Euro Tour - Rome

First, let me just say: Now, every time I type "Rome", I have to backspace and type it again, because I always type "Roma" the first time. So if I miss it in this post, don't freak(:

So, from the ferry. We got on our bus and drove a ways to a train station. Because Rome is stupid. To take a bus into the city is a 600 euro charge, or something insane like that. So we took a train in. Everyone got on the train, no problems. Then in Rome we walked to our hostel/hotel. I think this one was actually a hotel, because it was quite nice. And only 3 people to a room.

After dumping our stuff and getting changed (have to look good for those Italian boys, you know?), we were going to walk to a fountain. But, it turns out Rotary can't count: we were missing 18 people. So we just went for dinner (I was with 5 other people who got kebabs, everyone else [read: losers] got McDonalds. Yuck.), and then walked back. The other 18 were at the hotel, so at least we didn't lose them.

The next day, we got a real breakfast! Cream filled croissant, and cappuccino. YUM. So much better than bread and tea. Then got ready for the day (cover those shoulders and knees, churches are picky!) and set out. First we saw a church, nothing special. Except for the fact it was in Italy, so it was super-gorgeous. Then we walked to...wait for it...the COLOSSEUM. Boo-yeah! We met our tour guide there. Side note: No matter old, young, boy, girl; if you have an Italian accent: I love you. Just saying. Anyways...She showed us around the Colosseum, and the ruins and stuff around there. Then we ditched her, and had free time.

I went with a bunch of girls. We got pasta for lunch. (Tortellini with ham and cheese, mmm.) Then just walked around. The others got ice cream, and I started The Great Cannoli Search. Sadly, the search was not to be completed that day. But we had fun. Later we checked in with Rotary, and went to some more churches. Then had more free time.  More fun in the city, buying souvenirs, eating Italian, etc. Then back to the hotel.

Our second day in Roma, we went to the Vatican in the morning. I'll write about that in my next post, since it is a different city(: After that, we had free time. I went with different people (again). We had pizza for lunch, and I had tiramisu, then shopping. I actually got something for my dad! (This is a first, all his other gifts are mostly for my mom...I love you, Daddy!) Then we took lots of random pictures at this cute little place we found. We met up with Rotary for dinner after that.

I had pasta for dinner. And more tiramisu for dessert (because Rotary didn't give us choices.), but it was better at lunch. Then I went with a bunch of people to the Fontana de Trevi. It was sooooo pretty. I left with 3 other people then. We walked to the Spanish Steps, then back to the hotel. At the hotel, I was in one of the boys rooms (Brasil and Mexico were in there) for a bit, just because they bothered to pay for internet, and I was being a mooch. Then I went back to my room to shower, and when I came out there were people canoodling (yes, I say that's a word) on my bed. So I went back to the guys room (It was short a person...hahaha.) I just hung out in there, writing in my journal, and listening to a Brasilian soccer game online. (Apparently the good guys were losing.) Then my room cleared out, and I went to bed. (If there are adults reading this who are worried, when I say "canoodling" I mean cuddling. A "D" was not broken that night. At least not by anyone I know of...haha.)

The next day we left Roma, after riding the subway, a bus, Rotary getting us lost...we finally left around noon. The Great Cannoli Search was still on.

Euro Tour - Ferry

For the ferry, we had to wait a while on our bus. Then we all walked on, the the bus was driven on. It was cool, we went up two flights of escalators to get to the part we needed to be at. And it was a legit ship. I had been expecting something quite small. This had 10 levels, restaurants, stores, a casino, a pool, and all the rooms. We were all in the same hallway. The rooms were so tiny, and to shower, you basically had to choose which limb to keep out of the shower, because it was so tiny. But very cool.

When we got on, after dumping our things in our rooms, we basically spent 2 hours running around exploring the ship. In some cases, literally running. It was sweet. Not so sweet was finding out the pool would be closed, due to "cold" weather. So we were all taking pictures, and doing our little back rub lines. Then we started to move, so we all went to the rail to say goodbye to Spain.

yay, tan lines! :D

We watched that for awhile, talked, wandered around. I ended up in bed by about 11 though. The beds were comfy, but cold. There was only a sheet and thin blanket, and they tried to freeze us overnight. We got up at like 8.30 and went down for our usual bread and tea breakfast. After breakfast, I went with most of the girls to change into our swimsuits. We took books and towels, and lay on the top deck. For like five hours. It was lovely. During that time, the boys just "happened" to show up. And hover. But whatever, I got tan so I am happy.

After lunch I spent some time with a few other girls, trading dances we know. I learned "Cotton-Eyed Joe", "Creu", and an Arabian dance from a Columbian girl. We all just call it the Columbian dance.




We arrived in Italy at about 7.00 pm, and got back on our bus for the next leg.

Euro Tour - Barcelona

Driving from France to Barcelona took 10 hours.

We arrived in the evening. We were told we would be walking 300 meters to our hostel, it was more like 3000.  Actually, I don't know how long it took, but it was really far. And, we got to see some lovely Catalan prostitutes on our way. Yes, Rotary put us in a hostel that had to cross a sketchy street. (No one was killed in Barcelona, don't worry.) So we got all settled in out hostel (which actually was pretty nice, not including the location. or the bathrooms). Then we went with Rotary, just showing us the main drag near our hostel-ish. Then...free time! (Meaning, ditch your name tag asap.) I went with 3 other girls, just walking around for a bit. We had really good tapas for dinner, and of course we all shared. So we had calamari, mussels, clams, and mushrooms. Yum. Then we just continued being tourists, and turning down the invitations to go on pub crawls.

The next day, Rotary took us on a tour. We got to see the stadium, so all the Brasilians and Mexicans were super excited. Then we saw some other stuff, I don't remember exactly what. (I'll know [maybe] when I look through my pictures, but it was a while ago, and I saw a lot since then. Don't be hatin.) Then more free time (Can you say souvenirs?) and just hanging with everyone.

Gaudi House Roof

Our second full day, we saw the Gaudi House in the morning, which was super cool. We had a tour of the Gothic section of Barcelona, and our tour guide was really really good. Rotary took us all to the beach, and turned us loose. (Note: Barcelona has some.. interesting...laws. Men cannot go around without a shirt on, but they can walk around naked. At the beach, it wasn't "tops optional" it was more like "if you're a girl and still wearing a top, you are the definite minority. And yes, I was part of that minority. Not all the other exchanges were, however. As some of them explained it to me, "How many times can you swim naked in Spain?" My answer, "You all have swum naked in Spain one too many times." But I digress.) I was with a small group of people. We only stayed for like an hour, then went to get dinner. Paella! Yum, it was so good. We had a ginormus plate of it that we all shared. Ice cream for dessert, and met up with Rotary.

Paella

Back to the hostel to put on dry clothes, then out with different people. I got my name drawn with pictures for the letters at this one place, then I and another girl got charactatures. He wasn't very good. I think he just liked to draw teeth. We all headed to the pier after that. On the way, we were still getting invited to pub crawls, so we were thinking of different excuses to tell people. There was "we are 14", "Prepacte, nerozmiem", and my personal favorite (accompanied by fake crying): "This is our trip to celebrate, we just got out of AA!!!" At one point, I turned and saw we had an addition to our group. This creepy little lady (seriously, she was like 5 feet negative 7) in a bear suit was just standing there. I pointed her out, and one of my friends jumped about a foot and a half, and ran away screaming. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. The pier was uneventful, after the bear lady.

Our last day in Spain, I got up really early. A bunch of us went to the market. I got a loaf of bread, 2 apples, 2 peaches, and a chunk of mozzarella for under 8 euros. It was awesome. Then back to the hostel to pack. We loaded into the bus and went to a park-ish place. It was so pretty. The best part was watching the performers though. Just people singing, or painting, or selling stuff. After that, we went to the top of a hill, where the stadium was. We could either go to the "Spanish village", the main drag again, or the museum of modern art. I went to the museum. It was pretty cool, although bits were slightly too modern for me. After that, we just hung out talking. Everyone made it back on time, even after a group got lost and had to walk an extra hour. (They were a bit cranky.) We hopped on the bus, and drove to the ferry.

Euro Tour - Monaco

We started the District 2240 Euro Tour of 2011 on Saturday, May 21st. We all got to Bratislava by ourselves. There, we met up with everyone in the train station. By the time everyone got packed into the train, it was between 4 and 5 pm. We started on our way.


We drove for 17 hours, with stops every 3 hours. You know how hard it is to sleep in a car? Well, this was a bus. With half of the air conditioning blocked by our bags. No free seats. 49 people crammed in there. Oh, lord. It was a crazy ride. I think I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep, between talking, watching movies, and not being comfortable enough to sleep. And, teenagers are noisy. So, that was fun...not.

We arrived in Monaco in the morning. We had stopped at a rest stop to change clothes and get ready for the day, but that was it. So we all looked (and felt) like we had been on a bus for 17 hours. (If you are my friend on Facebook, you will note my lack of pictures of me and my friends from that day.) First we waited while everyone took about a bajillion pictures. Then we went to this tiny oceanographic museum. It was kinda cool. I found the Nemo and Dory fish, so I call it success(:

After that, we went to see a church. It was kinda cool. We saw the tombs of Princess Grace Kelly and her husband. Sadly, no pictures in the church.

Then we got free time. I went with a group of "Czech" girls. (For this trip, we had the "Slovak" and "Czech" kids all together, and this is how we refer to each other. It's not an insult in any way, just to clarify.) We had lunch, and ice cream, and bought some souvenirs. We met up with Rotary after. We got to see the casino in Monte Carlo. Actually, we couldn't go into the gaming rooms, gamble, or take pictures, so it was a slight letdown. But the main entrance was so gorgeous. Then more free time, during which we did more of the same.

After that, we all got back on the bus and drove about 2 hours to our hostel in France. Let me just say, yes, the stereotypes are true. We went to a restaurant for dinner, and they totally understood our English, but refused to speak it. I know, I know, I took French. But when I tried to remember stuff, I automatically thought in Slovak. I remembered enough to decode the menu, which was good. And the food was good, very French. Our hostel was nice, but I was rooming with 2 girls, from Mexico and Columbia. So I went to bed, and woke up, to hearing high-speed, high-pitched Spanish on Skype. Oh well, better than the bus. The next day we got up and drove to our next stop.

Czech Republic

We got to Prague at night, and got all set in the hostel.

The next day, we took a tour in the morning, and then had to stay in the hostel for a few hours in the afternoon. Rotary was making us write this "story" about our trip. But they made us take two hours to write it, instead of actually living it. Which we all thought was a load of crap. Ah well. That night, we went to a black light theater, which was pretty cool. Parts of it, I'm surprised Rotary took us, because it was a little risqué, but very funny.

The morning after that, we went with our tour guide again, but I liked this tour better. We toured the castle, and the cathedral there. In the afternoon we went on a boat tour, which would have been amazing, but it was raining, so we couldn't see as much. It was still cool, though. After that we went to a mall there. That night we went to the biggest disco in Prague, it had 5 floors! It was crazy fun. I talked to guys from Sweden, Holland, Germany, and Turkey (: So, a very good night, haha.

The day after that, we went to Ceske Krumlov for the morning. We saw a castle, and a theater there. Then we had time to go souvenir shopping, which was very good. After that we went to Ceske Budejovice.

In Ceske Budejovice, was the Rotary District 2240 Conference. We got all settled that night, with the Czech kids too. The next day, we had practice for the talent show in the morning, then the actual talent show during lunch. I didn't perform this time. After that, we toured a brewery there. Rotary actually let us taste the beer! (I know, right??) But I still think beer is nasty, so I gave mine to someone else after trying a sip. Then we headed back to
change into our nice clothes, and went back to the conference. I really don't know why. We sat for a while, ate dinner, and then took crazy pics with everyone. (I got grief because I changed out of my heels for the pics. I hate being taller than guys in pics, so...what can I say? haha)

Got up the last morning, and came home(:

Poland

We arrived in Krakow, Poland, in the evening. Went to dinner, and then chilled in the hostel.
Picture: Random buildings in Krakow that I thought looked cool.

The next day, we took a tour in the morning, and then had free time in the afternoon. The tour covered a bunch of churches, some history, and the castle there. Our tour guide told us all these cool little stories about the city. For example: Every hour, on the hour, a trumpeter plays from the top of a building in the main square. He plays a little fanfare from each side of the tower. But in the middle of the tune, every time, he cuts out. This is because in the old days, there was a lookout in the tower. The lookout was shot down suddenly with an arrow, so the trumpet stops to pay homage to that. And after he played, we all clapped and he waved at us(:
Picture: The trumpeter played from the top of the left tower.

During free time we went shopping and had lunch. We spent another early night at the hostel, but everyone was so tired, it didn't matter.
Picture: A candy shop that we went in, and ended up getting about 3 steps out the door, trying our candy, and going back in to buy more.

The next day, we went to Auschwitz. I'm not going to describe it here. I will just say, until you actually go there for yourself, you cannot imagine what it was like. And even after going, I can't fathom what it would have been like to be there as a victim.
Picture: A sign on the tour, in Polish and English.

After that, we continued on to the Czech republic.

Slovensky Raj

Friday morning I left for Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise). Almost all of the Rotary kids were on the same train, so the train ride started the fun of the weekend. We arrived, and got to the hotel without problems. Although (like always) we got some weird looks from people at the train station because of how loud we were.

At the hotel, we met up with everyone else, and had dinner. Then we watched the hockey game, and stayed up super late talking.

The next morning, we went hiking. We walked through the forest, and by the end, we were exhausted. We spent so much time taking pictures. I have tons of random ones. After hiking, we had lunch, then practice for the talent show. I did my tap dance. We had the talent show right before dinner, and it went really good. After dinner, there was a "disco" but I was feeling sick, so I went to bed early (ish).

Sunday morning we packed up and left after breakfast, all of us on a bus to Krakow, Poland.