Amanda Blog and Kiss

Today is the last day in Edinburgh before flying home to Amsterdam, and it’s been a great few days just relaxing with the parents.

This video was made on a night that we got very drunk, and had many laughs.  Enjoy!

And then just like that, life picks you up and steals away with you at a running pace.

Where to even begin?

This month I have been either a) lucky enough, or b) stoopid enough to book myself in for three different trips abroad.  Ireland and Milan have come and gone, and in two days I leave for Edinburgh to spend some quality time with my parents who are there for a few weeks.

This fills me with much anticipation and joy.

I know I’m not the only one afflicted with a wicked case of Insectis Travellitis, but this year it seems to have hit me pretty hard.  I wrote up a list of places I want to hit this year and it was a staggering 19 places!  That is 19 different trips in 12 little months.  The dogsitting costs alone would kill me.

Suffice to say, two trips are down, one looms on this week’s horizon, and several have been cancelled due to various reasons (for instance…it’s maybe not the best time to drop in and say hi to Egypt. “What up EGYPT! Holla atcha girl!“).

But still, there are about eight more destinations in which I definitely and seriously intend to plant my feet this year, mostly weekend trips around Europe.  We’ll see what my boss says about that.

Oh, and my bank account!

Moving on the the point of this blog post: my trip to Milan.

Angela and I spent a quick weekend away there and I have to say, Milan pretty much made me love it.  I tried not to, I really did.  But a scant few hours after uttering the haughty line, “You know, Milan isn’t really a city you fall in love with, is it?” I found myself on a rooftop terrace, tipsy on lunch-time wine and watching the sun set over the incredibly impressive Duomo, thinking “Well damn.”

Rooftop Sunset Lunch next to Duomo (photo by Angela's Hipstomatic)

I guess I done up and fell in love with Milan.

For a play-by-play account of what we got up to (and what you should see if you’re going) go read Angela’s post on her blog.  Her photos are stunning and she has graciously let me borrow a few for this post.  How’s that for a true friend?

A vegan and a celiac go to Milan. SO WHO EATS THE COOKIES?!?! (photo by Angela)

I'm a leetle tea-pot! (Photo by Angela)

"Nothing comes between me and my gelato. NOTHING!" She really said that, and then growled at me.

Ain't gonna lie. We did a lot of this the first night...

...until we got a bit blurry....

On top of Duomo (a serious climb) (photo by Angela. Oh hell, just assume she took all of these.)

Not what I ordered. Not it at all. How do you say "Take this foul thing away" in Italian?

Stretch me as much as you like, I'll never be as tall as this 700 year old piece of amazingness.

Bee-yoo-tee-ful architecture. No one does it like the Eye-talians.

Angela was too decent to do this in front of the castle, but I ain't too proud to jump.

Speaks for itself. If it doesn't Angela won't mind speaking for it....for real, that girl can talk for 36 hours STRAIGHT! I was counting!

Fun Girly Weekend Away! Highly Recommended as a Girly Trip Destination by the 2 of us.

So, I think that’s enough photos of me to whet your whistle. You can thank Ange for those, she sufficiently fed into my narcissism due to lack of any other person to take a photo of.  Thanks Ange!  That’s what you get when you travel, party of two (and only one of whom has a good camera)!

I had a blast and it both inspired me and left me wanting more travel, more trips, more great time with friends.

And one last thing, because you knew it had to happen:

LITTLE THINGS!

Kleine Keuken!!! Bitty baby kitchenettes!