Genova

What an amazing port city, that hosts the second largest aquarium in Europe. Ben & I fell in love with this city. We are lovers of sea life and thus had to go to The Aquarium of Genoa. What an amazing display of sea mammals: dolphins, manatees, seals, sharks and all the large and small sea life in between! Thousands of gallons of water used at this aquarium every day! Its great what they are doing with their adopt a dolphin program. 

Along the port when we finally made our way out of the aquarium we noticed large white tents being set up. The closer we got, the more excited I got! Clearly we stumbled across a Festa, and that festa was Festa Democratica Nationale. Simply, it's a festival to celebrate democracy within Italy. So naturally, there's authentic italian food, drinks and desserts. The port was lit up, with music, laughter and the moon light! I can whole heartedly say, this place made me fall in love with the thought of living close to a body of water. Sigh

We ate like royalty in Genoa, further developing our love for mussels! Genoa is known for pesto (a sauce of crush basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese, and olive oil), and focaccia bread (flat italian bread made with yeast and olive oil topped with herbs). Delicious.  

Pisa

Oh, Enchanting Pisa! 

The people, the aroma and just simply, the essence of it! It may be shorter then you think in person, but the views of that piazza was amazing! Such beautiful, ancient, white marble that make up not only the tower but the cathedral as well. We only spent two nights in this city, at an amazing hostel, clearly family owned named A Casa Doina Tower, only a five minute walk from the piazza! And, get this… from the common balcony you had a clear top half view of the tower! There it was in all its glory! It's bright white marble only magnified by the clear blue skies that day. So grateful I got to see it in my life time! 

The Piazza del Duomo is amazing! Once Ben & I were done marvelling at the tower from the ground we ventured forth to see the Cathedral, Baptistry and Campo Santo - a grave site if you will. So much history that enriches Pisa. It was really cool to learn about the Campo Santo, truly one of the most beautiful grave sites I've ever seen. 

My goodness, the food was amazing. We had this delicious sharing plate of cold cuts for lunch on our last afternoon there. It was amazing. Two types of salami, two types of proscuitto, cheese, capicola, fresh baked bread, and a fresh fruit bowl to share. I'm salivating just thinking of it… 

Naples, Italy

We arrived in Naples August 3 to the open arms of my amazing aunt piña and her son Davide!! I was ecstatic to see them, and the rest of my family! With the anticipation of landing in Italy, I was filled with pure joy. It has been fifteen years since I was here in Naples , which is my dads home city. 

The weather and the beaches is what Ben and I were most excited for, and we were not disappointed !! The weather was nothing short of 35 degrees, 52degrees with humidity on the hottest day we were there. 

We tried every cappuccino we could get our hands on, and devoured a copious amount if gelato! Naples is a city that is full of people, and a slim amount of tourists except at the ports. Not a lot of people speak English, only my aunt. This however tested me in many ways. I studied Italian for many years, but never spoke it fluently. The challenge was tough at first, but I learned quite quickly. Love the language, it is absolutely beautiful. 

The first beach we went to is called Formia. Just thirty minutes from the town Terracina - which is my moms home town. The sand was scalding hot from the sun, the water a darker green than blue, and soooo salty! Needless to say we finally got our tan on we're extremely excited to fulfil our passion of being "beach bums". You can say we are conoseurs of sorts. 

We also got the opportunity to drive along the Amalfi coast, hit a rocky beach with beautiful blue water and many waves! I fell INLOVE with this coast. In the same day, we hit a beach in Positano which Is a smaller town on the Amalfi coast. This too was beautiful, a bit lighter sand color than in Formia and still blue water. A port filled with boats, and more tourists, but so worth the drive/ bus ride. You must try limoncello here! An italian lemon liquor. Amalfi is famous for its limoncello. 

We also visited the island of Ischia. Bigger in size than Capri, more European tourists on this island, this is probably because Capri is more known to non European travellers, therefore more of a touristy attraction. In Ischia we didn't tour the island, instead we headed straight for the beach! A bit rockier than the last couple of places we hit, but probably the most beautiful coast line we got to see this far!! We found a beach titled, "inglese", not sure why Haha, but it was amazing! Small! No more than 75 people where we were. We purchased some beach chairs and umbrellas on the private beach side with my relatives, and enjoyed a full day in the sun! :) Ben and I rented a paddle boat so we could go out as far as was allowed to take in the hillside. No words can put in to description how serene it was. 

Pompeii is a must see!! 

Ireland

We arrived in beautiful Dublin late on the 12th of July. We proceeded to our hotel in the dark and were delighted to enter a very clean, spacious and modern room at the premiere in airport hotel. After taking a day to get organized and get clean laundry, we proceeded into downtown Dublin. We adventured through the streets and alleys of temple bar and made our way to visit Dublin castle.  Dublin castle is unlike most castles you will find on the coasts in that it is inland, and has been expanded on, many times over the past few hundred years, only having one true "castle like" building. Still rich with history, it is worth the sight.

We had been talking about getting a tattoo, and spontaneously decided to check out a tattoo parlour just across the street from the castle. We walked right in and a hour later had new ink from a very thick accented Irishman named Paul. (Who has inked Britney Spears and Mike Mendozi).

The highlight of Ireland for us was our tour of Northern Ireland on the "Paddy Wagon". If you want to do any tour in Ireland, we highly recommend Paddy Wagon tours, as it is very affordable and the drivers are hilarious, and knowledgable.  The tour included a brief tour of Belfast, including a stop at the place the titanic was built and launched, as well as a view of the Europa hotel, the world record holding building that has been bombed 37 times by the IRA. We continued north to Carrick-a-rede and crossed the famous rope bridge to beautiful cliffs and views of Ireland's north peak and Scotland across the sea. The ocean was beautiful and high cliffs provided us with beautiful panoramic views.

We continued on the famous "Giant's Causeway", an ancient rock formation that is rich with Irish mythology.  The amazing hexagonal rock formation that starts in Northern Ireland disappears in the northern channel and resurfaces in northern Scotland in the isle of Staffa. Legend has it that the Irish giant "Fynn McCool" built the causeway to accept a challenge by the Scottish giant "Bennandonner". There are many different versions of the legend depending on which Irish local you ask, but the general idea is that Fynn built the causeway to fight Bennandonner, but upon crossing found that the scot was twice his size (over 80' tall compared to Fynn's 40' height") he retreats to his wife and has the townspeople build him a giant bassinet, where he lies in wait for Bennandonner to cross the causeway. He then pretends to be a baby and when Bennandonner arrives for battle he sees Fynn and thinks he is a baby thinking "If this is the Irish giants son, his father must be gigantic!". After he retreats to Scotland Fynn smashes the causeway so the dispute is ended. The entertaining mythology only adds to the beauty and charm of this volcanic formation that is 60 million years old.  The tour finished at a brief stop to see Dunluce castle, "Ireland's most romantic castle" where many scenes from the popular HBO series "Game of Thrones" is based. We hadn't yet seen Game of Thrones, but immediately downloaded it after seeing this beautiful picturesque castle ruins.  Overall we loved Ireland, it's beauty and myths make it an interesting place to visit and the people are always happy helpful, and willing to point you in the direction of craek! (Irish Gaelic for "fun"). 

From Miss to Mrs.

June 15, 2013.

The best, most heart warming , amazing day I have experienced thus far in my life!
I cannot describe in words how I was really truly feeling but I will try for writings sake.
Waking up alone in the morning in my bed before my girls woke up, I stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours, reflecting back on everything that has happened in my life that has led to this moment. Understanding what it means to be in life with someone. I cannot imagine a life without Benjamin. From the moment I met him I knew that.

 I have never felt more consumed with appreciation and love then I did the day I got married and was introduced as Mr and Mrs. Benjamin and Christina Freudenthaler . It is such a blur of faces, smiles, tears and food! You never know where the next genuine smile, dream or thought will come from.  There was so much love poured into our special day. I have reflected so much on that day lately, from getting ready with my beautiful bridesmaids, having a traditional Italian get together with my immediate family before the ceremony, riding with my dad to the Ceremony, hiding anxiously in the bathroom so Benjamin couldn't see me, ... And when those doors opened to the Church, all I could see was him. All those people vanished and all I saw was him.

This, this moment is what I've been waiting for . This was the moment I dreamed about since I was 5.  I cannot put into words exactly the feeling. It was indescribable. Benjamin has been my everything since the moment I met him, it truly was love at first sight, and that itself is so rare, but to get engaged after five months and married nine months later, especially in this day in age is rare too.
What I've come to learn about this whole experience is that it doesn't matter whose watching. If you trust your heart, you will recieve everything you ever wished for and more.

lets put the fork in the garbage disposal

Thank you work friends for sharing this with me!

breath, puff, gasp

This house is amazing. The first two nights have already been great nights with great people! I swear I'm going to lose weight because of how much walking you do in this house. Haha. The dogs are beautiful. I want a puppy so badly now. =(

I love my life.
I appreciate everything that I have been blessed with.

I had a fantastic meditation and now I'm so blissed out.

in the dead of night

I begin to house sit tomorrow! It's like a mini vacation for myself. This house is massive and I get to house sit two pure bread Huskies!!

In other words, this will be me..

Gold

These were my 'resolutions' and goals from Jan 1 of this year.. 

1. be the best possible version of myself.
2. dedicate and motivate! 
3. believe
4. minimize doubts.
5. get tattoo's. 
6. hike more often. 
7. drink more tea and read more books. 
8. explore the unexplorable. 
9. do something out of character. 
10. get liscense and buy a car. 
11. take up yoga. 
12. sleep longer. 
13. love more. 
14. appreciate more.
15. give more, take less. 
16. think more with my heart and less with my head. 
17. get a bold hair cut. 
18. stand out. 

12/18 is pretty great! I will be taking some of the leftover resolutions and adding a lot more to a new list for the year 2012. Nothing like a little goal setting to push you into motivation mode. =) 

through sunshine and snow.

I am so happy. Think positive, live positive!
After last nights events, and having extreme fun sober I might just have to do that all the time!

Oh Leth.

After a weekend of partying, I now understand why I do not like drinking anymore. The effect it has on my body is painstaking. Regardless, I had so much fun! I missed you all so much =) So happy I got to surprise you guys.

Now its back to a week full of work, boot camp and workouts! Starting my cleanse tomorrow =)
Can't wait to get rid of all the alcohol in my system haha.

Magic School Bus

Wahoo!!!

Can you guess which Magic School Bus book was my favourite?!

obviously!

SO FREAKING CUTE!

life time

I love my "Skake", nights. Some people are in your life for a reason.

Sunday Funday

Nothing like a little workout, and the attempt to make Coca-Cola Cupcakes!!
Challenge accepted.

fun

I WANT THAT ON MY STAIRS!

lavvv

love nights like this.
good friends,
great memories,
amazing tunes,
beer
and mary jane. love each and every one of you