Our final stops on the graduation trip were Florence and Milan. In Florence, we had a packed day of museums, seeing the Museo Galileo, the world-famous Uffizi, and the Galleria dell’Accademia, which holds Michelangelo’s David. In Milan, we took a walking tour of the city and saw Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. Finally, having had all of the adventure we could take in one trip, we flew back home to the States.
The day after the Oxford degree ceremony, my parents and I flew from London to Naples to begin our whirlwind trip through Italy. We started in Naples, and spent a day exploring the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The next day, we set off for Rome, where we toured the Colosseum, the central Form area, and Vatican city before continuing on to Florence and Milan!
To cap off the summer of graduations, I set off to Oxford for the DPhil degree ceremony, making a quick stop in Iceland along the way, and catching the Summer Eights bumps race while I was there. My parents met me in Oxford for graduation after a side trip to Paris. And after graduation, all three of us set off to explore some of the famous spots in Italy. The trip was a fantastic way to enjoy the last bit of freedom before residency starts: I got to catch up with old friends, have a few adventures in Europe, and spend quality time with my parents.
On a sunny post-medical-school-classes North Carolina day, two classmates and I decided to head out for the hills of western NC. We took off from RDU, circled Duke and Durham a couple of times, landed at Rowan County airport to re-fuel, and then set off west for Avery County. There, we rented a car and hiked a couple of the local trails, notably stumbling across Linville Falls, before heading back to Durham just before sunset. It was Riikka and Qihua’s first time in a small plane, and so pictures were copious…
To wrap up January, the Duke MSTP and friends organized a tour of the Duke Lemur Center. This research facility houses the largest collection of lemurs outside of Madagascar. These small primates, including more than 100 species with weights ranging from only an ounce to 20 pounds, evolved in isolation on Madagascar for tens of millions of years, likely after reaching the island on floating debris washed out to sea. The tour was fantastic, and we all enjoyed interacting with these amazing creatures!
Having completed all requirements of the DPhil degree, it is time to come back to the States and start my last year of medical school. To squeeze in one last adventure, I booked an IcelandAir #stopover on the way home. Sabine was able to join for three days in a Nordic paradise. We were able to fit in quite a few activities thanks to the incredibly efficient Iceland tourism industry. On our first full day, we traveled to the relaxing Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa set on a lava field in the Reykjanes Peninsula. The second day was for adventure, with a small airplane flight from Reykjavik airport to Rif airport on the Snæfellsjökull peninsula and back. The mountain and glacier views were stunning.
The last stop on our Portugese adventure was Lisbon, the capital of Portugal and one of the oldest cities in the world — pre-dating Rome by centuries.
Fresh from our Sintra travels, Sabine and I set off for Porto, a city dating back to the Roman Empire and now famed for port wine and beautiful bridges.
After a December of intense (and often frantic) thesis-writing, Sabine and I snuck off to Portugal to welcome the New Year. We had a chance to explore Sintra, Porto, and Lisbon over our journey. Because of the outrageous number of pictures, each city will be covered in a separate blog post.
We set off on December 27, flying from Heathrow to Lisbon before grabbing the train to the historic town of Sintra. Sintra is full of history, from the medieval Moorish Castle to several nineteenth- and early twentieth-century palaces.
