After arriving in Paris from Amsterdam on the night train I took by myself. O have no fear it was not an overnight train, but it was kind of strange traveling alone. Michelle was supposed to go with me, but when I reserved my ticket it cost me 70-something franc for some reason I cannot remember. O wait! It was because all of the seats reserved for eurail were booked so I had to purchase an actual ticket which was a huge bummer. O well. Anyway that is not the point of this tale. Please allow me to continue. When I [View Full Entry]

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For the second week break we traveled to various regions in the Northern area of Western Europe. Stop one was Amsterdam. I was only there for 12 hours because I had to catch a train to go get Meagan in Paris. It was still a lot of fun though. The way there was very interesting. There was a train accident on our way to Zurich for our connection, so we had to take a bus to another train station to get to Zurich and catch our overnighter to Amsterdam. When we got on the overnight train we went to the wrong [View Full Entry]

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Yes I went to Monaco, the place where the enviable Princess Grace dwelled and reigned. What a lucky woman! It was here that we actually went to the beach. Allow me to relate that tale briefly. We woke up in Nice and ate a 6 euro breakfast (we were tricked) and then hopped on a train to our final destination. One problem...there were no seats. Natalie, Monica and I stood the whole way, which was only about twenty minutes, but still. We had our backpacks with us too which made it even worse. O well. Once we arrived we reserved our [View Full Entry]

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This was such a marvelous adventure. I had a great time with Monica and Natalie. We got to relax a lot. On the train up we met two elderly history professors from Paris. They were very nice and once had been to Virginia a few times, once for two months! How random is that? The only stressful part of this trip was trying to find our hotel! We got lost in what I can only assume to be the Chinatown of Nice. The first thing we saw when we got out of the train station and on our way was a [View Full Entry]

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What can I say about Rome? It is the most beautiful ancient city in the world. I loved it. We found our hotel easy enough. Then we decided we could go see the Trevi Fountain. That took forever but we eventually found it after finding the Triton fountain first. It was breath taking. Such a romantic spot. Pop you should take Mom there one day. You're supposed to throw a coin in it over your left shoulder, or is it your right? Anyway...it symbolizes that you will one day return to Rome. I would like to one day. I was a [View Full Entry]

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Where do I begin? Prague is beautiful! We arrived at about 11 p.m. The main station is the sketchiest place on this planet. There's all sorts of strange people hanging out. There were some that had a dog and they kept pulling it's tail. I felt like I was in some sort of twisted circus. Everything looked and felt distorted. It was weird. Rick Steve's warned us about pick pocketers in Prague so needless to say I was a little sketched out about that too. We had to take a metro to our hostel but after that the directions stopped. We [View Full Entry]

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What an interesting trip this has been! Since I've been here I have had Turkish food (delish!), goulash (delish!), and some form of Hungarian food (delish!). So...the gist is that Hungarian food is amazing but everything else is just plain interestin'. Yesterday we slept in a bit and then went on to the Synagogue. Budapest is home to the worlds largest synagogue supposedly. While inside I sat down where everyone else was for a bit and looked around. All of a sudden some woman said we were very rude for sitting in on her tour when other people paid for it. [View Full Entry]

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Quote of the trip: "What would Rick Steves do?" - Raleigh lives by the word of Rick Steves, travel advice conoseiur. Whenever we have an issue we consult Rick Steves. Too bad he didn't have anything on Budapest. Where were ya on that one Rick?! What an ordeal! This week I lost 2 corks! The one Antonio gave me fell off in Vienna :'( and then Natalie gave me one to make up for it and that one fell off too! Can't win. Since we've been here we took a taxi to the sketchiest hole in the wall of a hostel. [View Full Entry]

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What an adventure this had been! Where do I begin? The beginning I suppose...The sleeper car train lost power in our car over night, so when we awoke we were freezing. We got to our hostel easy enough. It was nice, Westend Hostel. We had our own bathroom. It was sweet, but it didn't have any handsoap. We took a brief nap at the hostel and then went on an adventure to find the Opera House. Emily Raleigh and all them asked this man in the street wearing a theatre looking cape about standing tickets for the opera. I said I'm [View Full Entry]

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Todays events were as follows: We got up early and I wasn't feeling too good. I got yelled at last night by some Venetian jerk because I didn't want him to talk to me and was apparently "rude" and used a few swear words. He told me to go back to my country. I had never felt so belittled in all my life. Now I know how minorities in America feel when we shout that at them. It's terrible. Looking back on it I probably was rude but I don't care. I don't like sketch Italian men trying to talk to [View Full Entry]

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