Europe // 02 // And, we're back!

More than 1 year and 10 months ago, Steven and I tied the knot. We were pretty darn happy that day...

It was incredible to say the least. But at the end of the day, that terrific August 4th, we drove to our humble apartment, yet to be set up, and started life. A honeymoon wasn't out of the budget, however as students we were stingy with how we spent our money. Our decision to skip a honeymoon was more based on the fact that we knew we wanted to go big, and we had neither the time to plan the trip nor the time to go on the trip of our dreams. 

We did stop at Ihop on the way to our apartment though, so I think that counts. We got an entire side of the restaurant to ourselves, and they made me Nutella strawberry crepes that weren't even on the menu. Come on, that's pretty great.

Notice the confetti still in my hair!

And two weeks after we got married we camped at Zion National Park on the way up to Utah, so we felt like that counted too. 

Neither of us felt like we had missed out on anything. Our first few weeks of being married were just as special, if not more. We felt like we were able to focus entirely on us, instead of being distracted by travelling.

Fast forward 1 and a half years, to February of this year, and I had a real job, Steven had 3 part time jobs, we were both finishing up our degrees, and we had time to plan. Yes, planning what we were doing after graduation required our time, but we needed something different. Most everyone knew we had hoped to go to graduate school starting in the fall, Steven for physical therapy and me for occupational therapy, but we found out the hard way that apparently that wasn't the plan for us just yet. 

Basically, we needed a break from real life. 

Cue overdue honeymoon/senior trip/getting bit by the travel bug.

We purchased tickets on March 4th. We were going to Europe from May 19th to June 12th. And then the planning commenced. 

I was sort of in planning heaven actually, this kind of stuff is my forte.

By about mid-March we had a rough itinerary. And by April we had figured out the following:

May 20 - arrival

May 20-May 24 - Republic of Ireland/North Ireland

May 25-May 28 - Edinburgh, Scotland

May 29-May 30 - Glasgow, Scotland

May 31-June 4 - London, England

June 5-June 9 - Paris, France

June 10 - Beauvais, France

June 11 - Dublin, Ireland

June 12 - departure

And thus, the trip of our dreams was born. 

We kept it a secret though, not because it necessarily needed to be a secret, but because we were embarrassed about it. I don't know, should you be embarrassed about these things?

We arrived home safe and sound yesterday. We are now jobless and homeless. But dang it was awesome. And so worth it. 

Don't worry. I'll tell you all about it. But in the mean time, here are a few sneak peak pictures.

{Oh, and the travel itch or travel bug or whatever you want call it, it is real. We can both testify.}