And now the award for...

Well, it's over. Really, really over. We have been home for exactly one month. We've been home so long that our home is about to be ours no longer. Today we move from North Mesa Apartments, where I  (Alan) have lived for 9 years, and Jymm 5, to a complex down the street. Neither of us are students any longer, so we couldn't stay in super cheap student only housing any longer. Now we live in moderately cheap UCSD staff housing. Not for long though: we put in a bid for a house in San Diego, and hope to close and move there in 2-3 weeks. Very exciting times, and a very exciting end to our time in Europe.

Looking back now, there are a few things that stand out. And so I give you the best and worst awards for Alan And Jymm's great European adventure of 2011:

Best food item (uncooked): Bread and butter. Combines Alan’s favorite food with Jymm’s favorite condiment.

Best drink: carbonated apple juice

First runner up (Jymm): Instant coffee from Germany

Best eating out experience: Indian food in west byfleet, great Briton

            First runner up: full Irish breakfast, Ennis

Best make-you-want-to-puke: Ireland bus on small back roads, going 100km/hour

Biggest letdown: tower of London

Best attraction we found completely by accident: Oslo fortress

Best grocery store: LiDL

Worst grocery store: doolin café/grocery store, 30 feet from our hostel. The refregierated section had 3 items. Total. The only bread they had was factory-baked white bread.

Thing we used most that we almost didn’t buy: rain jackets from REI

            Runner up: REI short-sleeved nylon sun shirt for Alan

Most comfy bed: Guest bed in Sue and Jeff’s house

            Runner up: twin mattresses at Rowen Tree Hostle (after you get over the loanlyness of having to sleep alone)

Worst food: ‘home made’ macaroni and cheese on our last day in Germany when we were trying to use up everything we had in the fridge. The cheese melted into one giant lump, and after cooling had the consistency of a rubber tarp.

Least useful clothing item: Jymm’s high heels (never worn, shipped back to the US at a price of ~5 euro).

Most challenging item to find in Europe: anti-bacterial wet wipes, individually packaged

 Worst at host for remembering to give you proper change: Rainbow hostel, Doolin (on two separate occasions! first they forgot to give us 10 euro back, and then later 16 euro back).

Best place to find tics: Black forest, Germany. Alan estimates he picked up about 1 tic every 20 minutes.

Worst place to go off trail: Black forest, Germany. A five minute shortcut resulted in 1 bee-sting for Alan and one large hole in some poor underground wasp nest.

Best museum: tate modern. Another accidental find, actually.

Favorite easy breakfast food: Fruit musle (from LiDL), swerved with orange juice instead of milk.

Favorite city: Freiburgh (could be due to the host we stayed with, though)

Worst airline to fly if you forget to print your own bording pass: RyanAir (they charge 40 euros to print it for you at the airport).

Best electronic gadget we brought: Android smart phone (without service) which we used as a GPS unit and trail guide

Worst electronic gadget we brought: Same, because it kept on failing in new, unexpected ways, and at very inopportune moments.

Best tourist attraction: the riechstag. Great views, great architecture, free, and no line (because you had to make an apporintment).

 Best friends and relatives (in Europe!): the people who let us stay at their houses and homes while we were in Europe. Our experience was 10 times better for your generosity. 

Thank you all for reading! We'll see you again at this very same blog in 10 years when we decide to do it all over again, though perhaps this time with a different set of countries!