My last month in Europe...

As my fun filled 2010 summer comes to an end, I can look back and say that this has truly been an experience of a lifetime. Feeling a little bit less than fulfilled as a Sales Lead Manger for Restoration Hardware and wanting to give one last chance to an incredible relationship I found myself putting in my two weeks and packing my bags for a summer of adventure in Europe. Well I can safely say that that is exactly what I got.

I have been fortunate enough to visit 7 countries on this trip and live in two! My last month was spent living in the small town of Aachen right on the Belgian/German border in a beautiful apartment. There was an incredible market and downtown area where it's said that Charlemagne's remains are buried and the best part is that there is the most incredible ice cream shop right around the corner from the house. For 1.60 you can have about 500grams of ice cream piled high onto an incredible fresh baked cone. I love this guys' style because he opens every day in the morning, makes four kinds of ice cream (lemon, mocha, chocolate & vanilla) in huge quantities and when he runs out, he shuts his door. Needless to say there's a line out the door and down the street to this place most days I come here. I've definitely been incorporating this wee treat much more often into my daily rituals than is needed.As my Aug. 8th departure date approaches, I've been trying to connect with an old friend of mine Meghan from high school as she's been traveling around Europe as well. We decided on meeting in Venice since we'd both never been and then heading over to Trieste which is the last little beach town before you hit the Slovenian boarder and then on to Croatia which is definitely on my top 5 list. I'd never been to this part of Italy but I can never complain about Italy. It has to be my most favorite place in the entire world...although there's still a lot to be discovered. I had such a great time with Meghan and as a special treat her sister Carrie-Lynn joined us.

Le Mer Mediterranean

After a wonderful time with my family in Egypt, it was off again to visit one of the funnest people I know, my cousin Elsa in Greece. I was only there for 8 days but we had such a great time. After a few days in Athens, eating too many delicious Greek staples we boarded a huge ferry and headed to Sifnos, an island which is part of the Cyclades island group that also houses the ever so famous Mykonos.We stayed in the hotel kiki right in the harbor town of Kamares. If you ever want to live the absolute dream come here! We made friends with the local bartender, a Swedish girl who visited and made a connection with the owner and decided to stay. This girl swims and plays on the beach all day and then at night works at a beautiful bar that has beach access until about 4am, parties after that and then does it all again the next day. If that's not the life...I'm not sure what is.
One of the most memorable says we had was experienced via scooter as we explored the entire Island. It was so incredible!! I also learned that in Greece if you build a church on the land you own then you don't have to pay property tax...well guess how many churches we saw on this tiny island of just 90 sq. kilometers...quiet a few! We spent the whole day checking out every cove and crevasse we could and every had a few pit stops for kitchy shopping and ice cream.