Kiara's Amazing Travels

Europe was in a few words – crazy, hectic, diverse and so so so so so much fun!!!

I'm going to write about what we did in point form because we did so much, hopefully it's a bit easier to read that way, and prepare yourselves cos it's a long one :)

I'll just quickly mention that I was on a topdeck tour for 21 days around Europe and initially booked with Ciara, Elice and Dani (good friends from home for those of you who don't know). We had 31 people in our group – each one awesome in their own way and this trip was party, explore a city, party, explore another city. This became a bit of a routine and at the end I had not only lost my voice a few times but was totally exhausted. It was so worth it though.......

-Met up with Ciara in London which was so surreal!! We made a racket and wouldn't let go of each other for a while at first, then chatted about everything we've been doing for a few hours. Arriving in London was so strange because everyone was speaking English and it felt like I was back home. I'd been away in non-english speaking countries for almost 4 months so it actually felt really nice being there. Didn't get to see a lot of London because we started our tour the next day and went straight off the France.

-Paris is one of my favourite cities that we visited and one day there was definitely not enough. I fell in love with the Lourve and believe I could spend days there exploring. Also Notre Dame is now one of my favourite churches. The gothic style is so unique and different to anything I've ever seen. I must say it was a very expensive city, AU$9 for a bottle of water is pretty steep I think!! We climbed the Eiffel towel, well actually we didn't climb as I hoped we would, but we caught the lift. Dani was entertaining us in the line by doing cousin IT impersonations and being her bouncy self. Thanks Dani!!

-Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland was next and has the most gorgeous, stunning scenery. The houses are all so quaint and have their own individual style. Dani and Elice went sky diving while those of us on the ground watching wished we were the ones jumping out of a plane!! Explored the local town and saw waterfalls and caves nearby. We spent our nights there drinking and dancing at the campsite bar and our lovely and ever inventive Ciara initiated a dance routine for the group that lasted until the very end of the tour (I'm sure she'll show you when she gets home if Elice hasn't already).

-Back to France and this time to Nice which I didn't really think was a great place. Very commercialized and touristy but good for shopping. We all went out to a local pub and had some fun dancing on tables and showing off our new group routine lol. I thoroughly enjoyed drunk Ciara that night, who stole a bike, cartwheeled 4 times before stacking it in a puddle and told the guy that made her hamburger “she wasn't happy that it didn't taste like McDonalds”!! We also visited Monaco which was a nice place but not the friendliest.

-ITALIA!!! Florence, Rome and Venice in 6 days!!! My favourite was Venice with its quaint streets, cobblestone alleyways, the bridges and gondolas on the canals. Rome was fantastic as well with so many historical things to see – the colosseum was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun trying to build a human pyramid (got to 4 levels before collapsing)!! One of the best experiences I had while in Italy was a guided tour through the Vatican. Our guide was full of interesting information and some of the paintings just took my breath away. Oh and how could I forget our TOGA PARTY!!! lol I didn't forget I just saved it for last because it was one of the best nights! Who would have thought you could have so much fun dressing up in bed sheets....well it is and we might just have to have one at home so you all understand.

-Back on the bus and off to Austria!! We only had a half a day there so a group of us hired bikes and rode through to the nearest town. Was great to do some exercise so we rewarded ourselves with chocolate milkshakes and then went back and mucked around with the soccer ball for a while. We had a group photo straight afterwards so please don't judge – I don't normally look that gross lol!!

-Prague was one of the places I was looking forward to the most and I have to say I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Not to say it wasn't a cool place because it definitely was, especially the five storey nightclub we went to that night!! I think I just built it up in my mind which Im learning not to do. I find it's better to go somewhere without expectations, sounds silly but sometimes you just expect too much.

-Berlin was one of my top places and not because it's a good looking city, because I definitely don't think it is, but because of all the history. We did a tour that focused on WW2 and Nazi history and it was pretty full on seeing where the political leaders ran the country from and where Hitler killed himself. There are memorials scattered throughout the city and I think it's a good thing that they accept their history and don't try to hide from it. On the way to Berlin we stopped at Mathausen concentration camp in Austria which was a really intense experience. I thought I would be more prepared because of some of the things I had seen in Rwanda but not at all. It hit me harder than I could have imagined and more so because the camp was pretty empty – just rooms and bunks the way they would have been in the 1940's during WW2. Walking in I couldn't help but imagine everything that had happened there and it honestly just made me feel sick......but I won't talk anymore about that because you know I could start get pretty heated and write for hours about it.

-         AMSTERDAM!!! woo hooo!!!! Red light district – crazy and this probably isnt the most appropriate place to explain in detail the things we saw lol. Other than that though we visited Anne Frank's house which was a highlight. Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who went into  hiding during WW2 with her family. During that time she kept a diary which was later published by her dad after she died in a concentration camp. I can't wait to read the book because the house and story were so interesting. Amsterdam was also our last stop for the tour, so of course we went out, partied and danced to our hearts content. We spent an hour or so on a boat cruise with free alcohol which began the night quite well with me thinking it would be a good idea to jump in the fountain!!!

After Amsterdam we had a massive days driving back to London and where I got to catch up again with my gorgeous Ivana, Kamila and of course the lovely James lol. Ciara, Kama, James, Elice and I then traveled over to Ireland for a week which was supposed to be my time for relaxing but turned into a stressful and sad time because of my Uncle Joe passing. I was almost going to come back home but couldn’t get any available flights and wouldn’t have made it back in time. So the trip ended on a sad note especially because I was so far away from my family while this was happening. My travel plans were also all over the place because I couldn’t get into India but I honestly think this blog is turning into a vertical novel, so Ill stop there and leave that for next time.