Travel

Travelling is something I love to do and definitely something I want to do more of. I haven't gone anywhere too recently but in the past 5 years I've seen a whole lot. I'm going to give you a brief summary of some of the trips I've taken, starting with my whirl-wind European vacation!

John was away one summer on an archaeological dig in Jordan so we made plans to meet up in Paris in August. We did Paris-Verona-Venice-Florence-Rome-Pompeii-Santorini-Athens and then back to Paris before heading home. All of this is just over 2 weeks too. I'm so envious of Europeans and how easy it is for them to visit the other countries on their continent.

Excuse the fact that some of the pictures are bigger than the others...

Paris *sigh*

Verona - Juliet's Balcony

Venice - St. Mark's square aka Pigeon Land

Florence - the ponte vecchio

Rome - the Trevi Fountain

Pompeii - Mount Vesuvius looming impressively behind me

Santorini - getting lost and feeling illiterate

Athens - up at the Acropolis, in front of the Parthenon

It was such an amazing trip and I would love to go back and see some of those sites again. Especially France as I really only saw Paris and we planned a day out to Versailles but lo and behold it was a Monday and a lot of popular tourist attractions are closed on Mondays. Boo.

The next year my sister and I went to Ireland for our aunt and uncle's wedding. We decided, hey while we're there we might as well stop over in England for a few days. So we did! We saw a lot - all the popular London attractions like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the London Tower, Tower bridge, went on the London eye, saw Sherlock Holmes' pad, etc. We did a walking tour of Jack the Ripper's London in the east end, and booked a day trip out to Bath, Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge. So much fun.

Stonehenge - recreating the dance of the little children of stonehenge a la the Spinal Tap song

Tower bridge - I loved the Tower of London. We saw the spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded as well as where she is burried. I took a lot of photos in places it's not allowed. Like the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. And the statue of David in the Galleria d'Accademia in Florence. Whatever.

The statue of Molly Malone in Dublin. Didn't do too much sight seeing, more shopping and helping prepare for the wedding!

Two winters ago, during my lovely year off from school, my friends and I went to Cuba. It was wonderful. There are a ton of fun things to do in Cuba. We went on this insane adventure where we got a Jeep to go off-roading, went snorkeling on a coral reef AND in a flooded freshwater cave (creepy and amazing), went horseback riding at an old coffee plantation, and went seadooing (spelling...?) on a river. The next day we went into Havana for some sightseeing. Then we spent the rest of our days lounging poolside and by the ocean.

Havana, paying my respects to Che.

I have quite an extensive list of places I still need to see. Peru (the Nazca lines and Machu Pichu), Australia+New Zealand, Iceland, Germany, Egypt, Jordan (John talks about it all the time and I'm so curious especially about Petra as Indianna Jones was there), Morrocco, Kenya, Madagascar...the list goes on and on.

One day.

I'm going to start playing the lottery more often.

You gotta win eventually, right?.......Right?!

P.S. - I have the day off because my clinical instructor is sick so I got to catch this amazing event: Martha Stewart is on Rachael Ray. I'm kind of annoyed by Rachael Ray, especially her voice and her serious overuse of hand motions when talking about her 30 minute meals. C'mon. You know it's bad when I can do all the hand motions along with her and not mess up once. However, as much as she annoys me I still watch her show whenever it's on and I'm around for it. And I've bought her magazine. Several times. And enjoyed it. So maybe I'm a closet Rachael Ray fan. But it's MARTHA and she hasn't really ripped Rachael a new one yet so I'm both saddened by the lack of Rachael-directed put downs and excited to see what they do together!

Best day off ever!