Chilly Willy: Iceland

What better place for a Texan's bachelor party, than Iceland? Gene went with five other ex-pat friends from Amsterdam to Reykjavik for a guys weekend before Ryan Lawrence ties the knot later this year. What was waiting in Iceland was a sun that never set, natural hot spring pools, Icelandic fly fishing...and beer that cost $13. Yep, even with the economic fallout, Iceland will not be renamed "Bargaintown" anytime soon. To cap off the weekend, the most impossible of coincidences, the gang ran into - Eric Gabrielson, who works at W+K Portland and is a great friend of Gene and two other buddies in the group. He was with his wife, Jen, and starting a tour of Iceland for a week, unknowing that any of his friends who had moved from Portland to Amsterdam (Eric + Jen also used to live in Amsterdam) were also going to be there. Only in Iceland. Click here for pics.

Headed North

So there's a whole lot more to Holland than Amsterdam, or at least that's what my co-workers keep reminding me of .... so we headed 2 hours north to the largest city in the region of Friesland, called Groningen. The coolest part was we stayed in houseboat. While fun for the weekend, proved we're glad we have a solid foundation back at home. We did a little outdoor market food shopping, museum viewing (Cuban exhibit, followed by some live music), tower climbing and, of course, eating. Click to check out the pics.

Where exactly is Slovenia?

In case you're on Jeopardy, Slovenia is hidden diamond of a country next to Italy and Croatia. Gene hasn't stopped yapping about visiting it since we moved to Europe because apparently it's an incredible secret spot for fly fishing. So fishing he did - striking gold by finding the coolest fishing guide who brought him to turquoise colored rivers and streams where he managed to catch 8 fish. I found our little cozy hotel to be the perfect spot for lounging around - helped that it also had 1 of the top 3 restaurants in the whole country attached to it. Danger. Click here to check out the pics because the natural beauty is off the charts.