The original post (* Sneak Peek: Traveling Europe! Italy, France, Ireland, England *) has a glitch in it, hence the following posts. This post and the next one contain all of the photos, whereas I wasn't able to fit all of the photos or edit the photos in the original post.

Here is one of my favorite pictures, from Venice, Italy:

The trip of course started for me at the airport. I knew I had more than an hour to wait for my plane to start boarding, so I had packed a lunch to eat at the airport, knowing I wouldn't get another chance to eat until being on board the plane for Italy. Just before I took my first bite, I was surprised to see a bird flying over my head! I've seen birds infiltrate grocery stores before, but this was the first time I'd ever seen a bird in an airport. You can just barely make it out in the photo below. He kept hopping around, so I couldn't get a better photo!

Normally I don't take photos on the plane, but the clouds were so beautiful I couldn't resist!

It's much easier to believe in Heaven when you see it before your eyes!

Venice

This is one of the many beautiful buildings in Italy, though I admit I don't know it's name! On this trip I have become so used to seeing these types of beautiful buildings that I've stopped taking pictures of them unless I can identify them as historically significant or markedly unique from the other buildings. It is a treat though to simply walk around a city and continually see these types of artistic and luxurious structures!

As soon as you arrive in Venice you are met with the "Grand Canal." We chose to take this waterway to get everywhere. I enjoyed taking the water taxi, and it definitely saved our feet from added stress. I highly recommend taking the water taxis to and fro as it's a fun new experience and relatively cheap. I think it's probably much faster than the bus as well, as the roads are fairly crowded.

Ca'Pesaro

The island of Burano

My friend and I had heard from our AirBnB host that the islands near Venice were fun to visit too, and I wanted to go swimming in the ocean, so we took a larger boat from the last stop of the Grand Canal (Lido) and set off for Burano. Little did we know that the trip would take 45 minutes! When we finally came within view of Burano, my friend realized that we would not have time to even get off the boat to explore as we needed to make it back in time to make it to the train station for our trip to Milan. So we snapped a few quick photos of the Burano port, then settled in for a nap on our long boat trip back to where we started from, Lido. As it turned out, we still had to actually run through the train station and jump on board otherwise we would have missed the train! The train left maybe 2 minutes after we had set our bags in the overhead bins and found our seats.

Rome

It may be confusing that I should mention our trip to Milan, then switch to Rome. Instead of driving all the way from Milan to Rome, my friend had planned that we would drive to Milan, take the train directly from there to Rome, then come back to Milan after our time in Rome. That way she wouldn't have to drive the extra 5 hours there, then 5 hours back. All that to say, we stopped in Milan just to park the car before traveling to Rome.

Colosseum

Basilica of the Vatican

Vatican

Trevi Fountain

Milan

Leonardo Di Vince

Duomo Cathedral

This is a shopping center! I was continually surprised by how many ancient, ornate buildings were converted into modern use.

At the end of this beautiful archway is a glimpse of the statue of Leonardo Di Vinci.

Ireland

Ireland has touched my heart. Beautiful landscapes, cold winds blowing through you, and yet Ireland is home to the kindest people I have ever met! Nearly every person we encountered was very friendly and happy to go out of their way to help us in any way.

I will never think of sailing the same way again. I have been on cruise ships, motor boats, canoes, sailboats, and any number of other types of boats, but this large boat brought my stomach to the test! In fact, my stomach failed the test. I don't think I'd been on this lurching boat for more than 10 minutes before I threw up... Thankfully after that I felt fine, and on the way back to land I was fine as well; thanks to the experienced council of one of the other girls on the boat, "If you sit outside and look at the water it's better." She was right!

In any event, the boat did serve to deliver me and my friends to one of our first destinations within Ireland: the Aran Islands. We went to the biggest one, and of course the one furthest away (much to my stomach's dismay): Inishmore.

Dún Aonghasa

Ireland has many churches and cathedrals. I can't recall which one this is at the moment, but I will look it up when I get the chance!

One of the highlights of my Ireland experience was definitely holding this baby lamb! My family and relatives don't have farms, so I've never held a baby farm animal of any kind before. What a treat for me!

Museum d'Orsay (Musee d'Orsay)

Ireland

Our first views of Ireland came from the plane window. I was surprised by two things: how small the farms were (they looked about as small as my backyard!), and that many of the fields appeared dry and unused (perhaps they let the land law fallow to give the soil a chance to regain nutrients?).