Our European Adventure

Hello, Europe. We've been chatting about you for awhile now!

Richard and I are planners. We really love to plan, especially when it comes to travel...hence traveling 50 states together. On our honeymoon we were already talking about where we would celebrate our 5 year anniversary together. I know, I know... what is wrong with us?! Well, our European adventure came true and it was so much fun! 

10 days. 5 planes. 4 countries. 3 trains. 2 backpacks. ONE bottle of wine. Ha!

Our Route

We are fast travelers and check-list sort of people, so country hopping is right in line with our travel personalities (thank God they are the same!). We have learned that when something does not pique our interest, we should not do it just because a travel magazine said it was the thing to do! We also love to see landmarks and experience non-touristy areas to understand what it is like to live in that region. Which is why we ended up lost in a residential neighborhood in Rome. When in doubt, just eat gelato. 

Barcelona, Spain  

Rome, Italy 

Florence, Italy

Venice, Italy 

Paris, France

London, England

Nothing says Florence like a Fry Guy shirt. Am I right? 

Favorite... 

Food - Fettuccine Alfredo in Roma, Curry in London and Gelato in Spain and Italy 

Experience - Countryside wine tour in Tuscany 

Place - London 

Romantic Moment - Sipping wine watching the sunset go down under the Eiffel Tower 

Coolest Thing - Seeing the Pope speak 

Funny Moment - Realizing we were on a topless beach in Barcelona, after taking 13 pictures  

New Adventure - Experiencing Venice 

Packing for Europe

Whaaaaat? 2 backpacks? Yup, that's it. 2 backpacks. And I'm not talking about the fancy I'm-going-to-the-wildnerness large backpacks. Just your typical, I'm-headed-to-school type of backpack. Since we were hopping around so much, we didn't want to take very much...so we made an Excel spreadsheet and did a trial packing night one week before the trip. And you know what, we even had room to bring back a few souvenirs! It really showed me just how much I typically overpack for a trip! Richard did end up helping me carry my backpack a few times (that's why I married him!)... proof that I should never do a real backpack trip. ;)

Backpack #1

Backpack #2

Lodging  

Since we love experiencing "local life", we stayed at several Bed and Breakfasts along the way that were tucked deep into neighborhoods. We love this because you get to experience daily life, restaurants and culture! 

Language 

Richard cracks me up. He attempted to learn common phrases in Spanish, Italian and French before our journey...which quickly turned into starting every sentence with "I'm sorry, I don't speak...". If he did start speaking the language immediately, the other person would assume he was fluent and immediately begin a chatty conversation, to which Richard would give a confused and panicked look back. You'd think the fry guy shirt would have been a red flag... 

Public Transit

We loved it! Living in New York City has really taught us how to deal with crowds, lots of walking and navigating public transit. It really made traveling through Europe a breeze! It was also really fun to compare the public transit to NYC. Paris and London have fantastic subway systems and they were so much nicer and more reliable than ours! 

Food

The food was great! From gelato to cheeses and breads to pastries, we were never left hungry. Can you believe after all of the wonderful food we had at our fingertips, I was still craving enchiladas. You can take the girl out of Texas.... We also discovered our new love of macarons. And we created a new game while in Paris. One person yells "baguette" and then you have to immediately count how many people are walking with one in hand. You'd be amazed at how many you can count. 

As much as we loved Europe, we still love living in New York City even more! We wondered if we would return with a deep yearning to live overseas. For now, NYC is where we want to be. We just love it, but we will definitely return to Europe for more adventures in the coming years! 

I'll share each stop in more detail, but for now, here's some Eiffel Tower fun...

I'm sure we were really giving Americans a great reputation! 

We had to buy 100 cups to get 2 cups.
I suppose we could have just drank straight from the wine bottle...
 but nothing says classy like paper cups at the Eiffel, right?! :)

And we are getting this photo I took blown up on canvas so we can always remember our love of wine Florence, Italy.

Check out Richard's recap of our Europe trip here!