50 Cities You Should See In Your Lifetime

Huffington Post has an article going around about the 50 cities you should see in your lifetime. The article can be found here.

So, let's see what my total is:

1. Venice, Italy (check)
2. Seville, Spain (check)
3. New York City, New York, USA (check)
4. Lhasa, China
5. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
6. London, England (check) also planning our second trip there for the Miami Dolphins game
7. Marrakech, Morocco
8. Petra, Jordan
9. Rome, Italy (check)
10. Varanasi, India
11. Florence, Italy (check) loved it, highly recommend a visit
12. Havana, Cuba
13. Kyoto, Japan
14. Jerusalem, Israel
15. Paris, France (check, multiple times)
16. Beijing, China
17. Lalibela, Ethiopia
18. Granada, Spain (check)
19. Athens, Greece (check)
20. Bagan, Myanmar
21. Kathmandu, Nepal
22. Vatican City (check) would love to go back, same goes for Rome too!
23. Lisbon, Portugal - will be our last trip before we move back to America
24. Tokyo, Japan
25. Istanbul, Turkey (check) amazing!!!!
26. Hoi An, Vietnam
27. Amsterdam, Netherlands (check)
28. Luxor, Egypt
29. Berlin, Germany (check)
30. Jaipur, India
31. Lyon, France
32. Oia, Greece
33. Siem Reap, Cambodia
34. Vienna, Austria (check)
35. Cusco, Peru
36. Cartagena, Colombia
37. Zanzibar, Tanzania
38. Mexico City, Mexico
39. Singapore
40. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (check)
41. Samarkand, Uzbekistan
42. Sydney, Australia
43. San Francisco, California, USA
44. Mont Saint Michel, France (check) stunning
45. Dubrovnik, Croatia (check)
46. Bangkok, Thailand
47. Buenos Aires, Argentina
48. Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
49. Prague, Czech Republic (check)
50. Budapest, Hungary - hoping to visit before we leave

So, I'm at 18 for now. We'll see how many more we can add before moving.

Traveling

Hey All! It's been a while and boy have we been on some whirlwind trips! I'm not sure B has worked a full week of work since late April! This is partly because of how holidays fell with already planned travel. Our month has been like this:

May 2 - My birthday and also a huge fest in our town. So my birthday party coincided with a huge outdoor party and a great 90s cover band!

May 9-12 - Prague Marathon Weekend! I survived my part, even with all the injuries. It felt great to get out a run again. Already looking up our next race!

May 23-26 - Barcelona for Memorial Day. We decided to take a beach trip and see a new city. It was a great trip, more on that later.

May 31-June 7 - Normandy. Yes a full week to coincide with the 70th anniversary of D-Day. It was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience. Again, more on that later.

June 13-16 - Copenhagen. Another four day weekend trip.

At this point, we have less than 6 months left in Germany so we're trying to make the most of our time left and the travel opportunities we can take. I'll put up full recaps of our trips later.

Griffey Strikes Again

In college, my boyfriend at the time (husband now), called me Griffey (after Ken Griffey Jr) because I was constantly injured while on the rowing team. At one point, I had a strained groin, callouses/blisters on my hands, a blister on my ear drum and an ear infection, so injured and sick. I would also walk in to class (late) with ice on various parts of my body, the aforementioned groin, shoulder....the list goes on.

Well, as it happens, shortly after I posted last time about my sprained ankle and my gracefulness on ice. I stubbed my toe, like I do hundreds of times each year. Yes, I really am that clumsy. But this stubbing was different. This one hurt, it hurt bad. After taking a few deep breathes and fighting back tears (yes I still cry, get over it) I continued on with my business and then hobbled my way back to the couch. I sat for a while and watched it bruise and swell. I sent my husband a text saying "I think I broke my toe" his response was "What did you do this time?" "I walked into a wall about 30 minutes ago and it still hurts." I had an event that night and had to tough it out. By the time I got home, I was in a ton of pain. My husband looked at it, he's normally one to down play my injuries, so if he says it looks bad, that really means it looks horrible. I didn't go to the doctor because what's the point in this case? They're going to x-ray it and wrap it up. I can wrap it myself.

So, here we are two weeks later. And it still hurts. I have a few more weeks before I really have to start training for Prague but I'm starting to get a bit nervous. Within two months, I sprain my ankle and break a toe. Not a good track record. I'll keep you updated on my progress and I'm waiting for the day when Brian decides I need to live in a plastic bubble.

What's the haps?

Saying "it's been a while since I've updated" is an understatement. But I'll try to catch you all up on my life now that I have my computer back. (The fan died and it took me two months to gather up the courage to do something about it.) But it's fix and I no longer have to peck everything out on an iPad keyboard!

Physical therapy has been going well. That is until about a week before Christmas when on one of our few cold days (what's up with that?) I was heading out to the car to scrap the windows and slipped and fell. The hubs rushed me to the German ER and after about 5 hours they told me it's not broken. They wrapped it up, gave me Tiny Tim crutches and sent me on my way. After two months of dealing with that, I was finally cleared to start running again!!! I'm only allowed to do 10-15 minutes on a treadmill at zero incline but it's a start. And just in time to start training for the Prague Marathon Relay!!!! Yes, that will be my return to running race in May!

Also, we have some news on our next steps. As of right now, we will be heading to Fort. Campbell in the Fall. It'll be sad to leave Germany but nice to get back to a normal life in the states. Until then, we will be doing a ton of traveling! In the upcoming months, we have my aunt and uncle coming for about 3 weeks. We'll be taking a trip to Madrid with them among other things. We'll be going to Krakow, Poland for a long weekend, Prague for the marathon, Normandy for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and then my brother and sister-in-law are planning a visit and one of my cousins will be coming. And that's just what we have planned! We have other things in the works but not finalized yet.

That's all for now. Stay warm and dry!

Getting Back in the Game

After about 5 months of pain, I'm finally on the mend. I'm in physical therapy now for a patellar tracking issue and my doctor has cleared me to do whatever activity I want to do (as long as I'm smart about it)!!!!

Now I'm looking at what race will be my comeback race. Any suggestions?

Next Steps

Thanks for all the love on the previous post! My x-rays came back normal so it's not a fracture, it's a soft tissue problem.

I schedule my first physical therapy appointment today with a German doctor for next week. So, I'll keep you guys posted. But for now, I'm just trying to find some exercises that don't bother me.

:(

It kills me to write this post. For a while, I have been experiencing knee pain while running. I saw a doctor about a month ago and he said it was just a tracking issue with my patellar tendon. So I did what he said, did some exercises, taped it, even wore a knee brace that was supposed to help it. Nothing worked. I took two weeks off of marathon training to hopefully heal it. I went for a run on Sunday and still massive pain. I can't even make it through 5 minutes without limping. So, I had another doctor's appointment Monday. New doctor. I explained everything to him, he preformed some tests on me and thinks it may be a torn meniscus. I had an X-Ray Tuesday (and I'm waiting for the results). If it comes back normal, then I'll have an MRI and start physical therapy. But the doctor flat out said no marathon in November. I am crushed by this as my husband and I have already registered for the Athens Classic Marathon (the Original!). I may be able to run the 10k but that will depend on how I progress.