Muse: Pittsburgh wedding and portrait photography

I also did some traveling during the early part of the year and have decided to share that experience with you! My fiance and I planned a trip to Europe and were gone for all of February and most of March (yes, we missed all of that crazy snow!). We did all the planning ourselves, booking travel and hostels along the way.  In the end, we visited 7 different countries, & stayed in 21 different cities, all in 47 days. We carried one backpack each (thankfully, mine also had wheels).  It was such a great adventure. It seems like a dream to me now, but looking back through my pictures I know it is an experience that will stay with me forever.

From Pittsburgh, we flew into London, where one of my best friends lives. We spent the week there, adjusting to the time change and catching up with everyone (we both had friends there). Rose (my friend) was a great tour guide, having grown up there, she knew all the ins and outs. We loved spending time with her and Tommy. It was the busiest city we were in, and had a great mix of old tradition with a young trendy vibe. Great pubs, museums, and I just love their accents!

Then we flew to Amsterdam. This is where my ancestors are from. One of my top 3 favorites of the trip. It got colder everyday we were there! That didn’t stop us though…we were out walking around the whole time. We spent some time in the Vincent Van Gogh museum, which is rich with color and left us wanting more.  The canals there are amazing (we took a really cool boat tour), the architecture is fun and sophisticated, bikes and boats are everywhere, and all that other stuff you hear about is there too and it’s all worth a visit — I would suggest summertime though!

Then it was off to Spain! I thought by now it would be getting warmer, but that didn’t happen for quite a while. We went to Barcelona first, then San Sebastian. Two very different places. Antoni Gaudi’s Guell park in Barcelona was awe-inspiring. (All of Gaudi’s work is…we also went in the Sagrada Familia, which still isn’t completed but started in 1882!) I could have camped out there for a month, and the details that are carried throughout the park are fantastic! Barcelona is so alive! Pablo Picasso’s museum is there, and tucked away on a small street which we were lucky to find. It truly is a beautiful city. We took a train to San Sebastian, which was recommended to us by a friend as their “favorite place in Europe”. We had to go, and I’m so glad we did! It’s a very classy town. The women wore fur coats and heels, and the men…well, I was too busy looking at those fur coats to notice them! ha! We happened to be there the weekend of the carnival, which was just a lucky coincidence. We went out to explore and kept seeing people in costumes…it was great, everyone was dancing and laughing & I was lost in the moment. We rode the Funicular (which is like Pittsburgh’s incline) up to the very top of everything. On our way back down, we met two American girls…and guess where they were from?! Pittsburgh! One of the girls was wearing a Steelers watch. Amazingly small world.

Stay tuned for part 2…

And if you want to see more pictures, just let me know – I have thousands!