Venice-Germany

Day #8
We hopped onto a motorboat into Venice this afternoon. To amuse ourselves on the way there, we created a song to sing all the way there – we’re a goofy group when we’re all together. Chris tells us some facts about Venice --- like how the whole city is built on like stilt-type things (I’m sure there is a name for it but apparently I wasn’t listening closely enough) and how the city floods about 100 days out of the year and is sinking a little bit every year! Venice is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Everything is ancient and historic looking. There are no cars there; the only mode of transportation is the gondolas in the canals. The canals act as the main streets throughout the city. St. Mark’s Square is the main focal point of the city. There are pigeons EVERYWHERE! It’s like in Mary Poppins with the bird lady; everyone was feeding the birds right out of their hands…'kinda gross but who am I to judge.  Chris told us a hilarious story about how a pigeon dive-bombed right into his forehead once…' I thought it was hilarious until I was pooped on (yep, right on top of my head) by one of them. I didn’t let it ruin my day though. I just went to the bathroom and washed it out and I was actually told that was a sign of good luck. They could have been lying to me but it made me feel better so I didn’t care. We went to both a glass and lace demonstration and I bought a few necklaces at the glass store. I actually bought a couple rings and a couple more necklaces while there too – Venice has some gorgeous jewelry! Jen and I were late getting to the restaurant for dinner (Trattoria de Bruno) cause we were busy jumping in other tourist’s pictures…'but we had a nice little table for two waiting for us. Since it was just the two of us, we didn’t really pay attention to how much wine we were drinking; the bottles just kept on coming! After downing a bottle a piece, making friends with the crazy waiter and dropping my crepe (that I was trying to share with Jen) into my wine glass, we laughed our way out of the restaurant and had some time to wander around the square some more. Denise, Jen and I (the trio) met a group of waiters at a caf? in St Mark’s and talked to them for a loooong time before we started to picture jump again…'only this time Jen was picture jumping me! I couldn’t get a non-blurry picture of St. Mark’s cause I kept dodging her. Then we hear a group of guys laughing at us, we look over and see Frank, Mark and Chris sitting a table nearby. We decided to make a human pyramid ~ I honestly don’t know how we didn’t fall over. We made our way (slowly) back to the ferry meeting everyone we could along the way. When we finally got there, there weren’t any seats left so we were sitting up on a ledge at the front of the boat. The three of us decided that we needed some music so we went up to the captains (who were also our age) and they invited us into the cabin to pick songs. They also gave us champagne, let us give a shout out over the intercom to our CONTIKI crew they and let me drive the ferry back into the port! I did not want to leave Venice…' it was my favorite place and I’m definitely going back someday to stay for like a month or so. Anyone wanna come?

Day #9
Today we head towards Austria, stopping to go WHITEWATER RAFTING along the way! I have been on an adrenaline rush since day 1 – I’m not sure why I’m not more tired than I am. We rafted the Inn River with Feelfree Nature Company; the river went right through Austrian mountains = breathtaking! My favorite part of rafting is the games we play on the raft. We ran and did flips off the front of the raft and I was riding the front of the raft like a bull with everyone else sitting in the back while we went down a rapid  It was a kick-ass time! We got to the Gasthof Schoneck in Hopfgarten, had our welcome shot and dinner and then a group of us decided to pregame with 4 quick shots before heading out for the night. Austria is known for their Schnapps so I had a strawberry schnapps shot, a shot in the shape of a sperm (yep, sperm) and 2 glacier ice (their signature/strong) shots. Then we hit up the Austrian night life at the Silver Bullet, met a bunch of people, played some pool with Denise and did some dancing. In Austria and Germany you take shots with your thumb on top of the shot glass and your pinky at the bottom and then at midnight you switch so your pinky is on top and thumb on the bottom – they make it tricky to get it up and down w/out spilling. But it’s fun to try!

Day #10
Got up to enjoy a mountain bike ride through the Austrian countryside today. The Austrians are known for their athleticism and outdoorsiness. I would love to live in a place like this. The course was 16 miles long and we stopped for lunch along the way. It was actually hard to concentrate on the road because of the scenery on either side of you. The whole experience was so refreshing and while semi challenging, it was relaxing at the same time. This is something I would not have gotten to do if I had come to Europe on my own, without Contiki. They make sure that we experience every level and activity each country has to offer. Not only do we get to see the most famous sites, but we get to enjoy the culture and get the complete package. Next we headed to Munich, Germany. We went shopping in town and had dinner at the Muchen Haus (very old German beer hall) and drank a couple stines of beer. Then we headed to…' The Hofbrauhaus!!!!!!!!! I’ve been to the one in Newport, KY before but it’s nothing compared to the original. It is absolutely enormous; biggest beer hall in the world! Had another stine or two of wheat beer (yes, the beer in Germany is wheat and you don’t get hangovers because there are no preservatives in it), split a ginormous pretzel with my girls and then caught the metro back to the hotel to have a chill, girls night. We all needed to relax and unwind.

Day #11
This is our last full day of the trip!  We headed towards the Rhine Valley and St Goar. Up until today, we’d had A-mazing weather ~ but it took a 2hr vacation while we were on our cruise up the Rhine River. But it didn’t hang around long – it had cleared up by dinner time and ended up being a beautiful night as we went to our last wine tasting. Bought another bottle of wine to bring home and then we all partied for our last night of the trip – creating significance to our slogan: No Sleep ‘Til Frankfurt! We all bought each other something to remember us by and we exchanged our gifts. We also took group Fugle (maybe spelled wrong) shots where you unscrew the cap, lick the back of it and stick it to your forehead. Then you put your finger over the open bottle, bang it on the table and scream while shaking it. Then you take the shot, put the cap in your mouth and attempt to spit it into a target. If you make the target, you get another shot! I love all these crazy drinking customs here – makes everyone so much more fun than at home  Airport in the morning…'

Day #12
We flew out in groups from the Frankfurt airport today so we had to say goodbyes quite a few times. I hate goodbyes so I was thinking of them as “cya laters” because I’m planning to see each and every one of these people again. I made so many great friends on this trip and can’t imagine my life without them in it. The question isn’t IF we’ll get a reunion together but WHEN. I am actually planning on heading out to Cali this Winter to see a handful of them and then planning another CONTIKI next summer to Australia! I know that I’ve already been to AUS once but you all know that I want to live there for a portion of my life and I had such an amazing time on my Contiki that I can’t think of a better way to travel; I’m hooked! I would recommend Contiki to anyone who is interested in seeing the historical landmarks, shopping the legendary streets, eating the elegant cuisine, drinking the local spirits and meeting amazing locals all with a group of people your own age (18-35). It was the experience of a lifetime! If you want to take a look at my photos from my trip, check out my yahoo albums (3 total) pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jnolldz/my_photos

Southern France-Florence

Day #4
Headed out to Southern France – more specifically the Beaujolais wine region – to Chateau de Cruix. Yeah, you heard me right, we stayed in a chateau!! There were vineyards everywhere; it was so serene and peaceful there with the rolling hills, old buildings, etc. We all changed for our hike to an area known as the “top of the world.” We grabbed our picnic baskets which included: baguettes, a few tomatoes, a block of cheese, some ham, fruit and of course, wine. After the break for lunch, there were only six of us who decided to continue the hike. Chris (tour manager) gave the directions to me …' BIG mistake there – I neglected to tell everyone my ‘getting lost’ stories – and we continued through the countryside. After getting lost multiple times, taking tons of silly pictures and laughing hysterically while trying to read the French street signs, we made it to the “top of the world” (which was definitely worth the detour!!) and back to where we were meeting the rest of the group for the wine tasting. We actually ended up cutting through a couple vineyards in order to find the correct street but it was all part of the Contiki experience ~ you never know what is going to happen and that is the most exciting part! I finally learned how to drink wine properly (with the sniffing and sucking and everything... honest – it’s actually more refined than I’m making it sound) and ended up buying a couple bottles while I was there. After dinner we got ready for the theme party: Crazy hair. There were 3 or 4 other Contiki groups with us at the Chateau dressing up for the party as well and it go CRAAAAZY. We had people in wigs, pink fuzzy hats, sleeping bag covers, boys in dresses…' you name it, we had it! Everyone got so into it ~ especially the South Africans. Those guys were hilarious! One of them even taught me how to dance the S. African way – he was whipping me around the dance floor at like warped speed. So much more fun than our booty shaking dancing. I love meeting new people and experiencing aspects of other cultures.

Day #5
Now we’re headed to Swiss country. We stopped and had an amazing lunch…' well not all of it was amazing – I ended up paying like 19 euro for pasta salad! Wee bit much if you ask me but it’s vacation, right? As we were driving into Switzerland, it was like we were driving onto a postcard. Everything was so green! Our scenery included: the Swiss Alps, waterfalls, lakes, hills, goats, sheep, chalets, the works. And let me tell you – the Swiss are very proud of their flag. It was hanging everywhere. There was even one way up on top of a mountain hanging down for everyone to see. You definitely don’t see as much pride here in the states. We stayed in a big chalet in the village of Lauterbrunnen. There were a couple new Contiki groups staying there with us as well. Went into the village with the girls in search of – what else? – Swiss army knives! I ended up buying a few for family as well as Swiss chocolate (to die for!) and then Jen and I went crazy around the town. We were so hyper, it was ridiculous! Took some very random pictures and ran around in the rain like fools. Had an appetizer of fondu with Swiss cheese and then dinner and then our group went to the club downstairs: The Bomb Shelter. The night consisted of many many drinks, Jen and Wang and I chasing a security guard down to get a picture, insane dancing w/ the Aussies, and finally a drunk dial home at 3 a.m. (with the time difference it’s hard to calculate when a good time to call the parents is! …' note to self: prolly not while wasted) They got a kick out of it though :-D

Day #6
Up pretty early today to get a head start to ITALY. I’ve been waiting for this since day 1. I heard Italy was the place to be and couldn’t wait until we got there. It was a long drive but at least a good opportunity to catch up on sleep. We arrived at the Franccie (pronounced Frankie) hotel and got prettied up for dinner. Real Italian food baby! We ate at the Vecchia Firenze. Italians eat a four course meal including: antipasta, pasta, meat and then dessert. Oh, and of course the wine. We had wine with literally EVERYTHING. I am definitely going to have a little more expensive pregame choice when I get back to school. Next we headed out on the town to the Red Garter for drinks, dancing and karaoke madness. Jen, Lauren, Steph and I decided that we could sing Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”…' yeah, we were so far from right. None of us knew the words and they only had them printed on a sheet of paper which we could barely see. So we just danced around laughing (seemed to be a theme of the trip forming here). Italian men are very direct when they want you to dance with them though! They kinda just come up and grab you and pull you towards the dance floor. I guess that’s how they get across the language barrier, they just show you what they want – not really my type though. Then about seven of us decided not to take the taxi service that was provided at the club and we wanted to find our own way back…' HA! That didn’t so much work but that was actually more fun than the club itself. We wandered the streets of Florence (mainly Santa Croce) meeting the locals. All the guys we met tried to find us a taxi unsuccessfully but at that point we didn’t even care. Our new goal was to meet as many people as possible and take pictures of the whole event and we were definitely successful at that. Can’t wait til our free day in Florence tomorrow when we get to see everything in the daylight.

Day #7
We started the day at a leather demonstration at Leonardo’s and then we all split up to do what we do best = shop! I found a guy on the street that makes name necklaces out of wire and had one for me and my sister made and had to buy a few leather belts since we were in Italy. Nicole and Jen and I stopped to have lunch at the cutest little bistro type place and had the best waiter in town. We split two pizzas and then some Italian ice cream for dessert. And I swear we saw a giant! There was this – more humongous than average – man and to prove his massiveness I took a fake picture of Jen and Nicole…' actually aiming the pic at the jolly green giant himself. Take a look at my pics if you don’t believe me. We went up to a lookout point that had a breathtaking view of Florence to take our silly Contiki group shot and went to dinner at La Certosa. We had drinks waiting for us when we arrived and violinists playing for us as well. And during the meal, we had an opera singer with a beautiful voice. We also learned some Greek (yes, Greek) dances from the waiters. Everyone is so friendly :-P That night we hit up Space Electronic ( a discoteca). My girls and I became close with d.j. Alex and spent ? the night up in the d.j./VIP floor with him. We were dancing on the platforms, had our picture taken and put up on the big screen at the club, got free tshirts ~ tons ‘o fun! Let’s see if the Venitians can top this! Venice next 

Contiki Europe: London-Paris

Day #1
Can you believe it? I’m finally here – on the plane heading to the Heathrow Airport. I never thought it would really happen – especially with the scare of a few months ago – but I am a few short hours away from London and it’s all thanks to CONTIKI HOLIDAYS! I can’t wait until everyone around me will be talking with that cute British accent  It’s already starting too – Nicole and I are sitting next to a muy caliente (yes, I know that’s Spanish) UK man and we just keep on asking him questions just to hear his responses. We’re American girls, what do ya expect?!?

We land…' I know I should be tired with only sleeping for two hours on the flight but my body won’t let my jet lag set it…' I am just too excited! We make our way to the hotel so we can change and then set out to explore London. It took me a little bit to remember to look the opposite direction when it comes to traffic – if it wasn’t for going to Australia last summer I probably would have walked right out into traffic! But the Londoners are looking out for us Americans because on the curbs…' written right there on the street…' it says “Look Left” or “Look Right.” I wonder how many Brits just stand there and watch us doing the head bob back and forth laughing. A big group of us head over to the Contiki Basement to get information about London to decide where we want to go first. There are about 10 of us and we’ll meet the other ? at the hotel for dinner later. After talking with the receptionist, she books us a “flight” on the London (Millennium) Eye and gets us tickets for the World Tour –Big Red Double Decker Bus – Sightseeing Tour. It was definitely the best way to see London in a short amount of time. We got great pictures from the bus and spectacular pictures of all of London from the Eye (the Eye is like a HUGE enclosed, glass ferris wheel that takes you up, up, and away for a great view of the city). I took tons of pictures of Big Ben and Parliament! We stopped for lunch and shopping on the way back to the hotel and I was psyched to meet the rest of my group, hit up dinner and head out on the town! We eat at a Fridays (yeah, I guess London isn’t really known for their food so we had a little farewell to American cuisine dinner) and then we do a pub crawl that included 5 bars and a couple dance clubs. We roll back into the hotel for a few short hours of sleep before our departure towards France.

Day #2
Up and at ‘em early to head towards the port of Dover (and yes, we saw the famous white cliffs that everyone talks about). We boarded the ferry and putted into France. We arrived at our campsite just outside of Paris which included cute little cabins, a mess hall and of course, a bar. We were greeted by the Contiki staff and enjoyed wine and ‘escargot for our appetizer then ate a HUGE dinner before heading into the city. By this time, the sun was starting to set and it was time for our “Illuminations Tour” around Paris! Paris is breathtaking!!!! It was like I stepped into another world. There we were – driving past Notre Dame, along the Seine River and onto the Eiffel Tower. We took some great pictures of the tower at dusk and of course many group shots in front of it. We didn’t spend too much time there because we would be coming back in the morning to go up it  Next we drove over to the Opera Garnier – the opera house Phantom of the Opera was based on. Benny even played the music as we drove by. We zipped all around Paris and eventually made our way back to the campsite for a couple beers with other Contiki travelers from around the world. I hung out with a couple Canadians that night before heading to bed. We’d had a long day and tomorrow we would need lots of energy for our FREE DAY in Paris. I can’t wait for the sight-seeing, shopping and food of Paris!

Day #3
We rolled into the city around 10 a.m. and went straight to the front of the line for the Eiffel Tower. It’s so nice being in a Contiki group – so many benefits that are real time savers when we have a busy day planned. We did have to wait a little while at the half way point but at least we had a gorgeous view of the city while we waited. It was the perfect time to get to know everyone in our group, though. Our group is completely American but all the others are comprised of people (18-35) from all over the globe. Finally we’re at the top, looking out at the entire city of Paris, from the Eiffel Tower!!! UNBELIEVABLE ~ I look out and see the Arc de Triomph leading down the Champs Elysees and just can’t take it any more…' I HAVE to get out into the city and start living it up! We head towards the Arc (keep in mind we have no clue where we’re going…' we just try to keep the huge landmark in sight). We finally get there and our shopping spree begins :-P This is like every shop-a-holics dream – the Champs has everything from Prada and LaCoste to Zara (my personal fav). We grab a baguette for lunch but there is no time to sit and eat; we have to make it down to the Louvre and Notre Dame before heading back to get ready. I also had my first crepe experience in the gardens = YUM! I bought an artist picture for my room as well as clothes, of course, and souvenirs for family/friends. It is so easy to spend money in Paris; it’s a good thing that a lot of our trip was already taken care of w/booking with Contiki or I could have been in trouble. Went back and got all decked out that night because we were heading to MOULIN ROUGE!!! Before the show we walked up the many, many, many stairs to Montemartre to see Sacre Coeur – another breathtaking experience…' due to the stairs for one and because it was another pretty view. We walked around the artist town and then ate at Auberge de la Bonne Franquette (yea, I don’t speak French either so your guess is as good as mine). To sum up dinner: lots of wine, old guys singing (but it was o.k. cause there was lots of wine), Cara and Lauren did karaoke (causing a guy to do a strip tease dance) so we drank some more wine…' needless to say we were quite happy walking down through the red light district to the Moulin Rouge. We walk in and they show us where we are sitting and my jaw dropped…' we are FRONT TABLE …' right there practically on the stage! The dancers were almost on our laps. I didn’t want to leave the show afterwards; it was A-mazing. Yes, the girls were topless for the most part but it was classy and elegant and far from a porn show or anything. This trip is more than anything I could have imagined so far…' can’t wait to see what’s next!