AMSTERDAM AND BRUGES ON THE WAY TO THE DOLOMITES

Hi! It's been a while! Jonathan and I have been home since the end of April and kind of neglected to keep the blog updated. Oops!

For the first month or so, we were busy with a wedding in NY, catching up with family and friends in LA and SF, meeting the newest addition to the family (my niece!), and just catching our breathe from being away for so long. But all we can really say is...it's good to be home. :)

One of my best friends, Allie (Yes, we have the same name. Yes, it gets confusing sometimes but if there is anyone I could share my name with, it would be her.), has lived in Amsterdam for the past 2.5 years and we had yet to visit her after all this time. She would say, "You've gone everywhere but haven't visited me!! Hurry up before I move back to LA!". So we did it, finally! We made our way out to Europe in July and road tripped with Allie and her boyfriend, Jason, for two weeks, then headed over to Iceland before coming home. 

It'll take a couple posts, but we're excited to share what we've been up to. Enjoy!

July 8, 2016 - July 10, 2016

After our annual Jung July 4th BBQ to celebrate Jonathan's dad's birthday, we made our way to Amsterdam. Is it weird to say that I kinda missed the airport? Or maybe it's just the excitement of going somewhere new and wondering where the person next to you is going? 

Jason is the proud owner of an old Dutch fire van that its previous owner converted into a campervan. Our goal for the next two weeks was to adventure around Europe and that's exactly what we did. 

After settling in for a day in Amsterdam, we hit the road by way of Bruges, Belgium, to meet up with Allie's stepdad Mike for a good Belgian meal consisting of mussels, fries, cherry beers, waffles, and truffles. When in Belgium, right? (Excuse the small pic :) )

With a long drive ahead of us over the next couple of days, we decided to drive as far as we could that day. We ended up at small campsite just outside of Bonn, Germany, where we were greeted by a closed reception desk, a grumpy old man who told us they were fully booked, and a bar. So...we had beers and a pretzel, and with nowhere else to go, we slept in the parking lot of the campsite. Not gonna lie, I was worried we were going to get in trouble and couldn't sleep much the whole night, every time I heard someone walking outside, I thought for sure it was someone telling us we couldn't stay. 

I actually got a little nostalgic while we were driving through Bonn. I studied abroad here when I was in college almost 10 years ago! Had we planned a little better, I could have shown everyone my old stomping grounds and even stopped to say hello to some friends. Next time, for sure!

We woke up at around 5:30AM and got the heck out of there. Just before crossing into Austria, Jason pointed out Neuschwanstein Castle off in the distance and we decided to make a pit stop for lunch. Of course, we couldn't help but to squeeze in a quick photoshoot before moving on.

Next stop ... which we'd all been waiting anxiously for ... The Dolomites!!