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!

Mont Saint-Michel

Bonjour, hardcore blog fans!

Just came back from an amazing Rotary weekend with my district - and 160 other exchangers! I love these weekends. Being with all my friends from all over the world, meeting new ones, being able to talk in whatever language I want (I learnt some Spanish and Malay, and taught one of the two words of Chinese that I know), and seeing incredible monuments like the Mont Saint-Michel makes it all worthwhile.

District 1720!

We left in 3 minibuses from Tours, it took about 3 and a half hours to get to Normandy. We stopped at the beach (the backyard of our youth hostel, actually) for lunch - even though it was a Northern beach and therefore gross, it wasn't so bad! There was a rainbow, but that just meant it rained all day.

The beach in front of our youth hostel - RAINBOW!

After lunch we went visited the museum about the landings beach, where the English made their harbours in Normandy to help the French in WW2.
It would have been more interesting if I wasn't laughing my head off and being completely terrified (at the same time) because of our tour guide - she was French, but she had an English accent (she did the whole tour in English because barely any of the newies speak French) which was so sugary sweet and posh it was even Englisher than the Queen! Scary, actually. I took a video, but I don't know if it'll work...

The landings beach in Normandy - the big black thing in one of the bits
of steel that made up the giant floating jetty back in the day

After the museum, we went to the American Cemetery - it's pretty well-known and it meant a lot to the Americans that were there. They even got to stand to attention in the reserved part of the flag circle to watch the flag-lowering ceremony for the day (conducted by an American). And there was an American veteran of the 2nd world war there!

Bit out of place in the American cemetery...

The flag-lowering cemetery

I'd heard about this cemetery, with all the white crosses - there were SO MANY. It's sad how much people died in WW2, and these were only the Americans, there were many more as well as them.

 After the cemetery we went back to the youth hostel and had dinner and a welcome-to-the-Rotary-weekend dance party!
Saturday morning saw us back on our minibuses to drive 2 hours to Mont Saint-Michel, where we met the other exchangers and started our BILLON HOUR WALK.

Mont Saint-Michel

 The plan was to bypass the entry to the actual Mont Saint-Michel and walk around it, to see a little island/giant rock. It was a 4 or 5 hour walk through mud and knee-deep water with a fairly strong current... I had to take off my ankle brace to do the walk - probably the best physio I could possibly do!

MUD!

Fighting our way through quicksand and waves, we took a billion photos with each other and it was also cool to just walk amongst different groups of peoples and talk. But it was freezing cold and tiring - Rotary does this on purpose so we're too tired to stay up late! But they never succeed, fortunately, we manage to stay awake...

The amazing rock...

The thing about the coast in Brittany/Normandy is that the tide comes in, 6 hours later it comes out, 6 hours later is comes in again. So there wasn't too much water where we walked, but if we'd waited for a few hours we'd have had to SWIM.

All the exchangers walking towards the rock with the Mont Saint-Michel in the background

That night we had a big dinner (all 180 students plus all the Rotarians!) where all the exchangers from each country stood out the front and sang their national anthem. The Australians went first, to set a good example. Even the people who were the only representatives from their country had to sing on their own! I'm REALLY glad I wasn't one of them, but they were all great.

Then we had a dance party and stayed up really late gossiping!

Advance Australia Fair - and then Aussie Aussie Aussie, OY OY OY!

 Sunday morning we got to actually go INTO the Mont Saint-Michel. Everything is a hill and practically every street is covered with tourist shops and little cafes, it's so...QUAINT! So French, actually.

Inside the Mont Saint-Michel

The main castle bit

Looking out from over the top

There were a LOT of stairs, the whole thing is built on a massive hill sticking out of the water.

Front of the church

Inside the church (one of many, but this is the main chapel I think)

Before the bus ride back, had to get a photo with the sign...

Had lunch at the same restaurant as dinner the night before, with all the exchangers and Rotarians. Then it was back in the minibuses to get home!

The drive home (that's a windmill in the distance)

All up, an awesome weekend. I go on Eurotour (the bus trip around Europe) next week for 12 days so that should be even better!

September excitement!

Mid-September, just after holidays finished, and I'm hobbling around on crutches. NOT fun!


But despite my blistered hands and lead foot, I went to see Loudun's bi-annual (does that mean twice a year or once every two years? Am trying to say that it's once every two years) fair - La Foire!

Brasilien marching band

 It's basically the social highlight of every second year in Loudun (it alternates between here and Thouars), where all the people living in the country come out from under their rocks and celebrate all the tractors that have accumulated around the place.

A Ferrari from the "Sport and Collection" stand

 There's exhibition things, a mini farm for the kiddlies (and for me - everyone loves piglets, I think we can agree), restaurants, businesses from Loudun and surrounding towns, plus entertainment like bands and a magician!

A donkey - also the emblem of my region, Poitou-Charentes... REPRESENT!

Catherine and I had a walk around in the arvo looking at everything, then stayed for dinner. Soooo many people there! I had no idea Loudun was so populated - on a Monday, you'd think it was a ghost town...turns out it isn't.

Tractors and farmers - yay the country!

Then I went back to school because having a cast and crutches doesn't make you soft in the head (bugger!) and they even gave me a key to the lift to get to my (upstairs) classroom and the canteen so I didn't have to climb stairs!

One Friday night a few weeks ago, some members of the Loudun club went to Chinon to have dinner with the Rotary Club of Chinon, which they apparently do every year. It was cool, there were heaps of English people so I had dinner at the pommy table. Also, the best part was the BAND they had - a five-piece brass band who played awesome gypsy music. And one guy had a SOUSAPHONE, this incredible wrap-around tuba which I really wanted to try...

The next day, was up at 5am to get to Tours to meet the new exchange students!! Then we took the train to Paris to spend the weekend sightseeing and swapping pins and business cards and trying to remember each other's names. It was good fun, but the most tiring weekend of my entire life. Being on crutches is HARD, especially if you're like me and have no arm muscles. (I do now though!)

The newies!!!!

On the Saturday we just got to the train up, and found our youth hostel and had a big talk about the rules (for the newies) and just generally getting to know each other. In the afternoon we got the metro (NEVER take the metro on crutches, I have learnt. NEVER.) to the Louvre. I'd already seen it - in fact, I'm pretty proud that I can casually say, "Oh, I'm just nipping off to Paris for the weekend" and it's not even a big thing! Which is why I'm not going to put up hundreds of photos and blab on about Paris because I've already been and didn't take that many photos anyway (relatively speaking - not many for ME).

Most embarrassing thing was that they gave me a WHEELCHAIR (ohh the effort it took to get out of it - should've just kept it) to get around the museum! But see photo BELOW:

The advantages of being in a wheelchair in the Louvre

Went to see the Mona Lisa, as you do, but you know what happens when wheelchair people try and see it?The security guards practically run you over the tourists to get to go IN FRONT of the barrier and take your very own photo CLOSER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. I think I can say I've been the closest to the Mona Lisa out of everyone I know. Cool, hey?

Better than the metro!

This was my method of transport for getting from the Louvre to dinner that night - another first! In the 3-wheeled COOL-MOBILE!

No doors, trying not to fall out with me and 2 other Rotarians squished in the back of this car thing

View from the window of the Louvre

Venus di Milo

After a classy dinner at Flunch (a step up from Macca's, let's say), we hobbled to Pont Neuf to get a bateau mouche and see Paris by night. It was REALLY cool (but cold) and the French rebounds (who'd come with us to Paris) made fun of the tour guide so much he was laughing too hard to talk in his serious tour guide voice. Hilarious!

La Tour Eiffel - BY NIGHT

On Sunday everyone went to the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysees, but because it was too much walking I stayed at the hostel... but I went and had a coffee with one of the Rotarians later and cos the cafe was in front of the metro station, we walked back to the hostel with all the exchangers when they got back. But I didn't REALLY miss anything, I'd already been up the tower when we went on the bus trip and stuff. Either way, I was going to see all the exchangers in a few weeks time when we went to Mont Saint Michel.

Down the road from our youth hostel

So that was a really fun weekend! Really. I'm glad I went, even though I was complaining interally the whole time.
On a postive note: my neighbours adopted a kitten they found in a rubbish bin! Most adorable thing ever.

Watched Jade's team play handball - they won! Watched the men's team after, and it was SUCH an exciting match! They ended up winning, but the entire stadium ganged up on the ref and it literally an abusive shouting match for an hour. I love team sports.

 My Rotary club had been organising for "le Choeur de l'Armee Francaise" (the French Army Choir) to come to Loudun as one of their fundraiser projects, so that happened a couple of weeks ago. They came on Sunday morning, warmed up, had lunch with the rotarians (and me) at a restaurant in Loudun, went back to the events centre where they were singing, did a 2 hour-ish concert, had a glass of champagne for half an hour at the end and then BAM! Back on the bus to get the train to Paris.

Le Choeur de l'Armee Francaise

Some of the singers are in the army, and some are just part of the official choir. I'm not completely sure how it works. But they play at big events like the parade on Bastille Day (14th July) and probably Nicolas Sarkozy's birthday.

They sang mostly choir songs in French, but also some Italian songs and even an American song from a musical! I don't know which musical, but they all (obviously - this is the most prestigious choir in France) sounded really good. It's not style of music but I'm glad I went, and lots of people turned up so I'm pretty sure it made lots of money which is even better. Most funds from the Loudun club go to orphanages in Romania, I'm pretty sure. Will check, but it's always a good cause like that.

Taking a bow