Europe Overview and Adventures of a Garden Gnome

Just returned from my 3 week trip to Europe where I visited 8 cities: London, Paris, Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, Venice, Barcelona and Spain.

My ranking of the places are as follows:
1) Cinque Terre
2) Venice
3) Paris
4) London
5) Rome
6) Barcelona
7) Sevilla
8) Florence

I had a great time with Grace, Cecilia and Wayne in the first 2/3 of my trip. I traveled a little bit on my own in Spain and met a bunch of other women who were solo travelers from all over the world. It's actually more common amongst women than men. Interesting. People back home were surprised and afraid for me, but these girls just did it on their own without a big fuss. It was pretty cool. However, I realized that I didn't enjoy being by myself. I'd visit a sight and want to share my thoughts with someone about it, but no one was there to turn to. I hated eating by myself most of all. It made me think of what a gift friendship and fellowship is. My best memories of Europe will always be my experiences with other people.

Like when:
1) My foot got ran over by a rat in Rome and Grace freaked out and ran up and down the street with her arms flapping like a crazy woman.
2) Cecilia took the bottle of water from the table next to us in Cinque Terre after the couple had left because we were too cheap to pay for our own water, and she excused herself by saying, "I'm thirsty!" This all made sense to me, so I took a swig, too!
3) I woke up after a nap and Grace said, "You look HELLA nasty. I've never seen you look so bad."
4) We bought salami, crackers, and cheese and ate it in our apartment on a quiet evening in Rome.
5) I fell to the ground after a pigeon flew at my face in Venice and Ceci and I sat there laughing for what felt like a full 20 minutes.

I took over 20 GBs of pictures and it'll take me awhile to sort through and edit them, but here are a few that I took with my gnome, Maximus, who enjoyed himself greatly. =)

At St. Mark's Square in Venice

 There were pigeons EVERYWHERE

 In front of the coliseum in Rome. It was amazing to witness something so ancient and steeped in history

 At the leaning tower of Pisa

 The Vatican museum

 Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona

 Parc Guell in Barcelona

 At a restaurant in Cinque Terre, Italy

 Conquering the leather goods we bought in Florence

 Arc du Triomphe in Paris

 Palace at Versailles

 Lourve Museum in Paris