Day 10- Rome – Florence

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!

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

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

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

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.