6 Countries, 16 Days.

Last month my 21 year old niece, Samantha, and I grabbed our backpacks and set off on an adventure that took us to France, England, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The fantastic train system in Europe quickly became our familiar friend. The feeling of just being a nomad with no set schedule, just a basic outline of where we wanted to go and then rolling with it, was incredibly freeing…. and, I must say, amazingly stress-free! And isn't that really the way to enjoy a trip? The point is to get away from the stress, the strife, and completely absorb your new surroundings with a fresh eye and stay in the moment. Further that, three days in to the trip my phone gets cracked in my bag rendering it useless, which oddly (after the 'oh shit' part) was even more liberating! The other key factor here was laughter. Between the two of us, the laughter and joy we shared on this trip was constant. Absolute key. The older I get, the more I realize how important this simple thing is.

So without going in to a philosophical, therapeutic tailspin, let's get into this photo blog. We both took our photography very seriously on this trip. Quite honestly it was hard not to with (to our eyes at least) a photo op every two feet it seemed! That in and of itself was hard though because it was fucking freezing in pretty much every city we went to, which made it challenging to even stand still at times to frame the right shot…. but we suffer for our art!

I'll start here with Paris, where my niece Samantha had just finished up four months of overseas study in industrial design when I arrived. First order of business was crepes from the street vendor (but do we go with the savory eggs and cheese or the sweet Nutella and fruit?!?! These are difficult decisions!)… then of course amazing coffee, baguettes, pain au chocolat, Laduree macaroons… how much bread and pastries can I eat in a day?….. cheese!… jesus, I then begin to realize so much of this trip was about food! But that would have been a tragedy if it wasn't! Food and just good old fashioned exploring.

Please enjoy, I myself had a lot of fun reliving the experience putting this blog together.