Adventure

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Words cannot express the thrill and excitement of travel. Discovering new places and new cultures is eye opening and it always gives me new perspective and helps me to realize my place in this world just a little bit more. While each of us is small and deceivingly insignificant, we have more power for good than we realize. The more I learn, the more I know that the point of this life is to help others along the way. We each have our talents to share, our own part to play. When we each exercise our role, we learn and grow from each other. When we look outward, things make a little more sense inward.

I am so grateful for the chance I had to travel. Not only does it make me love other places in the world, it also makes me appreciate home just a little bit more.

Here are some pictures from my travels. I tried to narrow them down the best I could, but alas, I believe there are around 40…two whole blog pages…enjoy!

LONDON

Bar-tha-lona. We went on a bike tour and saw the whole city in a matter of hours. This is the Triumphant Arch. Whenever anyone conquered someone else, I guess it was reason enough to build one of these.

The beach in Barcelona. Even though it looks ominous, it provided us with a beautiful sunset.

We spent a day in Luxembourg. I know…who goes to Luxembourg? We checked out the main city (also called Luxembourg) and we found it to be quite cute and rather quaint. It was very picturesque, but don't worry…I'm limiting Lux to only one picture.

I was happy.

Interlaken, Switzerland. Oh…my…heavens. I loved Interlaken. We rented bikes and attempted to bike all the way around one of the rather large lakes. Let's just say that the bikes had to be returned before we made it all the way around (half-day rental). The water was so crystal clear.

Taking a little swim in the freezing cold glacial run-off water.

St. Mark's Square, Venice!

Venice was one of my favorite cities. I don't understand how the roads are made of water and the buildings are…in the water. Alas, it works, and it makes for a beautifully romantic city!

Lake Como--unfortunately the day we were there it was pretty cloudy. We definitely spotted George Clooney's house amongst the mist, though… ;) Oh, and I'm holding everything to my name in this photo.

That was the most action I got on this trip.

We came across this amazing Pot Parade. It was quite the experience.

The Vatican & Saint Peter's. For future reference…the Sistine Chapel is closed on the first Sunday of every month. Yeah. Guess which day we were there?

St. Peter's Cathedral. It was a Sunday. Come on, where are all the people?

The Spanish steps in Rome.

I forget what this is called--but, it's in Rome, and this is me and my cousin, Katy.

I love this picture. I took this picture at the Roman Forum. There were these beautiful pink flowers everywhere…so I focused on them, but you can see the columns in the background.

Up on the acropolis! Ok, it's so hard to find your way up there. I was proud just to have made it up to that point!

Part of the parthenon that was not being worked on.

Beautiful island of Santorini. The water was so incredibly clear.

On our flight from Athens to Santorini--even though we had to leave our hostel at 2:30 am to catch this flight, it was well worth it because we caught this magnificent sunrise.

Probably not a good location to be in during an earthquake, but man is it beautiful. The white houses are just stacked one on top of the other along these steep cliffs.

Sunset at Oia (the northernmost point of the island).

Also at Oia--I love the white and blue.

Greece is beautiful. Everything is so pure and white, and then all the sudden there is vibrant color that catches your eye coming either from beautiful vine flowers growing up walls or a great choice of paint…or both!

So many winding alleyways in Greece--this is on the island of Mykonos.

The flowers grow anywhere and everywhere.

I love the white and blue together.

We decided to eat at a restaurant down by the sea for our last night on Mykonos. The girls I was with had already decided on the restaurant where we were going to eat. I was fine with that until we sat down and realized that one plate was €85! We shared some appetizers and then hit the road! We did have a wonderful view of the sunset. But…let's just say that they weren't very happy with us taking up space in their elegant restaurant!

More pics on the next page…

This picture was taken down by the port at Mykonos. It was incredible how many little churches, like this one, were scattered all over the countryside.

Syros- We had a ferry stopover here on our way back to Athens. Honestly, Syros was a very boring island, but at least I snapped this gorgeous photo.


This is the lady I lived with in Paris four years ago, Nannick! I thought she was old back then…and she is old, but she hasn't changed a bit. It was great to see her and stay with her for a few days. Just like old times!

This is my cousin Josh's house in Paris. It's quite the find. I stayed here for the rest of the time that I was in Paris.

Nôtre Dame. Y'all knew that.

Château de Vincennes- On the Eastern side of Paris, this castle and the Louvre used to be the East/West boundaries of Paris.

Vaux le Vicomte- The French Minister of Finances owned this home. You can see how well he took care of the government's money. Oh, and GO COUGS!

A view of Sacré Coeur. The church is up on a hill and from here you can see all of Paris.

A view of the water lilies from Monet's Garden, Giverny.

The Louvre. I love the pyramids--some people hate them. I hope that you have all read, The Da Vinci Code. I know I'm behind the times, but I read it when I was there and it was such an adventure! I actually went on a "Da Vinci Code Walk" and saw St. Sulpice, the rose line, etc. It was really fun.

The clouds here are just magnificent. This is looking towards Île-de-la cité, where Nôtre Dame and other popular sites are found.

So…I love the Eiffel Tower, if you couldn't tell already. I got this view of it from the Montparnasse Tower. Montparnasse is the only skyscraper in Paris, and after they built it they outlawed skyscrapers because they're so ugly and they ruin the skyline.

Eiffel Tower + Great Clouds. I mean, no wonder impressionism started in France (ok, that topic is debatable, but many of the great artists were from France). How could you not be inspired to create beautiful works of art.

This was a beautiful sunset that I watched from the Eiffel Tower. To me, it looks like some western carnival in the middle of nowhere--I like it.

My last night in Paris I watched the sunset from right…there.