One Lucky Girl: October 2012

I have thought long and hard about this posting. And I guess I should start by saying that visiting and traveling through Europe is something that I have always wanted to do. I have witnessed my own idea of what it would be like transform over the years. What I have to about my experience is that it lived up to, over and under-whelmed, even disappointed at times. The trip had highs and lows, and everything in-between - and I'm so thankful for all of it, even getting drenched at every moment possible <3 Enjoy!

Amsterdam, Netherlands - we arrived early in the morning, and in the pouring rain. We discovered that (in the fall anyways) it rains probably 5 times every single day. The rain made it hard for us to fulfill our goal of biking around and utilizing the canoe that were all provided to us by our outstanding host on our houseboat, the MS Luctor. We toured Rembrandt's house, we drank in an old Brown bar, we walked the Red Light District, we indulged in AWESOME Indonesian food, ate bomb pancakes, we thrifted for warm clothes since we were SOOO under prepared for how cold it was! We had beer with almost everything and truly enjoyed our 3 days there. We started to figure out the layout of the city, the weaving of the canals, and for both of us, found that Amsterdam was entirely beautiful, in culture, people, country and traditions. We agreed that Amsterdam was also a great place to get our feet wet with being overseas since English is spoken everywhere - pretty flawlessly too.

Munich, Germany - Our arrival to Munich was exhausting to say the least. If Amsterdam was easing us into the language barrier, Munich forced us out of our crawl, and into a full on sprint! no English signs, no English speakers (that we could find) and it took us 2 hours to find where we were staying, when it should have taken 20 min. It was Chuck's birthday the day we arrived, and once we got settled, we immediately went in search on Hofbrauhaus www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html for a drink. Talk about a shit show. We walked in, and immediately walked out. The night before opening ceremonies for Oktoberfest was perhaps not the best time to check out the original Hofbrauhaus. So we walked across the street, ordered some pretzels and snitchzel, and got to work on a couple LITERS of beer. Needless to say, we drank our way through Munich, stopping only to find wi-fi, and discover that the city shuts down on Sunday - literally, nothing open but Starbucks. We wish we had known that ahead of time, because then we would have planned to make a day trip outside the city that day.
OKTOBERFEST - was more like a fairgrounds with lots of drunk kids and adults all running around in the same beer wench/ lederhosen costume on. It was hilarious. Although we had researched Oktoberfest ahead of time and were under the impression that you don't need tickets or reservations to the beer tents - you actually do if you want to get in and get a beer. Sooooooo - I helped sneak us in to 2 beer tents, because WTF man, this is why we effing came to Munich, and I'll be damned if I'm going to be at this glorified county fair, freezing cold, and not get a goddamned beer at Oktoberfest! We had great time once beer was in hand and proceeded to extreme people watch - one of our favorite sports.

Napoli, Scaffati, Castellemare, Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento, Capri and Rome, Italia - Italy has been THE place for me. For as long as I can remember, nowhere in the world have I wanted to go more than Italia. I love pasta, I drink wine, I even took Italian in college. I was warned that Napoli was filthy, and it was, but we were only there long enough to enjoy the best pizza on the planet. If you find yourself in Napoli for only 3 hours - go to Pizza di Michele, it's worth the wait :)
I seriously could go on and on about how gorgeous that country is, and we only saw a small handful of places! I'm so thankful that our friend talked us into touring the Amalfi coast - not that she really had to convince us, but I hadn't really given much thought to doing that before. Epically beautiful, like unbelievably so. That little part of Italy far exceeded my wildest expectations of what european countryside is "supposed" to be like. The wildness, carefree attitude is evident in the faded, chipped bright paint on the houses and shops. The restaurants are so simple in presentation and ingredients but were miles from what good Italian restaurants in the States are like. EVERY. SINGLE. BIT. of those few days was just so.......indescribable. The word that comes to mind for me is gratitude - that I was able to share this beautiful place with the person I love most in this world.
Rome is insanity. Constant hustle and bustle, it's people crashing into each other all over the place! Why do people go to Rome? To witness a piece of history, see those things we only saw in history books come to life. It's incredibly humbling to see and walk through the Colosseo, Forum, Pantheon, Vatican, and countless other places/ landmarks/ pieces of history. I just kept thinking about the millions of people past and present that had been there before me, and it was something that we all shared - that experience, feeling dwarfed and inspired by our own ingenuity, sweat, blood, sacrifices that created these places. It's quite a thing to look at the Colosseum and in the same frame see a trolly, a BMW and a gelato cart. It amazes me to see how the city has grown all up and around these ancient ruins, people pass by the Roman Forum on their way to work!- it's just crazy.

Paris, France - If we have already had a chance to chat about this trip, then you already know what I am about to say about Paris. Neither of us had expectations for Paris. In fact, we had been warned, over and over about how its a "love it or hate it" type of place, warned about the "rude" Parisians, and even told not to expect much from the food. So we were a little hesitant about going, and only allowed 1.5 days there - 2 nights. I cannot say enough about how beautiful Paris is, how clean the city is, how kind the locals were, and how truly romantic it is. It's like the Eiffel Tower emits pheromones every hour, on the hour - maybe that's what originally inspired the twinkling at night?? We stumbled (literally) upon one of the OG's of french cuisine in Le Halles, walked the length of the Louvre before walking into the center of it and discovering a bride and groom taking late night, wedding pics there, and watched the Eiffel tower light up while we walked the city at night. I can't wait to go back. We have made it part of our future forecast - we want to live in Paris - we are giving it 5 years to make it happen. After all , we still plan on at least 2 more years here in DC.

How can you sum up a 15 day whirl-wind trip? I have been wrestling with this for a while and decided, with pictures! Thanks for bearing with me through one of my longest posts, I hope it was a fraction as fun to read as it was to experience.

xoxoxo- Sarah