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...

Day 22 - Venice

Wednesday, June 3rd - We departed the ferry around noon and got back onto the coach. We drove about an hour and our first stop was Verona. This was a whirlwind stop, we got off the bus near the Roman Arena although we didn't have time to stop and look around. We just breezed by it and continued on to Romeo and Juliet's balcony. Honestly I wasn't overly excited about seeing the balcony of a fictional character. We took a quick look and we were given about 45 minutes to grab some lunch. It was Republic Day in Italy which is a national holiday so Sian told us that most stores wouldn't be open but they were and they had some great stuff. I was starving so I didn't have time for lunch and shopping so I opted for lunch. Definitely wish we had more time to spend in Verona.

We had some time to kill before heading to out hotel so Sian organized a bonus trip to Lake Garda and the village of Sirmone - why we couldn't spend more time in Verona I'm unsure. The main attraction of Sirmone was Scaliger Castle which is from the 13th century - it was quite beautiful. Sirmone also had a great market place - Sukhey and I wandered around for a while and stumbled upon a great vintage store. This place had vintage Chanel, Louis Vouitton and other great finds. Some items dated back to to the 1940's - it took all my restraint not to buy anything! I did end up buying a cute dress sundress for only $15 Euros at a different store - not vintage but I was quite happy with my purchase!

It was finally time to head to our hotel which was about an hour's drive from Sirmone. Once we finally got there I was quite disappointed; the hotel was quite a distance away from the city. Once Sandra and I saw our room we were even more disappointed, our toilet was in our shower! This was supposed to be the "superior" contiki tour! Next up was dinner which turned out to be the worst meal of the entire trip - a tiny portion of cold lasagna that I can only compare to dog food. It was absolutely horrible, a lot of people ended up ordering pizza from the bar to try and make up for it.

Sukhey, Jas and I were now quite grumpy with how the day had turned out, we were unimpressed about not having more time to spend in Verona and even less impressed by the hotel. We decided to grab a bottle of wine from the bar and play some cards to try and salvage the day. I taught Sukhey and Rochelle Hearts and Ali joined in for a bit. On to the second bottle of wine and we tried to get a game of poker going. Dustin, Ali and I knew how to play but we had to teach Sukhey and Rochelle. Teaching drunk people how to play poker is impossible and quite frustrating so we gave up pretty fast. The hotel bar was closing up but we convinced the bartender to sell us another bottle of wine and took to the lobby. By now Sukhey, Jas and I were quite pissed. A group of about 8 of us sat around for awhile and chatted and apparently we were a lot louder than we thought. So loud that Matt F came downstairs just to see what was going on. After briefly seeing what the Amigo's were up to and Ben needing to walk me to my room it was time to head to bed. Sandra and I only had one key and she had it, so I ended up knocking on my door and apparently causing a lot of ruckus before finally being let in. All in all a fun night and definitely saved the first night in Venice!

Roman Arena

Juliet's Balcony

Scaliger Castle





Our lovely shower/toilet in Venice