I'm Back

Taking off from Chicago. 

Well, it has been a while but the CFA exam is over and I am back on the road.  Most recently I traveled for a long weekend to New York City and Connecticut to see my family but Samantha and I are headed across the pond for the upcoming week. 

Currently, we are an hour away from landing in the city of light, Paris, France.   We chose Paris as a destination at the beginning of the year for two main reasons.  For one, I had never been to Paris and if I am going to deem myself a world traveler, I figured it was a must.  Secondly, we found incredibly cheap flights; roundtrip was $690 each!  Most people are shocked when I tell them about this deal but flights to Europe do not have to cost $1,200.  If you can be flexible on your dates and maybe handle a layover, a flight to a desirable destination can be around the same price as a flight from New York – Vegas.

Our layover destination was in Helsinki, Finland.  Had I been able to take a few more days off, I think it would have been an added bonus to spend a few days here.  As our plane approached HEL from ORD, all you could see were luscious fields of green grass and pine trees.  The countryside looked beautiful and Samantha and I both agreed a trip to the Scandinavian nations may have to creep up our list.

The empty airport of Helsinki. 

Upon disembarking our nine hour flight; which included screaming babies, obnoxious kids, and Samantha’s favorite, coughing (hacking as she would put it) women; Helsinki airport seemed eerily quiet.  In fact you would have thought we were the only plane to arrive.  However, after trekking through the long and empty airport, we finally arrived at our gate and are headed to France (hopefully with our bags).

Would have loved to stay, but had a plane to catch. 

Our week will be a little less ‘adventurous’ than our last international trip but will include a few days in Paris, a few on the beach in Nice and a day in the country side touring France’s famed vineyards.  I imagine the wifi is a bit better than Myanmar so stay tuned for updates.