Eurotour - Day 16

Today was mostly driving with a stop at the Nuremberg war museum in the morning. It was a really interesting museum but also really depressing.  We had lunch at a nice little pub and then we drove some more. We watched Little miss Sunshine and Click. We arrived in Berlin late in the afternoon and a big group of us went for a walk in search of some spaghettieis. Sophie speaks German so she always asked for directions in German but that night she asked for directions 3 times and none of the people we asked spoke German  We tried to pick non-touristy people but obviously we weren't very good at it. We did eventually find some spaghettieis and it looked really cool but wasn't as tasty as I had expected. 

In the museum

Sophie with her ice cream

The spagetti eis! 

Eurotour - Day 15

The morning was spent driving through the mountains and watching cheaper by the dozen. At lunch time we got to Innsbruck which was our only stop in Austria. We only had a couple of hours and I just looked around and bought some things and then had the most expensive lunch with Nadja, Victoria and Meritt. We had a few more hours of driving and then we arrived in this cute little German city and had a delicious dinner of snitchel and chips. We had a show from a guy playing the accordion and then two young boys came and danced for us and they were really good! Such a good first impression from Germany! More driving but we were all a bit sick of movies so we had a talent show instead and much hilarity was had! We arrived in Nuremberg rather late and there was some more suitcase lugging and then I went for a short walk with some others and we found this very strange statue that we think was about a poem. 

OH RLY?

Innsbruck

Germany with the darling Maddi

I missed you snitchel! 

Apparently we really sung that bad! 

Cake anyone?

Eurotour - Day 14

Somehow I had acquired way to much stuff and getting it all into my bag was such a stress, especially since I had a glass plate that I really didn't want to break. Eventually it all squashed in and we headed off in the bus. It was long trip to our next hotel and we watched a few movies and stopped at this tiny little town with this beautiful waterfall. We got to our hotel and I had about 15 minutes to decide if I was going on the hike. I decided on yes because it was I was looking forward to so much and I was so pissed that I was sick. It was cold which is great when you are sick right? I made it to the top though and there was snow! For some reason it felt like I hadn't seen snow in a long time but it was only about 2 months. We got to try the water from the creek on the way back and we met some cows that all had bells on so you could hear them walking around in the trees besides us even if we couldn't see them. It started to pour with rain about half way down and we got a bit soaked! When we got back to our hotel, we spent an hour being messed around by the owners. We didnt have a key and they gave us key after key and none of them worked. We had a really nice dinner with funny bread-sticks that were such a novelty. I skipped dessert and was a really lame sick person and went to bed. 

Heading up in to the mountains

Have I mentioned I love Nadja! 

My favourite Germans <3

FIN

Trying the water

Making some Italian friends.

Eurotour - Day 13

This was our free day in Jeslo but I was still really ill so I didn't do much. I went for an early morning swim to try and cool down and I was the only one in the water. I suspect that was probably because the water was freezing but I had a fever and everything felt warm to me. I didn't realise how much i'd missed the beach, just swimming out a couple hundred metres and floating is so peaceful. I lazed around on the beach for a while and drunk ice tea. The supermarket near us had 2 litre ice tea bottles and I think I drank at least two bottles that day! I went to the beach at lunch time and just lazed around with some people and talked. There had been a lot of drama the night before that I had missed out on. I had gelato for lunch and went back to my room and washed my clothes. They had told us we would be able to use washing machines in Jeslo but they were 10km away so we ended up washing everything by hand. I went to the beach again and buy then it was dinner time. I had my last Gelato in Italy after dinner and then tried to sleep. It was lucky that I the worst of my sickness coincided with a free day. I took very few pictures in Jeslo so here are some that I found on the Internet.

It was a really nice beach!

Eurotour - Day 12

The morning was rather eventful due to the fact that the hotel we were in was very old and the drainage in the bathroom was terrible and I managed to flood our room. Good times. We caught the bus down the harbour and took a boat to Venice. Venice was really incredible, the way it is cut up by canals and clock towers and the red of the bricks mixed with the sun reflecting on the water just made for a real site. It was so hot though and so we stuck to the lanes where the buildings acted as shade. I bought many lovely things in Venice and we spent most of the morning shopping and eating gelati and pizza for lunch. we had a group booking for gondola rides and it was really nice to see the city again from a different point! And the guy steering our gondola sung which was awesome! Nadja and I had bought masks and we put them on while we were in the gondola. Little did I know that I had glitter all over my face for the rest of the day until a lady at a shop we were in told me! Once we got off the gondolas I hung out with Maddi and we just talked and shopped. We had a free night that night but when you put 40 people on a bus, if one gets sick then others are going to get sick too and I had caught something horrible from someone. I spent my free night trying to survive in our hotel room which seemed to double as a sauna until I worked out how to use the air-con.

Eurotour - Day 11

Today was spent driving to Verona. We watched Summer Heights High on the way, good example of Australian school life for everyone? The weather was lovely, nice and warm but not too sunny. I was with my German friends Nadja and Victoria and we went to Juliet's balcony first and did some touristy shopping. We had fruit salad cups and then I got my first Italian Gelato! Strawberry, chocolate and choc chip, it was delicious! The Verona's flag is very similar to Sweden's flag so seeing the big flag on the side of the buildings was a little weird! We had to head back to the bus then and we drove another few hours to Lido de Jeslo. We went swimming in the lovely beach and Ana, Jackie and I went on an ATM hunt. It was dark and late and finally we found one, it was all in Italian though and wouldn't give us any money. A local offered to try her card for us and turned out the ATM had no money left in it. Seriously from my experience, people in Europe must carry a lot of cash! In Finland you can use your bankcard anywhere for any amount.

The Balcony

Nadja and I. I may have gotten sunburnt in Sisteron!

Everythingeria?

Eurotour - Day 10

A group of us walked down to the beach  in Nice after breakfast and were surprised to find that the beach is made of rocks and not sand! It wasn't very comfortable to lay on so I didn't stay long, instead I went for a walk with 3 other girls and we got so lost! Luckily we had Christine with us and she spoke French so we managed to find our way back eventually. Then we all got on the bus to go to the Principality of  Monaco! The tour guide gave us some history and whatnot while we drove there and she never once referred to it as just Monaco, only ever the Principality of Monaco. It took a while because there had been a car crash at one of the tunnels and the traffic was terrible. Monaco was so amazing, everything was so clean and all the gardens were in perfect condition and it was like the entire principality was a royal place, which I guess in a way it sort of is. We took a giant elevator up to the top of the Rock of Monaco and we had free time to shop and buy food. While we were in this little courtyard, we  realised that the huge group of tourists that was also there, were speaking Finnish! What are the chances? I wanted to "accidentally" bump into one of them and say anteeksi but I never did. After that we drove to see the Monte Carlo Casino. It was really cool to see it but it was the cars parked around it that were much more of a highlight for me. We got to see the place where the Monaco Grand Prix starts and also the famous Farimont Hotel hair pin. We left Monaco then and headed towards Italy, I listened to the only Italian song I had on my ipod as we entered Italy and I was just so excited! I have always dreamed of going to Italy ever since I saw the film, Under the Tuscan Sun and it just felt so great to finally say that I had been there. We arrived at our hotel a little late and we had pasta that was good but a little al-dente for my liking. 

The beach in Nice

Sophie and I on the beach

Leaving Nice

The peninsula, which had a name but I have forgotten it. 

Police Box!!! 

This seagull/bird was some sort of mutant. It was HUGE! 

Yes the cars were very nice in Monaco! 

There are a lot of rules in Monaco! 

The casino

The famous bend

Crossing the border into Italy!