The Finale

Alright everyone, the adventure has pretty much come to an end. Our last night in Paris involved being anti-EuroSavers as we said screw it and found a nice French restaurant to have a memorable last dinner at (who cares about English food?) since we received the great news that Hallie got an A+ (+?!) on one of her hardest courses! Four courses, including a tray with 15 stinky French cheeses as a treat before our dessert. 

Melt in your mouth boef

Stinky (tasty) cheese tray

chocolat 

We would like to wrap things up with our take on pros and cons of Europe and things we can’t wait to get back to doing in the US of A even though we assume a lot of these are associated with travel, we still miss them. 

Europe Pros:

Better public transportation - This goes for within cities as well as intercity travel. Our experience with the train system through 10 different countries was fantastic and it made our whole trip easy and worthwhile. We will also give EuRail a nod here as their pass saved us countless frustrations and easily over $1500 each. 

Cheap wine - Throughout France, Spain and Italy, you can find amazing wines between €1-3/bottle. Ridiculous. We are drinking a Bordeaux on the train to London as we are typing this!

Cheap food - Typical if you are eating the local cuisine. Huge emphasis in Spain on this one. Especially in Madrid, you can eat and drink like a king for dirt cheap. 

Restaurant etiquette - No one ever rushes you. Ever. Every time we ate in every single country we were in no one gave us a bill until we asked for one. This was great for times where we just wanted to relax and plan the next step. Never getting hassled is a great feeling. 

History - Pretty self explanatory here. Oldest things in USA go back a few hundred years. We saw plenty of stuff dating back a few thousand years. 

Architecture - This goes along with the history pro. Also, it was great how you could cross a border and every country had their own distinct feel and influences. 

Diversity - We go our entire lives only hearing one language from one nationality. In Europe everyone is always traveling and walking down the streets of any city you will hear dozens of different languages and see people from all walks of life. 

Quality of wine/food - People clearly take their food and drink seriously over here. Nothing is mass produced, nothing is processed. Extreme care is taken when preparing and serving foods and nearly every place you will find is this way. You can obtain extremely high quality food items at the most unassuming places. 

Ease of travel - No border checks, no security lines, no hassle. You can freely travel from country to country to country without any type of inconvenience. 

Tax and service inclusion - What you see on menus is what you pay. No tipping and no added taxes after your bill is presented make things straight forward and simple.

Energy - Don’t mean to sound like too much of a hippie here, but energy efficiency is much better in the “nicer” hotels and most of the places we stayed. For instance, all lights in common areas are automatic and you have to insert your card key to turn on any lights in your room. They are obviously addressing this issue much more effectively than we are in the states. 

Europe Cons:

Pay for water - You typically have to order water at restaurants, and it is typically more expensive than wine or beer depending on the country. However, learning this the hard way, we understand this may be more of a standard precaution for travelers. 

Smoking - Way more people smoke, and they blow it in your face. I reserved the right to blow back in their face whenever this happened. Unnecessary. 

Bathroom fees - In some countries (France and Germany, most notably)  you have to pay fees or obtain codes to use bathrooms. This includes restaurants, cafes, train stations - basically anywhere. They are clearly very sensitive about their restrooms. All the hassle and they still can’t keep their t.p. stocked. 

Walking on sidewalks - There is clearly a more “laid back” lifestyle in Europe, however people have no idea how to share a sidewalk. After about a week or so and several cities down, people would literally walk straight into you, so we would walk straight back into them. 

Entertainment - Try watching local television entertainment in any of these countries. Bad stuff. Movies and music are of the same caliber. Appreciate the commercialization of the US for this reason. 

Naples, Italy - Please refer to “Derailed” post. 

Wireless internet - Why? It is 2013 and all but 5% of where we were, be it at our hotels, restaurants, even Starbucks, had dial-up quality internet that doesn’t reach more than 10 feet past the router even though WiFi was an advertised inclusion. This is extremely unacceptable, especially when trying to plan a trip day by day. Seriously, 2013. 

Coffee - We didn’t realize how American coffee is, but all Europeans drink is espresso and espresso derivative drinks. While we can appreciate the (usual) higher quality, sometimes you can’t beat a large cup of joe. 

To go items - This goes along with coffee and the “laid back” lifestyle, but virtually nothing is taken out of a restaurant or cafe. Occasionally we would like to walk with our coffee, or not stand in a busy cafe with our giant packs. 

Dinner time - This varies immensely by country, but many restaurants are only open whenever the locals eat. Sometimes this is 9pm, sometimes 11pm, sometimes 7pm. We usually had to figure this out the hard way looking for restaurants and having everything either closed or too packed for an available table. 

Hotels - Granted we were on a tight budget and booked bottom of the barrel hotels, but the hotel size was far too small. Some were way below even motel standards in the US with old medieval type of keys for our rooms. Again, 2013 people. Get some swipe keys. 

Soliciting - Yes, we were in plenty of touristy areas, but the solicitation was disgusting at some points. The majority of time I would try to make friends for Hallie, but some of the time it was overwhelming at how many people were trying to get you into their restaurants or buy their little trinkets/junk. We can’t remember how many times we heard “ONE EURO, ONE EURO, ONE EURO!!!” Ugh.

Credit card acceptance - Another “IT IS 2013!” statement. We found ourselves in a tight spot several different times where places you would assume would take credit cards did not accept them. People were usually disgusted by the fact we wanted to use them. This was an issue in multiple large cities and well established locations, not the smaller ones as you would expect. 

Things We Can’t Wait To Get Back To:

Pots of coffee

Communication with the world (texting, calling, email, FB, etc.)

Regular exercise

Guitars

Reliable internet

Not eating out / home cooked meals

Comfortable beds

Available laundry
Haircuts

Pets

Being on the same (relative) time schedule as everyone we know

Normal entertainment accessibility (shows, movies, music)

Work and school (weird, huh?)
Dry cleaning

Being able to understand people, menus, signage around us

Daily routines

Being comfortable with (and not paying for) tap water

Not having to worry where every possession is at every second of the day

Living out of a dresser, closet and bedroom instead of a backpack

Being a local, not a tourist 

And most importantly - seeing, talking and catching up with all of you friends and family following this!

Almost caught a bus back home!! (pronounced sahn-cloo)

We hope you all have shared even a fraction of the excitement we have had along our ridiculous adventures. As much fun as traveling around Europe has been, it has only solidified our patriotism as Americans. U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!!! We can’t wait to get back to all of you! <3

Dancing our way back to the hotel in Paris in the snow! Au revoir, Europe!