it was

Description

The images used in this time lapse were taken in 2011 over the course of three summer months in Europe. My wife's mother lives in Lithuania, just outside of the capital city Vilnius, so we decided to make it our homebase from the end of May through August while we traveled to various countries. Some of the places we had been to were new to us, others we had visited before. But all in all, it was an amazing summer and definitely an unforgettable part of our lives. We split our summer up into four trips. Between each of these trips, we'd fly back to Vilnius and relax for a week or so before packing up and heading off again. Our first trip took us to London. We spent three nights there before catching a quick flight over to Amsterdam. We spent another three nights (which became our default) in Amsterdam and then took a train down to Paris. We originally planned on three nights in Paris, but after day two, we realized how much more we wanted to do and that we didn't have enough time. So we extended our stay and ended up being there for six nights. I can't recall why, but for some reason, we had to cut the trip short and head back to Vilnius after Paris. Next on our list was Scandinavia (or at least part of it). Neither of us had been there before, so we were super pumped. We started with three nights in Stockholm, followed by three nights in Copenhagen, another three in Helsinki, and capped it off with a final three nights in Riga. We really wanted to go to Norway, but felt that it would require an entirely separate trip of its own, just to explore the fjords and all of the beautiful natural scenery. Stockholm was an amazing city and we both agreed that we could easily settle down there. Riga also blew us away and I feel like it's one of the most underrated cities in all of Europe. After another week or two back in Vilnius, we headed to the island of Crete for a week at an all-inclusive resort. We took a day trip to Santorini, which consisted of the most hellish eight-hour round trip boat ride ever, but that's another story. Definitely want to get back to Santorini, but we'd have to go for at least a few nights to make it worth it. Such a beautiful island. Back to Vilnius again for another week or so, and then we headed out to Italy. Our summer in Europe was ending soon, so we only had enough time to visit Cinque Terre for three nights, with one night in Milan on each end of that trip. The summer of 2011 was surreal. We visited so many places, saw so much, ate so much, and it all happened so quickly. Thank you to my amazing wife for being my little assistant and for having the patience to stand around waiting for all of these time lapses to finish! Cities visited: Vilnius London Amsterdam Paris Stockholm Copenhagen Helsinki Riga Heraklion (Crete) Fira (Santorini) Milan Cinque Terre Shot with Nikon D7000 and Tokina 11-16mm Edited in Adobe Premiere CS6 Photos from our summer in Europe can be seen at: http://500px.com/davidkosmos/sets Along with some blog posts during our trip: davidkosmos.posterous.com And photos of some of the most amazing dishes we've ever eaten: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidkosmos/sets/72157627015738246/ Music: "Journey's End" by Blackmill, from the Reach for Glory album Purchase on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/journeys-end/id423339211?i=423339288 And visit/like their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blackmill/167224433307649 Twitter: @davidkosmos