EUROTOUR

The best two weeks of my life.  That’s how I would describe the tour of Europe I just went on.

It was simply amazing. We saw nine cities in countries in twelve days. It wasn’t even going to all these countries that was the best, it was meeting all these people and getting to know everyone. Nothing brings people together better than a road trip, that effect is amplified when you’re with 50 other exchange students on a bus. Seeing so much in so little time was not easy and required a lot of time on the bus but it was well worth it. And over all, this trip was well worth the money. I had the time of my life.

We started the trip in Paris. We got there at about 10 and waited for people until noon. It didn’t seem like that much time though because we were all together and getting to know each other. We spent the other half of the day with a guide visiting Paris, we went to a garden and learned about some history of the city, saw the Eiffel tour and stopped at the Louvre. It was a nice short comprehensive visit of the city. On the other bus trip we had already spent an entire day in Paris so this was just sort of a follow up visit. After saying goodbye to the guide it was time to hit the road towards Strasbourg, a city on the border near Germany.

We spent the next day in Strasbourg. We got there, had time to eat and then headed pretty much straight to the main cathedral where we had a guide. On the way to the cathedral we met up with a group of exchange students who live in Strasbourg or in the surrounding area. I spent most of my time with a boy named Hugo from Brazil and a girl named Emily from Arizona. They are really lucky to live in a place like that. They also live about fifteen minutes from the German border so they can really go whenever they want. My day in Strasbourg was great, I saw a lot of new things and it was really a good start to the bus trip and I met people that I will know my whole life. We spent the night at a hostel in a small German city between Strasbourg and Munich, the next step.

In Munich we started the day by eating lunch. We had been eating at places like McDonalds but decided that in Germany we had to eat an authentic meal. My group and I went to a German restaurant and ate sausages and drank German beer. It was the first time drinking beer for some of our group and it was cool that they got to take that milestone in Germany, which is after all the country of beer. After eating we took a guided tour of the city and then had some free time. This was a pretty typical schedule for the bus trip. We spent the night in a city between Munich and Prague. We had some free time in the city that night and it was cool to be able to walk around the city with my new found friends.

Prague was one of my most awaited cities. My mom has visited the city a few times and it was always sort of a mystery to me. We spent two days there exploring the city. The first day we were with a guide and stayed primarily in the old part and didn’t really have much free time. The second day we visited the castle of Prague and then walked down to the city to explore a little more on our own. We had quite a bit of free time. One of the things that is really marking about the city is the architecture, it’s really a mix of everything. Another really marking thing are the Segways. There are a strange amount of them. Öykü and I went up to two of the people riding them and asked if we could try and they were really willing. It was my first time on a Segway and let me tell you, dreams do come true!

Our group really chose the right two weeks. A lot of things aligned themselves in just the right way. One of the best things was that there was another group of exchange students doing the exact same tour as us who had left the day before us. That meant that in all the places where we stayed for two days, we saw them. Prague was the first place; that was why we didn’t have any free time the first day. We spent it all talking with the other group who we met up with. One group of kids that size is already crazy enough, I’m sure you can imagine what 100 exchange students meeting for the first time looks like. It was sort of crazy but so awesome!

The second day was really interesting and the castle in Prague really is nice. It’s not really a castle in fact. It’s more of an ensemble of buildings that form a governing base and a tourist attraction. We had a lot of free time in the city to eat and then explore. We decided again that we had to eat authentically. There were a lot of people handing out flyers for this restaurant and we were fairly hungry so we said why not. The person took us to the restaurant which was down this fairly sketchy and dark passageway, we were a little bit worried about what this place was going to be and then we come into this room with huge windows looking out onto this basin of water that was fairly beautiful. The food and service wasn’t great but I would suggest the restaurant just for the view.

The next day was Vienna. We had time to eat and see the city a little bit. The cathedral there is pretty typical but has a really interesting and beautiful roof. In order to see the most possible we conducted the tour primarily from the bus. We did stop to see the main castle of the city. We spent some time and took a group picture. There is a pretty big amusement park in Vienna. As a surprise they took us. It was really great, we only had an hour so we ran around the whole time so we could ride the most rides possible. We ended up doing six, which was more than anyone else. It was incredible!

We drove the entire next day, it was literally just time on the bus all day but it was okay because when got to see the other bus tour. That night we were in the same hotel so we got to hang out and really talk. Our hotel was beautiful and just a couple blocks away from the beach so we started the night off there. On this bus tour I was happy to have had to opportunity to swim again, even if it was still freezing. Rotary also took us to an underage club to celebrate our time together. It was a really fun night and I really got to know some cool people.

The next day it set in that we were in Italy, the land of pasta, gelato, and pizza! We spent the first day in Venice. It was incredible to actually be there. It’s always been a place I’ve heard about and known existed so to actually go was crazy. We took a gondola tour, which is really the stuff of dreams and then had about five hours to do whatever we wanted and explore the city. That’s really what you have to do there, there’s so much to see and it’s so beautiful, you just have to spend some time walking around looking at things.

The next day we said goodbye to the other bus tour and then it was off to Milan. We spent the majority of the day with a guide but had some free time to eat and explore the city. In the main square of the city there are all these guys who will come up to you and put corn in your hands and then all these pigeons come and land on your hand. It’s really cool but a little scary and then the guys ask you for five euros after so it’s not the best. But it is surely something else to have five pigeons land on your hand at the same time.

We spent the next day in a city called Chamonix, which is right at the foot of Mont Blanc. We ate in the city and then went up the mountain on a tram. There is a glacier there that is called the sea of ice. We got to see it and even go inside of it because they have carved tunnels into the ice. It was a really impressive sight. Right before leaving we found out that we were going to see the other bus tour that night, something that made us all happy! We had a great time that night, we were celebrating the end of their bus trip and we said our goodbyes to them.

The next day was spent in Geneva Switzerland visiting the UN. It was a really cool thing to see and I’m not sure it is something I would have thought of. There are some beautiful buildings there and there’s really this feeling that you feel while you’re there as well. You know that the place is important. We spent the rest of the day eating and buying souvenirs, not the least of which was some Swiss chocolate. This was our last full day together which made us all pretty sad. We had a good party that night though. it was one of the best nights of my life!

The next day was hard, it was time to say goodbye. We only spent two weeks together but at the end of it we really did feel like a family. I feel like I know everyone who was on that bus so well, even if I don’t really know them at all. It was an incredible amazing experience and all I can say is that it was “Trop Bien.”