a month and a half later...

And we are back from Europe. It was a crazy end to the month, filled with baking, lab report writing, Nature Bus trips, barbecues, bike rides to the beach, and sunshine. I took the final exam for my second course the day before Tyler arrived and we started running around Europe, and somehow packing had to be done as well. It was crazy, but I passed my exam so all is good.

I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye to Sweden as I was leaving at 6:00, too early for much thinking, but I got a chance to come back at the end of our travels so that was nice. To see everything one more time. And it was sunny, too, which is even better.

Tyler and I hit a bunch of cities in our three and a half weeks:

London
Paris
Zermatt, Switzerland
Lucerne
Vernazza (Cinque Terre)
Pisa
Siena
Florence
Venice
Vienna
Budapest
Munich
Prague
Berlin
Copenhagen

It's a mouthful to say, and I'm glad we no longer have to repeat our stops to travellers and bunk-mates we meet in hostels.

Our top for favorite places were Zermatt (because of the gorgeous hiking and the Matterhorn), Venice, Vienna, and Munich. We got to watch a bunch of the EuroCup games and we were in Germany for the Turkey vs. Croatia match (Munich) and Germany vs. Turkey match (Berlin). It was so much fun both times. Too bad Germany lost today, and we didn't get to watch the game. It would have been insane to be in Germany if Germany had won the EuroCup.

Highlight of the travels: Tyler getting hit in the head by a pigeon. I'm not kidding. I laughed for the next week and a half.

There are 1800 pictures, more or less, that need to be sorted through, and once that's done, there'll be some put up and I'll post the link.

I'm sad that we finished our trip, but I'm also really glad to be home. It was super exhausting toward the end, but I'm glad we went to all the cities we did. Except Budapest, we could have skipped that, or maybe spent time on the Buda side instead of the Pest side. Oh well. It's nice to be back in North Carolina.

I got to play frisbee today for the first time in like SIX AND A HALF MONTHS! I didn't die or do anything really dumb; it took me a few points to get back into the frisbee groove, but boy does it feel good. My goal for the next few weeks (or rest of the summer) is to get back into shape and to find that sprint speed. I seem to have misplaced it during my time abroad, something I am not pleased with.

But so now I'm back in the Eastern time zone and I have a cell phone! so call me! all the time! yes yes.