We Ran Away

Hey! We ran away for Thanksgiving! We found a screamin' deal on flights to Zurich, and it escalated from there. We had two weeks to plan this European adventure, so it's been a little cray. 

Flew from SLC to Amsterdam the day before Thanksgiving. Caught a flight from Amsterdam to Zurich. Stayed in Zurich over night, then caught a train from Zurich to Venice. Stayed in Venice for 36 hours, then caught a flight from Venice to Marseille and hopped on a 5 day cruise. Currently on said cruise. Yesterday we were in Palma de Mallorca. Day before that we were in Barcelona. Tomorrow we will be in Palermo, Sicily. Friday it dumps us in Rome, where we'll stay for 5 days before heading home. 

It's been fun and completely exhausting. The jet-lag is real, and traveling non-stop for basically 4 days did not help. Since being on the cruise for 3 days now, we've been able to regulate better and relax a bit. It's nice not having to stress about transportation every few hours. We took so many trains and planes to too many places. 

The cruise is Italian, and it's not been the best. Don't get me wrong, we're not suffering or anything, but it is a different experience than a good old Carnival cruise. The food is pretty lousy, and the customer service is greatly lacking. The Italian patrons on this boat are straight up rude. I guess the purpose of this trip is to learn what not to do for next time. :) 

Backwards in order, again, but here we go: 

Yesterday we had a fabulous day in Palma, Spain. We were all so pleasantly surprised at how much we loved this place. It was warm, it was charming as all get out, and such a fun city to walk around for hours. We saw the Catedral de Mallorca, which was crazy. We wandered the streets, ate gelato, ate ice cream, found a cool t-shirt shop, basked in the 70 degrees. It was sad to leave. Also, we've made a goal to eat at McDonald's at every place we've been because we're classy and cultured like that. Aani says it's research for her to take back to her job at the Lehi McDonald's. Let's go with that. 

Palma de Mallorca:

The Costa Smerelda: large and in charge. Maybe let's get someone nicer to run this thing. 

Barcelona:

We took a tour of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I have so many feelings about this place. I'm not sure what words to use to describe it. Impressive? Confusing? I wouldn't call it beautiful in the traditional sense, because it's obviously very different from anything we're used to with European architecture. I did like visiting it and learning about it. I did appreciate the stained glass and the symbolism of all the things. I went into a little chapel and said a prayer and I liked that. 

Really just trying to soak up all the local flavors, you know. Barcelona felt very familiar and we really liked that. :) 

Courtesy Addie to Five Guys Barcelona. 

Venice: 

Oh Venice, you were a crazy fever dream. We arrived after about 36 hours of travel and we were like zombies the entire time. We did a tour of St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace. We speed-walked through the "streets"/alleyways to get to our tour on time. We wandered and wandered and wandered for the entirety of the day, eating pizza, gelato, and realizing we didn't care if we did a gondola ride or not. Venice felt like a tourist trap and I don't know that I'd be too eager to go again. Sorry, Venice. It's mighty cute, though. 

They made me a gluten free pizza that was pretty spectacular, I will give that to Venice. 

The Doge. The man with the hat. 

Zurich:

We originally didn't plan on spending any time in Zurich, but then our flight to Venice was delayed 2 days, hence the train instead. We were there for about 18 hours, and in our jet-lagged stupors, we enjoyed it. Quite a nice city, incredibly charming, and the people we met were very nice. We enjoyed their Christmas market, which just upped the charm level even more. 

Our McDonald's visit was really fantastic for me especially, because they have gluten free cheeseburgers with all the fixins. I don't know if you know this about me, but McDonald's cheeseburgers are the thing I cried about missing when I found out gluten was my problem. I love them. I don't care if everyone knows it, I think they're magnificent. 

Even the porta-potties were nice. 💖 Zurich forever.

Getting ready to take off from Salt Lake. Look at us, so rested. Hahahahaha. 

We did a Thanksgiving dinner before we left and made sure to have all the favorites. 

Our month has consisted of planning this trip and taking this trip. Nils had been working at a feverish pace to finish up sponsored videos, and get videos ready for release during this trip. We keep saying we want things to calm down, and then we pull a spontaneous 2 week European adventure, so we really are asking for it. 

We've also had 2 deaths in our ward this month. Bless my counselors and secretary, who are handing the 2nd funeral sans me. They are the best. We're pretty sure we're going to lose a 3rd person very soon. It's all very sad. We have a good amount of elderly people in our ward, and it's really really sad to see them go. We love them and are so thankful for the wisdom they bring to us. 

Thanks for reading, hope you have a great month ahead!