The End

Miles walked:

Total: 460.69

Daily average: 7.31

Average steps per day: ~15,000

Most miles walked in one day: 20.45 (Venice)

Favorite country:

Sarah and Jay: Italy, but that's not entirely fair since we spent the most time there. Though Jay enjoyed being able to communicate in France.

Favorite single thing:

Sarah: The stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle

Jay: The British Museum

Favorite experience:

Sarah: Dinner in Tivoli, me looking at a waterfall, Jay looking at a Roman temple

Jay: The first day in Rome when we were wandering in to churches.

Most surprising thing:

Sarah: My birthday party!

Jay: The Duomo in Orvieto

Other surprises:

How much we loved Budapest

How much Sarah loved Rome

How easy it was to eat in Italy

How big the Eiffel tower is (Sarah)

Most impressive:

Sarah: The mosaics in Ravenna

Jay: The Hungarian Parliament

Favorite city:

Sarah: London (well, duh)

Jay: Budapest

Favorite random discovery:

Sarah: The bookshop with the Dalek's in London.

Jay: Making friends with the baker in Budapest.

Favorite meal:

Sarah: Does gelato count? Otherwise, our lunch at the little place in Verona with the Amarone risotto.

Jay: Fish pasta in Bolsena

Most aggravating moment:

Sarah: Jay, attempting to navigate in Italy.

Jay: Sarah, not making up her damn mind about a souvenir in Venice.

Worst moment of the trip:

Sarah and Jay: The hour spent thinking we wouldn't have a car.

Thing we'll miss the most about Europe:

Sarah: Gelato and 1 euro coffee.

Jay: The abundance of really good bread

Both: Awesome cheap wine

Things we're most excited to get back to in the U.S.

Sarah: A wider selection of clothes.

Jay: GOOD PILLOWS

Some thoughts:

One of the interesting things about a trip of this length is that, even if you're still having a wonderful time, once you get to the end you are ready for it. I'm just as excited to go home as I was to come to Europe. No joke.

The last two months have been incredible. It's been a true once-in-a-lifetime experience. Grad school was stressful and did a number of me, but over the last two months, through the lens of travel, I've had the chance to discover the person that I've become, and I'm pleased with what I found. The last five years made me a stronger, more confident person and taught me to look at the world through the eyes of a scientist. This trip helped me remember how to look at the world through the eyes of a writer, a photographer, a consummate hobbyist. It also reminded me the reason I went to graduate school in the first place: I truly love to learn. I can rally up fascination for just about any subject you put in front of me.

Jay and I have learned more about each other, at a point when we'd thought there wasn't much left to learn, and I think we love each other more for it. We've generated a life time of memories, and I'm so glad that I've had this blog as a place to set them down, so that we can look back in future years.

I've had the vacation of a lifetime and I'm ready to get back to the real world. Time to return to the world. We have a lot of exciting stuff ahead of us: job hunting, figuring out where to move next, buying a new car; and those are only the adventures that we can anticipate.

Thanks for reading.