There was such an excited atmosphere on the bus as we drove from Denmark, through Germany towards Berlin on the first day. The bus' windows were lined with flags from all different countries that exchange students had put up. People were energetically chatting to those that they already knew, while beginning to get to know those that they had just met. There were a lot of new faces for me, as I had not previously met many of the 'oldies' (that arrived 6 months before us).
Berlin, Germany
After driving through the countryside of northern Germany, which was covered in fields of flowers, in the evening we arrived in Berlin, to a temperature of around 28 degrees celcius! It was amazing. For most of us, that was the warmest we had felt since leaving our home countries! After setting our bags down in the youth hostel that we would be staying in, we went for a little walk as we had some time to spare before dinner. The city is very green, with lots of green leafy trees and plants everywhere. After dinner, we also all went for a walk to see some more of the city by night.
The next day, it rained quite a lot so most of our sight seeing was done from inside the bus or under umbrellas. We began by seeing the German parliament house. Then we walked to the Brandenburger Tor (a historical gate), which had huge stone pillars and was set next to a big traffic intersection. After this we went and saw a memorial that was a huge area with large stone blocks that were all different heights. Like many other memorials in the city it is for World War 2, in particular the holocaust. It is very hard to imagine what the city looked like in World War 2, when it was mostly destroyed and flattened.
That afternoon we had free time in the city. So after a late lunch and some Starbucks to warm us up we did a bit of shopping. We found a Cotton On store, which was decorated inside with Australian beach things. I had never realised before, but it turns out that it is an Australian store. The lady at the register was a bit excited to hear that some of us were from Australia.
The next day we left Germany and entered the Czech Republic. On our way to the next city we would visit, Prague, we stopped at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. We were given a tour, and saw the places were many Jewish people and other minority groups were kept in World War 2. It was a little haunting, but very difficult to completely understand and visualise what it would have been like during the war. We entered small chambers, where the 25 of us barely fit, that were rooms for over 100 prisoners during the war.
Prague, The Czech Republic
After this, we continued to the city of Prague. The next morning we began our sight seeing. We took the metro (under ground/subway trains), this was the first time I had been on one. I think it is great, you just find a station, buy a ticket, then trains come along every 2 minutes and you can just hop on and hop off where ever you need to and change lines if you need to go somewhere else. We began in the old part of town, seeing the St Vitus Cathedral (a gothic style Roman Catholic Cathedral) and many other historical and royal buildings. We then walked down hill through a very old part of town, crossing the famous Charles Bridge into the new part of town. We then had free time to eat lunch and do a little shopping.
There is no other way to put it, Czech is a crazy language. It sounds as if people are attacking each other when they speak it (especially strange hearing little girls speaking it), and looks as if they have just removed all the vowels, thrown together letters and added in some crazy symbols. We really had no hope at being able to pronounce anything, and got a lot of funny looks from the locals when we tried to say the names of stations on the metro.
Vienna, Austria
The next day we drove to Vienna, Austria, where we arrived at the Scönbrunn Palace to spend the afternoon. It was very beautiful, with large areas of the most elegant and picturesque royal gardens. We spent the afternoon being able to look around here, and relax on the grassy hill that overlooked the palace and the city of Vienna. I even saw some cute little squirrels playing in the grass, I found this pretty exciting because it was the first time I had ever seen one.
Somehow along the way, Alison (from Colorado, USA), Rachael (from The Bahamas) and I became great friends, so spent a lot of the trip together.
At the palace, we decided that it was appropriate to eat an Apple Strudel, because it is an Austrian food.
We spent the next day sight seeing in Vienna, which is a very clean looking and elegantly designed city. It is very cultural and artistic, with references to Mozart or the famous Spanish Riding School all around. There are not only cars and people in the streets, but many horse and carriages, offering tours. After walking around as a group, hearing about the city from our tour guide, Ylva who was more commonly called 'Mama', we were given the afternoon free to see the city ourselves.
We saw a place called the 'Crossfields Australian Restaurant', so had to go in and have a look. On the menu, they had a lot of different Australian foods like vegemite toast, damper, meat pies, and then they also had 'fair dinkum grilled Australian grasshoppers'. This was a little disturbing that they thought grilled grasshoppers were an Australian food! I had to tell the others that in Australia we definitely do not eat grasshoppers!
The next day, Thursday 23rd May, we left Austria and drove through the Alps into Italy. The drive was very scenic as we drove through mountains and valleys, seeing the snow covered peaks (even in summer) and many rivers that had pale blue water that appeared almost white, flowing through rocky passages. Like all of the 'driving days' on our tour, we stopped at a truck stop/road house on the highway for lunch; Rotary gave us a lunch money allowance every 3 days so we could decide ourselves what we would like to eat. The view from this particular one was quite impressive, we sat outside in the sun and could look over a large lake that was lined with of course huge mountains with snowy peaks. Every now and then, the peace was broken by the noise of a train passing through the mountains echoing around the valley.
Lido di Jesolo, Italy
After driving through the beautiful Italian country side, we arrived in the afternoon at the beachside, tourist town of Lido di Jesolo. Everyone was so excited to see the beach, so very shortly after setting our bags in our rooms everyone ran down to the beach, ignoring the clouds and fact that the temperature was probably around 10 degrees. A lot of people went swimming at the beach, but it was too cold for me and I had unfortunately gotten a little sick with a cough etc., so I decided against swimming, but it was so nice to just sit on the beach and feel the sand between my toes, whilst watching the others freeze as they played in the water. That night was my first taste of real Italian food, and of course we had pasta! Followed by a chicken and potato dish that is apparently also a traditional Italian dish. It was Alison's 19th birthday also, so our lovely tour counsellors Andrew & Karina (both past exchange students) organised a cake with a candle to blow out for her, and we all sang happy birthday at dinner; both the Danish and English versions of course!
Venice, Italy
The next day we took a ferry to the city of Venice! It was raining a lot, so the city was a bit flooded (even more than it already is). But even in the rain, the city was still beautiful. We walked through narrow streets and over many small bridges. The city truly is a maze of canals, passages, tiny streets, shops, buildings and houses. In the beginning of the day we walked together where our tour guide told us about the city, and we saw the famous square 'Piazza San Marco', then we had some free time before catching the ferry back in the afternoon. As it was quite cold and we had wet shoes from the rain and amount of water on the streets, we decided to go into a little cafe and have some Italian coffee and hot chocolate to warm up. The hot chocolate was literally chocolate that was warmed up, it was so thick that you had to eat it with a spoon! As we found out, it can be very easy to get lost in Venice. When you think you are going the right way through the maze of little streets that mostly look the same, you can end up walking down a street that leads to a canal, so you have to turn around and go back the other way. In the afternoon, the sun came out just in time for us to take the ferry back.
Lido di Jesolo, Italy
We spent the next day relaxing on the beach at Lido di Jesolo, soaking up some sun and just enjoying the being at the beach. Although it wasnt that warm, probably only around 18 degrees, we were all determined to make the most of our time at the beach. For lunch, we bought some real Italian pizzas and ate them on the beach; naturally, they tasted delicious.
Verona, Italy
The next day we drove west across to the other side of Italy. On the way we stopped for a few hours in the town of Verona, where the story of Romeo and Juliet is set. My good friend Maddie, is on exchange in Italy this year, living in Milan, which is not too far from Verona, so we organised to meet up. After a quick look around the Arena (a Roman amphitheatre built in 30AD) with the other exchange students, we began to walk through the streets of the town, ready to begin our free time. It was then that Maddie surprised me, when amongst the crowds of Italian people I heard a familiar voice call my name. For both of us it had been 5 months since we had seen any of our friends from Australia, so it was a bit of a strange feeling at first to be together in Europe, but it was very special. We saw Juliet's balcony and the pretty courtyard below it (the same one in many movies, including Letters to Juliet). We both touched Juliet's boobs, on a statue in the courtyard, which is said to be good luck; we also wrote our names on sticky note and added it to the walls full of names and messages. Next we walked to the top of a clock tower, where we had an amazing view over the whole town. It was a sea of orange terra cotta roofs, dotted with church spires, a river winding its way through the town, in the distance was a wall of snow topped mountains. After this, Chiara (Maddie's host mum) was very excited, along with Alice and Filippo (her host sister & brother) to show me a real Italian lunch. We went into a cute little restaurant where Chiara ordered a selection of Italian foods including bruschetta, panini, bread sticks with ham and cheeses. Naturally, it was all incredibly delicious. After a quick walk together through the town it was time to say goodbye, for now.
We got back onto the bus and continued our drive along the coastline of the Italian Riviera, to San Remo; where we just stayed overnight, arriving in the dark then leaving in the morning.
Monte Carlo, Monaco & Nice, France
We left San Remo in the morning, driving along the coastline of the Italian Riviera. The view over the Meditteranean sea was incredible, cliffs and towns that met the edge of the bright blue water. We stopped at the top of the entrance to Monte Carlo, at a viewing point that let us see the whole city from above and take some photos. After this we began to drive down into the city, but were stopped and could not continue because of a Formula 1 race that the city was hosting. So we continued our driving along the coast and entered France. We stopped for lunch and for a few hours of relaxation in Nice. The water was an incredible colour, the sun was shining and it was over 20 degrees, it was perfect for laying on the smooth stones and pebbles that were on the beach. I ate a quiche and a tropical mango smoothie for lunch, which was delicious. After this, we drove on, through towns such as Cannes and Saint Tropez, and arrived in Avignon in the evening just as the sun was setting.
Avignon, France
The next day, after a typical French breakfast of croissants, we went to sight-see. First we saw Pont du Gard, which is an ancient Roman bridge that was built by the Romans to transport fresh water over the top of a river. There was 'graffiti' on it, where people had carved their names in from way back in the 1800s.It was raining and we were all a bit cold, so it was nice to go into a indoor shopping centre for lunch. We were on a mission to eat French food. So we had savoury crêpes followed by cremé brûlée. It tasted amazing. Then for the afternoon, we explored the town of Avignon, which is still surrounded by the tall city walls that were built many years ago to protect the city and the Popes that lived in the city. There were so many cute little French shops selling jams, cheeses, wines, lavender, oils, soaps and many other things.
Paris, France
Paris Paris Paris. While we were in the bus on the way there, I was a little worried that the city wouldn't live up to the expectations that I had, or that the Eiffel Tower would just look like a hunk of metal. But I really had no reason to worry, the city is just as beautiful and magical as it is depicted in movies. We drove through the outer suburbs of Paris, in the late afternoon, with everyone on the bus eagerly standing at the windows, trying to get the first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. As soon as it came into sight, only a little point in a sea of suburbs, everyone on the bus started screaming and cheering. We had time to spare before checking into the hotel, so we continued to drive further into the centre of the city, passing famous bridges we had seen in movies, the Louvre, Notre Dam, the Arc de Triomphe and finally the Eiffel Tower. We were all in awe of the city, everything we saw just took our breath away. After a short time to see and take photos of the Eiffel Tower from a distance, we drove to our hotel.
The next day, we visited Disneyland Paris! We had such a fun day, looking at everything, including the Walt Disney castle, and going on rides. The entire place is decorated in a way that makes you feel as if you are walking through a Disney movie. There is so much attention to detail on each ride, to make you feel as if you are actually in the movie the ride is based on.
The day after we visited Disneyland, we had the entire day free to ourselves to sight-see. We started at the Eiffel Tower of course. Taking photos, enjoying the atmosphere and saying no to the many men walking around trying to sell souvenirs. We wanted to go up the tower, but each of the 4 lines were hours long, and there was a lot more we wanted to see in the city. Next we caught the metro to the Louvre. The museum was crazy, it was difficult at some times to even walk through the hallways due to the insane amount of people in there. We went straight to the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is quite small, and sits on its own in the middle of a very large blank wall. But surrounding the painting, is a constant crowd of hundreds of people trying to see it and take a photo, you almost have to mosh your way to the front just to see it. After this we saw some other famous artworks and statues including the Venus de Milo. After walking out of the Louvre, exiting through the giant glass pyramid, we went for a walk and saw some of the very pretty bridges that cross the river Seine, many covered in locks. We went and saw the Champs Élysées, which is a busy street, where we did a little shopping. After catching the metro back to the hotel, we realised we were running late to meet the group, so after a quick turn around in the hotel, we rushed back to the metro and caught it to the place our tour guide had arranged for us to meet. It turned out that we didn't need to rush, and there was plenty of time once we got there, before we boarded our boat for a twilight canal tour on the River Seine. The tour was picture perfect, we cruised along the river, with the Eiffel Tower lighting up as the sun was setting, past the Louvre, past Notre Dam, under very pretty bridges, past a smaller statue of the Statue of Liberty that was in the middle of the river, and then back past the Eiffel Tower which was now completely lit up with coloured lights. After the tour, we decided to go and see the Eiffel Tower at night. On our way, we walked past the memorial for Princess Diana that is at the top of the tunnel where she died. After looking up at the tower from underneath it, we went and sat on the grass lawns that are below the tower. It was an incredible sight, sitting and laying on the grass just looking up at the lights of the Eiffel Tower. Trying to comprehend the fact that this wasn't a dream, it was real, we were in Paris and that was the Eiffel Tower we were looking at. Every hour the lights on the tower sparkle, the white lights blink and flicker, so the tower appears to be sparkling like glitter or twinkling like stars. It only lasts for 5 minutes each time, but it is a beautiful sight.
Brussels, Belgium
The next day, we left Paris and headed North, out of France into Belgium. When we first got to Brussels, we were given a little tour from the bus. We saw the parliament building, the royal palace and then stopped and got off the bus where we could look at a memorial statue as well as a great view over the city. We didn't have that much time in Brussels, only the afternoon really, because we left early the next morning. After dinner, most of the exchange students played karaoke together, which was hilarious to listen to!
Amsterdam, Netherlands
We arrived in Amsterdam at lunch time, so were given time to go and have lunch ourselves and do a little sight-seeing. Alison and I saw a Chinese restaurant so we couldn't resist! After lunch, we met back up with the others who ate at a different place and did some souvenir shopping. We met back up with the group for our canal tour. We cruised through the many canals of the city, lined by tall and skinny houses all joined together, pretty shade trees that hang over the canals, under the numerous bridges that allow cars and the many cyclists to cross the canals and then back to the centre of the city. On the canals were many house boats were people live permanently. After the canal tour, we were given some more free time to walk around and see more of the city. We walked around for a bit, before sitting on the edge of a canal, relaxing, soaking up the sun and watching the many boats that went past.
After staying the night at a small town out of Amsterdam called Arnhem, we drove back to Denmark the next day. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to some of the close friends we had made over the past 3 weeks, with the uncertainty of when and if we would see each other again. But we will always have the incredible memories of Euro Tour together.
This truly was the most incredible opportunity and experience, that I have come away from with so many amazing memories I will keep forever. A huge thank you to everyone that made it possible, and all of those people that shared it with me and made it so amazing.
