the post you have all been waiting for

if you haven't completely forgotten. i KNOW, this is way past due. i've been home from my study abroad for more than a month. how have i not posted pictures yet?? i'm sorry!! i really have been super busy. BUT, without further ado, heeere are some of my favorite memories from my trip! better late than never, right?

istanbul, turkey. boat tour on the bosphorus river. one side of the river was europe, the other side was asia. istanbul was our first stop. after being on an airplane for a total of 17 hours, and getting close to NO sleep, we toured the city for the day. it was a rough day, to say the least! the second day we were even more tired than the first, if that's possible. but our spirits were lifted with this beautiful boat tour. fresh air and a private boat! fun fun.

hilary and i inside the "blue mosque" (sultanahmet mosque is its real name). we saw amazing mosques such as this and the famous hagia sophia. mosques everywhere and the call to prayer five times a day characterized istanbul.

i got to tie a couple knots in a real turkish rug! those rugs are beautiful. that rug will be 3x5 feet, and it will take about two years to complete.

the view from our hotel in istanbul was incredible! we spent every night up there enjoying it. our next stop was kusadasi, a port town in southern turkey. from there we went to ephesus, which was amazing!

view from our hotel room in kusadasi. not bad, eh? after spending a few days in kusadasi, we took a boat to the greek isle of patmos. yes, the same patmos where john was imprisoned and wrote the book of revelation in the bible!

this little girl was one of my favorite people on the trip! seriously. she is so funny and i just love her to pieces (our teacher's daughter). after spending the night in patmos, we took another boat to santorini, the holy grail of all greek islands. it was better than in the movies!!

our incredible pool at our hotel in santorini!

our obsession with gyros and the "fat kids club" begins. after a few fabulous days in santorini, it was off to athens for us.

parthenon, on the acropolis in athens.

now THIS was a sunset.

fat kids club in full swing.

church in athens!

gyros on our last day in greece. of course. now, we were off to ROME!! oh, i have always wanted to go to italy. it was everything i'd hoped it would be :)

doing laundry for the first time on the trip with my girls. happiest day everrr.

the colliseum was SWEET.

pizza navona- my favorite place in rome. <3

i was in LOVE with siena. notice the tuscan countryside in the background. beautiful. then, we went to florence.

leaning tower of pisa! it leans sooo far! i cannot believe that thing is still standing. we got to go in it and go up to the top. as soon as you walk in you can feel the ground completely leaning to the right! it was crazy.

this was my faaavorite restaurant. on the whole trip. i went twice the rigatoni was amazingg! if you ever go to florence, you must eat here.

we got to go to church in florence, too! after florence, we went to venice, the most confusing city in the entire world. with all the little canals and alleyways, it's next to impossible to navigate your way around that place. and i'm typically really good with directions. we ALL got lost.

we took a gondola ride :) had to. our last stop was switzerland!! we were supposed to go to egypt, but man am i glad we went to switzerland instead. there is no way hot sandy deserts could have compared with the mountainous beauty that was switzerland.

lake geneva.

the whole group, at the reformer's wall. at this really cool park in geneva.

we had a little too much fun on this thing. like the teacups at disneyland!

massive spider? after spending a night in bern, we were up to our final destination- lauterbrunnen!

we got to stop at the bern temple on our way there.

grindelwald. remember when i said switzerland was the most beautiful place in the world? no photoshop or color editing here.

schilthorn- breakfast in a rotating restaurant 10,000 feet in the swiss alps. yup, not bad.

the beautiful meadow we found whilst hiking said swiss alps.

our trail on the left. majesty all around. ahhh so beautiful. and the pictures don't even do it justice.

well, there you have it. the trip was THE BEST. it still feels like a dream. if i didn't have the pictures to prove it was real, i might believe it really WAS dream. experience of a lifetime- i'm so grateful i got to go!!! i will never forget it :)