So sorry for the missed emails but I have been busy travelling Europe!
We started on the 12th of June in Milan before driving to Geneva Switzerland which was super pretty. We spent a few hours there before heading to the hotel.
The next day was a drive to Paris and a small amount of time in town. Our next day was our Paris day. We did a walking tour around the main areas, seeing the Notre Dame and the lourve, which we also went inside. We also were lucky enough to be able to go up the Eiffel Tower which was really cool.
The next day was a drive day. We stopped in Brussels for two hours to see the pretty town, before finishing our drive to Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a full day of touristing. We started with a bike tour, then a boat tour, then a 5D cinema which explained the city and the country. There was also a swing on the top of a building which was really cool! The Anne frank house was an experience that I don’t think any of us will forget.
From Amsterdam we had a long drive day, around 10 hours, to Berlin. Berlin was super interesting for me, we did a concentration camp just outside of the city called Sachsenhausen around 50km away from Berlin. We then saw the mall of Berlin which was pretty cool, finishing with a tour of the city by a local. Berlin is quite different than a lot of Europe because it was so heavily destroyed during the war it is quite modern compared to say Paris.
From Berlin we drove to Prague, which I have to say was one of my favourites of the trip. We started with a palace that had a whole little town inside pretty much, before heading to a walking tour to see the famous astronomical clock! Funnily enough our tour guide was an Australian lady!
From Prague we travelled to Slovakia for a quick stop in a really cute town, before spending our day in Vienna! Vienna was another favourite of mine. The town itself was stunning and the history behind it even more so. I met some more Aussies here who explained to us that their daughters were in London, and we explained that we were exchange students and these ladies gave us massive hugs claiming to be our pretend Aussie mums which was cute. I walked up the bell tower of st Stephen’s cathedral, around 342 steps, before we finished at the palace of Sisi which was stunning. That night there was a concert you could choose to attend which was stunning my gosh. There was an orchestra, opera and dancing all in one and it was so worth it.
Vienna turned into Budapest which had gorgeous white ‘palaces’ called fisherman’s bastion. Budapest was home to a deep fried pizza base called Langos. We also got to go to the thermal baths which was really cool. After the day, we had dinner in a wine cellar which had been turned into a historical restaurant with music and dancing and traditional foods of Hungary.
Hungary turned into a drive day, where we stopped in Slovenia to see the Postojna Caves which were super cool, they even had a little train!
Travelling turned into Venice, where we had a walking tour followed by Gondolas! The gondolas where amazing.
And then Venice turned into time to leave, and say final goodbyes and good lucks to our other exchange students. Many tears where shed and hugs exchanged, saying goodbye to these people was difficult, we had all become super close in 17 days and it being the first and final time meeting them for a while made goodbyes super hard.
Our final drive was Venice to Milan, where we sang and played cards one final time before parting ways. 17 days, 11 counties and 55 new friends, what a journey.
I can’t imagine doing it with any other group and enjoying it quite as much.
