Hey y’all, last Saturday my wife and I got back from a European trip, where we went to Paris, Lyon, and Geneva (Switzerland).
They were all what you can imagine, classic European cities with a lot of history. Lyon was my favorite because of its gastronomy history.
Geneva was beautiful, but Switzerland, in general, is really expensive and nobody knows why, apparently.
What are your favorite places to visit, if you’ve been out of the country?
New Zealand. I have been to 17 countries and New Zealand takes the cake.
We went to the Louvre. Sculptures/statues stand out way more than paintings do, as far as I’m concerned. The Mona Lisa was…kinda boring. And it’s unfinished! Da Vinci was lazy! 
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
A lot of people say this. It seems a lot of “outdoorsy” people say it, specifically. Is that true?
My top two:
Split, Croatia - Beauty like no where else I’ve been, laid back, European vacation area so the American Ex-Pats were few when I was there (2000ish)
Bogota, Colombia - Colombia is a country that has an unfair reputation. The food here is excellent, and the culture is really awesome. I also spent time in Yopal while in Colombia and although it is certainly not a travel destination it was a great little hidden city with good people (and the food was excellent)
Close #3 - Tampico, Mexico - Safe, relative to Mexico, coastal city that isn’t Mexico for Gringos so you actually get to experience some of Mexico in how it actually is.
I would say yes, that could be the case. The rolling green hills and vast meadows and scenery certainly catch an outdoorsman’s attention.
For Colombia, I want to go to Medellin.
Haven’t been out of the country too much, (Banff Natl. Park, Canada - Playa Del Carmen, Mexico - Italy).
But, Italy was by far our best trip. Spent 12 days there - flew into Rome (3 days), drove to Siena (2 days), --> Florence (2 days), --> Venice (3 days), --> Milan (2 days) and flew home. Rome, Siena, and Florence we enjoyed the most. Venice was pretty cool, but definitely a tourist hot spot, and although Milan was neat, we didn’t enjoy it as much as the rest of the country. It’s definitely more of a NYC type feel to it, compared to the other places. There was just so much more history to the lower half of the country, although Milan has it’s own for sure.
It was easy to drive around (with a GPS) and easy to communicate and we always felt safe, even though we were warned about pick-pocketers and such. We rented a car once we left Rome and drove through the country up to Venice. There, we turned the car in and took a train to Milan.
We came home ready to plan our next trip over there. Probably back to Rome and then go south from there. But, kids and funds to go back have not allowed us to make it happen yet. Maybe in another couple of years. 
#2 for me is Banff National Park. I went in Feb for a ski trip up there and spent 5 days skiing at Lake Louis and Ski Banff. Probably the best ski trip I’ve been on and a majestic view no matter where you look! Another spot I want to go back to.
I didn’t love Rome when I was there. It just felt kind of dirty and slightly too large. (I also fumbled at the goal line there with a girl I was in love with at the time so, you know, that could have contributed as well)
It is definitely large. But, we stayed in a centrally located hotel where we could walk to everything. We were there right before the World Fair, so everything was clean and being prepared for that. The downside, some things were undergoing refurbishment and were closed (Trevi fountain, and the church at the top of the Spanish Steps), or had scaffolding all over for work.
My unmarried (or those who behaved as if they were) coworkers really talked up Medellin as well. Apparently there was some sight seeing in that area of a kind that I’ve retired from so I never felt a need to go. I absolutely love Colombia as a country, the culture in the areas I was in reminded me a lot of if you took an Austin or Tulsa kind of communal identity (both cities come from a mold of places of a tight knit community of individuals…aka: Keep Austin Weird kind of stuff). It’s just really cool to see the way that the cultures in Colombia melded in a completely different way than they did in the areas of Mexico I’ve been to. It’s also cool because they are people who have memories of the bad times that are very fresh and latch on to the better times with ferocity. I saw celebrations, normal evenings of sitting in cafes eating and chatting with their neighbors, and even a riot (I actually had to cross a picket line…not against the will of the protesters but because I was outside the city when they closed the roads…they were actually glad that there were Americans who were seeing what they were doing) and these experiences gave me a much better understanding and appreciation for the people there.
Ok, now you have to give some more details…
It just wasn’t my favorite town. Loved the architecture and monuments and the Trevi Fountain was great, but it was just so busy and hectic (as a large city is) that it made it difficult to find a place to rest.
In all seriousness, I just missed a legendary amount of signals up to and including when we parted ways (different universities, long story) and, by the time I had figured them out, it was well past the deadline of doing anything about them.
Think Earnest Byner fumbling at the goal line in the 1987 AFC Championship. Not only was it a bad fumble, but it irreparably crippled the franchise to this day.
Oof…the one that got away.
I have a few in my past like that. Make no mistake, I am happily married now with one that DIDN’T get away (that sounds creepy but whatever! Running with it…). But we all have those.
I’m one of those lucky few where I am grateful that the ones that got away did. 20/20 rear view and all that, but I just can’t imagine being married to someone who worked with me as a team like my wife does. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say that my wife and I fight better than any of my previous relationships got along.
That said, meeting my wife in the city I met her in redeemed it from being the city where I had my worst ever feeling of “what could have been” on a relationship had happened. Today I’m really happy that it worked out the way it did, but man there were past versions of me that wanted to beat the ever loving crap out of even older versions of me for how bad I screwed that relationship up.
