Fun fact, I watched Game of Thrones for the first time in 2022. Partially in preparation for this trip, if we’re being honest, and partially because I was finally ready to commit to learning all the character names. It was cool sitting at a café and drinking coffee and working my way through one of the books! Especially because the Game of Thrones tours were happening literally around me as I did so. I did accidentally spoil one plot point for myself while I was doing research for this trip, but that’s on me because the books and show have been out for ages. (Me: “what do you mean the _____ stairs?” *watches more show* “Ohhhhhhh….”)
I had about a week in Dubrovnik, which was amazing. It was important to me to stay in Old Town, and while that meant slipping through throngs of tourists when I wanted to get groceries or go back to the apartment where I was staying, I could also feel the history all around me. I loved wandering through the twisty passageways and climbing the staircases to try to find new areas to explore.
The first item on the list of every single “what to do in Dubrovnik” list is always the city walls. They are absolutely spectacular. After buying your ticket, you take a flight of stairs up and then walk along the edge of the entire old city. The views of the town and of the Adriatic Sea are unparalleled. I went just after breakfast, but there are also some nice (if touristy) cafés up there for the people who want to enjoy a coffee or an ice cream while looking out over everything. I would definitely recommend going here if you’re in Dubrovnik, and ideally early before it gets too hot!
One of the mornings I was there, I also went hiking up to the top of Mount Srd! It was kind of a haul to get to the trailhead, I honestly think I went up more stairs on the way to the trail than I did once I got to the mountain, but it was my first foray into Dubrovnik outside of the Old Town and it was nice to get a taste of the rest of the city. The trail cuts through some forest and then, once you’re out of the trees, it becomes a series of switchbacks. There’s not a lot of shade so definitely go early and bring sunscreen! The bird’s eye view of the city was worth it, though, and there were a few museums and cafés at the top to make a day of it.
Croatia hugs almost all of the coast in this region, so there are some fun excursions you can do to various islands nearby. I ended up signing up for a trip to the Elafiti Islands, so for $50 they shuttled me around to all three islands and gave me lunch and unlimited glasses of wine. All the time on the islands was free time, although they did provide suggestions of what to do. The amount of time on each island was perfect, with enough time to explore and relax but we still got to see quite a lot. My only big error on this one was not bringing very much cash, so I felt like I was rationing throughout the day because most places did not take card and also didn’t have ATMs.
The other island day trip I did was to Lokrum Island. This one shows up as one of the Game of Thrones filming locations, which was fun – they have a whole exhibit with an iron throne you can sit on if you want to, but you also don’t need any GoT background to enjoy it. It’s a very easy 15-minute ferry ride from Dubrovnik, and they leave every half hour or so. There’s an old monastery that was fun to explore, as well as a botanical garden, and there are a lot of nice areas to swim just off the coast. As I look back through my pictures, quite a large number of them are images of the baby peacocks, which were wandering around freely. They were adorable! It was definitely a good inclusion on the itinerary.
All in all, Dubrovnik was wonderful. So beautiful, and it was really nice to be able to see multiple facets of Croatia throughout this trip. It’s worth spending some time to be able to really explore the country! I have a few places I would love to go back to, and others that I didn’t get the chance to see while I was here. Looking forward to my next visit to this region.
I’ve decided that Athens is underrated. Every time I did research, I would come across posts saying that it wasn’t worth visiting. My guess is that people expect it to be like Rome, where the historical sites like the Acropolis sprawl across the entire city, or like most European cities with their quaint old towns that look like they belong inside a snow globe. It definitely isn’t that. There are historical sites scattered around, but most of them are limited to that hill where the Acropolis sits, and the rest of it looks like a city. Which isn’t a bad thing! I had a lovely time in Athens.
Our first day was more of an afternoon, because we’d flown in from Santorini in the morning. We had two nights in Athens, and each time we’d pick a neighborhood nearby and wander around a bit and find somewhere to eat. Something that strikes me every time I’m outside of the US is the number of green spaces and parks in cities in other countries – this was something that I loved about Panama City as well. It’s so nice to walk around at night and have kids playing soccer and families walking around and enjoying the place where they live. Another highlight of our time here was trying ouzo! It’s always fun trying a local drink in a new place.
The next day, we started at the Acropolis! This is one of those “must see” sites in Europe according to all the lists. I quite enjoyed it – there were loads of tourists, sure, but it’s an extensive site and there are really nice views of the city from the top. After we were done at the historical site, we headed over to the Acropolis Museum. Something that I loved here – they did a really clever job of representing the pieces that had been taken from Greece and could be found at other museums. The blank space where those sculptures should have been was clear. Another aspect that was super cool was the basement, which had a section that had some of the original city walls and showed more of what life would have been like in early Athens.
After we’d hit the highlights of Athens, our next day we began our road trip! After picking up the car, we headed along the Peloponnese peninsula. The drive along the Gulf of Corinth was stunning. We stopped at the Epidaurus Theater, which is considered to be the most perfect ancient Greek theater. I had initially thought it would just be the theater, but the site was much more extensive! Most of the archeological sites we went to were huge. It’s a great reminder at how extensive the Greek civilization used to be. We had lunch in Nafplio and then headed to Mycenae, another very interesting archeological site that’s on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Not only was the site itself cool, but there were beautiful views from the top of the hill.
After an overnight in Patras, with an Airbnb that we had a really hard time unlocking, we headed back over to the mainland! It was a two hour drive to Delphi. We parked overlooking a gorgeous valley, and there were a few cafés where we could get lunch overlooking the scenery. Delphi itself is one of the more impressive sites that I saw in Greece. It’s absolutely massive, with tons of areas to explore and some impressive preservation work on the buildings.
Once we were done exploring Delphi, we headed up north! I’ve wanted to visit the monasteries at Meteora for ages, because I’ve seen pictures and I’ve always thought they looked stunning. The drive up is mountainous, with some high elevation climbs and beautiful views. Once we got up there, we stayed two nights in Kalampaka, with an Airbnb that overlooked the rock columns. The town was small and cute, and we had a nice time wandering around to find a good dinner spot.
We went to five monasteries, which involves about a million stairs. According to my Health app, it was 77 flights, all told. Also of note, I bought a full length skirt for this trip because the monasteries actually do not allow women to wear pants. You can borrow a skirt there if you want, you don’t actually have to bring your own, but I like to be prepared. The monasteries were beautiful, but the views from the top were the real selling point. It reminded me a bit of Viñales in Cuba, although this was a more arid version instead of the tropical landscape there.
On our last full day, we headed back down to Athens! We stopped at a winery near Mount Olympus, who had fully forgotten we were supposed to arrive even though I’d emailed them multiple times to set up our tasting. Even though they were surprised to see us, we still got to hear about their process and taste a few wines! I feel like I don’t see as wide of a selection from Greece – I can’t tell if they just don’t stock it in Utah (entirely possible) or if it’s a broader trend across the American West? Regardless, I enjoyed trying some from a region that I don’t taste very often.
The rest of our drive back was uneventful. Something I would advocate for if you’re planning a trip to Greece – Ardemida was a great area to stay in near the airport. Athens is kind of a haul from the airport, so we booked Airbnbs in Ardemida instead for both of the nights where we had early flights the next day and it was a great option. Cute little town, lots of good food, access to the beaches, and only about 10 or 15 minutes from the airport with good availability for Ubers! It made the logistics much easier on the tail ends of the trip. After our last night there, Colin headed back to the US, and I flew back to Croatia for part two: Dubrovnik.
I actually went to Santorini wondering if it would feel overrated. It seemed like it was a very polarizing place, based on what I was reading on the internet. My verdict: definitely not overrated! Santorini was stunning, and I had an amazing experience there. And yes, there are a ton of ~social media influencers~ taking dumb pictures, but it’s on them if they want to spend their time in Santorini lining up for a single sunset shot instead of relaxing in one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited.
I wanted to stay in Oia, because that’s all the pictures I’ve ever seen of Santorini and it looked amazing, so Colin and I got an Airbnb in Oia. Transportation on the island can be a challenge if you don’t rent a car, but thankfully our Airbnb host was amazing and helped us arrange our cab to and from the airport. Our first night we wandered around Oia and ended up eating at this fancier restaurant. We got one of the best tables in the house even without a reservation, and watching that sunset as we sipped wine was one of my favorite memories of the whole trip!
The next day we did a wine tour! They took us to three different wineries, where we tried thirteen different wines. Needless to say, by the end of the tour we were pretty buzzed and our afternoon was mostly spent napping and reading and watching Formula 1. Santorini, and Greece in general, has a lot more white wines, and we had some great whites and roses while we were there. There’s also an interesting aspect of grape growing in Santorini. The traditional way that grapes are grown, in those hot temperatures, would roast the grapes. Instead, they train the vines to grow in circles on the ground, which they call baskets. This way, the grapes remain shaded by the leaves, and they can harvest a much larger percentage of the grapes grown this way.
The next morning we did the hike from Oia to Fira, which was so cool. The hike is almost six miles, and took us about two and a half hours. Colin told me we picked the more difficult version, as we gained about 1,300 feet over the course of the hike – if we’d gone the other way, it would have been mostly downhill! The views of the caldera were incredible.
Yep, that’s the view from the roof of our Airbnb. Casual.
We had lunch in Fira and then took a very expensive Uber back to Oia to change into our swimsuits. That evening, we did a sunset cruise around the caldera, stopping at a few beaches to swim and eat dinner. It was a wonderful end to our time in Santorini, and we headed back to Athens the next day to start the mainland part of our trip!
Once I was done exploring Slovenia, the rest of my week was spent in and around Zagreb! Zagreb was charming. My Airbnb was about a block away from a lovely park and it was easy to walk into the city center, where there was a nice central street with tons of bars and restaurants. Zagreb is also home to the Museum of Broken Relationships, which is one of the most interesting museum concepts I’ve seen and very well executed. They asked people to send them items from broken relationships – most were romantic breakups, but it also included loss of family members, broken friendships, and even the occasional metaphorical loss, like a food allergy diagnosis that didn’t allow the sender to eat one of their favorite foods anymore. Some of the stories were funny and some were heartbreaking and it was such a cool way to spend one of my mornings there.
I was initially planning on doing day trips to some of the smaller towns that are within about an hour of Zagreb, but a friend of mine convinced me I should go see Split. I booked a last minute hotel and bus tickets and headed to the coast! It’s a longer bus ride, about four hours, but it was very beautiful and it was fun seeing the point where the towns started to look less medieval Europe and more Mediterranean. The coolest aspect of Split is that about half the old town is built on the ruins of an ancient palace. I didn’t have anything specific I wanted to see. I just wandered around, ate delicious risotto, and soaked in the city. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area!
The last stop on my tour of Northern Croatia was Plitvice Lakes. It’s one of the most well-known sites in Croatia. It’s a gorgeous national park full of waterfalls and this amazing turquoise water. I think a lot of people do it as part of a road trip or via a tour, but I went on my own and that worked really well! It’s about 2.5 hours by bus, so I booked tickets on the Flix Bus app to and from Zagreb and it was very doable as a day trip. The bus drops you off a short-ish walk from either of the park entrances.
I had apparently done my research when I’d booked the tickets – I chose Entrance #2 and did Route H. This one starts with a short “train” ride to the start of the Upper Lakes trail. The Upper Lakes were much less crowded and I got to experience them in the morning, so I got that magical experience of feeling at least somewhat alone on the trail as I looked out over the lakes! As with any touristy activity, the earlier you get there, the better it is.
Once I’d wound my way through the Upper Lakes, there was a boat to get to the Lower Lakes. Even as I stepped off the boat, there were already so many more people. That side has a nice area with restaurants, so I had lunch there and then continued through the Lower Lakes. I think those were cooler waterfalls, but it was much more crowded on the trails, especially as it got later in the day. Even with the crowds, though, it was one of the most naturally beautiful places I’ve ever seen, so it is absolutely still worth a visit! I made it back through the entire loop back to Entrance #2 and had plenty of time before my bus to Zagreb. I was glad that I figured out how to do it independently, as it was so much more fun to go at my own pace in the park. And with that, it was off to Greece!
I had high expectations for Slovenia, and somehow it still surpassed them! I spent a magical couple days in Ljubljana and Bled. I had started my Europe trip in Zagreb and it was such an easy train ride up into Ljubljana. It took about two hours, and for most of it, the train was along a river. As we got farther into Slovenia, the terrain got more mountainous. We also had to go through passport control on the train – for this two day jaunt, I got four passport stamps! Exit from Croatia, entry into Slovenia, exit from Slovenia, and entry into Croatia. In a world where most European travel doesn’t even get stamps, it was wild how many I accumulated on this trip.
Ljubljana is a tiny and walkable city. The center is closed off to cars, and there’s a path along the river that has loads of cafés and restaurants with outdoor seating and cool bridges, including my favorite, the Dragon Bridge. Dragons are a national symbol for Slovenia, which is exactly as cool as it sounds.
My first order of business was a boat tour along the river, which is always one of my favorite ways to see a city. It gave me a much better sense of where I was and was a great way to spend an hour. I had a quick lunch and then headed back to the transportation center – it was time to get on a bus to Bled!
I spent the night in Bled and had about 24 hours there, which was a great amount of time to see everything I wanted. To be frank, I would have loved to spend more time in Slovenia, and would have been happy to extend my time in Bled, but I had a lot of other places I was going on this trip and this was only the first stop! The bus dropped me off a few minutes walk from the lake, and the water is truly as blue as it looks in the pictures. I still had a few hours before my hotel would let me check in, so I started by heading out to the island in the middle of the lake. You can rent your own rowboat or go in one of the traditional-style boats where someone rows for you – I picked the latter.
It’s about 30 minutes to get to the island and then they give you free time to explore before they row you back. It’s not a huge place, but you can pay to go into the church if you want or even go swimming. I wandered around for a while, got some ice cream, and dipped my feet in the lake. By the time we got back to shore, I could go check in and drop off the bag I’d brought for the overnight portion. I didn’t want to carry it for the rest of the day – the next thing I wanted to do was walk all the way along the lake! It was about a 3.5 mile walk and took me a little over an hour, according to my fitness tracker. It was a gorgeous walk. I would highly recommend it if you want to explore the Bled area.
By the time I got back, I was starving, so I headed to one of the restaurants along the lakeshore. I knew I wanted to try the famous Bled cream cake while I was there, and it was definitely worth it! Very rich, but the custard was melt-in-your-mouth smooth. The perfect end to the day for sure.
The next morning, I wandered around Bled for a bit longer and then caught my bus back to Ljubljana. The weather had gotten a lot warmer, so this time I took a lot more breaks for cool drinks! I also explored a bit more away from the river. The most interesting place I found was Republic Square, which has both the Slovenian parliament and a few monuments. The buildings in this area looked a bit more Soviet. Nowadays, it’s easy to forget that Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia – they look sort of like a hybrid Italy and Switzerland architecturally and their infrastructure is great. But if you wander out of the center of the city, you can still see the vestiges of their past. I also went up the funicular to the Ljubljana Castle. The castle itself wasn’t that exciting, relative to some of the other castles I’ve visited in Europe, but there were some nice views from the top!
All in all, I would definitely recommend a visit to Slovenia. Of the countries I’ve been to in Europe, it’s one of the most underrated, and I would love to go back and explore the country further!
“Would it be crazy to spend Thanksgiving in Dublin this year?”
I mean, a little? It was an idea I had while I was planning travel with my friend Alan, who lives in Ireland. We’d worked together for a few years but never met in person, and with my company still on full-time remote work, I’ve been trying to maximize this unprecedented flexibility since I know we’ll be back to hybrid work eventually. My family has never cared about Thanksgiving as a holiday, since it’s just my parents and I and we can do a family dinner any weekend when flights aren’t 4x as expensive as normal.
Colin decided to join me and we booked an Airbnb for a week in Dublin. We had three days of working remotely from Dublin and meeting our colleagues who work in Ireland, which was so fun after so many months of Zoom. We had a team dinner and a couple great nights at the pub, and a few days to properly explore the city! Obviously we went to the Jameson distillery and did a whiskey tasting. We saw the amazing library at Trinity College, walked along the river, and drank lots of Guinness (which, for the record, is SO much better in Ireland? I won’t even drink it in the US). Alan brought us to a comedy show. It was fantastic.
On Thanksgiving, we headed out to Howth. It’s an easy day trip from Dublin, only about half an hour on the train. We got fish and chips (or in my case, just chips) and did the cliff walk. Fun fact, Colin had not read the itinerary I had sent him or the links about the cliff walk, so he didn’t expect it to be a multi-hour endeavor and discovered that in real time. The views were stunning!
The next day, we went up to Belfast! I do not pretend to be an expert on the Troubles, but I had always wanted to learn more about the history of Northern Ireland. Beyond what you can learn in Derry Girls, that is. I signed us up for a black cab tour, where they take you to the various neighborhoods and talk about the history of Belfast. I was stunned to see how many murals there were around the city. I think I was expecting it to sort of be like the Berlin Wall, where there are some peace-related paintings in one area, but here there were memorials to the dead all over the place. On street corners, in neighborhoods, in alleys. The picture of us there is next to one of the peace walls. It was a really interesting experience. We also went to the Titanic Museum, which was an excellent museum and definitely worth a visit.
On Saturday, since Alan was also off work, he drove us out to the Cliffs of Moher! It was an adventure getting out there, as the drive goes through some very narrow roads, and it’s disconcerting being on the other side of the road. The cliffs were so beautiful. I also hadn’t realized that was where they filmed the exterior shots of the cave in the sixth Harry Potter movie, so that was cool. We had dinner in Galway, which had a ton of people visiting for the Christmas markets and was wildly busy. It was great to get into the countryside a bit more. Next time I visit Ireland I will definitely want to explore more beyond Dublin, but it was such a fun Thanksgiving week!
I’ve wanted to go to Iceland for ages. It was starting to get popular while I was on study abroad, and living in Scandinavia made me particularly aware of it. So when Sam and I were looking for travel options for a week long trip, it was one of the first places that came to mind!
We drove the Ring Road in a week. Several people I talked to said that was too fast, which is dumb. Could I have spent more time there doing tours? Of course, it would have been fun. But it was super doable in a week, and no one day was too much driving. It’s such a small country compared to the United States. I don’t think we had a day over about 4 or 5 hours of driving, and it still felt like a relaxed experience.
We flew into Reykjavik and had a day of exploring and trying to recover from jet lag. I didn’t sleep well on the plane and spent the morning exhausted, but I still felt like we got a good initial sense of the city. It felt rather similar to Copenhagen, with nice pedestrian streets in the city center.
The next day was the Golden Circle and driving down to Vik! The Golden Circle is a famous tourist trail of attractions near Reykjavik, including Gulfoss, Thingvellir National Park, and Geysir, which is where the word geyser comes from. Around Geysir it started pouring rain. We lucked out overall on weather, but every so often we would get caught in a freak storm. Iceland is very unpredictable when it comes to weather. The locals often say if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.
We also visited Kerid Crater, which was a beautiful walk, and Seljalandsfoss, which is my favorite of the waterfalls we saw in Iceland! The trail goes behind the waterfall, which is a magical experience. From there, we made our way down to Vik on the southern coast.
Vik is well known for its black sand beaches and proximity to the glaciers! There are tons of things to do in this area, and if we’d had more time, I would have tried to spend more of it in this region. There’s a hike out to an abandoned plane that we passed but didn’t have enough time for, but I guess I’ll just have to come back!
The next day was a major highlight for me – we went hiking on a glacier! It was one of the best travel experiences of my entire life. We met up with our guide and got set up with helmets and crampons and ice axes. I’ll admit, I got concerned when they handed us the axes. This was listed as easy on the tour website, did I get myself in over my head? But no, it was easy to walk on the glacier, and I never felt unsafe. The only advice I have is to really be confident walking in the crampons. Some of the other people on our tour kept walking gingerly, and at that point it was less safe because they weren’t letting the spikes dig into the ice. This particular glacier rests on a volcano. The black veins of ash have helped protect it and mean that it is melting slower than some of the other glaciers in Iceland. Still, it is melting, and they showed us where it used to end a few years ago. Sad to see the results of human activity on such beautiful nature.
We also went to the glacier lagoon a few hours away. While we were there, we got to see seals! But the highlight of that area was called Glass Beach, which is an area where pieces of ice wash up along the beach and it is absolutely beautiful. From there, we headed a little farther east to our Airbnb. As soon as we got past Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, there was a major drop off in the number of tourists! There were not many people out on the east coast, which is a shame, because it is gorgeous.
There weren’t many places to stop or specific sites once we got to the east coast. Instead, it’s just a stunning drive along the coast and through the fjords. We stayed at an Airbnb at a tiny town, where the nearest grocery store was nearly half an hour away, and it looked out over one of the fjords!
One of the strangest quirks about an Icelandic road trip were the one lane bridges. This is something I’d never really encountered before, but the south and east had lots of them. It was fine during the day but a little scary at night – I don’t love going over a bridge not knowing if there’s someone waiting on the other side to collide with me head on.
Our first real stop of the day was Dettifoss, which is decently far off the Ring Road itself. It’s the second most powerful waterfall in Europe, and it was very impressive! It’s part of the Diamond Circle in the north part of Iceland. We went there and to Lake Myvatn, but with more time, I would’ve liked to hit the whole loop. Our destination, though, was Lake Myvatn, which is packed with cool things to see!
We started at the Hverir geothermal area, which was gorgeous and had this orange soil around the geothermal features. We also went up to Viti Crater, which was very windy and very turquoise and we had to drive past a power station to get there. We also hiked up the Hverfjall Cinder Cone, which was a cool look out point. It was also very windy. We were lightly worried about being blown off the edge. The last stop of the day was the Dimmuborgir lava formations, which had a nice path that we could wander through for as long as we wanted. After getting dinner in the area, we drove on to our Airbnb in Laugar so we could get a head start on our next day.
On our next day, we started with our last official waterfall of the trip, Godafoss. Iceland has so many waterfalls that I was pretty selective on what we stopped for – I didn’t want us to get “waterfalled out” so to speak. Godafoss is a horseshoe-shaped waterfall and was definitely worthy of inclusion, the multiple lookout points gave us a great perspective on the landscape. It was still a fairly quick stop and we were on to Akureyri!
Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland. We started with our COVID tests at a drive-through clinic. This was at an annoying time when the US was requiring COVID tests for all re-entry, but before they restricted it to one day before travel so we were able to do ours a few days in advance. Predictably, getting tested in Iceland was very efficient.
Our travel logistics done, we were able to explore the city, which was super fun. One interesting cultural quirk of Akureyri is their parking system. Most residents have clocks where they set it in the window with the time they parked, and the zones are all based on how many hours you can stay in any one space. As foreigners, we didn’t have a clock, so we just had to write our time on the back of a piece of paper. Sam tried an Icelandic hot dog and we stumbled on some sort of festival for high schoolers where they were all dressed up in team outfits like superheros and Pippi Longstocking.
We couldn’t stay forever, though, because our Airbnb was still about 2 and a half hours away. After a beautiful drive, we found ourselves on a farm. The host told us to be careful on the road, because “it can be sheeps on both sides,” which is our new favorite saying and applies to a surprising number of situations.
On our last full day in Iceland, I’d scheduled one more tour! We had a three hour drive to get to Thingvellir National Park so that we could get to our tour and snorkel in the Silfra Rift. Outside of the glacier tour, this was the other thing I’d been most excited about. The Silfra Rift is the place between the American and European continental plates, and you can swim through it and touch both continents at the same time, which is amazing. Our guide suited us up in a truly comical amount of neoprene, including neoprene lobster-claw-looking gloves, which was good because it was absolutely frigid water. He told us we should try taking a sip of the water and it froze my lips to the point where it was hard to get the snorkel resituated in my mouth. But almost freezing was 100% worth it, because it was gorgeous clear water and I had a magical time swimming through the place where the continents meet.
Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday trip! The only thing that could’ve made me happier is if we’d seen the Northern Lights – I have terrible luck when it comes to trying to spot them, every time I’ve been somewhere it would be theoretically possible, the sky is overcast. But I guess I’ll just have to travel back above the Arctic Circle, how terrible….
Fun fact, this is my 100th post! I started this in the form of a Tumblr back in 2014, which is absolutely wild. It’s been nearly seven years, which I think might be roughly the amount of time it takes for every single cell in the human body to be replaced? Seven years ago I was in my sophomore year of college. A lot has changed since then, both in my life and in the world. Since 2014, I went on study abroad, traveled alone for the first time, graduated college, moved halfway across the country, started a job, got promoted (twice), started a masters degree, and bought a house. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next!
It’s also been over a year now since I was on a plane. The world changed completely last March, practically overnight. The last trip I took out of the country was Cuba (which I will be posting about at some point soon). The one I wanted to talk about on this post, though, was last Thanksgiving. In November 2019, my parents and I visited Europe together. I am so thankful that we went before COVID. I can’t just get on a plane and visit for a long weekend anymore. Seeing my family now requires quarantining and driving, planning to minimize as many risks as we can. It will probably be a long time before we’re all vaccinated and can travel together again, so I’m glad the last trip was a good one.
Highlights from London: – Going to the Tower of London in the rain and trying to imagine what it must have been like in the Tudor period – Staying in Trafalgar Square in a beautiful boutique hotel – Visiting Christmas markets and drinking mulled wine – Going out to pubs with my friend Will and getting a tour of some of the more off the grid places – Getting to go on the Harry Potter Studio Tour with my parents, who read me the first book back in first grade – That amazing Italian pizza place near our hotel – Going to the Shard and having cocktails as we look out over the city
Highlights from Paris: – The charming café that we found near our hotel! The waitress heard me reading the menu and came up to my parents and started speaking French to them because she assumed we were all French speakers, which, not going to lie, I’m a little proud of…. – Wandering around the Louvre during their night hours – Going on a dinner cruise down the Seine and seeing the city at night – Taking a day trip out to see Chambord and Chenonceau, which I’ve been wanting to see for ages – Dad trying escargot for the first time in that lovely little bistro
Highlights from Copenhagen: – Showing my parents where I went to school! Copenhagen was my first big trip on my own, and so it was amazing to get to show them all my favorite places – The Christmas market at Nyhavn. I used to stay away from Nyhavn when I lived there, because it always felt touristy, but all the little stalls were so cute and we had a favorite mulled wine place by the end of our time there – The fabulous restaurant a few doors down from our hotel with some of the best gnocchi I’ve ever tasted – Tivoli’s Christmas season – Just being back in Denmark. Copenhagen is one of the cities I love most in the entire world, and I have so many happy memories associated with it. I met one of my best friends in the world there, I learned so much about myself and about traveling, and I love being able to walk around and revisit my favorite places again <3
It was the first time I got to go to Europe with my parents, but hopefully it won’t be the last! I’m excited for all of us to get vaccinated and be able to take more trips together in the future.
Venice was amazing. We had a long day of train rides, so we didn’t arrive until the early afternoon. It was raining as our train pulled into the station, and the light fog gave the city an otherworldly look.
Megan and I stayed in a hostel on Giudecca, which is an island slightly south of Venice. This meant that we ended up taking a lot of water buses. Blogs I read seemed to see this as a negative, but I loved seeing Venice by water and that gave me more of a chance to do so. We got an unlimited transit pass for the three-ish days we were there.
After dropping off our stuff, we headed to St. Mark’s Square. I wanted to see Doge’s Palace, which is where the leaders of Venice used to live back when Italy was a collection of city states. We also got to cross over the Bridge of Sighs and see the old prison from that time period.
From there, we wandered around Venice for a while in search of the Rialto Bridge. I’ve never been as lost as I was in Venice. I have a very good internal compass, so even if I can’t find specifically where I need to be, I can at least figure out the general direction I should be going. Not so here. I would be walking in a direction I was convinced was correct, and then I would look at Google Maps to find that I had somehow turned around completely. It’s a good thing they put signs up to point you toward St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto.
We did eventually find the bridge, and got a good sense of the city in the process. With a lot of cities, there will be one scenic area, and all the pictures you see come from those same places. In Venice, everything is the scenic part. You’ll turn down a side street and find yourself crossing the bridge of the loveliest canal you’ve ever seen, until you see the next one. It’s amazing. I can’t imagine why anyone would build a city entirely on water, but I’m glad they did.
The next day, we headed to Burano, which is north of Venice. It’s known for tiny colored houses, and you’ve probably seen it on Instagram. We had lunch reservations at a place I’d found online. Or at least, I thought we did. Turns out I’d booked them for the day after. The restaurant staff were bemused, saying that no one ever comes early for a reservation. I assumed we were out of luck, but they had an extra table for emergencies and they sat us down there without missing a beat.
The restaurant was incredible. Our meal started with bread and prosecco, and when we ordered the house wine, a sommelier came out to pour it for us. It specialized in seafood, so Megan tried something with clams and I had pasta with red sauce, which was one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had. We both got tiramisu as well. Again, absolutely delicious. I had a lot of wonderful meals in Italy, and this was among the best.
We went back to Venice for the afternoon and decided to take our gondola ride. I had bought a small group option, where you could show up at any of the available times daily. The gondola would have up to six people in it, which seemed like a fair trade for about 70% savings on the cost of a gondola ride. True to Italian fashion, they were not ready at the time they said they would be, and we ended up killing time by visiting a bookstore I had seen on Instagram.
The gondola ride itself was super cool. Everyone is right, that’s absolutely the best way to see the city. I wish it had lasted longer!
After our gondola ride, we got gelato and headed back to Giudecca to explore that island. That area is significantly less touristy. One of my coworkers studied abroad in Venice and said that’s where a lot of students live. At sunset, it has gorgeous views of St. Mark’s Square.
The next morning we spent a bit more time walking through the narrow streets of Venice, and then headed off to the airport for our flight. We had a long layover in London, although our flight was fairly delayed and we didn’t get to see as much as we’d planned. Apparently a bus caught fire in front of Stansted and it messed up all the flights. We did still have time to go to the Shard and have a few cocktails though! All in all, it was an amazing trip, and I cannot imagine a better end than Venice.
Yes, you read that correctly in the title. 129 flights of stairs. And all of them were worth it.
I have wanted to go to Cinque Terre ever since my family did a puzzle that had a picture of the houses of Manarola. I couldn’t imagine that such an adorable seaside village could exist in real life. It took me a long time to learn how to pronounce it correctly, because I always wanted to use a French accent, and it was only in researching for this trip that I learned about each of the five towns.
Our train got in to Riomaggiore, which is where we were staying. After dropping off our stuff, we explored the city center and then headed out to the other towns. We hit all five by train, which was fairly doable in a day. It took us pretty much the whole day, and it was somewhat tiring, but both of us agreed that we saw everything we wanted to.
After Riomaggiore, we went to Manarola, which is where the most famous pictures are from. It is so beautiful. It’s almost embarrassing how many pictures I have of those houses on my camera!
The third town is Corniglia, which is the only one that isn’t directly on the coast. Instead, you have to climb a lot of stairs to get up to it. The views were great, and it also felt way less touristy than the other villages. Luckily, we were there in off season, but this one still felt more authentic.
Fourth up was Vernazza. At this one, we were starting to flag a bit, so we stopped and did a wine tasting! We had two white wines and a dessert wine. It’s fun to be able to taste locally sourced wine. We also picked up a bottle of the limoncello cream, which we had tried in Sorrento and absolutely loved.
The last town was Monterosso al Mare, which is the only one with a beach. This one was a bit larger than the others, and felt less touristy as well. We split a pizza here before heading back to our Airbnb.
This particular Airbnb was a splurge for me, as I fell in love with the views from it. In classic fashion, I picked one with about a million stairs, not thinking about lugging our stuff up or getting back up after a long day. We checked on our phones, and our Airbnb was 22 flights of stairs up from the ground level of Riomaggiore. The views were worth it, though!
