Hello everyone! It’s been a crazy two weeks, with many days in a camper-van (see more on that in the next post!), so we have some blogging catching up to do!
We were in London for a week and really enjoyed it. Eric and I met up with several friends and stayed in a big apartment in Islington, a “borough” (aka neighborhood) in London. It was a GREAT location, very trendy with a lot of restaurants, bars, and a 25-35yr old crowd. It had a smaller town feel, but was a short tube ride to most areas of London.
Biggest take-away of London? Two things: 1) They have amazing street food! There were little markets everywhere that sold all sorts of ethnic foods, fresh foods, burgers, sandwiches… etc. Borough Market and Camden Market were by far the best – these are a must visit if you find yourself in London. 2) It would be really easy to live in London. It was very similar to SF in my opinion, there’s a lot of tech, jobs, no language barrier, and a younger, fun crowd.
Then there’s the Rugby! With our friends, we went to three World Cup matches, and we watched many more games in the pubs. I’ve come to really enjoy watching rugby! There a lot of rules, but I think I have most of them down now and am getting really into it. We got to go to a USA game which was so fun – we went all out on dressing up! See pics below :)
Eric, Cal & Bill looking quite buff for the gameOur apartment in London had an awesome roof-deck! Here’s the guys getting ready for the USA Rugby game!Go USA!! This game was held at the London Olympic Stadium (from the 2012 Olympics) which was cool to see.This place had AMAZING street food! Foods from all sorts of different ethnicities, yum!St. Paul’s Cathedral in LondonClassic English Meat Pies at the Borough Market
As Eric previously mentioned – hanging out for 5 days in Cinque Terre, Italy was both of our favorite part of the trip so far. It was the perfect mix of relaxation and outdoorsy-ness. Check out the pics!
The Watson’s! We stayed in Monterosso al Mare, the largest of the five towns on the coast that make up Cinque Terre.One day we did the big hike where you go from Monterosso through the hills and all 5 towns and end in Riomaggiore. It’s a BEAUTIFUL hike, and it is pretty tough – a lot of stairs!Pausing the hike for a picture above Vernazza!A little wine tasting and food pairing – yum!We did an awesome cooking class where we learned to make some traditional seafood dishes, AMAZING pesto, and tiramisu!
Hopefully you had a chance to read Eric’s summary of our travels so far – he said it well! Here’s a few pictures from our time in Munich when we met up with some friends and had a blast drinking a lot of beer at Oktoberfest!
The lads at Oktoberfest rockin’ their lederhosen! We spent the day at the Hofbrau Tent, cheers!One day we went to the BMW showroom (in Lederhosen of course!) which was pretty cool.Marienplatz! One of the coolest squares in Munich!
Leaving Italy for London today marked the end of our honeymoon. It has been an amazing 18 days in Stockholm, Bergen, Munich, and Monterosso with quick stops in Oslo, Copenhagen, and Florence. Now, we’re in a cool flat in trendy Islington, London with 4 friends.
Though each spot has given us amazing experiences, Amanda and I agree our favorite has been Cinque Terre. There is certainly something to spending relaxing time on the beach after the stress of planning a wedding, moving, and wrapping up work.
Now for the next leg we are heading to England, Scotland, and Wales to spend a lot of time with friends Cal, Sam, Morgan, Bill, and Colin enjoying the Rugby World Cup! (USU! USA! USA!) From there we have a flight to Bilbao, Spain with really no plans but to find a place to settle down in for a while.
It’s always been my dream to get married to my dream girl and then be able to take off and travel the world while we’re still young and relatively responsibility free. I couldn’t be happier :)
Norway was absolutely beautiful! We went on several amazing hikes and had a very relaxing 5 days through Norway.
From Stockholm we traveled to Oslo and spent one day there. Then Eric and I headed to Bergen! As we traveled to Bergen we did a Norway in a Nutshell Tour that took us on a scenic train ride, a fjord cruise, and a few bus rides to see many different parts of Norway – all of which where breathtaking. Here’s just a few photos…
After leaving Oslo, we headed on a scenic train ride to Flåm. From there, we took a 2 hour fjord cruise!Boating through the fjords!After the fjords, we made it to Bergen! A beautiful, adventurous city on the coast. This view is from the top of an epic, half-day hike up Mt. Ulriken along the ridge to Mt. Fløyen.Another picture from our Mt. Ulriken hike – stunning! PS – While we were on this hike, we saw a Norwegian 8th grade class! There were about 35 kids with backpacking gear and a few teachers; they go out on the tough trail for a few days as part of their PE class – no wonder everyone is adventurous and athletic in this country!This pretty strip of colorful buildings is Bryggen (a street in Bergen) and it’s full of restaurants and shops. Right around the corner from Bryggen is an amazing sandwich cafe called Godt Brød – and boy do they have good bread!This is inside Bryggen (the colorful buildings). There are 3-4 stories of wooden hallways like this with various shops, restaurants, and cafes.We decided to have a little photo shoot in Bryggen because it was fairly empty and there was really cool lighting haha :)
Overall, Norway (Bergen especially) was a nice relaxing part of our trip. Lots of hiking, nature, and cooking dinners in our apartment. The air was crisp, clean, and refreshing!
A quick stop in Copenhagen for some DELICIOUS Danish danishes!(Yes that’s 3 danishes in the picture… It was buy 2 get 1 free, what’s a girl to do?! :) ) I am not exaggerating when I say these are the BEST pastries I’ve ever had, yum!
We wandered around the city for about an hour: saw the castle and went down Nyhavn Street, which was lined with colorful buildings that all used to be houses but are now bars and restaurants. Each one had outdoor seating overlooking old sailboats resting in the canal.
Seemed like a cool town! Now we are off to Munich!
Stockholm is amazing! Eric and I both really enjoyed this beautiful, clean city plopped right on the glistening coast of Sweden. It’s packed with cobblestone roads, colorful buildings, dramatic architecture, and cute alleys with hidden cafes. The small cobblestone streets are populated with beautiful, tall (I felt average height!) Swedish people who are either well dressed and headed to their professional careers, or in a pack of young moms in sleek workout outfits walking with strollers. The people here were all nice and seemed very happy – livin’ the good life!
A piece of the culture here that I really liked was what they call “fika”. Fika = grabbing a coffee and a cinnamon bun (or “kanelbulle”) with a friend or two in one of the many (MANY!) coffee shops to just chat and catch-up.
Besides the techie and professional part of Stockhom there are two other main neighborhoods we explored: Gamla Stan & SoFo. Gamla Stan is the older neighborhood – full of small, winding streets and adorable hidden alleys. We had an amazing Swedish dinner there at a restaurant called Under Kastanjen (see pic below!).
SoFo was hipster nation: land of the man-buns, mustaches, and plaid shirts. It was a cool neighborhood that reminded me a lot of the Mission and SOMA in San Francisco. We did our own little pub crawl in this SoFo area and found an awesome live band (Slowgold, complete with a female singer with a great voice and very thick eyebrows), a cool bar called Bananas, and a local brew pub that only sold beer from home-brewers and mirco-breweries in Stockholm.
Stockholm in a nutshell: LOVED IT! Eric and I agreed that we could both live here (well maybe not during the winter months where it gets to -30 degrees and only 4 hours of sunlight) – but from March-November, count us in!! It is not too packed with people and there’s definitely no traffic because everyone walks and bikes! There seemed to be a great balanced lifestyle: professional work, social fun, and family all seemed important to the Stockholmians!
Galma Stan dinner (Swedish food is good and hearty! Think meat and potatoes, more meat and more potatoes – with some fish!)
Speaking of food – one afternoon we went to this cool indoor food market. It was backed with stands and booths selling traditional Swedish food – seemed like the place to go for a lunch break or a happy hour after work. We ordered “Raggmunk med Fläsk” Or a potato pancake with pork (aka a huge pile of thick bacon – you can imagine how happy Eric was :) ). It was DELICIOUS! (We even made our own Raggmunk one night!)
Here is one of the traditional kanelbulles! Yum!Of course we fit in a workout in our apartment on a rainy morning
And a few pictures of Stockholm’s adorable beauty!…
