Eurotour.
85 exchange students, 18 days, 9 countries. This was one of the best experiences of my life thus far.
On May 31st I made my way down to the city of Turku, where I joined 84 of my friends from around Finland, to embark on this European adventure. We would first take an overnight cruise to STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN where the journey would begin. It took a long time to get everyone checked in and ready to leave (about 3 hours). But finally we boarded the ship!
The next morning we woke up bright and early (probably around 6am) to eat breakfast before arriving in Stockholm. We all departed from the ship and headed to the buses, where the real adventure began.
Our first destination was a castle located somewhere in Sweden. I feel bad I have no idea where it was or the name, but it was just a short stop we made to take some pretty cool pictures.
After visiting the castle, we stopped for lunch at a beautiful restaurant.
Following lunch was a visit to a candy shop, where they make there own toffee.
The most exciting thing in the shop for Pedro.
and for the girls.
A long bus (and short ferry) ride later, we arrive in COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.
The entire time on the bus driving through Copenhagen I remember commenting on how every single person we saw on the streets was absolutely beautiful (and riding a bike). We arrived to the hotel at about 6pm and they gave us the rest of the night to spend in the little amusement park called Tivoli. It was such a beautiful park, but I didn't get too many pictures since I was pretty busy on the rides.
The next morning we had a bus tour through Copenhagen. Seriously, I fell in love with this city. It was one of the most beautiful on the whole tour and the people were awesome. After the tour we had a few hours of free time to do whatever.
Oh I forgot to mention that our bus had a table..which we claimed as our own on the first day of the tour.
Well at least half of us have our eyes open.
The Little Mermaid
This started out as a "mexicans only" photo..
After driving for quite some time through Denmark, we got on another ferry which brought us to BREMEN, GERMANY.
We basically didn't do anything in Bremen but eat and sleep, but of course with 85 exchange students it was still a good time.
I found out that I'm very bad at Twister.
The next day we left Bremen and headed to the NETHERLANDS.
Our first stop was at this amazing dam to take pictures.
Next we headed to the Cheese and Clog factory for lunch (we ate a lot of cheese).
Around 5pm we arrived in AMSTERDAM! First we went on a boat tour through the canals which was amazing, but hard to get good pictures. Afterwards we toured the Anne Frank house.
The next morning we departed from Amsterdam and drove to BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. This was definitely a favorite of mine, and one I had been looking forward to seeing! Unfortunately we only had a quick walking tour then a few hours to explore before leaving. But I got to see another exchange student from Ohio again who showed us around a bit.
After the day in Brussels, we drove to PARIS, FRANCE. Three countries in one day, pretty crazy. It took quite some time to get to Paris, because of the crazy traffic, so we basically just went to find some dinner then headed to bed. The next morning we had a tour guide come on our bus as we drove through Paris. We made our way to Versailles, where we would spend most of the day.
This was probably the hottest days on the whole tour (or it seemed to be). It was about 33 degrees celsius which is DEADLY coming from a year in Finland. But anyway, the palace was incredible. Next they dropped us all off at the Eiffel tower at about 5pm to do whatever we wanted until midnight. At this point Ella and I decided we were going to the top of the tower. But not by elevator, because the line is outrageous. SO yes, we hiked up 1,700 stairs to the very top (and just to brag I'll add that, we went really fast).
But it was so worth it.
We met up with some more of our friends and began our nighttime adventure through Paris. Our first was a church called Sacré-Cœur Basilica. It sat on a hill overlooking Paris. We watched the sunset, ate baguette, meat, cheese, etc., and listened to music.
Then we just explored the area for the rest of the night, and even made some french friends.
We made our way back to the hotel via metro and made even more french friends along the way, which gave us some ideas for what to do tomorrow. The next day we had all day to do whatever we wanted. Ella and I decided we wanted to go to the Catacombs. We made our way there, but after seeing how long the line was, decided against it. Instead we went to some parks and the Seine river and just chilled.
Then we headed to Notre Dame, where we were meeting friends. One of them being Seb, an exchange student from Paris had lived in Finland last year, and some of his friends.
We ate lunch at a really nice cafe one of our friends recommended to us, and I also tried snails (which almost all of my french friends hadn't even tried before).
Didn't actually go inside the Louvre. Once again, I'm just not tourist enough to wait in a massive line just to say I saw the Mona Lisa.
We spent the next few hours exploring, shopping, laying in parks. At 6pm Rotary had a boat tour on the Seine planned for us. To be quite honest, I think everyone was asleep during most of it!
Valentin, "Do I look French?" (well he actually is French)
One of the many sleeping people on the boat.
Afterwards we had the rest of the night to ourselves so basically did the same exploring, eating food, type of thing. It was an amazing three nights in Paris. Not nearly enough time of course, but we had some of the best adventures! The next day we headed to a place called Grenoble located in the French Alps. Our hotel was in the middle of nowhere, right in front of the mountains. We spent the afternoon/evening swimming which was awesome since everyone was tired of sitting in a bus all day.
Ella likes to sleep with a flag over her head
The next day we drove to a town called Sisterone for a few hours. This place was so beautiful.
We continued on to the city of Nice! Once we arrived, our bus got stuck in narrow streets. It took a LOOONG time to get unstuck. All the boys on our bus had to go out and move a few cars before we got anywhere. But there was a really cute guy watching us from our balcony and it was really entertaining.
We named him Marcus
FINALLY we got to our hotel at 9pm. Immediately my friends and I went on an adventure to find dinner. Dinner ended up being kebab (not complaining). We had the next morning to explore Nice by ourselves.
It was a beautiful day in Nice. Around 1 we headed to MONACO. Another beautiful place. I even went inside Monte Carlo.
After Monaco we drove along the coast towards our next destination GENOVA, ITALY. The most memorable thing about the city was it had possibly the nicest hotel we stayed in. Also the pasta we had was really good. But basically we just slept there, and continued on to Verona the next day.
Juliet
Well the highlight of this day was probably Pip freaking out over the guy who made us pizza. It was instant love. Next we left for Lido De Jesolo, a place on the beach we'd be staying at the next three nights. Really I think I'd say this was my favorite part of the entire trip. We had the absolute best time here. So upon arrival, everyone immediately went to beach to swim until dinner time. After dinner, we went back and swam in the night.
The next day was spent in Venice! It was just a short trip from our hotel. The first thing we did was go on a gondola ride. This was amazing!
Venice was beautiful. We returned to Lido De Jesolo at 4pm and had 3 hours before dinner to do whatever. Ella and I were exhausted and immediately fell asleep (we barely woke up for dinner, but it was a much needed nap). Then once again we spent the night on the beach together swimming and relaxing. The following day we had the whole day to spend on the beach as well.
SO we spent the day out on the beach tanning, swimming, and yelling at those guys selling bracelets to leave us alone. One of the highlights from the day was when we rented a few paddle boats with slides and took them all far out in the ocean. It was pretty hilarious. Later in the evening us Oldies had organized a "Newbie Olympics" for our Aussie Newbies. Basically they had to build sandcastles for the oldies, covered in sand and seaweed (and ketchup).
This was the funniest thing to watch.
Afterwards we had dinner (there's my newbies looking a little rough after the olympics)
We found out we're all wearing the same shorts (in different colors). So naturally we put seashells on our foreheads and took a picture.
The next day we headed for the Alps! This day was spent hiking and it was absolutely incredible.
Everyone was pretty cold and tired by the time we got to the hotel so we just ate dinner, chilled for a bit, then went to sleep. The next day we went to INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA. Well I didn't really take any photos here because it was raining and cold, but still a very pretty city.
My favorite past time is rapping for everyone on our bus..not that anyone is listening heh.
That's me being extremely lazy!
After which we drove to Nurnberg, Germany to spend the night. The next day we visited the war museum there before driving to our final destination BERLIN, GERMANY. We got there sometime in the evening and had the whole night to explore. Of course the first thing we did was eat sausages. One of my best friends here Lucas is German so he tried to show us around (but in reality he has no idea how to get around Berlin). Anyways it was an amazing night. The next morning we had a tour through the city and made a stop at the Berlin Wall.
We ate lunch and then the rest of the day was ours. I went shopping for awhile with a couple others and then we just hung out at a cafe by the river for a while. Later we met more of our friends for a picnic in the park. That night we had our going away party. We went through the traditional gift ceremony that our Oldies did for us in Lapland. Then we sang the song we had chosen to pass down to the newbies. It was pretty emotional as expected, but still a really amazing night. Our Rotarians, rotex, and bus drivers all said that we have been the best group of kids they've ever had on this trip. That was really good to hear :)
The gift ceremony
Passing on the blanket.
And so the next day we headed to airport and flew back to Helsinki. I then took the four hour bus ride home.
Signing flags
It was an absolutely incredible 2 1/2 weeks I will never ever forget. Seriously I can't thank Rotary and my parents enough for giving me this oppurtunity. And also thank you to everyone that was on the trip. Truly, we are the family. Not just during these 18 days but the entire year spent in Finland. You guys are the reason this trip and this year were so perfect.
That's all for now. Thank you for reading this insanely long post. Also here is a video I put together of some clips I took during the trip
No comments:
Post a Comment