J'aime Paris ! Our drive to Paris from Lucerne was a long one. And everyone was starting to realize that this was the end of the trip. It's really insane how close you get to some of the people and it was really strange to think that we all just met 3 weeks before. It felt like some of them had been my best friends forever. I guess when you are in the kind of situation we were in, spending time together 18 hours a day for 21 days straight, it's normal. But I didn't want to think about leaving, so [View Full Entry]

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Mountains and Chocolate and a place to finally relax! The drive from Florence to Lucerne was long, but beautiful once we got into Switzerland. I think I counted at least 9 waterfalls- and that was when I was looking for them for about an hour. One word to describe Switzerland- AMAZING! It was so beautiful! It was so nice to be in Lucerne, after 6 crazy long days in Itlay. Lucerne is a relatively small city on Lake Lucerne and it surrounded by the Swiss Alps. You couldn't ask for better scenery and the weather was gorgeous while we were [View Full Entry]

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Florence...land of the Renaissance Man Florence...I've been told, was a great place. So, I was really looking forward to visiting. Got into Florence with a stop at the leaning tower of Pisa and I made sure to take a pic holding up the tower. Corny, but you gotta have it. We did a little exploring in the city that night, ate some dinner, and headed to a bar called the Red Garter for some good, old-fashioned kareoke. The next morning we had an early start. We drove into the center of the city near Piazza Santa Croce. The church in [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to the land of ANCIENT history! After Venice we headed to Rome which was an amazing city mostly because of the fact that 2,000 year old ancient ruins are splat in the middle of a modern city in random places all around. It's crazy to think about really. The night we arrived we went on a walking tour of the city to get our bearings. Chad took us by the Colloseum, Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, part of the Imperial Forum, and countless other ancient Roman ruin things that I can't particularly remember. Well, the Pantheon was by far my favorite [View Full Entry]

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Venezia- it's sinking! On the drive from Munich to Venice we made a quick stop in the Austrian Tyrol for some whitewater rafting. It was so much fun! The only bad part about it was the fact that I had to put on a wetsuit, which is just a tramatizing thought! Being from Florida you never have to swim in a wetsuit since the water is always warm. But in the Alps the water tempurature was a chilly 44 degrees and I guess in the end I was happy to have it on. We were forced to jump in once or [View Full Entry]

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Back in Deutchland- Munchen style! On the way to munich we stopped at Dachau Concentration Camp-the first concentration camp. Supposedly there were no mass killings at this camp, but it was set up to happen. Some groups of people were killed here though. As I walked through the camp it was hard to believe that something like this had happened to people in our world. It's even harder to think that it's still happening in some places. The walk through the cremetorium was very eerie and surreal. Even though there were people all around it was completely silent, everyone lost [View Full Entry]

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No fireworks in Prague :( Woke up bright and early after night 2 in Berlin to blaze the trail to the Czech Republic via a stop in Dresden, Germany- a little mideval town with crazy baroque style churches and buildings. It was July 4th so I made sure I wore my red, white, and blue. I didn't care that there was only 7 other Americans around me- I have patriotism for my country! Needless to say, I was glad we were headed to Prague rather than Paris... Got into Prague or Praha as the Czechs call it in the early evening. [View Full Entry]

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Ich bin ein Berliner! We had a long drive to Berlin and got in around 5 or 6 in rainy weather. We stopped for a little bit at a part of the Berlin Wall that is still intact and took some pictures and walked around. When we got to the hotel we (the girls-Michelle x 2, Monique, Courtney, Siobhan, and me) decided to stay in since we had had 2 long nights in Amsterdam, not to mention it was also crappy,rainy, and cold. After dinner we headed to the bar at the hotel where I thought it would be a good [View Full Entry]

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Bikes, cheese, and clogs...oh my! I started my day just like everybody else...hungover and tired. We jumped in the coach for a short drive to Edam, a little town just outside of Amsterdam, for a bike ride. In Amsterdam, and I guess Holland in general, everyone rides bikes all over the place. You should see the bike parking garage in the city. It literally was stories high and packed with thousands of bikes. Cars and pedestrians have to yield to the bikes! In Edam we clambered on our "granny bikes" which were just like beach cruisers. Our bike guide lady talked [View Full Entry]

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I AMsterdam Left EARLY from London and loaded the coach to catch the ferry at Dover to Calais, France. Met our wonderful tour guide, Chad, and driver, Jarrod. They were the BEST we could ask for! It was pretty foggy so we couldn't even see the white cliffs of Dover. Don't feel too bad for me though, because 3 weeks later on our return we did get to see them. Sat with Antony on the first bus trip and then sat through a lot "this is me" talks from everyone one the bus and then did some "speed dating" aroudn the [View Full Entry]

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