Travel Thursday | Mediterranean Adventure

It's been exactly a week since we've arrived home from our 17-day Mediterranean adventure. Emotions (and I mean my emotions) are a little down since returning from our best journey yet. We traveled over 16,000 miles on land, in the air, and over the sea to visit 8 different countries
and so many different cities. This was definitely a vacation we will never forget, and I'm so happy we decided to take a chance and go for it.

Our trip began in Austin, Texas where we traveled for a total of 25 hours, on four different flights, to Barcelona, Spain. We endured little to no sleep (& comfort,) and even experienced the worst flight of our lives. But after all of the discomfort, we realized, it was totally worth it. My pockets and bank account are empty, but my heart is completely full. Well, not completely full actually. The experiences were so wonderful, but I definitely feel like pieces of my heart were left across the world. Coming home I felt more depressed than I have from any other trip. I think because during a road trip you're gradually leaving a place, but when you're flying, one minute you're there, and the next you're gone. It felt like I was just on the cruise ship in Venice, then I blinked and now I'm back home. It doesn't really feel like I was in another continent, taking a look back into time through the rich history of these cities. But, I crossed off a few bucket list destinations, and every time I close my eyes, I'm reliving those moments.

Some of the memorable places we saw / visited were:

Barcelona, Spain

- La Sagrada de Famila

- Camp Nou Stadium

- Picasso Museum

France

- Port city life in Toulon

Italy

- Piazza dei Miracoli

      + Leaning Tower of Pisa

      + Pisa Cathedral

      + Pisa Baptistry

- The Colosseum

- Arch of Constantine

- The location of the Ides of March

- Vatican City

      + Sistine Chapel

- Mt. Vesuvius

- Pompeii

- The beautiful city of Venice

      + San Simeon Piccolo Church

Greece

- The picturesque city of Mykonos

      + Church of Panagia Paraportiani

      + The windmills

- The Acropolis

- The Parthenon

- The temple of Zeus

- The first Olympic Stadium

Montenegro

- The gorgeous port city of Kotor

         + Castle of San Giovanni

Croatia

- Dubrovnik Medieval "Old Town"

      + Filming sites of Game of Thrones Season 2

We were able to get just a "snapshot" of each place on our cruise with the next destination being just as beautiful as the last. I long to go back to explore these places even further. But, there's no doubt that each city has already left a hole in my heart (especially Mykonos, Kotor, and Venice!) A few tears were said during our goodbye to Europe, but I know it's not a farewell forever. I will be back, someday.

Here are some (there's quite a lot actually) of my favorite shots from our 17-day Mediterranean adventure...

❀Riah