Spain has so many problems. Many government officials are corrupt, the unemployment rate is still high ten years after the crisis, and the banks run the economy. Yet for some reason, so many of flock to Spain and want to stay. There have to be SOME redeeming qualities. Actually, there are tons. I recently talked about what boggles my mind about Madrid, but now I think it’s time to talking about what makes it amazing.
Paris is one of those cities you either love or you don’t. Some people fall in love with the perceived romance of the city, other people say the city smells. For me, Paris has always been one of the cities I knew I needed to go to, but I wasn’t very interested. Honestly, the main reason I wanted to go was to take a day trip to Normandy and see the Omaha Beaches (but that tour was cancelled …) Still, there is plenty to see and do in Paris, and I felt that I needed a little more time.
After leaving Stockholm to spend a few days with my distant Swedish relatives in Karlstad, I boarded a train for my final European stop to Oslo. Thick forests of trees surrounded the train as it passed from the Swedish countryside into the Norwegian. Our train stopped in some small town a few miles outside of the city because they were working on the tracks; so we boarded buses and were dropped off somewhere near the city center.
I’ve been incredibly lazy here. I wrote about my time in Venice with the intention of completing the rest of my Italian journey soon after, but it’s now been more than two months since I’ve been in Italy and I’m still trying to motivate myself to write. Alas, let’s see how long it takes me to finish this post!
Florence is a very art-y city. Italy was the site of the Renaissance and you can see much of the art from that period there. It is also home of the beautiful Duomo Cathedral, which is the place you usually see the skyline views over Florence from. We packed the entire Florence experience into two days there, but it was an experience of a lifetime.
My first stop on our Italian tour was to the breathtakingly beautiful city of Venice. It’s an intricate, small, city with so much history and adventure. I’m lucky to have had my friend as my travel companion who could read a map and navigate around the city with ease. Venice can be a bit like a maze because the canals chop up the streets, meaning you’re always having to turn in some different direction.