One Picture and a Story

Being easily amused, I thought it would be fun to find my favorite picture from each place I visited and tell a story about it. I had no idea how hard this would be though. Here are the results:


There are certainly more beautiful views of Belgium, but I chose this picture because it represents one of the many happy moments of my trip. Just before this picture was taken, Katie and I got caught in a rain storm. We were staying somewhat dry under a tree, but Katie suggested we run for better cover. Before she even got the question out of her mouth, I started running for it. We slipped and slid all the way through puddles and mud, to reach someone's stoop, where we waited out the rain. We were soaked. For some reason, getting caught in the rain is really annoying to me. Just ask Will and Kim about when we were trying to get to Heroe's Square in Budapest. My Vanilla latte at this coffee shop made me happy again... and the fact that the sun came back out and we dried up quickly.


I picked this picture for the Czech Republic. It's my friend Marketa's patio in her parents' house in the village, Dobrachovice, right outside of Prague. So much of my trip to Czech was about connecting with people who remain there. I was a bit sad the day we walked around our old neighborhood, knowing I didn't live there anymore, but seeing friends made me really happy! Marketa invited Katie and I for lunch our last day and we got totally spoiled by her and her mom. We talked about what it was like to live under communism, we talked about the Czech movie industry, church and Christianity in modern Czech culture... I loved my time there. It represented all that's great about Czech culture: Leisurely time with friends.


My Croatian picture. I chose this one because Dubrovnik was all about RELAXATION. We spent the first day at this beach, later looking around the old city. The next day we took a ferry to the island of Lopud for more beach time and exploring the village there. The final day we drove through Montenegro, seeing the old walled city of Kotor was the highlight. I love this picture because it shows the beautiful water, the stone work found throughout the city, and a corner of the beach. Throughout my trip, I loved vacationing with Europeans. They know how it's done! Hours at the beach and no schedule. There's no thought to how you look in a bathing suit. Everyone's rolls are hanging out and no matter the size: women are in tiny bikini's and men are in speedos (or less). Not that I enjoyed this so much as I loved that they were uninhibited.


This is the view from my friend Melissa's Rome flat. Lovely. I love the layers of buildings and the subtle color found throughout the city. I was so happy to see Melissa in her new home, which was a beautiful, huge flat in the city. This part of the trip was the hardest, physically. I was covered in mosquito bites, sunburned and even had swollen feet after a day of shuffling through the Vatican museum in intense heat. This city made me want to eat better food, to have more respect for good, simple ingredients. We cooked some beautiful food in this flat, drank perfect coffee, good wine and relaxed after walking endlessly through the city.


I like this picture because it's the old and the new. It's also the perfect European value of riding your bike, driving tiny cars and squeezing a ton of people into a tiny continent. The streets of Budapest were covered in bike lanes and bike paths. In the summer months, nothing sounds better than riding your bike through these streets. I loved touring this city with new residents, Will and Kim. We saw a LOT in 5 days and found some great restaurants and cafes along the way.

I will never fall out of love with Europe. Now if I can just get my dad to go...