In Summary

It’s simultaneously so exciting and so bittersweet that our time in Switzerland is over. We’re settling in nicely to our new life in College Station - Andy is enjoying his new job, and I now have one that I started today; we’re (almost) all the way moved into our new home, just waiting on our shipment of things from Switzerland, which should be here by the end of the week (fingers crossed); and we are so enjoying seeing our friends and families pretty much whenever we want.

It did really hit us hard that we’ll probably never have another experience like this – we can’t believe that we got to spend a year of our lives visited a new country just about every other week. We are so thankful for the past year, and we are also so happy to be back home.

I thought it fitting to do one last post to summarize our thoughts and takeaways about what we accomplished and learned in the last 13 months.  In list form, obviously.

We have become expert travelers.

We have mastered traveling as a couple and figured out exactly how we like to do vacations and exploring together.

For example, I always, always, always need to check a bag. This might seem counterintuitive to other “expert travelers,” but it’s what works for me. It doesn’t matter if we’re going somewhere for 2 nights and the only thing we’re going to wear is bathing suits, I’m still going to check a suitcase, and the only reason for that is my toiletries. They aren’t travel size, and they can’t be made travel size. Andy is still working on accepting this.  

We’ve also figured out the formula for the perfect itinerary (for us) in any location. The formula is as follows:

Perfect Travel Itinerary = At least 1 beautiful view + 1 tourist attraction + At least 1 nice meal + ample unscheduled time to explore

The beautiful view could be mountains, cliffs, a cathedral, a castle – it all depends on where you are. But it’s super important to see the most beautiful thing that the place has to offer.

Tourist attractions include museums, palaces, anything involving a guided tour or purchasing a ticket. We grew tired of museums pretty quickly, but we also found that we love a good guided tour of some historical location. Bike tours are great too.

Food is the most important part of any trip for me, so we will always figure out some of the best places to eat and make reservations ahead of time.

The last piece was something we figured out as we went along. When we first got here, we scheduled pretty much every hour of a trip and filled it with activities, because we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We noticed though that once we were there, we would see something or hear about something we wanted to do or try, but we wouldn’t have time. By February, we made sure to leave a good portion of each trip unscheduled to allow for fun discoveries.

The world is so huge and actually quite small, all at the same time.

We visited SO many different places in the last 13 months - and at the end of it all, our bucket list is longer than when we started. There’s just SO much to see!

And although the world is huge, and although a lot of people in this world do things very, very differently than we do - we’re also all very similar in a lot of ways. I worked with and got to know people from literally all over Europe, and it made the world feel very small to me. My Belgian coworker loves Beyonce as much as I do; my French coworker is obsessed with Soul Cycle; our British friend loves a good brisket as much as any Texan I know. And ALL of us share the same level of dismay at the current state of American politics. Not so different!

We love America.

I knew that there were things I missed while living in Switzerland, but now that we’ve been back for a few weeks, it’s even more pronounced.

1. American convenience is unlike any other country. I absolutely love that I can go to HEB at 11 pm and get pretty much anything I want. If I’m feeling extra crazy, I could even go to Walmart at 3 am. Everything is close by, everything is open pretty much all the time, and we have ENDLESS options and variety to choose from for any given product.
2. Food. We ate some of the best meals of our lives in Europe, but 95% of those awesome meals were at pretty fancy restaurants; everyday, reasonably-priced options were not nearly as exciting.  On the other hand, within a 15 minute radius of our house here in College Station, we have no less than 4 AMAZING taco places, where we both eat for less than 20 bucks. I could eat tacos every day of the week. Again, the variety available at our fingertips at any given moment is so wonderful.
3. I missed college football so much! We did our best to watch games live via a Slingbox last year, but there is just nothing like gameday in College Station. The bbq, the tailgate, the actual game at Kyle Field, watching other games...this really is my favorite time of the year, and I’m so happy to be back in the thick of it.

We will always travel.

We moved back to the US for a few different reasons - families/friends and job opportunities/career choices being the two biggest - and we are 100% confident that we made the right choice for our family. But, to be clear, it was still a tough decision...mostly because of how much both of us LOVE to travel. Seeing the world is a big priority for us, and certainly the best way to do that is to live somewhere else. I don’t know if we'll ever live abroad again, but I don’t think either of us could ever rule it out either. Regardless, we will always make an effort to see new places, experience new cultures, and go on adventures as often as we possibly can.

Finally, below is our initial travel to-do list that I put on the blog almost exactly a year ago. We didn’t make it to all of them, but we also added some to the list that weren’t originally there. It turned out to be about 45 different destinations in 20 countries- which meant that I hit my goal of seeing 30 countries before I turned 30! All in all, I’d say it was a successful year.

Bold means it was on our original wish list, italics means we added it later on, crossed out means we are saving it for later :)

1. Switzerland -
• Zurich ✓
• Lucerne ✓
• Interlaken ✓
• St. Gallen ✓
• Zermatt ✓
• Lugano
• Neuchatel ✓
• Gruyere ✓
• Lausanne ✓
• Montreaux ✓
• Verbier ✓
• Wengen ✓
2. Netherlands -
• Amsterdam ✓
• The Hague
3. Germany -
• Munich
• Stuttgart
• Frankfurt
• Hamburg
• Berlin ✓
• Cologne
• Neuschwanstein ✓
4. France -
• Paris ✓
• Bordeaux ✓
• Monaco ✓
• Nice ✓
• Chamonix ✓
• Verdun ✓
• Yvoire ✓
5. Czech Republic -
• Prague ✓
6. Hungary -
• Budapest ✓
7. Austria -
• Vienna ✓
• Salzburg
• Innsbruck
8. UK -
• London ✓
• Bath
• Edinburgh
9. Ireland
• Dublin
10. Norway -
• Oslo
• Stavanger ✓
11. Iceland -
• Reykjavik ✓
12. Denmark -
• Copenhagen ✓
13. Sweden -
• Stockholm
14. Italy -
• Como
• Milan ✓
• Venice ✓
• Florence ✓
• Rome ✓
• Cinque Terre ✓
• Turin ✓
• Montepulciano ✓
15. Croatia -
• Dubrovnik ✓
• Split
16. Slovenia
17. Greece
• Thessaloniki
• Athens
• Crete
18. Spain -
• Barcelona ✓
• Madrid ✓
• Pamplona ✓
• Valencia
19. Portugal -
• Lisbon
• Porto ✓
20. Belgium
• Brussels ✓
21. Bosnia
• Neum ✓
22. Finland
• Helsinki ✓
23. Liechtenstein
• Vaduz ✓
24. Montenegro
• Budva ✓

August: Bosnia, Montenegro, and Croatia

We visited three towns on our European Finale: Neum, Bosnia; Budva, Montenegro; and Dubrovnik, Croatia. All three of them are within about 3 hours’ driving distance of each other, so we thought it would be cool to hit three countries in one trip.

Neum is a tiny beach town on a little sliver of Bosnia; drive 30 minutes either way and you’re in Croatia. The Google Images of it are great; crystal-clear blue water with some hotels and resorts on a few small harbors, very charming. This was all accurate, and we also found the people we met to be lovely- our Airbnb host, the waitstaff at restaurants, etc. were all very friendly. And everything was suuuuper cheap!

Things we were not expecting and didn’t love so much: the mostly Soviet-style cement block buildings, the many piles of garbage, and the swarms of people from neighboring countries (Eastern Europe and Russia) who come to have their beach vacations in mid-August.

We only spent two nights in Neum, so for our 1 full day, we decided to just hang out on the beach. We found a spot with lounge chairs that was not yet too crowded, paid the attendant 2 EUR for each chair, and settled in. A couple rows in front of us, we noticed a group of about 20 Russians who all seemed to be related: aunts, uncles, grandparents, kids, etc. As soon as we got our books out, the patriarch of the group began a rather loud discussion with the beach attendant concerning (we assume) the price of renting the lounge chairs. This went on for several minutes, with many more family members throwing in their two cents as well. Just when we were about to get up and relocate, they seemed to resolve the issue and settle themselves down. Not five minutes later, Mr. Patriarch gets out his cell phone to play some (LOUD) beach music for the group. Irritated, I start gathering our things again to move spots. But Andy said, “Wait...do you recognize that song?” Sure enough, this old Russian guy is bobbing his head to Merle Haggard’s “Fightin’ Side of Me”. Over the next couple of hours, we enjoyed Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings...all the good stuff! You don’t expect to hear classic country music sitting on a beach in Bosnia, but I guess people surprise you sometimes.

We had pre-purchased regional bus tickets for the next morning to get us to Montenegro, so our Airbnb hosts graciously offered to take us to the bus stop with our luggage. We were a bit skeptical when they dropped us off in front of a grocery store with no buses to be found, but figured they knew better than we did. More people with luggage started to gather around us within a few minutes, so it seemed alright. We got to the bus stop around 8:50 for our 9 am scheduled bus. About 9:10, a bus pulls up with a sign reading “Belgrade,” (as in Serbia) which is in the opposite direction of where we are trying to go. We call the bus company and verify that indeed, this is not our bus, and ours will be there shortly.

9:15 - no bus.

9:25 - no bus. I call the bus company again, and they assure me that it is almost there.

9:35 - A bus drives by. It’s going about 50 mph, and it doesn’t slow down.

9:36 - I call the bus company again and explain what we just saw. She says she’ll call me back.

9:37 - Bus company calls me back, says the driver didn’t see anybody so didn’t stop.

Hm. Well, it would have been helpful to know that’s how this works. Maybe we would have worn neon vests? Or jumped up and down and waved?

Luckily, another bus headed in the right direction was scheduled to come by at 10:15. We managed to get on this bus headed for Montenegro and happily left Bosnia behind. In hindsight, we both agree that we should have just skipped Bosnia...but it certainly made for some memories!

Neum

The only other picture I took in Bosnia. The view from our Airbnb

The bus stopped for passport controls 4 different times - leaving Bosnia, entering Croatia, leaving Croatia, and entering Montenegro. At each stop, an officer would board the bus, collect all the passports, take them off the bus, and come back after stamping them all. Each time, I was so worried my passport wouldn’t come back. Passengers sometimes got off the bus to smoke a cigarette and use the restroom; one guy got left at the Montenegro/Croatia border. Woopsies! With all the stops and the slow speed of a bus, the drive actually took about 5 hours, instead of the 3 that I had seen on Google Maps. As you can imagine, we were relieved to finally get off the bus at an actual bus station in Budva.

Budva is a much bigger town than Neum, with less of the Soviet feel and a much more coastal-town vibe. However, our first walk down the beach showed us that it’s also a bit of a party destination - foam parties, DJs, clubs on the beach, you get the picture. None of that is really our scene (we’re about 10 years past that), so after dinner the first night, we spent some time planning our day to make the most of Budva.

The next morning, we took a water taxi to a private beach called “the King’s Beach”. With chair service and a gorgeous view, we enjoyed this day so much! I read my book, Andy swam laps in the ocean, and people brought us watermelon spears. All the makings of a fabulous beach day.

Water taxi ride

Our private beach 

Loving life

For dinner that night, Andy had discovered that Nobu (somewhat famous and delicious sushi restaurant) had a pop-up location for the summer in Budva! We enjoyed an awesome meal with an awesome view.

My view at Nobu :) 

The next day, we took another super pleasant (although thankfully shorter) bus ride to our final stop, Dubrovnik. We could tell as soon as we got there that we had saved the best for last!

Dubrovnik had all of our favorite things for a warm-weather vacation: beautiful blue water, a few fun active-activities, and awesome food. Tourism is a bit more developed here than it is in Bosnia (go figure), so it wasn’t as cheap, but it was still very reasonable. Some of our favorite things:

Walk around the city walls - It can take as little as 30 minutes or as long as 2 hours, depending on how much you stop to take pictures. Great views!

Kayak tour - I thought this was a lot better than just renting kayaks on your own. Our guide had lots of interesting tidbits of information, provided a small lunch, and took us to a cool little beach/cove.

Nautika - such a great meal! http://nautikarestaurant.com/restaurant-nautika/ This was our final splurge to celebrate the end of our European chapter, and it was the perfect spot.

When we left Dubrovnik, it was to get back to Geneva for 48 hours before the move- we finished packing our suitcases, took Sam to the vet for his final checkups, and walked around the lake one more time before leaving.

Last visit to the Jet

These two days felt SO long! We were a little sad, knowing that this phase is over - we had been traveling pretty much non-stop since I resigned from my job, and we know it will likely be several years before we make it back to Europe. But we were also so excited and anxious to move to College Station, see our families and friends, start new careers...Anyway, I think I've got one more blog post in me to wrap this whole thing up!