Life Update

Bonjour! 

It's high time for an update from Swizzytown my friends (and family). I've had an amazing start to 2015 here and cannot believe that my year "abroad" is starting to wind down. Those who know me best can probably sense the anxiety spreading through my body as I start to think about moving on. This has been such an amazing experience for me - but more on that later. 

What have I been up to since I last wrote? Well, unfortunately the last post (in February) was actually from a trip that happened in October... so a lot has happened haha! A brief overview though and then (hopefully!) I will expand on some in individual posts :)

I went to Ireland to meet up with Mary Cate after Italy. Ireland was such an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go back someday. Great people, beautiful sights, and delicious beer. Here MC, Angela and I are standing (at a safe distance) at the Cliffs of Moher!

Couldn't make it home for Christmas but was lucky enough to take a two week trip with Jessica and Angela. We started in Geneva and headed through Zurich, Munich, Prague, Dresden, Berlin and finished in Amsterdam. We saw so many amazing things and made plenty of great memories. The picture is from one of the many canal bridges in Amsterdam after New Years.

Basel hosts the largest Carneval celebration in Switzerland so we headed there late on a Sunday night to experience the 5am parade Monday morning. Our well-intended plans didn't quite pan out like we hoped and we had to head back around 8 am the next morning- unable to fight our fatigue any longer. Here's me with a number of the masks and drums used during the parade. I'm trying to play it cool in this picture but they actually scared me a bit. 

Brussels! I took a day trip to Brussels with Bronwyn the last week of February. It was a very beautiful city and I couldn't get enough of the fries, waffles and chocolates. I've been living in a very biased country in regards to who makes the best chocolate but I have to give it to the Belgians- they do a pretty great job. Here is Bron and I in the Grand Place at night just before heading back to the airport. 

I'm in London! Classic tourist selfie on a double-decker red bus with Big Ben! Enough said.

The trip to England was made possible because of the amazing women in the picture above. My mom, Meghan and Sarah came to Europe over Easter to visit me and I couldn't remember being happier to see them in my entire life. We met in London, took a day trip to Birmingham and then to Newbury where we visited Highclere Castle (filming location for Downton Abbey). It was an amazing trip and I finally got to try out the British accent that I've been tirelessly working on since first picking up Harry Potter over ten years ago. 

We took the Chunnel from London to Paris and spent a few days in the city of ~love~. I was so happy to be back and it was amazing to share some of my favorite spots with my family. We hit all the major places and made good use of our Metro and museum passes. Here we are on a boat cruise on the Seine! Stay tuned for a later post with too many pictures of the Eiffel Tower...

May's trip was to Barcelona! It was my first time to Spain and despite my general preference for all things french I really enjoyed the city ;) It was the most relaxing vacation I've ever taken. I let Angela and Bronwyn (above with me on an escalator to the Parc Güell) plan the trip as I usually go a bit overboard with things I want to see. We had a nice time shopping, chilling at the beach and taking advantage of the Spanish lifestyle. 

We had this amazing view waiting for us once we made it to Parc Güell. You can see the Sagrada Familia (about one third through the photo on the left) and then of course the Mediterranean Sea! 

Back in Switzerland! We did a wine tasting in the Vaud region the other week. The wine was great but the views were even better. Here I am trying to act like a photographer for the vineyard or something... still kind of cool :)

I spend most of my evenings and days off at the lake. This is the marina in Coppet which is the closest 'beach' to my house. I never get sick of looking out on the lake. The sky is always beautiful and on clear days the mountains are so breathtaking. 

Speaking of amazing skies... due to a bit of a late night I was able to watch the sun rise with Angela last weekend. Absolutely worth being tired the next day though!

Don't want to leave the kids out! Here's Julie and I doing a bit of flower picking in a field nearby our house. They had tulip fields earlier in Spring that you could help yourself to and then leave a small donation to pay for your flowers. We liked to go make bouquets if we finished lunch early.

Nicolas, Julie and I enjoying a picnic at the lake a few weeks ago. We were nearly attacked by birds and ducks who wanted our snacks but overall it was a great afternoon. 

So that's a bit of my life these past few months! Oh I also learned how to ski (full post coming on the mishaps of those few days)! And I turned 25! I don't feel like a quarter of a century but considering people still mistake me for an 18 year old I don't think I should be too worried. Age is just a number right??

Hope to update soon everyone- love you all!

Italia: Pisa

Here we go my friends. The final installment in an Italian adventure that has long been finished. I'd like to view this blog though as a good book that you put down and pick up with ease- no matter how long it's been since you've been reading. (Bold, I know, referring to my own work as good but we should be our own biggest fans right?)

We arrived late in Pisa after returning to Florence from the vineyard, retrieving our bags from the train station lockers and catching another train east. The next morning, we slept in and waited for the rain to pass before setting out to hopefully catch a glimpse of the famous leaning tower. Here she is, below, artfully reflected in a puddle. (Angela is practically a professional photographer so traveling with her is great because I can follow a few steps behind and copy every cool picture she takes.)

 

 

And here she is again, in all her leaning glory. It was very cool to see this in person. I would say it's one of the more recognizable European landmarks so I felt lucky to be seeing it with my own eyes. We almost missed the Tower though... do I dare mention this off topic (and slightly embarrassing) anecdote? Of course. Well, we stopped for a coffee after leaving our apartment that morning and headed across the bridge to the touristy area of town. I guess the coffee hadn't kicked in yet though because we found ourselves a bit lost and nowhere near the touristy area we were searching for. The signs had led us the wrong way - typical Italian move. No, typical Angela and Kayla move - we were so busy chatting and not paying attention. Angela was finally smart enough to look up and we saw our first glimpse of the Tower, a few streets back in the opposite direction. Back on track, we made our way to take a selfie or two with the tilting queen. 

Attention: extremely original pose below! See what I did? It look like I'm pushing the Tower! (Speaking of pushing, finding an open stretch of fence here required a bit of pushing and quick movements when someone vacated their spot...)

Okay so the Tower was great but I'm going to take a minute now to say that the real treasure in Pisa is the Cathedral. If you find yourself here and don't go inside you are making a mistake. The outside was beautiful with the column details but wasn't extremely outstanding. I think I was naive enough to make the comment that it didn't look very well maintained... I mean jeez it's nearly 1000 years old... I don't know what I was expecting.  

Anyway, my tune changed as soon as we walked inside. This Cathedral is breathtaking. I loved the dark and light alternating marble pattern along the walls- something I had never seen inside a church before. The ceiling was an incredible gold tiled wonder- I walked the entire length of the church mesmerized by it. The pictures below are honestly just a glimpse at how amazing the interior was. 

Arches for days my friends! I loved this dark and light mixture. I'm still amazed looking back at these pictures and I think it is because this Cathedral was such a surprise for us. We had no idea that there was much else to Pisa besides the Tower (perhaps we just didn't research enough before arriving) and were pleasantly surprised to find such a beautiful Cathedral. (Disclaimer: there isn't much to Pisa besides the Tower, this cathedral, a decent Indian restaurant with free wifi, and a couple nice piazza's to chill and play cards on.)

The picture below was taken just in front of the altar. The shadowed angel statue looked so amazing against the incredible detail of the rest of the church in the background. 

Little bit of that ceiling... 

Before I leave this chronicle of Italian adventures for good I want to show you some of the drawings we found all over Italy. Random walls down alleyways and major streets had these guys playing around. 

Ciao Italy! You were good to us - can't wait to return :)