I need to catch up here! This journal is the only way that I am keeping track of what day it is! It's about 5:35pm and I am sitting in our little cabin listening to the birds chirp. I've heard some people bitch a lot about the accomodations and contiki tours and I wish that they would just get over themselves! This is an awesome trip! Anyways, back to the Tuscan meal in Florence. There were so many courses! One free (or included, would be the most accurate) bottle of wine amongst the four of us. We started with small pieces [View Full Entry]

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I have to back track a little. Florence was really beautiful and had way more more interesting history than I realized! In the morning we drove into Florence and walked from the coach to a leather and jewellery making place. The Italian guide was so funny. He eplained to us how they make leather jewellery boxes and how to tell if its real leather or not. Then we had the opportunity to buy. I got a leather wallet for my brother and it was free to get initials engraved in gold so I got that done too. I'm proud of that [View Full Entry]

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Tonight I am in a campsite near Florence, Italy. The cabins here are like big motorhomes. There are 2 bedrooms, a real bathroom, and inbetween is a seating area. Very nice! So we left Venice this morning. Breakfast was good. They make awesome sandwhiches here with melted cheese and ham on baguettes. So good! I think I will miss them. The bread like this always seems so dry at home. It was so warm this morning. It was great getting on the bus- I mean coach! Air conditioning...ahhh. :) You can hear everyone singing Summer of 69 at the bar right [View Full Entry]

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I was in Venice today! It was gorgeous- my favourite so far I think. It's been the most different place so far. We took a boat from the Fusina campsite into Venice. Then we walked to St Marks Square. On our way we seen the Bridge of Sighs. I finally got to see it! It was so cool being there at 9:00 in the morning when not many people are in the square. We had to wait a little bit before we could go to the lace making school. I bought a tablecloth for my grandma there. Everything was beautiful! I [View Full Entry]

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Ok, tonight I am in VENICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, I need to finish writing about yesterday. Nice WAS nice! It was hard to find washrooms though. We ate in a sandwhich shop for lunch. I had a baguette with ham and cheese. Totally diggin' the whole sandwhiches on french bread. We finally found a toilette in a department store. I spent .50euro to use it. But the feeling was worth it! Those Europeans are smart charging people to use the washroom. Then we went and sat in a park near some cool water fountains. For some reason, on our trip so far no [View Full Entry]

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The French Riviera is gorgeous! So many huge hills with jam packed homes. We went up some windy roads and had some awesome views! The best so far. It definately is the most scenic part of the trip. When Simon and Mecha has told us it would be I had wondered what would be so special and now I know. It's also right along the ocean, which was amazing to see! Its hard to get a really good picture out of the coach window while we are driving. I wish I could show everyone at home how it looks! The day [View Full Entry]

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I feel better today- emotionally. Physically my ankles are still swollen and my knee also feels swollen and stiff. Hopefully that gets better. This morning we were up at 6:15am. Ate breafkast, picked up our clean laundry (12 euros for a little Spanish lady to wash and dry a bag of your clothes), and left the campsite at 8:15am. It was a long driving day to the French Riviera. I slept a bit on the coach. We stopped four times, once in a cute town called Arles. We usually stop at gas stations off the side of the highway (I'm sure [View Full Entry]

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My second and last night in Spain. It's been good. I like this campsite. The rooms are big, the bed doesn't squeek, there are lots of showers, and they are hot! Plus there is the internet. I love reading the emails and admittedly right now I am missing home. I think mostly because so far I have not really bonded with anyone on this trip. Anyways, the day started at 6:30 when we woke up. We were off pretty early. Simon and Mecha took us on a quick bust tour of Barcelona. We got to hop off and take some photos. [View Full Entry]

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Ok so I missed a couple of days and am on my way to Spain, so I'll backtrack... The Chateau was awesome!! We were in the heart of the beaujolais wine region. So so gorgeous!! It's an endless see of rolling green hills. The Chateau is from the 15th century, give or take a century. Right out the front door is a place to lounge, with a view of the countryside and a fenced in pool (which people jumped into the first night). It's like a big dorm, even though...I've never actually been in a dorm lol. The bathrooms and showers [View Full Entry]

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Today was a busy, awesome, tiring, amazing day. I got dropped off at the Arc D' Triumph. We didn't actually check it out. We walked up Champs d' Elysse (sp?) which has MAJOR shopping. I bought an Eeyore pillow from the Disney store and we went into the Louis Vaton store (I have no idea what the big deal is) as well as Sephora (love that place but prices were more than Canada so I'll get it there). Then we walked all along the way to Notre Dam. I'm not sure how far it is, but it took us all afternoon. [View Full Entry]

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