EUROTOUR

Hello!

As you all may have seen on facebook, I have just returned from the BEST three weeks of my life, touring much of Western Europe with a whole district of other wonderful exchangers!

I don't want to fill my blog up with ten different posts of all the cities, or group the cities together in each country they're in, because I'd still have 8 different posts on my blog. So what I've done, is written one blog, but with a nice bolded line in between each city, so like ten blogs in one post. You of course don't need to read the whole blog at once, or at all, just pick whichever city you're most interested in, and read to your hearts content.

The report will remain just as spectacular regardless of the amount of views ;-)

The following cities are listed below, and are in the same order in my blog, so it'll be easy for you to find whichever ones you're most interested in reading.

1.) Berlin, Germany,
2.) Prague, Czech Republic, 
3.) Vienna, Austria, 
4.) Lido Di Jesolo, Italy
5) Venice, Italy,
6.) Verona Italy, 
7.) Monte Carlo, Monaco, (this was a day stop)
8.) Avignon, France,
9.) Paris, France,
10.) Brussels, Belgium, (one day stop)
11.) Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (We stayed about an hour out in a town called Doorwerth).

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Berlin, Germany: 

We pulled into Berlin on Monday at around 7 in the evening, after driving nearly 9 hours (side note- Google says it only takes 4 hours to gets to Berlin?), and ate dinner after we got all our luggage lugged upstairs.

After dinner we all went out until curfew at 11, and wandered around for the hour and a half we had. Three of us (me and the two other girls) went out wandering and ended up at a park, where we heard an accordion player who made us feel very much like we were in Paris (second side note- we didn't see any of what made us feel like we were in Paris, in Paris). 

The second day we went and took a tour on the bus until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, where we also got to see The Berlin Wall, Brandenburger Tor, a holocaust museum, and Kaiser Wilham II church. 

We had time to wander on our own after that, so we went out and got some delicious Thai food, and then went into this place called Primark where everything is/was just so blissfully, wonderfully cheap, I walked into heaven. Until I tried everything on and decided never again until I get back and exercise all of this “middags kaffe” exchange weight off. 

Wednesday we took off from Berlin at 8 in the morning to head off to the Czech Republic. Everything was going smooth, I was having a nice conversation with the two girls I wandered Berlin with, when all of a sudden the bus stopped. I presumed we were not moving because we were at a red light, and I thought we were, but I suppose I’m also not too observant because I later saw the light was green and our main predicament was not the color of the street lights, but the fact our bus was dead. Being stuck on a dead bus in Europe is not as adventurous as it sounds, let me be the first to say ladies and gentlemen. 

We sat in the dead bus for our fair amount of time, just making jokes, sleeping, listening to music, and passing time. After a while one of the tour leaders came back with donuts, and I ate a Berliner in Berlin. We later went and sat in a park for five hours while we waited for the bus we had to dismantle to be fixed by a mechanic. 

The time finally came to board the bus, and we were happily weaving through Berlin’s traffic, on the way to Czech Republic, enjoying ourselves once again and ready to conquer Prague. And then our bus hit a car only a couple meters from the highway, and we had to swing around, trade insurance, talk to police, do that whole shebang before shuffling through Berlin’s traffic all over again. I honest to god felt like I was in the Bermuda Triangle of Berlin, once you go in you never come out. 

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Prague, The Golden City, Czech Republic. 

Prague stole my heart. 

It was only our second stop on eurotour and I had no idea what Venice or Paris or Amsterdam would look like, and it still just stole my heart. 

When stepping out of the subway in Prague, it was everything I could have imagined and better. Prague lived up to every one of its expectations, and even more. The more I wandered and saw, the more I fell in love with. Gosh I could just talk about Prague forever, I love(d) it so much.  

If I had to do an exchange year in college, I’d want it to be Prague. I guess I’m just drawn to places with languages that are harsh and difficult to learn and currencies that no matter how many conversions you do, still make everything feel ridiculously expensive. 

Anyway- to the tour. 

We took the subway in the morning into Prague, and toured until about 12 when we were set off on our own to go adventure. We went and got lunch, two people got goulash in a baked bread bowl, I got traditional Czech pancakes, and one got a Caesar Salad. 

After lunch we walked around the city more, saw some street performers, and then went into a café to mooch off their wifi for a couple minutes while we rested ourselves after walking all day. We ordered hot chocolate, until we finished and didn’t want to get up, so another girl ordered a second hot chocolate. After we finally conjured up the courage to leave our limited wifi and warm blankets we went into a souvenir shop, and then walked around more. For dinner, we got Mexican food. I was, for the first time in eight months, satisfied with my Mexican food experience. We went home at 10:00 to meet curfew, and the next day we went to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czech on the way to Vienna, Austria. 

It was a little bit unreal to experience someplace that only 70 years ago was occupied with the horrors of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. 

I didn’t really realize until a couple hours after we left that the place I just visited was a real relic from the holocaust, not just a museum with artifacts. I suppose I’m so used to seeing museums and “memorials” with recreated artifacts, it took some time for it to set in that Theresienstadt isn’t the Holocaust museum in D.C, or another memorial/museum with recreated, re hand crafted artifacts- it’s the real deal. 

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Vienna, Austria:

Well, to be honest, Vienna was very rainy. It rained the whole time we were there. The city was beautiful though, despite the pour, and I had a good time the one day we were there. 

We spent all day driving, and then got there about 5. A bunch of us went out afterwards even though the rain was sprinkling and mostly everything was closed. We were in a suburb of Vienna. 

The second day we went sightseeing during the day, and then came back for dinner. My friend had one of her Austrian friends with her, and so the whole group went out to an event called Eurovision contest. Perhaps you are familiar with Eurovision, perhaps you aren’t. It’s, from what I know, basically like American Idol only the European countries are competing. (For example Phillip Phillips won an American Idol, in this case it would be a country winning the title.)

It was going pretty good. The crowd was huge and we were squished, but I decided to leave the crowd for a couple minutes to try and find a bathroom. I was thinking "no problem, I'll find my group," until there ended up being a slight problem. I spent the next hour and half trying to find the people I was with, to no avail. I paced the street, and hyperventilated literally every time I tried to weave through the crowd. At one point, I stood in a corner of McDonalds to mooch off their free wifi. I tried to try and contact anyone I knew from the tour that could be possibly be at Eurovision as well, but couldn't get in contact. When I had officially gone insane, I messaged my mom. Because, you know, my mother, who is 5000 miles away, could do a lot for me. Then I left her hanging to panic about her lost daughter.

I finally decided to use a strangers phone who was really proud about his international cellphone service plan. Coincidentally, while I was on the phone with the Eurotour guide, I saw the group I was with. So I guess now I can say I got lost in a crowd at Eurovision, in Vienna, Austria. 

The next day I woke up in the hostel next to my own things, still relieved I wasn't continually pacing the streets of Vienna, and got ready. We all drove to Italy afterwards. We drove entirely though the Alps, and it was breathtakingly stunning the whole time. I loved it so much, I just love the Alps. Both winter time with the snow caps and summer time with the green trees and flowing rivers they’re wonderful and I’ll never get enough.  

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Lido Di Jesolo, Italy: 

Lido is a small little beach town about an hour from both Venice and Verona. The sand is perfectly soft and although the water is bit cold, I still loved my beach time. 

We got there in the evening after driving from Austria and went to the beach before dinner, and then went to the beach again after dinner and got some delicious Italian Gelato. 

Our second day in Italy we were still in Lido, and had a whole beach day to ourselves. I went to the beach in the morning with my group of friends, went and bought a bikini around 11, ate some Italian pasta around noon for lunch, and went back to the beach later. I had some gelato again (much gelato consumed over the past three weeks) and then it was dinner time again. After that Rotary took us all to a club and gave us each a free soft drink. The club played a lot of songs that was like a throw back to my middle school dances, and I had to wonder "why the hell am I listening to 'dynamite' by Taio Cruz in 2015.'" 

A friend and I left the club about an hour early, and went to sit on the beach and talk while it was dark, but still a little warm. There was a thunder storm, and it looked kind of cool on the beach.  

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Venice, Italy: 

Venice is a beautiful tourist trap. This city is, what I am convinced of, built for the tourists. I believe there are probably more tourists there than there are actual Italian residents. 

I’m glad I had my day there (even though I ended up getting sick for most of the day). We toured for a while until it started pouring, where we went inside to eat lunch (which was Italian pizza with tiramisu afterwards), and when the rain finally stopped around 12, we went back outside. We took a gondola ride which was beautiful, just weaving in and out of many of Venice’s bright green and blue canals, with a spirited Italian steering our gondola. 

We met with two of my friend's friends, one that lives in Venice that is my friend's friends' friend (an exchange student from California), and one that is from my friend's Rotary district back home in Florida. We talked for a while, wandered, got some more gelato (have eaten so much gelato whoops), and then the whole group of exchange students went back home. I went back up to the room and slept, went down to eat a tiny portion of dinner, came up and finished writing this blog entry about Venice, and then went to sleep so I didn’t have to pay attention to the fact that my head and neck felt like it was on fire.  

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Verona, Italy: 

Verona was a “stopover city” as we started to refer to them - we visited on the way to the other cities where a bigger tour would happen. 

We arrived in Verona around 11 and were there for about two hours. We saw Romeo and Juliet's tower. It was very crowded, which made it hard to get pictures. So, unfortunately, I took pictures for the “memories” but not really to post to Facebook or my blog. 

We also saw the arena in Verona. I do have pictures of that, but we just walked right by it on the way to Romeo and Juliet’s castle, so I can’t write much about how that was. My group of friends and I got our first and last real Italian pizza that was delicious. The Italians do it right. We went shopping around for a bit after that. 

We boarded the bus later around 1:30 or 2 and were off to the San Remo area which is on the Italian Riviera. That is where we would spend the night before driving to our stopover in Monte Carlo and tour destination: Avignon. 

The Italian Riviera was beautiful and looked very expensive, though we were only there when it was dark out, so I can’t say I experienced much to blog on there. If you’d like a report - the hotel was good and the spaghetti they served us was perfectly cooked, topped off with chocolate ice-cream cake, which Claire and I got two pieces of, because in the group of four, two of them are lactose intolerant. 

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Monte Carlo, Monaco 

Trying to get to Monte Carlo was really just an experience in itself. 

Just to give you some background information if you skipped the Berlin post- our last day in Berlin we were trying to get to Prague when our bus broke down and we couldn’t get it started ourselves. After it had been repaired, we were only meters from the highway when we got in a car accident. 

And now, on our way to Monte Carlo, we’re cruising up high and winding cliffs on the Riviera when we slowly start to realize that the roads are thinning and soon will not accommodate the size of our tour bus. 

We get to the top of the cliff, and are trying to take a turn to go further, and realize we literally can’t. We had to back down the cliffs of the Italian Riviera and take a completely different route so as to not back 46 exchange students over the rocks into the Ligurian sea. (Using slight hyperbole there). Our bus driver had a smoke break after that.

After a while though, we were back on track and before we knew it we had crossed the border from Italy to France and were cruising on the French Riviera, heading for the principality of Monaco. 

It was beautiful there, however you could really tell that it was expensive and meant for the wealthy and upper class. Bright blue oceans, huge houses over looking them, boats in the water, cruises on the coast, and nearly everyone I noticed seemed to be driving a motorcycle too.

I loved it, and looking out over the water was great. It was endless, literally endless. You could look over the cliffs and see nothing but bright blue ocean ahead of you. Simply amazing. It feels kind of cool to say I’ve been to the French Riviera.  

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Avignon, France

Avignon is a small medieval town in Southern France, a ways away from Monaco.

It is famous for the Pont Du Gard aqueduct bridges, which is primarily why we went - to visit the bridges. 

The first night we checked in to where we were staying, ate dinner, and then walked into town and came back at 12, which was our curfew. The second day we woke up early (but late for most mornings on this trip), and drove to Pont Du Gard. We were there for about two hours and some of us hiked up to find the best view of the ancient aqueducts. Some of the boys went swimming, and then once we returned to the hotel we were free for the rest of the day. 

My friends and I went out and ate lunch, and after looking around for a while we decided our cheapest and probably best place was a little hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant. It was definitely worth it. My duck with spicy sauteé was delicious. I almost ordered pho soup, however I decided I was going to save my pho soup experience for when I come home.

*Believe it or not Mom, I have indeed thought about that on multiple occasions this year and do look very much forward to a nice, hot, small (yet still very large) pho number 5 chicken soup from T&N. 

Anyway - after we ate lunch we came home, and I went swimming with Kelsey. Then, we went into what we referred to as the “wifi café” (the only place you could find wifi in the hotel). 

We ate dinner, and then after that I went out with a friend and got champagne. We walked around Avignon, and then came home a little bit before curfew and talked further in our room. 

We all woke up the next morning, and at 7:30 we began our nine hour adventure to PARIS.  

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Paris, The City of Romance, France

Oh Paris. Je t’adore. 

Gosh I loved Paris. Prague and Paris honestly are the cities on eurotour where I felt withdrawals after leaving them. 

The first night in Paris we arrived in our hotel, and we all got ready and went out to eat. The group of people I had been hanging out with all eurotour and I went to an Indian place a very short walk from our hostel. After going out to eat, we went to a canal tour along the Seine River. 

It was so beautiful, and so cool to be able to take a canal tour in Paris. It was in the evening, and so when the canal tour was ending we sailed by the Eiffel Tower all lit up and beautiful. 

After the canal tour we went to the Eiffel Tower, and as we were walking there it started to sparkle. It was lit up, and sparkling, and just so incredibly beautiful. I loved it there. We were there until 12 when we went back to the hostel. 

The next day we had a free day to ourselves, so I and my group of friends hit the Louvre first. We all shoved through many people and made it to the world famous Mona Lisa, which is impossible to see or get pictures of because everyone wants the same thing you do. We conquered the impossible and got both normal pictures and, lo and behold, the inevitable selfie with the Mona Lisa. 

After going to The Louvre we went and walked across hell’s half acres to find a classic American Mexican restaurant; Chipotle. It was delicious, even despite walking in the drizzle for ages. When we were finished with our Chipotle, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way up to the summit, and then back down to the second floor when we had seen the view from the very top, and then we went back down completely and finished off our day at L’Arc De Triomphe et Champs Élysées. 

The next day two of the friends from our group of five started the morning early and went to Notre Dame de Paris. I stepped on Point Zéro, which, so I’ve been told, is supposed to bring good luck and/or guarantee your return to Paris. We went inside Notre Dame, where we heard the most beautiful choir singing. We then walked back to the Louvre to meet our group before Disneyland Paris, with a stop for crèpes and Starbucks. 

So much for "good luck," from point zéro though, because on the way back to Le Louvre, I was swindled, the last (100) euro in my wallet. The money that was supposed to go to escargot actually went to fund a fake petition or something, but I don't know, maybe that's the plot twist, an incentive to return after all? 

Disneyland cheered me up though as soon as we entered, and it proved to not be a bad thing (until two weeks later when I found out the child's hat that I tried on happened to be the one harboring head lice?) What they say is true, it is the happiest place on earth and I will admit to having a fantastic time in a glorified, over expensive kid park, despite the fact that I’m turning 18 in a month. 

Shout out to the Peter Pan ride, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and It’s a Small World. Peter Pan’s ride made me feel like Santa Clause and we waited in line for a good half an hour for a minute long attraction, but let me just say the attraction was worth every second, even if for only 60 seconds. 

(Needless to say though, I will not be stepping on point zéro again, nej tak, non merci, no thank you). 

And then the next day we were off to Amsterdam, our last stop on Eurotour, with a small one hour stop in Brussels, Belgium.  

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Brussels, Belgium: 

We were in Belgium for only about an hour and a half, however Brussels is a beautiful city from what I saw. 

It is home of the EU Parliament, Mannekin Pis (literally a peeing sculpture), and of course world famous Belgian Chocolate, Waffles, and French Fries. 

The first thing we did when we got into Belgium was walk down to Mannekin Pis, took a couple pictures, and then went and bought a delicious Belgian Waffle. 

We went to a book store after a while of aimlessly wandering around the city, and were in there for a while before walking back to our meeting place. 

We then got into the bus and drove to Doorwerth, The Netherlands, where we were staying which is about an hout outside of Amsterdam. 

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Amsterdam, The City of Sin, The Netherlands

Amsterdam was dank. That's how I could sum it up. The dankest city in Europe.  

We walked around Amsterdam for quite a bit, with the tour even going through The Red Light District, before being set off on our own. Many people went to eat lunch in the Red Light District, I did what I've been wanting to do I was 12 and read her diary- went and finally saw the Anne Frank House. 

The line of one and a half hours was considered short, on the weekends during high tourist season the line can reach five hours. 

It was worth every minute of the wait however. While I was 15 minutes from the entrance and could see the end of the line, I was looking at pictures from a brochure handed out to me and was just mind blown that in only about 20 minutes I would be inside the place that I have read so much about. 

When I finally got in we stopped to look around the various quotes and relics in the downstairs "museum" area, and then climbed the steep first flight of stairs. There were more relics and pieces of information there that we read, and then when we were finished in that area we walked through the infamous bookcase and climbed the stairs further, up into their kitchen that doubled as a living room, Anne and Fritz Pfieffers bedroom, the bathroom, and into Peter Van Pels bedroom, which was the attic. 

We couldn't climb completely up into the attic, it was blocked off with glass. I'm curious as to why, I'm not completely sure why it's no longer possible, but maybe I'll look it up. 

You really never realize how small the living quarters were in the Secret Annex until you realize how short time you can make it through the Anne Frank House, even while reading the various quotes from her diary and taking time to stop to really look around. 

Anne's posters of celebrities and movie stars were still hanging on her wall, and her first red and white checkered diary is still being preserved downstairs under a glass case. Her further diaries have also been preserved, as well as Margot's flashcards that she used to learn elementary Latin. 

The church bells that Anne wrote about so much in her diary rang loud and you could hear it through the Annex. The old willow tree she looked at fell down a couple years ago and so is no longer there, however the black out curtains that they could not open "even an inch during the day" were still on the wall, shut tight. 

On a canal tour of Amsterdam later after I left the Anne Frank House we were told that many houses in Amsterdam are built on wooden platforms on the water, that are beginning to sink. They call them "dancing houses." 

When we went back to Doorwerth we bowled for an hour all together, and when we came back to the hostel we had a bonfire from almost 11 to 2 in the morning, when the majority of the group had gone inside and the few left started to disperse as well. 

And then, the day actually came where we packed up everything and got ready to sit on the last bus ride of the tour, that would take us back to Denmark. 

And that was eurotour, the last hoorah of our exchange year. 

Vi ses! :-)