I can’t believe my trip is over..well almost over I still have to fly home first which will take me about 29 hours total. My last full day in Rome was better than I could have imagined. I toured the colosseum (it was spectacular), and got to climb up to the fifth floor which has only just recently been opened. I also met this lovely couple from England who let me tag along with them all day. I ate some amazing food, and of course had gelato twice because it’s amazing.

As I reflect back over the last 7 weeks, I can’t believe all the things i’ve Seen and experienced. I feel like a completely different person, but yet i have never felt more like myself. I wouldn’t change one thing i have done on this trip, because everything was a learning experience. People say you only regret the chances you didn’t take, and I truly feel like I said yes to every opportunity and experienced things I will never forget.

When I started this blog it was to keep my friends and family updated on my traveling journey so they wouldn’t worry about me. By updating all of you, I have definitely kept better track of my adventures and it has been a good way to process the things I have done and seen.

While I might not be ready to leave, I know this will not be the only long trip I take. There are so many more countries I want to see and experiences I want to have. I don’t know exactly what my plans are, but I know they will include traveling. Plus, I have tons of new friends to visit. Thanks for reading along, and I will see you all back in the states!

I am currently sitting in a lovely hotel room in the center of Rome. This morning I made my last accommodation move. I decided to splurge a bit since I head home the day after tomorrow. I sit here struggling to put into words how amazing the last couple of days were.

The day before yesterday I spent the day in Venice, Italy with some lovely people I met while I was staying in Certaldo. Venice is a lovely city, and I am so glad I decided to make the day trip to explore a bit. I spent the day shopping and getting lost with the most wonderful company. In the evening we all went on a gondola ride. I will say it was probably the most romantic experience I have ever had. Since I was having so much fun, and wasn’t ready to leave the amazing company of my new friends I missed my train and had to wait till midnight for the next one. We spent the rest of the evening drinking wine by the water and observing Venice at night. I definitely think this experience is one of my favorites. To make it home I had to ride on a night train which is something I had not done yet. I made it back to Rome just in time to change, drink some coffee and head to my tour of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basillica.

The tour was wonderful and the Sistine Chapel is something everyone should see if you get a chance. No pictures or talking was allowed, but it is a sight I will never forget. I took a nap in the afternoon (which was necessary after the night train), and then had a wonderful evening meeting new people and walking to Trevi Fountain at night. I threw a coin into the fountain to ensure that I will return to Rome one day.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Italy and on this traveling adventure. I can’t believe how fast the last seven weeks have been.

I made it to Rome!!! I finally left the wonderful hostel in Certaldo, but only after I finally completed the cooking class that was offered. While I did do some sightseeing, I spent most of my time the last week relaxing in the beautiful Tuscan country side. I had a brief moment of regret a couple days ago, thinking I should be seeing more or doing more…but then I remembered this is my trip and I can do what I want. I saw gorgeous sunsets and spent time with some of the loveliest people.

Yesterday was another traveling day. However, I got up early and went to Pisa…because everyone needs to take a picture with the leaning tower. After my picture, I packed up my stuff (which is somehow heavier…) and got on the train to Rome. After arriving in Rome, I met some more fabulous people and we walked to the colosseum and then I had the most amazing Salmon Risotto for dinner. I spent the rest of my evening laughing and playing card games.

Today, I once again got up early and made my way to the Vatican for the blessing of the square. It was an absolutely amazing experience. Then I had a glorious salami and mozzarella panini and then walked to the Trevi fountain. My plan is to go back to the Trevi fountain at night and make my wish and throw a coin in….hopefully there wont be too many people.

Tomorrow, I head to Venice, and ride a train for the last time. I have 5 nights left on this incredible adventure and I plan to live them to the fullest.

As most of you can tell from my previous posts I have kept myself pretty busy over the last couple of weeks. Staying in Certaldo for a long length of time has given me a chance to breathe and slow down a bit before finishing this trip, and then heading back home.

The last couple of days I have just stayed around the hostel, read a book (or two), and explored this cute little town. I have eaten copious amounts of gelato, and eaten some really wonderful tiramisu as well. The reviews for this lovely hostel have everyone extending their trip multiple days, and I am definitely no exception. I was scheduled to leave today, but then decided to stay till tomorrow (Monday). I am now leaving Tuesday. The reason for the extended stay is because they offer a cooking class and their wont be enough people until tomorrow, and it is something i really want to do. So, I once again find myself being flexible and rearranging the rest of my trip to accommodate this activity.

Yesterday, I took a 3 hour train ride to Verona, Italy, to see Juliet’s quarter. While I was slightly disappointed, the city itself was still lovely and I had some wonderful wine, more tiramisu, and of course more gelato. I also had some absolutely fantastic homemade pasta. When I made it back to the hostel last night there were new people here and we spent the evening drinking more wine, playing cards, and laughing. This place really is magical and I am so lucky that i stumbled upon it.

As my trip is coming to a close I find reality is starting to sink in and the responsibilities at home are on my mind more than they aren’t. I am also starting to get a cold, which is no fun. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for my last week in Italy.

I feel like the title of this blog sums of the last couple of days I’ve had in Florence. The little town San Gimignano, was beautiful. It had lots of lovely little shops, a torture museum (yes I went to the torture museum), and some fabulous restaurants. This little town also has the worlds best Gelato. So, I explored the torture museum…and let me just say people were really, in a very cruel way, creative and imaginative when it came to the different forms of torture. After the museum, I grabbed some food at this lovely restraunt and had some fabulous chianti. The best part of the day was the gelato. It was as good as everyone said it was.

The winery tour was really informative, and the wine was absolutely fantastic. It’s a family owned and operated vineyard, and they were so knowledgeable about all the different grapes and wines. I have to say I thought I was knowledgeable about wine before, but I learned so much from the tour.

At night the hostel had a lovely group of people and we all stayed up until early in the morning talking and drinking wine. It was such a wonderful evening.

Yesterday, I explored Florence. I went to the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and walked up into the Dome. The view from the Dome was breathtaking, however the stairs you had to climb to get to the top were a bit ( and by a bit I mean absolutely were) terrible. The view from the top was definitely worth it.

In the evening, I met up with a friend Molly, and we walked around Florence and I ate some more fabulous gelato. We stopped for dinner and I finally had some Pasta, that was amazing and homemade, and for dessert I had tiramisu. The hostel was another fun night of talking and wine. We even made a game of going through a box of things left, as the hostel closes down in a couple of weeks.

Not quite sure what I’m going to do today, but I’m sure I’ll do something wonderful. I am also sure it will include gelato.

I finally made it to Italy, and let me tell you it was a bit of a challenge and I might have (most definitely did) gotten lost. But I’ll get to that..first I’ll tell you all about my last two days in Switzerland.

I went Paragliding!!! Although I have two weeks left, this might be my favorite thing I did on this traveling adventure. I was a bit scared at first, but then I just went for it, and it is something I will always remember. The view was spectacular, and it actually felt like I was flying. Once I got back to my hostel around lunch time, I didn’t know what to do with the rest of my day…I mean how to you top paragliding..you just don’t. So I went to lunch with some new friends and then just relaxed the rest of the day.

My last day in Switzerland was spent with new friends, and hiking up a waterfall. I also had to plan where I would be heading next. Standing on a mountain behind a waterfall, is an amazing experience. I would definitely recommend it, if you ever have the chance. I also found the best hot chocolate place in Lauterbrunnen (and trust me, I tried them all). It was in a small cafe on the Main Street that had ice cream pictures outside of it. I had another pretty chill afternoon, and finally bought some more shampoo (I’d been out for a few days). I know it seems silly, but Switzerland is expensive, and I really didn’t want to buy more. But with my leftover franks, I took a glorious shower (see mom I’m taking care of my self).

Now the real adventure started as I made my way to Florence, Italy. I decided to use my hostel in Certaldo (about an hour train ride from Florence) as a home base and take some small day trips to Florence, and surrounding cities for the week. While I was waiting for the train at one of my connecting stops, I met this lovely couple who were traveling around from Minnesota, they were headed to Milan just like me, but they were staying there. The reason I mention this is because we had about an hour stop at this small town in Italy on the way to Milan, and while I was sitting on the train, I noticed they were on the wrong platform. So, I ran off the train and made sure they got on the right train ( I sort of felt awesome that I could help someone else with the train transportation).  After feeling so great about finally figuring out the transportation and not really getting lost since London, I got lost. The directions the hostel gave were great, but of course being directionally challenged like I am, I could not find this place, plus it was dark. Thankfully, a lovely local women saw my look of desperation and pulled over, and then gave me a ride to the hostel ( I would like you all to know, I was very close).

After making it to the hostel and checking in, I picked up a Pizza and bought a bottle of wine and just relaxed outside for the evening. I also must add that the pizza was delicious. This morning I walked to the small town and got some coffee (shot of espresso) and a absolutely wonderful chocolate pastry. This afternoon I am going to explore an old historic town, and then tour a winery. So far I am loving everything about Italy, and I can’t wait to continue to explore. Addio for now.

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So once again I am a few day’s behind on updating..but like before I can promise you it’s because I am enjoying all these new wonderful experiences. As the last couple of days have been jam packed with good times and crazy adventures this might be a rather long post…

Fist my last day in Munich was absolutely wonderful. I started of the day by taking a tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It’s hard to put into words what the experience of visiting one of these horrible camps is like. I did not take any pictures, just listened to the tour guide and took in what I saw. The tour guide was absolutely wonderful, as he had so much knowledge on the subject. This concentration camp specifically was one of the first ones that was used by the Nazi regime, and was the model Hitler and the Nazi party used for the rest of the concentration camps that were created. This specific camp was all males and political prisoners of war (those that were against the Nazi party and Hitler). I think the reason I wanted to take this tour is because I wanted to have a better understanding of how something like this could have happened. The whole day, was emotionally draining, but i’m glad I went. It was a good reminder to always stand up for what you believe in, and to always stand up for others. The cruelty shown to innocent people during the Holocaust should absolutely never happen again.

I spent my last evening in Munich was spent at Oktoberfest with a friend I met in Belgium, and then new friends I met at the event. Overall it was an incredibly successful and educational day.

Yesterday was a long traveling day as I headed from Munich to Switzerland. By the time I arrived in Switzerland yesterday I made it just in time to check in, find dinner, and then go to bed.

Today was a day of hiking. I saw the most spectacular views of the Swiss Alps, and had the most amazing hot chocolate. I mean the Swiss really know how to make chocolate. Hiking around today reminded me how much I love the outdoors and camping. It was the first time in awhile I truly felt like myself, free and happy. Although Switzerland is expensive, it is an absolutely beautiful place, that you should visit if you ever have the chance. Now I am off to bed…and tomorrow I am going Para gliding. So Cheers for now.

I made it to Munich! For the last couple of weeks, people would ask if I was going to go to Oktoberfest, and I had a very standard answer…no. However, last night I ended up at Oktoberfest….and it was tons of fun. I met up with a friend I met while I was in Belgium, and he and I scoped out some tents, and I had a liter of beer (well a couple liters). Best thing about Oktoberfest was getting to wear my Dirndle again and eating chocolate covered fruit on a stick.

I spent today recovering from Oktoberfest last night, and tomorrow I have a tour scheduled to visit Dachau Concentration Camp memorial. I’ll update again soon, but until then here are some pictures of me at Oktoberfest..

Sorry for the delay in traveling adventure updates but I have just been having so much fun. That has pretty much been a standard excuse for the delay in posts, but it is absolutely true. When I first started this trip I was concerned that I was going to get lonely, and that I would miss my friends and family so much that 6 weeks was a crazy undertaking. However, I was wrong. While I do miss my friends and family back home, I have absolutely loved all the experiences I have had over the last three weeks and would not trade them for anything. Time definitely flys when you are having fun.

So over the last couple of days, I have explored Tübigen, been to Volksfest (Stugartts Oktoberfest), taken a couple of hikes, and played with some wonderful dogs..Oh and I also ate some gummy bears (finally). It was a great half way point for my trip. I will say I definitely crushed volksfest as I bought a dirndl (traditional outfit), drank a ton of beer and ate some amazing food. I also rode some pretty crazy rides. Volksfest/Oktoberfest is definitely something you should experience, but it is something you should experience with other people. This is the one time I can say, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it by myself.

Tübigen is an absolutely beautiful town, and I am so glad I was able to stay for a couple of days and truly get to experience it. Tomorrow I continue on my trek and head to Munich, which will include more train traveling…and hopefully some more gummy bears. Thanks to all of you for following along with my adventures, it’s been fun to reflect and process everything and to keep people updated. Air Wiedersehen!

Good Morning,

I meant to update sooner but I have just been having so much fun. My last full day in Berlin was just as wonderful as the day before, which ended on an incredible high note as I met a lovely women from Wales who is a social worker…it’s a small world.

So back to my last day in Berlin..I walked around the city and ended up back at the Memorial for the Murered Jews, which I talked about a little bit in my last post. At the memorial site is a holocaust exhibition. This exhibition gives a voice to the thousands of people killed during the holocaust, while extremely sad, it was absolutely worth seeing. When you walk in one room, they say the names and the story’s of every person murdered…it takes roughly 6 years to get through all the names. I walked out of the exhibition, with the thought that we as humans have to do better. Racism and exclusion and white supremacists truly have no place, and after seeing the devastation from World War II and the Holocaust, i can’t believe it’s still an issue today (ok I’ll get off my soapbox now).

After walking through the exhibition, I stopped in a little cafe and had the best strudel. I mean seriously…it tasted a little bit like I had died and gone to heaven. I then walked back to the hostel and met up with my new friend Trudy for dinner.

Yesterday, was another travel day, this time to Tübingen, Germany to meet up with a friend Britt.  It was another all day traveling trip, but I missed no trains and didn’t get lost…(I think I must really be getting the hang of this). I had the most amazing dinner, and wonderful conversation.

Now today I am going to something super important…Laundry (guys it’s really necessary). So I’m going to hop to it…