cpiers47's VirtualTourist Home Page

June 2009 Update: to follow my move from Montana to Italy (via a whole lot of other places!) check out my blog or the travelogue below.

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I spent 3 weeks during the summer of 2008 backpacking around Europe - new places (Vienna and London) and a few of my favorites (Florence, Venice, Munster and Munich). I'll admit I was a backpacker only in the sense that I carried my things in a backpack. I would like to think that I could be a serious backpacker who camps and can live out of a pack for weeks. But, when I'm completely honest, I much prefer the warmth a private room and a daily shower. The trip was marvelous: I experienced my first VT meet with the delightful, faithful VTers of Vienna - can't wait to meet more of you!

I logged my Summer trip to Europe in a blog on Budget Travel's website.

Stop by if you're curious!

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My pages are always in the process of being completed, especially this year when it seems that the time between trips is just long enough to get ready for the next one! Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about any of the places I've visited so far.

After a few years "off" from traveling (trust me, it was an unwelcome break!), I'm delighted to be spending so much time traveling recently.

June 2007 - Ireland
Galway, Inis Mor, Connemara, Roundstone, Kildare and Dublin
Pages complete for the most part although I've just gotten a few more pics.

August 2007 - California
San Francisco, Roseville, Hughson, Berkeley, San Jose
Meeting up with friends I haven't seen since we lived in Italy together!

November 2007 - Paris!
I'm still working on tips for this one. . .so many fantastic Paris pages out there that mine are dwarfed. But, Paris was an amazing city that I can't wait to see again.

December 2007 - Arizona
Scottsdale, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, Grand Canyon
Weather at Christmas was much nicer than in Bozeman!

March 2008 - Italy and France
Paris, Milan, Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
What a fantastic trip! This was my foray into the world of trip chaperoning. We traveled by foot, train, metro, bus and plane and enjoyed every minute of it.

June 2008 - Italy, Germany, Austria, UK
Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice, Verona, Munich, Vienna, Muenster, London
Thankfully, I was grateful to not be traveling with students on this one! I used the "excuse" of a friend's wedding in Muenster to backpack around a bit.

July 2008 - US East Coast: Connecticut, Boston, Cape Cod, New York State
Immediately upon my return to the US, I headed out on a road trip with my mom. The two of us ate oysters until we were practically bivalves and had a great time!

Christmas 2009 - Arizona
An amazing and restful Christmas and New Year's in the desert and by the pool. Check out our desert ride.

January 2009 - London
A long weekend in a city I fell in love with this summer! After being productive and earning my dream job for next year, I got to celebrate by enjoying the city with a good friend.

March 2009 - Rome & Pompeii, Italy the Peloponneses & Athens, Greece
My first trip to Greece was in the company of 15 of my students. It was fantiastic to watch another group of teenagers wake up from "normal" life and fall in love with travel! The students I traveled with last spring still talk about the trip. Every so often one wanders into my room on a gray day and says, "I wish I were in Florence right now." This year, my students were enamoured with Greece, especially some of the smaller towns we visited. After recovering from a dreadully inconvenient bout of food poisoning, I had a great time, too!

July 2009 - NYC and Kentucky
I've been meaning to visit a good friend near Lexington for years now. My unusual itinerary will take from Michigan to NYC to Kentucky before I head back to Michigan. Oh, and in NYC I'll have the fantastic chance to see Jovanotti - twice! It's my first "groupie" trip; until now, I've let the concerts come to me. This will be a great chance to visit the Big Apple again, too.

Summer 2009 - The Big Move!
In the move of a lifetime, I'm heading to Trieste, Italy for a new job. I can't wait!

I've lived with pale skin and freckles for the past 25 years and finally got a chance to blend in on last summer's trip to Ireland. I can't trace my Irish roots but felt at home all the same. I traveled with Mary - we've been friends since kindergarten - and we had a marvelous time touring a bit of the country. At the end, we met up with Anna, who spent all of last spring in an internship at the Irish National Stud Farm in Kildare.

Highlights of the Trip:
The Long Room at Trinity College
The Sunset over the Liffy
Driving through Connemara
Roundstone
Biking on Inis Mor

I will readily admit that some of my best travel ideas come from books and movies. When I was 17, we watched A Room with a View over Thanksgiving break and my mom and I looked at each other and said, "What about going to Italy?" We'd booked the tickets before my dad returned to object. That was the beginning of me as a traveler. . .

Italy
A Room with a View
Tea with Mussolini
Only You
Chasing Liberty
Roman Holiday
3 Coins in the Fountain
The students who traveled with me to Italy last spring were thrilled to report that they recognized Siena in Quantum of Solace!

France
Amelie
French Kiss
A Good Year
Paris J'taime
The Valet
2 Days in Paris

Ireland
Once
The Matchmaker

There are so many great books too! Playing for Pizza by John Grisham is a nice break, and I and really enjoyed reading his descriptions of Parma. The Broker is another Grisham book the blends the plot with its Italian setting. When we returned from that first trip to Italy, my 17 year old self carefully read Forster's A Room with a View with pencil in hand, carefully labelling the places that we'd seen that were also in his descriptions. I look at those notes now and smile - there's something so innocent in my enthusiasm!

So many fantastic people have entered my life during my travels and so meeting new people continues to be my favorite part of any trip.

In Italy, 25 of us were thrown together thanks to the nature of the courses we were taking. We lived together, took classes together, traveled together, fought and made up like a huge family for 3 months.

When Ireland became an option last spring, the first phone call I made was to a friend I've known since we were 5 and not eating paste together in kindergarten. Knowing that I was asking her to take a trip that would mean skipping a week of her pre bar exam class (yeah, the big bar exam that means you get to practice law), I wasn't overly confident of her answer. I waited, full of hope, as she said, "I'm going to have to think about it. . .for at least a half an hour." Ten minutes later she called me back and we simultaneously booked our trip!

In Paris, I had traveled with a coworker for a work conference. We were with a group of 30+ teachers, some of whom were seasoned travelers and others of whom fell asleep sitting up at the dinner table! The first night, there were only 4 of us not ready for bed at 8pm and we spent the next 3 days earning the label of "The Wild Ones." It was a marvelous time. . .and fairly tame.

This last trip, I was with a group of my students. Some people may shudder at the thought of traveling 1) in a group and 2) with teenagers. .. but I was mostly excited to watch them see Europe for the first time. And, I was very prepared to be the chaperone camped out in the hallyway to deter late night rendevouz between my 17 year old blonde American girls and any Italian men they manage to attract!

But, as so often happens, the trip was nothing like I'd expected and infinitely better. The girls erred on the side of caution when it came to the good-looking French and Italians, preferring to enter yet another cathedral instead of shopping. No, I didn't get much sleep. But, I was able to enjoy visits to some of my favorite places. . .and to watch my students fall in love with those same cities. My job is pretty cool.

Teaching has brought me to a small town near Bozeman, Montana. One of the things I really must do in the next year is create some really decent Bozeman pages as my VT contribution. I'm ashamed that people who come through on short trips have much better Bozeman pages than I do!

MikeBird's Misc Forum question about Unplanned but Magical Travel Experiences got me thinking. A few of the following were planned, of course, but no less magical than those upon which we stumbled.

And, they are in no particular order. I couldn't possibly choose!

Roundstone, Connemara, Ireland
I was able to choose our West Coast destinations of Inis Mor and Connemara. I wanted to visit Roundstone for years, so much so that rounding the turn to glimpse the village for the first time felt strangely like coming home.

Easter Sunday in Florence
We dragged ourselves awake and braved the crowds, finding a perfect place in Piazza del Duomo to watch every minute.

Paris in November
A perfect example of how the best trips can't really be planned. In Paris for work, 4 of us met on Friday and spent the next three days lighting up the City of Lights.

Calcio Storico Fiorentino
I wax poetic about this fairly violent sporting event in another travelogue. This was one of those "unplanned but magical" experiences.

A Snow Day in London
Recently, I had the joy of celebrating a new adventure with a special winter day in a city not entirely used to snow!

Yellowstone National Park in Winter
We had a fantastic time exploring the snowy magic of the Park in winter. As it is closed to most traffic, we rented snowmobiles and joined a tour group. I'm still working on the travelogue for this one.

The Montana Spring Horse Drive
One travelogue isn't enough for my pictures of this amazing day. I have an entire "Leaving List" of things to do before I move from Montana. The Horse Drive was a very "Montana" event that we absolutely loved!

And?
More to come as I look back through my travels.