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[tannomad]

Wanderlust

2016 brought me wanderlust. It was the first year I solo travelled outside of the United States and I loved every second of it. I spent almost a month bussing through different cities in Western Europe, a month in the Northern Territory and east coast of Australia, and a few weeks checking out both islands of New Zealand. I hope 2017 brings many more adventures.

[tannomad]

This morning we left Switzerland and headed over the border into Germany we first stopped at the university town of Heidelberg where we got to see a medieval castle, grab some lunch, and check out a beautiful Baroque Church. We didn’t have much time there so My friends and I quickly stopped by Subway and got ourselves a sandwich. Then we just wanted to walk around a little bit so we walked to a candy store that our tour guide has pointed out and recommended. By the time we got there it, was pretty much time to walk back to the bus and we didn't want to be late. When we got back to the bus there were only like half of us there and people slowly started to pile in, but we ended up almost leaving a couple.

After leaving Heidelberg we were on a beautiful drive following the Rhine River. We weaved through valleys with beautiful castles and vineyards spotted here and there. Not only was a drive beautiful, but it was also very interesting to hear about all the history that came from each part we drove passed. At one point we drove past this big cliff and our tour guide asked if any of us have ever heard about this cliff or knew what happened there. Nobody knew, but, being the loudmouth that I am, I kind of just blurted out that somebody had killed themselves. At first people thought that I knew what I was talking about, but when they looked back at me they could tell that I didn't really mean to say it out loud so quick and it kind of just came out. It got kind of awkward friend second after that. Then our tour guide started telling us a story about how a woman had actually committed suicide by jumping off of the cliff. The cliff is called Lorelei Rock, and there are many different stories of how it got its name or Lorelei herself jumped to her death.

Eventually we made it to the pretty, old world village of St. Goar. We were all pretty hungry by this time, so we immediately had dinner. Then, since St. Goar is located in a region popular for producing wine, we knew we wanted to stop somewhere for a wine tasting. Our guide took us to a candlelit underground cellar where we got to learn about and try many different kinds of local wine. A few of the people sitting around me didn't feel like drinking so they were letting me drink their extra wine, it was awesome. One of the kinds of wine that we got to try was called ice wine. It was higher alcohol percentage and more expensive than regular wine, but it was so delicious. I definitely would have bought a bottle, but there was not enough room in my luggage.

By the time we walked out of that cellar, a few people where feeling pretty tipsy, which made the rest of the night that much more fun and relaxed. One of the older women on the trip wasn't a big drinker and the a few glasses of wine that we had made her drunk. She didn't speak the best English because she was a South Korean native but she was really nice and really funny. This night she happened to be particularly funny because of the alcohol, she was laughing at everything and telling us that she couldn't feel her lips or her fingertips. We kind of just had free time to hang out and explore whatever we wanted, the village really wasn't that big so we pretty much all stuck together.

First, we went to shop for some Birkenstocks because they originated in Germany. We stopped by this one Birkenstock shop, and they had so many different styles. The Birkenstocks here were way cheaper than what they cost in the U.S. so I knew I wanted a pair, I just didn't know which one. After having the women who worked at the store bring out many different pairs for me to try on, I chose the ones I wanted and I love them. I was starting to feel the alcohol from the wine tasting and I already know that when I have a little bit of alcohol in my system and I go shopping that I am much more willing to make certain purchases. I decided to go into a little souvenir store and I bought some things for some friends that I probably didn’t need to buy.

After walking down through the town little more, our tour guide let us know that this was a cool village to buy a beer stein because this village is famous for hand making them. One of the beer sign shops we went in was awesome and they had so many different types with different pictures, words, or drawings on them. I decided to buy a beer Stein that said Contiki European Escapade on it and showed almost every location that we went to during our tour. After walking around for a bit it was almost time for the sunset so we walked over to the river and sat on these steps right along the river just hanging out, talking and, watching the sunset together. We got to hang out there and relax for about an hour until we piled back on the bus to head to our accommodation for the evening.

Our accommodation is pretty cool. It is a small hotel, but we are all pretty spread out and it seems like the people in our group are the only people in the hotel. Since we are in such a small village, there isn't really much partying to do so most people just stayed in tonight and got a good nights rest before heading into the Netherlands tomorrow. I ended up going to one of my friend’s rooms and a few of us just kind of had a venting session, talking shit about the annoying people in our group... I mean we have been in such tight quarters with random strangers for 23 days so we were bound to get sick of some. Even if some people are starting to get on my nerves, I am so excited for the last few days of tour and I just know that Amsterdam is going to be such a good time.

[tannomad]

Today we went to Jungfrau Mountain in Switzerland. It was a pretty rough morning because I was super super hung over, like dying hungover. I legitimately looked green, my face had never been such a weird color. We were up in higher altitude so I already felt a little more dehydrated a little more sick than usual for the altitude and then add on the hangover. We had to walk from our chalet in Interlaken to our first train, which we took 6762 feet up the mountain. I felt like so bad that at one point I even had to puke out the window of the train because I just couldn't hold it. While we were getting higher and higher up in attitude I could just tell that I was feeling worse.

Even though I was not feeling good, the scenery of the Alps was amazing while you're going up the mountain it was so beautiful one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. Then we had to get on another train to go up to the top of the mountain at over 11,000 feet up, and called the “Top of Europe”. This train didn't have windows that could open so there was no way to get fresh air. A couple of other people had been feeling sick on the train as well so we all sat in our own cubby together, kind of just like the sick person cubby, and it was gross. Since the second train ride was inside the mountain we hadn't really gotten a chance to see what it was going to look like when we got to the top. 

As soon as we got there I needed fresh air so I just walked out by myself and, even though I was mainly focused on taking a nice fresh breath of the icy air, I was in all of the beauty of the top of the mountain. It was so cool how we had just been in hot weather a few days before and then we were up at the highest point in Europe where it was covered in snow. There were other Contiki groups up there and other random tourists doing stuff like snowboarding, having snowball fights, sledding, and trekking up to viewpoints. All I did was find a good chair to sit in. 

I was right by where everyone was snowboarding and sledding so I just sat in the chair for pretty much the entire day and watched everybody else in my group. Everyone was having fun and then they’d come over and hang out with me sometimes. Even though i felt shitty and didn't really get to do any of the activities, I still had a good day because it felt so good up there. It was a cold temperature, but the sun was so radiant above the clouds. We stayed up on top of the mountain until the late afternoon and I didn't feel good the entire time, until we got back on the train and started going down the mountain to the lower altitude.

By the time we got back to the chalet I felt pretty much fine and I knew that the altitude had intensified the effects of my excessive drinking the night before. We had some time to shower and hang out a little bit and then we all met up for dinner. We had a party later that night in the bar with us and another Contiki group. I was not in any shape to drink so I hung out with everybody in the hallway all day like pre-drink before the party and it was fun we are playing games in as participating just without drinking. When it was time to go down to the bar I went at first and it was all right, but I was tired so I was ready to just go to sleep.

I decided to go back up to my room and just watch a movie on my iPad until I fell sleep. I ended up not being able to go to sleep right away and then I heard some commotion in the hallway so I went outside to check it out. It was just some of my drunk friends in the hallway making noise so I hung out with them for a little and my friend Amanda was sloppy drunk. She was flirting with this boy, but she had these two girls Rebecca and Christine taking care of her and they were really responsible girls. After trying to get her to drink some water, I decided that she was going to be okay so I went back to my room and fell asleep.

[tannomad]

We left Hopfgarten, Austria yesterday morning and headed into Switzerland passing through Liechtenstein on the way. I was sad to leave little Hopfgarten because I loved that place, but most of us were pretty hungover so most of the bus was asleep for a lot of the early morning ride. For lunch we were stopping in the little country of Liechtenstein, located on the Austria-Switzerland border. The country is only 62 square miles and you can drive right through it in under an hour. It is one of only two countries in the world that is double land-locked, meaning the country doesn’t touch the ocean and neither do its bordering countries. When we got off the bus, lunch was up to us and the country was kind of an expensive place so a few of us decided to stop at this little fast food Chinese food restaurant. Before getting back on the bus we went to the bathroom and it was definitely the most expensive toilets we had to use yet. 

Now we headed into Switzerland and everyone was feeling much better than we all had been in the morning. We were having fun, chatting, and moving around the bus keeping ourselves entertained. The views were beautiful and we were all ready to get out and explore some of Switzerland. Our first stop was in Lucerne, an alpine-town where we walked across gorgeous wooden bridges and through cobblestone streets. Walking around the city, we first stopped to get some Swiss francs because they use a different currency than the rest of Europe. The city had such a good atmosphere. Our group would periodically stop to check out some genuine Swiss chocolates and buy other souvenirs. We even got a tour of a Victorinox store where they have genuine Swiss Army knives and Swiss watches. I ended up buying a limited-edition knife that was gold and especially made for the 2016 olympics in Rio. After everyone had done all their shopping and gotten their chocolate fix in, we were back on the road on the way to Lauterbrunnen.

The drive was incredible! With the alps towering on either side of us and roaring waterfalls appearing randomly, everyone was in awe looking out the windows of the bus. We would even wake people up periodically so they wouldn’t miss the beauty, which waking each other up was something we usually tried our best not to do. Climbing up to the high altitude of Lauterbrunnen we began to see more and more snow covering the summits of the mountains. I could only imagine was the landscape looks like during the winter. The whole drive was a fun experience, especially since some of the Australians had never seen snow in real life before. We arrived at our accommodation in the scenic village, which was a Swiss Chalet owned and operated by Contiki. It was located right on a river and each room had beautiful views of the surrounding area. We were all pretty hungry when we arrived so we immediately had dinner. The wasn’t anything planned for that night, but there was a bar in the basement of our hotel so we knew that some of us would be making our way down there.

We started drinking together in our rooms and then we decided to go explore in the dark a little bit. There were many waterfalls cascading from the cliffs around our accommodation, but one of the biggest ones was right next to us and had a spotlight on it at night. We walked toward it and we found a trail that would take us up into the mountain so we could go up and be under the waterfall. At first I was skeptical, as we had been drinking and there were signs for falling rocks, but I decided to go with the majority and head up. It was a little scary through some of the tunnels, but once we got up to the opening where we could see out through the waterfall down at the village I was glad I had gone up. We went back down and continued drinking at the chalet even though our guide had warned us not to drink too much because we were going to even higher altitude the next day.

A bunch of us did end up at the bar in the basement and I got pretty drunk. The bar was a pretty good time because everyone staying at the chalet was part of a Contiki group meaning there were probably around 150-200 people staying there all between the ages of 18 and 35. I remember dancing with a guy from another group and then the rest of the night was interesting. In the middle of the night that night I woke up in a drunken stupor and accidentally peed on the floor of my room thinking I was in the bathroom or something. One of my roommates kind of woke me up or whatever mid pee and I went to the bathroom to finish the rest. When I got in there somebody from my group had been puking and he had used the sink instead of a toilet so it was full of vomit. When I got back to my room my roommates were not happy, but they were surprisingly understanding.

[tannomad]

We woke up early yesterday morning in Hopfgarten, Austria to some cloudy weather, which worried us a bit because we had paragliding planned for the afternoon. The cloudy weather actually ended up being a blessing in disguise by keeping the weather cool during our morning mountain bike ride. We headed out soon after we had breakfast with our raincoats on ready to go. The trail was mostly paved or compacted dirt, but the first half was all uphill and more uphill and then we expected. By the time we took our first break practically everyone had their jackets off and some people even turned back, deciding the rest of the journey would be too hard for them. As we made our way up the mountain we biked past beautiful landscapes. Along certain stretches of the path there were little cottages covered in gorgeous flowers, but there was pretty much no one else in sight aside from our group. When we had made it up to our highest point we were all sweaty, out of breath, and excited for the downhill portion.

On the way up we had all been kind of staying together and taking breaks as a group, but majority of the descent was every man on their own. Since the downhill was so steep it was all braking all the time, which led to some people flying down the mountain while others enjoyed the views and smelled the flowers. We all agreed to meet at about the halfway point and once everyone in the group had made it we took some photos to capture the memory. By this time we had all worked up an appetite and our guides told us that lunch would be ready for us when we got to the bottom so some people shot off. I meandered my way down enjoying the rest of the fresh air blowing in my face. With the weather clearing up, this day was looking to be one of the most beautiful yet. During our BBQ lunch the clouds had started to clear and the first people began departing for their paragliding excursion. No one in our group had really ever done any kind of bungee jumping, skydiving, or paragliding activities before so all of us were a little nervous, but mostly excited. This was our big adrenaline-filled activity on the trip that we had been waiting for. Before some of us had been shuttled from our accommodation, others were being shuttled back and they couldn’t stop smiling. Everyone was loving it, which made me even more excited.

While being shuttled up the mountain I was more nervous about the small roads than I was about the paragliding, but there were two girls in our van who were psyching themselves out. We were all laughing at them and they were laughing at themselves as well, but when we got our of the van and looked at the gondola to take us even higher up the mountain it got real. I could feel my adrenaline pumping and I couldn’t wait to go. There were a bunch of people from our group in the air paragliding above us and we got to watch people’s landings to see how things are done. We waited for our instructors to suit us up and pull us into a gondola one-by-one. During the gondola ride, the views were stunning and I was so ready to be flying in the air over these beautiful Austrian mountains. When we got out of the gondola my instructor was explaining how we were going to take off by having me just start running with him attached to my back and to just run until I don’t feel the ground under my feet anymore. Running with him attached to me actually wasn’t that hard, but as we went forward and he pulled the parachute up the feeling was surreal. As I ran down the top of the mountain we were slowly picked up and all of the sudden we were flying.

The experience of being in the air was so cool and I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time. My instructor was able to control where we were going by two different cords that steered us left or right. Since he also had some GoPro footage to get, he let me control the paraglide for a little bit and that was when I actually felt the most scared. It was an awesome feeling being able to direct myself, but I didn’t want to due something wrong. While we were flying, the instructor asked me if I was scared or if I wanted to have some more fun and I told him the latter so he said it was time for the rollercoaster. I didn’t really have time to be nervous about it because he pulled one of his cords really hard and we took a sharp turn. He did this a few more times left and right, then pulling one cord even harder he had us corkscrew down towards the ground, heir go the rollercoaster name. The feeling was incredible and I was honestly surprised that I was not scared at all, as we got lower an d lower to the ground we got out of the corkscrew and landed smoothly on our butts in the soft grass. As I got unattached from the parachute, everyone was cheering for me and I ran over to them so we could all talk about how incredible it was.

It was only about the middle of the afternoon by now, but I felt like I had already done so much. When I got back to our accommodation I knew I needed cash so I took my bike and rode into the town. I found a bank, which was right next to a grocery store so I decided to get a bottle of vodka since we were having a party that night. This little extra bit of biking to town and back really wiped me out and when I found out that many people had gone to swim at this little waterpark I had no energy to bike there myself so I decided to rest a little before our crazy night. I woke up in time to shower before dinner, which I am so glad I did because everyone rushed through dinner and immediately got the pre-party started. That night our accommodation was having a tight, white, and bright party so we were supposed to wear something in that category. We heard that there were neon body markers at the bar so a few of our group members decided to buy some and we went to down. Most of us started to draw little lines on our face and arms, but as we started to get tipsier we started drawing more. When it was actually time to go to the party many of us weren’t even wearing shirts and just had neon marker drawings all over our bodies.

The party was really fun and pretty crowded so I spent a lot of the night on the back patio as to not be completely covered in sweat,which didn’t work because all of my neon drawings were gone within an hour. There were games and contests going on all night, and at one point there was a competition on the stripper pole that was in the middle of the dance floor. The MC was asking for one guy and one girl to compete. One girl went up immediately and knew she wanted to take part, but it wasn’t the same for the guys. I had never been on a stripper pole before I came to Europe, but throughout our trip I had already shown off my skills once or twice. Since no guys were going up, my entire group started chanting my name and pushing me up to the stage. It looked like I was going to compete.

The girl went first and she wasn’t that good on the pole, but she ended up taking most of her clothes off and showed everyone her boobs at one point. I didn’t know how I was going to beat that, but I got my sweaty ass up on the pole. Since I already had my shirt off all I could do was take my shorts off so I was just in underwear giving the people in this bar a show. The pole got too sweaty so I began just dancing on stage in front of the crowd, but there were girls in the front row trying to take my underwear off so that I would be completely naked. I was holding on with just hand as hard as I could while dancing and then luckily my time was over. The girl ended up winning, but when I asked the judge he said that no girl had even shown her chest before so she had to win. Once I collected my shorts, I realized that the girls had ripped a giant whole in the front of my underwear and I definitely almost showed my junk to everyone.

The rest of the night was pretty chill. I had a random guy come up to me and kiss me and then I drunkenly kissed a girl from my group for a second before we both realized how wasted we were. By the end of the night, most of the people in our accommodation had gone to bed, but I wasn’t tired enough yet so I was listening to some music in the hallway and drinking water. My friend Holly walked by me as she was one of the last to leave the party and I told her I was having a silent disco. She started cracking up and then I put my beats headphones on her and she started dancing all crazy. It was really funny, but probably only because of how much we had to drink.

[tannomad]

Today we left Munich, Germany and made our way toward a small Austrian mountain village called Hopfgarten. We had a few activities to do throughout the day starting with a visit to Dachau concentration camp, the first of the Nazi concentration camps that opened in Germany where 32,000 documented deaths occurred. At the beginning of the bus ride I spent some time sleeping because I was hungover from the night before, but once our tour manager started talking about the history of Dachau and the holocaust I knew I wanted to hear every word. I have learned about the events that took place during this period of time, but I knew that actually being where so many people had been kept, tortured, and killed was going to be an experience unlike anything I’d felt before. I started getting emotional before we were even at the concentration camp so when we arrived I thought it would be best for me to walk around by myself.

From as soon I entered in the gates I was lost in history just imagining the way things must have looked like and been back when the camp was in use. I first walked through the part of the camp that had been turned into a museum and read about events that took place at the camp, people who worked at the camp, people who were held at the camp, and many other interesting historical facts. I was in tears for most of it, and even felt overwhelmed at times. After that I walked around where people used to sleep and learned about how many people would be crammed into each room. Walking around the grounds I took extra notice in all the guard towers and barbed wire around the outside and I thought about what someone who wasn’t allowed to leave might think when looking outside the gates. I then went to a place in the camp where some Jewish people were allowed to go worship while being held. This was also very emotional for me, and I thought about what types of things used to be prayed about at this spot. I decided not to go into the gas chambers because I thought that might have been too much for me to handle and I didn’t think I needed to see them.

I ended up having to hurry back to the bus with a few people because we had stayed inside a little too long. When I got back to the bus I had calmed down a little bit and stopped sobbing, but as I sat in the bus looking out the window I began to cry again. I couldn’t stop. The people around me were trying to comfort me, but I knew that I just needed to cry about this because I was sad about it and I wasn’t going to stop being sad anytime soon. I went up the bus and sat on the ground next to Ally and Amanda who helped comfort me a little bit. I still hadn’t stopped crying so Ally moved out of the row so I could sit next to Amanda and listen to music with her. She played Ave Maria by Beyonce, which I love, and then we both started crying. We listened to that song a few times and then both of us felt better. After that I went up and talked to my tour manager because she was worried about me, but I was feeling much better by that point. Now that we had gotten the saddest, but probably most important, activity of the trip out of the way it was time to do one that ended up being one of the most fun. 

Leaving Germany, we drove through the Austrian Tyrol’s massive mountains. They were covered in greenery with beautiful lakes and rivers all around. From what we were seeing during the bus ride, we knew that whitewater rafting in these mountains was going to be amazing. I had been whitewater rafting before, but only once and I was so excited to do this with my new friends. The first thing when getting to our stop was to pick who was going to go in each boat. On the boat with me was Feliz, Amanda, Ally, Tom, Sarah, and Holly plus our very French guide. We all needed to get wetsuits, helmets, and like jackets then we took a bunch of photos before heading down towards the water. The water was freezing, but it felt pretty good when we were in our wetsuits. Right away when we began, I knew our group was going to be a lot of fun. The guide had a thick French accent that we all loved so every time she ever gave a command at least one of us would start laughing. Even after we were done it was an inside joke to say, “Forward!” or “Get in da boat!” We probably weren’t the best listeners, but we were smiling and laughing the entire time. The river wasn’t too rough so the rafting itself was pretty easy and the scenery was beautiful. Our guide let us jump in the water at every chance we got and she even wanted us to flip the boat, but her supervisor wouldn’t let her. 

The sun was out the entire time so after we got off the boats and out of our cold wetsuits it felt amazing outside. Just in case we weren’t warm enough, they had homemade goulash and other warm food items available for sale. I enjoyed a delicious lunch and a Bavarian beer before getting back on the bus. We had heard good things about our accommodation in Hopfgarten so we were all excited to get there. We would be spending two nights in an Austrian Ghastof that Contiki owned so we would be sharing with other Contiki groups and would have an on-site team of employees there to help us. When we got to the Ghastof all of our rooms were pretty close to each other with guys on one floor and then the girls on the floor above us. Most rooms included a shower or balcony, but ours was the only one with just a sink. The bathroom we had to use to shower was the communal bathroom for guys and girls so we were going to have to wear swimsuits in order to bathe unless we wanted to give everyone a show.

We got settled in then went down to the bar to grab some drinks and get on the wifi before it was time for dinner. The on-site team made us a delicious dinner and then we had a free night to do whatever we wanted. After dinner I walked into town with Ally, Amanda, and Liam to get some cash out from the ATM because the bar in our ghastof was cash only. That night was fun in the bar and we all got pretty drunk. I remember giving Amanda a lap dance up by our rooms and she claims I almost fell out the window, but I don’t think I did. None of us were too wasted because we had some physical activities planned for the next day.

[tannomad]

Today we drove to Munich, and arrived by early afternoon. Our hotel was basic, but it had a pizza vending machine, which was cool and funky. We pretty much just dropped off our stuff in our rooms and then met back up to go on a bike tour of the city. Our tour was with a group called Mike’s Bikes, and it was a blast. First the guides made sure that everyone who wanted to participate actually knew how to ride a bike so a fe people who weren’t very confident decided to do a little test before we hit the busy streets. Only one person failed the test so she stayed behind with the few others who didn’t want to join. We split off into two groups of about twenty and got told some safety tips. Our guide was American and since I had been wearing my University of Oregon t-shirt he spotted me immediately. He started talking about how I was probably some weed smoking hippie, but he knew that I would be able to ride a bike since so many people ride bikes on campus so he selected me as the “Ass man”.

I was the one who had to stay all the way in the back of the group and make sure that we didn’t lose anyone along the way. After learning a little bit about where we were going to go, we headed off in a single file line. Immediately as the tour started, I saw my friend Emily from my university back in America that just happened to be on another bike tour in Munich at the exact same time. It was such a crazy coincidence. I got off my bike, hugged her, we took a photo, and then raced to get back to my tour. The city was very busy so we were dodging people left and right and some points. Most of us were pretty comfortable on our bikes except for one guy in our group named Ramie. He was one of the nicest guys on the trip and I felt bad for him, but he could barely ride his back. He didn’t know how to properly use his handbrakes and every time he would go near a person he would put his feet on the ground and try to slow himself by skidding his feet across the floor. At first it was hilarious and then I realized how far behind we were going to be the entire time. One time the chain even fell off of someone else’s bike and he had time to fix it and get back on his bike before we had even passed him.

Even though I was getting a little annoyed being in the back, I was having a great time. Once I started just relaxing and laughing at the whole situation I couldn’t stop. I thought it was hilarious that Ramie was struggling so much. I started telling other people in the group to watch him and then we were dying. We weren’t being too mean and we weren’t saying it behind his back, we were actually telling him. Anyway back to the tour it self, we got to see so much around the city including the Munich Residenz, St. Peters Church, and the Bavarian Staatskanzlei (State Chancellery). We biked for about an hour with the weather being nice and sunny, but then the rain started to pour. We took shelter under some giant trees on the Hofgarten (Court Garden), but the rain was not letting up so we had to power through it.

We biked out hearts out and got soaking wet for about 15 minutes to the Englischer Garten (English Garden). This is where we were stopping for lunch at the beer garden Chinesischer Turm. Everyone was getting delicious pork knuckles, wiener schnitzel, bratwurst, pretzels, beer and anything bavarian you can imagine. Since the rain had started everyone had emptied the outside tables and were all packed under the shelter so there was pretty much no room for us, and at one point these two German women even tried to spread their stuff out so we wouldn’t sit next to them. Most of us found spots even if we were a little squished, then the rain let up and we were able to sit outside. The bike ride had made us all hungry so everyone was stuffing their faces without thinking about how much left we still had to bike to get back to where we started. We were even pounding back giant liters of beer, and when the guides told us it was time to leave there was still a lot of beer left to chug. I helped out two different people after finishing my own and I almost puked it out as soon as we started biking again, but I was able to hold it in and then I felt fine.

On our way back to return the bikes we stopped at the Eisbach, a small channel of the Isar River that runs through Munich’s big, central park. Since it had rained so hard just an hour earlier, the channel was raging. With the channel rushing so powerfully, it was making a constant wave that was optimal for surfing. Locals know about this phenomenon so there were four or five guys in wetsuits taking turns surfing on the wave in the middle of a city with no oceans around. It was a cool thing to see and we just happened to get lucky enough to be there at the perfect time. We got back to return our bikes and took a group photo with our guides. I got a frisbee as a token for being the “Ass man” for our group, which as a cool souvenir. Now it was time to drink more beer as we were headed to the world-famous Hofbrauhaus. 

We walked through the city in the main squares until we arrived at the three-story beer hall with our stomachs ready. Walking though the giant hall, it seemed like everyone around was having a good time. Everything was decorated with some bavarian style, which made the experience so authentic. Since the weather had cleared up, we took our big group to the outside patio and found a couple of long table to push together so we could pretty much all be in one long line. The beers were kind of expensive, but they were huge and I expected nothing else from a place this famous. Pretty much everyone got beer with a few exceptions for the wine drinkers and together we said cheers the way the locals do, “Prost!” After having a few beers, it was time for the bus to go back to the hotel and no one really had any plans for the night. We had all gotten soaking wet from the bike ride and most of us were exhausted so I decided to just take the bus back with some others.

Some of the guys in the group wanted me to stay out, but I didn’t feel like buying any more expensive beers or paying for a taxi home later. When we got back to the hotel, we saw a sign that said they had a neon party going on in the basement so we said why not. We went to check it out and it was a bunch of young teenagers. We were confused as to how or why they were all there and seemed to know each other, but we definitely didn’t want to go in. Instead we went across the street to the service station and got some alcohol, drinks, and snacks then went back to the hotel to have a little party in one of our rooms. It was fun and I ended up getting smashed since I had already had a good amount of beer. There was even a video of me dancing by myself in the corner or the room without any music playing.  

[tannomad]

Today was a full day in Vienna jam-packed with sights to see. We started off the day by walking around to many of Vienna’s famous historical buildings including the State Opera House and St. Stephens Cathedral. Everything in Vienna has so much history and a lot to do with Hitler because it is where he spent some years of early adulthood and tried to become a painter, but was rejected by The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. After an hour or two of sightseeing we went to a Manner Chocolate shop to get some delicious chocolate with our tour manager before she sent us on our way to do whatever we liked for a few hours. I went of with a small group to get some lunch at a little restaurant. While we were eating, the restaurant had American politics playing on the televisions so most of our conversation was about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. There wasn’t anything that anybody really had to do that afternoon so we decided to walk around a bit and then we chose to go to a military museum.

It was kind of hard for us to find the museum at first, but after asking some people on the streets and working as a team we finally found it. We also ended up walking through this beautiful park that we hadn’t planned on so that was a plus. The museum was really awesome and not at all what we expected because we didn’t realize it was the museum of military history since everything is in German. The exhibitions went as far back as the 1500s featuring events such as the Thirty Years’ War and the First World War, luckily they had English translations on papers that you cold get at the entrance of each section. After spending some time in the museum, we all called taxis to take us to the Museum Quartier where there are a bunch of museums, statues, and water fountains. We were going to go in the Museum of Natural History, but we didn’t have very much time before the bus was going to pick us up and it was kind of expensive. Most of the group just decided to lay in the manicured gardens in front of the museums, I took some pictures of the scenery and started seeing everyone else walk up. The bus then picked us up to head to our next activity: Schnapps Museum.

The Old Viennese Schnapps museum was pretty cool. We got to learn about the owning family’s history and even see a demonstration that showed us how it is made. This specific company makes a ton of flavors of schnapps, too many to name or remember. After we got a little tour, we had the chance to taste some of the schnapps. We were supposed to be limited to three, but nobody was keeping track and some people weren’t drinking. The flavors were crazy. They had coffee, strawberry, absinthe, hot pepper, and many other random flavors. I tried a bunch, but my favorites were the manner chocolate and the absinthe because it was one of the strongest. I decided to buy a bottle of the absinthe schnapps and I paid a little extra for it to come in the souvenir skull bottle. When we were leaving the museum I could definitely feel the schnapps in my system and I had a nice buzz getting going on the way to the Schönbrunn Palace.

Pulling up to the Schönbrunn Palace everybody was in a pretty good mood from the schnapps. We were having fun fooling around and taking a bunch of photos around the outside of this 1,441-room Baroque palace. This building was huge and beautiful, something you could definitely tell just by looks was built for royalty. We couldn’t go inside, but the outside was beautiful enough for us to be satisfied with the visit. Once we had taken enough photos, we headed back toward the bus to get a ride to our hotel. Some of the girls were worried that they weren’t going to have enough time to get ready, since we have to share showers and bathrooms, even though we had a couple of hours before dinner. As we got back to the hotel, these girls literally ran out of the bus and up the stairs so they could immediately start preparing themselves for our night out.

First stop of the night was for dinner at a theme park in Vienna called the Wurstelprater amusement park or "Prater". What we had been calling the night on our tour was schnitzels and screams because we were going to be eating some delicious schnitzels and then getting the chance to ride a few rollercoasters in the amusement park. During dinner I ate all of my chicken schnitzel and I had a good amount of beer, but I was still ready to go on some rides. We want on three really fun coasters that were pretty much your basic ride with loops, corkscrews, and drops. Then Amanda, Liam, and I decided to go on this ride that was just one giant arm with two claw-like ends that each had four seats. All the ride does is flip the arm around so you go from the ground up to the sky, but you go so fast. I was screaming like crazy, because you fly back down toward the ground pretty quickly too. Then at one point we were at the very top and they stop the ride because the claw at the other end is at the bottom reloading people onto it while we wait at the top. I was so scared, but it was so much fun. Then we went on this swing ride that took us up very high and spun us in a giant circle giving us an amazing panoramic view of the entire city. After we got off the swings everyone was waiting for us and I guess our tour manager wanted to leave us, but we were honestly less than five minutes late.

We start piling on the bus excited to head to a club that out tour manager had been telling us about all day. We then come to find out that since it was a Monday, it was not open. Our tour manager decided to take us to this cool outdoor area called sand in the city, which was a big square filled with sand like a beach that was surrounded by little restaurants and dive bars. Some people weren’t happy with the alternative activity, but I was still going to have a good time. One of the bars was selling jugs of Sangria so that is what I went for and when the bartender asked how many glasses I told him I just wanted a straw. Once I brought that back over to the table and other people saw it then they wanted some as well. We drank and played drinking games at a few tables until the place was closing and we were rushed out with almost no warning. It was only around 10pm. Without really knowing where else to go we all started walking around the city as a group, but most of us were pretty drunk and didn’t have any cellphone service to look up any places to go. As we were walking around we were all having a good time and then some guys in our group started teasing girls, slapping their butts, etc. One boy did it to a girl who did not want it and she got all upset so I got upset and then she wanted to go home so I did the respectful thing and decided to go back with them because it was just a group of girls.

When we got back to the hotel I stayed in the lobby with the girl and ate some chips while we just talked about other stuff to get her mind off of it. It seemed like most everyone else never really found anything too fun to do because they all started piling in slowly. As more people were there to comfort my friend, I decided to go out and look for some food with a few people. We walked down the street to a nearby hotel that luckily had some sandwiches, chips, and cookies available to purchase in the lobby. It was like a dream come true. After I got the food, I went and talked with a few more people then went to bed.

[tannomad]

Today we drove from Venice, Italy to Vienna, Austria on probably the most beautiful route I have ever been on in my life. Driving past the Dolomites in northeastern Italy was amazing. Everyone was in awe when looking out the window at this majestic scenery as we began passing giant waterfalls and little Austrian villages with wooden chalets and green mountain fields. We got to the cultural hub of Vienna around mid afternoon, we weren’t staying in a very popular part of the city so we had to wait for the bus to take us further in for dinner. Some of us were going to a Mozart and Strauss concert so we got all dressed up. The bus took us into the heart of the city and then we were on our own for dinner. A handful of us went to a little restaurant together for some Austrian dishes and drinks before our concert. The bus picked us up again and took us to one of the city’s imperial palaces where the concert was being held.

There were only about 15 people from our group that signed up to go to the concert, which was the smallest group we had had so far at one of the optional activities. We were seated toward the back with two other Contiki groups so we started chatting with some of the people behind us. One group of girls we were talking to had just been in Munich the day before when the shooting happened at the shopping mall that killed ten people. They were in a store and had to go into lock down and hide in a corner with other customers while they waited for the situation to clear up. They said they were in there for hours and then they got let out so they went to the bus, but then they had to sit in the bus for another period of time because there was a rumor going around that there was another threat. They seemed pretty okay about it all, but they had said that a few people decided to go home after that because they were too shaken up.

The concert started shortly after they told us that story, and it was amazing. I have had an interest in orchestra since I decided to play the cello in middle school. I may have enjoyed the concert more than others though because a few people were having trouble staying awake throughout. After the concert, we went and picked up the rest of the group and headed back toward to the hotel. The bus wasn’t very packed and most people seemed tired, except for a few so naturally I gravitated to them. Tilly, Lauren, and Frankie were in the back of the bus singing and dancing and when I got on they were happy to see me. I could tell they had some drinks in them and they were just having a good time. For a few songs we were singing as loud as we could and dancing all weird and crazy, I could tell that some other people on the bus were starting to get annoyed. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were ready to go out for the night. Unfortunately there was practically nothing around our hotel, but we did find one little pub that was kind of closed, but still let us in to have a few drinks with them 

This little pub ending up being such an awesome local experience in Vienna. Only two of the four people in the pub could speak English, and even their English was mediocre at best, but they were so happy for us to be in there. We had a bunch of beers and told them we would comeback the next day for dinner. They loved us so we ended up taking some selfies with them before we went back to our hotel to go to sleep.

[tannomad]

Waking up was easy since we had a pretty relaxed day yesterday, and I was excited for another day of exploring Venice. We had breakfast at the campsite, and while we were eating the sign up sheet for gondola ride groups got passed around. Amanda, Ally, and I wanted to be together so we signed up for a boat along with Scott, Jack, and Jake. We were happy with our group. After breakfast we got on the ferry to head into the “floating city”. It was a beautiful day in Venice and just hot enough to where it was still comfortable. Our first activity of the day was the gondola ride. The boat was a little squished with six of us in there plus the gondolier, but it was still a fun time. All the buildings and bridges throughout the canals are painted with beautiful colors and there are decorative flowers everywhere. We were hoping our gondolier would sing to us during the ride, but he did not, and at one point he even started talking on his cellphone. After the gondola ride it was time for us to check out a Venetian glass blowing museum where we got an awesome live demonstration and the chance to purchase some handmade items. There was also a chance for us to visit a leather making factory, but a few us decided to skip out because we were getting hungry.

We walked around a little bit to find a restaurant that our tour manager had said was her favorite place to eat in Italy. When we got there it was crowded so we put our name down on a list for a table and then headed to a store across the street to get some glass souvenirs. Most of the Venetian glass is very bright and colorful so I loved it all. I bought a cross necklace for myself and a bracelet for my mom, then it was time to sit at out table. Ally, Amanda, and I were so excited to eat some delicious Italian food. I ordered a calzone, Ally got pizza, and Amanda chose shrimp risotto. I also decided to get a glass of wine with lunch even though it was barely past noon. When our food came we probably looked like the happiest three people on the planet. Everything smelled so good and the portions were giant, there was no way we were going to be able to finish it all. I loved my calzone, but Amanda’s shrimp risotto was one of the best dishes we had ever tasted in our lives. We kept saying how it was a risotto from God. I only got a few bites, but don’t see myself forgetting about that meal for a very long time.

After lunch we just wanted to walk off our meals and see where the backstreets would take us. It is such a unique city with so much beauty. Every corner you turn the street is lined with buildings until you hit the big, open squares. We saw the limestone Bridge of Sighs, the Gothic arches of the Doge’s Palace and the expanse of St. Mark’s Square. We stopped in a few other stores and bought some more stuff such as Venetian playing cards and a Venetian mask that I could wear to the party we were going to have that night. Walking around all day had gotten us pretty hot and sweaty so by the time we were supposed to head back to the campsite we were ready. Our ferry ride back was in the late after and it was such a comfortable ride up on the top deck feeling the breeze blowing. When we got back to the campsite all of the cabins were too warm to be inside so a bunch of us found some shade in the grass between all the cabins and hung out. There weren’t really any plans for the rest of the day so we all enjoyed just relaxing and talking to each other while having some drinks.

Over the next few hours everyone showered and got ready for the evening, but there were always at least ten people hanging out. Around sunset everyone had gotten ready for the night and the real drinking was starting to happen. Everyone was playing different games and it was one big party in the grass. We all got our Venetian masks and sailor caps on then started to take a bunch of pictures. Once we had enough pictures for the night, we went to the bar as a group and then the night gets blurry from there. I remember having to help carry the biggest guy in our group back to his cabin at one point and somebody wanted to fight one of the guys in our group. We got some bad news that a shooting happened in Munich, Germany and I got upset again like the last time. I wasn’t as sad this time, but I still ended up going to sleep at a reasonable hour because I just wasn’t up for too much more partying after that.

[tannomad]

Another early rise today as we head out of Rome for our next stop in Venice. Most of us slept through this drive, but it wasn’t too long so we had made it to our next campsite by the early afternoon. This campsite was just as cool as the last ones with a restaurant/bar area and a little shop where we could buy drinks and snacks. Venice is made up of more than 100 small islands, which are all quite expensive to stay on, so our campsite was on mainland, Italy right on the water. At this accommodation, we were staying three people to each room with their own private bathroom. The cabins were almost like big storage units, but they were nice enough and we were all close enough together to where we could walk out our front doors into the same quad area. It was still pretty hot in Venice that day, but nowhere near how hot it had been the day before in Rome.

When we arrived to the campsite, there was another Contiki group who had already been there since the night before. Most of the group was still out on the islands seeing the sights in Venice, but some of the guys had decided to come back to the campsite early to start some day drinking. By the time we got there, they must have already been drinking for hours because they were absolutely wasted. The 6 or 7 Aussie guys were all wearing speedos and sailor caps while chugging alcohol, touching each other inappropriately, and yelling about nothing. These guys were right in the middle of this large, family-friendly campsite being total tools and making complete fools out of themselves. Many of them started stripping off the little clothes that they had on and running around trying to rub their genitals on each other then they started daring each other to touch each other. They even got one guy to put his mouth around another guy’s penis, which I didn’t actually witness myself.

Only about half of my group was taking the extra trip to the islands of Venice that night so we departed for the ferry. As we were leaving, the drunk guys made a tunnel for us to walk under, but one guy slapped one of our girl’s butt when one she went under and her boyfriend saw. Her boyfriend, Nathan, was the tallest kid in our group so we walks over to the tunnel and just slams this kid up against one of the cabins then his friends go to help him so then kids from my group go to help Nathan and it seems like there is about to be a little brawl. Our guys get Nathan to calm down and they just walk away from the drunk guys realizing that fighting would not be worth it. We then headed out to the islands of Venice. The ferry on the way to the islands was only filled with people from our group so we took over and everyone had a good window seat while our tour guide explained some basic history of Venice. We all had our windows open and on the way out to the islands there was some water splashing in, but then our tour manager let us know that all of the water in the canals around the islands of Venice are full of sewage that gets pumped out straight into the water. After hearing this, we all scooted a little farther back from our windows.

Pulling into Venice I could already see the beauty that people had been talking about. Even just the architecture around the dock was very detailed and I liked that there was a gelato shop as soon as we hopped off the boat. Once off the boat, we waited in the first square for our local guide. She then took us to all the main tourist spots around gave us in-depth detail on every little thing that she could, which was really nice. The tour ended at a little restaurant along one of the main canals where we had some delicious Venetian aperitivo waiting for us. I’m not exactly sure what aperitivo is, but ours was an aperol spritz, which was like a not very sugary kind of alcoholic soda. After we had our evening drink, we split up to go find dinner and do some shopping if we wanted before meeting back up with our tour manager so she could show us her favorite place to get gelato. I went to dinner with about ten people, and sat at a table with Rachael, Jess, and Chelsea. Rachael and I had already been good friends, but Jess and Chelsea were a little more reserved (especially Chelsea), but we had good conversations and all enjoyed our delicious pizza and pasta. After dinner I went and bought a sailor hat because the next night we were having a Venice party back at the campsite where you had to either be in a Venetian mask or a sailor hat.

Once we were all back together, we headed to get some gelato with our tour manager, Tai-leigh, and it was the best tasting gelato I’ve had. Most of us got two different flavors, and had no problem finishing. While waiting for everyone to get their gelato, I also went into a liquor store to buy some vodka and a bottle of spritz that I could mix together. Honestly I thought the spritz tasted better with the extra alcohol. After we all had our gelato, we walked back through the islands to our ferry. this walk and ferry ride were really nice because it was right around sunset time so we got to experience what Venice looked like during the day and night. We had a full day so a few of us fell asleep on the boat ride back, but when we arrived at the campsite some of the people who had stayed were at the bar drinking so a bunch of us joined them and partied a little bit before going to sleep. 

[tannomad]

Today we had breakfast at the campsite and then left for an excursion of Vatican City. Going into Vatican City was pretty cool and we had a guided audio tour with a local guide through all the different buildings and sections that tourists are allowed to go in. St. Peter’s Basilica was definitely the coolest part. The paintings on the walls and ceilings are exquisite throughout the entire country, but inside the basilica they are unlike anything else. After finishing the tour we were allowed to walk around a little bit more and check out whatever else we wanted in the Vatican. We had worked up an appetite walking around so we stopped by a little hole-in-the-wall pizza and pasta place where we all wolfed down some cheap Italian takeaway dishes before making our way towards the Colosseum. The day had already been such an amazing experience and we still had much more to see.

We walked over toward the Colosseum and our main tour manager showed us where to meet for the start of the local Colosseum tour. We had an hour or two to explore that part of the city, grab a gelato, get money from the bank, or anything else we wanted to do before the next event. For the tour of the Colosseum we had another local tour guide who gave us headphones so that even those of us in the back of our large group could hear. The tour went through all the old Roman ruins around the Colosseum and our guide explained the significance of everything. It felt cool being where all this stuff in history had taken place, and it felt even crazier once we got inside the Colosseum itself. Our guide took us to the different levels and explained everything. She showed us where the poor people stood who would get in for free, and where the sections were for the wealthier fans. After getting the tour she took some group photos of us all and then let us roam around as we pleased. We had about another hour until we had to meet back up for the bus so plenty of time to see all that we wanted. It was a very interesting experience and was crazy to learn about all the carnage that took place back in history.

After the tour we all waited for out tour manager in the shade on some steps outside of the Colosseum reminiscing about how great our day had been. It was starting to get late in the afternoon and people were beginning to get hungry and crabby after being in the hot sun all day. Since where we were in the city was so far from our campsite, we had to catch the metro back. As a group we rushed over to the station only to have found out that we had just missed our metro and another one wouldn’t be coming for about a half an hour. People weren’t too happy about that, but we had such a good day that most of us weren’t letting it bring us down. We boarded the train and took it to our station with another Contiki group, but when we got there something was wrong with the other groups bus so we let them take our bus back to the campsite first because they had dinner scheduled before we did. This made people even more upset so our tour manager tried to her best to entertain us with some games to distract us while we waited. It worked for a little. the bus then came and as soon as we got back to the campsite, we went straight to the dining area and ate some delicious chicken parmesan.

We had a little bit of time after dinner to cool down and relax before it was time for our Roma Party. We had all bought “I <3 Roma” shirts earlier and we brought them to the party so we could all sign each others and write notes on them. After everyone showered and got their shirts on, we did some pre-drinking around the cabins and then we headed over to the bar area where the party was. The bar had stripper poles, cheap shots, an outdoor patio, and a place to get food at the end of the night. The night was a blast. It was just our group of fifty at the party so we all knew each other and everyone seemed to be having a good time the entire night. Everyone was taking cheap shots of all different alcohols, my favorite was the “green fairy” which was absinthe and vodka. We even did like five shots together as an entire group I did some dances on a stripper pole and tried my best to sign something on every single person’s shirt. Most of us got a bit sloppy that night and some people were hammered, but everyone was flirting with somebody even if it was just as a joke or for fun. I had been pretty much obsessed with this straight Australian kid who we called “Hot Scott” the entire trip so that night I was all over him and definitely grabbed his butt a few times, but I had also been flirting with a girl named Tilly (or Matilda) off and on throughout the tour and that night we were really hitting it off. I thought that might be the night that I made my move, but in the end it didn’t happen. We did get a few cute pictures out of that night though.

Before I left the party, I bought a hotdog and hamburger to eat, but Frankie and Tilly ended up eating almost all of the hamburger before I could even tell them to slow down. Most people had gone back to the cabins by then, but not everyone was asleep. Some people were getting it on, while others were playing pranks. One of the guys found out that the controls for each cabin’s electricity and hot water were on the back of the cabin available for anyone to mess with. So a group of guys were going around to every cabin in our area and turning off either the cabin’s electricity or hot water. The people who were still awake would realize pretty quickly, but some girls didn’t realize it until the morning and didn’t know that it was a prank. A few of them just ended up just baring through it and taking cold showers.

[tannomad]

Today we left Florence and drove a few hours through Tuscany’s rustic hills to Rome. once we got there we drove around on the coach a little a checked out some sights then droppe off near the Altare della Patria aka the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II ("National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II") or Il Vittoriano. After taking some pictures there we started walking toward the Trevi Fountain. It was so hot that day so I bought a frozen water off of a guy selling them on the streets, at first people thought it was sketch, but then they ended up buying them from other guys on the street. When we got to the Trevi Fountain we took a bunch of pictures and threw coins in with our right hands over our left shoulders. The first coin guarantees your return to Rome, the second will ensure a new romance, and the third will ensure marriage. After throwing coins in we walked to a nearby gelato shop and got some delicious gelato. We then started walking toward the pantheon and I ended up helping a lot of people finish their gelato.

When we got to the pantheon we were happy to get inside and get out of the sun. I did not know that the pantheon is a church so that was cool. There are statues of the virgin Mary with baby Jesus and other religious symbols inside. There is also a hole in the top of the circular roof that lets light in. The building isn’t very large inside, it’s just one circular room, so after we saw it all we found a spot in the shade outside and waited for other people to get money out, get souvenirs, etc. I ended up buying a little Roman helmet. When everyone was ready we walked to Piazza Navona to get some dinner. At this point I was starting to not feel good because I was hungover, I hadn’t had much to eat all day, and it was super hot. The restaurants were all kind of expensive so it took us a little bit to agree on one. We sat down and then when they tell us the water costs money everyone gets upset, but I was like just bring us a couple waters. Once everyone calmed down they noticed I was like shaking from being dehydrated or something. I drank water and started feeling better so I ordered bruschetta and a pizza. I ate some bruschetta, but I started to not feel good again so I could barely eat my pizza. Our tour manager that day had even told  us that in Italy it is rude not to finish your meals (whoops).

We then took the bus to the Rome campsite where we were staying. The cabins were pretty cool and it was designed just like the other cabin was with two in each room and a shared bathroom in each cabin. I roomed with Dylan again that night with Tom and Scott in the other room (they are the snorers). This property was huge, but our section was just Contiki groups with a pool, convenience store, bar, and dining area. That night we just hung out on the patio of the convenience store, because thats where wifi was the best, and relaxed. Everyone was having a few drinks just talking and checking our social media when someone freaked us out that there were bed bugs. Every was researching them and then we found out Dylan had spray for them so we sprayed all of our beds and stuff, but when we found our tour manager she said they haven’t had them all summer so she didn’t think they had them. We still weren’t convinced. After spraying our beds we just kept hanging out around the table and then some people started to play drinking games, while others headed in for an early night. I stayed out for a bit and hung out with people going through out Instagrams and Facebooks showing each other people and events in our lives. I ended up getting a pretty early night, luckily I had no bed bugs.

[tannomad]

Today we had a full day in Florence. Some girls had to stay behind t the campsite and talk to the police because they were in a taxi the night before with another girl in our group and she claims that she got sexually assaulted by the driver while they were in there. Long story short we think she was lying because she was flirting with the driver after she got mad at her boyfriend who was also on the trip and then when they pulled up to the hotel he was waiting so he saw them being close to each other and she made up some story. But we don’t know for sure.

Anyway we started off the day with a demonstration of Florentine leather making and got to shop around for some real Italian leather. I got a little blue wallet for myself. Then while people were still shopping and some of us were done, we went outside. I decided to go into a gold shop across the street and I bought a little gold cross. We then had a city tour from a local guide who told us all about the architecture and art around the city. I almost got hit by a car at one point, but Ally saved me.  We had the whole rest of the day to walk around the city, but after we saw all of the art on the tour there really wasn’t much to do besides shop and eat. I didn’t really want to buy anything else so I kind of just followed some other people around some shops and we stopped in random restaurants like McDonald’s to use their wifi. Before getting back on the bus, we walked back to the main square and I saw a few other people drinking at a bar so I went over and had a few drinks with them.

Some people had left early to go back to the campsite and swim, but i just waited for the bus to take us back. When we got back it was pretty much time to get ready for dinner so we did that and then had a few pre drinks. Before dinner we stopped to take a group photo over this beautiful scenic spot where you could see so much of the city. Our next stop was our tuscan dinner, which was amazing. I sat with Rachael, Ally, Amanda, and Feliz so we had a good time. Bridgette, the on-site, also gave me the heads up that we got unlimited wine so I got pretty drunk at dinner before we went to the club. Throughout the entire trip we had been playing this game where there is one coin going around the group and when someone has it, if they can put it in your drink then you have to skull aka chug the entire drink no matter the size of the glass/container or how much is left. I wasn’t thinking smartly so I poured my second glass of red wine super full and someone coined me so I had to skull the entire glass. I then got Rachael soon after that so she did the same and then we passed it on to another table. They stopped serving us wine after a certain point, but I went to other tables that had some left and poured their half full bottles into our glasses. Before we left I even poured one of the wine bottles into a water bottle so I could bring it to go.

When we got to Florence’s biggest club called Space Disco, I finished off the water bottle of red wine and then I guess I tried to hand it to the bouncer. He was not having that so he made me walk across the street and drink a bottle of water before he would let me in the club. Everyone went inside, except Michael. He stayed and waited for me, which I thought was really nice. I drank the bottle fast and then we were inside in no time. The club was pretty large with multiple floors, neon lights, and laser beams everywhere. We were all having fun dancing as a big group for a long time and then a bunch of us went and sat on couches on the side. There were stripper poles to dance on by the couches so myself and a few others were giving our friends a show and also giving some lap dances. The bar part of the club was interesting because you didn’t pay when you got the drink, you had a card and then would put a certain mark for certain kind of drink. At the end we would take the card past someone on the way out and then that is where we would pay so it wasn’t very easy to keep track of how much we had spent on drinks (which was probably the plan). We took a taxi back to the campsite from Space Disco where, but since a bunch of us were still drunk we hung out and talked in different people’s rooms. Once we were all tired enough we headed back to our cabins and went to sleep.

[tannomad]

Today we drove into Italy, which is one of the countries I have been most excited for. Before we got to our first stop, we were driving through some very scenic mountains using giant tunnels, our bus driver told me it was exactly 169 tunnels throughout the entire drive. Looking out the window we could either look to the left and see beautiful green mountains or look to the right and see the sun glistening over the ocean on the Italian coast. I was loving every second of it. Since the drive was quite long to our first stop we also watched a movie on the coach called How To Be Single, which I had never seen, and I was cracking up. I was mostly just listening though because I was enjoying looking out the window so much. Once we got out of the mountains we stopped for lunch at a small service station, and I got my first real piece of Italian pizza. It was delicious, and since the day was so nice we ate outside. 

After lunch we were driving through giant fields of sunflowers (which are my favorite flower) as we got closer to Pisa. By this time nobody was really asleep on the bus so I talked with a bunch of people and took some selfies. We also started playing with my neck sleeping thing and using it as a hat because it kind of looks like a Russian hat. I found out that there are like five other guys who are also playing Pokemon on their gameboys this trip. Scott calls himself an actual Pokemon master. Our first destination of the day was the Leaning Tower of Pisa where we made a quick stop to take touristy pictures, like you have to do when you’re in Italy. The tower was cool, but the best part was watching everyone do their leaning poses in the air. All around the street on the way to the tower there were a bunch of people trying to sell handbags, scarves, etc. but our tour manager told us not to buy anything from them because she said that they were most likely fake and that we could get arrested in Italy for buying fake brand merchandise even if we didn’t mean to. She even said that some of the vendors have a system set up with the cops just so that they can catch tourists.

After seeing the Leaning Tower and going to the bathroom, we got back on the bus and left for our campsite in Florence. The campsite was so cool. We were all in four person cabins that head two separate rooms so it was basically just two and two with a shared bathroom. There were other people on the campsite, but all of our cabins were so close together that it was like we were the only ones there. There was also a convenience store, restaurant, and pool on the property. When we got to the campsite we had time to relax then we had to get ready for dinner and our night out. I got ready pretty quick and had a few drinks with some people before dinner. We headed down to the restaurant on the property where we were having lasagna for dinner. I had my camera out so I let everyone get their plates before me while I took pictures of them all. It was a lot of fun and I met one of the on-site Contiki employees named Bridgette. She was awesome and we were friends instantly. The dinner was delicious as per usual and I discovered a new drink I had never heard of: Jack Daniels and Coke already made in a can! They have it in Europe, New Zealand Australia, but I have never seen it in America.

We had a little more time to drink and get more ready after dinner before we headed into the city. Some people tried to sneak pre drinks onto the bus, but most people were caught by Ollie, the driver. I ended up just chugging mine right before we left. When we got on the bus everyone was in a good mood so by the time we got to Red Garter everyone was ready to take their turn at karaoke. Red Garter was the perfect place for a big group of fifty like ours. There is a bar and seating area as soon as you walk in, but then if you go towards the back their is a two-level section with really long tables for big parties with a raised stage for karaoke. At first we split big towers of beer where they lit sparklers on the top as they served them and also jugs of mixed drinks. I knew I wanted to sing for sure, but I also told myself all day that I wasn’t going to go first. We were sitting at the tables having some drinks and there is a guy up on the stage with a guitar singing some karaoke songs. He keeps trying to get us to come up and sing, but no one will go up. Granted it is scary because it was more than just our group, there were probably around 150 people in this room.

The guy up on stage plays “Thats What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction and tries to get someone to come up, but no one will so I decide to. I walk up on stage and all other 49 people from my table start cheering for me. I had a bit of a sore throat so I didn’t really sing too loud or too much, but I was doing my dance moves that people always love and I kept point at this girl in the crowd when the chorus would come up. Everyone was loving it. After I went, people actually started singing and there was a line for the rest of the night. All night people were telling me that I did a good job and random people were buying me drinks (Pictured above: Ally and I drinking at Red Garter). We drank and danced all night, but it was hot so I kept getting sweaty and going outside. One time I went outside and Lauren from our group came out with me. She asked me to show her how I kiss so I did and we kissed for a second, but then it was over and it was just normal like nothing ever happened. After that I don’t really remember much at Red Garter besides this boy flirting with me and buying me a beer only to be immediately kicked out after stumbling around so I ended up getting two free beers.

I took a taxi back with Kate and some others. We got back to the campsite just in time for the convenience store to still be open and we wanted chips. The only chips they had left that night were Rosemary flavor, which we had never tried, but we got them anyways and they were delicious. Kate and I walked around eating our chips and we found this little giraffe playground toy that I had seen earlier that day so I went and took a picture on it because I love giraffes. We found a few other people and hung out before we went to sleep, but I don’t exactly remember it all. 

[tannomad]

Our day in the French Riviera was nice and relaxing. We woke up, grabbed our day bags with our change of nice clothes for the evening, and headed out on the bus toward the beach. Pretty much everyone in the group came to the beach because most people didn’t get the time to go in Barcelona like Rachael and I had. It was a very nice and sunny day so it was easy to spend hours laying on the beach. The water was a little cold, but it felt really good on the hot day. There was even a floating barge out about 50 meters out in the ocean that a bunch of us swam to and hung out on. When we were feeling hungry, we headed toward a small bay (not the one pictured above) where there were beautiful yachts and sail boats. We stopped to get some food pretty much right along the bay and sat outside to continue enjoying the weather. After lunch I walked around with a few Australian guys Luke, Nathan, Shawn, Liam, and Jake for a little bit, but when they decided to stop and lay around in a little park I started making my way back towards the beach to meet back up with everyone else before getting on the bus to head to a perfumery.

The sun had wiped us out so the short bus ride to Fragonard Perfumery was pretty quiet. When we got to the perfumery most of us had been in the ocean so we were a little unkempt, to say the least, but they didn’t care. At the perfumery we learned and saw how perfume is made and also got the chance to sample or buy some if we wanted. During the tour we got a little bored so some of us were being a little rowdy and making jokes, etc. Once the tour was over it was time to get ready for our next stop: Monaco, a glamorous principality just 1.92 square km. All fifty of us got our day bags off of the bus and piled into the bathrooms so we could change, do our hair, or whatever else we needed. It was a pretty funny sight. Some of us guys were just changing in the street near the bus and some girls were sitting on the curb doing their make up with small hand mirrors. I could even hear girls blowdrying their hair in the bathroom. Since the guys were ready pretty quick, some of us decided to have a pre-dinner drink or two while we waited. Once we were all ready we took a big group picture of us all looking dapper and we headed east.

Monaco was beautiful. Our first stop was Le Palais des Princes de Monaco aka the Prince's Palace of Monaco. It was built in 1191 as a Genoese fortress and is currently where the royal family lives. We walked through some of the alleyways here to grab a cheap bite to eat since all the restaurants were pretty expensive. After we ate, we went out to look over the bay (pictured above), which was an amazing view. We took a bunch of pictures and waited for everyone to be finished eating before loading back onto the bus to go to Monte Carlo Casino. The casino was beautiful on the outside. The architecture was awesome and I’m sure the inside was cool too, but I didn’t go in because it costs 15 euros. Along with a handful of others, I went to the Sun casino next door (which was free entry). I had a few drinks, gambled a little, and ended up walking away with about 30 more euros than I walked in with. When we met back up with everyone else to get on the bus, some kids had won around 400 euros and more. Since Contiki can’t make everyone stay out, the bus had to go back pretty early in the night and since we were in Monaco/French Riviera the taxis back to our hotel would have been pricey so everyone came back on the bus. When we got back to the hotel some people were upset that we were in so early, but I just wanted to have a chill night drinking and hanging out with everyone. We ended up on the patio outside the hotel playing drinking games and just hanging out with each other. It ended up being a lot of fun and a handful of people ended up getting pretty drunk.

[tannomad]

Woke up in the morning feeling sad about what happened in Nice. I wasn’t really upset because I was scared, I was upset because I could not believe that someone could hurt people like that. I hate attacks like that and it makes me sad thinking that those innocent people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Since I had woken up long before the time we needed to get on the bus to go, I decided to go check out La Basilica de Sagrada Familia by myself. I sat outside the church thinking about life, took some photos, and said a little prayer for my group in our travels and those affected by the attacks in Nice.

I walked back and got some breakfast for myself before heading back to the hotel. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to navigate the Spanish streets without my iPhone and Google maps. When I got back to the hotel I tried to wash the puffiness out of my eyes, but it didn’t really work and my eyes were puffy for most of the day. We then got on the bus and headed to the coast line of Côte d’Azur, driving right through Nice where the attacks had been. On the bus I decided to lay on the wood floor so I could take a nap, Ally and I laid head to head and she helped me not be sad anymore. I napped most of the way to the hotel, which was nice. Since the French Riviera is such an expensive area, our hotel wasn’t really the nicest or in the nicest area, but it wasn’t too bad. There wasn’t really anything to do when we got to the hotel so some grabbed a a bite to eat while others just showered and went to bed. That night I was just rooming with Dylan and we were not tired so were turned on some French tv and just hung out. Then Rachael came in and told us that her boyfriend had just woken up with her over text. She was upset, but she didn’t seem too upset so we just did our best to make her laugh and be happy. We ended up staying up for another hour or two laughing and talking. The next morning was an early morning and we were going to be out all day so we had to bring a change of clothes and stuff to get ready with. After packing our stuff for the next day, we went to bed.