Munchen! Germany! Beer! Haufbraus!

We arrived in Germany today and the excitement rose to an all-time high as we were welcomed into the land of delicious beers!

After a somber but historical trip...see me here sitting outside an exit to the first concentration camp built, we then ventured into the city of Munich.


Land of my people, everyone seemed to look like my relatives :)

Our Contiki group went to the Haufbraus Haus at night to enjoy some traditional german entertainment, with one of our very own welcomed to the stage to do a traditional funny hysterical dance!

The beer was the best part! Homemade with no preservatives, it was delicious! By the end of the night I felt incredibly gidy and ready to venture on once again with my lovely contiki buds to Prague...the most exotic stop on our tour in my opinion. A land of different currency and a completely different language than anything I've ever heard before.

One word: Pimps And Hos!

That's right, I said it. Today was another awesome day in Hopfgarten, Austria. Mountain biking forty five miles through the most gorgeous scenery/mountains ever. I saw Heidi. She was running around in the fields!

Then we went to a water park.....so cute. So relaxing, just a great change of pace for everyone. Food for dinner, of course, was amazing and all homemade by our Kiwi staffers :)

Then it happened.

Pimps

and

Hos


In Contiki's very own bar, we had a pimps and hos party with a fellow contiki group that was spending the night...all gorgeous Aussies. So much fun! Only pictures can describe what it was like:

I've been waiting.....

The day I've been waiting for is finally here! Austria!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I cannot express my excitment in enough words! Today we left Venice and arrived in Hopfgarten, Austria!!!!! First we stopped off a bunch of miles away from where we are staying to go White Water Rafting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

THEEEEE best experience of my life. The water was wonderful. Paramount Mountain was gorgeous. The river flowed just right. Our rafting guide was amazing. Flipping over twenty times was ridiculously awesome!

I can't tell you how much I love Austria. I'm coming back! Soon! Next week if I could! hahahha


The town of Hopfgarten is cute and quaint. Beautiful buildings, old, rusticy type feelings. Contiki's very own place in Hopfgarten is awesome. The Australian/New Zealand staff are so delightful and just chilled, I love 'em!

On a gonola!

Venice is gorgeous....NO CARS ANYWHERE!!!! Just walking and beautiful alleyways, boats, canals, souvenirs, masks, and delicious food!

Here's the day in pictures:

Florentine dreams and soccer galore!

So it's our second wonderful day in Florence, Italy and we're doing the coolest culture excursions ever! All on our own. We got a free day from the tour group to wonder on our own. This was my time to impress the friends with a few places that I know off the beaten path. We visited my favorite site in Florence, the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace. So much has changed since I was here in the Fall of 2005. The weather for one is different. But the exhibits are also completely different and, of course, amazing.

Then me and few others had the best lunch so far. At a cute little restaurant we just chatted, napped hahahahaha, and ate delicious gnocchi con pesto! Oy! So good!

Goodbye Swiss, Hello Italia!!!!!

Viva Italia!!! Boy this place is amazing. Probably my favorite country in the entire world, after the U.S., of course....hahaha.

So I absolutely had an amazing time last night in Lucerne. The traditional dinner with folklore show was amazing. I loved the swaying, the beer, the fondu, the wonderful waitresses, alpine horns, and everything else. Here are a BUNCH of pictures from my night :)

Now we're in Florence, Italia. The road was beautiful to get here....we went through mountains that were so hugh and breathtaking, the alps are amazing times ten! The nature all around and the culture centered within cities is just the perfect balance for fun and relaxation.

I've been to Florence before and thought I knew it super well. Contiki proved that I didn't know it as well as I thought I did and brought me to a million places that were just off the hook! what what! hahaha.

A few more florentine photos:

Swiss Cheese, Gumdrops and Sweet times!

So we've finally left Paris after much excitment. Already on the first two days and I'm super amped/excited/elated/joyous/slightly intoxicated. But all in all, wonderful!

The bus ride from Paris to Lucerne, Switzerland was fantastic. I absolutely loved every moment of it. While everyone else was sleeping after an exhausting night at the Moulin Rouge, I quietly listened to my ipod, wrote in my travel journal and watched the scenery pass before my eyes. I love the countryside and France is filled with it! Small cute little towns and farms pass by every 50 miles or so....and they're just wonderful.

So is Lucerne. We're here and amazed at how clean it is. Switzerland is a really fancy country and very powerful as well. Their military is wild, super protected. It makes me feel safe kinda.

The culture, the clean water, the old bridges and churches....they're all so picturesque is can be overwhelming sometimes. You just forget that you're in Europe because there is soooooo much going on around you that you really only imagined before coming.

A Parisian Photo Post!

Me sitting in front of Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb. A small guy and such a big building. He was definitely pretty darn powerful!













Me and the rest of the gents of our Contiki tour in front of the Moulin Rouge before our dinner and show. Truly ridiculous! French and delicious!









I love this photo. When our Coach stopped for some photos when we first got into the city, I saw these kids playing around this statue and thought it was the perfect hidden photo op of people I didn't know. The Eiffel Tower is so stunning....in person, there simply are no words to describe it's strength.









I realized at the last second that people were actually renting these boats. The next time I'm in Paris at the Tulleries, this is what I will be doing. For something like 5 euro you can get this boat and pusher for 45mins or more. I really wish I could have done it but had blast watching others do it anyway.






La Louvre!!! The world's largest museum. It's absolutely gorgeous. I've been there about 9 times and still haven't seen everything inside. Though I have seen the Mona Lisa about 5 times. She's great...there's just something about that Mona Lisa smile of hers....:)





A perfect way to end our first day in Paris and open our eyes to the lights of nighttime: A sunset on top of the Eiffel Tower. Contiki got us special speed passes to skip all the lines waiting hours to get up and we were up there in a matter of minutes enjoying a spectacular view of the world!!




I ABSOLUTELY LOVE PARIS!!!!! J'aime Paris!

Oh la la Paris!

After a 7 hour+ flight I've finally arrived in the city of lights. It has been over a year since I was here last and over two years since I studied here...so it's absolutely freakin' awesome to be back into such familiar yet still foreign surroundings. The city hasn't changed...and that couldn't make me any happier to know.
The feel, the people, the sun. They're all the same...yet still a bit different. I know it sounds weird but it's true! I swear! The setting is different, the perspective, I feel different here. Time is the reason why everything is altered a bit. Yet, I'm perfectly fine with it all. The people on the trip are awesome thus far, all different, from different areas and are equally as excited as I am about our adventures we've experienced and are about to experience together.
Our tour manager Ryan is from New Zealand and gets everyone absolutely enthuzed about Contiki! He totally got us all believing in NAPS (a strange Napoleon reference y'all will get if you go on a Contiki adventure of your own). Being welcomed into Paris by such amazing people like Ryan and Andy (our driver) along with many others makes traveling to such non-American places so much fun!!! I absolutely love it! I know I sound repetative but it's true. Everything is so fresh and feels so good when we're in a group like we are.
Seeing the main sites again was refreshing. I love tourists, they're so open and just waiting to experience absolutely everything. The Eiffel Tower still stands tall. The Moulin Rouge is still incredibly gaudy as hell. The french baguettes are still being made and devoured by people like me :)
Dinner at the Moulin Rouge was such an experience that Contiki wanted us all to have. The show was so tacky and the miniature ponies confused all of us. Breasts galore!!! Confusion galore!!! Wine galore!!! We probably stopped every five seconds in our own groups or together to take photos of ourselves in every different location.
Me and about five others broke off into a smaller group to explore the city and we found ourselves doing something not many people get to do. We ventured to the Catacombs of Paris...where thousands of dead bodies are piled on top of one another deep under the city streets. Truly one of my favorite, yet morbid, places on earth. One of the scariest places on Earth as well. Some people believe that deep enough into the tunnels one can find the gateway to hell. Thank goodness we didn't venture that far....hahaha.

And, once again, I'm fine with it all. It's all good!


Too much alcohol. So much fun!!!