And Just Like That, Summer Is Gone...

This summer, my wife and I decided it was time to make some long-held dreams come true. We put together our wishes and what we could realistically afford, compared everything, and reached a conclusion: we needed a vacation for just the two of us (it had been a long time), preferably in the mountains (we both love them), near a lake (a reasonable substitute for the sea), on a budget (so, not Sochi), and somewhere new. Mountains + lakes + a country neither of us had visited = Switzerland. Switzerland + affordable = stay just across the border in Italy and take day trips into Switzerland. So we made arrangements with our wonderful grandmothers, entrusted them with the kids, bought tickets well in advance, booked and paid for accommodations, and planned the itinerary and logistics—or rather, my wife planned them.

We had limited time and money, so we settled on a one-week trip (the grandmothers wouldn't have survived any longer). We picked a town with cheaper accommodations and planned to explore the area by train and boat. We booked our tickets far in advance, which kept the cost reasonable. We flew to Milan via Yerevan on the Armenian low-cost airline FlyOne, sharing one checked bag between us.

Our week felt like both an entire month and a single day. We traveled by train, car, bus, boat, and cable car. We saw countless lakes and waterfalls, visited more than ten towns and villages, shopped, had a series of almost religious culinary experiences, saw walnuts, persimmons, and pomegranates growing, encountered a fearless soaking-wet mouse and a pitch-black salamander, visited friends, did not enter a single museum, passed through 37 tunnels, got caught in a mountain downpour and thunderstorm, flew a drone, saw more than ten waterfalls, stocked up on cheese and sneakers, and climbed two mountains. It was an incredibly full and memorable vacation.

The summer was definitely not wasted. We both added another country to our lists. Travel whenever you can!