Back to Massachusetts...

Greetings from THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. I have been home for two days, and will be heading back to Europe tomorrow night, in a word the States have been... busy. The main purpose of this trip was my cousin Greg's wedding-- and it was awesome. Here's a picture with my guy cousins from that side of the fam.

Weddings are always a lot of fun, especially in my family-- so I was more than happy to come back from Europe for this one. Greg and his best man Andy were very grateful for my presence as well. My favorite theme of the night was Greg yelling "GREG COLLINS!!" whenever he just couldn't contain his jubiliation for being married.

Things have also been verrrry busy at home. My parents are in the process of moving to a bigger house in Needham, so we have to prepare my soon to be old house to be shown to prospective buyers. This means alot of painting, scraping, re-painting, and boxing up our stuff. So there's no rest for the weary. I also had the pleasure of touring our soon to be new house and it is going to be great. It's right next to the town forest which my Dad really likes-- personally I'm a big fan of the basement which will serve quite nicely as a bachelor pad.

And I can't forget the Mandatory Concert on Friday night. You really have to witness one of these in person to truly appreciate it... So I won't attempt to do it justice right now.

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Some loose ends from my European travels so far:

• People have been asking me what my favorite place is so far, and I can't really pin a single city down. I'd say that my favorite city in terms of scenery and ambiance would be Luxembourg, but it certainly was not the most exciting. Berlin was the best for history, London had the most activities to offer, Paris the best cafes, Copenhagen has hygge, and so forth, I could go on all day. Each city has been very different and comparing the experiences is difficult.
• A weird phenomenon from London. There were security cameras everywhere. Cormac claimed that there is one camera for every six people in London (a city of over 7 million mind you) and I absolutely believe it. Literally every street corner and hallway in tube stops was covered by cameras. I suppose these are effective for combating terrorism, but most were actually not installed for Jihadist terror attacks, but rather the IRA.
• Being abroad is a great experience, but there's no place like home. Its amazing how much familar settings and food: good steaks, cinnamon toast crunch, dunkin' donuts coffee, WEEI-- can satisfy me.

The next stop on the trip will be Dublin on Tuesday and then Italy for the rest of the week. I'll update you all at the next stop.