EUROPE...

Ok get ready for the worlds longest post...

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to go to Europe. This was a pretty big year in my life... turning 30, finishing the masters, etc so I decided to reward myself with my long awaited trip. My friend Jenn and I did a 14 day cruise to Northern Europe. What an incredible experience.

This was one of the only problems I encountered. It equaled an 11 hour plane ride and a diet coke this size. This seems more like a shot glass to me. I'll have you know I did very well with the diet coke consumption on the trip... I told myself I was trying to cut back when in fact I think I was just too cheap to buy it. I'm saying this with a 32 oz sitting on my desk right now.

The first stop on the trip was London, England. Absolutley loved London- love the accent, love the phrases "lovely"and "brilliant". Learned that "holiday" is vacation... I love being on holiday.

THe second day we were in Europe, Jenn and I split up. We both had life-long dreams to fulfill: She wanted to go to Wimbledon and I needed to go the Queens Birthday. So I spent the morning at Buckingham Palace with thousands of my closest British friends, paying tribute to the Queen.

This was our ship. Yeah it was huge. It was actually ranked the best ship in the world the last three years in a row. I was so excited to meet some young, wealthy eligible young men on our cruise, or at least some nice gay guys to hang out with. I even had a $50 reward if I could get Jenn to kiss someone on this trip. As you can see in the background of this picture, the average age on this trip was about 80 years old, which made the trip hilarious. Nothing like drunk senior citizens dancing.



Amsterdam, Netherlands: No I didn't hang out at the red light district the whole time, we actually went on a tour of the windmills and were able to see how they make wooden shoes.

Berlin, Germany: Jenn's favorite place next to Disneyland. This is me at the Berlin Wall... and yes I ate some bratworst and sourcrout (I have no idea how to spell that). Now that I've tried it I don't think I should ever have to do it again.

Stockholm, Sweden: by far one of my favorite countries. Everything is on the water and it is beautiful! As we left the country we went through all these little islands listening to Abba songs- nothing like a little "dancing queen" to make your trip complete.

Helsinki, Finland: Incredible churches. Most of the town was shut down for mid-summer... I'm talking the whole city was deserted. ps- the lady didnt' really enjoy me trying on these furs... I think she could tell I didn't quite have the funding to buy.

St Petersburg, Russia: Wow is all I can say. Such amazing history. The first day we were there we did a canal tour around the city and then the second day we did a tour of all the Romonof Castles.

This sunset in Russia was about 12:30 am. Then the sun comes up about 3:30... never actually gets dark there in the summer. Somehow the day we did the tour of the castles we got in the most disfunctional tour group possible. Most of the group would wander off and we would spend half the time looking for them. THe picture above is my least favorite member of the group. He ran into me at least 20 times... apparently his pictures were most important.

Copenhagen, Denmark: I was so excited to go to Denmark. My dad's side of the family is from here and ever since I could talk I learned things like "ka da snuka da dansk?" (That's do you speak Danish for those of you that don't know the language... it's spelled phonetically mostly because I don't know how to spell it). Spent two full days looking for this damn licorice my brother just had to have but it was well worth it... you're welcome Curt.


This is Fredericksburg Castle in Denmark.
One of my favorite things about a cruise is the people you meet. This is a picture of our dinner group on the cruise- Charniel and Imade our servers and Sam and Jean were our dinner guests.

Sam and Jean are from Scotland originally, but now live in England. They were wonderful. They helped me learn my British words, couldn't believe I didn't eat with my fork and knife together and Jean had a way of making me the guinea pig and trying all the strange things on the menu.

This is Alex, our Maître de. He was my crush for the trip, beautiful man... beautiful accent.

One of the funniest things ont he trip were these purell hand sanitizers. I guess they had some sickness on the ship the week before we came so these little babies were everywhere. In the bathrooms, dining rooms, halls, elevators. They met you with them as you entered the ship, any food establishment and might as well have set them by the side of your bed. I probably went through 3-4 gallons myself (and yet I was still sick).

It was an amazing trip... saw the most incredible things and will laugh about many things for years to come!