Parthenon with my sister!!
This Water was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL in Greece!!!!
The State Farm Crew!
Budapest, Hungary
My sister and I in Prague!
Florida Gator fan all the way in Prague!!
This was taken in Salzburg
We did the Sound of Music Tour, which was filmed in Salzburg!
This is us in Vienna, wearing our uniform! haha
This guy at this restaurant came out singing "like a good neighbor, state farm is there" :)
As sad as it seems, summer is quickly approaching a close. :/
I've traveled to many beautiful places this summer, and enjoyed all the beauty of the earth that surrounds me. I've established an even greater appreciation for my freedoms I enjoy as an American.
My Aunt Joann passed just a few days after my last post. (mid June) In the middle of dress rehearsals for dance recital, we took an emergency trip home (Indiana) to attend the funeral. I'm so glad that she is in peace, and finally resting (something she didn't get to experience much in this life).
4th of July weekend my friend, Crystal and I flew to Baltimore/DC area to visit our friend Kellie. I was also very excited that my friend, Alana drove down from New Jersey to spend the weekend with us. Both Kellie and Alana used to live in Orlando. It was such a BLAST to be with them! We got to see many sites, plunge into rivers and watch the explosion of fireworks while we were seated at the Lincoln Memorial in DC followed by a quick escape to the DC metro.
I was home for 5 days, and then we headed out to my cousin Abby's wedding in Georgia. It was fun to be at the hotel with all my family. We got to have lots of fun memories together. The beach was disgusting! There were "sea roaches" EVERYWHERE!! The water was brown and so was the sand. I prefer the nastiest Florida beach over that beach any day. After a fun-filled weekend with all the family we headed to Indiana. I drove mom and dad's rental car with grandma accompanying us home. I've never had so much fun traveling with family. We would stop for about 45 min at each gas station just to chat and laugh about things. I usually wouldn't enjoy that kind of thing, but it was a BLAST. We finally arrived back at my parents at 4:30am. After having rested until 11am I got showered up and headed to North western Ohio to meet up with my best friend, James and his then girlfriend (now fiancee). I got there late that evening, and then we headed to Cedar Point the very next morning. AMAZING!!! We rode like 13 different roller coasters, and I still didn't get to them all. I rode the dragster it goes -0-165 in 4 seconds and takes you straight up and straight down. My brand new camera fell out of my pocket and amazingly was waiting for me at my feet when I unhooked my seatbelt. I'm convinced in some divine intervention there! I was beyond tired after that day. We went back to Ashley's house and had some pizza and crashed. I woke up at 5am to head back to Indiana to catch my flight back to Florida.
After being back in Florida for 3 days I boarded a plane to head to Philly to catch my plane over to Munich, Germany and then a final destination in Vienna, Austria. Due to weather in Philly, our plane in Orlando was delayed almost 3 hrs. Once we got to Philly our plane to Munich was loading so I ran from terminal D to Terminal A (Philly airport takes about 15 min to get from each terminal). I had a backpack on and was wheeling my carry-on behind me RUNNING like I was about to loose my legs ONLY TO FIND OUT our plane left us! We had another hour and a half until our next flight, which wasn't bad. We were able to exchange currency with no fee, eat and mentally prepare for our international flight. We were rerouted to Frankfurt, Germany, which was a NIGHTMARE! We had no boarding passes, we didn't speak the language, and on top of all that we had to switch airlines. Finally, I found someone to speak English and we were able to get "in the system"... It was a breath of fresh air when we finally got to our gate and found some of our State Farm buddies. We get over to Vienna and lo and behold my sister and I have NO LUGGAGE haha... It was funny for the first few hours and then after 3 days it wasn't so funny. Thankfully I had packed a few extra under clothes in my carry on. My sister wasn't as lucky. When we would call the airlines, they would reply we needed to be patient, this was a busy time of year. Easy for them to say. As soon as we got our luggage we had to be downstairs and ready to go to the Vienna Alps in 20 min and in that 20 min I was showered and had fresh clothes on, hair dried and make-up on ... I was SOOO THANKFUL to have clean clothes!!! Every night before I went to bed I thanked the Lord for allowing me to have the opportunity to travel to so many lands. In spite of all the crazy things that happened, I had an absolute blast. Even with no luggage, we didn't miss a beat. I made Lori set the Alarm for 6am and we generally wouldn't get back to the room until 2am. It was SO MUCH FUN!! :) I loved hanging out with all the State Farm people. Everyone was laughing at how much energy we had to go and see everything. While in Vienna, we traveled to Salzburg, Prague, Melk, and Budapest and the Vienna Alps. it was AMAZING!!
We then extended our stay outside of the State Farm family, and headed to Greece!! ASTONISHINGLY BEAUTIFUL!!! It's everything everyone talks about! Athens was kinda dirty, well really dirty actually. My sister was FREAKED!! :) She has some of my Momma's blood in her. The morning we left Vienna we got up early again, and booked it across town on foot to the Belvedere to take some final pictures. We rushed back, picked up our suitcases and left for the airport. As soon as we were seated on the plane, my sister and I were passed out. We were delayed in taking off, and had to sit there for 45 min. I felt none of that. The only thing I felt was the drool slipping out onto my chest hahahaha... I was OUT!!! We grabbed a taxi to take us to our hotel, which was an amazing experience. My sister and I packed a suitcase a piece, and a carry on a piece. The trunks in Greece our VERY SMALL, so they strapped bunjee cords in place to hold the trunk down. After our baggage getting lost, my sister was a little leery about our suitcases taking a dive on the freeway in Athens. Our macho man cab driver assured my sister, all would be well. As soon as we got on interstate I quickly noticed that was how they rolled in Greece... Lots of bungee corded trunks. :) Once we arrived at the hotel, I thought I was going to have to wheel my sister in. She was about to have a meltdown because the atmosphere that surrounded the hotel. In America, if we had been in the same situation you would have found drug dealers and guns shooting off in such surroundings. However, it was a pretty safe neighborhood for Greece. Since we had run our legs off so much that week, we decided to take the rest of that day to rest, and also let my sister get brave enough to tackle Athens in the morning. Once we got to the top of our hotel, she could see it wasn't all bad, and was comforted a little. The next morning I remarked that we needed a game plan if we got separated, we would know where to meet back up. She quickly interjected, that she would be on me like white on rice and that wouldn't happen HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! It's funny because when I look at the pictures from the first day in Athens, my sister is in the corner of all of them, because she truly was on me like white on rice. :) We had a GRAND TIME checking out the Acropolis!! FYI, if you go, take water with you! They sell it NO WHERE on the Acropolis.. I had to sit down and regroup because I was so dehydrated. Once down from the acropolis, I found someone that sold a 1.5 litter of water, and I had it finished in 10 min. I knew how dehydrated I was when I didn't go to the bathroom for 4 hours after I drank 1.5 litters. The following day we took a day cruise to 3 of the Greek Isles... BEST THING EVER!!! We got some great sun, and some FANTASTIC VIEWS!! I would love to take 3 weeks just to explore the Greek Isles! Should definitely be on EVERYONES bucket list. I got to take a dip in the Mediterranean Sea (If not the Med, one that empties into it) That was on my personal bucket list.
After 4 days in Greece, my sister and I returned home. I had been awake 26 hours when I finally went to bed. The first night home I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and totally forgot I was home. I thought someone was trying to be nice and give me a bed to sleep in after falling asleep on a bus (which I frequently did). I began yelling for my sister, and the only thing that kept going through my mind was that my cell phone couldn't work in Europe, and how was I going to find my sister!?!?! HAHAHAHA!!! As soon as my feet touched my cork floor in my bedroom I was like "I'm home, you're in your room you idiot" hahaha That's when you know you've been gone awhile. That was THE BEST sister vacation probably EVER!! We shared very special bonding times, and funny memories that will last a lifetime. For selfish reasons, I'm so glad she isn't married, so I can go on these trips! :)
Here are a few pictures! I have many more on Facebook :)
