The One Where He Went On EuroTour

EuroTour

Day 1: Linz to Strasbourg

Woke up at 4am then got to Strasbourg at 6pm. Enough said.

Day 2: Strasbourg.

After a 9-10 hour bus ride on very few hours of sleep, we crossed the border of Germany into France.

Rad fact of the day: Storks live in Strasbourg and Storks are the best. If you don't know about Storks, then look up the Jack Hannah episode about them. They're way bigger than I thought.

Day 3: Lyon

Lyon was pretttyyy incredible. It's super sad that we only really had half a day there because there was everything a young man such as myself was interested in there. A free-use skate bowl right on the river, a live band made up of a motley of trumpets drums, trombones, saxes and a bass. People were dancing, singing and having a good time in general. I think they only let us stay one night there because it was so tempting to go out after room checks for everyone;)

From Strasbourg to Lyon, we made a quick stop in Colmare

The gang on a tour train

Garner from Indiana

Jacob from Nova Scotia and Grace from Florida

More of that Garner

More of that Grace

You have to pass the time in the bus somehow, joking ariund is the go to.

First stop in Lyon

Oh and btw, we had a little lunch in Colmare of some fine french fries sausage, cheese and orangina. Pretty good.

Day 4: Avignon

We arrived here in Avignon in the morning and instantly set into the track for exploring the city and experiencing life in the way only an exchange student knows how. Gossip was gossiped, acquaintances pulled close and friends pulled closer.

The view from the castle

There was a square in Avignon that was just for protesting. Everything from communism to Socialism. 

These next pictures are of the Pope's old palace, used when the church deemed Rome too dangerous.

Jacob flexin'

Day 5: Monaco

THAT'S RIGHT BOYS. IN MONACO FOR THE FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX.
Alright now that that's out of the way, yeah, I got to be in Monaco during the Formula 1 race. It was a couple of hours of fast walking places, finding out where we could go and screaming at our favorite drivers to drive faster.
Good day.

As we were pulling up to the city, we were changing into the nicest clothes we had because i mean... we're in monaco arent we?

A little gem when trying to catch a pic of a car but the front camera was on.

Before Monaco we had to have a lunch outside it because none of us exchange students have that kind of money.e

Ill take pics for Mom but ill do it MY way

Caitlin from New Zealand and Abby from Montana

There was an unbelievable level of hype going on in the bus when we were seeing these things.

All changed, ready to go

Emily from Canada, 

We just got to the hotel at 9:30 at night and I am very very exhausted we have a nice pasta lunch by the way we are in Italy

Day 6: Hiking in and around Cinque Terre

Man I loveeeee waking up early. Being on 5 hours of sleep is great.
Just kidding I know it's my own doing but I gotta live life before I go home.
But anyways yeah, as the title suggests, we swam and went trail running and thoroughly wore ourselves out. It's was nice

Anywhere we went, Valentina had to have a picture. Sometimes, I was the victim.

Look it how beautiful this is.

Hikingggggg

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. I might frame it.

Day 7: Pisa, Lucca and the night in Rome

Pisa is interesting. You drive through the actual town to a parking lot where you can walk to see, well, The Leaning Tower of Pisa. And the whole way up to it, in your mind your thinking, "In every picture I've seen, this tower was in a beautiful courtyard with green grass and other white marble.
But driving through it, it looks just like your average Italian town.
The courtyard was interesting as was everything else going on around it.

Next was Lucca, a very old, very nice little town and there I had a great little Italian lunch with Jacob and friends. (Grace and Valentina)

Two hours after exploring Lucca we hightailed it to Rome. About another 5 hours.

We could never get the Pisa pictures just right.

Day 8: First day of Rome

We got to sleep in a little. To about 8:00am.
And my friends and I were obliged to go on a little city tour that ended with us walking on the way to the Colosseum.
Stopped for a delicious lunch of pizza then proceeded to cook in the sun walking around and taking pictures.

Grace was annoyed by Jacob and I a lot...

SO many pics were taken of the model to the right. Valentina, please stop being so hard on yourself.

I think these were for Jacob's mom. Yeah not for me.

4 liters of water, still not enough.

How much water can the Water Champion drink???

All of these pictures have a good face per person so I'm posting them all. Sorry Caitlin:)

AWWWEEE

Littyyyy

Day 9: Rome Day 2

Early to bed early to rise is alright when you actually follow the first part. To little sleep, too late is a part of being with exchange students and it only gives me more time so I guess it can't be THAT bad.
Today was Vatican day. Got there early, explored then got my usual clique together to head to the Sistine Chapel. We were able to skip half the line by meeting up with friends but it still took us at least an hour and a half to get in.
Needless to say... It was amazing.

Garner

Lucas

Hannah

Vatican Pics

Ethan

Day 10: Florence

Florence is like Lyon. Pretty frickin' amazing. Ferraris, Lamborghinis and anything else you can imagine was there. Plus ya know...
Hotel WiFi for the first time in 5 days

Beauty

The Boys

Oliver lookin' flossy

I can't remember what we were doing to annoy her but I'm glad we did because we have this great picture of Abby being annoyed with us. Which was not uncommon.

Day 11: Florence to Jesolo

We went on a quick little city tour then had free time in which we gorged on pizza, then we were off to Jesolo: a small Italian Beach town in which we went swimming then hit the sack.

Abbster

Day 12: Day trip to Verona

Verona was uhhh... Nice.
As the written home of Romeo and Juliet, there were a lot of er.. sappy things.
My goal the whole day was to catch the MotoGP race which I did.
Success.

AN even more complete colleseum

Jacob demonstrating climbing skills and counterculture by writing "Love is a lie" on the wall outside Juliet's Balcony in Verona. 

Day 13: Venice

Ya know... When I sat down at that table with some of my best friends, it didn't even remotely cross my mind that I would start crying.
Well, that's what happened.
You see we were having the oldie awards. (Oldies are the biggest group of exchange students in a country. Usually separated by country, (hemispheres and stuff) at the end of the oldie's Exchange, there are awards.)
I think that all the realization that I have rough 6 days before I go home is starting to set in.
I don't want to leave my friends...
I don't want to leave my family.

Caitlin, Yacob, Valentina, Grace, Hannah

Every photo is a masterpiece so I might as well post them all.

Our amazing hosts: Jorge and Iciar giving us our oldie awards. I dont know why my eyes were the only ones wet in the house...

Day 14: on the way to Zagreb

Traveling all day with a stop in Trieste in the Middletown, we have arrived at our final destination in EuroTour. Zagreb.
God help us.

I am the coolest.

Day 15: Zagreb

After a quick tour from the Croatian exchange students that were with us on euro tour. And now I'm trying my best to forget I'm leaving everyone tomorrow to go home and pack. Tears, please for the love of god, get out of my eyes.

Buds

Me, Valentina, Abby, Ethan, Grace and Sam

bae

There was a little rally going on that we got to be privy to. Lots of high pitched man screams.

Day 16: Leaving my best friends.

Well here it is. The last day of euro tour. How could I possibly be expected to function on a level high enough to function properly?!?
I'm at brekky right now, anticipating a long bus ride back to Austria, where I will have to leave half of my favorite people in the world to go home to say hi to the other half.
It feels as if I was imagining what my last few days would be like in a daydream but the daydream is real. Still feels like it's not actually happening though. Like I could wake up at any point and I would have more time.

~

I just said the hardest goodbye I've ever had to say. I thanked everyone for everything, tears streaming down my face.
I actually made it through most of the bus before I got to my group. This group:

This group of wonderful, incredibly caring people made me lose it. I saw the tears in their eyes and tears formed in mine.

Thank you all so much. So incredibly much for everything everyone has done for me. I can't even begin to comprehend how lucky I am to have had the people in my life that I've had to make this year for me possible.

And well I guess I think that's about as good as I can put it...

~

Oh and BTW, I'm home.