Amy and the Great World

Travels

Ten Travel Memories

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Don’t we all have those travel moments we look for our whole lives? Isn’t it the best when those moments or places you’ve always heard of completely live up or exceed expectations? Here’s a few of my favorite travel memories that always make me eternally grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to make these moments come to life.

in no particular order, because really, who can choose? it was hard enough to just choose ten!

1. Seeing whales off the coast of Orcas Island, Washington.

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2. Biking in Bruges, Belgium.

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3. The sunrise at Machu Picchu, Peru.

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4. Scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico.

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5. The Loi Krathong Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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6. Zip lining over the jungle in Ecuador.

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7. The Fringe Festival, Scotland.

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8. The Blue Lagoon, Iceland.

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9.  The sunrise at Angkor Wat.

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10.  Panda kindergarten in China.

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What are some of your favorite travel memories? I’d love to hear them!

Linking up with ten favorite things-travel edition!


Endlessly BeLoved

 

 

Switzerland Travels

Zurich {Switzerland}

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It’s the last day of the A to Z Challenge! Whew! It’s been really, really fun although a little difficult to work with my schedule these past few days. Especially since the end of the alphabet has the weirdest letters of all. I mean really, X? Luckily my Chinese name started with an X or else I would have done something along the lines of “eXcitement!” So clever, I know. I mostly loved this challenge, meeting new bloggers and pushing myself to blog about new topics or places I hadn’t considered blogging about before. I was searching for a May challenge, but after this past week I need a few days off! Especially since I ended up getting behind as it was. I hope you’ll be happy to know that I passed my oral thesis (woo!) and now I’m going to get some sleep before I have to write another paper. I hope you enjoy the final letter, Z! 

My first trip abroad (besides a trip to Canada when I was a few months old) was at 15, with my Girl Scout troop, to Switzerland. Not to be dramatic or anything, but Switzerland changed my life.

(Eh, who are we kidding? I totally mean to be dramatic.)

While I’d been obsessed with travel long before Switzerland, thanks to my love of reading (this is really all my parents’ fault), going to Switzerland kind of blew my mind.

Zurich was the first  city I ever found myself loving, as the only cities I’d visited at that point had been in the United States, such as Tucson or San Diego or Fargo, and I loved the country and towns much more at this point. I was surprisingly charmed by Zürich, with its old churches, the blue Lake Zürich, surrounded by mountains. It was so clean and everything was neat and organized, just as you might expect from the Swiss.

I adored the rest of Switzerland, too, and hence my real travel bug started.

Once I saw Switzerland, I knew I had to see more, and I haven’t stopped since.

I hope to go back to Switzerland someday. I know I’ll be seeing it through much more jaded, experienced eyes, but I hope the same joy and wonder I felt as a 15-year-old on her first international trip still surfaces.

Again, who are we kidding?

That same joy and wonder at traveling has never left me, and I have Zürich to thank for a part of that.

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zurich panorama source

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All photos were borrowed from Wikitravel, since it was a decade ago and I didn’t have a camera back then! Especially not a digital one…and since apparently I’m still a few years behind, I don’t have a scanner either. Check below each image for the individual source.

Travels

Places {Some Favorites}

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And now I give you letter P for the A to Z Challenge! Some of my favorite places in the world, in no particular order.

1. Dingle, Ireland. A little town on the Dingle peninsula, with a real-live dolphin as a mascot. It is my plan (when I’m all grown up and my dreams are coming true) to go back there and write a novel! I’d probably be happy to live anywhere in Ireland, really, because, look at this!

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2. Adelboden, Switzerland. An adorable, quintessential Swiss village tucked in the mountains, full of little Swiss gingerbread houses and surrounded by the Alps (and even as someone who grew up in the Rockies, there ain’t nothin’ like the Alps!).

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3. Machu Picchu, Peru. This was one of those places I’d always heard about that completely surpassed my (already high) expectations. Watching this famous mountain rise out of the mist at sunrise was unbelievable.

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4.  Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. Not only was this beautiful, but it was so fun to explore caves, explore the main island, Cat Ba, and even kayak a little!

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5.  Montana. This wide-open, gorgeous state will always have a piece of me, and always, in some way, be “home.”

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6.  The Gulf of Thailand. While on this coast, we stayed with a friend-of-a-friend, who took us to a small island never visited by tourists. It was gorgeous! We also stayed on Koh Tao and learned to scuba dive.

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7.  Vancouver Island, Canada. A perfect corner of the Northwest!

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8.  Henry’s Lake, Idaho. Right on the border of Montana, a perfectly picturesque lake that feels like it hasn’t changed in 100 years.

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9.  Point Loma, San Diego, California. My cousin went to school here: it’s breathtaking!

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10. Isla de la Plata, Ecuador. The poor man’s Galapagos! Includes blue-footed boobies and giant turtles.

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11. Bruges, Belgium. Bruges was everything I could have hoped for from Europe, with amazing food, views, canals (and crowds, unfortunately). We biked, we drank delicious beer, we tried exotic chocolate, we wandered the canals for hours, and we ended up attending a music festival that included roller-skating, a “silent” disco, polka-dancing and a club!

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12. Edinburgh, Scotland. Oh beautiful, beautiful Scotland! E had already visited here, and talked it up quite a bit, and I completely loved it.

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13. Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. Iceland was a last-minute addition due to a layover, and I was surprised at how charmed I was by this island. It’s definitely a unique country, in both the culture and landscape!

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14. Orcas Island, Washington. I obviously have a fondness for this island (and sort of islands in general, apparently).

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15. Rural China. Both rural Sichuan and the area around the Great Wall were incredible.

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I’m  linking up again with Casey’s Fresh Face Friday! It’s her last one for a while, so be sure to check it out!


We Took the Road Less Traveled

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