Travel to Switzerland

SUNDAY JULY 30th

We departed Paris at 730am and I was actually on time. The drive to Switzerland took most of the day, but we played games and stuff on the bus. Actually, I slept a good portion of the morning but then had a blast with my fellow travel mates. Today was the first day I saw an "Auto Grill". They are basically rest stops that are all throughout Europe except they are like mini-malls. You can exchange money, but clothes, food, beer or anything else you want.

We arrived in Lucerne about 10 hours later at 530pm. The city was so beautiful. We stopped off at a nice little store that sold swiss watches and knives. I found a really nice watch for only 80 francs. (btw, francs had a great conversion rate for our money...too bad we were only there for a day)

The restaurant we went to was a traditional swiss restaurant with some great folklore entertainment. There was even a guy in a cow outfit that came and danced with us. We had veal, fondue and some awesome desert. The dinner was so fun! We went back to the hotel because it started to rain.

We were a rowdy bunch and began to get bored staying inside. As soon as it stopped raining we decided to go swimming in Lake Lucerne. It was SO cold but it was a really fun thing to do. By the time we were done goofing around, it was time for bed. I wanted to make sure I was well rested for our trip up Mt. Pilatus in the morning.

"The Amazing Race"

SATURDAY JULY 29TH, 2006


So we woke up pretty early this morning knowing that we had a crazy day ahead of us. This was probably the only time on the trip I wished we had more time in a cit. Paris has SO much to offer from culture to shopping to just losing yourself on some side streets, we knew it would be hard to do it all in one day. We were determined though.


Our first stop was the louvre. We stayed there for only about 45 minutes because, while we appreciated what we saw, we didn't love art enough to stay any longer. We saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus De Milo and then we were good to go. The Mona Lisa was a lot smaller than I imagined. We spent the rest of the time there making fun of the statues and just being goof balls.

We exited onto the Rue De Rouville. We found a really cute cafe (Les Aigles) there and ate some crepes and had coffee and OJ. It was so peaceful and just so quaint. The people there were just so nice.

Next we needed to take the metro to the Notre dame because we wouldn't have time to walk. Well, that was the hardest system to figure out because no one spoke English. We waited for about 15 minutes until someone finally spoke English and helped us buy the tickets we needed.

We arrived at the Notre Dame and it was absolutely breathtaking. It felt good to be in there and just walk around. Katlyn and I said some prayers and lit a candle and then we left. We wanted to go up but the wait was about 30-60 min and we just didn't have the time.

Back on the metro to arrive at the Arc de Triumph. This was a HUGE monument in the center of downtown paris. It was so cool because it was such an awesome feeling of hustle and bustle. To get up, we had to take the stairs and there was like 500 hundred of them. (I hate stairs) The view was truly breathtaking and you could see all of paris from any side. We got really lucky and had clear skies.

Our final thing for the daytime was to go shopping on the Champs Elysees. This was a real swank part of paris with some of the best shopping. A majority of the stores only had girls clothing and all the stores were really expensive. I found one really cute ribbed sweater on sale so I had to buy it. We were there so long, we had to race home to get changed for the evening activities. Again, the metro is so confusing, it took us 3 different trains to get home. lol

We left for dinner and went to a real nice restaurant about the Chave le vie. I had escargot and duck a la orange. ( I can't spell these dishes lol) and drank endless wine. It was a great dinner. The wine hit me pretty hard though because I was so tired and hadn't eaten much that day.

When we got to the moulin rouge, I was in heaven. This show was everything I thought it would be and more. We had 1/2 a bottle of champagne for each person at the table and our seats were AMAZING!! I felt like such a rock star! I was so drunk that when I went shopping I completely lost track of time and missed the coach back. Thankfully my amazing tour manager Pete and another guy on our trip, Mark waited for me and we took a taxi home. I wish I could show you pics of the show but cameras had to be checked at the door since the girls were topless.

I got back to the hotel and just slept off my alcohol because we had an early day tomorrow as we began travel to Switzerland. This was only the end of day 4 and I was having the best time of my life. This Contiki was turning out to be a great decision!

Paris: The first "this is not my life" moment

FRIDAY JULY 28TH, 2006

We departed London at 8am this morning but I almost missed the coach because I had too much to drink the night before. Thank god Anna saw I was missing and pounded on my door until I woke up. Luckily I had packed the night before, so I was ready to go. We drove to a ferry that took us into Paris. It was a pretty cool ferry because it had a lounge and a cafateria and games. It was like a mini cruise ship. A bunch of us just sat around and played "catchphrase" for the 2 hour trip. We got off the ferry and drove into paris for the rest of the day. We spent the day just learning all sorts of new info about each other, the city etc.

We arrived into Paris and had dinner that night at a really cute retaurant in our hotel. We then took an amazing trip around the city on what is called an "Illuminations tour". It was so awesome to see the city at night and our tour manager was so knowledgeable. We stopped off at the Eiffel Tower and went up just in time to see the sunset from the top. It was truly breathtaking! I went all the way up to the top but I had to be down to meet the coach by 10:20 and it was already 10:15pm. I ran down the stairs ALL THE WAY down. I was so tired and sweaty by the time I got back on that bus, I was done.

But of course, I'm always up for partying so we went down to the bar downstairs and had some drinks with the gang. It was so much fun.

All we could talk about was the day that was to come. We all knew there would be so much to do and we knew the next night would be topped off with a show at the Moulin Rouge! It was gonna be great!!!

London (Day 2) "A drunken blur"

THURSDAY JULY 27th, 2006

So we got up at 8am for breakfast which was rough because I was so tired from the night before. Breakfast was really odd, to say the least. I soon learned that a breakfast consisting of lunchmeat, dry bread and bland corn flakes would be something I would see in every city. We had the morning to ourselves so I just wandered around the streets near our hotel. There wasn't a lot of sites to see near by but it was really cool to just lose myself in the local area. We came back to the hotel and boarded our coach for a guided tour around london. This was the first time we'd seen our coach which would later be our home away from home.

The coaches were actually really nice. We had air conditioning, a sound system, chairs that leaned back and a bathroom. I was so tired, I slept through the entire guided tour. I had already been to london and seen the palace and trafalgar square etc so I didn't mind getting some extra sleep.

We were dropped off in Trafalgar square and just wondered the main city. It was really cool to just walk around but took some getting used to having no motorized transportation. I was with Jodi, Anna, and Katlyn for the day and we wanted to go and do some shopping. We tried to find out way around and actually went the completely wrong direction at one point. Our tour manager gave us maps of london before we got off the coach so we were able to find our way back. London had no language barriers but the people just didn't want to be bothered by us.

We finally made it to Covent garden and just hung out there. Covent garden was like a mini central park, without the grass. There was a childs puppet show, a street performer, live music and even some dancing. It was SO cool! We got back to the hotel and changed for dinner.

Meeting downstairs at 6:30, we boarded the coach to head back into town for dinner. We went to a nice place called Porters in covent garden. We were given a choice of different british pies for dinner. I chose the steak and mushroom pie. It was pretty much just like chicken pot pie. The bread was a little dry but the meat was fantastic. Dinner also included 2 drinks and they had a beer there that 6.5% alcohol by volume so I ordered that. By the time dinner was done, so was I...lol

After dinner, Contiki was hosting a battle of the bands at a local aussie bar called the Walkabout. There, we found a drink special which we couldn't refuse: 6 shots of vodka for 5lbs. Now that translates into $10 which means each shot was only $1.67...AWESOME. The vodka was flavored and kind of gross but we were on our asses. I had so much fun and the bands were pretty awesome. By the time we left the bar we didn't want to take a taxi home because it was so expensive. So we hustled to the subway and tried to buy a ticket. None of the machines would take our credit cards and we had NO cash. So we begged the guy to let us through because we were "stranded tourists who needed to get home" (we laid it on real thick). He let us through and told us to pay when we got off (you need to have a ticket to exit). When we got to the other stop, we played the same "poor lost tourist card" and they let us off. IT WAS AWESOME because everyone else had paid like $30 for a cab and we got home for free.

This was the night we formed the "Suck it Crew". Basically it was Katlyn, Jodi, Anna and I doing this "suck it pose". We ended up deciding to make it a running gag for the rest of the trip and it ended up making us best friends. So what do we do now that we saved money and have a cool group name? We go the hotel bar and drink more. We ran into some other of our Contiki Travelers and they bought us a shot of Tequilla. That would be my downfall for the night. (read more in my next post)

Finally, I went to bed around 3am knowing that I needed to be up early to depart london the next morning. Now our trip would really begin....

London! Where the $ is worthless

WEDNESDAY JULY 26th 2006

We arrived in london today at 9am after a very long day of travel (about 14 hours). When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by Laura, a very friendly contiki representative, who guided us to the train to get to our hotel.

We checked into the Imperial Hotel, in Russell Square, and I went straight to bed. The rooms were single rooms and had no air conditioning, but had a GREAT view of Russell Square. All the others on my trip had left a note in the lobby for everyone to meet downstairs at 6PM so we could all have a night out together. I decided to take everyone up on the offer since my room was like a sauna. lol

We met downstairs and ended up spliting up into smaller groups. My group went to take the underground (their version of a subway) to Piccadilly Circus. We got off and got really excited because it was just what everyone had hoped. It reminded me of NYC back in the states. (my group pictured right)

We wandered around for a place to eat. It was a difficult task because there was 10 of us and a lot of the places were smaller, quaint pubs. We found a place called Adams ribs and it was probably the only american type meal we had for the whole trip. We needed to ease into the cuisine. lol! I had some great cajun ribs and some beers. When we were done with dinner we all washed up and went out to find some local nightlife.

We found a cool local bar to go to and we happened to run into another group of our fellow travellers, which is where I would meet the 3 people that would become my best friends on this trip. (Anna, Jodi, Kaitlyn)


They had a really cool drink special which was 3 shooters for 5.5 pounds which converts to about $11. Most beers were 4 pounds by themselves so this was a great deal. I had a stoplight shot but in london they called it something completely different. They were definitly strong though. It set us all up for what would turn into a great night! we also did 2 tequilla shots but they serve them warm, so that turned out to be a bad idea lol!

We then found a cool club called escape which was great because it was intimate yet still had a great club feel. The only problem was that they didn't accept credit cards so we only stayed for a little bit. We met some locals (Daniel and Francesco) there who took us to another club called "too too much"

That title was very appropriate because it was a club for all orientations so there were strippers and drag queens. This was the first moment that I knew we would have a great group because nobody cared about the club but just wanted to have fun. The best part was that Daniel knew the people so we got in first and for free. It was very V.I.P. Once inside, everyone really began to let loose and have a great time. Justin and I even took our turn on the stripper pole. We left the club at 12:30 because we had to catch the last train home. We got back to our hotel at 1am and all headed to bed because we had a very early start the next day at 8AM.

Overall, the first day was AMAZING. We didn't see sites, but we did experience the culture and really got to meet each other. Nicknames were formed (amy-geo) and funny stories were started. Tonight really made me believe in this trip and took all my worries away! xoxo

Home sweet home!

I just got back home from 14 amazing days in europe and I sure do have a story to tell! Check back as often as you want but I plan to update at least every 2 weeks!

Comment on the posts also! Especially if you have any questions about that day...maybe I left something out.

Most importantly let me help you with any questions about contiki! I have fallen in love with the company and I'm sure you would too!

So lets begin with my last day in the states....

TUESDAY JULY 25th 2006

Well the time has come to go on my trip to Europe with Contiki Holidays! I'm so excited because this is going to be a great way to end my summer, which has been spent just working A LOT! I'm running around packing and shopping for last minute needs before I try to get a few hours sleep. My flight takes off tommorrow at 4pm but since its international I'll have to be at the airport by 1:30. Next stop... london england!!

xoxo