40 Planes and 30 Trains

It’s time. Let’s review where those numbers took me during my 9 months abroad:

SPAIN: Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Seville, Toledo, Segovia, Córdoba, Aranjuez, Salamanca, Escorial, Buytrago del Loyola, Valencia, Granada

Toledo

ITALY: Milan, Cinque Terre, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento

Florence

PORTUGAL: Lagos, Lisbon, Porto and everywhere in between (rental car)

Porto

POLAND: Torun, Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Wloclawek, Oświęcim

Oświęcim

IRELAND: Dublin, Wicklow, Glendalough

Dublin

GREECE: Athens, Hydra, Santorini, Crete

Ia, Santorini, Greece

ROMANIA- Cluj, Simleu Silvaniei, Turda

Turda

NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam, Utrecht

Amsterdam

SWITZERLAND: Zurich (sort of; stopped by during a 7 hr layover)

ENGLAND: London, Amesbury

London

FRANCE: Paris (x2), Versailles

Paris

MOROCCO: Marrakesh, Fes

Fes

GERMANY: Munich, Berlin

Berlin

CZECH REPUBLIC: Prague

Prague

HUNGARY: Budapest

BELGIUM: Brussels

Brussels

TURKEY: Istanbul

Istanbul

So is there anywhere I would have liked to visit but did not? OF COURSE! I would have loved to go to go skiing in the Swiss Alps, visit other places in France (Nice, Bordeaux, Lyon), see Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Austria, Croatia, Malta and more cities in Spain (Burgos, A coruña, Ibiza, Málaga, Mallorca, The Canary Islands)...

This does not mean I am UPSET at all, or even close to it; it means that I still have so much more to explore in Europe when I go back. It also means I would never claim to truly “know” or “understand” Europe. The history and culture of this tiny continent (it is barely larger than the continental United States) is too multifaceted and complicated to be within my comprehension. 

That being said, I can still compile a list of silly superlatives for the countries and cities I HAVE visited. So, which city has the best architecture?  The best food? The best public transportation? The worst public transportation? The best men? Coming soon…