My Must See Travel List

One of my favorite things to do in life is travel. In fact, it borders more on an obsession. I love the planning aspect of travel and I love seeing and experiencing new places. I also love capturing these new experiences with my photography. Although I've seen a lot of places in my life, I still have a massive list of places I still want to experience. I thought I'd do a blog on some of my top "must-see" places.

1. Paris- I've lived in Europe two years and still have to go to Paris. I know, I know...this has to be rectified. I'm hoping to go this spring for at least a few days and cannot wait to see this city!


2. Norway- my Grandmother's side of the family came from Norway and a relative of ours wrote a whole book on their history. I'd love to see Norway and get an idea of the land where some of my ancestors came from.

3. Egypt- I'm not sure I'm going to be able to visit here before we leave Europe, but it's on my list before I die. I want to see the pyramids and take a cruise down the Nile.

4. St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia- There's a teeny tiny chance that I could take a cruise there in August, but I think Moscow is out, unless I want to shell out a bunch of money to take an excursion there. I think Russia is fascinating and would love to explore the country.



5. African Safari- Sean is not on board this adventure at all, but luckily I have friends and family that want to go too. I think about the pictures I could take on a safari and get so excited about seeing a continent that I've never stepped foot on.

6. Plitvice Lakes Park, Croatia- Have you seen pictures of this place? It's gorgeous! I'm doing my best to go see this place sometime this summer.



7. Normandy and the D-Day Beaches- I'm a huge WWII history nerd and this is one place that Sean and I have decided we HAVE to go to before we leave Europe. I really think that once I get on the beaches that I'm going to cry. I just can't imagine not being overwhelmed with emotion when seeing that place.

8. Warsaw/Krakow and Auschwitz Poland- Another WWII history lesson with Auschwitz and I really, really want to see what Poland is like. I've read a few books about Poland and it's really sparked my interest on seeing the places that were described in the books.

9. Hawaii- I'll be honest, I didn't always have a great desire to see Hawaii. I'm sure some of you out there are wondering what the heck is wrong with me for thinking that, but after seeing the pictures of a fellow blogger who lives there and reading the book about the leper colony in Hawaii, I've been dying to see Hawaii and all its islands.

10. Yosemite National Park- I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of the major National Parks in the west, but this is one park I haven't had the priviledge of going to. I'm hoping once we move back to the States that I'll get to add it to my list.



Do you have any must-see places on your list?

Jet-Setting

One of my favorite things about being stationed in Europe is the travel opportunities.

In the first year I was able to visit quite a few places and I hope to visit even more this year.

So far this is my preliminary travel plans for this year. I'm hoping more will be added as the year goes along.

January- at the end of the month I'm hoping to go to Florence to visit the Accademia gallery. I have yet to go there and I'd love to see the statue of David.

February- Lugano, Switzerland

March- Hoping for the spas at Baden-Baden with KD.

April- supposedly will be our R&R month. On the way back to Italy I've planned to stop in NYC and visit my friend Brittni for a few days.

May- hopefully Paris with KD!


June- my parents, brother and a couple who are good friends of my parents are coming to Italy. We'll be going on a 7 day Greek Cruise so I'll get to visit Croatia, Turkey and Greece. I'm muy excited about it! I'm most excited about seeing Santorini, Greece though. I've heard such wonderful things about it from everyone who's actually been there.


July- ideally I'd like to go to Norway (where some of my ancestors are from) for a birthday trip. But after an expensive cruise, I'm not sure that's going to happen.

The rest of the year is open as of now, but some places on my list to see are:

1. Plitvice Lakes in Croatia



Aren't they gorgeous?

2. Gimmelwald, Switzerland
3. Salzburg, Austria
4. Tons of Spain, there's so many places in Spain that I can't just name one
5. Rome, Italy(I've been here a year and still not been!)
6. Berlin, Germany
7. Krakow, Poland

Sean has been discussing the possibility lately that he may choose to extend our time here by 2 years, if that's the case it appears I might have some extra time to explore Europe. That would be a definite plus to staying overseas.

So...what are your travel plans this year? Any great vacations you've got planned?

Ode to Fajitas

Today I met one of my best friends, Kebi, for lunch at Chilis. While there I enjoyed the always delish mushroom jack fajitas and of course, they didn't let me down.

So, without further ado, an ode to fajitas.

Mushroom jack fajitas...you make me warm inside
From your cheese, mushrooms and onions I never want to hide
I'm sorry that we don't get to meet up all the time
It's only because your calories are so high
And I don't need any more flabbiness on my thighs

OK..not my best work, but you get the picture.

I had a lovely time with Kebi and thank goodness she had her camera with her, because mine decided not to turn on. Blah.

Tonight I'm just spending time with the fam, packing up the rest of my stuff and hoping my laptop gets delievered soon, because if not, Amazon is going to get an earful from me.

Please pray that my flight goes smoothly tomorrow!

La mia casa è la vostra casa (My house is your house)

Today is the first day since we've been in Vicenza that the sun hasn't been shining. It actually rained on me a little bit when I walked to the library this morning. I'm a little disappointed because I can't see the mountains today, but maybe the air will be clear tomorrow.

I already told Sean that I want to go to Switzerland, stand on a mountain with my hair in braids and do my best Heidi impression. He just laughed and told me I was weird. Seriously though, I really want to start traveling, BUT I have to admit I'm a little nervous. Mainly because of the language barrier. I really don't want to end up lost because I don't know what signs or people say.

There is a sort of travel agency here on post called ITR that puts together trips that you can sign up for. Right now I'm looking at a trip in late February that goes to three towns in Tuscany. It looks like fun and how scenic would that be? I'm thinking I could get some good pictures on that trip.

Speaking of pictures, I forgot to tell you guys how I did in the Army Photography Contest. I won 1st and 2nd on two pictures that I entered and now Ft. Polk has forwarded those pictures onto the national level of the competition. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

My title of the blog comes from the fact that Sean and I went to the housing office yesterday and tomorrow we have an appointment for them to show us a few homes (online I believe) First up is government housing and if we don't like either of the homes they show us then we move on to privatized housing. At least that's how I understood it to be. So, my question is this: For you ladies that are in Europe, what do you honestly think about those options? What has been your experience with eirther one of them? I told Sean I just wanted to sure we got what is best for us. I'm honestly not expecting a lot of room, but after seeing cute places like Casey and Allison's I'd like something comparable. Granted I know both of you ladies are in Germany and not in Italy. Any specific questions that I should ask them when we go to our appointment? I can use all the help I can get.

One last thing, I see that I've acquired some new followers in the last week or so. Hello and thanks for adding me to your blogging list! I promise I'll try my best to get over to your websites and comment soon, I'm just running a bit behind on that since I currently am without a computer.

Well, I'm off again. I'm supposed to attend a Drivers Orientation class with Sean this afternoon so I should get back to the hotel.

Ciao!

I Made It!

Well, I made it to Italy!

Not without a few minor incidents of course, but that's to be expected right?

It's been a crazy week for us. I'll give more details later, but here's a few for you.

1. Finding a vibrator (ew!) under our bed in the hotel we stayed in by the DFW airport.

2. Rushing around the Baltimore Airport to find Boomer a hard-sided carrier

3. Getting to the hotel in Vicenza and them telling us our reservation was invalid.

Everything worked itself out though in the last two situations, so no worries there, but like I said I'll explain some of this later.

I'm still trying to get used to this time change. I didn't go to bed until after 12:30 last night and Sean and I woke up at 1:00 this afternoon. Yeah...jet lag blows.

We are doing a few errands on-post today and hopefully hitting the gym for a much needed workout. On Monday Sean starts in-processing so hopefully I'll get back to the library then and upload a few pictures I've taken. Nothing too spectacular, but I'm hoping to get out into Vicenza soon to take some pics. Oh..and we have a pretty view of the mountains here on post. I didn't realize that until we were out walking on-post.

More details to come on life in Italy so far, but that will have to wait until Monday. Thanks to everyone for the comments on my last post!