farewell my friends

Well, the time has come. This morning we hopped on the plane and after a short stop in South Carolina, we're off to Dublin. I feel so lucky that we're getting to take this trip and can't wait to share all the places we go and food we eat with you!

Along with Dublin we'll be visiting Brussels & Bruges in Belgium, Pisa, Cinque Terre & Bologna in Italy and Athens, Greece. What am I looking forward to in each?

via Gem of a Day

Dublin, Ireland: cold weather, sweaters, cups of tea, Irish beer and Temple Bar

via Earth in Pictures

Brussels, Belgium: more cold weather (get me outta Texas!), chocolate and waffles, seeing that unique fountain
Bruges, Belgium: small town charm, photo ops, more chocolate and waffles
Pisa, Italy: taking the obligatory picture holding up the Leaning Tower

via Pixadus

Cinque Terre, Italy: hiking, warm weather, beautiful scenery, fabulous food, wine and relaxing (I swear I was in Italian in another life..)
Bologna, Italy: indulging in what the city is known for — Bolognese sauce! and hopefully coming back with a fabulous recipe or two

via Blogathinaios

Athens, Greece: seeing the Acropolis, exploring, eating lots and lots of souvlaki and Greek salads, possibly checking out one of the islands
....and getting to do all of this with my amazing travel buddy, Rob!

I didn't want you to be without recipes for nearly a month just because I was gone, so I saved up some recipes and scheduled them for the following weeks. In honor of the our travels abroad, they have an international theme!