Spriiiing Break 2010

Me and three other girls[in the left picture] decided to spend our 10 days of spring break traveling around Europe. We got EuRail passes for all of our train travels, and this was good for three countries. The countries we chose were France, Italy, and Germany.

The first leg of travel was from Stirling all the way down to the southern

coast of England to a town called Dover. From Dover, we took about a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Calais, France. From Calais we then took a train down to Paris for our first night.

Sleeping arrangements were quite interesting because to save money we got 2-person hotel rooms, and split the cost

between the four of us. It was pretty cozy(as you can see in the picture), and quite luxurious if you compare it to the nights we had to sleep on a train.

Our first day in Paris was spent sightseeing literally all day! We left our hotel for the Eiffel Tower at about 9am and arrived back to the hotel around 5pm. During this time we saw the Eiffel Tower(of course), The Louvre, Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triumph, pretty much all Paris..at least if felt like it. When we got back to the hotel we google mapped where we had

gone, and found that it was 10 miles[plus the stairs we climbed up the Eiffel Tower, since we got in the stairs line]! So you can imagine at this point we were ready to crash..which we did for about 2 hours. I'm afraid we would've slept through the night if The Hard Rock Cafe wouldn't have been on our minds:) The wait was over an hour at the Hard Rock, but we were too excited to leave. We hung out at the bar until our table was ready, then enjoyed one of our top meals of the trip!

Day 2 in Paris was much more laid back. Our train left Paris that night, so we had the day to finish exploring. We went on a sightseeing cruise of Paris, on the Seine River, checked out the Paris shopping scene, had lunch in a small cafe, and then just relaxed at a park by the Eiffel Tower.

After leaving Paris we were headed south for Italy. We went through Nice, France, which is on the beach, so the views from the train were amazing. We rode the coast of France and Italy for most of the ride. We eventually arrived in Venice in the late afternoon. [we were forced to cut Rome and Milan out of our trip due to traveling issues :( ] Venice was very beautiful, but very very confusing. Even with a map the tons of small streets, canals, and bridges, make is to hard to get around. I am still very surprised that we found our hotel because it was just a small door leading up to like 4 rooms. The Venice room was so romantic .. haha :) our bed had a canopy and everything. We only spent one night in Venice, but had the whole next day to explore Venice, until our next late-train left for Germany. Exploring Venice was awesome. The markets, shops, and restaurants along the canals are all gorgeous [but we were very disappointed we didn't take a gondola ride]. We all got rings from the markets, that are made in Venice with Murano Glass, and of course us American's had to hit up the Hard Rock Cafe--Venice for dinner! oh and who could forget about the Gelato! yum.

We then headed to Germany, through Austria, but because it was a night train, we didn't see much. We arrived in Berlin the next day, and were too tired to do much. We went to eat at an SMALL Italian Restaurant near our hotel. And I might add that we were the only ones eating there. It was very good though, and very cheap, which was a very nice relief. The next day in Berlin we had some great tour guides. Allison knows a guy that came to high school in Minnesota for a year, so him and his best friend showed us around. They took the tour very seriously and gave us some good information! It was a very fun day and we ended it at a delicious [and yes american] 50's diner:) Our last day in Berlin was spent at the ZOO!! It is home to the largest number of species of all the world's zoos:) We had a very fun day there, despite a few rain showers, then played cards for a few hours at the train station before heading back to France.

We were planning to go to the Normandy Beaches before heading home, but didn't get to Bayeux in time:( [sorry dad] By this time we were dead tired, so we enjoyed the fact that our room in Bayeux had 2 single beds and one double. Yes. That means we all had our own space. Me and Sarah shared the double and her quote of the day was "I'm so glad there's a double.. I need to ease myself back into a single bed, I don't think I could make the transfer all in one night." :) We crashed early, and at 5am headed to Calais to finish up the journey. All of the train rides back put us back in Stirling the next morning at about 9. We got to walk through campus Monday morning looking quite zombie-like while everyone was on their way to class..great end to the break.

All in all it was an AMAZING experience that I never dreamed of having, and I owe it all to my parents for making it possible for me:) After seeing so much I feel like I am almost ready to come home. The countdown is on, and i am so ready for summer, outdoor baseball, tennis, golf...Everything:) [as long as this volcano doesn't keep me in Scotland]

Hope all is well with everyone at home, and that you are all enjoying the beautiful weather!

here's one more picture of us in venice: