Sunday, May 3, 2009

Finally!

I feel like I've been waiting forever...but my passport finally came about a week ago! I've been meaning to get it for a while, just in case an opportunity came up to travel outside of the US. Anyway, Ryan and I have been thinking about going to Europe for a while, and since airfare has been dropping, we booked our flights (yesterday!) for this September!!!! I'm soooo excited, you don't even know!

Where are we going? Well, I'll just give you an overview for now. I'll go into more detail about some of the places and what we plan on doing in later posts.

1. Venice, Italy


So we knew for sure that we wanted to go somewhere in Italy. But where? We have a limited amount of time for our trip (thanks to Ryan's super limited pto...), so we knew that there was no way we could see everything! So, for me at least, I didn't really care whether we spent the time in Rome, Florence, Venice, Sicily, because I definitely plan on going back and exploring the rest of Italy. Well, after watching Rick Steves's Venice episode, we both thought it looked so romantic. Oh, and what if it's not there in 10 years (apparently it might "drown" at some point...hmm)?

2. Cinque Terre, Italy


Originally we wanted to go to Portofino. We wanted to go somewhere on the "Italian Riviera" (not sure if it's actually called that...), found Portofino on the map, recognized that name, and decided to try that out. Well, turns out there are only a couple of hotels, and they were both pretty pricey, so we looked around that area and stumbled upon Cinque Terre. About a week later, Rick Steves had an article on cnn.com about Cinque Terre, and it sounded awesome! We've since done more research since then (including reading about Lisa's adventures here) and decided that Cinque Terre will definitely be on the list of stops!

3. Nice, France


Our next stop will be the French Riviera! Specifically, we are looking into staying at Nice. Looking at the pictures, I just realized that all of these places are on the coast. But, whatever, why not? I've always heard great things about southern France, so I was excited to add Nice to the itinerary. Also, I am very excited to stop by Monaco, and maybe check out the Monte Carlo!

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I guess only the REALLY rich people gamble here, but it sounds like there's another casino nearby, so I'd love to check that out as well!

4. Paris, France


This is the last place we'll visit on our trip. I've wanted to go here for a while, so I'm excited that it's finally happening! I don't even know what we'll be doing while we're here. There's way too much to do in the small amount of time that we'll be there, but we do have some ideas (to be shared soon!). In the meantime, for those of you that have been to Paris, or have done some research, let me know if you have any suggestions! Or, let me know if there is anything I should not "waste" my time doing. Oh, and I really hope the Eiffel Tower sparkles when I'm there (like it does in the picture below!).

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5 comments:

Alex ♔ said...

yay for update!! i'm so excited for you, but mostly super jeal!!! that sounds like a good line-up, especially given your time constraints. can i come in your suitcase??

Angry Anne said...

so, I thought I had no interest in foreign travel anywhere except Venice, but just the pictures you put up TOTALLY changed my mind! It's a good thing I don't do any travel research or else I'd DEFINITELY have a greater interest, lol. And I'm sure when you come back and show me lots of pictures and tell me lots of stories, I will for sure be more open to the idea of European travel!

lisa marie said...

how did i miss this post?

anyway, i'm so excited for you!!! i know we've already talked about it, but i wanted to say again that i think venice and cinque are really good choices, since you have such limited time.

you MUST get pesto in cinque and bellinis in venice, because that's where they originated!

lol and mary, that's weird that you didn't have interest in foreign travel, since you were the first one to travel to europe out of any of us! how did my pictures not change your mind??

Unknown said...

I didn't know you were planning on stopping in Monaco! Everything about this trip is like seriously my dream vacation. I'm so excited for you to go!!!!

Alex ♔ said...

i'm really excited for you to be done with this quarter, in hopes that you will continue updating again!! maybz?
hehe :)

LOL@ mary not having any interest in foreign travel. why am I not surprised in the least?