Europe Trip!

Wow! I can’t believe I am already back home from Europe. It was so amazing!! It was definitely the best vacation I have ever been on. The last day of school, my Dad flew into Boston to pick me up. I was so glad he came here, because doing my first international flight by myself would’ve been a little scary. The flights were long, but not really as bad as I thought they would be. But, once we got there, I was definitely glad to be on the ground. My sister Kelly and my mom flew from California, and my brother Michael and sister Christine flew from Chicago because they were at school too. We all met in Austria, and our trip began!

We spent the first six days of our trip in Salzburg, Austria. That was definitely my favorite place. Our hotel was right by the center of town that had a big Advent Mart for the holidays. That was a really cool place to walk around at night. Our time in Austria was very laid back, since we had so much time there. My sister Christine and I found it hard to adjust to the time zone, so we took what became known as our “post-lunch laps” every day. We got into a really nice routine there that made it feel a lot like home. Every day we would find somewhere new to walk around, and just take in the sights, then we would go to the grocery store or the Advent mart for meals, and then come back to our hotel and just spend time together. One of my favorite memories there was walking to Auniff, a small town nearby where my dad lived in college. We got to walk through parts of Austria that were in “The Sound of Music.” That was really cool. Another great memory of Austria was Christmas. We got a little tree from the Advent mart and brought it up to our hotel room. We obviously didn’t have lights or ornaments, so we improvised with ornaments made of wrapping paper. It was so much fun making the ornaments and listening to Christmas music. Even though it was a very different Christmas, it is definitely one of my favorite ones.

We then spent most of the rest of our trip in Rome. Rome was very different from what I expected. I was only picturing all the historic stuff I’ve seen in pictures or on TV. I wasn’t expected to also be such a big modern city as well. There were so many people on the streets all the time. It was crazy. I still really liked it though. One of my

favorite places was the Vatican. It was so awesome going to mass in St. Peter’s and seeing the Pope speak. I think that is something every Catholic should get to experience someday.

Overall, the trip was incredible! But, the best part about it was just getting to spend time with my family. Now that all my siblings and I are older, it is very rare when we are all together. It was really nice to be away with them, with no other distractions like work and other friends. It was just family time, and I loved it.

That will definitely be a trip that I remember for the rest of my life. And now it’s almost time to head back to the Hill. I do have a couple weeks here in California, and I plan to make the most of them, because I won't be back until March!