visit at least one new country a year

We went to Montreal over Christmas 2008. It was an amazing trip…extremely cold, but perfect scene for the holidays. We stayed in a cute little boutique hotel in the old town of the city and just explored for 6 days.

The overwhelming memory of the trip was rushing through the snowy streets to get into anywhere with some warmth. It snowed like crazy while we were there. We visited the art museum, went to a Canadians hockey game, McGill university, and just went to different parts of town to walk around.

The highlight of the trip was midnight mass services on Christmas Eve at the Basilica Notre Dame. It was incredibly beautiful and so moving. I loved this trip!

We went to Prague last week. What an amazing trip! The architecture was breathtaking and the beer was fabulous! We spent most of the time touring the city, but took a couple side trips to Terezin concentration camp and Cesky Krumlov in the southern Czech Republic. We took almost 1000 pictures while we were there, everything was just so beautiful and the history is so rich and interesting. It is hard to believe that many of the buildings there date back to the middle ages. Incredible. I would recommend a trip to Prague to anyone. Truly a wonderful city.

Highlights were U Fleku Brewery, touring the Prague Castle, driving a Skoda car all around the country, sitting at pubs, drinking beers, and people watching, climbing (what seemed like) millions of stairs, absinthe, so many to mention!

OK…so this is not another country. Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., but we went to Guanica for a trip in 2004 and thought I should make a mention. It was an amazing trip. My husband and I went for a week in April and stayed at a small beach resort. It was beautiful and inexpensive. I loved every minute.

We hope to go back and see San Juan and other parts of Puerto Rico!

I went to Israel on New Year’s Day 2000. What an AMAZING trip. I went with the Birthright Israel program through my college Hillel. We started in Tel Aviv, went to Jerusalem, the West Bank, Sea of Galilea, Mt. Masada, the Dead Sea, and back to Tel Aviv…with many stops along the way. I was there for 10 days and had walking pneumonia the whole time I was there, but it was still the best trip I have ever taken.

It was incredible to be in a place with so much history and to be amongst so many people just like me. I loved the falafels and learning about the different cities and places. I would go back in a second and would love to take my husband there with me. I think he would really enjoy it.

Highlights were swimming in the Dead Sea, visiting the Wailing Wall, standing on the beach at the Mediterranean Sea, and climbing Mt. Masada!

Ok, so this one is kinda lame I realize. I first went to Nogales, Mexico my freshman year in college. We would take buses from the dorms so that we could drink underage and just make assess of ourselves. So, I never saw Nogales in the light of day. Just the inside of a couple bars there!!

Junior year in college, I couple friends and I went to Rosarito Beach, Mexico for spring break, which is in Baja. Again, we didn’t go to experience Mexico. We went more for the bars and the booze. It was completely geared towards spring break americans there, which was fun at the time. I would like to actually see the true Mexico sometime soon.

I went to Northern Italy on a high school trip during my senior year. We started in Milan, then went to Ravenna, Pisa, Padua, Verona, Florence, and Venice.

What an amazing trip. It was the perfect time to go with my friends! I loved the architecture, the language, the food!! I decided to take italian in college the next year because I fell so in love with anything italian. I would love to take my husband to italy! My favorite places were:

Milan – the beautiful duomo there looks like lace
Florence – the Uffizi gallery where we saw ‘The David’ and the gorgeous duomo
Venice – everything…gorgeous!

I can’t wait to explore the rest of italy!

So I have been to 4 countries outside the U.S. I thought it would be fun to put those countries up and add to them throughout the years.

I went to Paris when I was 12 years old with a foreign exchange program at my Junior High. I don’t remember too much of it, honestly. We went to the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Louvre, Notre Dame, and many other places. I remember not having a lot to eat while I was there because everything had meat in it. I loved the trip, though, and definitely want to go back again as an adult. Word of advice, don’t spend money to send your 12 year old to Europe unless it is a family trip. I didn’t appreciate it enough back then, but I’m glad I went.

Right after busy season, my husband and I are going to go on a trip. We will probably start planning it in the next few weeks. We have been to several countries separately, but never together. So…we have no preference of where we go. Somewhere cheap and fun!! Can’t wait to see where we pick!!