Thursday, June 20, 2013

Euro Trip: The U.S. Chronicles

Long time no see! Turns out, I've been out of the country!  

The background details: 

Eric and I knew he was getting 2 weeks of vacation mid-June.  We made a list of places we'd like to see, including: Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, or France.  Knowing full well that it would be impossible to enjoy all of these places in just a 10-to-14-day stint, we made several "potential trip plans" with routes we might take, depending on open flights.  

We also hit up Eric's sister Jodie since she's one of our favorite trip buddies, an experienced Euro-traveler, and speaks Italian.  Turns out, she was itching to get away after a stressful home remodel.  (Check out her awesome reno here,  at Life Is Smoother On Two Wheels.)  We were sad that her husband Jason had to work, but happy that Jodie was in.  Fun and experienced traveling companion, check!  

The night before, we all met up in Newark and celebrated.  Cheers everyone!



The next day, we hashed out some last minute details.  Because we were flying stand-by, we didn't actually know where we would end up.  Both Milan, Italy and Zurich, Switzerland were looking pretty good.
  

At this point, we finalized potential hotels and car rentals for the next day.  Did I mention that Jodie had an over-seas driving permit?  Score!  It saved us a TON of time and money to drive our trip ourselves rather than taking the train.  But that's a story for another day.  

So we waited anxiously all day in the United Club, watching the passenger loads like hawks.  At five o'clock we headed out to the gates.

This might give you a clue as to where we ended up:


That's right! We've ended up spending 10 days in Italy (with a one-day unexpected stay in Switzerland, or the motherland of my dad's family.)

Stay tuned for Euro Trip Part 1: Verona!

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