gattisaroundtheworld

Budapest, Hungary 6/26/2016 - 6/30/2016 Budapest started off the right way, with drinking and soccer of course. Our flight from Crete to Budapest was a little stressful as we had to catch an early bus from Bali to Heraklion, about 1 hour, and then get on another bus to the airport which was super confusing and then we found out that the airport was packed, and I mean packed: people were overflowing from the check-in desks to the outside waiting area. Luckily, that was for a different airline and ours was super smooth. We landed in Athens had a nice little break before landing in Budapest in the early evening. We booked an apartment, not through AirBnB but booking.com, and met our host outside of his place on Castle Pony street on the Buda side of ... read more

We didn’t visit the Italian Riviera, we lived there. Great, we got our AirBnB quote out, but we were very fortunate to have lucked out immensely with a truly awesome AirBnB spot. It was a shared room with our own private bathroom, and it was half the price of any hotel in the area. The apartment was located in Chiavari, kind of the commercial hub of the Italian Riviera Levante. We spent six glorious days in the area and really felt like we began to understand the life of the Ligurian people. Chiavari This place simply grew on us. It kind of felt like a younger sibling, as the city had some annoying tendencies, however, deep down you grow to love the place. First, we arrived at 9:55pm, and literally everything was closed. Our first impression ... read more

Rome was a blur, a walking blur. In just over 7 hours we walked 11.5 miles and were able to see everything we had previously missed. Our hotel was located right next to Termini Station, which was convenient because we arrived last night at around 21:00. We had a wonderful night sleep and woke up refreshed and ready to go. Our first mission was to visit Trevi Fountain as it was under construction on our previous trip, so we took off walking with a basic idea of the direction. Thirty minutes later we ended up at the Colosseum, which wasn’t a bad thing. We took in the impressive might of the Roman Empire, still standing strong on the skyline and observed the forum from the cobbled streets. I think what strikes me the most every time ... read more

The Two Coasts: Venice & Sestri Levante Venice: Lets begin with Venice. Our flight from Copenhagen was quick and painless, very different from our previous journey. Throughout our trip we talked about expectations, and how we wanted to take in each new city with a blank canvas and let our experiences paint the picture. For Venice, we cheated a little bit, because of its enchanting existence as the City of Bridges. Our expectations were definitely correct in terms of external beauty, however, the actual city left much to be desired. We began off the right foot, though, as our quaint bed and breakfast, named Albergo Doni, was located in perhaps the most quintessential alley/canal of Venice. Albergo Doni practically oozed Venice in it’s facaded windows dusted with beautiful hanging flowers, its slightly faded ... read more

The City of Roses Our Friends in Toulouse: Before arriving to Paris, we had a great time visiting a friend of Laura’s for the weekend in Toulouse. Martha Lucia (Lulu) was Laura’s friend from high school in Colombia and is currently living with her husband, Fabrice, in Toulouse. The two of them have a delightful 1 year old boy named Matteo. They were kind enough to bring us into their home for two nights and share some very memorable times with us. Our first night we ate a wonderful pizza with white sauce and potato’s and two lonely black olives, but was a pizza we have never tried before. The next day, Lulu took us to see Toulouse, the City of Roses, named so because of it’s pinkish brick buildings. We walked through the Plaza Capitol ... read more