tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-174103982024-02-08T07:50:54.795-08:00Cynthia's European AdventureCynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1129418736596231882006-05-21T16:22:00.000-07:002007-01-04T14:13:50.875-08:00my trip!Hey everyone!<br />Here's the travelogue for my wonderful trip to Europe during July and August of 2004. I went on Contiki's European Experience trip. Click on each day of the itinerary to the right to see and read about what I did that day.<br />[please note: This is still in progress and not quite finished. As of right now, all of the pictures are up, but only about half of the descriptions of each day. Thanks for being patient.]<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/euroexpmap.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/euroexpmap.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148207560480097242006-05-21T03:31:00.000-07:002006-05-21T03:32:40.480-07:00day twentythree: London to USAand after 22 wonderful days, 50 new friends, and almost 900 pictures, I headed back to CaliforniaCynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148207457138033272006-05-21T03:27:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:49:46.009-08:00day twentytwo: Amsterdam to London<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0953.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0953.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />after such a long trip, almost everyone slept on the ferry back from Calais to Dover<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0958.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0958.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />a view of the Thames River, the London Eye, and Parliament as we headed back to where we started<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0963.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0963.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Mick, Paul, Jasmin, and me back at the pub at our hotel<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-twentythree-london-to-usa.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148207244588503652006-05-21T03:20:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:49:09.628-08:00day twentyone: Amsterdam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0903.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0903.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />we took some paddleboats around the canals of Amsterdam to see the city properly<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0907.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0907.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />some of the cool houses along the canals<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0919.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0919.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Anne Frank's house<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0910.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0910.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />one of the main streets in Amsterdam. bikes have the right-of-way<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0916.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0916.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />for our final official evening of the trip, the group took a cruise along the canals<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0940.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0940.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />and ended with a nice dinner<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-twentytwo-amsterdam-to-london.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148206044563180852006-05-21T02:58:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:48:36.671-08:00day twenty: Rhine Valley to Amsterdam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0895.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0895.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />the crazy lady who led our bike tour in the outskirts of Amsterdam<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0899.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0899.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />me, in front of a windmill<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0901.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0901.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />we went to a wooden shoe carving demonstration<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-twentyone-amsterdam.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148205451583973242006-05-21T02:53:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:47:56.749-08:00day nineteen: Lauterbrunnen to Rhine Valley<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0878.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0878.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />in Heidelberg, a bridge over the Rhine river<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0882.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0882.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />some houses along the river in Heidelberg<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0885.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0885.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />the town's center. you can see an old castle in the background<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0890.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0890.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />a group of us sitting along the river (with some German "gelato", of course)<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-twenty-rhine-valley-to-amsterdam.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148205172596670892006-05-21T02:44:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:47:17.358-08:00day eighteen: Swiss Alps<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0841.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0841.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />early morning, taking the train all the way up to the Swiss Alps<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0849.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0849.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />our group in the snow at the top of Jungfrau Mountain<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0860.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0860.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />we were at the top of Europe!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0869.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0869.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />me in the lovely snow<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0872.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0872.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />the truly spectacular view at the very top<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0874.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0874.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />another amazing view<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0876.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0876.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />the side of the Alps on the way back down<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-nineteen-lauterbrunnen-to-rhine.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148204453274101872006-05-21T02:36:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:46:27.571-08:00day seventeen: Munich to LauterbrunnenEveryone was pretty tired/hungover on the bus the next morning, but Jase only let us sleep for a little while. We were on our way to Switzerland and he said it was the best scenery, so he tried to make everyone stay awake after lunch.<br /><br />We had lunch in the tiny country of Liechtenstein (actually, in its capital, Vaduz, which is really more a small town than a capital of an entire country). It was by far the most boring place we visited. The only thing to do there is get your passport stamped and use the ATM to get Swiss Francs. Unfortunately, while I was at the ATM, someone (probably my stupid waitress) stole my sunglasses that I had just purchased the day before. I left them on the table next to my mostly finished pizza and when I returned both my food and the sunglasses were gone. I asked the waitress if she had seen them and she pretended to have no idea. Whatever. They weren't worth anything, but it still pissed me off. So anyway, after that, we hopped back on the coach and made our way into Switzerland.<br /><br />The drive was absolutely beautiful. I am so glad that I was awake. It brought a whole new meaning to the word "scenic". We stopped for a couple hours in Lucerne.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0796.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0796.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lucerne is famous for the Chapel Bridge which was very bridge. Part of it burned down in the 1990s, but it was rebuilt and looks just like new. We spent some time just walking around town and by the lake. We also stopped at this big lion monument to remember the Swiss guards that died in France. We also looked around the obligatory Swiss army knife and watch shop. Luckily I didn't buy anything because I didn't need either of those things.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0803.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0803.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After Lucerne, we got back on the bus for some more awesome scenery and finally got to our place in Lauterbrunnen, located in the Jungfrau region of the Swiss Alps. Our lodge was next to a picturesque waterfall and a great view of the Alps.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0829.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0829.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0832.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0832.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This was a view out of our window. We couldn't have asked for a better location.<br /><br />That night at the bar (called the Bomb Shelter since I think that's what it used to be - at the very least it was a big basement that was overcrowded and too hot) we had a bunch of these shots called Flugels. They come in a little bottle and this is the way you are supposed to drink them: first, unscrew the cap and lick it and stick it on your forehead; then put your finger over the top and bang the bottle on the table a bunch of times; then, everyone takes the shot and then puts the cap in their mouth and tries to spit it out and hit someone with it. It was lots of fun. And they tasted pretty good too.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-eighteen-swiss-alps.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148204103564115282006-05-21T02:28:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:29:10.974-08:00day sixteen: Hopfgarten to MunichThe next morning we left Austria and headed up towards Germany. The first stop on a long bus ride was the Swarovski crystal museum. It was pretty boring (I thought - some people liked it), so a couple of us played outside instead. It was so beautiful.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0758.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0758.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We decided to stop at Dachau on our way to Munich. Dachau was the first of many concentration camps that sprung up before/during World War II. It was a weird place to visit, knowing all the horrible things that happened there. Some of the old barracks were still standing and they also had a gas chamber and furnace room that you could walk through. It was very emotional being there and kind of hard to take in. There was also a museum with lots of photos and other information about Dachau and the other camps that came after it. We also watched a movie they had which was pretty powerful. It was a pretty sobering morning, to say the least. Jase that it would be an interesting day where we would see the good and bad aspects of German culture, starting off the day in Dachau and ending at the beer halls. It was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0763.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0763.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A little bit later we arrived in Munich (Munchen) and walked towards the Marienplatz (the main square area) to see the famed Glockenspiel, which is this old clock (below).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0770.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0770.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Apparently the thing goes off a couple times a day and does a little sort of show, but Jase said it's like the most boring 10 minutes of your life, so we went shopping instead. (Oh, but first we went to the toilets near the underground subway station underneath the Glockenspiel. They were really gross and it totally smelled down there. Ew.) Tash, Erwin, and I went into some department store where Erwin found some other guys from our group and promptly ditched us. I bought some new sunglasses (sunnies) and the cutest earrings. Then Tash and I went to some stores and she bought a bunch of stuff. When we got back to the bus we found out that a group of them had gone beer drinking at the Hofbrauhaus and that Paul actually stolen a glass stein from there (bad Paulie. heh). So they were slightly sloshed as we headed to our hotel.<br /><br />The hotel was fairly normal. We got ready to go out and then headed to the Pschorr-Keller beer hall for the optional dinner.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0773.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0773.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I opted to have the pork knuckles for dinner, which was actually very tasty. The beer was also very good. It came in big 1 liter steins that were really heavy and made a great sound when you banged them together. I only had one stein at dinner, but lots other people had two (it may be because our table's came late - but really I knew we were going to another beer hall after dinner and I didn't want to puke before we got there - or after either). We were entertained during dinner by some dancing girls and another girl who sang and played bells, all accompanied by some band guys funnily dressed. It was fun.<br /><br />We were all pretty intoxicated on the way to the Hofbrauhaus (the famous Munich beer hall). Apparently they don't take reservations for large groups (or at least large groups of Contiki people) so we had to go in as small groups and then reconvene at a table in one of the back corners.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0785.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0785.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was a pretty big place, full of long wood tables and a band playing polka music in the middle. We quickly ordered a couple of beers and had a taste of someone's giant pretzel which was great (best pretzel I've ever had). The drunkenness continued for quite some time. Eventually some of us decided to grab a taxi back to the hotel.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-seventeen-munich-to-lauterbrunnen.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148203314796479962006-05-21T02:14:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:11:51.143-08:00day fifteen: Austrian TyrolThe next day we slept in a little bit longer than normal (I think we got up at 9am) and got ready for the mountain bike ride. I hadn't ridden a bike in quite some time, so it took me a few minutes to get used to it again and remember how to shift and everything. On the first hill I slipped off the pedals and my right calf slammed into the gears. It didn't really hurt at the time, but when we made our first stop I realized that my leg really hurt and looked down and saw blood gushing out (ok, not really gushing, but it was all up and down the back of my leg and didn't look too pretty). I got some band-aids which helped slightly, but I do have an extra souvenir from my trip that I wasn't planning on (a cute little scar).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0734.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0734.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Me and some of the other girls decided to take the "shortcut" to the BBQ lunch place. We hiked up a hill, took some nice pictures and got to the lunch place really early. So we decided to bike to the town down the road and look for an ATM machine and some postcards.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0735.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0735.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was the cutest little town ever! We wanted to stay longer but we had to get back so we wouldn't miss lunch (which we almost did). When we got back to the Contiki place after the bike ride, they told us that we could keep our bikes for a few more hours. So a bunch of us decided to ride into Hopfgarten to look around and get some things we needed at the grocery store and post office. It was a short little ride (although Vanessa ran into a wall because she thought some truck was going to hit her - he was nowhere close, by the way - it was hilarious) and we eventually found the post office and a place to get some food. We had some really good chicken schnitzel there. It was a really tiny town (but really cute) so there wasn't much to do.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0744.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0744.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I headed back a bit earlier than everyone else so I could take a nap before dinner. By this point, my sore throat had turned into a cold (the dreaded "Contiki cough"), but I was pretending that nothing was wrong. Although it really wasn't that bad - not until after the trip anyway.<br /><br />After dinner, a few of us walked into town with Dave the bus driver and went to some local bar. More people showed up later as the karaoke was starting. We played a bit of pool and watched people make fools of themselves at karaoke. It was a pretty fun night. The walk back afterwards was really nice: the weather was just perfect - not too cool, not too warm; and the sky was clear and we could see thousands of stars. It was the perfect end to a beautiful day.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-sixteen-hopfgarten-to-munich.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148202848811168392006-05-21T02:13:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:11:07.672-08:00day fourteen: Venice to HopfgartenThe next morning we jumped on the coach and headed into Austria. The drive was amazingly beautiful. I even took a picture of the scenic views at our service stop that day. I think I had another baguette and some Coke. Oh and I bought a can of Pringles. Pringes were the snack of choice for our tour and we probably consumed five or six cans a day (as a bus).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0711.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0711.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Jase played "The Sound of Music" over the bus speakers as we entered Austria. We also had a ridiculous amount of traffic (there was some kind of detour we had to take, so I'm not sure what was going on), which made us late for white water rafting. When we finally got there, we got our quick safety speech and donned all the necessary gear: wetsuit (I think they said the water 6 degrees Celsius! freezing!), jacket, life vest, booties, and helmet. We divided into groups and got into our rafts.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/rafting.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/rafting.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />My raft had in it: me, Tash, Meaghan, Jase, the three Koreans, and our river guide. Rafting was sooo much fun; better than the time I went with my family in Utah. The rapids themselves were good, but more importantly it was more fun to be out there with all these people (our raft and the three other rafts would have water fights with each other when we were close enough) and to be there in beautiful Austria on a day when the weather couldn't have been more perfect. One of the first things we did in the raft was practice getting people out of the water and back in the raft, and also practicing how to let someone else get you back in as well. This meant that we had to jump into the freezing cold river. And it was cold! I made the mistake of actually "jumping" in and not just jumping in right next to the raft which meant I had to swim back to the raft. Oh well. It was invigorating. About half way through, the guide said we could take a break and swim for a couple minutes if we wanted to. We thought he was kidding. So Jase got up and started dumping the Koreans over the side. And then Tash pushed me in and I dragged her in after me. It was cold, but lots of fun. At the end of the trip, the guide showed us how to do a trick where everyone sits at the front of the raft and you tilt it up 90 degrees. It was really cool, until he purposely flipped us over. And then it was just cold. But hilarious.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/rafting2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/rafting2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />After rafting we headed straight to our Contiki village in Hopfgarten. The place was pretty cute, complete with little flowers along the windowsills.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-fifteen-austrian-tyrol.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1148202705216877562006-05-21T01:54:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:56:05.142-08:00day thirteen: VeniceThe next morning we headed into Venice on a motorboat from our campsite. I was without sunglasses (they broke in Rome two days earlier) and all I can remember from the ride over is that it was very bright and hot for that time in the morning.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0626.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0626.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />One of the first things we saw when we got off the boat was the Bridge of Sighs. Then it was off to some demonstrations. First we all went to a glass-blowing demonstration (Venice is well known for its glass) which was really cool. Then we went to a lace-making demonstration which wasn't as boring as I thought it was going to be. I almost bought something but decided against it (I was on a very limited budget for the trip). Then we had some free time.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0640.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0640.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here is me in San Marco Square, with all the pigeons. Me, Tash, Vanessa, Paul, and Meaghan walked around sort of aimlessly. Actually, first we snuck into St. Mark's (San Marco) church. We didn't want to wait in line, so we sort of snuck in through the exit while Paul watched our bags. It was really dark inside and only mildly interesting. You couldn't really walk around a whole lot, there were just a couple areas you could look at and most places were off-limits. We were glad we hadn't waited a long time to get in.<br /><br />Then, we started wandering in the direction of the Rialto Bridge. As always, I was navigator, and I assured them that we were headed int he right direction even though I had no idea where we were. It is really easy to get lost in Venice. And that's one of the things I liked most about it. It's such an interesting city and you never know what you're going to see on the next block. Also, since there are no cars or bikes or anything like that, it's very quiet on the streets. There's no traffic din like every other city. And because the streets are just big enough for pedestrians, the buildings are close together which gives you a really intimate feeling. I loved Venice.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0646.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0646.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On our way to the bridge we got hungry and started looking for a snack. Luckily we found this gelato place that was absolutely amazing. It was the best gelato we had on our trip (and trust me, we had a lot).<br /><br />So then we found the bridge (good job, me) and took some pictures.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0649.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0649.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There was also a little store right there so we went in and Tash, Meaghan and i all ended up buying a glass necklace. They're really cool and weren't that expensive and I'm really glad I bought mine.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0656.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0656.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Then we walked over the Rialto Bridge, overlooking the Grand Canal, and took some pictures. Somehow, Tash and I got separated from the rest of the group. We were really hungry and started looking for a place to eat. We ended up at a little restaurant near San Marco square and shared the most amazing pizza. It had different kinds of meats and vegetables on it, I don't even remember exactly, but it tasted fantastic.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0663.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0663.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After that, we went window shopping for a little while and then went back to the square to meet up with the big group for the gondola ride.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0665.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0665.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0675.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0675.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We had six people per gondola - here's me, Mick, Tash, Paul, and Vanessa (and Meaghan behind the camera). It was a fun ride and we saw the city as it is meant to be seen - from the canals. We went by Mozart's old house and lots of little places. We ran into a gondola traffic jam at one point and listened to the Mexicans singing "La Bamba" from their gondola. It was a great way to end the afternoon. Then we all took another motorboat back to the Fusina campsite.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0692.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0692.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />That night, we all hung out at the bar. I kicked Dave's, the bus driver, butt at ping pong and we all watched some traveling Christian group do some kind of performance. It was pretty funny.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0699.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0699.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here is some of our group, enjoying our last night in Venice.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-fourteen-venice-to-hopfgarten.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1129418407133559042005-10-15T16:17:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:55:34.573-08:00day twelve: Rome to VeniceThe next morning we packed up our stuff and loaded everything onto the bus. As we ate breakfast, it started to rain and by the time we were ready to get on the bus, it was pouring and we were all soaking wet. Not exactly a fun way to start the day, but at least we were glad that it hadn't rained like that the previous two days we were there. We really did luck out in terms of weather during the whole trip (except of course for the extreme heat we experienced through most of Italy) and didn't miss out on anything due to bad weather.<br /><br />We had a bit of a drive that day, but Jase told us that we were going to get to stop somewhere on our way to Venice. Our options were either some beach or the city of Verona. Due to the rainy weather, the decision was made to go to Verona, a decision I was very happy about. Shakespeare's story of Romeo and Juliet takes place in a town called Verona, and according to local legend, the play was based on a true story. The town of Verona is known for two things: a smaller version of the Colosseum that they call the Arena and Guiletta's house (the house where Juliet supposedly lived). Although I don't know if I believe the story or not, the house was cool to see.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0619.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0619.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />As you can see in the picture above, there is indeed a balcony where the famous scene could have taken place. All of the pieces of paper on the wall are notes from lovers, pledging their undying love to someone. It's kind of romantic, but mostly just seemed like a tourist trap.<br /><br />There was also a statue of Juliet in the courtyard. Apparently if a guy rubbed her right breast, he would be lucky in love. So, all of the guys on our trip took turns molesting the statue and we got lots of funny pictures.<br /><br />However, my most memorable moment of Verona came when I needed to use the public toilets. Now, Jase had warned us at the start of the trip about some differences. First, they make you pay for them. Ok, that's fine; it ate up all my change, but it wasn't too hard to deal with. Second, the Europeans don't like toilet seats for some reason. We saw this right away in France and I still don't understand it. However, Verona took it one step further: no toilet at all. When I got into the bathroom, there was just a hole in the ground. No joking! It was one of the "squatters" we had heard about but didn't really think existed. And to think that I actually paid for this!<br /><br />After some more driving (I think we drove more this day than any other) we arrived in Venice in time for a late dinner. The campsite we were staying at, Fusina, was pretty nice. They had really good internet that I used happily for half an hour after dinner. I was able to talk to my dad and a couple friends for a while through instant messenger and read all of my email. One problem with the campsite was that the bathrooms and showers were kind of not-so-close, but at least they were clean. There was also a bar that served these really strong drinks called "attitude adjusters" and gave girls free shots if they flashed the bartenders (and their cameras).<br /><br />Also, all of our cabins were arranged in a circle, facing inwards. Someone nicknamed it "Melrose Place". It was nice how we were all so close together. Definitely after Venice everyone in our group was much closer and less cliquey. this is probably due not just to the arrangement of our cabins, but also to the amount of alcohol that we all drank there.<br /><br />The first night in Venice I went to bed pretty early since I was starting to feel sick (some kind of cold) and I wanted to make sure that I was well-rested for the next day which I was really looking forward to.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2006/05/day-thirteen-venice.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1129418189896357862005-10-15T16:12:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:55:12.012-08:00day eleven: RomeThe next morning we got to sleep in a tiny bit (I think until 8am) and then headed back into the city, but this time to Vatican City which actually the world's smallest country. First we walked from the metro over to Saint Peter's Square and milled around for a bit, to take in the enormity of the place.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0554.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0554.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is a picture of me in Saint Peter's Square with the Basilica behind me. More about that later on.<br /><br />After stopping at the square, we walked around the country to get to the Vatican Museum entrance. Luckily we didn't have to wait to get in but once we got in, it went pretty slow getting to the Sistine Chapel. It seemed like it took forever to get there because we kept going through all these small rooms with no idea how much farther we had to go. But once we got there, we forgot all about how long we waited. It was simply amazing. The details and effects on the ceiling we breathtaking. Parts of it actually looked three dimensional (like some of the columns looked real). It was amazing that one person did all that.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0579.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0579.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was truly amazing. You weren't allowed to take pictures of it, but I managed to anyway (and so did everyone else that was in there too). The hard part was to get a steady picture since you couldn't use a flash (although Quinn accidentally did and almost got us kicked out. Twice. haha).<br /><br />After we rushed through the rest of the museum, a bunch of us headed to find lunch since we were absolutely starving. We found a good restaurant just a few blocks away. It was really good. We split some pizzas, pasta, and lasagna. And this time, the bread was included. We also got really great potatoes as part of the appetizer.<br /><br />After lunch we went back to Saint Peter's Square and waited in line to get into the Basilica. We ended up waiting in the wrong line once we got past security and therefore wasted half an hour (we were in line to get up to the top, which we definitely didn't have time for). Oh well. That's what happens. Anyway, we eventually got into the church and it was awesome. I have never seen anything so amazing in my whole life. First of all, it was massive. It just kept going and going. And it was beautiful. The ceilings, domes, artwork, everything was amazing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0592.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0592.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is a view of the main section and the big dome. The Pieta was in there as well which was really cool to see. We also saw where St. Peter's bones are (the church is literally built on top of him). It was a very impressive place and I'm really glad I spent time there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0613.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0613.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here is me in front of the Basilica overlooking Saint Peter's Square and the the obelisk in the middle.<br /><br />Originally, we were going to head back into Rome after going to the Basilica, but it was getting late and we were just exhausted and hot and tired. so, we bought some gelati, a couple souvenirs and walked to the metro station. All in all, I liked Rome, but it was far too hot and loud and crowded for me to have fallen in love with it. I really did like it though. It was cool to see all the scooters everywhere and the feel of a big important and historical and old city. I will definitely go back because I didn't get to see nearly all of the things I wanted to (like the Piazza Navona, the mouth of truth, the Castel San Angelo and stuff like that).<br /><br />When we got back to the campsite, we all hung out at the pool until dinner. There really wasn't anything else you could do to cool down. If you took a shower, you would be sweaty again before you even dried off. It was gross. Anyway, the pool was nice. It was really funny too because the lifeguards started teasing Quinn quite a bit. It was hilarious. I think also it was around this time in the trip that our whole group finally felt like one big dysfunctional family. It was a nice feeling. That evening, we all hung out and played more drinking games and danced and all that.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-twelve-rome-to-venice.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1129417037888558682005-10-15T15:46:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:54:42.287-08:00day ten: Florence to RomeThe next day we all got up really early and dragged ourselves onto the coach to make our way to Rome. We arrived early in the afternoon and headed straight into the city. Jase somehow managed to get all 50 of us onto the metro and off at the right place. We walked out of the station and were staring up at the Colosseum. It was weird to see it just right there, nestled between a metro station and other modern buildings.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN04561.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0456.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We had a bit of free time so we walked around a little bit, but mostly stood in the shade and tried not to think about how hot it was. Rome was by far the hottest city we went to, although Florence gave it a run for its money.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN04621.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0462.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We filled up our water bottles with the cold water from the Roman fountains (although we found out later that this was probably not a good idea - although I must say it tasted quite good, it was cold, and no one got sick - so whatever). Quinn hassled some of the people trying to sell knock off handbags which was quite amusing to watch. We also got some gelato (I think I had pistachio and chocolate which was amazingly good). After all that, we started our optional Guided Imperial Tour of Rome.<br /><br />We started at the Colosseum and walked all the way around, with our tour guide stopping at certain places to explain things. I was feeling really sick (and it looked like everyone else was too) because of the extreme heat and from being slightly hungover and not having any breakfast so I only was paying attention to about half of her Colosseum spiel (even though she kept yelling at us for being half-dead, which we were). She was a bit crazy and actually told two guys off at some point because they weren't part of our group. I got a couple sort-of good pictures of the inside of the Colosseum, but I really wished we could have gone through the thing (some people did it the following day, but I spent the whole day at Vatican City). By the time we moved on to the ruins I felt much better, so that was good.<br /><br />The ruins were really interesting. Some of them dated back thousands of years. It was also cool to see how they just built on top of older things and how when they excavated they could tell how old something was by looking at its level relative to the other ruins.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN04851.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0485.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN04991.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0499.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />When the guided tour was over, Jase led us around to the other parts of the city (as discreetly as possible). We started at the Vittorio Emmanuel monument.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05071.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0507.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was a massive building. If you climb up the stairs you can see all over the city. Of course, we didn't have time to actually do this. Oh well. Next time.<br /><br />After that, we walked up the street a while to the Pantheon. It was a really amazing place. Much more interesting than I was anticipating (but smaller than I thought).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05081.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0508.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is the outside of the building. Inside, it was very dark because there is just one opening, a hole in the middle of the domed ceiling (called an occulus). It provides all the light for the entire building and even lets the rain in whenever it rains (there's an old drain in the floor to let it out). Sadly, about half of the building was blocked off with scaffolding inside. But it was still very impressive.<br /><br />After the Pantheon we headed to the Trevi Fountain. While the Pantheon was smaller than I expected, the Trevi Fountain was much bigger. It was huge! It took up like an entire block. It was also really crowded and we had to battle to the front to get pictures by ourselves.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05211.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0521.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05291.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0529.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I threw in three coins. According to Jase, you throw in one for good luck, one so that you'll return to Rome, and one so that you'll fall in love. :)<br /><br />After chilling at the fountain for a while, we set off to get dinner. After some deliberation, we found a restaurant down some random street that was not too expensive but still nice. It turns out that the name of the restaurant the other people in the group picked was my last name! How random is that? I guess it's a fairly normal Italian last name, but it still seems like a weird coincidence.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05321.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0532.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Anyway, we had really good food there; we shared some pizza and pasta. It was all very yummy and enjoyable even though they charged us for the bread and the cokes were 5 euro (good thing I didn't get one). When we finished dinner we headed to the Spanish Steps to meet up with the group to go back to camp.<br /><br />The steps were pretty cool, and not too crowded which was nice (apparently sometimes it gets so bad that you can't even see the actual steps). But I was able to strike a pose reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday so that was cool as well.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05402.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN05401.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN05462.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN05461.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We all chilled there for a little while and then hopped on the metro to the campsite. Jase almost got us all lost, but somehow we all got back to the campsite in one piece. See, we had to not only take the right metro, but then get off and switch to a train that only ran like once an hour or something. If we missed the train, we also missed the bus from the train station to the campsite and therefore would have to get a taxi and would most likely miss dinner. But luckily I think we all made it.<br /><br />The campsite in Rome pretty much sucked. There were a few good things about it, but the bad things just might outweigh those. I'm not sure. To start with the bad, the rooms were small, poorly lit and our door jamb was totally broken and barely locked. It would've been really easy for anyone to have broken the door and taken all of my and Vanessa's stuff. Also, not only were the toilets and showers up a hill from where our cabins were, but they were really gross, especially the showers. They had bugs in them and smelled really nasty. The good things about the campsite was that they had a really nice pool (which we used the next day) and a good store that sold cheap alcohol. Also, the bar served really good pasta at midnight (for free!). Because it was so hot, we sat outside on the picnic benches and drank and talked and played card games at night. The first night, I introduced King's cup to the Aussies and they seemed to really like it. Everyone had a good time, and of course, stayed up much later than anticipated. Oh well.<br /><br />All in all, it was a really long tiring day after another long tiring day. And the next day would be just the same. But they were all good days. :)<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-eleven-rome.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128579916060184612005-10-05T23:23:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:54:21.748-08:00day nine: FlorenceThe next morning we headed back into the city for our free day in Florence. In the morning I was searching for an ATM because I had seriously no money left, but of course couldn't find one that took my card (although I didn't actually look that hard). First thing we did in the city was go to a leather demonstration with the group. They showed us how to tell if something is genuine leather or not (don't smell it or try to burn it - just look at the back to see if it is suede or not). The girl doing the demo was pretty funny and made fun of Erwin because he came off as a deviant who goes around Australia burning everything. He was actually just hungover (I think Kieren was still drunk, though).<br /><br />After that, some of us headed to the internet cafe we had stumbled upon the night before. It was really fast and the guy working there spoke English and was very helpful. I had tried to use the internet the night before at the campsite but it was so freaking slow that it took me 15 minutes just to read a couple emails and delete a couple junk ones. I hadn't really had a chance to read through my emails and post on my blog since I had left London. So I was in heaven for a whole half hour at this internet cafe. After that, we headed to the main square to meet up with the group for our walking tour of Florence. There was an exact replica of the statue of David there, so I decided to just take a picture of that one and not pay the 9 euro to go see the real one. A good decision, I think.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0390.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0390.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I was surprised at how big it was, but all the scaffolding around it kind of took away from it being really cool. Anyway, our tour started shortly after that and we had to listen to this weird woman for an hour or so. She was very knowledgeable, though, and gave us a good perspective of the history of the place and why certain sculptures were in certain places and their significanes. [Just to point out, while we were in Italy Jase was not allowed by law to give us any kind of tours. Only locals are allowed to do it, in order to protect their tourism industry. However, Jase would occasionally still do it (especially in Rome) to help us out, but would sometimes have to walk off in the middle of a sentence if he saw any cops. It was pretty funny for us.]<br /><br />Our tour took us from the main square, past the Uffizi gallery (which if I had had more time I would have really liked to have gone in) to the Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge). It was a pretty cool bridge and very beautiful.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0396.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0396.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There are a bunch of shops on the bridge, but they mostly sell lots of crap or expensive jewelry (not that the two are mutually exclusive). We then walked throuh the city some more to the Duomo Cathedral. It was a magnificent building both inside and out. The dome was a fantastic piece of architecture. I think our tour guide said that it was the first dome of its kind.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0403.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0403.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This picture is of the front of the cathedral, but you can see the reddish dome towards the back. The church also had a really interesting clock inside: it had 24 hours on it, and it measured the start/end of the day at sunset, not midnight.<br /><br />At this point, our tour ended, and we were all starving and started looking for a place to eat lunch. I still needed an ATM (I think I had one or two euro left at this point) and luckily I found one across the street from the McDonald's where we all settled on. I ran over and popped my card in. Everything was fine until I got this message that said something like "we have been instructed to destroy your card". Aaugh! I literally flipped out. I just kind of froze and didn't know what to do. All sorts of horrible things flashed through my brain and it was all bad. Thank goodness that one second later another message flashed up "you have 30 seconds to remove your card". Phew. I yanked my card out of there and ran across the street to McDonald's. Luckily Vanessa let me borrow some money (thanks!!) so I could eat. I was relieved, but very confused because I knew that I had enough money in my account for the withdrawl. Later on, back at the campsite I was able to get money from their ATM without any problem, so I still don't know what happened. The weird thing is that the same thing happened to Mardi later on in the day at the campsite ATM, so maybe it's just some weird random thing with Italian banks. Who knows?<br /><br />So after lunch we walked down one of the main shopping streets and I eventually broke off from the group because I wanted to go to the Santa Croce church (of course "Cath" would want to do this - no one was surprised and of course no one came with me). I got some melon gelati on the way there and it was the perfect refreshing snack for such a hot day. The church itself was very unique and interesting. The decorations on the outside were similar in style to the Duomo.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0374.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0374.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Inside, though, there were all these tombs of important people. Galileo, Michaelangelo, Dante and many other prominent Italians are buried there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0420.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0420.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Me being the science dork that i am, took a picture of Galileo's tomb (above). It was kind of relaxing to walk around there, especially since I was by myself and hadn't really had any alone time yet on the trip. After Santa Croce I headed back to meet the bus.<br /><br />Back at the campsite we had time to do some swimming before we had to go to dinner. It was soo soo hot and the only possible way to cool down was to go to the pool. Unfortunately, Florence has this weird law where everyone who uses a public pool in the city must wear a swimming cap. So, we all had to put on these silly hats just to take a dip in the pool.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/florencepool.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/florencepool.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was pretty hilarious. Then, we got ready for the evening out: group photo, the Tuscan dinner and the Space Electronica disco. The group photo was great; it was overlooking the whole city of Florence. The dinner was pretty good too, there was lots of food: bread, some meats and antipasta, a couple types of pasta, and of course wine.<br /><br />The disco place was pretty fun. They had a really weird system for ordering and paying for drinks, but whatever. I guess it worked. They had karaoke downstairs and a dancefloor and dj upstairs. We started off with the karaoke of course and a bunch of us gave an awful rendition of "Summer Nights" from Grease. Up on the dance floor, I ran into someone I knew from Camp Wayne which was totally and completely random. One of my old campers was there which made me feel really old. Wow, time flies. Anyway, it was pretty fun. We got some free drinks and of course danced the night away. I think I can definitely say that Tash and I definitely had an interesting night, not one soon forgotten.<br /><br />Back at the campsite, we had to unwind a bit before going to sleep. A few nights before, some of the guys thought it would be really funny to go into Quinn's cabin in the middle of the night (or at least late at night when she was asleep and they weren't) and wake her up with the Australian national anthem. It became a bit of a tradition which Quinn was not too happy about, but it was hilarious to everyone else.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0453.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0453.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here is Paul, Kieren, Vanessa, Copper (I think) and Mick singing to Quinn that night. Too funny. Especially when Paul started singing the second verse (apparently he is the only Australian that knows more than just the first verse).<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-ten-florence-to-rome.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128579721287233322005-10-05T23:21:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:53:50.159-08:00day eight: Antibes to Florence via PisaAfter we left the cabins in Antibes that morning we headed to a perfumery called Fragonard's. We learned how they make perfumes and things like that. It was actually really interesting to see the whole process and understand how long and difficult it is to come up with a new scent. I had no idea.<br /><br />After that, we left France and made our way into Italy. There were tons of tunnels that we had to go through when we crossed the border, probably hundreds of them. The hillsides were full of grape vines and other assorted things. It was very pretty, but didn't seem that much different from France so far. However, at our first service stop we noticed a difference. No longer were our choices for lunch different kinds of baguette sandwiches, but different kinds of pizza and pasta. And the pizza was so good. It was different from most of the pizza made in the U.S. mostly because they put lots of interesting toppings on it (or almost none at all) and the crust is much simpler and yummier. Also, they had this really stupid way of getting your food. First, you go to the counter and decide what you want. Then, you try to remember what the thing you wanted was called while you wait in line to pay. After paying, you get a receipt which you give to the person at the counter. They, in turn, heat up your food (or whatever) and then call out your food order. You could so easily just take someone else's food without paying for it. It's just crazy. I have no idea why they do it like that.<br /><br />Anyway, after lunch and some more driving we arrived in Pisa. We had to park quite a ways from where the tower and baptistry was, so we had a little bit of a walk into the city. Jase warned us about the gypsies and other people begging for money (and trying to steal it), but I hardly saw any such people and definitely did not have any problems. However, once you get close to the leaning tower, you have to go past hundreds of stupid little booths with people selling fake designer handbags, plastic leaning towers in twenty different colors and all other sorts of crap. That part was pretty annoying I must say. But whatever, we had no choice, it was the only way to get there. Finally we reached the courtyard area where the famous baptistry and leaning tower were. I would like to say for the record that even I was surprised at how much the tower was actually leaning. I had seen lots of pictures and read about it and everything, but when you get there, it's so different. It really looks like it just might fall over. It's so weird. I loved it. Of course, I had to take the obvious picture that every tourist does:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0370.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0370.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Kind of stupid, I know, but you have to do it (I am standing up on a little pillar to make the picture better). [Note that the tower was open and people were at the very top. I wish I had time (and money) to go up, but oh well. Next time.] Most people took the picture holding it up, but there were a few destructive personalities who were trying to push it over. We got yelled at by the Italian cops because you aren't supposed to be standing on the grass. Oops. Oh well. That's the best place to be to take the pictures. And everyone else was doing it (not that that's an excuse). This luckily only took a couple of tries to get it right. Unfortunately, there were like 50 of us all trying to get the same picture. By this time in the trip, though, we were all getting pretty good at using everyone else's cameras to take pictures. What would always happen though would be that one person would inadvertently get stuck with all the cameras to take a group picture.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0371.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0371.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The group pictures are always good, though. This one has: Erwin, Paul, Quinn (Q-in), Jaz (Sylvie), Louise, Mardi, me, Katie (Copper), Tina, Andrew, Liliana, Dora, and Michael and Kerry at the bottom. Oh good times. It was really hot though, so we were glad to have to go back to the bus after only about half an hour.<br /><br />After Pisa we headed into Florence (Firenze) which wasn't too far away. We settled into our cabins, which were nice because they were new, but the rooms were too small (there was a big common room though in each cabin) and there was no ventilation at all. It was really really hot and we were just kind of miserable because of that. We wanted to go swimming, but didn't have time until the following day. After dinner (which was pretty good actually, cooked by the Contiki reps there), Jase took us into the city itself. We walked by the Santa Croce church and ended up the Red Garter Pub. It was an American-style bar (oh, good, I came all the way to Italy to go to an American-style bar) that had some guy playing live music who also brought people up to do really low-tech karaoke. Paul and I sang "I'm a Believer" after we had both had a few drinks. The funniest thing though was probably the Mexicans singing "La Bamba". That, and Jase being ridiculously drunk since it was his 30th birthday (I don't blame him). We decided to stay a while and take a taxi back to the campsite which was an adventure in and of itself. At first, we didn't want to wait for a taxi at the pub, so about five of us began wandering around the streets of Florence trying to hail a taxi. After about 15 minutes, we gave up and headed back to the pub (luckily I have a good sense of direction, even while slightly intoxicated) where we got a taxi pretty quickly. It wasn't all in vain though since we found an internet cafe that we went back to the following day.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-nine-florence.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128579550199616162005-10-05T23:17:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:53:23.111-08:00day seven: Lyon to Antibes, French RivieraI know that the itinerary on the left says that we stopped at Lyon on our way to the French Riviera, but we didn't. Oh well.<br /><br />So today we had a bit of a drive again, leaving the French countryside for the French Riviera. Sometime in the afternoon we arrived at Cannes where they have the annual film festival. We were all ready for the beach and staked out a spot pretty quickly. I needed to find a place to change, so I went to this public toilet across the street. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Once you pay to go in, this door opens all futuristically and you get and do your stuff. When you leave, the door shuts automatically behind you and water jets spray the entire thing, including all the walls and the ceiling! How insane is that? It was really clean, but also really wet, so that was kind of annoying. Plus it took forever. If you were in a hurry to pee, you just had to wait for it to clean after every single person (if you tried to hold the door open to have the next person use it for free, it would get you all wet. haha). So, after that debaucle, I headed to the beach with everyone else.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0320.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0320.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This picture makes it look like it was a rocky beach (like some of the other French beaches are), but it was sandy on the other side of these rocks, which is where we were hanging out. It was a topless beach, so all the guys were pretty happy about that. So typical. Whatever. The water was really nice and we just floated around for a while and ended up talking to some girl from Australia who was just there traveling on her own.<br /><br />When we'd had enough of the beach, some of us (me, Paul, Vanessa, and Tash) headed into town to get some postcards and some food. We walked over to where they have the film festival and saw the stars' hand prints and all that. It wasn't that exciting for me since I've been to Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and growing up in LA you get really jaded about all that celebrity stuff.<br /><br />Then we went searching for food. We were starving. All that swimming I suppose. We were running out of time, so we needed something quick. And then we saw it: McDonald's. Now, I would just like to say for the record that I was hoping to not go to McDonald's (or Macca's as the Aussies call it) at all during my time abroad. However, I am sad to say, that this was not the only time I visited the golden arches. They have clean bathrooms and I know what I am ordering. It's sad but true. So anyway, we went in and I ordered a Royal Cheese (not Royale with Cheese as Pulp Fiction will have you believe). Interestingly enough, it was one of the best fast food hamburgers I have ever had. And I don't think it was because I was so hungry (although that was probably part of it). It was much better than any McDonald's here in the states.<br /><br />We had to wait a bit in line, so once we got our food, we practically ran to the bus because we were actually a bit later than we expected. We got there with one minute to spare (go us!). After Dave and Jase left one of the Koreans at the hotel in Paris on the first day, we all got the message that we need to be on time. No one was late again.<br /><br />Then we headed to the place we were staying in Antibes which is another beach town about half an hour away. The campsite there was pretty nice, although it was our first experience with the push button showers. Later on, we would wish we had these again, but at the time it was annoying that we could only get water for 15 seconds at a time. We had dinner at the campsite and then got all dressed up to go to Monaco.<br /><br />Monaco is a separate country, but it's so small that it seems like just another city. We got into Monte Carlo and drove around a bit before stopping to see the sights. The view was really cool. There were lots of huge yachts and boats and other really expensive things. We saw the royal palace and the church where Grace Kelly married that prince and then headed over to the casinos.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0341.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0341.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Jase showed us the Grand Casino and informed us that it cost like 10 euro to get in, so we said forget that and followed him down the road to the one that was free. I only gambled 5 euro (on the slot machines) and was up to 9 at one point, but then lost it. I kept 1 euro token as a souvenir. It was fun to watch some of the other people playing roulette and black jack. Some of them were doing pretty well for a while. Some people were thirsty and actually paid like 6 euro for a coke. Aaahh! That is ridiculous.<br /><br />Back at the campsite, we hung out for a little while at the bar (as we did every night), but I don't think anyone stayed out too late.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-eight-antibes-to-florence-via-pisa.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128579013431766132005-10-05T23:08:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:52:57.247-08:00day six: Beaujolais wine regionToday was a very relaxing day and yet not relaxing at the same time. First of all, we were allowed to sleep in until about 9am which was sooo nice. Then we got ready for our picnic in the French countryside. We got into groups of about six or seven people and received our basket of goodies: french bread, brie cheese, ham, chocolate, and some fruit and water. They gave us a map of where we were supposed to go and said it would take about 30-45 minutes. We were warned that the last 50 meters would be a bit steep, but it wouldn't be too bad. hahahaha. So, first off, it was a really hot day and about 5 minutes after we left the chateau we were already sweating. The entire walk was uphill. We stopped at the little town of Thieze about half way there to buy some cold water and rest for a bit. When we finally got to the last 50 meters, it turned out to be a very steep hike up a hill. We were exhausted (and quite sunburned) when we finally got up to the top and had a look around.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0311.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0311.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was very pretty up there. It wasn't the clearest day, but we could still see quite a bit. We were really glad to be able to sit down and have some food, though, so we did that before looking around. The baguettes and cheese were really good (as they were all over France). One of the neighbor's dogs followed us up the hill and was baking in the sun along with us. This dog does this hike almost every single day. It must be in good shape.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0305.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0305.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After a while, we walked around, took some pictures and decided that although it was beautiful, we were really hot and needed to get back. We trudged back down the hill and eventually got back. Quinn tried to hitch a ride with a local at some point, but since she didn't speak any French and he didn't speak any English, she was pretty much out of luck (especially since she asked him for a ride about 10 feet from where his house was). It was pretty funny to watch.<br /><br />We all really wanted to jump in the pool when we returned, but some idiots the week before had broken glass nearby and they had to drain the whole pool. Booo on whoever that was!<br /><br />I decided to take a shower and then have a little nap. I wrote in my journal for a while and then headed outside to sit under the tree and hang out with a bunch of other people. I brought out my iPod and radio alarm clock and somehow managed to get my iTrip to work so we could play music out there (basically the iTrip is an fm transmitter that was working through the radio on my alarm clock). That was pretty cool. They all thought I was some kind of techno-whiz. hehe.<br /><br />Later that night, we started a little soccer game on the lawn with some of the Mexicans, the Columbian, and a couple Aussies. It was lots of fun to play with such an international group of people.<br /><br />Some of us went down to the cave again that night for a bit of partying, but I think we were generally still tired from the night before and the long hike, so most of us made it an early night (some by choice, some because they passed out on their beds. I'm not naming names.)<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-seven-lyon-to-antibes-french.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128578825539792362005-10-05T23:02:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:52:01.672-08:00day four: ParisWell, we started out pretty early that morning. We wanted to make the most of our one full day in Paris. First up on the itinerary for the day was a trip up the Eiffel Tower. Jase had managed to get us group tickets, but unfortunately the third level of the tower was not open yet. However, he told us there was a really good possibility of them opening it up after we got to the second level. (There are three levels on the tower - the first one has a post office, restaurant, gift shop and some other things; the second has a gift shop and the third is just big enough to take pictures from (at almost the very top).)<br /><br />We decided to take the stairs up to the first level (and then the second) because we took one look at the line for the elevator and thought it would take too long. So, we trudged up the interminable stairs, nearly dying in the process. My advice: don't take the stairs (especially during the summer!) unless you have some kind of death wish. The people who waited for the elevator got there about the same time we did and weren't nearly as sweaty as us. Oh well. C'est la vie.<br /><br />The weather was pretty good and sure enough, they opened it up so we could take the scary elevator all the way up to the very top. It was the most amazing view. We could see all around Paris.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0117.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0117.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is a picture of me overlooking the Seine River and Montmartre (see the church on the hill right behind me? That's the Sacre Coeur, which I saw later on in the evening). I think that this was taken from the second level, although I'm not positive since I took about 30 pictures from the Eiffel Tower that day. hehe.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0129.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0129.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This picture was taken from the very top level, and you can see the Arc d'Triumphe in the middle with all the streets leading to it.<br /><br />After spending a little bit too much time (considering our limited amount of time available - I could've stayed there all day) we took the elevators back down and asked for directions to the metro station. I became the official navigator of the group I was with after I told them assuredly that I knew where I was going (I did, don't worry). I have an excellent sense of direction and was pretty sure I knew how to find our way there. It was a bit farther than I anticipated, but we did get there eventually and managed to buy the right type of all-day pass and caught the correct train to the Arc d'Triumphe. We took the little underground walkway under the street to see the Arc up close. The huge monument that Napoleon built as a tribute to his greatness was pretty cool.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0148.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0148.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This picture was taken from the Arc looking down the Champs Elysees, one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. If you follow the street all the way down, it will eventually run into the Louvre, which was our next stop. We took the metro down there (walking was just not time effective) and headed to the museum.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0159.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0159.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There were quite a few people there that day (it was a Saturday), but we didn't actually have to wait in line more than about 5 minutes to get in. Once in there, we basically did the "Louvre sprint": the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, and the Venus di Milo. All three were really cool to see, but especially the Mona Lisa of course. We didn't have to wait that long to see her either. We got in the 'line' and didn't have to stop at all. Once we turned the corner to the room where it was, I sort of gasped because I wasn't expecting it at all. It was very enigmatic and not as small as everyone kept telling me it was. I managed to get a decent shot of it, but it took almost 15 tries. (Oh, and you're not supposed to take pictures of it at all, but every single one of the 40 people around me were, so oh well. At least I didn't use my flash.) On our way out of the museum, we grabbed a quick lunch of (oh yes) another baguette sandwich. I could not get enough of those baguette sandwiches. They were sooo good.<br /><br />Then we decided to walk down the Seine River and make our way over to the Notre Dame Cathedral.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0204.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0204.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Just as we were walking up to the magnificent cathedral, it started to rain. This picture was taken just a few minutes before we got wet. Luckily we got in line and got inside quickly before we got too wet. Inside, it was very dark and very beautiful. I walked around the edges to look at all of the little chapels and admire the rose windows. You couldn't take flash pictures inside, so of course none of my pictures turned out well (which happened with all of the churches I went inside too - except for St. Peters). When we left the cathedral, it had stopped raining (how perfect) and we walked around the outside of the gothic building. The architecture was amazing. Notre Dame is famous for its flying buttresses (on the side opposite the one in the picture above) and it also had some cool gargoyles that were used as rain drains (I think).<br /><br />After that, we walked back the way we came along the river because we wanted to get some postcards from a street vendor we had seen on the way. It was a nice relaxing walk and we were all glad for the break from running around everywhere. We got back to the Louvre and walked through the Tuileries Gardens on our way to the Place de la Concorde, which was where we were meeting the rest of the group and the bus to get back to the hotel.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0237.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0237.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is some of the group waiting for the bus that day (notice Tash in hot pink beret. haha).<br /><br />That night, we went to our first "optional": the Parisian dinner. Contiki has these optionals during the trip that are pre-arranged and that, of course, are not included in your trip already. I went on almost all of the optionals offered because it was a good way to hang out with the rest of the group and also do things that you wouldn't normally be able to figure out yourself (like, the white water rafting in Austria).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0238.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0238.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The dinner was really good. We started off with an appetizer of escargot (snails) which were yummy (although kind of garlicy) and lots of bread and wine. The picture above shows the table I was sitting at that night. From left: me, Andrew, James, Stu, John, Amanda. I was the only non-Aussie at the table. Oh, but I do love those Aussies. Almost our entire group was there that evening. We all had a good time at dinner, especially when the crazy accordian lady showed up.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0241.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0241.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I think she might actually be crazy, but whatever, we all had fun dancing around to the chicken song and making her sing all sorts of other things. We were being super loud and I think the group in the room next to us was jealous because they weren't having nearly as much fun as we were.<br /><br />After dinner, most of the group went up to Montmartre. Some of the group was going to see a cabaret show next door to the Moulin Rouge (one of the few optionals I did not do) and the rest of us headed across the street to an Aussie pub. Why we went to an Aussie pub while we were in Paris, I do not know, but it was fun.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0245.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0245.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This was when I found out exactly how much the Aussies drink on an average night. And, let me tell you, it was a lot. Pretty soon after we got there, I decided that I wanted to go see the Sacre Coeur church that I knew was only a few blocks away up the hill. So, after checking to see if anyone else wanted to go (no one did), I hiked up to the church on the cobblestone roads wearing my cute little black high heel shoes (bad idea, by the way). I only got slightly lost and found a couple that was also looking for the church. We figured out how to get there after consulting both of our maps and some non-existent street signs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0249.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0249.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The church itself was beautiful (seen above), but the view that it had over Paris was even more spectacular. I walked around for a little while and took in the view. The timing of day was perfect because the sun had gone down but it wasn't too dark yet.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0251.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0251.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After having enough of my last look of Paris, I took the funicular down the hill (it was kind of a side-ways elevator on the hill that required a metro pass - very interesting) and finally realized where I was. There was the carousel and sure enough, the rest of the scene that I had pictured in my head for a couple years. Amelie is one of my favorite movies of all time, and there is this one scene where she has the male lead character chase around this park to get his pictures back; everytime I watched the movie, I always told myself that when I went to Paris (whenever that was going to be) I would find this place. I knew that it was in Montmartre (or, at least I guessed that, since that is where the movie is set), but I had no idea what it was called or anything. So imagine my surprise and delight when I realized that I was there. When I got back home, I watched the movie again to double check, and sure enough you can see the Sacre Coeur in the background of the movie. I don't know why I didn't notice that before. Anyway, it was cool.<br /><br />After that, I headed back to the pub. Along the way, some French guy started talking to me in French. I knew enough French to understand that he was commenting on how "unpractical" my shoes were for walking around there, and all I could do was smile and nod. It was pretty funny for me. The way I went back was much quicker (of course) and by the time I got back to the pub (about 45 minutes later), they were all totally trashed. It was hilarious. This was about the time I was given the nickname "cath" (short for cathedral) because I was being such a dork and went to the church instead of drinking. But whatever, I am really glad I went. We still had some time before heading back to the hotel, so I had a Smirnoff Ice which cost about US$7!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/aussiepub.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/aussiepub.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Aussies started singing really loud and breaking glasses on purpose. I was surprised, but the other people told me that this was normal and happened all the time in Australia. Luckily it was an Aussie pub, so the people working there weren't surprised either. This is also when I started learning the Aussie phrases and words for things. Instead of telling someone to "chug" a beer or drink, they tell them to "skoll". I have since found myself yelling this in the States and everyone looks at me funny.<br /><br />The bus picked us up an hour or so later and everyone was pretty wound up. John puked on the bus (and all over Dave's maps and stuff - bad idea). We proceeded to hand out the next nickname of the trip to him: Vomitron. That stuck until the last week of the trip when he got a new one (where's John?). Anyway, it was a fun night and an excellent day in Paris.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-five-paris-to-beaujolais-wine.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128578408206120772005-10-05T22:59:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:52:29.435-08:00day five: Paris to Beaujolais wine regionToday was a bit of a drive. We left Paris early in the morning (how did we manage to get up that early so often? I will never know) and drove south towards the Beaujolais wine region in central France. It was at this point that Jase introduced our "day song", a song that they would play every morning we were on the bus to sort of wake us up and get us ready for the day (but it actually was just a sign to start going back to sleep). The day song for our trip was Cake's "The Distance" which I already knew really well, but apparently almost no one else did (well, at least the other non-Americans didn't). By the end of the trip we were all singing along to the chorus every time if we weren't too tired.<br /><br />About an hour south of Paris we stopped to see the chateau at Fontainebleau.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0264.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0264.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was basically this really old big house that had a huge backyard. It was really pretty, but we were really tired and hungry.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0276.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0276.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is us somewhere in the massive garden (it had its own lake it seemed). Back row: Quinn, Diana, Tash, Kerry, Vanessa, Paul, me, Kieran. Front row: Erwin, Mardi, Jasmin, Louise.<br /><br />We decided that food was more important than wandering around the rest of the garden, so we went looking for food at a nearby cafe. We bought some postcards, coke, and french fries (pommes frittes).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0277.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0277.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We thought we were so funny having french fries in France. haha. Anyway, Paul likes lots and lots of ketchup, so he smothered half the fries with it. They were really good fries, by the way. I had some of the best french fries in Europe.<br /><br />Soon after our snack and using the toilet at the cafe (for free!) we got back on the bus and promptly fell asleep on our way to the Beaujolais wine region. What we basically had to do anytime we were driving anywhere was sleep for the first couple hours since almost none of us was getting enough sleep where we were staying. We were busy having too much fun. We did wake up in a while though (it's not that easy to sleep on a bus- for me, anyway, some people could sleep the entire ride if they tried) and got to see the absolutely beautiful French countryside. There were just fields and fields of sunflowers and other things. It was really nice. Once we got closer to Beaujolais, there were lots and lots of grape vines as well. I think we also saw lots of french cows that day too.<br /><br />The place we were staying at in Beaujolais was this old chateau that Contiki bought and transformed into a hostel, complete with swimming pool (although we couldn't use it because of some idiots the week before) and a club in the basement.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0300.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0300.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was pretty cool. Our room was really really tiny though and some other people had huge rooms, so it was just a little weird. And the bathrooms were a bit sketchy, but somehow we survived. I couldn't really complain too much when I saw the view out my window:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0279.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0279.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Sooo beautiful. And we had really nice weather too, so that made it even better.<br /><br />The first thing we did after getting our bags off the coach and into our rooms was go up the road to do some wine tasting of Beaujolais wine. It was pretty good, and most of us bought some wine for either later on that evening, the following day on our picnic, or to take home (and some people bought wine for all three). Then we had some dinner (which was pretty good if I remember correctly). While we were at the chateau, it was my turn to be a "dishie". During the trip, everyone has to either help the cooks dish up the food ("cookie") or help clean up them pick up the plates ("dishie") when we stay at the Contiki places. So this was my turn. It was really easy, and when we finish with the plates the first night, the staff people gave the four of us that helped that day a bottle of the Beaujolais sparkling rose wine as a thank you. Fantastic! And so the drinking began.<br /><br />We were going to be having our first theme party that night at "the Cave" - the club in the basement of the chateau, so called because there were no windows or anything I guess. The theme was nationalities. We were supposed to dress up in some way that would represent the country we were from. Luckily I had a red and white striped shirt and I wore that with some blue jeans. Most of the Aussies dressed up in green and yellow and the boys wore tank tops (or what they call "singlets") and drew pictures of the southern cross (the constellation that is on their flag) on themselves.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/aussieboys.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/aussieboys.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is Erwin, Kieran, Simon, Paul, Mick, and half of Andrew at the upstairs bar at the chateau (before the cave was open). Simon is holding some of the ever present Beaujolais red wine. Paul got a little bit carried away the marker later on in the evening and started writing "I love Paul" on all of the girls' arms. Oh, Paul.<br /><br />We spent the rest of the evening in the cave, getting drunk on the wine and dancing the night away.<br /><br />One of the funniest events of the whole trip happened later that night. In the middle of the night, Mardi decided to get up and stretch her legs for some reason. However, she forgot that she was on the top bunk and totally crashed to the ground. It was so loud that it woke the rest of us up that were staying in that room (there were four people to a room) and I think some people in the room next door. Someone asked her if she was ok, she said yes, and we all fell back asleep. Now, maybe it doesn't sound funny to you, but it hilarious to everyone the next day when we told them.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-six-beaujolais-wine-region.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128367278309203002005-10-03T12:19:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:51:24.608-08:00day three: London to ParisToday we woke up really really early and got on our coach (bus) to officially start our trip. We met up with the group at 6am and then left the hotel 6:45 am. It was very early, but I think we were all excited and not too tired (at least I wasn't - no jet lag!). It started raining as we left London which I guess is pretty typical weather for them. My first bus buddy was Jasmin, who I actually had emailed a couple times before the trip. So that was kind of nice, and we talked a bit about the differences between Australia and America on the way to Dover (which was a few hours away from London).<br /><br />Now is probably a good time to explain the breakdown of nationalities on our contiki trip.<br /><br />There were four Americans (including myself), four Canadians, nine Mexicans, one Colombian, three Koreans, three South Africans, three New Zealanders, and all the rest (twenty three people) were Australian. Our Tour Manager, Jason (or Jase, as we usually called him) was a Kiwi (from New Zealand) as was our bus driver, Dave. Everyone (except one person) was between the ages of 18 and 35, but most people were in their twenties, like me. So it was a cool trip, not just because of all the amazing places I was able to go to in Europe, but also because of all of the interesting people I was able to meet and hang out with.<br /><br />The drive down to Dover was sort of boring. We saw some cows and sheep and stuff, but mainly it was not that exciting. Plus, we didn't have our tour manager or driver yet, since we were meeting them in Calais after the ferry trip (Contiki was super busy this summer and sometimes the tms and drivers had to hop from one tour to the next).<br /><br />We finally got to Dover, which is known for the White Cliffs. We saw them, and well, they were white. It was actually pretty foggy there, so I don't have any good pictures of them, but this one is not too bad (this was actually taken from the ferry after we departed).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0080.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0080.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The ferry itself was not too bad. They had a bunch of restaurants and shops and stuff. But basically, we just sat around and talked for most of the hour and a half trip. The Aussies seemed obsessed with the Big Brother show that was going on there at the time, so they talked about that for a while. I just kind of sat there and tried not to think about getting sea sick (although I don't usually get sea sick - or any kind of motion sickness - it was rocking quite a bit at one point).<br /><br />When we got off the ferry, we met up with Jase and Dave and began our tour for real. Jase read us a bunch of guidelines and stuff for the trip and we pretended not to be too bored. He seemed really tired and kind of boring, but as he got some sleep the next day, he turned out to be a pretty cool guy.<br /><br />We had our first "service stop" on the way to Paris. I successfully procured money (in euros!) from the ATM, so that was a big relief. Then I ordered a ham and cheese baguette (I actually conversed with a real French person in French. It was very exciting) and an evian. The baguette was really good. I love bread, and was very excited about all the French bread for the next week.<br /><br />As it turned out, since Contiki was so busy, we were actually bumped up from staying in the contiki cabins that night to staying in an actual hotel while we were in Paris. So that was pretty exciting and we arrived there without too much trouble. The hotel was a little weird though because you had to use your room card to turn the lights in the room. Very odd. Jasmin and I were rooming together and I am still amazed at how many clothes she fit into her suitcase. It was insane (the last day of the trip she actually had to have Quinn stand on it just so she could get it closed). The dinner at the hotel was interesting, but not too bad. Then we headed into Paris for a bus tour of the city to orientate for our free day the next day.<br /><br />We drove all around and saw all of the major sites, with Jase explaining what all the buildings were. We saw: Notre Dame, the Hotel d'Invalides, the Musee d'Orsay, the Paris Opera House, the Arc d'Triumphe, drove down the Champs Elysees, and saw about a million little sidewalk cafes. Dave even drove us on the street that goes around the Arc where apparently there is an accident once every 12 seconds (statistically speaking - we didn't see any) and automobile insurance is not valid. It was all really cool. Paris iss such an amazing city. I fell in love with it immediately and couldn't wait for the next day to start exploring. Luckily, Dave stopped the bus at one point and let us get out and take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower. It was the perfect time of day and we were all so excited to be there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0084.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0084.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We also drove by the Louvre and took some pictures there from the bus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0096.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0096.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After that, we headed back to the hotel, hung out at the bar for a little bit, and then went to bed relatively early (well, compared to the rest of the tour anyway). We had a big day ahead of us in Paris in the morning.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-four-paris.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128366681212206962005-10-03T12:09:00.001-07:002007-01-06T14:50:52.135-08:00day two: LondonSo even though I thought it was only 4am, it was really noon London time when I arrived. My plan to trick my body into not having jet lag was actually working so far. I didn't sleep on the plane and set my watch ahead right away and kept trying to make myself believe it was actually time for lunch. They gave us lunch on the plane, not breakfast, so that helped as well.<br /><br />I got off the plane and got through customs and baggage claim fairly easily. Heathrow is a big place and it took much longer than I was expecting to actually get out of the airport.<br /><br />Somehow I was able to transfer my US dollars into pounds and was able to buy a bottle of water and an Underground tube ticket to get to my hotel. The Underground was really easy to use, and very clean. It was really hot and stuffy during the ride, though. And, the Underground wasn't underground for more than half of my hour long trip into central London. But it was cool, because I was able to see some of the suburbs and stuff.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0071.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0071.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />me in a phone box in London. hehe.<br /><br />I got off at Russell Square and found the Royal National Hotel pretty easily. It's only about a block and a half away from the tube stop, and one of the people working at the tube was nice enough to point me in the right direction. I checked into the hotel and made my way up to the room, only to find that my roommate had not checked in yet. I was glad, though, because I was finally able to relax after traveling for the past 14 or so hours. I went down to the Contiki basement and checked my email and got my sleeping bag. When I went back up to the desk to get my room key (there was only one key for each room, so you had to leave it at the desk when you left) my roommate, Tracy, happened to be there, so we went up together and decided what to do with the rest of the day.<br /><br />It turns out that she went to the same high school as my old roommate, Marla, and that she was a teacher (just like Marla - she also sort of looked like Marla, so it was really weird - what are the chances?). My original plan was to do one of those hop on hop off bus things so that I could see all of the sights, but I looked into it and I really didn't have enough time before my tour meeting at 7pm. So Tracy and I decided to go to the British Museum which was just a few blocks away (and also free!).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0240.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0240.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Tracy and me (actually, we're in Paris in this picture, because we didn't take one in London - our tours were in the same places for the first couple days)<br /><br />The museum is actually pretty cool, although we were both too tired to fully appreciate it. It turns out that we went into a side entrance and missed a lot of the good stuff until we were on our way out. So it goes. But we did see lots of cool Egyptian artifacts; they had actual mummies and sarcophagi and lots of other things like that. They also had a really interesting exhibit on the history of clocks. Plus, they had the Rosetta Stone which was really cool to see. This was the thing that allowed archeologists to finally decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics and figure out what those funny symbols meant (it had the same message written in hieroglyphics and two other languages, as you can see below).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/1600/DSCN0070.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2973/415/400/DSCN0070.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Rosetta Stone.<br /><br />After the museum, we headed back to the hotel and had some dinner at the London Pub. I had, of course, the fish and chips which was really good. I even tried it with malt vinegar like they have it here, and it wasn't too bad (although I think I prefer tartar sauce). While we were eating, we saw one of the tours come in and unload their bus. It was weird to think that we would be doing that in three weeks (or 6 weeks for Tracy - she was on a different tour).<br /><br />At 7pm, I went over to my meeting and had my first look at my future friends. The first person I met was Valerie, who was also American. I remember seeing a lot of people at that meeting, but I didn't stay and talk to anyone else because I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. I figured we all had three weeks together, and I needed some rest. We had to get really really early the next morning, and a lot of people had the same idea I did.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-three-london-to-paris.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17410398.post-1128366584594617852005-10-03T12:09:00.000-07:002007-01-06T14:50:22.313-08:00day one: USA to LondonHad a bit of a race to the airport. The 405 freeway is not fun on Wednesday afternoons. But, regardless, I finally got to the airport and after waiting in line to check in for over an hour (and meeting a nice family that was going to England for a few weeks) I got on the plane and headed over to London. The flight itself was not too exciting. The ten hours went pretty quickly. I watched two movies, listened to some music, tried to sleep (unsuccessfully), and had some good food. I did see Greenland, though, out the airplane window. It looked like a big ice cube.<br /><br />We thought we were going to be arriving in London a little early (even though we left a bit late), but because we had to taxi on the runway for about 45 minutes after landing, we actually got in late. Oh well.<br /><br /><a href="http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/2005/10/day-two-london.html">next day...</a>Cynthiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10698174334304646477noreply@blogger.com0