Introduction

Many of the people I spoke to before leaving on my trip told me to bring a journal and keep track of everything I did. This is my version of a journal. I hope you enjoy!

It is very detailed and probably not the most riviting thing you will ever read but it depicts all of the amazing things we did on our trip.

One day I hope to add more information on all of the places I went, how much I spent, and some things I learned.

Finally I haven't figured out how to reverse the order so I suggest reading the oldest post first so the trip is in chronological order.

Traveling Home (Paris and Frankfurt)

July 18th-Day 18- City 10 and back to City 1!
Attempt number one at leaving to go home. As Abbey promised getting home was no easy task. We ventured out to the subway station at 7 am and got to the airport around 8. We didn't have the right ticket for the metro but the people in front of us got stopped so Taylor and I were able to get through with out question, that saved us about €8! We found the check in line and as all things in Paris is was crazy long. The line at security which was a standstill for 30 minutes and a lot of chaos due to sending an entire flight back through the scanners. When we finally got through we waited in the lines to find out about standby. We were offered one seat home but we didn't take it because we didn't want to split up. Looking back now I wish i would have taken it because I could have gotten home and I'm sure Taylor could have handled himself or maybe have gotten on a different one than me. Who knows?

I went back over to say I'd take the seat and the gate agent said that all standbys were closed. So I waited by the gate to make sure there were no no shows while Taylor waited at our back up flight to Chicago. We didn't get on that one either and we had to ask like four different agents to list us on the next flight. Someone needs to help France out with logical organization, maybe the Germans. We met a bunch of people who had been trying to get home for a couple days and decided the odds were not in our favor. We didn't get any of the flights and in the end, after Taylor had tried to get us set up for flights the day after and the lady being very upset and inconvenienced by helping us we decided to go to Frankfurt to try getting home from there.

We made it to the Paris train station after paying a hefty €9 metro ticket price and tried to reserve a direct train to Frankfurt. The train lady laughed at us and asked us if we were sure we wanted to travel that day. We said yes and she gave us a few switches that eventually got us to Frankfurt but we has to pay for half price tickets they didn't even check on one of the trains. The next order of business was sleep. Should we pay for a hotel or hostel if we are going to  be there less than 12 hours. We decided a shower might be nice after the long day and I'm all for sleeping at airports but beds are probably better for our health. So dad found us a cheap hotel for the night with a shuttle to the airport. ( it also had a free shuttle from the airport but it stopped running before we got to Frankfurt so free turned into Taxi). On the train we met and tried to help a man from Columbia figure out where he could sleep for the night. People always asked us, all 4 of us, questions I we look like we actually know what we are doing. All those years of acting paid off. We finally got to the hotel and turns out they had booked us at the wrong one but they were nice enough to give us the same rate and a super nice room with no questions asked.

July 19th-Day 19- Time to go home!
We got to the airport with no problem and there were no lines!  We got on the first flight to Dulles! I sat next to man in the  military who was on his way home from Afghanistan. It was really cool to talk to him and learn all that he had gone through between my movie watching and napping. At Dulles I sat at one gate while Taylor sat at the other one. I got on to a flight and left Taylor behind but he got on one about 30 minutes later headed to Colorado Springs. Home at last.

Paris

Paris: 

July 14th- Day 14- City 10

When we got to Paris it was about ten o'clock at night, which happened to be the same day as the celebration of French revolution, anyway we were like little white sheep in a crowd of all black sheep and I'm pretty sure all four of us thought we were gonna get stabbed. We didn't go back out that night just stayed in our two separate rooms and tried to sleep. If you can't tell I'm hinting at I preferred all the hostels to the sketchy part of town.


July 15- Day 15-City 10
We woke up and had breakfast of crescents and hot chocolate then made our way to Notre Dame. It was Sunday so we got there during mass and we were able to walk around the the sides of the church during the celebration. That was pretty cool though i would have been super distracted by the tourists had I been participating in the mass. We then went to wait in line to climb up to the top of the bell tower. Paris is full of lines so we have gotten creative on how to pass the time. In the line up to the bell tower we named every Disney movie that takes place in the countries we went to on our trips. We then climbed the spiral stair case up to the top and saw the city, lots of gargoyles and a fancy bell. By then it was lunch time and we found a bakery with "french bread hot dogs", a must to attempt to recreate, ate our lunch by the river.

We were about half way through when a rain storm came from no where. We grabbed our food and ran for shelter where we decided going to grab more rain gear and use free restrooms in the hotel was a great idea before heading to the Eiffel Tower.  We found that if you wanted to take the lift all the way to the top up you had to wait in line for about 4 hours and pay a lot more than we were willing. Climbing the stairs of the first two levels was a much better choice we were only in line for about 30 minutes playing spy. After climbing the first two levels we took the lift up all the way to the top. By the time we got down it was snack time and we ate binets in the park. We then went to find out information on the Louver and Napoleons Tomb but both were closed for the evening. Instead we hopped on a bus in search for dinner and internet. In the end we found a restaurant that sold dinner crepes and decided to order. They lost our ticket and we ended up waiting for our food for a really long time but it gave us enough time for the sun to go down so we could see the Eiffel tower at night.

July 16-Day 16-City 10
We woke up early in hopes to avoid long lines at the entrance to the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa and many of Davincis' other works as well as Egyptian and Roman relics. We didn't have enough time to see the entire museum but we saw a lot for the time we had. We then went to Napoleons Tomb and the Hotel de Invalides. We walked through the arms museum, the largest one in the world, first which involved everything from suits of armor and swords to cannons and world war uniforms and footage. It was really cool!

Some where between the museum and the tomb I lost my ticket so I got stuck outside though Abbey Reyes and Taylor were all ahead of me and didn't realize it. After a minor scare that I wandered off without them they came outside and figured out what had happened. Taylor gave me his ticket and I went in really fast before heading to find lunch. After lunch we went to Champ Se Eylsee and the Arc de Triumph which is a street similar to fifth ave New York and a famous arch in which military troops have matched through in victory all throughout history. We saw the original Louis Vuitton with a line around the building to prove it and a line for the Abercrombie, which was really this mansion looking building with two rather good looking models standing outside to greet you, was almost as long.  At that point we decided it was a much needed nap time. We all slept for about 3 hours!

When we were all recovered we headed to Sac re Cour to see it at sun set and watch the city of lights come alive. The area around was so full of life and young people and the stairs leading up to the church were filled with people eating and drinking while listening to live music (I'm sure thats excatly what the church would have wanted ;) ). I'm so glad we stumbled over that way at night to see the lively city and to find all of our souvenirs we needed and some dessert crepes that Taylor was so excited for till he woke up with either food poisoning or a flu bug. He ended up spending all night throwing up in the bathroom.

July 17-Day 17-City 10
We woke up to find out Taylor still in the bathroom unable to keep water down and decide he needs some alone time and was in no shape to do anything so we left him behind and headed to Versailles.

It was the most complicated route to get there since many of the metro stations were closed. When we finally got to the palace massive lines were already forming. Lines worse than the ones at the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Apparently all the tourist come out of the wood-work in Paris on Tuesdays.  We waited for about an hour to get tickets then waited about two hours to get into the palace after that. All the lines were terribly labeled and many people stood for hours in the wrong line only to find out their costly mistake. Reyes and I went to find sandwiches while Abbey waited in line. The inside of the palace was really cool but also extremely crowded. Who would have thought the biggest palace in Europe would be so popular I assumed it would be a well kept secret.

We had an audio guide but in the end i decided I need to do a lot more research about the French revolution or watch Marie Antoinette again. We toured our way around the palace and it took about two hours, I can't imagine how much time it would have taken if we had bought the tour of the gardens and the living quarters. At the metro station we found our passes didn't work to get us home so we had to buy new tickets after standing in yet another line to find out they didn't work and a line at the machines to find they didn't read our cards.  We rode home to check on Taylor and find an Internet cafe so we could get our plane information printed out. We checked on Taylor and took some pictures of his poor state to show the change in his love of banana and nutella crepes. Cruel I know.

Then we girls went out for a night in the Latin quarters where we found a three course meal for €10 and a hilarious and impressive b-boy performance. One of the guys dancing scared Reyes so bad Abbey and I about died with laughter.  I have found it so interesting the ability to communicate through language barriers, though most people speak English, we all still have so much in common. We got back to the hotel and found a sleeping Taylor, thank goodness, who seemed to kick most of the bug out of his system.

Bern

Bern:

July 13th-Day 13- City 9
The train ride to Bern was about 3 hours long and I didn't sleep any and it all went out the window when these cute kids got on and were singing and talking the entire ride.

We got to our hostel, turns out everything in Switzerland is really expensive, and make our way to our first 20 person dorm which cost more than any of our private dorms or Taylor and my final hotel room. But besides the price the room was fine we all ended up sleeping fine so no hostel horror stories there. We found sharma, in honor of Cam and the Avengers, at a Lebanese place for lunch. Then we walked around the town looking for Souvenirs when we found this awesome candy shop that was under ground. There was a slide to get into the shop it doesn't get any better than that for bringing out your inner child. I went against my intuition that Taylor would find a flag for cheaper if we kept looking so i didn't stop him from buying the one he found. Sure enough it was ten franks cheaper at the next store. I went back and tried to return the one he bought but they wouldn't let me. Not all stores are not like American ones.  Now i know a woman's intuition is always right!

Loaded down with candy we did our own city tour as always but this time we actually had information on what the buildings were this time. We sat by the river in the rain and soaked our tired feet. The river was freezing! Easily 10 degrees colder than the lake we swam in last summer and the current was insane yet we still saw 5 people swimming in it happily. It wasn't even warm outside. Had we still been in Italy all four of us would have been in the river without a question. We headed back to the hostel before the rain got too bad and played some cards and took some naps. When the rain died down we ventured to the train station for some bread to eat with Reyes' tuna and of course lots of chocolate. We played a bunch more cards and went to bed.

July 14th- Day 14-City 9

We woke up and had some breakfast at the hostel and then went to investigate what an important looking castle like building was. It turned out to be the Einstein museum! We contemplated going in but Bern was also having a big music festival at the top of the mountain so we decided to hike up and see what all the buzz was about instead. Museums are everywhere how often can you say you hiked in the alps?  Unfortunately tickets were like 90 franks to get into the festival so we just hiked up and rode the tram down. We didn't find the right path at first and ended up hiking a super steep mountain bike path till we found the right one. We made it up probably farther than we should have without tickets to the festival we even saw one band which was lower on the mountain. We went down for some lunch at McDonald's, it cost 11.50 franks! Then we did some more shopping at the market and made another stop the the candy shop and the chocolate shop to get rid of all of our franks. Then we went to the train station to get on our way to Paris.

Pisa and Florence

Pisa and Florence: 

July 12th- Day 12-City 7 and 8 
We woke up at 5 and were on the train by 6. By 10 we were in Pisa for some breakfast and lots of photos! Then back on the train at 12 for an hour ride to Florence. We got off the train and found a guy with a map and lots of information and a 10% coupon for a lunch place. We ate an early lunch and debated doing a city tour on a bus but then they were too long and hit more countryside and less main sights do we stuck to our favorite method of transportation , walking!  We saw the cathedral, the plaza with the fake David (we didn't have enough time to see the real one), and hiked up to this platform for a view of the entire city. Then we went back into town and found a giant market. Reyes is a much better barterer than I am! We stopped by a grocery store for dinner snacks on the train and once again we are at the train with plenty of time. Plenty of time! We enjoyed the three hour train ride home with life chats and trying to solve all of the worlds problems. We got back and got tricked into paying for two more nights of air conditioning :( but it was worth it.

Milan

Milan: 

July 10th-Day 10- City 6
When we got to Milan we found an ATM and our hostel. Not only did we decide to pay the extra €5 for air conditioning which was a great idea until the morning after when it was freezing. We planned out our Milan trip which involved the addition of a day trip to Pisa and Florence. We contemplated Rome, but you can't do it all in one day and we thought about a few other places with a beach. I guess it just means I need to go back to see more places. When Reyes got back from the shower she took what was almost a decision and added a bunch of other options into the mix. But Florence and Pisa it was and with all that decided we went to bed.


July 11th-Day 11-City 6

We made our way to the center of the city by metro, after a brief stop at a pastry shop. We saw the Dourmo cathedral and attempted to go inside. My dress was long enough and Taylor was obviously fine but the man stopped Reyes and Abbey at the door. Reyes pulled her skirt down from her waist to her hips and it was long enough so she and I went in and took a bunch of pictures while Taylor and Abbey waited outside watching everyone get rejected. There were so many people inside with less modest clothing on then Abbey! Also if you sell scarves go stand outside the cathedral because you will make tons of money from people trying to make their outfits modest enough.

We then ventured through a shopping mall and did some window shopping before heading to the castle. Poor Taylor had to deal with a lot of window shopping in Milan. All of the museums at the castle were free so we took our time going through them and even saw Michelangelo's last unfinished work. For lunch we got paninis at a street cart and ate them in the park. We haven't had the best luck with bugs because between ants and Mosquitos we have been eaten alive. But on the plus side the sandwich tasted like the ones from the winery in evergreen!

We did some more walking and after the most round about way we found some more stores before heading back for nap time. After our nap we stopped at the train office hoping they could help us with getting our money back. Still no luck! But we made reservations for the train to Pisa and headed to the canal for dinner.  We got a bit lost but found some fashion design students who were more than happy to walk us to the canal on their way to class. Since dinner is much later in Europe than in the states and the restaurants weren't even open when we first got to the canal so we had some dessert first instead. After dinner we called it an early night and prepared for the craziest journey to date that followed.

Venice

Venice:

July 8th-Day 8-City

I woke up around 7 on the train ( after many attempts at sleeping through the night) they fed us some breakfast and forcibly woke Taylor up to eat it when he had finally fallen asleep. Daniel waved goodbye since he got off one stop earlier than us. And we finally made our way to the station. We tried to sort out the whole refund situation but I guess we will just have to do it by mail.

We found our hostel which is much less of a hostel or a hotel and was really an apartment in a random building like two blocks away from the main building but it was super nice. We have an entire living room area and kitchen to share with a nice Australian couple and a room with no bunk beds for the four of us. We bought a 3 day student discount travel pass for the water bus, the free transportation doesn't work in Venice. We saw San Marcos square and many shops and stands all selling the same thing. We "got lost", which is a must do in Venice, to find lunch and then headed home for a nap time.

Taylor and I went out in search of a grocery store to buy supplies for our home cooked Italian meal. It was super affordable and tasted great! Real pesto does the trick. We relaxed on our patio and then went for a stroll. We didn't want to stay out too late after some crazy stories our roommates told us and we played cards and listened to music on the patio before settling into a bed for some well deserved sleep in a bed.

July 9th-Day 9-City 5
I woke up before everyone else and enjoyed my breakfast on the terrace. Taylor came and joined me and eventually Abbey and Reyes woke up too.

We took the boat to Murano island and saw shop after shop of glass creations at ridiculous prices. Taylor knocked over a bottle and then the shop keeper ended up baby sitting him till he left. We got lunch at this place in the far back of a shop, the sign out front had great deals but we got to the counter and they said they didn't have that deal anymore. After some terrible pizza we got back on the boats and headed to the Rialto bridge, which was swarming with tourists. We did some more shopping and kept trying to get lost.

On the way home we stopped at a supermarket to get some drinks and veggies to help us spice up the leftovers from dinner the night before. We showered up prepared dinner and enjoyed our feast. After dinner we took the boat to the Fondamenta Nove, a strip of restaurants and shops across from San Marcos plaza for a peaceful night time stroll. We rode back home and enjoyed our drinks before going to bed.

July 10th-Day 10-City 5
We woke up around 11 and started packing up our stuff. The maid knocked on our door and told us we missed check out, we had no idea when check out was since we were never told, but we hurried our things together and left for the train station to store our bags for the day.

We went to the market and got some fruit to eat by the canal then "got lost" one last time to go find lunch.  We got so much food we ended up saving it for dinner on the train. We walked to some churches and some more streets and eventually made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare. We played some cards on the train and read our books.