3 Countries 12 days| Spain Italy Slovenia

Europe: Spain | Italy | Slovenia

Usually I do these blogs and I give all kinds of insider info. Where to hike, how long, what the hike looks like along the way, etc, etc. This time I went to Europe with no plans. Seriously. But this one is just beautiful photos and my husband and I’s experience of incredibly underrated countries. 

When you have a 6 hour delay … you train! And look at that my first straight leg handstand! Thanks, I guess, Norwegian for the delay.

Fake sleeping vs real sleeping. Not much of a difference…

Everything was SO cheap compared to America. You guys massive pizzas were $9 fresh out of a brick oven. Sit down for this one… coffee and wine were about the same price… never over $1.80! Bottles of insanely good wine were about $4-$5. Ok I’m moving tomorrow. 

Spain: Barcelona | Costa Brava

Barcelona. Quite possibly the MOST clean city I’ve ever seen. After Norwegian was kind enough to get us to Spain 6 hours late we got in very hungry with few options. There was a place 2 miles, 18 minutes away. I thought Vegas had a lot of lights… There was one at every block then 3-6 in between that!! Whaaaaat! My only complaint of that city. 

They had stopped serving food by the time we got there but with enough begging they said we had the option of Lasagna or pizza. 5 out of 6 got the lasagna and 1 got pizza. Sangria was $4 and so so good. I took one bite of my lasagna… O. M. G!!! Hands down best lasagna I’ve ever had and definitely top 3 meals. That crust on the pizza was seriously one of the most perfect crusts I’ve ever had. We actually went back 2 days later, our last night there, for lunch! The kitchen couldn’t have been bigger than 75 sq’. The dining room only had 5 tables it was so cute and quaint. 

Zeeeeee Mediterranean Sea! Funny story the 2 days we were there I never even touched the water… don’t know if it was warm or cold or what… oops.

La Sagrada Familia is obviously insanely beautiful. We saw it from outside at night and if it you catch it before midnight, I believe, it’s lit up and way more cooler than during the day. Just can’t go in.

Gothic District was MUCH busier than the Sant Marti area by the beach that we stayed but SO SO cool!

Off to Costa Brava.

Our view for breakfast every morning.

How cute is this room and check out that view.

We wanted to see so much more but we were photographing a wedding in Costa Brava and that was our main focus. Oh well, guess we’ll have to go back! (check out my fav photos from the wedding!)

destination wedding in costa brava spain near barcelona

destination wedding in costa brava spain near barcelona

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Italy: Venice | Dolomites

I was NOT expecting Venice to be so insanely hot and humid. It was quite gross and extremely over crowded. I’ll put this out there, I’m not a fan of tourist cities… though I live in Las Vegas and love it. Ha! We started venturing away from the main area into smaller side streets and it was MUCH more enjoyable. Far less people and the gorgeous architecture I’d been looking for. It was very expensive and too many English words for me. Water taxis is your only form of transportation and they’re pricey!!

Bridge of Sighs. To the left was the court to the right was the jail. When people were convicted they would go over the bridge. There’s 2 windows so that they can see the city one last time before they go behind bars.

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The Dolomites are officially my new favorite place on earth. The mountains are incredible, they’re all jagged and rugged like they have millions of stories dug deep into the mountain tops. 

I was so overwhelmed looking up hikes in the Dolomites. It was the thing I was most looking forward to and I got bummed out. What the hell is a refugio? Also what the f is a via ferrata!? (Refuge aka large home, small hotel with food and sleeping accommodations. That other weird word means trail)

Expect these bathrooms at the refugios. You can tell from my face that I was not given that same warning… squatty potty.

We chose 3 places we wanted to see and didn’t set it in stone. I’m so glad we didn’t make a ton of plans. The 3 hour drive from Venice to Val Gardena turned into over 6 hours because you literally don’t even have to hike to get insanely gorgeous mountain views. Just drive and pull over along the way. 

These are literally from just pulling off at the first “bar” (cafe) we saw… I can’t handle how beautiful and I seriously miss having that delicious cappuccino every day.

Views from our hotel room in Val Gardena!! It was $60/ night for an entire apartment with these views!

1/2 mile trail to get to see all this.

Me most of the trip… being denied love from random cats.

A gorgeous but stupid hike. I wasn’t feeling well this day. I don’t know if it was altitude sickness or what. So we took it easy up this hike. I mistook meters for feet… so the incline was MUCH bigger than we expected. I didn’t think I was going to make it the last 1/4 mile, no joke it was a 45 degree angle the whole way up. So I prayed and I turned on “fear is a liar” by Zach Williams and played it over and over until I made it. It was so worth it. Ross and I’s favorite hike to date. It was pretty emotional. Not dying then seeing Jesus slumped over on the cross at the top. We had time for 5 photos and a 8 second drone video then we RAN back down for 30 minutes because I was terrified of getting eaten by wolves. I had serious shin splints for 2 days.

The clouds literally changed like this within minutes if not seconds.

 

This lake!!!

For this photo I leaned over between people took a 2 second shot with my phone and there’s no editing. That’s how naturally beautiful this place is!!

You drive almost to the mountain tops and this hike to get here is maybe 1.5 miles and not that steep. $30 to drive up. Pay it. SO worth it so you have more time up there. They actually have 3 refugios up here with food and wine. Only 1 was open when we went and until 8!

I’m 99% sure this was the most fascinating sunset I’ve ever seen.

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We got to drive on the famous Autobahn. The speed limit signs were just a circle… meaning no max. Or so we thought. At the end of our trip we found out that each country has it’s own maximum speed limit, Germany is the only one thats a free for all. So while Ross was having fun in his little Mr. Bean car doing 170km come to find out Italys main speed is 130… so you can go up to that. We’ve yet to receive a ticket. Keeping our fingies crossed. 

Slovenia

Talk about a seriously underrated country! Do you guys realize this is between Croatia and Austria so it has magical waterfalls with behemoth mountains!! I wanted to keep all these gems to myself because it was nice that it wasn’t overrun with tourists (aka more of me)

This receipt from Slovenia: wine- 1.50 cappuccino- 1.80 lasagna- 6.80 and it was enough that Ross and I shared.

Sometimes I try to be cool like Ross and take photos. He’s a little better than me… 

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Downtown Slovenia.

Predjama Castle.

Postonja Caves.

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Ok how amazing is this waterfall!? AND there was a few minutes we had this place all to ourselves. Magical. I tried so hard to make it across to the other side but by the time I was halfway the water was to my knee and within 1 minute I lost the feeling in my feet because the water was so frigid. 

Did some digging and found this slightly less traveled gorge. Obviously, SO glad I did.

Lake Bled. Church on the lake. Views from the castle.

Our little car that took us all over Europe.