Buses, Bags, and Baggage (Eurotour)

G'day internets.

As of the fact that I have been in Denmark for nearly 6 months (!), I decided it's been enough time procrastinating, and It's now finally time to write this. Sorry all. It's been a rough, time consuming 60-or-so days between posts.

Now, those of you that are lucky to have little ol' me in their friends list on Facebook, will know that I've been tripping a whole lot lately! (This has nothing to do with my visit to Christiania... Danes'll get it)

The 'tripping' I'm referring to, is, of course, my EUROTOUR!

Let's dive right in.

After a night of not sleeping, myself and 3 other exchange students met the bus in Lolland as the last 4 students to complete the 56 names, faces, and stories that we would all get to know in the next 18 days.
Ready to rumble, we took the ferry from Denmark to Germany, and by nightfall, and the longest drive I've had since I left Australia, we arrived in Berlin!

Berlin was a fun and easy place to start. The wide boulevards, large trees and masses of fountains made it a great 'level one' so to speak. After dinner, we were left to our own devices until our curfew. Falling in with a bunch of North American Oldies, who I didn't really know, we managed to get completely lost and barely made it back for curfew.
Little did I know that this introduction would lead me to get to know some of the best people I have ever met. But on with the story.

Photo Credit to Cass - That fateful first day.

The next day in Berlin was spent sightseeing, getting lost (again) seeing the 5 billion bears that seem to inhabit this strange city, vandalising the Berlin wall, getting lost in the history of the Cold war, and meeting more bears...

We continued on the next day to the Czech Republic, and on our way to Prague, we stopped at a Concentration Camp: Terezinstadt. Way to give exchange students chills? Send them down into a morgue, tell them all about the many, many deaths that took place, the conditions of their living, and what they were forced to do.
Then, drive 30 minutes down the road to the nearest town, and have a big lunch. 
Guilt, embarrassment, and self -loathing are all on your emotional menu. 

"Work makes you free"

We arrived in Prague to an actual hotel this time (!) and began exploring. We visited so many beautiful landmarks, forged out of iron, copper and marble, and it just blew me away. Unfortunately I do not have an ear for Czech, so I don't remember the names all that well. All I can say is that Prague, the link between Eastern and Western Europe, is a marvel of a city and I will definitely return. One place that does stick in mind is the old bridge of Prague, covered in statues made of bronze and gold. You turn around as you are halfway across, and you see the ancient sites you had just come from, atop the hill with the sun hitting them perfectly. I am beginning to miss Prague now.

Beautiful friends in beautiful Prague

Not to mention that Prague, or Praha as you say in Czech (PraHA! Think - the Amanda show) was the cheapest city we would visit! Ice cream? One Aussie dollar. A pint of beer? $2.50. A new handbag? $20. It was insane! If I needed more stuff, this is where I'd be!

We also managed to meet a Cockatoo, (In the Cezch Republic?) and run into Czech celebrities in a music store without meaning to...  A little confusing, but we'll go with it!

We have no idea who these famous people are...

G'day Cocky!!

Next was Vienna! We arrived first at Schoenbrunn Palace, and I can only say: What a first impression. We climbed to the top of the hill rising above the palace and took in the view of Vienna. What a beautiful city!
After sitting in a bus for hours upon hours, it was only fitting that we spend a lot of time running around on the grass, rolling down the hill wrapped in our flags, taking as many photos as possible, and then realising we were about to miss our bus back to the hotel. How to solve this? Swap your flag with the giant Canadian next to you and sprint/fall down the hill representing eachother's countries! Canada - me - lost by a mile.

Aussies in Schoenbrunn!

As we continued our tour around Vienna, we found ourselves thinking: "Austria is like Germany's younger, nicer, better looking, more talented brother." We ate real Viennese Schnitzel, and got lost in a farmer's market. Being in a farmer's market full of fresh fruit and homemade cusine made me feel a twinge of homesickness for the Rusty's markets in Cairns… I really miss good, fresh fruit. 

We also explored the Vienna zoo whilst we were there! Let's just say the the tropical zone made me feel very much at home...

How to make an Aussie feel at home? Put her in a smelly, sweaty place.

Exploring the city at night, I was surprised to see many tributes to Australia lurking about, cafes, bars, and an Australian ice cream shop! As the Danes say,  hvor fedt! (roughly: how cool).

Although… I didn’t see any sneaky Von Trapps lurking about. Tres dissappointed.

Unfortunate.

Next was Italy! We had a beautiful drive through the Alps to get there, and stopped to picnic by a mirror lake. There's some things you need to see once in your life… and this is definitely one of them.

Pretty Pretty!

After a 10 hour drive, we arrived in Lido di Jesolo, one of Europe's most popular beach holiday sites, to have to carry our suitcases up 6 stories because the previous bus broke them.

Bus 2, I'm coming for you.

The next day was Venice! Having already been there, it was nice to take a more relaxed role and let the others have all the wonderment of being there for the first time whilst I showed them all the best places I had vistied. I also had my first proper cappuccino since I had left my beloved coffee machine in Australia. Oh my, I had definitely missed that. Thank you, Italy.

Cute friends in cute Venice!

The next day, we had a free day in Lido to enjoy the beach! A day full of sun, surf, sand, and fantastic Italian food was on the agenda! A day when we could wake up late and not worry about schedules was awesome. I wish we had another day like that.

I'm in love.

We checked out of our hotel and began the drive to France, stopping for a morning in Verona, a city of love to take in the beautiful architecture, the statue of Juliet & her balcony, and the Roman auditorium. We found ourselves in another farmer's market and stuffed ourselves with fresh fruit cups. What did you expect? It's hard to get fresh, tropical fruit in Scandinavia. You can't blame us. I enjoyed my pineapple far too much.

FRESH FRUIT!! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!

We arrived in San Remo that afternoon in rush hour, and within one hour, we had pissed off the entire town. We are a long bus, and the roads in Italian towns are pretty narrow. Our hotel parking lot came off  the inside side of a road on an uphill angle, with a solid wall on the opposite side. It also had a tiny entrance ramp, framed by two walls. As you can guess, it took a LONG TIME to get into that tiny space, and by the time we were halfway into our 100-point turn, we were holding up both lanes of traffic, with angry italian men violently gesturing at us on both sides. We remained here for 45 minutes navigating into our place. 

It. Was. Hilarious.

Needless to say, our leaders bought our driver a well-deserved drink that night.

The next day was beautiful, beautiful Monaco on our way to Avignon.
We spent our time dipping our feet in the beautiful, but COLD Mediterranean sea, eating a far-too expensive lunch, and gaping at all the luxury cars and boats. Monaco really is a special place. I felt very inadequate walking around the harbour, that's for sure.

Monaco.... You can't afford the air here.

We arrived in Avignon that evening, to be greeted with the legendary French rudeness. With 4 people being sent home for breaking 2 of the D's in Lido, we had to cancel their rooms, and that annoyed the french to no end. Cancelling their rooms, they said, meant that the boys' building wasn't getting any breakfast. Also because "we had problems with the last group". Grr! Bus 2!
No, hang on, you can't do that. Commence argument. Except they didn't speak English, and our guides spoke no French. So, the poor, non-confrontational Canadians had to translate for both sides at warp speed. Needless to say, we got our breakfast.

After dinner at the bowling alley, we commenced argument  #2. Nikolaj, one of our leaders, had made a deal with the management that we would pay 5 euros per hour. They said yes.
So, after smashing out 4 games in one hour, we go up to pay and are told "okay, 5.40euro per game."
No, hang on, you can't do that.
"But that's the rules."
"We made a deal with you!"
"Sorry. Rules."
"Some of us didn't even bring that amount of money! 20 euros is insane! What happened to our agreement?!"
"Okay, we're calling the police."

Once again, all in French, via the Canadians. In the end, we were forced to pay 10.40 each. As we left, Nikolaj says to us: "Welcome to France, everyone. This is how they make money. Stubborn liars"
And in that moment, I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

That being said, Avignon by day was a beautiful place, and many of the other students on my bus, were totally by chance, able to meet up with fellow exchange students from their home districts! Not me though, no one from my district went on exchange to Croatia or Austria :(

Avignon really was quite pretty...

Driving 10 hours the next day, we arrived in PARIS!! Everyone in the bus freaked out when they saw the Eiffel tower, and the general thoughts going around was "We're here. We're FINALLY HERE!"

The first stop was most definitely the Eiffel tower, with about 56789876567 photos taken. We then ran down to the canal in order to make it on time for our canal tour. After noting where all the important places were, we were given our curfew and told to run along.
So run we did. We ran to Notre Dame, Sacre Coer, The Louvre, L'arc de Triomphe, The Napoleonic Gardens, and all along the Champs-Élysées. On foot.
By the time we came home to change for dinner, I had at least 89 blisters from my cute new sandals. I hate cobblestones!
Going out for dinner, we decided to go all-out and get a proper French dinner, complete with escargot. For the first time trying it, I loved it! I will return to you, escargot! Upon walking home, the Canadians found a Canadian bar/restaurant complete with poutine and hockey sticks for door handles and dragged us inside to try the infamous poutine. Mother, forgive me for I have sinned. Hot chips doused in cheese and gravy?
So bad, but yet so, SO good.

Again, Mum, I'm sorry.

What other photo did you expect?

The next day was DISNEYLAND!
We set off super early to avoid crowds. It was worth it, because I managed to ride my favourite rollercoaster of all time, Space Mountain, twice before I was put off by the queue. We went on many, many rides, ate far too much,  bought overpriced merchandise, took photos with characters, and I realised I had caught the flu all before 5pm. That night, too exhausted to go out, we all fell asleep super early.

She was looking for some puppies...

Brussels was the next stop, and waiting for me was my old friend from my home district, and fellow exchange student, Kacy! How good is that? Old friends reunited in Europe during the best year of their lives, and to have my own personal tourguide to show me all the great places in Brussells? Wonderful! We ate Belgian waffles, Belgian frites, of course tried the legendary Belgian beer, and he showed me all the French he'd learned. (He's very good!)
The day was not complete without buying far too much chocolate!
Our goodbyes were very sad, with promises to visit eachother exchanged. I miss that kid.

Reunion!

Amsterdam, the last stop, was a little dissappointing. We were told that we were strictly NOT ALLOWED to walk around alone, and were ushered from our canal tour straight to a souvenir shop.
Want to find a bathroom? NO. Want to go buy some water? NO.
That was really disheartening, to think that our old tourguide didn't trust us enough to not run away and buy marijuana the second that we were given the chance. We're not stupid. 4 people were already sent back to Denmark for that.
But honestly, what's the point of taking us to Amsterdam if we can't experience it ourselves? After exploring every city we had visited in the best way: by wandering around in our own time, we were all very disappointed.
Let us go, or don't take us there at all, was the consensus.

Disappointed at our Amsterdam prospects...

After arriving in Arnheim, the town in which we were staying, we all gathered together after dinner to watch a video that a few members of the group had put together. Tears flowed, hugs were given, notebooks were signed. The video really highlighted the great friendships and experiences we made on the trip, and we realised how much we would really miss eachother.

The next day, I said the second hardest goodbye of my life, to some people who I will maybe never see again, as they have already started to go home. Goodbye, Oldies. You will be forever by this Newbie, that's for sure.

My Eurotour was a whirlwind of amazing experiences. I will never ever EVER forget those 3 weeks for as long as I live. To everyone who experienced it with me, thank you for making those 3 weeks the best of my life.

And to all of you that have been waiting so very patiently for this, I'm sorry it took so long, and I will try to be more frequent with the updates.

Never forget.

Vi ses,
Georgia.