Gina and Christa at the Eiffel Tower in Paris!

Gina and Christa at the Eiffel Tower in Paris!

Hello friends and family! From August 24th-December 11, 2008, Christa and I will be in Europe doing an internship for a travel company, Bus2Alps (www.bus2alps.com). 

During Summer 2007 Christa and I studied abroad in Florence, Italy for 6 weeks.  It was the best decision of our lives and we made the most of our experience by traveling as much as possible and not worrying about spending too much money (lots of debt for me).  During the 6 weeks we traveled to Venice, Rome, Padua, The Amalfi Coast with Bus2Alps (Island of Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii, and Amalfi), and Cinque Terra, all beautiful cities in Italy.  We also went to Interlaken, Switzerland with Bus2Alps (extreme sports capital of the world–for Christa…Gina ate chocolate); Athens and Mykonos Greece (we stayed on a yacht!); and Amsterdam (where we visited Christa’s boyfriend Andy who was studying abroad). 

For the 2 weeks following our study abroad program we backpacked through Europe.  From Florence we took a train to Venice and then another train to Budapest, Hungary to begin our first leg of the trip.  We had the Eurorail pass and encountered our first problem while passing through Slovakia where it was invalid.  Finally we made it to Budapest!  Budapest was such a cool city with its castles and yummy food.  From there we went to Prague where we were able to meet up with Andy again and his friend Matt.  Prague was full of gorgeous architecture, paddle boating on the river, and fun bars.  Next leg of the trip was to Berlin.  At first we weren’t thrilled with the city but eventually found our calling with bike tours, which we decided to do in the rest of the cities we traveled to.  We saw the new baby polar bear, Knut, along with the rest of the sights.  From there we took our next train to Munich, one of our favorite cities (we can’t pick just one favorite!).  In Munich we met up with one of my friends from Naples, Danny Schmeiding, and his friend from Munich, Benji.  Of course we did a bike tour in Munich that lead us to the Hofbrahaus, a hugeeee beer hall!  After Munich we headed to Paris.  Paris consisted of 2 bike tours (night and day), drinking wine and eating bread under the Eiffel Tower during the day, and prepartying with champagne under the Eiffel Tower at night.  Finally, our last leg of the trip, Barcelona.  By this point on our backpacking adventure we were pooped from all of the sightseeing and traveling.  Barcelona was the perfect place to end the trip.  We beached it everyday and got massages from the Asian ladies and stayed in a cool hostel.  From Barcelona we flew back to Florence, slept in a hotel lobby overnight, and made it back to the airport to hop on our flights to America.  This was definitely a shortened version of our trip, but I don’t want to bore you all!

To sum things up, Christa and I just knew we MUST get back to Europe somehow.  We emailed Simon from Bus2Alps in April of 2008.  Not hearing back from him for a couple months was discouraging and we looked for other job opportunities somewhere in Europe, hopefully in Florence.  After pretty much giving up, Simon wrote us back in mid June telling us he had 2 positions available in the Fall! Included in the internship is an apartment with 2 other American kids, money for food, and weekend travel expenses to different places in Europe.  We have achieved the best possible situation we could ask for and are extremely grateful and excited!