Plans are in motion...

October 28th - I've put down my deposit on SWAP, the agency that I'm using to help organize my move overseas. Estimated leave date is April 15, 2011 - that day can not come soon enough!

Sandra and I met up with Tom a few weeks ago in Montreal, he came over for a month for work. It was great catching up with a fellow contiki member, especially Tom! Tom is a pilot with the Australian air force, I find his work is so interesting. I asked him about 1000 questions, I'm sure he was sick of all of them. Overall the weekend was great, and it was nice to get away. Oh and Montreal shopping is amazing -I bought an amazing jacket and some killer shoes.

Tom, Sandra and I in Montreal

Day 41- Home

Monday, June 21 - With a heavy heart I packed up to get ready to head back to Canada. This meant my trip was finally done. 6 weeks earlier I had arrived at the RN and wishing I had never left Canada and now I was dreading going home. This post would be quite boring except with this excerpt - while drinking at the Happy in Belfast Kara dared me to go hit on this random guy. I accepted the dare, and successfully chatted up said boy. In the end it was playful fun and nothing happened. I remember talking to him but I don't remember much of our conversation. In the end I wish I had...

Turns out, some how this guy is on my flight out of Dublin back to Canada! Random coincidence. Worse, I didn't even recognize him the first half of he flight, but he did me. Oh well. Quite a funny story at any rate.

My Euro adventure ends here, sadly. I'm hoping it will be updated in the somewhat near future. I have plans in place (and the wheels are in motion) to move to the UK for a year starting spring 2011. I'm currently working on obtaining my UK Visa and securing employment. Wish me luck! Talk soon.

Day 40 - Back to Dublin

Sunday, June 20th - I woke up feeling quite horrible, thankfully we had a quick send-off with Chris's parents and then we were heading back to Belfast. With it being Sunday, the train ran on limited hours so Sandra and I had to make it back to Dublin by mid-afternoon or we wouldn't make it back for our flight home the following morning. Really, I was quite okay with missing it and staying in Europe forever. Sandra was eager to get home though. I said a tearful goodbye to Kara at the train station - it was hard, really had no idea when I will see her next. As of now UK Visa is in the works, may be sooner than I thought!

2 hours later we arrived back in Dublin and checked into the lodge we had stayed at before. Turned out we had luck-out the first time, our room wasn't as nearly as spacious as the last one, in-fact we had to share a queen bed. It still wasn't horrible, and it was still dirt cheap. We cleaned up and then headed to our last dinner out in Europe. We went back to the restaurant we went to earlier in the week since the food had been fantastic. We splurged and had ridiculously expensive meals with over-priced but delicious wine. After that we headed back to our lodge to get ready to fly home in the morning. Here we dropped heaps of stuff trying to lighten our luggage. This was the worst night of sleep of the entire trip for me, a car alarm started going off around 3am and never stopped. I ended up getting up at 4 to shower and get ready for our 6am departure.

Last Dinner

Day 39 - Exploring Belfast

Saturday, June 19th - Despite going to bed early (at least by contiki standards) I slept quite late and woke up to the delicious smell of home cooked breakfast made by Chris's mom. Bacon, eggs, sausage, rustic bread - it was all delicious. Chris's parents were great, extremely welcoming and quite entertaining to talk to. It was a nice change of pace to sit down to a family breakfast, I don't remember the last time I've done this - certainly not on contiki nor anytime recently at home.

After breaky we took a day trip to see one of the main attractions of Northern Ireland - the Giant's Causeway. We drove through the country-side and arrived at the attraction. It was quite windy and cold compared to what I'm used to. Poor Kara is used to hot Ontario summers and she's been stuck in Ireland in the cold. We climbed down the path to the waterfront and it was an amazing site, the rock formations were all symmetrical columns that were formed from a volcanic eruption that happened ages ago. It was really neat to look at and climb around. Only problem was that Kara and Chris hadn't advised me to where we were going so I was only wearing thongs so I had a bit of a problem on the slippery rocks. I still managed okay, I had climbed waterfalls and trekked around Europe in these thongs, I could definitely handle a few rocks. After admiring the waterfront we make a quick trip to the organ (see picture below) and then headed up the hill back to the car. Poor Sandra wasn't doing very well, the chilly winds made her feel worse than she already did and she had a difficult time climbing up the hill, but she was a trooper. The fresh air did the opposite for me, I felt renewed for the first time in weeks and was well ahead of the crowd, eager to explore the next turn.

After leaving the Giant's Causeway we went to a tiny waterfront city that Kara and Chris swore had the best ice cream. We weren't disappointed - it was elaborate and delicious. I still prefer gelato to ice cream but this was a definite treat. We passed by some shops and decided to stop, Kara and Chris were looking for a tent and I as everyone knows I just enjoying shopping - they didn't find a tent but I found some really cheap hoodies - 6 pounds and fit me perfectly!

We finally arrived back at Chris's parents place and after a quick shower we settled in for a family BBQ. The food was amazing - sausages, hamburgers, steaks - our host family went all out. It was simply delicious. Again, I really enjoyed the family time, and since one of the most famous Irish past-times is drinkin', we all got quite liquored up. Highlights of the evening include me trying to make friends with a herd of sheep - I spent a good 15 minutes trying to convince them to be friendly. I fail, but there is a pretty funny video of this. The entire group of us (parent's included) decided to head to the only pub in town "The Happy", which was heaps of fun. Everyone knew each other and those who didn't were extremely welcoming. It was very small town and unlike anything I've ever experienced I enjoyed every minute of it. We spent a few hours here and by last call I literally had to be dragged from the bar, I was having too much fun to leave!

First Sight of the Giant's Causeway

Up the hillside

More Giant's Causeway

The Organ

Kara and I

Day 38 - Chillin in Belfast

Friday, June 18th - Sandra, Kara and I booked spa appointments which I was in desperate need of. I did better traveling than I thought, I was less concerned with clean clothes and more concerned with having a good time. Staying at Kara's was a bit of a reminder of how normal people live - they wash their clothes! They shower often! They don't always look like dirtballs! So we went to the spa and I finally felt clean for the first time in about 4 weeks. I even got my hair highlighted, I was definitely a happy camper by the end of the day. I also enjoyed the glass of champagne that kept getting refilled while waiting for my hair to lighten.

The plan for the weekend was to go up north to Chris's parents place in the country. Before we headed up north we went to a burger place where I literally had the best burger i've ever had. In my entire life. We drove about 2 hours into the country side and arrived at Chris's parents house. It was awesome, a bit rustic but still updated - their kitchen was my dream kitchen. We had a quiet night of bored games and wine, not the usual contiki fun but still a good night.

Day 37 - Exploring a bit of Belfast

Thursday, June 17th - After a quick breakfast Sandra, Kara and I headed out to downtown Belfast to do some shopping. Belfast has some fabulous shopping and it was super cheap. I even found an "I love Paris" t-shirt for 3 pounds! Even more surprisingly I managed to spend a heap of money at the kitchsy tourist store; anyone who has traveled with me knows that I have a severe distaste for these shops. I find them overpriced and filled with useless items - until Belfast I didn't buy one souvenir the entire trip besides a few postcards. This was the best tourist store I've seen, Sandra and I spent easily over 150 pounds. I was keen on finding an Irish ring and I found a truly unique one there.

We spent most of the day shopping, I bought a fabulous pair of shoes - they are spectacular and nothing like the stuff I can find at home. After shopping I treated Kara to her first pedicure ever(!), I was in desperate need of one - trekking around Europe for a month in thongs kills your feet. After our girly day out we headed out for dinner at a great steakhouse - it was delicious. There was a bit of a misunderstanding by the end of the meal and Kara and Colly got into a fight over the bill. This lead to quite a big blow between Chris, Kara and Colly. I stayed out of it and grabbed Kara's laptop and caught up with some people back home on facebook. Eventually Kara and I ended up hanging out on her balcony and drinking up a storm, it was heaps of fun - just like the old days in uni.

Day 36 - Finally Belfast

Wednesday, June 16th - Finally got a hold of Kara and we made plans to meet up in Belfast. After another Irish breakfast we caught the train 2 hours north. We met up with Kara around 1pm and we had quite the reunion - I hadn't seen her in almost a year, I was beyond excited! It was such a great reunion moment! We dropped off our luggage and then headed to a pub to grab a pint, catch up and watch some world cup.

After our meal we headed back to her flat and I met Kara's boyfriend Chris and their roommate Colly. They were both good blokes. Kara made us dinner and then we were off to to watch her play rugby. Her team lost but it was a great game - I definitely enjoyed watching all the male rugby players! Afterward the game we headed back home and headed to bed quite early, the last 5 weeks were starting to catch up with me.

Day 35 - Off to Ireland

Tuesday, June 15th - I was in a foul mood on the way to the airport, I was exhausted from lack of sleep and upset that contiki was officially over - I was going to miss all my new friends. Sandra and I got to Heaththrow and sailed through our check-in and waited to board the airplane. The flight to Ireland was short, under an hour but I slept most of the way. We touched down in Dublin and had to figure out our next move. Sandra and I hadn't arranged for any accommodations nor did we have any actual plans once we got into Dublin. We were in Ireland to visit Kara who was living in Belfast, 2 hours north of Dublin. Problem was that we were not very organized and we didn't even have her address at the time so we decided that it would be best to just book a hotel and catch up on sleep and go from there. We ended up at the tourist desk and they were nice enough to book a hotel for us in the city for us, so we hopped on the airline bus shuttle and headed to our hotel. The hotel itself was super cute and cheap - only 45 Euros for the night for the 2 of us. I was very impressed! The only problem was that we couldn't check-in until 2pm and it was only 9am. We stashed our luggage at the hotel and set out to explore.

I had been up for over 24 hours now and Sandra was still sick so we weren't in the mood for sight-seeing. We grabbed a traditional Irish breakfast at a pub where I had my first taste of black pudding. It wasn't too bad. We walked around a little bit but then decided to go wait out our remaining time in an internet cafe, we literally spent 4 hours here. I finally caught up on all the emails I owed and many hours of TV. I was so tired at one point that I actually contemplated crawling under the desk and taking a nap. Finally it was 2pm and Sandra and I were able to check into our hotel, after being awake for 36 hours straight I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

We slept about 4 hours but woke up starving so we got cleaned up and went looking for some dinner. We found a cute Italian restaurant that served us some amazing food, delicious! We were still pretty beat so after dinner we just headed back to the hotel and headed to bed.

Day 34 - London Again

Monday, June 14th - I was up early to say goodbye to Jas who was catching an early flight back to Canada. I was hoping to push my flight to Dublin the following day up a day and change the 6:45am flight time, so I decided to head to the internet cafe to suss it out. The airline I had booked with wouldn't let me change the flight online so I headed back to the RN to call and make the changes. When I called the airline something was wrong with their phone system and I kept getting looped back to the main menu without talking an operator. I was beyond frustrated but resigned to the fact that this was my last day in London.

Rochelle, Sukhey, Sandra and I planned to go see Harrods and it was a fabulous experience. This is definitely one of the best shopping experiences I've ever had - it puts Holts in Toronto to shame. We ate in one of the many restaurants and it was delicious - my tuna salad was to die for. Better yet was the ice cream parlor we browsed after our meal, simply the best ice cream of the entire tour (note best ice cream - not gelato). We then wandered around all the designer clothes including Canadian designers D squared. Though I was more than tempted to drop a few hundred pounds on a few dresses I managed to restrain myself and headed to Top Shop instead for a few cheap finds. Sukhey and I then headed back to RN, she was my next goodbye and the one of the hardest. Rochelle and I were in tears saying goodbye to her. As of the moment I'm planning a trip to Vancouver in 3 weeks time, I'm looking forward to being reunited with my best from the tour.

I headed to London pub to find out what the plan was for that evening. A bunch of us had talked about going to see the Lion King show but it wasn't playing that night. We opted for Wicked and the majority of the remaining group came out aside from Matty Ray, who was off to some family members place and Ben and Matt F who got caught up at a casino and didn't have enough time to get ready. Wicked was alright, it was my first musical and I really didn't love it but in all honesty my mind was somewhere else that night. Afterward there was a huge debacle were we lost Chloe and Paula - who just ended up going home on their own. We all headed back to RN with the plans to go out to a club that evening. By the time we all got assembled in London pub it was quite late. I ran upstairs to grab my camera and by the time I came down everyone had decided to forgo going out that night. We all grabbed beers and hung out in the hotel bar, Sandra came and told me that our airplane shuttle was picking us up at 4am. It was already midnight so I just decided to pull another all-nighter.

Since it was my last night it was time for many sad goodbyes, the hardest was with Rochelle and with Ben. Rochelle and I had a few goodbye moments that night, it was pretty sad. After saying goodbye to the rest of the group, Ben and I headed to my side of the hotel and we had a long goodbye. For those who don't know, Ben and I started something up early on in Barcelona and it lasted the entire trip. Definitely had a few exciting moments together and the two of us will always view stairwells with a bit of fondness. We stayed up until 3am but eventually it was time to say goodbye. It was time for me to pack up and grab my airport shuttle, so with one final (and sad) goodbye to Ben I was off to Ireland.

Bye Rochelle!

Day 33 - Back to London

Sunday, June 13th - Contiki had finally come to an end, I can't believe how fast 4 weeks flew by. The majority of the tour members were taking the coach back to London but we were leaving about 10 people behind in Amsterdam to go their separate ways. It was time for our first round of goodbyes - most significant for me was saying goodbye to Monica and Pete who were traveling to Poland and Alex who was meeting up with his parents back in France. We got on the coach and Alex came on and said one more tearful goodbye and we were en route to London via Belgium and France. I was hoping to grab my own bank of seats so I could stretch out and grab some sleep but Matty F ended up sitting with me and he wanted the window seat so I ended up in a much less comfortable aisle seat. It worked out in the end; Ben ended up sitting across the aisle and we got caught-up on each others weekends and he informed me of some events that went on after I had left the club the previous night. Matty Ray and Jas finally made out! This had been building the entire tour it was about time it happened. He had been bugging Ben and I the majority of the tour, always teasing us about hooking up and hanging out so I finally had something to tease Matt about - I only had 24 hours to do it but I made the most of it. Ben also told me that Lorraine hooked up with a random, I missed out on so much taking care of drunk Alex. This is why I always stayed out until the very end of each night - so I wouldn't miss a thing! While the rest of the coach slept Ben and I chatted for a few hours, he told me all about the events leading up to the mix-up with the wrong day sheet which was pretty funny to hear. We also discovered that both our father's ran engineering company's and as a result we have both put in time working front desk jobs for our dads. I was actually really tired but every time I almost fell asleep he would nudge me with something new to say and in the end I'm glad he did, really I'd rather talk to Benny than sleep.

We stopped for breakfast/lunch in Belgium and this rest-stop was the only part of Belgium we would see (contiki only promised we'd see Belgium in transit). It was still pretty early and I wasn't too hungry so Sandra and I shared a sandwich and then it was time to get back on the coach. This time Ben and I actually slept until we reached Dover. It was time to get back on the Ferry that had started us on our trip, I found it to be quite bittersweet. I spent most of my time duty-free shopping and taking advantage of the cheap deals. We docked and it was about 2 hours back the RN. Here we said goodbye to a few more tour members including Sian and Katia, and a much smaller group of us checked in. After 4 weeks of mostly sub-par hotels throughout Europe RN wasn't as horrible as I had originally thought. After much needed showers we all headed to London pub to watch the World Cup - Australia and Germany were playing and with the majority of our tour being Australian we all become honorary Australians that night - but they still lost to Germany 4-0. Even though they lost this ignited my obsession with the world cup and soccer that I would take home with me. Early on I picked Spain as my team and they didn't disappoint and I have now a new obsession with soccer. My house-league team starts up in a few weeks!

That night ended up being quite uneventful, it literally ended up with the Amigo's, Kristen and I standing around in the hotel lobby and chatting. Eventually Kristen and I decided it was late and headed to bed.

Day 32 - More Adventures in Amsterdam!

Saturday, June 13th - The previous night I had made Jas and Sukhey promise they would be up and ready for 10am, I woke up at 9:30am hurting and regretting being so adamant about getting a good start. We had decided to sleep through the organized events of the tour and do our own thing since it was the last weekend of Contiki and we wanted to make the best of it. I arrived to breakfast about 45 minutes late, definitely had a hard time getting moving. We decided to take the free airport shuttle to the airport and then grab a train into a city. Given the previous night's taxi fare I was more than willing to spend the time and navigate the metro to get in the city.

Rochelle, Sukhey, Jas and I arrived in the city and set off for the shopping district. I had originally wanted to see Ann Frank's house, but we had heard the queues were a couple hours wait and we only had about 4 hours in the city, so we opted out of it. This is the only attraction in Europe that I missed out in during the entire trip that I regret. Clearly I will have to go back to the Netherlands. I was hoping to find an outfit to wear out on my last night of Contiki but no dice. I did find a great pair of shoes for 20 Euros, so cheap! The shopping was actually quite good, but I was trying to be careful with my money given I still had London and Ireland to get through. Jas and I grabbed some lunch at McD's and then I headed to Zara alone with the plan to meet up with the rest of the group within 20 minutes. I ended up spending heaps of time at Zara although I never bought anything. By the time I left everyone had moved on to other stores so I was left alone. No worries, I prefer shopping on my own anyways (with the exception of shopping with Sukhey who is my perfect shopping partner.)

I was left on my own which I didn't mind with the exception of the fact that I don't wear a watch and I didn't have my BB on me - I didn't have service anywhere in Europe, so my BB became a glorified alarm clock while on the trip. I wandered around and did a bit of shopping and then decided that I should probably head to the meeting place where the coach was picking us up. Apparently I should have paid more attention to Sian when she was instructing us on the meeting place because I was definitely waiting in the wrong place. After waiting there for about 10 minutes (and 4 guys circling me, making me thoroughly uncomfortable) Matty Ray thankfully walked by and I found I was indeed waiting for the coach in the wrong place. We soon ran into a few others and headed to the actual meeting place for the coach. Katia was running a bit late which was somewhat disappointing because it cut down on our time to get ready for our farewell dinner. We were finally picked up and we had about 45 minutes to get dressed up and get back on the coach for dinner.

The majority of the group got on the bus but Sian noticed that the Amigo's and Kristen were missing. I was apparently the last one to see them the night before, at first Sian was concerned that Kristen had never made it home the night before but I assured her that she had. We carried onto dinner without them. Dinner was mediocre, the appetizer and dessert were both amazing but my main course of steak closely resembled a piece off over-cooked meat with campbell's mushroom soup poured over it. Halfway through dinner Sian got a text from another tour manager - apparently the Amigo's and Kristen had gone to the wrong dinner! This is a bit of an aside but a pretty great story so I will include it. The boys and Kristen skipped the tour stuff of the day and decided to hit up some cafes to experience Amsterdam life. Apparently somewhere throughout their day they ended up reading the other tour's day sheet (for the non-contiki readers, a day sheet was our daily agenda that Sian posted each day somewhere in the lobby of each hotel). Even though the two sheets were clearly marked with each tour's details, including each tour manager's name, the next destination - our's was London and the other tour was Barcelona they somehow still ended up getting them mixed up. So they arrived at the other tour's dinner and discovered the mix-up and grabbed a cab to our dinner, which cost over 100 euros. By now the boys were quite high and Matt apparently started to freak out in the taxi, which according to Ben and Kristen was quite hilarious to watch. They eventually made it, I was the first one to see them walk in, the look on Matt's face was priceless - he looked a bit terrified. First thing he did was hug Sian as soon as he got to our restaurant. They grabbed a bit of dinner and then it was time to head out to our farewell canal cruise.

Our farewell cruise was also a booze cruise - all the beer or wine that we wanted in an hour and a half. I found the boat similar to our coach, but with tables and it was definitely hard to maneuver around in. I got tired of sitting so after a while I got up and tried to walk around but I really never made it very far - only to the next table where Jas and Tom decided to go beer for beer. Eventually I gave up trying to walk around and sat with Matty Ray and Naomi for the the reminder of the cruise - it was at least close to the bartender, didn't even have to get up for another drink! Near the end of the cruise I hopped over to see how Matt and Ben were doing, they seemed okay although somewhat out of it.

After booze cruise we tried to figure out where to spend our last night of the tour. We ended up back in the red light district but decided to head to the club we had originally wanted to go to the previous night before. It was still quite early so I suggested we head to Prime for pre-drinks and then go to the club later in the evening. Everyone agreed this was a good idea and we all grabbed cabs to our next destination. It took a while for everyone to make it Prime - a bunch of us were waiting outside for the rest of the group. Eventually we thought that possibly a group of us had already gone into the bar so the boys sent me in to take a look because I wouldn't be charged cover. I went in but no one was there and on my way out I was stopped by a group of guys who tried talking me up, not interested I pushed past them and some guy grabbed my arm with one hand and grabbed my chest with the other! I was absolutely livid, I seriously wanted to punch the guy but given I was currently alone in a bar I decided it was best for me to get the hell out of there. I did give him a pretty good shove though.

Eventually the majority of our group made it to Prime and we had some drinks and did a bit of dancing. After about an hour everyone was ready to head to the club across the street but Matty R and I had just bought drinks so we decided to meet everyone there. We finished our drinks and Matt needed to hit up an ATM, I directed him to the one I had gone to the evening before but told him I would wait for him outside the club. I should have gone with him, a girl standing alone outside a club garners heaps of unwanted attention, I seriously felt uncomfortable. I decided to head into the club on my own but Matt met up with me while I was waiting in line. Twice in one day that Matt came to the rescue, although unintentional on his part.

The club was great, had both lounge and dance areas and I tried to divide my time between both places. Kristen and the Amigo's finally caught up with the rest of the group but the Amigo's still seemed a bit off - Kristen had never smoked in the first place. Later in the night I ran into Alex who was quite drunk and he asked me to sit with him, after a few minutes I realized he was absolutely wasted and I asked if he wanted to go home and he said yes. We grabbed a cab, although this time I was smart enough to negotiate a flat rate before we got in, and then he proceeded to puke out the window the entire way back to the hotel. Once there I had to help him clean up as he was an absolute mess and then I decided to head to bed. It had been quite a night!

Amsterdam at night

Farewell Dinner

Canal Cruise

Booze cruise

More booze cruise

Day 31 - Amsterdam

Friday, June 12th - I was a bit tired the next morning but nothing too horrible. I grabbed a seat with Rochelle on the coach and we were off to Amsterdam. It was a somewhat early morning so we slept the first few hours and then stopped for an early lunch. I didn't have much of an appetite so I just picked at my food at the rest stop. The drive to Amsterdam was fairly short, we were there by about 2pm. Our first stop was the "I Amsterdam" sign, some people snapped pics but a bunch of decided to use the time to go shopping. I ended up wandering into a LaCoste store and spent 140 Euros on a dress! I love it and it was worth every penny. After shopping we met up with the tour and got back on the coach to head to the Heineken factory for a tour. Katia had to let us off in a bike lane and we had to jump off rather quickly because we were in a no parking zone. Not being careful, I jumped off the coach right in front of a vespa and almost got run over - if it wasn't for Sian screaming at me to get out of the way I definitely would've been hit. Thanks Sian!

The Heineken tour was quite alright and there was an interesting adventure ride that simulated the entire bottling process that was rather creative. As usual we were on limited time so most of the group were keen on getting our free beers at the end of the tour. Since Sandra wasn't feeling well she gave me her free beers as well but I couldn't get through them, there wasn't enough time. We then headed to our hotel and it was actually quite nice, we were given enough time to get ready to go out before dinner and then we headed to our "cultural show."

We headed into the Red Light district and I quickly learned that Amsterdam is full of cobblestone streets and is not the place for heels. I got caught up pretty badly at one point and had to grab on to Paula to avoid eating the pavement. Sian took us through some of the ally ways and we got a look at the prostitutes in the floor length windows - they looked so bored! One was even just doing her nails - c'mon, if this was their job they should put a bit of effort in! We then went to the sex show - it was movie theatre setting that overlooked a stage. We place our drink orders and then the first act wanted volunteers from the audience to participate. In the end Matt F, Ben and Lorraine ended up going up. It was pretty funny to watch them with the stripper probably the most entertaining part of the entire show. The rest of the show consisted of 2 couples having sex and finally a lesbian couple. The entire thing was pretty boring, it all looked scripted and the participants didn't seem very interested. I will give props to the lesbians, they actually looked like they were having fun. After an hour it was time for us to go and I was quite okay with leaving. Next we headed to a bar that Sian recommended and I really liked it. It had good music and a decent crowd. A few of us stepped out to go to a cafe to purchase some pot, I ended up buying a space-cake (similar to a pot brownie) and also bought a joint. It's like ordering from McD's only it's pot instead of hamburgers! We took everything back to the bar as it was legal to smoke in the back there. I took about 2 bites of my space-cake, decided it was disgusting and opted to just stick to drinking for the night. Kraisten and I ended up chatting to some English blokes for quite a long time, they were absolutely hilarious until they got too drunk and kept repeating the same jokes which I got tired with.

After a few hours at the bar we decided we wanted to move onto a club, Sian gave us the name of a decent place and a bunch of us jumped into cabs. I ended up sitting on the floor of a van-taxi and the driver ended up charging per person instead of using the meter. So even though I didn't have a seat he still charged me! I'm sure the driver made a good penny off of us. We got to the club and found out it was 20 Euros to get in, which we thought was a bit steep. Instead we ended up at a bar called Prime which was actually really fun. The music was great, even played "Memories" which is our Contiki tour song. The night was heaps of fun. As usual I was one of the last to leave and by the time we all got cabs, only Alex and I were left so we had to take one just the two of us. This was fine except for the fact that are hotel was really far out of the city - it cost us 50 Euros to get back! Pretty steep when you're only splitting it between two people. We got back and Matt F and Ben were waiting for us outside the hotel. I was tired and pretty drunk so I opted to head to bed. I got back to my room and tried to sleep but I wasn't as tired as I thought so I decided to go catch up on some emails in the lobby - sorry to all who got drunk emails that night, especially Padraic. Eventually Matt F and Ben showed up, they were locked out of their room. Matt was pretty much done - he tried sleeping on the couch in the lobby but the staff told him to get up. I hung out with them for a bit and I eventually headed off to bed, but apparently the poor boys were up for a few hours.

I amsterdam

World of Heineken

Prime

Day 30 - St. Goar

Thursday, June 11th - Sian had warned us the previous night that if the weather didn't improve we wouldn't be able to leave. We headed down to breakfast eager to see what the verdict was but Sian still hasn't heard either way. We grabbed some breakfast and Sian had us pack up our bags and wait in the lobby until we found out more details. Eventually we were given the go ahead to go down the mountain, I grabbed the second cable car down. Even the lodge workers came down with us so they wouldn't be stuck on the mountain. Apparently the winds from the previous night were well over 110K! I caught up with Ben on the cable car and he told me that he had been locked out of his room for hours after I went to bed, poor guy!

We hopped on the coach and I sat with Nicole and I had a good chance to get to know her, I wish I had taken the time to get to know her earlier on the tour, she's quite lovely! Nicole was planning on staying in the UK after our tour ended, I quite admired her for this - very gutsy! We were also told about one last optional inclusion on the tour that wasn't included in the brochure - a live sex show in Amsterdam. Apparently I was pretty much the only person who didn't know about this earlier. Sian said she would pass around the sign-up list around the bus twice as she knew that some people may be hesitant to sign up for it the first time. I had initially decided not to go, the first time I the list came around I passed it on to Jas and Sukhey. I then decided the hell with it and grabbed it back and signed up, when is the next time I'll be in Amsterdam? Might as well experience it for all it's worth.

The plan was to head to straight off the coach to our hotel in St. Goar. I was quite okay with this plan as I was dying for a shower and I really wanted to grab my luggage; we were only able to take are carry-on up to the lodge in the Swiss Alps, obviously all our luggage would be to heavy for the cable cars. Last minute Sian changed plans and instead we were doing a tour or a Beer Stein shop instead and then we were going to do a cruise down the Rhine. I really didn't love this idea and it put me in a bit of a bad mood. First thing I did when we got off the coach was suss out an ATM, I hadn't been able to take out cash since Corfu and I was getting low, for some reason my card wouldn't work in Venice. I wasn't the only one, Alex was also having problems with this as well. I was a bit late for the beer stein shop demonstration but I wasn't bothered, I wasn't really interested. The beer steins were impressive, very detailed but quite expensive - I think easily over 100 euros.

I was quite surprised by the weather in St. Goar - it was not only really hot, but quite humid. Reminded me of Ontario summer on a bad day. Not very nice. We had a few minutes before the cruise so Sukhey, Rochelle and I decided to get our daily gelato treat. This was the worst gelato we ever had, very disappointed! We went into a few shops, Jas showed me a pretty silver ring she had bought so I went and sussed out what they had and I found a simple silver band that I fell in love with so I purchased it. Next up was the cruise, Sandra dropped out of it as she was feeling quite horrible, I wish I had joined her. Matty Ray also opted not to get on the boat, good on him - I wish I had followed his lead. It was really quite hot out and and I was in no mood for a cruise down the Rhine. The scenery was nice but got old quite quickly. The most exciting part of the cruise was some Japanese tourists thinking Starr was a celebrity, they were all asking her for her autograph and posing for pictures. It was quite funny. Eventually I pulled out my cards and a few of us played a few rounds of crazy eights until we finally docked.

Out hotel didn't have any lifts so Sian suggested that we all just grab some clean stuff from our luggage and then use our carry-on luggage again. I really didn't feel like pulling apart my luggage in the car park so I decided to drag my luggage upstairs, this seemed to be the consensus among most people. While everything was being loaded off the coach I went to check on Sandra to see how she was feeling. I told her she needed to come down and grab her stuff from the coach. The poor girl really wasn't well so she grabbed her carry-on but I decided to help her out with her luggage. I ended up making 3 more trips up the stairs in the super hot weather, carrying Sandra's luggage, my luggage and finally my carry-on up the stairs. I've never been more sweaty in my entire life. I decided to skip dinner and grab the coldest shower I've ever taken.

After dinner we had a wine tasting organized. I was really looking forward to this given my previous summer working for a winery outlet. Germany grows mostly Riesling grapes and I was eager to see what they had to offer. I was surprised by how sweet the wine was and I really wasn't a big fan. We then got to taste some ice wine, which was really disappointing. This is the one wine product Ontario is quite good at making, we have the perfect climate for it. the German version was nasty, truely dissapointing. I tried to ask the winery owner about his product, the climate, etc., but he wasn't very engaging. He didn't seem very passionate about his product. Although I was disappointed in the product I still bought a bottle, as did a few others. It was only 8 Euros, I might as well. I would like to point out the actual wine cellar where we had our wine tasting was great, a musty old cellar with wine barrels. The place was used as a bunker during WWII, very cool.

It was still early when we left the wine tasting - still light out. Back at the hotel I ran into the Amigo's who had found a pretty great balcony that they were throwing wet paper towels at people in the street - boys will be boys. I decided it would be fun to join in, Sukhey and I were trying to distract fellow tour members so the boys could surprise them. After a few minutes a neighbour across the street called our hotel and complained that we were too loud and we were kicked off the balcony. Sukhey and I decided to grab the bottle of wine I had just purchased and we headed to the Rhine river. We had a great talk here, this turned into another great redeeming night after a quite poor day. Afterward we met up with Jas and Kairsten, and we decided to explore St. Goar. Jas bailed but Sukhey, Kairsten and I had a fun wandering around. Eventually we headed back to the hotel and Suk and Karisten headed to bed but I decided to see what was going on at the bar. I found out that the Amigo's shower almost crashed in from above while one of them were in it! I forget whom it was - Pete and I knocked on their door to get some details and Shane told me but I've since forgotten forgotten them.

I then headed back to the bar and hung out with the few remaining people who was there including Sian who again was quite pissed and quite funny. At midnight it became Jono's bday - so we decided to buy him shots but the bartender wouldn't sell us anymore because he was closing up. Matty Ray suggested that he distract the bartender while I stole a bottle of Jack, in the end the plan never worked but I did managed to get us shots for Jono, Matty and myself. After that it was time for bed - we were off to Amsterdam the next morning!

Pretty St. Goar

Wine Tasting

Day 29 - Swiss Alps Adventures

Wednesday, June 10th - Sandra and I woke up to some insistent banging on our door. I tried to ignore it but whomever was there was being quite persistent. I opened it up and it was Kristen telling us that the top of the mountain was closed! Our lodge was only about halfway up the mountain and we had all bought passes to go up to the top to play in the snow but apparently the weather was turning quite quickly and the winds were too strong for the cable cars. I was really disappointed, I was really looking forward to some tubing and tobogganing. Sian also told us that we only had a few hours to go down to the base of the mountain before the cable cars would be closed in that direction as well.

I woke up Sukhey and Jas to let them know about the situation and we decided that we should head down to Engelberg to grab some lunch and other supplies. Rochelle, Lorraine, Sukhey, Jas, Sandra and I headed down on the cable car. We wandered around for a bit - in the opposite direction of Engelberg - opps! After finally finding our way into town we ran into Jake, Paula and Chloe at a Bistro that they said was pretty good so we decided to stop and have some lunch. The food was quite yummy - really good pizza. We had heard that some stores in Engelberg have their own siesta so we decided to go to the only grocer in town to pick up some fruit and booze while we waited for our food. In the end we had heard wrong but at least we picked up our "supplies". After lunch the rest of the girls hit up the grocer and then it was time to catch the cable car back up to the lodge. Before we did we all goofed around in the gift shop at the base of the mountain - trying on funny hats and generally making asses of ourselves - lots of silly fun.

We got back to the lodge and found a bunch of people putting together puzzles - yes puzzles. This is what you do when you're stuck in ski lodge halfway up a mountain. I think it was a race with boys against girls, I watched for a bit but obviously puzzle building isn't the most griping thing to watch. In the end neither teams got very far but apparently they each wasted a good couple hours before quitting!

Rochelle, Sukhey, Jas and I decided to venture outside to find some snow - we could see some small snow piles from our windows, this was especially exciting for Rochelle being from Aussie land. I was pretty excited myself since we barely got any snow in Ontario this past winter - it was definitely closer to a Vancouver winter than an Ontario winter. After climbing a huge hill to a tiny patch of gross, dirty snow we then saw a heap of snow that we decided to check out. We made our way down and found a snow heap that had been made into a number of rooms and passages. We all took turns standing in the snow and taking pictures. Someone then spotted a waterfall not too far off so we decided to check it out - we had to skirt some barbwire and hop over a few small streams but we got there and it was awesome. We climbed up the rocks to the mountain and it was pretty cool, the water was super cold but really clean. I could have drank from it.

Afterward we decided to watch a movie in the movie room and we had a few drinks and then headed for dinner. Dinner was exactly the same at the day before but this time I was starving and I wasn't disappointed. I should mention that poor Sandra was quite sick by now - she had been fighting it since Corfu and by now she wasn't even able to hold food down. Sandra definitely was hit the hardest by the 'contiki sickness." She had ended up missing out on quite a few nights - such as the Vienna nights, trying to get healthy. She was pretty much on a bread diet by now, poor girl.

After dinner Sian had organized Trivia night. I'm a huge fan of trivia night so I was quite excited for it. Also we were stuck halfway up a mountain - there really was nothing else to do besides drink and play games. The night was fun - we played 4 rounds and in the end my team of Sukhey, Jas, Rochelle and I came 4th. The winners were the team with the kiwi's and Ivan, the oldest bunch of the group! After trivia we all headed to the common room trying to figure out something to do. In the end most of the group continued with their own trivia game but I ended up just sitting and talking with Ben on the sidelines. Eventually we were the last two up and I convinced Ben to come outside with me to see just how windy it actually was. (Honestly, really how windy could it be?) We jumped out the window onto the deck and we could barely walk 2 steps - I can honestly say I've never been in winds like that before, I really could have been blown off the side of the mountain. We quickly retreated back inside and it was finally time to head to bed.

*I'm still waiting for pics from Swiss Alps. I'll update once I have them (c'mon Rochelle and Sukhey!)

Day 28 - Swiss Alps

Tuesday, June 9th - I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly good, honestly a bit too good. In hindsight I was still kinda drunk but at the time I felt fantastic, just a bit tired. I was going to skip breakfast for a shower but then Sandra reminded me it was real bacon and eggs, first time on the trip! I decided to skip the shower and enjoy a hot breakfast instead. Afterward we were getting on the coach and Matty F remarked to me that I was one of the more solid drinkers of the trip or something along those lines....and this is when I realized I had close to no recollection of the previous nights event, hmmm...this can't be good. I grabbed a seat in the back corner of the coach and grabbed some sleep.

I slept the first few hours of the ride and woke up in Liechtenstein, a tiny little country I had never heard of before I was actually in it. There wasn't much to see and we only had an hour so a bunch of us decided to grab some lunch. This is about the time when my hangover was starting to kick in and I ended up only eating a few bites of my food. After lunch a few people paid the money to get their passport stamped with the Liechtenstein stamp but I decided not to pay the few Euros. If we had been getting stamps in every country I would have gladly paid but since we crossed boarders freely in the European Union the only stamps I had were for England and France.

We got back on the coach and found out that the AC had cut out; at first Katia had thought it wasn't working because the air vent was opened the wrong way. Turned out that she was wrong and the AC was broken and we still had a few hours ahead of us. Sitting in the back of the bus was the worst idea, it was beyond hot back there. Monica and I ended up standing up on our seats trying to increase the airflow around us. Everyone was pretty grumpy by the time we got to Lucerne, Switzerland. Sian had organized a stop at a shop that sold Swiss Army knives and watches but Sukhey and I decided to skip out and find some gelato. We never were able to, instead had to settle for some ice cream bars.

We had about an hour to wander around and Lucerne really was beautiful but I wasn't in the best mood to enjoy it, the events of the night before were starting to catch up with me. We went into the some of the shops and I discovered how expensive things are in Switzerland, some items were almost double the price of what I would pay at home! We got back on the coach and drove through the Swiss Alps; again it was amazing to see it but the heat was unbearable and it was hard to enjoy. After about an hour we arrived at Mount Titlis which would be our home for the next two days. We took a cable car about halfway up the mountain to our lodge. The lodge itself was pretty nice, exactly how I thought it would be. As soon as we got settled my bad mood was gone. We put our bags in our room and everyone did a bit of exploring to check out everyone's rooms. Some people lucked out and got really nice rooms, others did not - Brylie and Naomi were not so lucky and their room was right under a flight of stairs which ended up being quite loud. We then found out that if we climbed out our window we could get to this huge balcony outside which had an incredible view of the top of the mountain.

It was time for dinner which was pretty good, there was some choice which was nice. I didn't have much of an appetite to enjoy it though. Still not feeling all the great from the night before. Sian organized a movie night for us in the screening room, there really wasn't much else to do in a ski lodge halfway up a mountain. We ended up watching "Hitch"; I had seen it once before and I wasn't too keen on seeing it again but with nothing else to do so I sat through it. The room was fully of huge comfy bean-bag pillows so at least I was comfortable. After the movie Sukhey, Rochelle and I stayed up to play a few rounds of cards, eventually Rochelle headed to bed. There were two computers with free internet (finally) so Sukhey and I stayed up talking and catching up on some emails. Eventually around 2am it was finally time for bed.

Lucerne

At the base of Titlis (Engelberg)

This sign was in all our bathrooms....

Day 27 - Back to Austria!

Monday, June 8th - Another early morning, not nearly enough time to catch up on sleep. We got back on the coach and headed back into Austria and our first stop of the morning was for white-water rafting. At first I wasn't going to do it - it didn't really appeal to me. I then found out that if you didn't participate in the rafting then you just sat around for a few hours so I decided to sign up. I was so glad I did - it was such a trip! My raft ended up being Matt F, Kat and Damien, Sukhey, Starr and Jimmy. We all partnered up to be responsible for someone in the raft - mine was Damo - this guy is one of the most fit guys I know. We had to practice pulling each other back into the raft, it was definitely a struggle but I managed to pull him back in on our practice run. The actual rafting was amazing, we got to see a lot of the Austrian scenery - it took us about an hour to get down the river while we battled the rapids.

After rafting we cleaned up, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to our hotel in the Austrian Tyrol. We were in a tiny little town, but I loved it. It was still early in the day, a lot of people had signed up to go paragliding but I opted out because it cost 115 Euros. I decided that my Guess shoes purchase was my paragliding experience. I had signed up for a bike ride in the country side but I ended up napping through it, I was still exhausted from my weekend in Vienna. After my nap I met up with Sukhey and Rochelle to hunt for some Austrian pastry that we were told was delicious. We found some at a local bakery and we were not disappointed. We all got different desserts and shared them, very yummy! We then did a bit of shopping at a drugstore - bought some of the best makeup I've ever found at that store. I then quickly got ready for dinner which was pretty decent. After that it was "schnapps hour" which meant that schnapps were only 1.50 Euro and well let's just say I made the most of it. Alex and I started doing 50% "mouth-wash" shots.

After Schnapps hour we headed to a bar about 5 minutes from our hotel. I did a few more shots with Alex at the bar and then the night ends for me....this ended up being the drunkest night I had on the trip and I don't remember a thing. The best I can do is piece together the night from pictures from Kristen's camera. I remember 2 things from that night - taking a shot off of Brylie and thinking that the walk home took at really long time. I thought I was clearly wrong, the hotel was 5 minutes away. Apparently we got lost and it did indeed take us 25 minutes to get home....at least I remember one thing from that night!

Lovely Austria

Contiki!

I wasn't the only drunk one.....

Tom showing some love to Matt F

I yelled at Ben outside...I'm not sure why

I don't know

This can't end well....

Ohh...it doesn't!

The last man (somewhat) standing after Austrian Tyrol night - Ben, Nicole, Matt F, Kristen, Shane and I

Day 26 - Onward to Germany

Sunday, June 7th - After packing up my luggage I headed down for breakfast and I was feeling pretty much like death. Over the entire weekend in Vienna I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep and obviously none from the night before. The weekend was heaps of fun but it was definitely catching up to me. Alex gave me some kind of miracle pill that killed my cough and put me right to sleep on the coach. I slept uninterrupted until we arrived at out first stop - the Mauthausen Concentration camp. I will be honest, I knew that we were visiting a concentration camp during the tour but I had no idea that we were visiting Mauthausen this morning. It was a bit of a shock to wake-up to. It was a completely sobering experience; horribly sad and very moving. We first got there and watched a film about the history of the camp and then had some free time to wander around. I first went to see the steps that lead up to the Quarry that many victims were pushed or thrown off of. I then went to see the barracks where the prisoners slept and finally the gas chamber. It left me with a sickening feeling to see a place where so many people lost their lives. We only had about 40 minutes to take everything in, I really wish we had more time to spend there.

After Mauthausen we stopped for lunch where Sian warned us that it would be difficult to find a table and get served. Some people were quite lucky and found a table and were served right away but I was lagging a bit behind and wasn't so lucky. Jas, Sukhey, and Kairsten and I finally found a table and it took us forever to flag down a waiter. In the end Sukhey never even got served! We all got back on the coach only to discover that we were blocked in on both sides, I've never seen Katia so angry. She definitely gave a yelling to the guy that blocked us in when he finally came out to move his bus.

Around 4pm we arrived in Munich, although I was exhausted I was excited to be there - I've always wanted to go to Germany! Our hotel was decent and we were given enough time to quickly clean up before we all headed out to Hofbrauhaus House - a traditional beer hall. Sian taught us how to sing the traditional song that ends with slamming our beer mugs together. She made up her own words and I don't remember them at all. We all grabbed beers and ordered dinner. The food was fantastic, especially the suckling pig that Sarah ordered. At this point I was ready to go home, I was beyond exhausted. Sukhey, Rochelle, Lorraine and I grabbed some gelato and then headed to the coach to head back to the hotel. I was all ready for a quiet night in but then Katia got up and said that everyone should go out in the "most fun city in Europe." This was enough to convince me to stay out and I literally dragged Sukhey off the bus and headed back to Hofbrauhaus with a few others. Sian had warned us at the beginning of the trip that some people would have the problem of not wanting to miss out on anything during the trip - I was definitely one of those people!

In the end I was glad I stayed out, Sian was drinking that night and she was heaps of fun. She says the most ridiculous and hilarious things when she's drunk! After a few hours a few people were ready to move onto another bar but I decided it really was time for me to head home. I ended up grabbing a cab with Matty Ray back to our hotel, thankfully this time we were not taken on a tour of city like in Paris! It was finally time for some much needed sleep - I've never been more excited to go to bed!

Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Monument inside the camp

Hofbrauhaus House

With our beers - 1 litre pints!

Ali, Ben, Shane and I at Hofbrauhaus House (I'm practically falling asleep at the table!)

Day 25 - More Vienna

Saturday, June 6th - I didn't even move while Sandra got up and got ready for the day - I was beyond exhausted from the night before. Sukhey, Jas and I decided to sleep in and take the metro into the city and meet up with the tour later on in the day. Around noon we grabbed a train into the city centre and wandered around a bit. I was taken back by how beautiful the city was - I loved the architecture. We stopped to grab some lunch at a fantastic restaurant, this may have been the best meal I had on the entire trip. I tried some cold cucumber soup which was delicious, followed by some gnocchi. Not very Austrian but still very good. We also split some spreads to start - it sounds horrible but the pork belly spread was out of this world. Can't wait to try it again!

After lunch we ran into Rochelle, Lorraine and a few others and grabbed some gelato. Gelato was a daily treat in Europe, oh how I miss holiday life. We then headed to Schonbrunn Palace to meet up with the rest of the tour. Schonbrunn Palace has an amazing garden, we spent about 45 minutes hanging out in the sun and enjoying the scenery. I would love to spend an entire day in that garden with a book and just relax. We then headed to a castle, the name of the castle has been lost on me but it wasn't very exciting. By now we were a few weeks into the trip, and seeing another castle kinda got old. The highlight for me was getting stuck in the gift shop because I wasn't tall enough to open the automatic door to get out. Yes, that happened and just another reason why I really dislike gift shops.

After the castle stop we headed to the Schnapps Museum, this was one of the better Contiki events of the tour. Our guide was very interesting, he gave a great history of the museum without being boring. At one point I starting coughing up a storm - by now my contiki cough was at it's worst, and our schnapps guide promised that he had the cure for our coughs. I forget the name but it was some kind of super strong shot. After the tour we got to sample the different schnapps, we were only allowed 3 but everyone had a lot more. I had about 8, which was on the low side compared to everyone else. Sandra, Sukhey and I split on the "contiki cure" that was supposed to cure our cough. It never cured my cough but it did help get me drunk.

After the schnapps museum it was time to head back to the hotel. I decided to grab a quick nap and then a bunch of us met of for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Dinner was alright although it took a long time to get served being such a big group. Paula and Chloe got served and finished eating in half the time we were there. After dinner we all got ready to go out again. We did a brief predrink and then it was off to the club. Shane had done his research and found a great club - Pratadome. This is probably the best club I have ever been too - there was about 8 different rooms playing different kinds of music. I spent the entire night group/room hopping and dancing the night away. Heaps of fun, the music was great. Tom and I found a Heinken vending machine, how awesome is that?! It was self-serve and cheaper than the bar, we need to bring these to Toronto. Around 5am the last men standing were the Amigo's and I (again). We stumbled out of the club and the sun was once again already rising. We grabbed a taxi back to our hotel. Hung out with Ben for a bit and then realized that it was time to pack up and grab some breakfast - the coach was scheduled to leave in about an hour!

Schonbrunn Palace

Pratadome

Brylie and I

Shane and Ben - on our way home

Day 24 - Vienna

Friday, June 5th - Another early morning, I skipped breaky and just grabbed an apple before heading onto the coach. I sat with Ali on the coach, who had been trekking along pretty well, despite having gotten pretty sick the first half of the tour. This is the morning Ali's fever finally broke which meant he was sweating up a storm - it looked like he had just stepped out of the shower, poor guy. It really wasn't that bad for me, and we had a good talk that morning - Ali is a pretty interesting guy. Driving into Austria was breathtaking, I've never seen landscape like that before - it was just gorgeous. The mountains were amazing, some of the best skiing in the world is in Austria. I couldn't take my eyes off the scenery the entire way in.We got into Vienna around 4pm and the hotel was impressive, only second to Barcelona. Our room was quite nice, lots of room and the beds were very comfy again. I decided to go to the mall across the street from our hotel (this is the first shopping mall I'd seen since Canada), Sukhey, Jas and Kristen came as well. I'm not sure if I was just to exhausted or the shopping was just horrible but I didn't find anything - even Promode let me down! We then sussed out a place to eat but the only thing open was McD's. This was my first European McD's and I got the Big N' Tasty but I was let down. The food was already premade, unlike at home were it is made to order. It tasted fairly stale. Sukhey and I then decided to get sundaes and I made the mistake of asking for peanuts. This didn't translate into German and my order taker ended up refusing to help me and called the manager over...I never got my peanuts in the end.


We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night out. Sandra was at a Mozart Concert so I had the room to myself. It was really nice to have a bit of alone time, it was only the second time on the trip. I got ready, watched a Jay Z concert and then headed down to Jas and Sukhey's room. This night turned into one of my favourite nights of the trip, after pre-drinking in the Amigo's room a bunch of us headed out. We went to U4 on the recommendation of Sian but apparently Friday nights were metal/goth nights or something. Geoff and Matty Ray were already inside and Matt F and Tom(?) went in to see how it was. It was apparently shit so w e needed a new plan.

After a lot of debating we headed to a new club which became another trouble in it's self. The bouncers gave us a hard time about having such a large group, told us that it the club wasn't open yet (it was past midnight) and then told us that some of us didn't meet dress code. Eventually our entire group went in and found Nicole, Yuri and Kate who had been in the club for at least an hour. Clearly the bouncer was just messing with us. Once we all got in the night was really fun, a lot of people from the tour came out. It ended up being a pretty late night - I was one of the last to leave - ended up just being the Amigo's and I left in the end. By the time we left the sun was already up.

Austrian Alps (My future home)

More Austria

Girls before a night out

Day 23 - Venice the floating city

Thursday, June 4th - I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly good despite the previous nights drinking. After a quick breaky it was time to walk to the train station to catch a train to the port of Venice. 40 minutes later we arrived at the port and it was pouring rain, this was the first rain I had seen since London. We then boarded our ferry to get into Venice and 20 minutes later we were there. It was beautiful and even better, the rain had stopped and the clouds had already cleared up! We had a walking tour scheduled first thing and our guide was actually pretty decent. We started off at St. Marks Basilica and it was really impressive. We then spent about an hour walking the streets of Venice - it was so pretty, exactly how I imagined. It was full of canals and picturesque buildings, simply amazing. Non touristy highlights of the walking tour include Matt F ringing everyone's door bell's as we walked by and also the biggest seagull I've ever seen.

After the walking tour was over we had heaps of free time before it was time to leave Venice. Rochelle, Sukhey, Jas, Sandra, Lorraine, Sarah and I decided it was time for lunch. While sussing out a place to eat we found Promode again and did a lot of shopping. Afterward we grabbed lunch outside right on one of the canals - it was delicious. Sandra, Rochelle and Sarah got fresh lobster. Rochelle had a bit of trouble with her lobster and at one point as she tore it apart a lot ended up all over Jas and I. People were pulling lobster out of my hair the rest of the day, I looked liked a mess!

After lunch our group split off and Sukhey, Sandra and I went shopping. This was probably one of my most successful shopping days of the tour. I got a lot of great things that were pretty cheap. We also got a personal shopping tour of some high end store as I was looking for a LaCoste dress that I had been looking for since Corfu. I never did find the dress in Venice. After shopping we had our contiki organized gondola ride. I ended up going with Sukhey, Jas, Geoff, Ali and Matty Ray. It was so perfect, a relaxing ride along the canals. We even saw a guy proposing to his girlfriend along the way - she said yes! Very romantic. After the gondola ride Sukhey, Jas and I opted out of the organized contiki dinner and went back to a spot that Sukhey and I had found earlier. Our tour guide told us that it was impossible to find the same place twice in Venice but we managed too. The food was great and our waiter was gorgeous, definitely made for a great meal.

After dinner we met up with the rest of the group to catch our ferry back to the mainland. I definitely have to visit Venice again, it was such a great city and I still have a lot more to see. We caught our train back to our hotel and then had a pretty quiet night. I hung out in Kate, Nicole and Yuri's room (which was quite a lot nicer than mine) with a few people and then headed off to bed for an early night.

Markets in Venice

Venice Canal

More Venice Canals

Gondola Ride with Jas, Ali, Sukhey and I

She said yes! Newly Engaged Couple

On a side note - I went to visit the Amigo's and this is what I found...