An Affair with my Passport-Contiki European Discovery June 2009

**Editors Note :)

2009-08-11T20:56:00.010-05:00

**NOTE**

I came across this vacation by accident, I originally was trying to find a vacation for myself, my 8 year old daughter, my mom, my aunt and my cousin for Europe. I was told I could go where ever I wanted since this was my graduation/birthday present, but there were some problems trying to organize all of this with everyone. I found the tour, thought it looked like fun, then looked into who Contiki was and realized it wasnt possible becuase of the 18-35 age limit/party tour concept. So I nixed the whole dam thing and went back to looking at other stuff. But the whole idea of going by myself was in the back of my mind the whole time and I kept telling myself that if I had the balls to actually do that, I would in a heartbeat (also I finally remembered Contiki from The Real World in Australia). Well, I finally decided to after MUCH research on the company, reading reviews, looking at all the trips, etc. I wrote this so others could know what to really expect, and also so that I dont forget my amazing trip!

So in case your thinking about going on one of these trips.... heres some stuff you should know:

*No, I didnt just go to Europe to drink, even tho at times it might sound like it :) But hell, Im still young and after 3 of the hardest years of school of my life I flippin deserved it. There is no need to worry that this was only a "party trip" there were many couples who didnt hang out with us all the time, went out and did their own thing. No need to follow the group, in case you were wondering.

*I choose this trip because of the places it went because I have been studying non-stop a lot of art history, world history and architecture (which I make references to in the rest of the blog) Might be boring to others, but Im fascinated by this stuff so ignore me if you like and call me a nerd.

*Before you go on this trip, it is wise to research the trip itself, and of course the places you are going. I was amazing that some people didnt have a clue about the places we were at. I read every review I found on Contiki, some were bad and some said the tours suck, others said it was the time of their life. I knew A LOT of what to expect. I knew what I wanted to do and see and what I didnt want to do. I figured that the people on your trip and your TM/driver are 95% of the reason your trip will be amazing or horrible. If you complain the whole time cuz the hotel is ghetto or about anything, then your ruining your trip and everybody elses. Sit back, take it, enjoy it, & make the most of it. Your in a different country and the cultures are different, if you wanted things to be like where you live, then stay where you live. So you have to pay to use bathrooms and the food wasn't always the best, my bathroom flooded and I could have been electrocuted... Looking back I laugh at that and it was all these things that make your trip great.

* Bring about 100 bucks a day. I brought 100 American and did fine (bringing enough to be 100 euros a day didn't occur to me till way later) Some days I spent about 15$, some I spent more than 100 because of shopping. Bring cash and cc's/debit. Travelers checks are a pain who wants to search for a bank? There are places to exchange money all over.

*Now, being the responsible chick that I am, before I left I made sure I had enough money for each of the excursions I knew FOR SURE I was going to do. I converted the prices into euros and put that money in an envelope. Also put enough money in an envelope for tips for the driver and TM. A lot of people dont like to tip because its not customary where they are from. In the U.S., 20% is customary and I am from a bartending background and had to survive off these tips, so I put enough in an envelope and hid it in my luggage.

* Everybody I talked to could speak English.

* Def bring a travel pillow, hell bring a little blanket for the bus too. You can keep these things on the bus.

* It was colder in London, Amsterdam, Germany & Austria. Shitaly was H O T.

* I was barely harassed by any locals to buy anything. If anything we just had some creepy stalkers.

* Try for the backseat of the bus if you can get it to yourself :)

* Some places are super nice, some are not. You will get over this.

* Theres like 4 plugs on the bus to recharge your stuff, some people hog them (Noff...) I just unplugged his stuff and used his :) So charge your stuff in the hotel. I wish I would have brought more than 1 converter because you can only use it with one thing at a time, and also because Im a moron and lost mine in Munich and had to borrow everyone elses.

* I wish I would have gotten the phone they offered. If you do, get your TM's # and your travel buddies numbers.... Just in case!!

* Sit back and enjoy every second, I cant stress that enough. Most likely you will be depressed when you get home cuz you dont see those faces anymore. I was originally going to go on the one that left 3 days before this one, but it was booked. Thank God!

* If you have the time, I would go on a longer tour. I honestly didnt think I could be gone for 2 weeks, usually I go on vaca's for a week and all I want to do is go home. I really did not want to leave when this vaca was over. No you dont get a lot of time on this particular trip so we named it "The European teaser". But I got to see a lot is the short amount of time I was in each city, which is why it is wise to research each city before you get there!

*Read what others said to bring and not bring, what to wear not wear, what was fun and not fun, then figure it out yourself! I had the absolute best time of my life. I went solo and was scared to death my tour would suck or the people would suck. Im SO happy I went by myself. No one else to worry about, meeting new people. There were actually a lot of people by themselves. I thought the best way to spend my b-day would be to celebrate it on the other side of the planet... and it was amazing! I like every single one of the people I met and now I have friends all over the world. I hope we get to meet up again for another trip next year! Also, Im so happy I met the Veronic/kas. These 2 were amazing chicks and I owe a lot of my amazing vacation to these 2 girls.

Muah ♥ you guys!

Veronic/ka sandwich ~ V-Mac, me & V-Lo

More pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88645&id=820997800&l=13af79f8d0

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88713&id=820997800&l=a6ccaeed63

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89174&id=820997800&l=d05e0443f5

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89018&id=820997800&l=9b029659f2

Day 14- Paris – St. Louis

2009-08-03T20:11:00.007-05:00

Phone rings in the a.m. for a wake up call but we go back to sleep and Gino says not to worry cuz a big Australian will be banging on the door in a few minutes. Brentons at the door and comes in to wake us up.... Uhg we have to leave today and I just went to bed drunk like an hour or so ago. And my voice is just about gone now.
Brenton keeps throwing the comforter at me and its like knocking me down. I grab my purse and walk across the hall to my room, Janine is already up and packing. I just laugh and start getting my stuff ready. Just thinking about how we have to leave is making me cry that day. OK not cry but I definalty tear up. We go to our last breakfast, get on the bus... its all a blur. We ride to the airport and pull over. I seriously have to get off the bus?? I get up, say "goodbye bus" and someone says bye back to me in a funny voice (it was funny to me) I grab my bag and watch everyone getting their bags, hugging, hugging me and I just start crying. This part SUCKS if you really like the people you are with. Im crying worse, I get back on the bus and hug the rest of the people who are staying on the bus to go back to London. I cry and say bye to each one of them. V-Lo is one of them... I have to leave my V-Lo?? FML. Outside some are starting to go in, I think a lot of us thought we would see each other when were inside, I thought so. So not true. The airlines are spread out and its busy, security lines are a nightmare. I have to whisper to anyone I talk to since ive completely lost my voice at this point. Me and Jason and Janine try to meet up, I check in, and the line for security is so long so I go get in it. Now, Ive lost my voice, I have barely slept this entire trip let alone the night before, I was just crying my eyes out and Im looking quite hot at this moment. I pull my glasses on and dont take them off till I get to St. Louis basically. I stand and wait and wait in line. I look over and see V-Mac checking in and then she gets in the security line. My flight doesnt leave for another couple hours so I sit and wait for her. I exchange my last few euros, Im so happy to see American money but its only like 15 bucks. V-Mac gets thru the line and is in tears, her flight was boarding at that moment.

So I walk her all the way to her gate, there about 5 people in line and shes has to go. She starts crying cuz we have to leave each other and Im bawling anyways. This day truly SUCKS. We hug and take crying pictures, and finally she has to leave. I walk her up to her gate and watch her walk down the ramp. The people are staring at me like Im an idiot... but I dont care. I turn and go back to my gate, and wait till its time to board and leave. I wear my sunglasses the whole way home cuz Im passing out and crying (Im a chick cant help it) Its so weird to suddenly be alone and not see your new friends. Its honestly the worst feeling in the world (well at that point it was) I get to Chicago, stuck there for a bit then caught a plane to the Lou. People keep talking to me and its pissing me off cuz I cant talk and I just grab my throat and say I cant talk so they finally leave me alone. I refused to unpack my bag, I constantly look at my pics, and I miss the F out of my girls. V-Mac text me and tells me she "washed her clothes and then threw them all back into her bag because shes still in denial thats shes home". Thats the best way I can describe this day.

"OK, smile thru your tears!"

Day 12- Lucerne – Paris

2009-08-03T20:10:00.032-05:00

This was apparently our longest drive of the whole trip. I dont remember it, so I must of been having fun.

Wake up, go to breakfast. Me and Janine both have our luggage, so I pick mine up and she basically lets it just fall down the stairs. Its so loud and so funny. Hike thru town back to the bus. Gino gets on the mic and reads to us a book about random facts, I video tape right at the right moment, when he says that drivers pick their nose or someting which we had been making fun of Chris for it (since we can see his reflection)

I also took a video of V-Mac and Annika singing our Contiki song-I am SOOOO happy I did this! Its so nice to be able to hear Annikas and Brentons accent and see my Canadian homegirl V-Mac breaking it down on the bus, Gino acting silly and basically just hearing the song on the bus! The video doenst fit perfectly.... dam website template. But it was good effing times so I dont care!

I realize you prob dont want to watch it... but these are the people you have been reading about, and it brings a tear to my eye..... Annika even throws in some of the "re-write" lyrics :)
The video ends right when we pull up to our Parisian hotel. We park downstairs and Chris opens the thing where our luggage is kept and just stands there. We all grab our luggage, no biggie, head upstairs check in and go to our rooms. My view is basically a pile of rocks, later I find out V-Mac has an amazing view of the Eiffel tower... bullshit. We get ready and go to dinner. I didnt like the food so I gave it to Gino who apparently never stops eating. We notice that Chris and Ryan are not there yet, and we are almost done eating, except for the boys. I remember they kept getting up and grabbing bread or something from where the employees kept their stuff. Ryan finally comes in and tells us Chris had a collapsed lung and was sent to the hospital. (OMG!) He is working on gettin another driver from one of the campsites for our tour that night and that we will meet in about an hour. I have to go to one of the stores for medicine so Ryan tells me where to go and Noff offers to come with me. We walk down the street and find a store, buy medicine, we still have time so we go get a coffee cuz I am passing out tired (NOTE: sleep on the bus, I never did and only 3-5 hours a night will kill you) and sit outside and just hang out and talk. And the coffee was dam good. Back to hotel and hang out downstairs awaiting our new driver.....

Waiting and waiting for the new driver

They finally show up, we hop on the bus and the driver seems a little off. me and V-Lo sit behind him and you can see their face in the reflection in the mirror.... I swear he was twitching. Coke or torrets I swear, it had to be one or the other. Us girls in the front are flippin out. He starts to go and hits one of the columns. I then put my seatbelt on that none of us had even touched the entire trip. All the girls do the same and as we are heading out of the garage he is scraping something on the bottom of the bus.

Oh this is what the seat-belts are for

Ryan tells us its OK, those are scrape guards thats what they are for (I think he tryin to make the bus driver feel better...) So we drive around the city, Ryan gives us history lessons, we stop at Napoleons tomb, there a real opera goin on outside, go to the round-about around the Arc de Triomphe. It was later in the night, so it was kinda dead and we didnt get to see how crazy it really was (which is one of the reasons I wanted to sit up front in the first place) FInally, we make our way down to the Tower. Get out of the bus and start walking to it. YMCA'd.

Take buttloads of pics, have a couple minutes of free time then back to the bus and back to hotel. Most of us wanted to go out, but when we got back to the hotel I decided all I wanted to do was go to bed, so I did.

Day 13-Paris

2009-08-03T20:10:00.031-05:00

Day 13-Paris

So they day has come, its basically our last day together. Super sad. I dont count the next day cuz it sucks. Little did I know this day would be pretty much the most fun I had on this trip.

Wake up bright and early, grab breakfast and hop on the bus. We are all being dropped off at the Eiffel Tower for our group pic and then we have the whole day in Paris.

CREW

After this, Ryan takes some to the perfumery, and the rest of us walk to the tower and get in line to go up. Start getting harassed to buy Eiffel Tower stuff, so I ask the guy if he wants to buy my purse for 15 euros. Get our tickets, ride in 5 elevator to get up to the top. Janine gives me her jacket cuz it is COLD up there. (thanks boo) Go to the observation deck and Paris is freaking huge.

Our photographer, Australian Michael we ♥ him!

Most of the back of the bus crew!

When done and on the ground, a bunch of us try to come up with a game plan for the day. I dont know too much about Paris, so V-Mac (who does know alot and knows what to go see) decides the day. While everyone is standing around, trying to figure out where to go, we walk off cuz we are wasting our day! Walk down to the metro station, buy our day pass and hop on the metro thing. Im a moron and left my wallet in my luggage and all I had with me was cash I still needed to exchange so the girls pay my way. Trying to read the metro map line thing is impossible, I step aside and let V-Mac deal with that whole mess :) First stop, Arc de Triomphe. We go underground and and we are there. Walk around, watch the round-about traffic, take pics.

Now, as you know, we are serious power walkers so we walk all the way down more than a mile Avenue des Champs-Elysees (super famous street) and make certain stops along the way and finishing up with dinner at the Eiffel Tower. We stop so I can exchange my cash wouldnt you know theres a Zara store right in front of us. We go and and shop, I can say I officially fell in love with the store that day. Outside is a cute cafe so we walk to it to get lunch. Theres another Zara store (like 2 stores down from the other one...?) We sit and order and while waiting I go into the other Zara and keep shopping :) Come back and we eat, run into Kathleen and Andrew from Atlanta. Back to walking! We go to this fountain that V-Mac had to see, where the Tour de France goes pass and we pose for some more pics. A bachelor party walks up and one of the guys takes is clothes off and is standing there in a speedo, flippers and goggles. He then jumps in the fountain and goes swimming while his friends laugh at him. Time to go to the Louvre! I had just given a presentation on the Louvre and the architect I.M. Pei, so Im flippin excited.

Luckily Ryan had told us to go to the Virgin Megastore to buy our tickets, so we didnt have to wait in line. We did our last YMCA with some random kid I found and went inside. Its really hot inside and they way we navigate museums doesnt help. We know we want to see the Mona and looking thru the brochure we find some more things to go see.

We rush thru, find Venus de Milo (famous armless chick), Nike of Samothrace (which I LOVED in school) some more paintings and sculptures I knew, ran to see some stuff the Veronic/kas wanted to see. Then we go try to find the Notre Dame. Dam that notre, so tricky to find.... "just follow the tourist with fanny packs on!" Harassed by gypsies asking us if we spoke English, V-Mac keeps yelling "nine!" (german) and I just say "no I dont" and walk away haha. Stopped for some crepes, of course.

We wait in a short line and go inside (free I think) Its really dark but its really pretty. We walk around for awhile and as we are leaving I really want a picture of a gypsy and dam-it everytime they came up to me my camera wouldnt work. So this was the best I could do.

I like to call this one "Gypsies on Lunch break"

We head back down the street to go to a grocery store Ryan had pointed out to us thats underneath a department store. I wanted to recreate another pic I had saw in the brochure, us eating at the Tower. SO...... we are shopping for food, I walk off to go find something and I see this guy standing there staring. Creepy. I walk over to the girls and tell them creeper at 3 o'clock. I walk away from them to grab some food, and someone behind me says "you are so beautiful, you speak French?" uhg creepiest accent ever I just turn and look and start laughing like Im oblivious to what is going on and run to the Veronic/kas. We rush to go check out, the guy is behind us now saying the same stuff. Great I have to go weight the grapes and print off some tag for them, so I turn and laugh at the guy again and walk pass him, print off the tag and go back. V-Mac it literally staring at him with the most evil look on her face, Im laughing, we check out and run up the stairs and run behind a display while ducking. Im peeking above it and see the top of his head. So we decide to run out a side door, and as we are ducking and running, we run right into him, I had the wrong guy. We laugh and freak out and run out the store, across a small street into a pharmacy. They go looking for hand sanitizer and I stand by the door watching for this guy. He is standing across the small street waiting.... this is so freaking creepy. In the doorway Im standing in it is mirrored, so I can watch him without him actually seeing me. We were there for a good 15 minutes and finally one of the girls go and finds a guy who works there and he comes up to me in the doorway and he checks and we dont see the guy anymore. He tells us to dial 17 for emergencies and we leave. V-Lo is freaking out becuse apparently the airlines showed "Taken" on the trip over there. (I hadnt seen it at this point-chick gets kidnapped in Paris-who shows that on a flight to Europe?) So we wander down the street, checking our backs for our stalker. We are trying to walk to the tower but finally decide to get a cab. He drops us off , we stop at a stand and V-Mac gets a beret... duh and I get a coffee mug. Lame.

There is barely anyone in the grass, just some random groups of people hanging out or laying down. We pick a spot and had a picnic of more cheese and bread and wine. We just talked and talked, made fun of the stalker. I noticed V-Lo had a bee on her and she starts trying to get it away and ends up getting stung... "In Paris, you got a beret, you got a bee sting and I got a stalker" This was another one of the best moments of the trip. (the optional excursion was the cabaret show, which I heard was good, but we had no interest in going, and I am soooo happy we didnt.) We had some Austrian guy take pics of us, and again, some of the best from the trip. I will truly remember this moment forever!

Ryan had told us that after the cabaret show, we were all going to meet next door to the Moulin Rouge at O'Sullivans. So we get back to the hotel and get ready for the last night. So, we find the metro and find our way to the bar, we get lost and go the wrong way, get off the thing go up and down stairs, catch other trains, thank God I am not the one who is figuring this out I would have just stayed at the hotel. So, as we are walking down to the platform ahead of us is some black guy with his pants coming down and his hands down like scratching his ass..?? Wtf? We keep walking and the guy is pulling his pants down more and more, he is shitting, yes I said shitting on himself. (We had just walked passed him at this point) This is the most disgusting thing I have ever witnessed in my life. We keep walking down and looking back, people just walk pass him, giving him dirty looks but mostly ignoring him. One of the subways blows by and sends his stench all the way down the platform, people are moving farther down to get away but you cant run from the smell!!! I think all 3 of us are gagging and jump on our subway when it pulls up. V-Lo pulls out her hand sanitizer and we all use it cuz we just feel dirty now. (Plus the subways are G R O S S) "In Paris, you got a beret, you got a bee sting, I got a stalker and we all got to see a man shit himself."

We make it to our stop, rush upstairs and there is the Moulin Rouge in front of us.

We go up to the scariest biggest looking bouncers I have ever seen and go in to find out friends. We hang out and drink for awhile and finish up the song re-write. Go outside and they all rehearse. Ryan tries to see if they would let us perform the song (hells no I would not go up there!) but its not hooked up so we outside to a little area in between the streets and everyone is there and they perform the song, and I record it :)

LYRICS (since they all suck at singing... heres the lyrics-this really describes our trip)

You never really think what a trip can be, Hitting it up in London with places to see, It was Aussie's & Kiwi's & USA, Columbia, Brazil, & Canada eh! Making good friends along the way, Drinking all night and passing out all day. After we boarded, stinking with booze, We were off to hit up our 2 week cruise. And it was Fun Fun Fun getting shittered, Fun Fun Fun I need a pisser! Fun Fun Fun & into Amsterdam... We got on our boat cruise, flowing with booze, We walked through the district, and saw lots of BOOBS! We got to the sex show, with "break - fucking" guy, And onto the coffee shop to get really high. And it was Fun Fun Fun, "white widow"" Fun Fun Fun, big black dildo" Fun Fun Fun & into Germany...We hoped on our bike, with Jolly our guide, Skulling some steins, it was a drunk ass ride, Off to the beer halls, for knuckles and steins, We starved for a while, but had a good time. And it was Fun Fun Fun, I fucked my toe up Fun Fun Fun, where's my ass man? Fun Fun Fun & into Austria...

This country had, a kick ass view, Fuck all worth singing too. Windy roads & snowy mountain tops, This describes our 1 night stop. And it was Fun Fun Fun, white water rafting, Fun Fun Fun, cows and grass. Fun Fun Fun, bored off our ass, and into italy... Drinking in public, against the act, Where was our manager, on that fun fact?! Who flew off the bus? It was V-mac, The driver felt up a passengers rack. And it was Fun Fun Fun, fuck all this walking, Fun Fun Fun, bitch stop talking! Fun Fun Fun, I'm fucking hungry!

Had a shit view with, no beer just wine, Onto the club, to have a good time. Got shittered really quick, Gino carried Nick, Had to put up with, 16 year old SHIT! And it was Fun Fun Fun "My bed is outside!" Fun Fun Fun, MYSTERY HOOK UP! Fun Fun Fun & onto Swiss town. We too got pissed, and thrown in a jail, Drinking outside, getting harrased by gay males.
And it was Fun Fun Fun, went up the mountain, Fun Fun Fun, Lion Fountain, Fun Fun Fun & into France. The bus got hit, we all screamed SHIT!!!! Went to a cabert, Hot chicks & gays, End of our trip, that's pretty shit, It's been a blast, memories to last. And it was Fun Fun Fun. Eiffel tower, Fun Fun Fun. I need clean clothes...

(Jason, Noff, Nick, Annika, Brenton, Gino, V-Mac & me)

We head back in and I dont remember much of the ret of the night. Me and Celeste do a shot of Absinthe, which I will blame for my behavior and memory loss ha! I do remember me and her were outside smoking and talking when a bunch of guys surround us and talk to us, and then I remember arms coming out of nowhere, grabbing us everywhere, literally molested in 3 seconds. I grabbed her hand and ran back, I didnt even look across the street for cars I just ran scared as hell. We are looking for anyone we know at that point and I run into Gino and freak out on him telling him what happened. So at this point, Im going to leave a bunch of stuff out..... scandalous.... Everyone whos left is basically shittered and Nick is missing, find him up at the bar later with some chick haaaaa. Time to leave so we are back to standing in that area outside and Im jumping all over Nick taking pictures with the boys. It was so much fun and I barely remember any of it. Nick says we have to get a cab but I dont have money i just have my metro pass (like Im really gonna be able to find my way home?) So Nick or someone has to pay for me, we get back to hotel and Brenton and I go back to the boys room. I remember we said something about staying up all night but we just hang out, Im wrestling Gino, Nick is passing out on the bed next to us, Brentons taking pics of all of it and I have some solid gold creeper shots of Nick watching us~hilarious trust me. So we decide to go to bed I guess cuz we pass out.

Day 11- Florence – Lucerne

2009-08-03T19:34:00.011-05:00

Wake up early, again. I really dont feel like getting ready since Im a tad hungover again so I wear my pajamas on the bus and put clothes in my bookbag. We are all downstairs waiting for Chris and Ryan (they stayed at a different hotel since the room reservations were messed up) We must have waited about 20-30 min my luggage becomes my couch, I never did find out what the hold up was . Me and V-Mac do our daily get to the front of the line so Noff doesn't steal our seat. They boys pull up, and while we are standing there some old lady thinks our bus is for her...? or something and gets on our bus. She finally gets it and leaves. I had told the girls that we should sit up front around the time we get into Paris and Chris and Ryan said they wanted us to, so I believe we decided to make the move that day. Everyone was beginning to come sit in the back with me and laying down back there with Brenton and Annika and whoever else was gettin crowded. So me and V-Mac take the 2 front seats, V-lo behind us. And wouldnt you know the back of the bus crew all start movin up to the front.We kept ourselves occupied, did the rest stop thing again. I go in with pink plaid pants on I so dont care. Pass Lake Como where George Cloony lives... so amazing looking. V-Mac yells for someone to get the pic (since she barely takes any the whole trip so this was a daily occurrence :) Get into Switzerland, all you see is blue and green, its soooooo pretty. Ryan gives us our daily history lesson, this country is so interesting to me. Doctors make as much as janitors?? Get to our stop to take a ride up Mt. Strateshorn. I go change my clothes and we get in this thing and ride up to the cable car ride. Hop on that, and take a scary ride up to the top. My God this town is so beautiful. Get to the top and we have time to wander the trails up or down. Again, thanks to the night before I can barely make it up any of the trails and find a bench to hang out on.

Go back to the observation deck, do a YMCA with our fill-in Annika.

Ride back down is scarier, get back on the bus and drive to where our hotel is. We have to go to the Swiss Army Knife store, maybe there was another demo I dont know. I already have a pink swiss army knife and I tell V-Lo about this and she buys the same one with her name on it! I go hang out outside, mostly alot of the stores are closing and its still early. We have some free time so I have to find some swiss chocolate for my mom, I promised her. I bought A TON. Hang out outside, and a bunch of us decide we have to go find the Chapel Bridege. We only have like 20-30 minutes so we high tail it to the bridge, do another YMCA with our fill in Nick, and he is SO excited! Its so cute. This area is quite possible the most beautiful thing Ive ever seen. Swans are swimming in the lake/river whatever it is. Mountains in the background, the building architecture is awesome. Time to meet back at the bus.

This is another "pack an overnight bag cuz there is a short walk and no elevators at the hotel" day. I could have packed one when we parked, but I really didnt want to be without all my stuff and I needed to clean up all my stuff, so I take the whole thing with me (many did). The hotel is a converted jail, so there is a code to get into the room, the are bars on the windows, the beds are like cots. A lot of people were freaked out about this and a lot did not like that. I already knew about all of this and honestly I thought it was really cool. Very clean, rooms were small, nothing but 2 beds, a chair in between those and a bathroom. Thats it. Lugging our luggage up 2 fights of stair did in fact, completely suck tho.

Take a shower, get ready for dinner, which was the most odd thing ever. Rice and chicken curry something?? After dinner Ryan says we have to wait a little bit for a walk up to the Lion Monument. The back of the bus crew was ready and we didnt feel like waiting, so we decide we have a map we will go find it and hang out there and wait for the rest of them. So we make our ways there, the town is so clean and quite and really nice. The walk was fun and then we finally make it to the monument. We throw money in, talk about throwing Nick in the water, sit on the ledge and Rina is teaching people games or something. Ryan makes it there with the rest of the group and we basically hang out and talk.

He takes us on another walk thru the town, down to the Chapel Bridge. Its a quite night, just chilling out and standing around. I call home and tell my mom Im not coming home, Im gonna stay in London for an extra week :) (It didnt happen) She noticed that I can barely talk anymore, thanks to my Australian cold I am losing my voice. Also my dam cameras battery dies which sucks because i have no pics from that fun night! So all the following pics are stolen from my buddies.

Brenton is super classy

SInce its a quite night,the back of the bus crew decide to go to a grocery store, buy some booze and hang out somewhere to drink. Get our stuff, and walk back to the hotel. Run into some of our friends at the bar next to our hotel (gay bar??) and since we really have no place to go and cant take our drinks into the bar, we decide to sit in front of the hotel in the street and drink. Me and V-Mac split the rest of her vodka and some vitamin juice... yum.

Laying in the street works for a little bit until some gay drunk guys come and harass us, are yelling stuff, his friends say sorry cuz the guy is plastered and being so loud. People who worked at the hotel come out and yell at us and we try to tell him its not even us. He agrees to let us come inside and drink in the front room, so we do. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of re-writing our Contiki day song, so everybody pitches in and starts coming up with lyrics, all based on the happenings of our entire trip. Im falling asleep but I stayed for the whole re-write.

The re-write starts

Day 10- Rome – Florence

2009-08-03T19:33:00.014-05:00

So we head out to Florence. Once again, I dont remember the bus trip there. As we get into town, Ryan tells us we are having our group picture that day, before we go back to the hotel. Great, I look like crap wearin scrubbin clothes and a hat. He first takes us to some leather store, and herds everyone into some room, I think. Me and Rina wander off around the store and everyones in some leather demo haha, I knew they were going to that so we go by one of the windows and laugh at them. When they are done we look around the shop and then Ryan takes us for another little walk and I believe we had some free time to look around, and then meet back for another walking tour. Oh joy... us girls go straight to "the best gelato stand in all of Italy". Walk around... mostly bored. We dont really do much of anything except complain about some stuff and how we have to take our pic first. As we are making our way towards the meeting point, we come across Zara, some store they all knew. OMG I love this place. We are almost late but we buy stuff anyways.

Go and meet Ryan. He tells us we will only have an hour or so to get ready at the hotel before we go out that night or something along those lines. I think traffic or something messed the timing up. Not happy.... no way me and my roommate can get ready that fast. He hands over to some chick and listen to her go on and on about I have no idea what. Art and stuff, I should pay attention, but Im just not into it. We walk and walk, see a fake of David, walk some more. Stop and take pics with the bridges I always think about when I think of Florence. Next to us is this bad ass wall with all kinds of graffiti so I take tons of pics with it, someone wrote "conti" and its in the background of my pic so I finished writing "contiki" on it in photoshop when I get home :)

Walk some more come across the only thing I wanted to see here.... The Duomo. (thats a church, btw) The lady is talking, no one is paying attention, gypsies try to Rina, she screams, lady is still talking, I go into a store and shop, get some water. Come out shes stiiiiill talking. Finally its done, we do a YMCA, and have more free time. Us 4 are like screw this, we have all this free time when we could be goin to get ready. So, we come up with a brilliant plan to go find Ryan, somewhere in this huge city... We go all the way back to the leather place to see if they have his phone number, they dont. We sit on the curb, trying to come up with a plan. We have the name of the hotel, but a cab will cost a lot, apparently our hotel is not very close to the city. We get up, shop a little at the stores there and someone sees Ryan. So we cant find a way back so he tells us to stay at this restaurant and he goes and meets everyone at the meeting point. When he comes back we find out there is not enough time for our group pic (YES!) and that we will do it our last day in Paris. Walk a mile back to the bus and finally we are going to our hotel, we have 1 hour to get ready.

Now this part sucks. Get in our hotel, theres some problems with rooms not being booked... so we wait, finally me and Janine get our key, rush towards the elevators and I totally admit Im cutting in line to get on the 2 persons elevator. I admit it and I even say Im sorry, but I had already said this night was my bday party! Get to our room.... the freaking key doesnt work. Janine gets a phone call from NBC so I go to the front desk, shes watching the luggage. They guy says he will meet me up there, so I go back, Janine is gone. Guy finally comes up 15 minutes later. I called the first shower, and our shower is um, maybe 2' X 2'. No joke. Janine comes back and said she wandered down to the first or second floor and ran into Nick and Gino and was in their room (?) That shower is impossibly small so I just leave the shower curtain open and water is all over the floor. Theres a drain there so I figured they expect it :) Shower isnt draining.... now its Janines turn haha. The only plug in the room is in the bathroom so I plug it in and close the door so she can take a shower. Ten minutes in, my hair dryer pops and dies. I look down and notice the carpet is soaking wet. I open the door and there is water everywhere. The towels are "literally, floating away". Its sooooo funny but I am sooooo rushed.

So great. Now I dont have electric in the room cuz I blew the fuse. I get the boys room number from Janine (none of our rooms were by each other, at least ours wasnt) Call and Gino keeps f'n with me on the phone talking about stupid stuff and Im gettin pissed cuz we literally have minutes. So Janine runs down to their room, blow drys her hair, I do my make-up. She comes back, I run down to their room and dry and straighten my hair. Wouldn't you know it, they are laying around, wasting time and Im like out of breath pissed off about everything right now. AND they have a huge ass tub in their room. Run back up to finish my hair, she runs back down to straighten her hair. We actually are done right on time.

Go down and catch the bus to go to dinner. Its outside and saposta be some "amazing Florence dinner". Some sweaty big guy comes out and sits at this little piano..... omg seriously, he looks like Meatloaf, and then he starts singing its soooo ridiculous!!!! We are laughing our asses off and he is so into it the whole time and you know he heard us laughing! The only thing we have to drink is wine, so I pretty much drank water the whole time. Food was good, but way too much of it. I knew I was drinking that night so I didnt eat much.

"Meatloaf"

Its gettin dark and it times to get back on the bus to go to the disco. This bus ride is absolutely out of control, I was totally sober and acting crazy. Gonna have to say this was one of the best moments also. Brentons has his feet in the storage rack things and hanging upside down. Taking pictures left and right, even Ryan comes back and hangs out.

"The Back of the Bus Crew"

Get to the club... its dead. Then people start coming in. I go grab my drink and theres some guy staring at me. Ignore. Its getting more and more crowded. The smoking room is upstairs so me and the boys head up to where the more "club" like part is. I find out later they had all planned to sing happy birthday to me on the mic downstairs, and then they couldnt find me oops! So basically I look around upstairs and its packed. I only remember random stuff from here on out: dancing to Britney and Muzzle being up with the DJ dancin like a fool, we are all yellin at her to keep doin it. I run right into that guy who was staring at me downstairs and he starts talking to me, first thing I did was (accidently) throw his drink on the floor. Hes not mad gets another one. His name is Jeffery and hes from France. Then I rememebr talking to this other guy for a good 20 minutes or so, and these little kids kept coming up to us and wouldnt leave (16 yr old Barcelona f*cks, as we end up calling them) Finally I tell them that, A. Im almost old enough to be their mommy and B. Im trying to talk to my boyfriend. They dont believe hes my boyfriend and tell me to kiss him, so I did. And they leave! After this...... I see 2 people from our group all randomly over each other.... "Mystery Hook-up" I take a pic of them it sooo random. Dan from New Zealand has "David" underwear on, Gino is picking him up, then they are up in the cage like thing dancing.... Muzzle is up there and everyone can see her underwear.... While sitting on the couch with random Italilian guys I drop my camera and permanently screw my lens cap up.... trying to talk to the Italian boy and Gino has to translate, who knows what he was saying.... Kissing the Italian boy some more... Someone running out of our group and randomly kissing me, then running away haha.. wanting to leave and sitting outside with Celeste with our local boys.

"David underwear & white boy dancing"

Taking a break?

Me, Silvia, V-Lo, V-Mac, Kate & Rina & Annika up front

They know Madonna in Florence?

Girls

Love this– Michael & V-Mac

Im gonna go ahead and be honest, I have no idea how I was drunk since I didnt buy anything, and dont remember the cab ride home. It was a good bday!! Get back to hotel and Noff is outside, sleeping HA!!! Annika and Brenton start fighting so we walk away, I go up to my room, oh ya my key doesnt work, have to go back down to the front desk, he walks me back and opens it, and then he fixed the fuse box so we have electric again! I look at Janine, and the girl is wearing the dress she wore to the club that night (cuz she didnt have no light) it was hilarious! She jumps out of bed out of no where and tells me to "go to f'ing bed" then realizes what is going on and laughs, goes back to bed. I go out to smoke and there are like 5 doors I gotta open, they are banging into each other and being loud Im laughing, Janine wakes up again shes getting mad, so I say "f'ing neighbors" and roll my eyes. She goes back to bed. So, so, so funny I tell ya.

Day 9- Rome... And its also my birthday!

2009-08-03T19:32:00.008-05:00

I have no idea what time I went to bed, Im guessing I had to get up a few hours after that because I woke up still drunk and feeling awesome. Dont remember getting ready, barely remember breakfast but Im sure it was more bread and cheese and orange water. We somehow get to a train station, totally ghetto but the train was 2 stories, that was cool. We get dropped off and Ryan takes us to Vatican City. Its like 8 am, Im still drunk and its already freaking hot. Im pretty sure I bought 10 bottled waters this day. We walk thru out Vatican City (since its technically its own country), get to the museum and wait maybe 10-20 minutes. There are tons of people already in line, but it goes by quick. (and you will lose everyone here so stick with a buddy). When we get inside and upstairs to buy our ticket. Apparently you can can get a discount if you have a student ID, which of course I didnt have with me but the guy at the booth gave me student or child price or something for both me and Noff. Then he winked at me, gross old man. (Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to save a buck :)

Considering my late night antics, I could care less about the next 2 hours. I just walked and walked, took pics of whatever was next to me or above me. This place is like a maze with so many hallways and corridors and whatever else there was. I wasnt exactly paying attention. If you walk away from your group, you WILL lose them, a lesson learned by poor Janine later on. We keep making our way to the Sistine Chapel, I see some statues Ive had to take tests on so that makes me happy. More walking, this place is freakin ridiculous. I had heard that you cant take pics of the ceiling in the Sistine, but people were so you know I took a pic of The Creation Of Adam!

Ryan had told us that there are 2 exits from that point, and to try to sneak into a tour group so we could exit to the right. So me, Annika, Brenton, Jason, Michael, Noff, and Rina all mix in with some group and I remember they had these things around their neck, indicating they were with a tour, and the tour guide walking by everyone counting everyone, so I raise my arm to scratch my hear and "hide" that Im not wearing one of these neck things, and he counts all of us! So when they start down the stairs we mix in and kinda go ahead of all of them and laugh about it. I know there was more to see at this exit at the right but I honestly dont really remember what, popes burial stuff. While waiting in line one of the guards tells Annika her short it too short, Rina has shorts on so she cant go in, she had to leave and wait for all of us at the exit.. Annika pulls jeans out of her bookbag and we all stand around her to hide her so she can change, right there in front of everyone. We go down some stairs, see the graves of old popes, walk some more.... and more. Im miserable at this point, all I want to do is go back to bed. We find Rina outside and come up with a plan. Its like 10-11 am and we have to meet at around 4 for the Forum/Colosseum tours, which is quiet a while from then. I demand that we find some AC and food, Im almost dying. After which, we decide that we should just walk to our meeting point, that should take all day. Normally I would have been so excited to have a day in Rome but I literally did not care :( We walked all day in the heat, pulled over to "pass out" a few times. Time passes and we are pretty close to the Colosseum but we still have like an hour or so, so me and Rina tell everyone we will meet them there and go shopping, buy some Rome souvenirs, look for clothes for the big night out in Florence.

Go to meet Ryan and the rest of the group outside the train station. I just want to lay on the floor and sleep. This day never ends. Then we walk all the way back to the Roman Forum and go to our "walking tour" aka "bitch stop talking". Ryan tells her to take it easy on us since we had a big night the night before. Janine is missing, Celeste gets a phone call from her, apparently since she lost everyone at Vatican City, she had been alone the whole day wondering around Rome. Celeste thinks shes drunk cuz she went to a cafe and ordered wine (and Janine later tells me she thinks they felt sorry for her because she was alone so they gave her the whole bottle) I have no idea what the tour guide told us and I didnt care because I knew alot of this stuff anyways. I sit on a Roman stump and looking around pretty much everyone looks miserable, hot and hungover. We walk and stop and look at more stuff, she keeps talking, repeat. Go to Colosseum, take some pics and then get to go in and this makes me feel a little bit better. Do a YMCA, sit around and she keeps taking and talking. When it was finally done we rush out of there because I think we thought it was time to go back to the hotel. (I rushed out of the Colosseum???? WTF?) Wait some more trying to find Ryan, its not time to leave he tells us to wait up stairs at the train station and then we all walk to find some food. Rina entertains us with weird Korean stories about her and her friend eating birds cooked in its eggs and does all these impressions of the birds. Its so funny because she is so serious about this and we are literally falling out of our chairs. We ask Ryan about his job and he tells us some crazy stuff that has happened to him (putting a girl in the psycho ward in Venice..???)

FINALLY we are done, its time to meet everyone and go back to the hotel. Try to use a phone to call home and it pisses me off until i finally get it to work. That night we hang out in Brenton and Annikas room with the Canadians, we all pretty much feel like sh*t and call it a night. Happy birthday to me.

Day 8- Venice – Rome

2009-08-03T19:31:00.016-05:00

Back to the bus and heading to Rome finally! People are coming up with interesting ways to sleep on the bus (see first pic of Brenton in the isle). Get into town early in the day/afternoon for a walking tour with Ryan. We have to be "secretive" about it since Italian tourism could give him a ticket for this, only "real" guides can do tours like this. So before every place we go to, he pulls us in a circle and he tells us some stuff before we get to them. Right from the start there is some guy trying to get Ryan to buy roses for the girls and for like 5 minutes he tells him no. So we walk through the streets, he pulls us aside and he tells us about the Spanish Steps, then we all run to it. Not very crowded at all. We take photos, we hang out, me n V-Mac go up to the top then we all meet up and walk towards the Trevi Fountain. He warns us about pick-pocketers cuz it was pretty crowded and we are off to go take more pictures. We start walking again and I see a familiar building down the street.... I get excited and ask Ryan what it is.. its the Pantheon. I tell him I'll take over this part of the tour... Se we run inside, take pics and videos. Im so excited considering I had to take hard core test over this building (poor Rina, I always have to give her all my history lessons cuz I dont think she knew too much about Italy). Outside we do a YMCA of course.

Since we have another day in Rome (and a mandatory day off for Chris) Ryan tells us we are going to have a party in the parking lot/bus so we go to a Roman grocery store and stock up on booze, Im so excited for this night because at midnight it will officially be my birthday! We grab our stuff, go to dinner down the street at a restaurant. Its decent. Some weird stuff tho. We grab our booze bags and keep walking... down the street I see the Colosseum its so random to see that first of all in real life, but there mixed in with modern Rome. (also passed a ton of ruins/Roman Forum, yes Im a nerd this stuff excites me). Of course we pull out another YMCA, its one of my favorite pics from this entire trip. Next to it is the Arch of Constantine. Excitement once again. Then its time to walk back to the bus, ride about an hour or so to the hotel and get ready for the party in the parking lot!

Me and Rina head down to the bus, Chris is blasting music and dancing like hes a thug. I convince him to let me keep my red bull in the fridge and start drinkin my bottle of jager I got in Germany. Most everyone comes this night, I swear one of the best nights of the trip! Its so freaking hot we are sweating like dogs. Well from what I can remember. Drinking contest start, V-Mac hanging out the window, straddling the bus driver, sitting in the drivers seat, blasting Lady GaGa and or 5 Years Time tour song, dancing on the chairs, doing pull ups in the door frame, turns midnight woo hoo its my bday!. V-Mac flys down the stairs and all I see is her fly out and land on her knees! I believe her massive bruising started here in Rome. Around this time someone noticed that Chris really has a hairy chest, so we pretty much undo his shirt, take pics playing with his chest, pretty much molesting him (sorry...) Its getting pretty late, some go to bed, my jager is gone, Im pretty trashed. Chris lock up the bus
and me, chris, V-Mac, Noff head up to the front of the hotel. Janine, Celeste, and Chrisine pull up in a cab (they stayed in town and went out). Around this time there was a bra being passed around, I put it on Chris, got AMAZING pics at this point... ha! I remember Chris smelling it and saying it smelled fresh. Someone got felt up, we start taking ridiculous pics.... cant post those... About this time me and Chris go "UFC" on each other in the grass and apparently my head got slammed into this plastic thing, I SWEAR I dont remember it nor did I feel it- Jager- Everyone goes to bed and V-Mac later tells me she had to "literally throw me and Chris into the elevators" to get us to go to bed because we wanted to stay out there. This b-day is awesome so far!

Day 7- Innsbrook – Venice

2009-08-03T19:30:00.007-05:00

The reason I picked this trip.... Italy. Venice. Ive been dreaming about going to Venice for sooooo long and I only had a few hours there :( Gettin into Italy, I made sure I had pizza at the rest stop. Actually I eat pizza everywhere in Italy. And gelato.

Its getting hotter. We are all starting to sweat. Ryan and Chris are at the back of the bus checking out the AC belt thing, its breaking..? maybe? We get into town and have to take a ferry to Venice. Im positive Im going to start crying Im so excited. Ride takes aout 30 minutes or so, and we start walking towards St. Marks Square. Im officially sweating it so hot. We have to go to a glass making demo so we wait around outside for a few minutes, I exchange some money and while talking to Ryan, a bird above us shat right between us, it was so funny. Apparently these birds are accustom to people and they are not afraid, they walk right by you, do dive bombs by your head as they fly by.

Take pics of St. Marks Basicilla & Square, & Doges Palace. We go to our demo, its even hotter in there. He makes a horse... wow, we go into the next room and some guy is showing us all stuff, Im not paying attention so as soon as thats done me n my crew run out of there, get lost in the builiding. We were already told our map is absolutly useless and boy is it. It is nothing but small ally way after small ally way. I dont even know if I saw a road sign. All I knew was we had a certain amount of time before the gondola ride so we knew we wanted to go to the Bridge Rialto and to get there you just wander in a certain direction and look up for yellow signs/arrows painted in the sides of buildings. We make it and take butt loads of pics, keep walking around more, find gelato and you know we all ate a buttload it it. Went to the other side of the bridge and took some amazing pics that are some of my fav's from this trip. I cant stress this enough, take a million photos! We head to Doges Palace and power walked threw the entire place. Took forever to find the Bridge of Sighs, find it, and do a YMCA of course.

Time for the gondola ride.... I see a really hot gondolier in red, Oh I love him! Dam, hes not our driver. So were off and the boys brought us wine. These boats are so unstable I really thought I was gonna fall out prob 5 times. We go thru canals and Im amazed that some of the buildings have doors that open up to the canals, so random. But its awesome, I dont care if it cost too much and doing it thru Contiki is expensive, I loved every seocnd of it. I will always remember Rina asking if she "could touch" (one if the buildings) and out driver says "No, Im married.." Also people on bridges taking pics of us and her yelling to them to tag her on Facebook. Good freakin times. We get our into a bigger canal and all the other boats are by us, and I see my hot gondalier (not to mention, our driver was gorgeous too...) So, Im drinkin wine Im feelin good and I start yelling to Megan who has my husband as her driver, that her gondalier is hot!!! like 5 times. Then his boat is right next to ours n him and our driver are talking. I start videotaping, and out of nowhere they switch boats and Im officially in heaven :) He then pulls Rina up to drive, and Im so mad cuz I had originally called that seat with V-Mac before we got on the boat. Then I get to go up, and Im better :) How I didnt fall into the funky water, I dont know.

Ride is over, some people go to that Venecian dinner, we dont and do more power walking, back to Rialto and just checking out the place. Its so cool here. Some Italians are shady, weird, most are horny and touchy feely. We only have a little bit of more time and since it is so dam hot here me and V-Lo want to buy some dresses, we find a shop thats still open and I swear we tried on 6 dresses in 15 minutes. I dont even care that the dress I bought is way to big on me I am desperate. Power walkers and now power shoppers. When its time to leave we go back to the boat, back to the bus and drive forever to our hotel. The bus was parked next to a Contiki campsite and Ryan tried to see if we could come in and hang out but they wouldnt let us. At the hotel some of us go out to this little bar and I swear the black woman working were like amazon chicks. So random looking. We drink and eat outside, its a quite night, and go to bed.

Day 6- Munich – Tyrol & Innsbrook

2009-08-03T19:29:00.007-05:00

Wake up early again and go to breakfast of more cheese and bread and ham. This place actually had a more realistic orange juice (sometimes it was like orange water). I learn to steal fruit from breakfast time for the bus rides and then maybe you wont spend money at the rest stops. The drive is getting better and better because we are gettn into the Alps. Mountains everywhere. We go straight to Tyrol for the white water rafting (so have your stuff with you, like a swimsuit). We suit up in super hot wet suits, Rina walks out in her suit and her heels ha, and everyone who didnt do this excursion leave to go to our meeting point. These tour guys are super hot and they all sound like Arnold. The rest of us go and jump around on the boats, learn some of the stuff to do, then we carry our boats to the river.

Now, luckily I had about 2-3 hours of sleep so this whole rafting thing SUCKS for me, I can barely lift the boat over my head and walk it down to the river. All I wanted to do was go lay in the dirt and sleep. We get to the water and they tell us to go into and see how cold it is. Its like freaking swimming in ice water, no joke. This day just keeps getting better. We jump in the boat and get to work. All the paddeling is really hard to do for me but Im a trooper and make it thru. The rapids are alot of fun and during calmer times we all start jumpin in, I contemplate it cuz I really didnt want to have to deal with my hair being wet later on, but I figure 'when in Austria..' so me and Canadian Jason do it. OMG worst thing ever, its so cold Im literally in shock and cant breath, the sun in right in my eyes I cant see, Im sick from "The Ausralian Cold" from Brenton and I have no energy... Im pulled back into the boat and now I cant get up cuz of my life jacket. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Well, looking back at it it was. Im pretty sure I dont jump back in the rest of the time. **Wish I had a water proof camera, amazing scenery, the water is white-ish, tour guides doing back flips off the boats, it was a good time. I just feel like crap.

At our finishing point we go and change into clothes and the rest of my group is there playing volleyball and laying around. We go get some food and then I go watch them play and lay in the sun and stare at the mountains. Back on the bus and going to Innsbruck and walk around the town. Ryan shows us some building with a gold roof, then we have an hour or so till we have to meet back. Me and Rina had planned on going to a park we found to lay in the sun and watch Twilight on my iPod, but decide to go walk around and shop and most definatly find coffee. The buildings are pink and its really nice here. Me and V-Mac stock up on some major medicine becuase we are really feeling like crap and getting siiiiiick. (I though that was saposta happen at the end of the trip?)

Meet everyone and back on the bus to go to our hotel. Me and V-Mac are in the back, both listening to our iPods and are taking the most ridiculous videos and not one person sees us. Cute little towns and buildings. Lots of windy roads up into the mountains. Hotel is OK, kinda old-charm-like I guess you could say. Elevators are soo small, you can fit only 2 people in most of them. We have a little while before dinner so I clean up my suitcase, organize my stuff, wash my tank tops in the sink. (Do this stuff at night, dont wait to get your stuff together in the morning!!) Dinner is decent, but I rememebr alot of flies everywhere. We start having x-rated conversations and Korean Rina from San Fran literally has her eyes opened. I am amazed at how sheltered she is!

**Drinks are not included at this dinner, which they do not tell you - Stock up on water bottles (the real big ones at the rest stops) You will buy these everyday trust me.

We go outside to sit on the patio and drink, some go into town (this is a sleepy little town) While standing there I decide I just want to go to bed and not hang out so I call it a night and go finish up packing my stuff, charge some stuff with Janines converter becuase Im an idiot and lost mine in Munich, and go to bed.

Day 5- St. Goar – Munich

2009-08-03T19:28:00.009-05:00

** Im going to go ahead and apologize for how these pics are showing up in a long line.... Im a designer and should know how to fix these things, so Im going to go ahead and blame it on the template :)

So we wake up, go to breakfast get our stuff to the coach. Right behind the hotel is a beer stein place and also the worlds largest coo coo clock (Guiness Records baby). So we have to go to the beer stein place and listen to the guy talk about them, yada yada, some people buy stuff or head across the street to buy Birkenstocks (? random I know) Most of us sit around and talk and I take the most glamourous pic of V-Mac looking like The Little Mermaid :) Back on the bus and now going to Munich.

I sleep the whole way there, this is the most I sleep on the bus the whole trip. Also I decided I did not like the seat I originally sat in, so I took over the back seat the day before. I LOVE it, I can lay down and I have a pillow so its amazing. (BRING A PILLOW!!! and even a small blanket I wish I would have had one) Have a few of the seat recliner things in my back, but I adapt. At the first rest stop the Veronic/kas buy Chris some cake or something and we all sing happy bday to him. All the rest stops are kind of weird, they have restaurants or McD's/Burger Kings, shopping for crap. Also, you have to pay to use the "toilettes". A few days later we find out that you can use the little voucher you get (when u pay to go to the bathroom) and get discounts off food and other purchases.

Back to the bus and then back to sleeping! The hotel is waaaay better than I expected, the rooms are nice and the beds comfy.

Its around afternoon time, so we go to our bike tour w/ "Jolly", he was interesting and wore a red winter hat I remember. He took us all around, showed us tons of historical stuff. Were able to stop every so often, take pics and walk around. Went into this church... wow it was sooo beaut! We ride thru a park and stopped at a beer garden and some drank huge steins of beer,us girls split a huge pretzel, then back on the bike, Annika almost hits another chick on a bike, this is hilarious! Girls, if you have a purse, esp one that you carry on your shoulder, this will suck!! Take a backpack or one with a long strap so you can wear it over your shoulder/head.

Tour

Drop of the bikes and go to the HB, (cant spell the name) and we are already told that they dont like us Contikiers cuz they rarely tip. We tell our server up front we tip but that really does no good. Its so big and crowded and at first our whole group cant sit together till 3 large tables get up so we take those. Apparently none of the chicks knew if that table was theirs or maybe they just didnt want to wait on us so I swear we sat there for 45 min and had to put all the dirty dishes at the end of the table, those literally sit there the whole time. Lots of people order pork knuckle, which Ryan recommended, and to me it look repulsive! The potatoes were spongy too gross. Me and V-Lo get dessert and drink wine, but we take fake pics with other peoples beer steins. Also, since it is Chris's bday, he actualy gets to join us (usually he has to go to bed and get a certain amount of sleep all the other nights).

Afterwards some of us go to the hotel bar to drink some more, Brenton starts eating the centerpiece. Good times. We hang out outside, we mess wtih the bartenders becuase he gets mad at Brenton. I actually rememebr Brenton and V-Mac going behind the bar with him a couple times. Then up to Brentons room to drink some more and hang out. We ended up meeting 2 girls who were on the road to Athens tour and they were kinda miserable. They said their group sucked and they took a pic of all of us cuz "we were more fun than their group". So, I think that the people on your tour are one of the top reasons why your trip we be great or will mostly suck. Luckily I had an amazing group of people and I loved each and everyone so it made my trip 100 times better. Off to bed and Im locked out because my roommate had the key (get your own key every time you can) I go play on facebook and email my mom and daughter, phones are hard to find and use. Its about 4 am and I have to be up at 6:30...

Noff, Chris, V-Lo, Janine, V-Mac, Rina, me & Annika

Driver and TM Chris & Ryan~Super hot pic

Rina & moi with our fake beers

Day 4-Amsterdam – St. Goar

2009-08-02T19:06:00.012-05:00

Wake up early, pack my stuff up, eat breakfast and get on the bus. Today we have the morning/afternoon in Amsterdam so we go to the Anne Frank House. One thing Ive noticed so far is that in Europe you can take pictures in alot of the museums. We have to pay about 21 Euros to get it and we walk through the house. I unfortunatly dont know a whole lot on the subject, but I read it was a must do. You get an overview of what happened in that house who and why they hid, etc.

After the museum, we all split up and went all over the city for our free time. I was with the Veronic/kas and the power walking began. Us girls all did a fab fab job of rushing through every city, stopping for about 5 seconds at attractions, take a pic and kept going, it was like we all had an unsaid understanding or something..? I of course wanted to find the big yellow shoe I saw in the brochure so we walked ALL over, back and forth looking for that dam thing. Even locals barely knew where it was. Finally, we found it by the giant "penis monument", behind a delivery truck. Took our pics with it, walked through the streets and shopped. Everywhere you look, there are bikes. Millions of bikes. There even a 3 story "bike garage". All you hear is people ringing their bells, so you have to make sure you dont get in their way in the bike paths. We stop to eat at this little cafe, it was dam good, and had "deep talk" and basically got to know each other more, exchange numbers and emails. Walking thru all the streets you see hostels and and those people who "backpack thru Europe" so so cool wish I cold do that stuff. We start walking back to the meeting area and run into Brenton and Annika, who I really didnt know and my first impression was I was not sure if I would like them for some reason. (turns out, I end up absolutly loving these 2) We then head towards the bus and we are on our way to St. Goar, Germany.

It was around this time we were introduced to our day song, "5 years time" by Noah and the whale. I remember V-Mac saying what the f???? when we first heard it, but during the trip we would beg Ryan to play the song really loud, I swear that song was super cheesy but the most perfect song for our trip. (Also, becuase we are such badasses, we ended up re-writing the song for each city we visited with quotes and occurances that happened and performed it the last night in Paris.... it was golden...)

Now know that this is our "quite stop", basically a stopover. Nothing seems to happen in the sleepy little town and Im pretty sure I saw about 5 people and 3 cars. We stay at the Hotel Montag and they only have stairs, no elevator, and the room keys were on hooks. No front desk, Ryan checked in with the bartender. I decide that Im a badass and take my whole suitcase (some people packed an overnight bag) and drag it up all the stairs to our room. The room was pretty ghetto and old. Tiny shower. You learn to deal with these things as the trip goes on so stop complaining!

Have dinner and then some leave for the wine tasting. Some of us stay and grab some drinks from the bar and go down to the Rhine River to drink (Its right across the street from our hotel). V-Mac then decides she wants to "stick her foot in the Rhine River", takes her shoes off does a little dance on her way down to the river and then slips on the funk on the cobblestones and basically "f's her toe up" Absolutly hilarious and I even got it on video tape :)

Chris, the driver was cleaning the bus and hangs out with us for a few and when I ask how old he is he tell us his bday is the next day. I then have him take our pic and come up with the idea for us 4 to do the YMCA, which we end up doing at alot of the places we go. I know we are lame... Its starting to rain, so we head back to the bar and more and more join and this quite night ends up becoming pretty fun. Drinking contest, V-Mac with her iced up toe... it was a fun night. My roommate and a couple of the other girls went to go look at a castle and had not returned yet, and since she had the only key, I couldnt go to bed and was forced to stay up and drink more :)

Day 3- London – Amsterdam

2009-08-02T17:46:00.007-05:00

I wake up 5 minutes before my alarms goes off. Its about 5:30 am ish, but the first thing I see is outside and its daylight out. (Not normal where I live) I sit straight up thinking its alot later than it actually is and I missed my bus. I hear Stacey getting ready in the bathroom and relize Im not late. Talk about having a heart attack. We get ready and she leave since her tour leaves before mine, Im kinda sad since Ill never see her again. I go downstairs and see like 3 other trips boarding and leaving or returning. I see Stacey again! I meet a few other people who missed the meeting and our little clique is started. Weigh my bag, hop on the bus. Its pretty quite.... we realize the Canadian boys Nick and Gino are missing. Australian Brenton jumps off and wakes them up... it was actually quite funny. The boy get on the bus and tell us how "they really arent "those" guys. (Nick later shows us his alarm, a 3 dollar watch that beeps for about 30 seconds and then turns off) I promise them they can have the one I brought, but I never did give it to them the whole trip since they have a "big Austrailan guy that bangs on their door every morning" from that point on. Finally... we are off. This is prob the most boring time on the bus. Nobody really knows each other, its quite, like 3 straight hours of iPod. Ryan (tour manager/tm) gets on the mic, starts explaing stuff, giving us an overview of what to expect, etc. Luckily we only have 30 people on our trip so most of us get 2 seats to ourselves (this makes passing out on the bus easier) So we start heading towards Dover to catch the ferry. See the White Cliffs, hang out before we board the ferry. I meet Rina and Noff, my fellow smoking partners here. Once we get on the ferry, we grab some food, do some shopping, walk around and wait till its time to leave. Our group has added a newcomer, Michelle from Brazil and Rina from San Fran.

We get back on the bus, drive thru France and Belgium and have our first pit stop. Thanks to the laws in Europe, the driver has to stop every couple hours for about an hour. I try to use the free wi fi on my iPod and it works like crap here. I see this girl walking around by herself, she looks so sad. Im not sure at first if she is on our tour or not and when I see her go sit by herself I knew she was. I walk over and sit and talk with her and now Johanna from Columbia is added to the group. Outside while smoking with Australian Noff (who is quite possible the hardest guy to understand), he tells me that she was crying in the bus cuz she was lonely or something. Once we get back to the bus we have her move her stuff and sit with us in the back. Drive a couple more hours and finally reach Amsterdam. After every pit stop Ryan would get on the mic and give us an overview aka "history lesson" of the country/city. We sign up for the optional excursions. The "cultural show" is on the list and honestly I didnt even want to go. (sex show/red light district aka hookers in the windows..) me and Rina decide not to go but everyone else signed up and were begging us to go, so we sign up. Get to hotel, meet my roommate Janine who works for NBC in New York City.

Get ready, go to dinner. I also believe this is the night where the nickname "Muzzle" started for someone I wont mention. I would like to give probs to Nick for that one. Food is lame, but Im not one who complains about that kind of stuff. I knew what to expect with the rooms/food on this trip already. Hotel was not too bad at all, from what I remember. We're driven into town and dropped off at the canal cruise. I loved it, everyone went, we all sat down, did our "naughty toasting" and immedialty people really started talking and meeting each other. It was only beer and wine, and I really dont care for either, but I did fine. The boat driver was cool and let us sit up front, hang out the doorway thing and smoke, let Noff drive for a few minutes. It was realy cool becuase me and Rina horded that area and were talking to people in their houseboats eating dinner that we passed by. It was a super fun time, totally reccommend doing this excursion.

Afterwards, Ryan took us threw the Red Light District, saw tons of dildos as sex stores were everywhere. Went to the "culture show".... It was... an experience I guess you could say. Of course they had some of the people in our group goup on stage cuz Im sure they like to f with us foreigners. Lets just say they were up there with a chick and her banana, we egged Muzzle on when she was on stage with the guy..... (ya I know we are bitches) Im having problems remembering this night. I remember: I loved the suckers they gave us, Veronika aka V-mac breaking her glass in the sink in the bathroom, going outside and smoking with one of the guys who was just on stage, nicknamed "break f*cking guy" due to his acrobatic performance on stage (I even tell him, awkwardly, good job), looking at the chicks in the windows were 3 feet away, watching a group of guys check out one of the girls, and then go in, see the curtain close and his friend all wait for him outside. Remember, no cameras here, their pimps are waiting in the shadows to catch you and throw your camera in the canals.

We then leave, walk thru the district some more, catch a tram back to the hotel (some go to coffeshops) and get on the computer because of course I have to update my facebook status!!! Go to bed and have to get up at like 7-8 ish which was like 4-5 hours away. I quickly learn that you get no sleep on these trips.

My group

Stolen from my lovely roommate

Day 1 & 2-St. Louis – London

2009-08-02T16:42:00.007-05:00

The day finally came, after tons of more research, reading and writing down every tip I found from other reviews, I finally could leave. I was drivin to the airport and went to catch my flight. I was pretty worried that not only would I freak out on the plane (as I kinda hate flying) I would be bored out of my mind. Well I was pretty bored. Caught my flight to London at my layover in Boston around 4 pm and sat next to some weird guy the whole way there. I tried taking sleeping pills to pass out, but they never worked and I slept about an hour. Honestely I have no idea what I did on this flight, read, listened to my iPod....?? Finally the captain says we would be landing in 45 min and as I was looking out the window I finally see land.... Im flying over England! We land and its 6:50 am. Im feeling like crap considering I had been up since 9 am the day before and now its the next day, 6 hours ahead... Im confused at how long Ive been up at that point. I walk about 15 miles to get my luggage and then I go to find the Tube. Took the 45 minute ride to Russel Square, turn left and kept walking till I found the Contiki Basement. ** You can store your luggage here till your room is ready and there is no elevator, only stairs, and with a super heavy large ass suitcase...... So as Im standing there contemplating just throwing my suitcase down the stairs, a guy comes outside the door and offers to take it down for me. I accept :)

Once inside, I store my bag and already knew I wanted to do The Original Tour (dble decker bus tour... research your trip people!) So I buy the ticket from there, go upstairs and catch the bus. They have 3 different lines and are all over the city, easy to find, jump on jump off kind of thing. Went to Buckingham Palace (right in time for the changing of the gaurd)
It was OK, I guess. I can say Ive seen it now but really it was like they were putting some show on and there was like a marching band and crap like that. Jump on another bus see Westminster/Big Ben/London Eye, you know the normal stuff.

I wanted to actually go into these places but I only had that day and had to meet my other Contikiers at 6 pm that night so I did not have the time. I also did a walking tour (something about rock n roll ledgends) with that company which was awesome, even tho I felt like crap and was super tired. Im really into history/culture so this kind of stuff was right up my ally. London was super clean and so beautiful. Honestly, I would go back and live there! After my tour, I hung out with the walking tour guy and this other guy who was in the tour with me. (Note: I thought I would feel like a retard being by myself, sightseeing all over London, but at the time I didnt really care and alot of the people I met on the bus/walking tour were alone too. I found out a lot of the other Contikiers were alone that day too.) It was getting to be the time where I needed to go back to my hotel, grab my bag and get ready for the meeting. I drag that heavy ass bag up the stairs, check in, get lost in the hotel becuase its laid out super weird, or maybe Im just blonde...? I start gettng ready and in walks Stacey from Australia, my roommate. Unfortunalty she is not on the same tour as me :( I get my first taste of using converters and my hair dryer going crazy on me.

Go down to the London Coffehouse, and meet Veronica & Silvia from L.A. We all go inside and get ready for our meeting. We check in, meet our tour manager Ryan and driver Chris. They go over some of the basics, I look around and check out everyone. There wasnt many people there that night, but more show up the next day when the bus leaves. I make plans to hang out that night with Veronica that night, and give her the hotels number and my room number. Oops... I give her the wrong room number... While walking out the door we run right onto Veronika from Toronto (and the veronic/ka sandwich was born) Shes late for the meeting so we talk for about a minute. I know right away that these 2 girls and I would become my "European besties"

L.A. Veronica aka V-Lo goes to her hotel, I go back to my room and hang out with Stacey. Now she has been in London for a week already and after finding out I didnt get to see the London Bridge yet, shes like lets go see it! We hit up a grocery store for some food and then head for the Tube, thank God she knows how to work those things. So we go, we saw, we take pictures and I tell her we have to do the pub thing so we find one and have some beers (gross!)

Head back to the hotel, time for bed. I pack all my crap up, set my 8 alarms on my cell phone as Im not a fan of waking up early and have been up for about 48 hours now, and prob said a prayer that I wake up on time the next day.