EUROTOUR!

Ahhh Eurotour. Another bus trip, more amazing countries and incredible people. Where to begin?
Everyone met up in Paris to get the bus (the coach, whichever) - we had 38 exchangers altogther, mostly Australians. Also Kiwis, Argentinians and South Africans - no newies, all of us had arrived in January which was good because we all had pretty much the same level of French (no language barriers either, because most people speak English anyway).

Cathedral at Reims

Normally I'd stick a photo of Paris here, but I left my camera in my suitcase under the bus so couldn't take any photos... but everything we did in Paris I'd already seen so it was nothing new! After lunch, we drove to Reims to stay the night.

After Reims we went to Strasbourg, right on the French-German border. We had a boat tour and saw the cathedral, did some shopping...

Speciality of the Eastern region of France: Tarte flambée (bacon, onion and creme fraiche on a pizza base)

Because it was so FREEZING COLD in Strasbourg (it was snowing, but melting before it hit the ground - that still counts, and gave me a good enough reason to buy some deliciously warm mittens) my friend and I went and had waffles, probably the best idea ever.

Waffles. Mmmm.

A thermometer shop! How handy. We knew scientifically exactly how cold we were - 0 degrees.

In Strasbourg - going who-knows-where

That night we did a big introduce-yourself-and-your-country thing, ate Tim Tams and Vegemite (not me - call me un-Australian but I hate Vegemite) and drank Argentinian tea!

Bridge between Strasbourg (France) and Germany

 We crossed the bridge first thing next morning - the bridge between France and Germany! Arrived in Nuremberg a few hours later. Scouting around for some lunch, we found a little restaurant and guessed what we wanted off the menu (we thought it was pretty adventurous, but all ended up with bratwurst and potato salad anyway - was actually REALLY delicious considering it was just bangers and mash).

German biscuit/cake/piece of yumminess

The beginnings of the Christmas market (not the best timing; midday on a Sunday in October)

Germany is so cold they need fur on their seats outside!

Cathedral of Nuremberg (very gothic, as you can clearly see in the arches)

After lunch, we walked through the town (city?) to find the bus, crossed some nice picturesque German bridges...

Nice picturesque German bridge

I bought the hat in Strasbourg! New favourite! (It's a MOOSE!)

At some point, a tour guide jumped on our bus and we had a look at the Congress Hall, a huge round building inspired by the Colosseum in Rome, which used to be the entrance to the Nazi party rally grounds - this is where Hitler did all his speeches, Nuremberg was major place for the Nazi party and 12 rallies were held there.

Nazi party rally grounds

We had a walk around the grandstand and even looked out over the stadium from the platform where Hitler would have stood once... creepy.

A good luck tower - turn the wheel 3 times anti-clockwise and you get good luck!

Then it was back to centre ville to have a look at the town by night - Germany is so pretty! I wish I could go back there in December, with all the lights and Christmas markets.

AHOY CZECH REPUBLIC! (Ahoy = hello, in Czech)

 So we made it to the Czech Republic! V exciting to actually be in such an exotic country!

Autumn leaves AND snow!

Prague is SO beautiful. There are apartments and shops and cathedrals and opera houses and churches and monuments and just random buildings everywhere which are so artistic and...aesthetically-pleasing!!! (I'm out of words)

The Opera/Theatre in Prague

Had a 2 hour guided tour of the city - TOO LONG, but we did get to see a lot of the city.

The clock tower

One of MANY horse and carriage rides all over Prague - so cool!

Franz Kafka... someone Czech and important?

View from the bridge

The giant bridge in Prague is called St Charles Bridge, it's got vendors and buskers and tourists all over the place. I think the whole city has a pretty cool atmosphere - a bit edgy, maybe in a dangerous, crime-filled sort of way but still! I like it.

Buskers on the bridge

St Charles bridge

It's me! On a bridge!

Delicious Czech food

This is the yummy Czech pastry we found - it's like bread dough on a roll, cooked over an open flame with sugar sprinkled on top. REALLY WARM when it was -1000000 degrees walking around outside!

John Lennon tribute wall

"Imagine there's no countries...it would suck because exchange wouldn't exist..."
There's a John Lennon tribute wall in Prague! It was awesome, just a huge wall covered in spray paint with lyrics and names and messages and stuff.

Cathedral or church or something of Prague...BY NIGHT

 The next day was chateau day - the castle of Prague! Arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard, then had a humongously long tour of the whole inside of the castle.

Changing of the guard at Prague Castle

Inside a church in the castle

Ceilings are always the best part of churches

The view of Prague from the top of the castle wall

Finally got let off the leash for the rest of the day, did mostly shopping and sightseeing.

Thought about buying a chandelier... expect a biggish package in the mail!

Next stop: VIENNA! We got there at lunchtime and left that evening - NOT enough time! I really liked Vienna and I wanted to see more of it.

Austria Day was also, incidentally, Halloween! Hence the scary face painting below:

Halloween!

We passed an ice cream shop, did a double take as we saw the girl behind the counter! But you see, as you may have noticed in earlier photos, I have a moose hat now. And the ice cream shop had a special halloween offer - come in dressed up in costume and get free ice cream! So guess who got free Austrian ice cream?!

Putting Christmas lights up!

After lunch and running around Vienna, we got a tour guide for a bus tour around the new part of the city. And THEN, we went to a giant theme park and got the "Vienna Wheel" (not sure of the name - but it was a really famous old ferris wheel!) which had an incredible view over the new and old parts of the city. Plus the sun was setting so all my photos look better than they probably are.

View from the ferris wheel over the new(er) part of the city

Ferris wheel!

Had the rest of our bus tour, then we went around on foot to see the old city at night. It's a really beautiful city, sort of like Prague with all the buildings and architectural style.

What I was most keen to try (food-wise) in Austria was schnitzel and apple strudel! Didn't really get schnitzel...but I got a great apfelstrudel!

Voila! Apple strudel (apfelstrudel)

We had a really awesome Halloween party that night where everyone dressed up (all this in the youth hostel) and we judged the costumes. (A girl who was a zombie won, her face makeup/blood was amazing!)

BONJOURNO, ITALIA!

Italiaaaaa, at last! The country I'd been waiting for the most!! My choice for exchange after France was Italy, and after being there, I've decided I'm going to do Italian in uni and do an exchange in 2nd year if possible! I have to go back and see more, it's such an amazing country.

Snow-capped mountains, INCREDIBLE views that my camera just can't quite capture - especially in a moving bus!

Our hotel doubled as a restaurant, so the food there was reaaaaally good - the most delicious pasta I've practically ever had (I don't know how it's so good but it WAS!) was our first dinner.

Welcome to Italy!

The first night we went out clubbing! It wasn't proper clubbing, Rotary had hired a club for us so our group was the only one there... but hey, we had fun at our own little disco anyway!

Me and Kim and Evie (my Australians!)

The next day we got a boat from wherever we were, some little Italian town, into VENICE! I am in LOVE with Venice. It is the most beautiful, picturesque, historic (not in a boring way), innovative, unique city ever. I couldn't stop taking photos of every corner we turned, there were bridges and gondolas and leaning/sinking buildings everywhere - it's so, arghh! I don't know how else to describe it! But I love it.

First steps in Venezia!

Leaning clock tower

Had a good look at the Doge's square - its symbol is a lion, so there were lion statues and carvings left, right, centre...

Doge's square

After we split up for some free time, the first thing Evie and I did was go and get gelato for breakfast! We'd purposely skipped breakfast this morning so we could stuff ourselves with amazing Italian pasta and gelato all day - and it was a good decision, Italian hotel breakfasts are nothing special.

A gondola on a break (and they ALL wear stripy shirts!)

You're lucky I sort out my photos and don't just put ALL of them on my blog, otherwise this post would never end...

It was the BEST day, so warm and sunny I barely needed a jacket. (And this coming from SNOW the day before!)

The Doge's Basilica

Photo taken with a filter (my indie friend's sunnies)

Then the BEST part - a gondola ride! Unfortunately our gondolier (is that the name? The driver) didn't sing "That's Amore!" for us, but it was still awesome.

Getting on the gondolas

We had 6 people in a gondola and it went for about half an hour (if you're interested). DO IT! I highly advise you ALL to go to Venice before it sinks into the mud and take a gondola ride!

Sitting at the front of the gondola

Back to the Doge's square - but at night time!

So that was the end of the wonderful Venice - the next day we hit Milan for a tiny bit of shopping!!

Main street of the centre of Milan

Lunch - no complaints!

We had another guided tour (do they ever end?) of the castle of Milan, which was pretty impressive but nowhere near as beautiful as a French chateau, let's be honest here.

Milan castle

There was also a huge gallery of the most exclusive shops ever (eg. a Mercedes Benz shop, need I say more) which had a glass roof and mosaic tiling on the floor - this is definitely the high-class shopping area.

Spinning on the good luck toro

There was a tile there which was meant to give good luck. It was a bull, and the idea was to put the heel of your feet on the toro's balls, then spin around 3 times without falling over. And TA-DAAA, you have good luck forever and ever. Combine that with the good luck thing in Strasbourg and I don't understand how Europe has any debt - they just have SO much luck.

Might not look like much, but this is the Milan Opera! The home of Italian opera (so ALL opera)

Leonardo da Vinci

The roof of the expensive gallery place

We took a district photo (District 1720! Yeah!) outside the Milan Basilica (I think it was a basilica, maybe just a cathedral) which was an AMAZING building, so ornate and carved and just WOW.

Josefina (Argentina), Dominique (Rotarian), me, Chantal (district co-ordinator), Courtney (Australia)

Then we got more free time and did shopping and sightseeing, the usual...

A chocolate fountain!

Last gelato before leaving Italy - CINNAMON ICE CREAM. Is the best flavour I've ever tasted. Get it.

Next day: Chamonix Mont-Blanc - back to France and into the mountains.

On the drive there - more moving bus photos

Chamonix is a really tiny town only known because it's right next to Mont Blanc (White Mountain - how original).

Entering the town of Chamonix

Mont Blanc itself

We took a little train up the mountain to see La Mer de Glace (the Sea of Ice), which is the longest glacier in France.

La Mer de Glace/Sea of Ice

We spent the afternoon in Chamonix, and my friends and I went luging! Not a snow luge, the one on rails. Awesome fun.

Leaving Chamonix

Left Chamonix the next day to go to Geneva, to see the United Nations and a bit of Switzerland.

Mountains on the drive there

The giant chair that's across the road from the UN

United Nations! Founded by Rotary, did you know. We had a guided tour of the inside - had to go through a mini customs in case we were carrying Swiss knives (AHAHAHA get it? In Switzerland).

One of the I-don't-remember-how-many-million conference rooms

The view

A rug from China (genuinely made in China)
where the path follows you when you move, like the Mona Lisa's eyes!

All 193 flags of the countries in the United Nations PLUS the Rotary International flag

After the tour we went CHOCOLATE HUNTING - Italy was pasta land, but Switzerland was meant to be chocolate territory! Unfortunately, we couldn't find a supermarket to buy heaps of cheap and good chocolate, so we had to go to an actual chocolate boutique place, but they have the coolest stuff!

Watches of Switzerland - now in CHOCOLATE!

New model of the Swiss Army Knife - IN CHOCOLATE!

That was Geneva! We only stayed there until early afternoon, then it was back on the bus to Dijon. At Dijon, we had a farewell soiree (which meant a crazy dance party!) and left next morning. We got to Paris around 2pm where all the students split up to go home... and this would be the last time I would see Josefina, who'd been in my district with me since January! She went back to Argentina yesterday, I'll really miss her. Josefina and Courtney and I are the oldies (the students in our district who arrived in January) so we got one last photo together, before saying goodbye to Josefina. :(

District 1720 oldies! Courtney, Josefina, Jo. <3

Then I got the train back to Tours, another train to Chinon, got picked up from there, and it was back home to little old Loudun (actually, we bypassed Loudun because my current host family lives in the country, a short drive out of Loudun). It was a pretty big comedown from traversing all of Europe to going back home again, but I had an incredible trip and met heaps of awesome people - who are MUCH easier to go and visit, being Australian and living in the same country as me!