Final Thoughts about our 5-Week Trip

While we've been living abroad on and off for the past 7 years, this summer we took our longest trip to date. A few years ago, we spent 2.5 weeks in Thailand, but have never done anything like this last trip. I want to start off by saying I know how fortunate we are to be able to do this. We are really, very lucky!

**Please don't think that I'm complain-a-bragging. Yes, I know we are living in a different part of the world, getting to experience some really cool sh*t. However, this is our life. And, in life, we all want to share our experiences. Not everything is perfect. Yes, doing all of this neat stuff is really great. However, many times, life is hard, frustrating, and confusing. Sometimes, I think people only ever hear about the really great times - or in contrast, only the really bad times. So, please don't take this post the wrong way. Life is just life.

When planning for this trip, I thought five weeks would not be enough time. Five weeks traveling around Europe?! What a dream! This is true. It really was a dream! However, we learned some things about ourselves, each other, and our life in general on this trip. Here is our "what we learned" list, in no particular order:

1. Five weeks is too long of a vacation (travel) for us.

I don't know how some people travel the world indefinitely. Maybe it's because we were constantly moving from place place. We were were posted up somewhere for weeks at a time, maybe I would feel differently about it.

2. Five weeks is a long time to spend together - just the two of us.

Vltava River, Prague

We spend a lot of time together in our normal life - more so than many other couples I know. We live together, work together, and hang out on our free time together. We love each other, but man, we also need some time apart. That didn't really happen much this trip.

3. Water.

I know this isn't sparkling water, but you could have drunk it. Lake Zurich, Switzerland

In Europe, when you ask for water, you have to choose between mineral water or gas (sparkling water). I cannot stand to drink sparkling water. When at the store, no matter how close I look at the bottle to make sure it's not sparkling water, I ALWAYS end up with sparkling water! Haha! Thank goodness Zach likes it.

4. I really hate tourists.

The Louvre, Paris, France

I know, I was a tourist too. I just hate "other" tourists. People are just so oblivious to what's happening around them. Please don't stop mid-way walking down the stairs without notice just to take a picture. Move to the side.

5. The world is so big, yet so small.

Lunch with a college friend and her family. Amsterdam, Netherlands

There is so much to see and do. However, after talking to people, you find out just how small the world is. It's crazy to me that we have friends living in all parts of the world. It was great to meet up with a friend and catch up.

6. I am not allowed to plan our next big vacation.

Berlin Wall. Berlin, Germany

Zach gets to do that. He hates going from place to place. His idea of a great vacation is staying in one place, relaxing.

7. Zach enjoyed Europe (...traveling through Europe #goals).

However, he would much rather travel around Asia and experience that culture - maybe because it's so different than ours?

8. Beer.

Zurich, Switzerland

Beer is pretty universal in all cultures. We really enjoyed our beer - too much - on this trip.

9. We miss friends.

Hanging out with Joe. Rome, Italy

This one relates to number two. While in Egypt, we miss our friends from back home. (Even if we don't always reach out, we still think about you a lot!) However, we have (good) friends here that we love doing things with. While traveling, it was just the two of. We missed having friends around, terribly. Yes, we met people, but it just isn't the same.

10. Schoolwork is a bummer sometimes - so says two teachers.

Hotel. Prague, Czech Republic

We both started graduate school this summer, so we had to make sure our homework got done...on time. There were days where we stayed in the room most, if not all day instead going out and doing things. We tried to do that only one time in a city. We get new assignments every week, so we tried to do most of our homework in a day (or at least get the bulk of it accomplished) so that we didn't have a ton of homework to do each night.

11. We've gotten really out of shape.

We stayed at the same hotel at the beginning and end of the trip. We were amazed at how far we thought we had walked those first couple of days compared to the end. That is one thing I miss about living in Korea - we walked so much more.

12. Planes still scare the crap out of me every once-in-a-while.

Sometimes, I get these death-coming fears that "that's it"! This will be the last moments of my life. It usually doesn't last long, and I don't panic, but the thought crosses my mind.

13. I packed too much!

Getting our lost luggage! Rome, Italy

I really thought I was doing really well. I packed everything for the trip in a 35-liter backpack. Yet, there were still some things I could have left at home.

Europe Vacation - Amsterdam

I had forgotten that a friend of mine from college moved to the Netherlands with her husband last year, but she send me a message saying that if we were in the area, we should get together. We made that happen! Our bus from Brussels to Amsterdam arrived early afternoon. Happy 4^th of July! We made plans to meet up with Lauren at 7 pm. When we got to the hotel, our first order of business was to do some laundry. It had been about one week since leaving Cairo, and we were accumulating quite the stack of dirty laundry. Not knowing that it was going to take at least two hours to dry our clothes (we had two loads and only one dryer), was not something that was in my plans for the afternoon. We ended up hanging all of our jeans, underwear, and socks around the room, and we put all of our very wet shirts in bags until we got back that night.

We took the metro to the downtown area to meet Lauren for a drink and a bite to eat. It was so great to catch up with her! She is a great example of wanting to do something and making it work. During conversation, she mentioned that her in-laws were going to be in town later that week, and that they were going on a canal boat tour with the family on Saturday. We were more than welcome to join if we wanted to. We definitely wanted to, but that was the day we had planned to leave for Berlin. We had to check our arrangements to see if we could work something out.

After leaving her way later than I had anticipated (the company was too great), Zach and I walked around the Red Light District, because…we were in Amsterdam! It was everything I thought it would be….

The next few days was spent walking around and experiencing some of what Amsterdam has to offer. Weed, yes, that means weed. I’m not going to lie, I felt a little weird being in public and being high. No, that is a lie. I felt extremely uncomfortable being high in public. Zach, on the other hand, didn’t have a problem with it.

We decided to stay another night so that we could do the canal boat ride with Lauren and her family. I’m really glad we did that! Seeing the city from a boat was a whole new experience.

When we first got to Amsterdam, I had a little breakdown. I was feeling a big pressure to be a certain type of tourist. I felt that if I didn’t see certain things or take pictures of certain things, I wasn’t experiencing the city like I was “supposed” to. We have friends who have down weeks- to months-long trips and I was starting to compare this trip to theirs. Talking to Zach really helped, and that’s when I decided, “screw it!” If I went to a city and stayed in the hotel room the entire time, that was perfectly fine. It’s our vacation and we can do whatever we want! I felt a little more relaxed after that. I even stopped taking a ton of pictures.

Anyway, we are currently on our way to Berlin. (I wrote this yesterday.) It’s a 6.5-hour train ride and an even longer bus ride; we chose the train. I’m excited to go back to Germany, and this time, explore the capital.

Meeting up with Lauren

As the sign reads - The First Coffee Shop (Pot Shop)

The Netherlands has more bikes than people.

On the canal boat trip

Dinner with Lauren and Brian's family

 

The widest canal bridge in the city

Can you see how old the buildings are?!