Flashback Friday, Folks!

I am constantly aching to travel. It is one of my many passions! Our neighbors just got back from England and I was longingly browsing through their pictures of sightseeing, beachlounging, ice cream tasting, etc. etc. It made me think about how travel is my drug. It lifts me to a higher place to meet new people, see amazing things that I can't see anywhere else, take in smells that don't exist anywhere else. The majority of my travels have been with friends and though going abroad is loads of fun, you can run into all kinds of setbacks, disagreements, arguments, challenges with the culture/setting/people, money... all of the little things make the whole trip. Here are some of my nostalgics from times abroad:

When Jess and I stayed at a hostel in Paris we were stoked because we knew we had a balcony and couldn't wait to step out onto it, pulling back the lace curtain like a true French mademoiselle. Oh we had a balcony all right... it was just cozy enough to fit our drinks! Since we were there in February and it was nippy outside we just made the best of it and used it as our little fridge:



Another travel experience with Jess... in Guatemala... we had a British friend of Jessie's with us named Ossian and he was the ideal travel partner: funny, easygoing, adventurous... that's about all you need. Anyway the morning of Jessie's birthday we realized that we had no gift for her and so we scrounged our meager food rations and found a half of a sweet cake/bread loaf, some peanut butter, and Ossian had a banana. We used the peanut butter as frosting, made a "25" out of sliced bananas, and sang happy birthday to her that morning! (then jumped into the water you see in the background where I got bitten my whole body over by some elusive water bugs)



This is Sarah and me. We went to school together in Switzerland (studied French). On the weekends we were allowed to go on our own planned excursions and she and I and a couple of other girls were on our way to Venice. Riding those Italian trains are scary... any train in Europe for that matter... our friend brought one bag for the weekend and it got stolen on the train. She wore the same clothes for three days and that sucks in sticky summery stinky Venice! I just remember Sarah and I thought it was so cool that these train seats reclined back and we laid there, talking intently the whole ride over!



When Jess and I were in Venice for Carnivale in February we decided we should hang with the locals for a bit. And if you're going to find some Venetian locals to hang out with, gondoliers aren't a bad choice. Don't worry D, I was never thinking of running off with him. Although as Jess and I were literally RUNNING to the train station to leave Venice and were in the biggest hurry of our lives, this gorgeous Italian man grabbed me out of the crowd and looked me in the eye, saying in his broken English, "You are-a-leavina?" Apparently he had seen me the day before "onna the bridge-a" and told me please to stay at least one more day. Oh my, hold your breath and walk away!



In Switzerland the whole group of students was treated to a night out. They took us to this hidden-away castle which was elegant and beautiful (didn't get a pic of the outside) and we were served a 7-course meal! We were supposed to be speaking French to each other but of course with this American table that was not happening. We were all laughing and letting loose because school there was quite strict and not easy to bust our brains learning and speaking French. Anyway, I don't drink but the alcohol was pretty much unlimited and believe me, the wine was a-flowin'.