After Matt graduated from Med School, we packed our (borrowed) backpacks and headed across the big blue ocean. We flew into Paris where we sailed through customs, jumped on the metro and headed into town. We stayed at Hotel Eden (thanks to a recommendation from a friend) where we had our own bathroom and bedroom. We had a marvelous stay in this culture rich city. Next on the list was Switzerland. We took an amazing train ride through the french countryside, into Bern, and on to Interlaken. With packs full, we hiked to our Hostel: Balmer's Herbage "a backpacker's paradise". We enjoyed the views from 'the top of Europe' and the valleys below. From Interlaken we took another (not so nice) train ride to Venice where it was at least 105 degrees. We wandered through the tiny-unlabeled streets to find A Venice Museum. This hole would be the dark side of the trip. Next stop: Cinque Terre, along the coast of western Italy. Our apartment at Mar Mar was a dream. We enjoyed our in-room kitchen and shower and everything about this quaint little coastal town. The last city on the list was Rome. We had cancelled our Hostel thanks to the misery that was a Venice Museum. Our hotel was a few long miles outside of the city... but we at least we had air conditioning!
So Many memories.... so many adventures! Here are a few pictures from our vacation:
The Eiffle Tower
The back side of Notre Dame. Such an amazing building, inside, outside, backside, front.
The Louvre. We did the classic tourist traps (took some slightly offensive art lover photos-aka our interpretations of the Mona Lisa) and exited.
Sacre Coeur. AMAZING. the view of paris from the top of this hill is just as breathtaking.
our giant packs. this was not comfortable hiking to the top of Monte Martre or any sort of walking for more than 10 minutes.
Switzerland! ahhhh
On our way down after hiking UP into the swiss alps. Breathtaking!
Cinque Terre. Love this place. If you are ever in Italy, you MUST make a pit stop!
Paul was here 2000 years ago. wow.
Pretending we were watching the gladiators!
The Trevi Fountain. We came here every night we were in Rome and people-watched. It was such a great place to sit and stare (while eating delicious pizza and gelato).
My view of matt for much of the trip. On the first day we argued so much about which way was the right way that we decided to let 1 person (matt) be in charge of the map and the other (me) wasn't allowed to complain when we got lost. This method actually worked really well. I was very happy being slightly oblivious to our location. However, we did have to rely on the "back to start" feature on my GPS watch on more than 1 occasion!
Oh the fanny pack. This housed all of our important documents. I slept with this thing and even took it to the shower with me. It did have quite the odor when I finally took it off in Tampa!
We walked 171 memorable miles in 15 days all across Europe! it was a great adventure!
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