Monday, September 13, 2010

Contiki

Hello Everyone,

I finally found some time to do an update. I have been a busy little bumble bee!
This post is going to be a long one, so grab a cuppa and settle down and get cosy.

On the 18th of August I flew to London to meet up with some girls I went to school with. Hannah, Tiff and Hayley, who were already in England. We stayed at the generator hostel, which was nice. I had chicken schnitzel and chips for tea, I was in heaven! The best thing about not being in Russia is the food is so much better everywhere else.
I didn't have much time to explore London, I didn't really see anything besides the hostel and Heathrow.
The next morning we jumped on the bus and started our tour. We drove down to Dover to catch the ferry to France. I didn't even come close to finding my sea legs, I sat down most of the time. Once we got to France we drove straight to Paris. Basically day one was spent on the bus. We got to our cabins and then had a bit of a scenic bus ride around the city. We then went to have some French champagne and try out some Escargot, in other words, snails. They weren't as bad as I thought, mainly because they were smothered in garlic butter, and its hard for anything to taste bad in garlic butter. I couldn't get my snail out of the shell so they bought me a new one, which was steamy fresh. All I can say is, I tasted it, I won't ever feel the need to do it again. After that we went and got our first look at the Eiffel Tower.

Day two was a free day around Paris. First thing that morning the girls and I went to the Louvre to check out the Mona Lisa and the Venus De Milo (The lady with no arms). From the Louvre we slowly wondered through the city to the Eiffel tower picking up supplies for a picnic on the way. We grabbed a great spot under some shady trees, with a magnificent view. Not only of the Eiffel tower, the people watching was fantastic. In all the touristy areas there are loads of Gypsies trying to sell stuff, or just asking for money. Selling things without a permit is illegal so whenever the police rode around on their bikes it was like watching sheep getting herded. They came out of no where and there was loads of them running away. It was hilarious. A few people got their mini Eiffel towers confiscated, but that was about it.
That night we got all dressed up for a night on the town. Our group went out to a nice little restaurant before going to a cabaret show, across from the Moulin Rouge. We got back to the cabins and continued partying, it was a great night.

Day three started off rather slowly. I was very, very hungover. Kids, don't mix your drinks!
Luckily though it was another day mainly on the bus, so I didn't really have to function.
We headed down the south of France and spent the night in a gorgeous 16th century chateau, surrounded by vineyards. The rest of the group went and did some wine tasting, but I thought it best if I sat that one out.
That night there was another party, in the cellar. I went for a little bit, but put myself to bed early. Good decision, as the next day everyone else was hung over, but I was fine!

Day four was more driving. We stopped of in the walled city of Avignon where the Pope hung out in a palace their back in the 14th century (I think it was then, a long time ago anyway).
We continued on and stopped of again at a very smelly perfume factory.
Than finally made it to the French Riviera. We were in cabins again, just a short walk away from the beach. The girls and about half of our tour group headed down to the beach. It was gorgeous, the Mediterranean sea, with a full moon, and a Ferris wheel off to the side. In the distance we could see the lights of Nice. We sat down on the pebbles and watched the boys try and hit a buoy out in the ocean with stones.

Day five. I was finally starting to remember every ones names. Our bus was completely full, and its quite hard to remember 51 names. We were so lucky, everyone on our tour was great, I really don't think there could have been a better bunch of people to tour around Europe with.
Today was another free day, I accidentally slept in, then headed into Nice to meet up with the girls. Nice was lovely, we got scooters and roller blades and cruised along the beach for a while.
Later that evening we got all dolled up and headed to Monaco. We had some champagne and then tried our luck at the casino. I was down twenty euros and decided to stop. Some boys on our tour however were up 800 euros (that also may not be exact, it was a lot anyway). They shouted the whole group a drink at the bar!

Day six, we left France and headed into Italy! I love Italy, I won't ever be able to live there because I would get too fat to be able to fly out of the country. Italian food is divine. The pizza, pasta and gelato, oh it is oh so good! The people are so lovely, and Italy is gorgeous.
Our first stop was Pisa, which is an incredibly boring place. Besides a building that is slowly falling over, there isn't much else to see or do. Except eat of course.
After taking our photo's of either holding the tower up or pushing it over, we drove to Florence. A city of beautiful churches and is rich in history. I really liked Florence. We had yet another big partying night, which involved huge jugs of cocktails, karaoke and I had a minor wardrobe malfunction. Yet another fabulous evening with my new contiki friends.

Day seven, half way through the tour. It started going very fast from here.
Today was our free day in Rome. It was really hot in Rome, without much shade around the city. First up we went to the Trevi fountain, which is gorgeous. We all through our coin in over our shoulder. We will all now supposedly return to Rome, I certainly hope so!
From there we walked to the Spanish steps which are apparently famous but to be honest until I was there I was slightly unaware of them. The rest of the group went off on a walking tour and the girls and I went off on our own. It was way too hot to be following a guide around the city.
We headed to the Colosseum, which was really cool. I loved seeing all these places, I got to cross lots of things off on my "to-do list". We didn't go inside, but I was super impressed with the outside anyway. We grabbed a very expensive bite to eat and waited for the rest of the group. We all then headed to the Vatican. Michelangelo's work is simply incredible, everyone should definitely go and see it for themselves.
More partying that night at the club where our cabins where, loads of fun!

Day eight. I woke up covered head to toe in bed bug and mosquito bites. To say I wanted to claw my skin off is an understatement. It was really painful and extremely itchy. A friend gave me some antihistamines but that's all I could get at the time, there wasn't a chemist near by.
We headed down to Venice, before we got to the camp site our tour manager Daz, said to watch out, because there are loads of mosquito's at this camp. I nearly cried when he said that. I ran to the shop and covered myself in mozzie spray!
We caught the boat over to Venice, were unfortunately all I was thinking about was finding a pharmacy, even so, it is pretty impossible not to take in the beauty of the city. There are no cars anywhere in Venice, so everyone pushes there little carts around, it's very cute. Kind of like stepping back in time. We grabbed a bottle of Italian bubbly and had a gondola ride through the canals. It was very relaxing.
We grabbed some dinner in Venice, then headed back to the mainland, where I could continue fixing my bites!

Day nine we were off to Germany!
After complaining about the heat for a week, Munich was freezing. Stepping off the bus my first thought was "please don't let Moscow be this cold yet", it's not as cold as Munich was, it's much colder!
I didn't think I would like Germany, but I really enjoyed it. I meet a few Germans who weren't very nice, but I don't want to judge everyone on them. I'll definitely be going back for another visit.
We went to the main square and watched the glockenspiel, a giant cuckoo clock. Then off to the hostel to get ready for our night at the beer hall. We learnt a German beer song and set off to consume copious amounts of beer steins. I don't usually drink beer, but German beer wasn't too shabby.

Day ten we left Munich and headed up to the Rhine Valley and stayed in a little German village called ST Goar. On the drive up we stopped at Dachau concentration camp, which was incredibly sad. I'm glad we went, but I struggle to understand and cope with the amount of evil that happened in world war two.
It was a very beautiful drive, Europe is the kind of green you just don't see at home.
More wine tasting today and I bought my first investment. A rare bottle of wine, which is called ice wine, it's a very sweet dessert wine.

Day eleven, The Netherlands. I love Holland, everyone cruises along on their bikes and it is just so picture perfect. I didn't know the country was so low and flat, they have so much water there. Before going to Amsterdam we went to a little village to see what the real Holland was like. As everyone says, Amsterdam is not a reflection on the rest of the country. We went for a bike ride around Edam. It was lovely, even though it rained and was cold.
After that we went to a clog factory and then tasted some Dutch Cheese, which was really yummy.
Then came the "Amsterdamage"!
What can I say??
What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam!
It is one crazy place, with all sorts of crazy people.

Day thirteen. Another friend from school, Monique came to party with us, which was brilliant!
It was our last night on tour, and we all went a bit wild in the red light district, but it was certainly a great way to end our tour, and a night to remember.

Day Fourteen. The long, hungover trip back to London.
We had arranged amongst ourselves to meet up one last time at an Aussie bar, so we could say one last farewell to everyone. We certainly have all made some great friends from all over the world. I even have a friend coming to visit me here in Russia next year, I'm super excited about that.

The next day I flew back to Moscow. It was so great to have a holiday, I was feeling really homesick, so it was the perfect fix!
It's Autumn here now, and all the leaves are changing. Apparently we aren't going to ease into winter here in Russia, it literally went from heat wave to ten degrees in the two weeks I was away! I keep thinking about how warm it is at home, oh well, I don't think I'll experience another Russian winter after this one, so I'll just suck it up. Please remind me of this in December.

Other than my contiki news, I don't have anything else to report on. My Russian family are all fine, and I'm still loving Moscow.

So that's all for now, I hope you enjoyed!
Dasvidanya, au revoir, ciao, Auf Wiedersehen, vaarwel!

1 comment:

  1. WOW!! Sounds amazing Sara!! You are so lucky!! Proud of you MUCH!!

    ReplyDelete