. Taking pictures of anything and everything and then looking back at those pictures when I get back home from my trip.

Seven. Finding cute little cafes to enjoy.

Eight. Going to less touristy areas and pretending that I live there. This is always fun for me because it's like a whole new world and I get to do weird things without people knowing who I am! ..Maybe I am a creep!

Nine. The first step off of the last airplane on my way home back to Bosnia (which is a 24 hour journey btw!). This is where all of the feels come out and I begin to feel my happiest because I know that I am finally in my happy place!

Ten. Meeting new people because people are awesome.

Writing all of this out really made me miss traveling. Luckily my three month long trip back home to Bosnia and Europe is only six days away for me! I am beyond excited that it does not even feel real and I have not even packed my bags yet ahhhh! I love traveling and I loved doing this link up.. Thank you Brianna for coming up with the awesome ten favorite things idea!

This was so fun!

-Dina

Exploring and Adventures

After a very long and stressful week I am reminded that life is all about the little things. Today, I went on a unique lunch date with my good friend Kailey! No matter how much I like being alone I cannot stress enough how amazing it is to have a wonderful friend there when you are feeling a bit off. Side note: everybody needs to find a friend who you can laugh with, cry with, and just sit there in quiet with! 

We wanted to experience something new so we chose to go to Liberty Market. It is located in Old Town Gilbert, Arizona.

The outside already looked so promising but the inside really blew me away. The interior design they had is the type of style I love!

Then it came time to order food and let me tell you that everything on the menu looked so delicious! I went with the Best Chicken and a Cappuccino. Kailey decided to get a Chicken Salad Sandwich and Mimosa.

Of course we had to take a few photos of each other!

This local restaurant was definitely a great find. The atmosphere inside was wonderful and lively while also allowing for personal conversations. I would recommend it to anyone and I plan on going back sometime soon to show my mom how wonderful it is! When we finally decided to leave we walked around the little shops and found a great antique store with quirky finds. I forgot to take pictures in the store because all of the stuff was so fascinating. Right before going back to our car we found a cool setup for an impromptu photo shoot. 

Today's outing was something I needed to get me out of my rut. Thank you Kailey for joining me on this little exploration! I definitely plan on having more of these fun typee of days. Let me know if you guys have any recommendations of unique restaurants around Arizona!

-Dina

Taco Vibes

Time to talk about one of my favorite subjects food! Today, I decided that I wanted to have tacos because who cares if it's not Tuesday. After I got home, I went to the store right away because I was starving!

Then it was time to start preparing all of the ingredients.

I didn't take many pictures of the before process because my mouth was drooling and I could not wait any longer!

Everything turned out so delicious! I could seriously eat tacos and burritos all day everyday! Give it up for Taco Friday!

-Dina

Travel Thinking

Ćao world! 

As mentioned in my first post ever my summer vacation will be three months long, which is a lot of time to do a lot of things. I want to write my goals or more so a bucket list down for my time in Bosnia because the first step of mastering and achieving goals is blogging about them duh!

My summer is going to look a whole lot like this..

But also a whole lot like this..

My goals/bucket list!

• Play outside everyday!
• Pick cherries right from the tree
• Daily vlog on my YouTube channel
• Blog at least three times a week
• Go down to the fresh water hole at least two times a week
• Milk a cow with my bare hands!
• Take as many pictures as possible and bring my camera everywhere
• Go to the swimming pool when the weather allows
• Master my cooking skills.. I am going to be living alone eeeek
• Meet at least five new people
• Explore Doboj
• Go to the "Park Prinčeva" restaurant in Sarajevo.. this place has the most amazing views!
• Take a bus all the way to Munich, Germany
• Spend time sketching
• Visit all of my family members at least once.. there is like fifty million of them
• Go to cafes and drink cappuccinos 
• Invite people over to my house to drink coffee.. very cultural thing to do
• Chase chickens.. more fun to do than it sounds I promise!
• Have as many sleepovers as possible
• Never say no to adventure

This list is a bunch of random points but things that I truly hope to accomplish during this time! 

-Dina

Still Wondering..

Hello world.. in case you are wondering who I am and what this page that you are on is all about, well then I guess today is your lucky day (or mine) because I finally got the guts to do this and share with you my world.

I like to keep things pretty simple in life and in general so this so called about me post will be simple too! My name is Dina and I enjoy all things travel and tourism related.. hence my super creative (*wink wink*) blog name of Dina Wanders. Another one of my hobbies is photography.. amateur photography.. which also ties in with the idea of me starting this creative space. This blog was going to be originally about my summer trip of studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic while also making pit stops in Germany and Bosnia after my program was to be complete. Life happened and plans changed and now I am going to be speeding three months away in my home country, Bosnia! This calls for a whole lot of memories and a whole lot of sharing of those memories through photographs and a spillage of words on this site. Along with the posts here, I will also be making it a goal of mine to film daily and post it to my YouTube channel. I want to capture all of my memories so that when I am an old little lady I can read and watch back what I have done not just to merely exist but to live! I also want to share them with you so that I can connect with people who have the same interests as I and hopefully create content that will keep you at least a little bit interested! 

Putting together a site like this and starting a YouTube channel is something that has always peaked my interest because I am always spending all of my time on these two sites and it is something that I really enjoy doing. An inspiration blog site has been Lolim Te! I love all of their posts especially when they post about their travel adventures. Though, the main reason I decided to stop being fearful and start my blog is because a friend of mine, Kai, started her own blog recently and just went with it, which has motivated me to do so as well!

My wonderful vacation will begin May 11th and until then I plan to put any randomness that comes to mind on this site!

Maybe that wasn't so simple, in fact, but the words just kept coming! I hope you are ready to join me on my adventure. Do you have any travel tips? Also any blogging tips would be helpful for this journey!