First, I have to give props to my good friend, Elizabeth, for giving me the idea for this post and helping me relive all of the funny adventures we had in order to include them all. Check out her hilarious blog @ www.catscatscatskittycats.blogspot.com. You will not regret it.
Now, because I am about to go on a year-long excursion to Europe, I (with Elizabeth’s help) thought it would be good to relive the first time that I went to Europe in May 2009. I went with a summer session study abroad group to Italy, Austria, and Germany for about 2.5 weeks.
We started the trip off in Rome, where we immediately figured out (Elizabeth and I) that we were not going to be included in the “popular” group. One girl arrived late because she had been vacationing in the south of France at her family’s estate (poor thing). She also threw away all of her clothes when we moved from city to city because it was too much of a hassle to actually wash and pack them. She would then proceed to buy new clothes at the most expensive place she could find in each city (I mean, SERIOUSLY, did her mother never tell her that there were starving kids in Africa/China/EVERYWHERE). With her being the ringleader of the majority of the students, we decided to choose our own path and steer clear of them for the most part.
One of the best things I first discovered in Europe: Coca Cola Light!!! AMAZING! At the time, I was so addicted to caffeine that I would wake up in the middle of the night and have to drink a Coke Zero (Bad, I know). So when I got to Europe, and they didn’t have coke zero, I tried Coca Cola Light and fell in love. This is one thing I’m very excited about, getting to drink it again!
We of course did a lot of touring and walking in Rome. One day while touring, (with our British tour guide, David, who used to be on a soap opera!), I was walking and talking as I normally do. However, for someone that is not very coordinated and trips while walking quite a bit, I really should remember to look forward during pretty much any type of activity. On this particular day, though, I was talking to someone behind me and walking through the streets of Rome, periodically tripping over cobblestones or uneven pavement. As I was laughing and smiling, marveling at the sites, I ran right smack into a pole. Yes, you are correct, no one around warned me that I was about to run into a pole. Nope, they just let me keep on walking towards it. Things like this happen to me a lot. Is there such a thing as a “walking class”, where an instructor teaches clumsy, uncoordinated individuals how to walk? I feel I would benefit from this.
After Rome, we went to a small town and visited a vineyard for a wine tasting (wonderful). I lost my camera on the bus back from that trip. We then went to Florence (the statue of David is incredible – should be on the top of everyone’s list to see… there I go with lists again), Venice (smelly, but getting lost in all of the alleys was fun), and we hiked Cinque Terre (amazing).
The view from our hike.
Our final desination of the hike.
Some buildings in the small town we hiked to at Cinque Terre.
Our last stop in Italy was my favorite Italian city: Verona (hello Romeo and Juliet!). The memory that is ingrained in my mind from Verona is Elizabeth, Ann, Audrey, and I trying to find a Laundromat. Basically, after a bunch of hand motions and broken Italian with some Veronese, 3 bus changes, about 2 miles of walking, and lots of sweating, we finally made it to the Laundromat. The Laundromat in the sketchiest area of Verona with no air conditioning in 98-degree weather with all the dryers going. Sounds fun, ja? However, all that isn’t the part I remember most. The part I think of when remembering my time in Verona is the 4 hours we rode around in a bus trying to find out way BACK to the hotel. The bus driver finally stopped and kicked us all off the bus since we were the only ones on it for about an hour and a half in a random neighborhood in Verona. After that, we just started walking and I think we finally found our hotel around 6 that night. The worst part was when we got back to our hotel and some of the other group said that they went to a Laundromat that was just around the corner. We had been told that one was closed. At least we got a good tour of Verona, right?
Next stop: Austria. I loved Austria. It is beautiful and exactly what you expect when you think of Austria. Except I never found Julie Andrews, which was a bummer. We were only in Austria for a few days, but we made sure to make the most of it. I bought some Seven Jeans, froze my butt off most the time because Austria is cold at night. Even in the summer. And again, we got lost. I imagine I get lost so much because I really don’t mind it. It is fun to get lost in most instances. You get to see more of the city and discover things that you wouldn’t normally discover. Mostly, we walked and shopped and took a lot of pictures, and didn’t pay attention to where we were walking, so we got lost. We hiked up some mountains, went to a petting zoo that was in the middle of the mountain on our hike (strange place for a petting zoo), drank lots of cappuccinos and tried to talk German to the Austrians that would talk to us.
Out of the bus on the way to Austria.
After Austria, we made our way to our final stop: Germany. I wasn’t expecting to like Germany as much as I did. But I loved it! Jolly might have had a lot to do with this. The first day we arrived in Munich, Germany, we went on a bike tour with Mike’s Bikes (If you’re ever in Munich, you must do this!). Jolly was our bike tour guide. He was from Australia and apparently left home when he was about 16 to just travel from place to place. He was about 26 now and was in Munich working for Mike’s Bikes for a while. All the (cool) girls had a crush on him. Anyway, he gave us our awesome bike tour and I still can’t help but laugh when I think about the people in the parks we rode through and people running over geese (funniest and saddest thing I’ve ever seen).
Our our bike tour. In a few minutes, some geese are about to dart in front and be run over by about 5 people.
Needless to say, Germany was interesting and my favorite place that we visited.
And now I get to go back! Very lucky girl, I am.
TschΓΌss!
