France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Monaco
On the 22nd of November i met all the other exchange students in paris ready and eager to start our bus trip over Europe.
Day 1: We started in Paris where we had a bus tour and visited the Louvre and the Notre dame then we drove to a town in the north of France called Reims where we stayed the night. That night we went into town and watched an amazing light show on the side of the huge cathedral, it was really cool.
Day 2: we had to wake up really early to start on our journey to Strasbourg a town only 10 minutes from the German border, so there was Germans everywhere! in Strasbourg we went on a boat tour in the river and looked around the town. In Strasbourg there is a huge amazing Gothic church which was pretty amazing.
Day 3: We started our day in Strasbourg bright and early and drove to Munich, Germany we we spent the day. i find it so awesome how in Europe you can just drive to different countries unlike in NZ where we are pretty far from everywhere really. it took about 5 hours to drive to Munich. In Munich we visited the BMW showroom then got a bus tour of the town and then went souvenir shopping :) and of course we all had a beer in the homeland of beer. Munich is the third biggest town in Germany and it is truly another beautiful town.
Day 4: today we woke up in Germany and drove to another town and visited a small chateau which used to be the king of Germany's holiday home. after our visit to the chateau we drove to Innsbruck, Austria.... in Innsbruck we got to look around the town, have a nice austrian meal for lunch and have a guided tour. I LOVE EUROPE!!
Day 5: ~ Welcome to ITALY! ~ Today we drove on the bus for 3 hours to beautiful Verona, the land of Romeo and Juliet....... where do i begin? Italy is so beautiful it is literally heaven on earth..... when we arrived in Verona after a three hour drive on the bus we went to a restaurant and i had ravoli.... the pasta was so good from it's homeland. We spent the day looking around the town, visiting the place of Romeo and Juliet and we all wrote letters to Juliet. Afterwards we had a tour and then drove another three others to our hotel near Venice :) -life is good-
Day 6: Today i am fairly certain was the best day of my life. I made it to Venice! Venice has always been a dream to me and i made it :) from our hotel we caught about a 30minutes boat ride to the centre of town. We spent the morning exploring Venice and having another guided tour. After the tour we had pizza for lunch and went to all the markets which were really cool they were filled with such nice things!! in the afternoon we got to go on the gondola, which are the very famous boats! it was so indescribably beautiful. Afterwards we went to some shops and the caught the boat back to our hotels where we had dinner and went out on the town for a bit after. a truly amazing day! Venice is one of my favorite cities that I've ever visited! it truly blew me away!
Day 7: in the morning we drove from Venice to Florence. When we arrived we all went straight to have lunch, i had pizza again. after lunch we had a guided tour and got time to explore the town and the markets. In Florence we visited another beautiful church and went and saw the statue of David. Another amazing day in Italy!
Day 8: we started the day by driving to Pisa, we spent the morning taking photos and we hired a car bike thing that we drove around the town! i was the driver and we had to drive on the main road! i must admit, it was a bit scary. In the afternoon we walked all over the town and visited the markets. Pisa is another really pretty town! and i love seeing places with my own two eyes that I've only ever seen in photos and on postcards. i must admit, i am a very lucky teenager.
Day 9: Today we visited the land of the filthy rich 'Monaco' the moment the bus got to the top of the hill overlooking the small country of just 2km squared i was completely amazed. It looked unreal.... Monaco is the second smallest country in the world and is a very very wealthy country. In Monaco we had a guided tour and visited the Palace of the royals and watched the guards change. We also visited the church and visited the museum.... quite a lot in one day. At the museum there was lots of photos of the prince's wedding. There was also a huge and awesome aquarium. i like Monaco. All the houses were huge beautiful white apartments, massive boats filled the harbour and Ferrari’s and Lamborghini filled road....
Day 10: we drove back to france and visited the beautiful old town of Lyon, where we spent the day shopping and having a guided tour, that night we had a party because it was one of the girls 18th Birthday and we all dressed up J it was lots of fun.
Day 11: today we drove to Geneva, Switzerland. While there we went and visited the united nations head quarters and had a tour of it, it was a very interesting place to visit and the buildings were pretty impressive with a lot of architectural design. Afterward we went and had Indian for lunch... it was sooooo good! And then we spent the rest of the day looking around Geneva and taking photos.
Day 12: Today was the last day we woke up, piled on to the bus and went straight back to Paris which took about 5 hours. My group was the first to be dropped off at the train station Montparnasse so there were tears shed on the bus as we said our goodbyes. No one wanted to separate and go back to relality (but most of all back to school). We all started to realise that now this is over, time is going to pass very quickly, and now we only have just over 7 weeks left of our year abroad.
This trip was by far the best 12 days of my life, I saw so many things I can't even believe it, and I am so thankful to the people who made this possible. That would be you, parents, I hope you know how much I love you and appreciate everything you have done for me
My beloved parents and my beautiful sister Kate now arrive in just 4 nights in which i am meeting them in London on Thursday afternoon! I am so so so excited. And i leave on my journey back to NZ in just 52 sleeps......
