Germany and France

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Hello Everyone!!

So I wasn't too successful in keeping up with my blogs, lol. I guess I was too busy sightseeing, partying and having fun. I also found it difficult to get used to all the different keyboards in each country, haha. I have finally become familiar with the French keyboard so I decided to give it a go.

So the last time I wrote I was in Greece, beautiful Greece. My last destination in Greece was Santorini and I was supposed to leave Santorini on the 22nd of September to head to Crete and catch a flight from Crete to Munich. However, apparently Greece gets really windy in September and the day that I was supposed to catch a ferry over to Crete, all the ferries were cancelled!! So I was stuck on Santorini for an extra two days!! What a life eh? lol! I ended up catching a flight directly from Santorini to Munich on the 24th.

I arrived in Munich early on the 24th and met up with some backpackers that I had met in Interlaken. They're really nice guys from San Francisco and one of them happened to have a time share with the Hilton!! So that night I stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Munich!

As for Oktoberfest, it is the biggest international party that I have ever been to!! It is absolutely incredible!! Basically this large paved area in Munich becomes a fair ground with these large buildings that everyone calls "tents". Inside these "tents" a copious amount of beer is served to hundreds or thousands of people who are drinking, eating, and singing along with the live German band!! It is amazing!! Each "tent" serves a different type of beer, some beer is served in 1/2 pint glasses, and others are served in 1 litre steins!! Guess which one I drank? lol!! For those of you who aren't aware, before I left for Europe, I absolutely hated beer. You would have to pay me a lot of money to drink a bottle of beer. By the time Oktoberfest was over, I had drank about 6 litres of beer over a period of 3 days 😊. I know that's not much to a lot of you, but keep in mind my size and the fact that I hated beer. I have now acquired the taste of beer and I can drink it without making a sour face, lol.

After 3 nights at Oktoberfest, I was ready to move on and visit my friend in a little town called Worms which is located on the Rhine River. From Worms, we visited Heidelberg and a beautiful little town called St. Goar where I got to be a kid again by exploring and climbing all over the ruins of a castle. The castle even had dark tunnels that you could walk through! Let me just say that it would be the perfect place for a game of hide and go seek or manhunt. I think I should organize an outing there, lol.

After getting some rest in Worms, I went to Frankfurt for the night and met up with Huw, a Kiwi backpacker I had met in Corfu, Greece. We partied for a night in Frankfurt before heading to Hamburg. Hamburg is situated in the North of Germany and people rave how beautiful of a city it is. However, when I was talking to these people, backpackers and Germans included, they never mentioned that Hamburg has the largest red light district in Europe, lol!!! Definitely a surprise! But everyone was right about Hamburg being a beautiful city, even with the red light district.

From Hamburg, Huw and I travelled to Cologne, which is also a pretty city. The famous Dhome (cathedral) is absolutely amazing!! I spent an hour just looking at the church from the outside. I love gothic style churches, so much work and effort is put into the detail of the architecture, incredible!!

Currently I am in St. Claude with my family. St. Claude is a tiny village in the mountains of France, it is an hour away from Geneva and a couple of hours away from Lyon. I am having a blast playing with all my little cousins and visiting my older cousins and aunt and uncle. On Tuesday I will be heading to Lyon to stay with another cousin for a night before flying to Italy to visit my other aunt and uncle in the south of Italy.

So my backpacking days are now over and I will be heading back to Canada on December 10th. I will try and write once more before I head back, but I don't think my aunt and uncle in Italy have internet, so we shall see. I hope you guys have enoyed my blogs. Sorry there weren't more of them. I have many more stories and about 10,000 pictures (I'm not exaggerating either) so if you want to hear the stories or see some pics, give me a ring or send me an email for when I return because I would love to see all of you!!!

I hope you are all well and enjoying life. I hope to see and talk to all of you soon!!!

Ah bientot!

Val

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