- England — London and Oxford on a business trip with my dad. I was five or six, so I don't remember much. I do remember the Tower of London, an abundance of Mini Coopers (at the time I thought "Look! They're just my size!"), and my friend's garden. We had gone to kindergarten together, but then she moved to England.
- Mexico — Middle of nowhere in the mountains. Summer of fifth or sixth grade? Went with my best friend and our moms after winning the trip in a silent auction and splitting the cost. Stayed in an AWESOME house in a valley surrounded by mountains. It would storm every night and it was beautiful. The house had metal stairs inside with little holes punctured all through them. The beds all had mosquito nets over them and we put our shoes on a shelf to avoid scorpions. When we were bored we would stand in the yard and throw avocados on the roof, run up to the roof, and throw them back down. This process would be repeated multiple times. There was also a nice cab driver who ended up trying to cheat us, but he laughed when I pointed out the funny flower graffiti with the face on it so I didn't mind.
- Ireland & Northern Ireland — Dublin, Galway, the Burren + other places. 3 week long trip with one of those "teens do good in the world and travel" groups a couple summers ago. I want to go back, this time under different circumstances.
- Denmark — Just joking. I was in the airport twice.
- Austria — Graz, Vienna, Linz, Wiesen, and other places. Lived in Graz for five months on exchange. I love it so much. I love my home, but I miss my second home a lot.
- Croatia — Rovinj and (oh God I can't remember). Rockclimbing over the Adriatic (while on exchange). Incredibly beautiful. I love the winding cobblestone streets and the clear blue ocean. Unfortunately, there are hardly any fish left due to over fishing.
- Slovenia — Piran. (Also on exchange.) Stayed in a friend's apartment for a week. All 8 of us packed into the tiny place. It was incredible. The city is directly on the ocean, the houses are covered in peeling colored paint and the street are cobblestone (bonus!). I would pretend to run errands but would really wander off on my own to explore. There was also this little place where free shisha came when we ordered our nightly mojitos. We could see the lights from Trieste (Italy) shining out over the water.
- Italy — Trieste. We were there for one evening, one night, and most of one day. When we arrived it was late so we parked the car in a parking lot next to the sea, walked around a little, drank wine, and waited for this club to open around 2:00am or so. When we got in it was boring and full of old men in tight shirts and young ladies in next to nothing, but it was an experience :) Then we slept in the car, all 5 of us smooshed into the back. I can truthfully say it was the most uncomfortable night of my life. In the morning we woke up and walked around. We ate a suspicious lunch that may have given us food poisoning. The rest of them went to nap in the car, but I refused to spend my day in Italy in a car. So I saw on this long pier and stared out across the sea towards the snow covered alps. Then I remembered that my exchange sister needed to find an ATM, so I went on a mission and found three. When I went back to the car I learned that we were going home. It was ok though, because the drive back through the snowy alps was incredible.
jun 7 2010 ∞
jun 8 2010 +
jun 8 2010 +