Halloween!

Michael and I dressed up as Robbers for the church Trunk or Treat this year. Unfortunately it was raining and almost freezing outside, but I still loved giving out candy. And eating it too. 

Happy birthday to me!

I am officially a quarter of a century old. I was awoken on my birthday with a delicious breakfast in bed. Whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, with real whipped cream, fresh strawberries and maple syrup. (my favorite) Unfortunately Michael had to go to school, but not before surprising me with a massage schedule for that afternoon. Woohoo! 

I met my brother Tim at the Trelis Cafe for a delicious birthday lunch.

After lunch, I raced back to Provo for my massage. Every time I get a massage I can't believe I don't get one every month. They are incredible.

Then that evening Michael took me out for sushi, my favorite food. 

And then we finished the night with my favorite toasted coconut frozen yogurt from Yogurtland. 

It was a great birthday. I do love getting presents and being pampered. Can't wait for the next one.

Home Sweet Home

So after 81 days, 10 countries, 18 cities, 13 flights, 11 trains, 1 night train, 17 airbnbs, and 1 hotel we finally made it home. And all with 1 carry on suitcase each. After all that traveling we were pretty ready to sleep in our big, comfortable bed in an air conditioned room. Near the end of the trip we had already started planning all of the places we wanted to go and food we wanted to eat when we got back. Cafe Rio was on the top on my list. I missed Mexican food SO much.

The flight home was TERRIBLE. Our plane had a mechanical problem that delayed us and then the pilot had to fly SLOWER because they didn't fix the problem. So our first flight was 9 1/2 hours. Then we missed our connect at JFK. It took us over 2 hours to get through customs and then we flew another  5 hours to SLC. We left Copenhagen around noon and landed in Utah at 11pm (7am in Copenhagen). So it took us almost 20 hours to get home. Ugh!

When we first got home I was SO glad to be back, but now that we've been home about a month I'm starting to miss traveling. Good thing we already have a trip to Puerto Rico planned for February.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen was the last city of our summer travels. The cheapest flight from SLC to Europe was going through Copenhagen so we figured we'd stay a couple nights on our way home. It wasn't our favorite city, but by this point we were also exhausted from traveling for so long.  Copenhagen was also the most expensive city we visited. We bought a medium pizza one night for $17, and one candy bar was about $5. It was crazy. So I ended up buying milk and cereal and eating that for 4 meals in a row. Here's a couple pics from the city.

Local market, always a must see for me.

Stroget. One of the oldest and longest pedestrian shopping streets

Nyhavn. Beautiful district on the water. 

So ready to go home! 

London

London is one of my favorite cities I've ever visited. In 2008, I did a BYU study abroad in London when Michael and I were engaged. It was an incredible experience and I made some lifelong friends in the process. 

Here's the BYU London Center. This is where I lived 5 years ago! So crazy to be back.

Prince Albert Monument

Harrods. Bought some delicious snacks and drooled over everything they were selling.

Hyde Park 

Since I was last in London they have now added city bikes. We took the metro once the whole time we were there and spent the rest of our time riding bikes around the city. SO fun.

Constitution Hill

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Museum of Natural History

I like the nice dinosaurs

Giant Moose

 Big Ben

Borough Market. We had the most amazing pork sandwich.

Tower Bridge

Tower London

Millennium Bridge

Trafalgar Square

I loved every second of being back in London. I would gladly live there again. It was so fun taking Michael around the city. Until next time London.

Amsterdam

We were only in Amsterdam two nights and just barely got to glimpse of the city. We spent most of our time walking around the canal streets, eating some more delicious frites and sampling some local cuisine.

We went to the restaurant Pancake! and tried some delicious (and huge) Dutch pancakes. Mine were banana nut with chocolate sauce and Michael had some with pistachio ice ream and raspberry sauce. They are thinner and more dense then American pancakes. Kind of a mix between a crepes and american pancakes.

We stopped by a fancy cheese shop and went a little crazy with their free samples. Considering how expensive the cheese was, we probably ate $5 samples. Yum!

Pretty canal street

Here's a last little fun fact about Amsterdam. They are famous for their red light district. We were walking around the city and just turned a corner and found ourselves right in the middle of the red light district. It was sad. The women are just standing in full length windows, basically advertising themselves right on the street. At night they are lit up from behind by red lights, hence the name. 

Brussels

Brussels, Belgium turned out to be one of our favorite cities we visited. You don't have to be there very long to get a feel for the city and see the main sites. 

Here's Michael at the famous Manneken Pis. It's a famous Brussels landmark. A small bronze sculpture depicting a naked little boy peeing into the fountain. Designed and put up in 1619. 

City Center

Love the architecture.

Brussels is known for their french fries or frites. They are amazing! Their trick is that they fry them twice. So they end up SUPER crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. 

 Grand Place. The central square of Brussels. One of the most beautiful squares in Europe. 

The Belgian waffles really are incredible! They are completely different than waffles in the US. The dough is more dense and chewy. They also use Pearl sugar which caramelizes when cooked and gives the outside a delicious crunch. Mmm... They are so good on their own, that we preferred them just with whipped cream. 

Royal Palace of Brussels. 

One of the best parts of visiting Brussels was getting to hand out with Michael's favorite mission companion, Develter. He's from Belgium and after serving in Italy and marrying a cute Italian girl he moved back home. 

It was so fun hearing them both reminisce about the good ole days over some delicious frites. Don't be confused by his identical twin brother who was also super nice.