Euro Adventures Part 2

Thanks to everyone who has been waiting patiently for this post!  I think it's about time I completed my stories about Eurotour, so let's begin! For those who have not read my previous post, that was about my journeys through Germany, Poland, Hungary and Austria. If you are interested in any of those countries, I recommend checking it out!

The next stop in my trip around Europe landed us in jail. Kind of. In Slovinia, our hotel rooms had been built from old cell rooms and decorated to create an artistic style to each room while maintaining the atmosphere of a jail. Even the barred doors remained at the entrace to each room, which I think was probably the scariest part. After checking out all the rooms, it was then time to have a traditional dinner. As entertainment, we had about 6 people dressed in traditional Slovenian clothing who danced to the music of the accordian. They alsoo got the audience involved, and I got to play this typical game which is most often only for boys, but basicaully you just have to keep moving one hat from one head to another in time to the beat. We also had the day to tour around the town of which turned out to be very pretty. There were markets everywhere - did I mention thhe best waffles of all time - and lots of street performers. Everyone was very nice and it was definitely a stop off I would recommend to anyone touring around Europe. The life there is just contagious and the locals are probably the most welcoming people, despite putting us all in jail to sleep.

Next stop was at a lovely beach town called Lido Di Jesolo, located in Italy. Here, I spent almost 3 days living off gelato and pizza. I mean, what else do  you eat when in Italy? I was also lucky enough to celebrate my birthday here with the gorgeous warm weather by the beach with beautiful food and great friends. Don't think you can ask for much more! We spent our time here like true tourists, hiring a 4 person bike and driving like crazy kids down the streets, beeping the horn and swerving all over the place and screaming at some dramatic near misses. We also hired what I would call a slide boat. This was basically a boat with a slide attached, so you could float out in the water while also enjoying the slide. The water was beautiful and just a lovely place to relax. My favourite part though was just sitting down by the beach in the evening with a group of 10 or so girls in the evening, and having a beautiful evening just talking to each other, and celebrating my birthday. I really love all these exchange students and I don't know what I would do without them! 

Of course, we also had an afternoon in Venice. The thing that I love about Venice is the masks found throughout the place. Some of the designs are absolutely gorgeous and I would love to see their major festival one day. We also experienced a gondola ride which took us through canals that passed through the city, being a mostly relaxed trip with the only bit of drama being when someone somehow managed to fall offf their seat and fall in the water. How that is possible? I still don't know. I guess all exchange students are a little clumsy sometimes. Overall a lovely afternoon, but the Italian heat had exhauested me, and the return home was a relief.

After a long drive, we then came to Paris, France and had a bus tour to visit the Eiffel tower and Arc De Triumph, where there is supposedly an accident every six minutes on average. The Eiffel Tower looked gorgeous when it sparkled with lights at night, but I did not go to the top as it is quite expensive and I have done that previously with my family a few years back. However, I do know that the view is spectacular, and I think that it's worthwhile taking the stairs up and down if possible rather than the elevator. During spare time, my group visited the famous church, Sacre Couer, which had gorgeous architecture aand thousands of candles scattered throughout the building. Outside was a beautiful view of the whole city, and off to the right we came to this corner filled with painters. They were all crowded into this one square, each painting different sceneries or portraits or abstracts. We even had our portraits taken while there which was really fun and a unique souvenier. Then it was a short walk to the Moulin Rouge, and back to the hotel. 

We had a stop off in Brussels on our return back to Sweden. The town was very cute and the waffles were delicious. However, the evening was the biggest part of this day, which was actually in Germany, where we had our official ending party for Eurotour. This was such a fun night where we had fun just all being together, have a laugh and maybe a few tears as we said good bye to some of the people who had made such a big impact on our lives in such a short period. 

Saying goodbye to everyone at the end was quite upsetting seeing how close we had all become, but I know there are some friendships that can last forever, and I think some of these are exactly that. Eurotour was an absolute blast and I'm so happy I got to take part in it. Definitely looking forward to venturing to some of those places again one day in the future.