This September, Ingrid and Ian of Oxford Law fame got married at a cherry orchard outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. I scheduled vacation for the grand event and was able to fly over a few days early to see some animals in GreaterKruger National Park. After a long journey including three flights and a day-long layover in Frankfurt, I arrived Monday at the Ku Sungula lodge in the Balule Nature Reserve, near the town of Hoedspruit. I set out on daily morning and evening safari drives before meeting up with Sonya and Andrew on Thursday and enjoying some further exploration and the wedding festivities with them. The variety and quantity of animals were astounding!
To celebrate New Years, and a few days free from the trials of intern year, Leah and I flew to New York City to watch the ball drop in Times Square. While we were there, we managed to catch showings of Waitress and The Book of Mormon on Broadway, wander through Central Park, and of course grab some bagels and dumplings!
As one last pre-residency adventure, I took a quick northeast visit-flight tour. I set off from RDU to Pittsburgh to visit Katie from Penn State and Priya from Duke, now both residents at UPMC. After good visits (including a trip to the zoo and aquarium), I set off for New York City, to visit Léa from Blair and Natasha from Oxford. We were joined by Zach, and took a flight down the Hudson River and out to Block Island for the afternoon. On the way back, I stopped in Maryland to see my parents for Fathers’ Day before settling back in to Durham for the start of intern year.
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.
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.
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.
