My husband and I decided during COVID that once we were out of lockdown, we were going to put all of our shit into storage and travel Europe for a year. I was at a classic 9-to-5 office job that I hated, and my husband was self-employed and worked remotely. So I immediately started job hunting and found my dream remote job, quit my office job, and started planning. We ended up traveling for 15 months and loved every minute of it. Here are all the cities we spent time in (in chronological order), and my ratings of each. Spoiler alert, I loved them all in different ways and I couldn’t give anywhere a rating under 3 avocados.

Florence, Italy

Starting off strong, I give Florence 4 avocados. We lived here for three months from January–April 2022. When we first arrived, it was just before the last of the COVID restrictions were lifted, so the city wasn’t busy and we had time to enjoy everything before all the other tourists came back. This city is absolutely stunning, the food is as good as everyone says it is, the gelato is even better, the weather is mild, and I could spend the rest of my days getting lost in all of the art museums. I only have one negative—if you don’t want to eat solely Italian food, other cuisines aren’t great quality and aren’t easy to find. But Florence is a perfect not-too-large city and base to explore a lot of other regions in Italy.

London, England

We stayed in London for about 2 and a half months after we left Florence, and it most definitely gets the full 5 avocados. It was my favorite city we lived in and the one that surprised me the most. I’ve always loved British television shows (watch 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and thank me later), British dry humor and British culture in general, but I wasn’t sure how I would feel about living in such a large city. But London is the city that made me realize I’m actually a city person. The public transportation is second-to-none. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes at a tube station, and buses were nearly as constant and so easy to use. Our tube station became part of our identity and point of pride as if we actually lived there (shoutout West Brompton).The food in London gets a lot of hate internationally, but I don’t understand why. Some of the best food I had was in London. It’s the epitome of a global city, with cuisines from every region you can think of. Highly recommend getting a good curry, a Sunday roast, and some fish and chips with mushy peas. I loved the food markets, especially Borough. Also, most museums are completely free. Crazy that some of the most amazing museums in the world are free to visit (acknowledging of course that the museums are impressive mostly because Britain stole priceless historical artifacts from all over the world and still refuses to give them back, but that’s a conversation for another time).

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh is beautiful and has a unique identity all its own; but compared to the other cities we visited, I just wouldn’t give it 5 avocados, so it’s at a solid 3. I loved the history, the landscape, and the rough-around-the-edges feel of this beautiful city. We stayed in Leith, a neighborhood outside of the city center and surrounding the Water of Leith, for a month. We had easy access to beautiful walking trails and hikes, and were lucky enough to have The Pitt Market with amazing food trucks right across the street from our apartment (though they’ve moved locations now). Overall, Edinburgh was a beautiful city, but the lack of walkability and great food kept me from putting this city at the top of my list.

Weesp, Netherlands

If I’ve ever seen an absolute story book of a town, it’s Weesp (pronounced Vaysp, I learned while butchering the name to the Dutch customs and immigration officer who had no idea what I was saying). It’s a tiny, sleepy little town tucked along the river Vecht just outside of Amsterdam. This is one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever stayed in (there were even lily pads along the small canals through town—don’t know why that amazed me so much), but there were definitely some frustrations with the Netherlands as a whole that are the reason for my 3 avocado rating. At the top of the list is money. Apparently the Dutch are amazing with money, and credit cards just aren’t common there, so most places only accept either cash or Dutch bank/debit cards, and a lot of smaller places don’t even accept cash. Which is amazing for the Dutch, but not so much if you’re a tourist trying to buy groceries, or a really cute sweater you find at a thrift store and were super excited about only to be told that they only take bank cards. But I digress. The food is just so-so, especially in a smaller town like Weesp, but it was nice being able to hop on the train and be in the center of Amsterdam in 15 minutes. Overall, it was a nice little 6-week stop on our trip.

Dresden, Germany

After the Netherlands, we headed to Dresden, Germany for 6 weeks. We stayed here during the fall when the leaves were turning, and it was so beautiful to see. We stayed in an apartment near Alaunpark and enjoyed spending most of our evenings after work walking through the park and eating our way through the park’s food trucks. The beer here is obviously amazing (and cheaper than bottled water, I kid you not), and I loved the biergarten culture—everyone just enjoys a Radeberger and a currywurst (my new favorite food) outside in biergartens all over the city. I still think about those and wish we had them in the states. Anyways, I loved Dresden and wished we had longer here. It wasn’t as overwhelmingly huge as Berlin, but still had a ton to offer—great food, great beer, hiking, museums, music. So it’s a solid 4 avocados in my book.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and herzegovina

Probably the least stereotypical European destination city on our list was Sarajevo. We stayed here for 3 months right across the street from the Baščaršija, the old 15th century bazaar in the center of the city, and around the corner from where the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. There were so many great things about staying in Sarajevo—tons of history (both ancient and modern), amazing architecture, good food, affordability (we stayed in a large apartment with a courtyard in the center of the city for less than $900 USD per month), and most of all, the people. I didn’t encounter friendlier people on our trip than the Bosnian people. I grabbed a Spanish latte from Fabrika and a doner kebab from Kebab Kocka multiple times per week. Highly recommend. The only downsides of Sarajevo were the weather—we stayed in the dead of winter, so a bit dreary and the sun set around 4pm because of the high mountains surrounding the city—and the fact that at the time we stayed, it was still legal to smoke indoors, including restaurants. I think that law has changed now and smoking is no longer allowed indoors, but it was difficult to find a place to eat where we weren’t choking on cigarette smoke. Overall, I loved Sarajevo and would highly recommend it. It’s a very underrated city that feels so different from the rest of the European cities we stayed in.

Valencia, Spain

Valencia was my second favorite city and gets a full 5 avocados. I can’t say enough good things about this city. The weather is perfect; we stayed from January–April and rarely had a day of bad weather. Plus it was orange season, and the city smelled like orange blossoms everywhere. Our stay luckily overlapped with Fallas, an annual Valencian festival to celebrate Saint Joseph, full of traditional dress and tons of fireworks, culminating in La Cremà—the final night where the falles (the beautiful handmade colorful monuments created by each neighborhood) are all set on fire and burned to the ground. I’d also highly recommend catching La Nit de Foc, the most spectacular fireworks display I’ve ever seen. Makes Disneyland look like a bunch of amateurs. But the city has so much to offer, even outside of Fallas season. The food is amazing (bravas and paella were my tops), the architecture is stunning, they have a city-wide bike share program that’s affordable and allows you to easily get anywhere since the city is relatively flat, and there’s a huge beach to bask in the Spanish sun and enjoy a lazy day. Also, be sure to try Agua de Valencia. It’s so delicious you’ll want to drink a gallon and will end up drunk before you even realize what happened. I could go on and on, but I love this city and you should visit.