Out of order

Unfortunately my Wi-Fi and data has been a little screwy, I wrote all three "Lake Garda, Firenze!, and the Riviera posts on the bus but they didn't post til now.. having a wonderful WONDERFUL time in Barcelona.. plan to post all about it at the airport!!

The Riviera!

French Riviera!! This place was awesome as well! We stopped by a perfumery on the way to our hotel! It was exciting because they talked about Tonka Beans being used for fragrance but I remembered Googling Coumadin and Warfarin, they are also extracted from the Tonka Bean.. Coumadin comes from the French word Coumarou.. so it was pretty cool using all my Pharm knowledge haha (random sidenote, Italy had so many Fleur De Lis everywhere! It reminded of Ursuline <3 ) they made soaps that smelled like lemons and were shapped like lemons and eggs and duckies! I didn't buy anything. I can get that stuff at Bath and Body Works haha. So we arrived at our hotel, called Cannes Beach Residence .. it was like a little resort! We had like a vacation style flat.. so we had 5 girls in a room probably made for 3. Oh well! We went night swimming at the beach! It was super close by, all we had to do is walk thru this creepy tunnel that use to be a sewer and we were there! So I can't believe I swam out to those.huge floating rafting with everyone. Let me rephrase, Stjepan basically carried me out to it Because I can't swim to save my life. It was straight out of a scary movie where a large group of people swim out at night in the ocean and get eaten by sharks, while the level headed losers watch their friends get eaten as they sit on the shore. We didn't get eaten! Yay! It was beautiful out! The sky had a line of clouds straight down and we could see the city sparkle all around. Monaco was close by! The next morning, we SLEPT IN!!!! probably the first time in 20 days! It felt incredible. We moseyed around, went to an open market ( I bought strawberries, blueberries, 1 peach, and a super strange sandwich that I could identify having black olives, maybe Tuna or Chicken, hard boiled egg, possibly a potato or a pear, red pepper sauce maybe curry and that may be it.. maybe.) We ran around trying to find a swim suit because half of is didn't bring any (including me) I got onethat looked like an Indian pattern, way over priced and wayyyy too small! Oooooh well! People go topless I think I get 2 points just for being covered! We went to the beach. I forgot to put sunscreen on for a good hour. Remembered. Attempted to swim out to the floaty raft thing, laid out there with everyone.. came back in closer to the shore, played chicken with Tasha, Yelena, Sunny, Parker, and Stjepan. Straight out of a Mary Kate and Ashley movie hahaha. I don't care what they say. They cheated. Haha. We ate on the beach, I looked like I killed a small cat from all the strawberries all over my hands and towel.. we got SO SO SO burnt. I am in physical pain right now. I have hysterical tan lines. Utterly rediculous. fun day at the beach tho =]
When we got back from the beach Ginette and Anel cooked us a FANTASTIC dinner!!! We had fettuccine, long green beans, a huge whopping piece of meat (that they made sure wasn't chewy for me <3 ) probably one of the best meals we had. Ginette can adopt me. Tasha And I went with the Croats to walk around the city at night.. it was shank land I swear. I was freaking out about getting killed. They thought I was exaggerating a bit but it seemed like the Croats were going to kill us and eat us as a tradition haha. We stopped at a cool bar by our hotel that had crazy drinks like Le Pirate & Gorilla that came in crazy glasses! Don't worry we took photos haha the drinks came with candy on the straws like they did in Paris! ) [two random things I forgot to mention, Speedy suggested we go to a Lebanese restaurant in the Riviera  and oh. My. Gosh.. bad idea. The guy refused to let us share a meal even tho it was 22 euros a plate! And they were HUGE portions! We navigated around his attempt to make us pay more and in the end he "allowed us" to eat as a group. Don't think we are cheap we were just sharring one plate for two people Geesh! The food was.. alright. Not my fancy. Lots of couscous and chewy lamb and meat and vegetable soup :(
Second thing I forgot to tell you about.. at the Sulfur Lake, the one with the castle.. it had upside down V's at the top of the towers to symbolize their allegiance to the king not the pope.. because there was such a strong power struggle between the two)  anyway so last night after the cool drink at the bar, we stayed up til 3 just BSing and packing and I made grilled cheese for everyone .. yum!!! We woke uo super dooper early to fight for good seats on the bus. I literally waited 39 minutes before the bus even arrived to save seats where I wanted haha. Its quite intense. Maybe I should explain.. a little more later but brief overview now is that there is a group of kids we call the Gerbil Gang who are utterly obnoxious and we eon't want to be even within ear shot of them. Especially not for a te hour bus ride to Barcelona!! That leaves me to right now.. sitting on the bus, driving to Spain.. its 500 kilometers away.. like that helps anyone understand. That's just what Speedy told me when I asked him how far away we are haha. Today we are stopping by a sweet ass picnic place on the way - Pont du Gard ... its an aquaduct .. were going swimming yay! And jumping off rocks! After that Barcelona! Shopping. Shopping. Beach. Shopping. Pub crawl. Gay club.  Farewell dinner. home.

Firenze!

FLORENCE !!! So! Our first night was pretty intense, we drove around for a good half hour trying to get close to the hotel. In the end we had a parade of suit cases throughout the streets. We got cleaned up, went for a little tour where we got pizza. I wasn't impressed. We walked around the streets and Tasha, Emily, Dana, Beka, and I heard this crazy classical music.coming from this random boom box on the street so we started dancing and skipping and galavanting when ALL OF A SUDDEN this creepy scary man jumped and yelled and we all screamed and ran off. It was super funny. THEN we found a carousel that had NO music but we rode it anyways. Each time we went around we waved to Emily, like we were small children.  People stared. It was humorous. So.on our way back thru the alley way we got scared of, the same guy was doing this AWESOME street performance and had a GINORMOUS (gigantic & enormous - who knew that's not technically a real word?) crowd!! He was fantastic! He pulled an American girl, a Swedish man, and a young Italian girl to help with his act. It was pretty racy. But seriously funny. He stripped the dudes shirt off and made ohh la la jokes about the American girl. He wouldn't speak much but make hand gestures and noises. Its hard to explain. But I would go see him anywhere if he had an act in the States. It was funny to think about, but people would think he's on bath salts and a pedophile if it were America. But I suppose things are different in Europe. Actually I know so. People are very. . Free with their sexuality and expression.. nude beaches. So after the street performance, Emily took us to a bar she use to frequent called The Old Stove. we met people from Jersey there! And! We got free shots from the bartender.. who took a liking to me and made me a crazy drink.. in the end, the Jersey girls all called it a Maggie and people were ordering Maggie's alllllll night!!! Random people from the group went back the next day, ordered a Maggie and they made it! Woo whoo!!! Tasha had a Maggie and spilled it on herself. Then blamed someone for it! Too bad we watched her do it!!! Hahaha (she said, "I would.have gotten away with it, it it weren't.for those meddling kids" HAHHAHAHAH Scooby doo quote )

So the next morning, was a little rough.. we went to a real leather shop and saw how it was made.. I found a sweet ass bracelet that looked like handcuffs made out of silver!! Wayyyy to pricy tho! Then we took our walking tour. We were a little distracted by men doing caricatures and our deep desire for food in our bellies. So in the end, I didn't much attention to the tour..but we did see Michael Angelo's house! Cool cool! We ran back for caricatures that ended up being twice the price because there was mad people waiting in line and didn't end up looking anything like us. Sad face. Its okay because I am getting Ginette and Anel to draw us (they have mad artistic skill!!!!!!) We stopped to get some spaghetti. They ran out of all the Chef Boyardee (joke. We really did want some beefaroni tho haha) I don't think you understand how meat deprived the entire tour group is! We literally sit on the bus and fantasize about meat dishes and food back home! We then went to our Wine Tasting Excursion in the Tuscany Country side! Mmmmm! I like white wine a little more than red. There was awesome olive oil on bread with cheese too! and we had a dessert wine (what they do is pick the grapes, don't squish them.. let then hang for 7 weeks then squeeze them.. and then let then ferment.. they have a really small output after all is said and done) it is super sweet wine and you are suppose to dunk your biscotti in it.. I dropped mine in :( so it looked like dog food.. I bought bottles of wine! Surprise surprise, for some lucky people back home haha! Afterwards I took a nap, which I greatly needed and we all made our way to the club. Speedy let us down.. it didn't open til later so we sat at a pub for an hour and chit chatted.. the club had KARAOKE. I don't think you understand the extent of our singing on this trip. It's intense. Beyond intense. It's passionate. We sang Call Me Maybe, The Time of my Life, Barbie girl, Greece Lightening, Eminem..then it started to drag ass and we made our way upstairs. Not pleased with the fact they allow 16 year olds into clubs. But we made our own fun. I danced like I had a seizure (like usual). Great time! It was super fun.. lots of memories! That's the end of Florence!  (Sidenote, we got lost on our way home but navigated to our shitty ass hotel by smelling it. Literally. Its super crazy how random our hotels are. We have a beautiful ski lodge but then we have a place that is Sketch McQueen. Haha! I roomed Iva and Yelena and got eaten alive by mosquitos! No joke. And the guy who ran the hotel yelled at us for being loud and served us one croissant and hot coco. Yum. )

Lake Garda

soo we went to this super fancy schmancy lake that had a freaking Castle with a private harbour!! It was one of the 1st places to be settled by man, and is the mouth of an extinct volcano bed! the water haa a bed of sulfur gases, so people that are ill go swimming in it to feel better! The volcano is surrounded by Alps which creates a micro climate, (climate of southern Italy).. so you can ski in the AM and later get a tan. Its also famous for citrus fruits -lemons (the size of a freaking large softball or Quaffle -Tasha added that comment in), olive oil, olives, wine, pizza thats cheap, gelato (comes from mountains ) & an express ski industry was born[ they were poor.. & had limited crops..so they became specialists in making ice cream ]

We took a speed boat around the beautiful lake, the Guy who owns the company has done it for sooooo many years(1930s) he has rented his boats to Mussolini, JFK, Hitler, & Winston Churchill just to know a few! Its pretty intense.. Northern Italy (the specific part we were in) was for Fascism back then.
So a little back history, Italy -
The North is pretty rich and doesnt not make as much pasta whereas the South has pasta out the butt and is  poorer. So anyeay the meat content for lunch and dinner is much less..however it is high quality food (simple quality of ingredients, not full of flavors). The pizza makers are seriously high paid, like 70000 euros a year!! They even go to Pizza making school for 2 years or so..
Another interesting tid bit : Coffee ordering- you order, pay, then take the receipt to the coffee maker person where you fight with the 50 other people waiting for their orders before you get it.. and the receipt doesnt have your order so you have to tell them again. If you want regular coffee you have to say Coffee Americano. Not that I ordered any because I despise coffee but its still interesting.. (same way at clubs, roughly) 
After the speed boat, some of us went to the beach (I stood around and got sun burnt), got gelato, pizza, Spritz (like a orange wine with fizzy stuff in it) and a few bracelets (I lost my anklet, sad face). On the speed boat we went UNDER the moat thing! Super cool! Ginette got gigantic lemons (a bunt)! we later made lemonade. After Thar we left and drove to Florence .. to be continued

Switzerland OH YEAH!

Alrightttttty! I am a bit behind because of wifi and we've been jam packed with things to do :) SO Switzerland! Oh.my.gosh. it's between Switzerland and Wales with beautiful landscapes.. I think Switzerland might have one.. like we are on the Swiss Alps sitting, drinking wine on a patio surrounded by snow capped mountains yet it is warm outside!!!!! <3 the first night we walled around the little town (Englberg) we stayed in, everything is SO SO pricey oh my Lord. The minimum wage is around 18 Swiss Francs and HOUR!!!!! Mind you, Swiss Francs are worth a little more than our dollar sooooo basically a cheeseburger at a local restaurant was 22 Francs!!!!!!!! We about died. But anyway, the next day we took a cable car, then a gondola up Mount Pilatus. OHHHH goodness the view was phenomenal!!!!!!! It was such a high altitude, we were a bit chilly and I was literally higher than some clouds! we tried to eat them. Haha. Didn't work out that well tho.. so after we all had a baby panic attack riding up in these cable cars, seeing the tops of houses and cows everywhere we decided.to HIKE up a further part of Mount Pilatus that had paths.. I got some really great photos, and a bunch of us signed our names on the old wooden hut thing.. some people went thru tunnels in the mountains or to a small chapel a short ways away. My little ears were freezing cold so Im just going to steal their photos off Facebook haha! Down the mountain was probably more gorgeous than going up it, because we could see a huge lake with the mountains behind it! Once we got to the bottom, we crossed the lake via Ferry and went into Lucerne to spend our time.. I bought a Swiss Army Knife for William and had his name engraved on it =] Tim bought a fancy ass watch, they are around 200-300 Francs which is great because it is like 900 dollars for the same watch in America but I don't have that kinda dough for a watch unless it's going to do my laundry and sing to me.
Speaking of singing - after we stopped at the shops we went to visit this monument for the Swiss Soldiers during the First French Revolution (they are such bad ass soldiers people recruit them all over the world ) so anyways singing - Tasha, Elena, and I (mostly Tasha and I while Elana shakes her head) have musical outbursts... this entire trip consisted of our duet during bus rides, walking tours, and boredom but we went all out in Switzerland at the monument. People were smiling. I'm convinced. More and more of the group found us and we played a game I learned at UC where you think of a word and sing all the songs you can think of with Thar word in it.. our finale consisted of "L is for the way by Sinatra" I'm not sure if that is the title but you know what song I'm talking about. We thought.it was particularly humerous when we started belting out "can you feel the love tonight, from the Lion King Movie " because we are standing at a monument where there is a carved out dead lion. Ironic. Anyway. After all those kicks and giggles we boarded the bus back to our fancy schmancy ski lodge in the mountains. Seriously this place was sooooo cool! I dunno if you can tell by the photos I posted but their are skis on the walls and chocolate Tolberones on the beds and down comforters!  Ah! The water is SO crisp too! Like in the States if you go from the country well-water, to city water or tap its a completely different taste.. in Europe. SO SO fresh. Particularly in Switzerland, it was so cold, finally one placed that did not need ice. There were even old antique locks for the bathrooms! So we bottle a bottle of cheap wine (yuck, regretted that) and some of us were out on the patio where the hotel was connected to its own bar and some went in to the outdoor SAUNA! So cool! Too bad I have asthma attacks when I'm in them haha! we had a young looking receptionist / bar keep so I started conversation .. her name was Nina haha and she moves from Sweden for the outdoor activities. She knew three languages! Unbelievable how incompetent we are with language in America! Anywayyyy, we all started charting with her and a few of us ended up ordering a 'shoo' (it's wheel you pick two #'s and they go from either side of the bar, count, pick the liquor and mix it in a shot. Ew. Ew. Bad shoo.) Nina was cool tho, she didnt yell at me when I brought my own cheap wine into the bar haha after she locked up a bunch.of.us chatted on the patio and later that night a small group of us made our way to a gazebo in the front of the hotel where the staff obviously takes their.smoke breaks.. it was a great night all and all =]

Switzerland OH YEAH!

Alrightttttty! I am a bit behind because of wifi and we've been jam packed with things to do :) SO Switzerland! Oh.my.gosh. it's between Switzerland and Wales with beautiful landscapes.. I think Switzerland might have one.. like we are on the Swiss Alps sitting, drinking wine on a patio surrounded by snow capped mountains yet it is warm outside!!!!! <3 the first night we walled around the little town (Englberg) we stayed in, everything is SO SO pricey oh my Lord. The minimum wage is around 18 Swiss Francs and HOUR!!!!! Mind you, Swiss Francs are worth a little more than our dollar sooooo basically a cheeseburger at a local restaurant was 22 Francs!!!!!!!! We about died. But anyway, the next day we took a cable car, then a gondola up Mount Pilatus. OHHHH goodness the view was phenomenal!!!!!!! It was such a high altitude, we were a bit chilly and I was literally higher than some clouds! we tried to eat them. Haha. Didn't work out that well tho.. so after we all had a baby panic attack riding up in these cable cars, seeing the tops of houses and cows everywhere we decided.to HIKE up a further part of Mount Pilatus that had paths.. I got some really great photos, and a bunch of us signed our names on the old wooden hut thing.. some people went thru tunnels in the mountains or to a small chapel a short ways away. My little ears were freezing cold so Im just going to steal their photos off Facebook haha! Down the mountain was probably more gorgeous than going up it, because we could see a huge lake with the mountains behind it! Once we got to the bottom, we crossed the lake via Ferry and went into Lucerne to spend our time.. I bought a Swiss Army Knife for William and had his name engraved on it =] Tim bought a fancy ass watch, they are around 200-300 Francs which is great because it is like 900 dollars for the same watch in America but I don't have that kinda dough for a watch unless it's going to do my laundry and sing to me.
Speaking of singing - after we stopped at the shops we went to visit this monument for the Swiss Soldiers during the First French Revolution (they are such bad ass soldiers people recruit them all over the world ) so anyways singing - Tasha, Elena, and I (mostly Tasha and I while Elana shakes her head) have musical outbursts... this entire trip consisted of our duet during bus rides, walking tours, and boredom but we went all out in Switzerland at the monument. People were smiling. I'm convinced. More and more of the group found us and we played a game I learned at UC where you think of a word and sing all the songs you can think of with Thar word in it.. our finale consisted of "L is for the way by Sinatra" I'm not sure if that is the title but you know what song I'm talking about. We thought.it was particularly humerous when we started belting out "can you feel the love tonight, from the Lion King Movie " because we are standing at a monument where there is a carved out dead lion. Ironic. Anyway. After all those kicks and giggles we boarded the bus back to our fancy schmancy ski lodge in the mountains. Seriously this place was sooooo cool! I dunno if you can tell by the photos I posted but their are skis on the walls and chocolate Tolberones on the beds and down comforters!  Ah! The water is SO crisp too! Like in the States if you go from the country well-water, to city water or tap its a completely different taste.. in Europe. SO SO fresh. Particularly in Switzerland, it was so cold, finally one placed that did not need ice. There were even old antique locks for the bathrooms! So we bottle a bottle of cheap wine (yuck, regretted that) and some of us were out on the patio where the hotel was connected to its own bar and some went in to the outdoor SAUNA! So cool! Too bad I have asthma attacks when I'm in them haha! we had a young looking receptionist / bar keep so I started conversation .. her name was Nina haha and she moves from Sweden for the outdoor activities. She knew three languages! Unbelievable how incompetent we are with language in America! Anywayyyy, we all started charting with her and a few of us ended up ordering a 'shoo' (it's wheel you pick two #'s and they go from either side of the bar, count, pick the liquor and mix it in a shot. Ew. Ew. Bad shoo.) Nina was cool tho, she didnt yell at me when I brought my own cheap wine into the bar haha after she locked up a bunch.of.us chatted on the patio and later that night a small group of us made our way to a gazebo in the front of the hotel where the staff obviously takes their.smoke breaks.. it was a great night all and all =]

First night in Switzerland

Fancy dinner photos

Classy

Parisian picnic & the Louvre pics

Eiffel at night with fireworks!!

My packing list..

I'm quite proud to say I arrived with the lightest and smallest bag for the trip. I packed really well in my opinion. Here are the things I realized I should have brought, glad I brought, and could have done without.

Should have packed:
- Antibiotics. I blame my dentist for not giving me them for my trip over here for my wisdom teeth. I could have been cured from my darn illness by now! (Its going around the entire tour group like wild fire!)
- my rugged A&F jacket (I would have fit I'm so well with it,but I know it would have taken uo so much space, and I never anticipated the weather to be sooo cold)
- another battery for my camera
- multiple converter / adapters
- a pen and pad of paper (I ended up just buying one from an Art store in Amsterdam)

Glad I brought:
- tissues. Mom forced them into my bag. Best thing yet, I swear
- my iron /steamer. NO wrinkles for me!!! Yay! People are jealous. Haha
- my tablet, seriously find a computer is a bitch in Europe, I feel bad for people relying on hotels.
- three 4gb SD cards and two 8 gb ones. Hahahha I have SO many photos already. Its intense
- my Toms. I hate that I love them so much. But I do. I'm pretty addicted to them.
-I'm glad I waterproofed my shoes before I came, seriously high five to me, no wet tootsies until lately. I couldn't really believe it'd last the whole trip but it did a damn good job in my opinion
-the aluminum water bottle mom gave me last minute. Drinks are rediculously expensive in Europe and water is not always free. Im SO happy I brought it.
- my basketball shorts <3 for nighttime and long bus rides like today
-scarfs! And my orange pants!!!!!!

Didn't need:
-no show socks.. they seriously worked like a charm back home. The minute I start wearing them here they fall and rub my ankles funny, I just haven't worn any with my Toms. Ohhhh well!

All and all I'm thrilled with my forethought and well.. mom's too.. and I'm pretty content with my stuff for this trip

How to make friends in Europe

So, on our way to the snazzy dinner.. Emily, Tim, and I were joking around making a list of all the ways to make friends in Europe based in our current predicament.. so this is what we came up with hahahahaha:
-have the biggest umbrella (Emily's fits probably a good 6 people comfortably - she bought it in Dublin, best investment yet!)
-know how to read a map (know where 'home' is)
-have a camera that is charged
-speak the language
-be drunk and pay for drinks at the bar

Paris!!

I am writing this while on the bus to Switzerland, I'm trying to remember all the details! Day three: we woke up for a little walking tour. Its realy cool because in Paris, you can renovate the inside of w building but if its old then the fascade has to remain the same, so everything has a very old architecture look. Sooooo pretty. I went ito Notre Dame, I was soooo thrilled to go because SR. Diane had told me about the statue of Saint Denis, he is holding his head in his hands. It had reminded her of one of my metalcraft pieces! . The Gothic architecture is just so incredible, its so hard believe people actually created this before computers and modern technology. So besides the saints on the outside of Notre Dame there are the Grotesques mad for decoration and to add extra weight, and also gargoyles used for drainage of water away from the building to avoid erosion of the building. Its pretty funny because sculptors would sculpt faces of people they did not like on the grotesque. That's where the basis of Quasimodo came from!! The inside of Notre Dame is GORGEOUS! It is SO big, and everything is just so well thought out. Even the ceilings are pretty. I lit a candle while I walked through.. the photos will do more justice.</p>
<p>After Notre Dame we went to find crepes! The guy that made them for us had a fancy for me, we called him my boyfriend after a while lol. I was a pig an ordered two crepes - one filled with Tuna, Cheese, and Egg. The second with Nutella and Banana. (Side note - I was soooo bummed to not find yogurt in any of my crepes. That's how my High school French teacher taught us to make them, so I ascern that I make the best crepes.) He kept calling me Bebe and holding my hand while I tried to pay him haha. French men. Iy! So after I bought a sweet ass headphones t shirt -the cord spells Paris!! Then we walked to the Arabic Culture Institute, went up to the top floor and had the most amazing view of Paris. Speedy says its even better than the Eiffel tower because we are just a bit above everything so its not all just flat topped!!!! Breathtaking.</p>
<p>then we made our way home to get all fancy for our 4 course meal at a 900 year old restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!! (With unlimited wine!)<br>
So i chose: Patte, Veal, cheese course (Swiss and Goat cheese), then chocolate mousse. We had a glass of Champagne and our table went thru atleast 4 bottles of wine. There was two guys playing an acordian and the other a guitar, we started requesting Parisian songs and singing along. Iy!! Glad we were seperated from the general public!!&amp;amp;nbsp; The dinner was SOOO much fun, we all looked so nice and it was just a great night out!! Speedy was hilarious and talking about previous tour groups he's had. Usually there are 45-50 people! We have 29!! I ended up telling him how much I love his fancy clothes lol. I guess someone from Florida called him a metrosexual, but they don't really say that in Europe like we do.. so he's like Good heavens, you think I screw trains!! So anyway, we went to a local pub after the dinner, French people aren't too fomd of Americans at their not touristy areas I must say... in the end we had a drink, navigated home on the metro. Speedy told us he would show us a hypnoism trick with a wine bottle, it was hilarious tho..he basically tricked Parker and put ash on his face. It looked like he went to four different Churches on Ash Wednesday! </p>
<p>The next day (yesterday) was our free day.. a group of us woke up bright and early and made it to the Louvre,because it was Bastille Day it was free entrance into the museum!! I can't say I understand all the hype about the Mona Lisa... but we saw her. And then visited the gothic,&nbsp; French art, and African Art. After we sat outside for a good while just soaking up the sun. I don't think you understand this is the first time it has been sunny for more than 2 hours at a time on this trip. We have had the craziest weather in the history of Paris and London for this month!! Anyway,they were preparing for the bug parade so there were french soldiers with huge ass machine guns walking around and then probably 9-10 rows of 5 planes flew overhead for the parade. THEN people started parachuting down!!!!!! It was crazy!! We ended up taking a nap before we went back out that night. </p>
<p>Tasha, the Croats and I packed a pic nic and went to find Ginette, Anel, Tim, and Jarrod who had saved a nice grassy area by the Eiffel for the fireworks show that night. It was a MADHOUSE. omg!!!!!! We had to go thru security checks and we were almost positive they would make us throw out our wine we bought at the Supermarche (. 50 cents and another for 1.50, cheap dates aye!?) We had planned to meet up at 7pm and probably didn't find each other until 830 or 9! Its a real tricky time when no one has cell phones. (I want walkietalkies so bad!!) We finallllllllly found them and had ourselves a cute little pic nic. We brought two baguettes, Gouda cheese, Orangina (Like orange juice with sprite in it), Tim had a bottle of Champagne and OJ, pesto, wine glasses from the hotel, our towels from the hotel (hahahahah), cherries, a bottle of eau (water) and people bought crepes and sandwhiches!! It was so freaking cute. I have to say. Haha Tasha and I wanted to be like Mary Kate and Ashley's Passport to Paris movie so we bought berets and sword fighted (with baguettes) by the Eiffel tower =) haha!!!! The firework show was famtsstic and they lit up the tower so it looked like sparkles!!! There was a disco ball connected to it too! So funny, they were having a rave in the second tier of the Tower! There was SOOOO many people. I've never seen anything like it. The metro stations close at 12:30 but it doesn't get dark in Europe till 11 pm. Needless to say, we BOOKED it to the nearest station. We were trying to put out tickets in the slot when all of them just opened up the gates and then french guards started SCREAMING in French!!!! People started RUNNING and yelling! I had NO idea what was going on, I thought it was a bomb or something. They shoved us onto the nearest train! It was beyond packed. I mean mosh pit times 10! That was the last train leaving for the night, that's why they were screaming. We went the wrong direction and had to get off at the next stop. There were people screaming in all sorts of languages on the train and some dude speaking French in my ear , I was clueless. I knew we'd end up at our hotel one way or another. I mean we did walk 3 miles in London so I wasn't too concerned about the outcome, I just needed to stick with the group because I had no idea which platform to get off at. I wont lie. I said "this is probably what the Jews felt like in those cattle trains." It was so cramped. In the end we made it home, other people that went out didnt make it to the train station in time and didn't get home til after 1am. Our hotel was pretty far out and they didn't want to drive all that way!</p>
<p>I packed my bags (our room was comparable to the inside of my car. A freaking wreck.) And took a longggggg shower. The only tv show in English was Dr. Who. (Wtf, that show is sooooooooo weird. Its like a soap opera for nerds. And yet I watched two episodes. Haha no wonder French people think we are crazy, they watch that rubbish and assume we all like it!!</p>
<p>Paris turned out to be beautiful, the streets and away from the heart of the city is pretty dirty tho.. I was surprised by how much it reminds me of Cleveland (the outskirts) I had a wonderful time though!!</p>
<p>(Random side note - people aren't as horribly rude as we make them out to be., you do need to try and speak the language.. just say hello! They grasp I'm American just by my hello and I've always been greeted by a smile and they usually laugh at my horrible accent.. its just like how we bitch when people from other countries need to justttt learn English bla bla bla.. its just a courtesy to show that we are trying) </p>
<p>So that leads us to right now.. we boarded the bus at 9 am. We will get to Switzerland around 6 or 7 pm when hopefully I will be able to post this!<br>
</p>

The Cabaret

First let me say, I really had no idea what to expect at the Cabaret... it was phenomenal though!!!!!!!!!! It was one of our best nights here, hands down! The place was called Le Nouvelle Eve. It is just like Moulin Rouge, and was even as famous until that movie came out. So we got there early and grabbed a drink at the bar next door but French people are very very upset if you don't greet them with Bonjour before anything, and Sunny didn't really do that while trying to walk in so we had a hard time and waiting 15 minutes for our waiter to come over. On the plus side, the drinks were pretty, cheap, and it was happy hour for students so we got a free shot too!!

So WHILE we were waiting in line to get into the Cabaret, we ran into our awesome Tour Guide from London! The inside was sooooooo cool! It was packed with people our age and really fancy looking waiters. We had a free glass of Champagne and ended up in the front row! Their were probably 20 or so ladies with a main singer and four guys on stage dancing. They were soooo well cooridanted,&amp;nbsp; and had wonderful acts. It was a lot like the Burlesque movie but with old school dresses too. THEN there were three side acts. The first was two brother who juggled EVERYTHING. Omg. I've been to the circus, they beat it by 50000! Like they were switching places while throwing each other hats and juggling things together at the sameeee time!!!!!! I can't even explain how good it was. We couldnt take photos of the acts unfortunately.. tsoooo during the second side act they needed someone and Stjepan (the Croatian from our group) was picked !!!!! WE WERE LAUGHING SOOOOOOOO HARD WE PROBABLY HAD TEARS!!!!!!!! omg. He almost FELL off the stage! Look at a photo(I will upload one with w caption of everyone's names ) so you can fully appreciate why this is SO funny. The performer was an old guy who was balding and looked pretty sketchy, he came out on stage wearing a dalfy duck shirt with a suit. He kept saying in a thick accent "I am acrobat" then he had Stjepan dance around a little and help him with his act.. the guy was balancing on a board on top of a ball on this huge podium thing and he began to fall so Stjepan tried to help and inadvertently shoved him off and set him flying HAHAHAHAH. we were cheering so loud and laughing so hard! The last act WA some creepy guy that looked like he had two heads and the took both of them off!it was a mind fuck! So when the girls came out without a shirt on I got so confused I like grasped Jelena's leg with fear and confusion lol I was like oh Lord! I didnt realize! All and all it was on of the best group activities we went to, we cheered sooo loudly for the Guy who went on stage from USA, we were boo-ed from everyone else haha

Land of the FREE and tidbits about Europe as a whole

Allllll the free things we miss about America :
Free ice in the hotel
Free water at restaurants
Free wifi
Free public restrooms
Free ketchup
Free towels
Free smiles (at Wendy's!) People just don't like to smile in the sidewalks
Free salt and pepper
Free calling in the city from the hotel
Free refills
Free toiletries in the hotels

Cheap pop

People have no concept of a line, waiting in line, or patience. They see a line for something and quickly walk past and try to CUT the person up front (That's me) (after waiting 20 minutes) so they are greeted by a  " HELLO. No. Not gunna happen. "

They use commas instead of periods with prices for example : $2.59 they would have it 2,59

They like to play awesome dubstep, disco, Indie, and high energy music starting at the crack of dawn on the radio.. basically I am alllll riled up and dancing on the bus. Its entertaining.

Belgium and Paris

Had delicious waffles for only 3 euros! Except they were sooo full of sugar I almost got sick ...I bought chocolates for the fam but didn't try any.. not much of a chocolate fan. All of the builidungs are very Art Deco / nouveau (beautiful)&amp;nbsp; and did you know that the European Parliament is based out of Belgium!?? I didn't!
There are statutes of little boys peeing EVERYWHERE. the story goes that during the war a spark caught near a large stock pile of ammo and gun powder and this little boy saw it.. so he called for help, but nobody came.. so he whipped out his little wee wee and per on it .. saving the country! Haazah!
I got a sweeeet ass t shirt with headphones, the cord spells out Belgium and some other fun things (I don't want to ruin surprises )
Sooo then we drove in to Paris, I finished half of my "Last 7 months of Anne Frank" book ... and had a horrible kink in my neck from falling asleep on the bus, we all look like we are doing yoga with these absurd poses in our seats...

They drive on the right side of the road! Who knew!&amp;nbsp; (57% of people in Paris do not own a car..)
So we arrived and our hotel is nice, (ohhhhhh I forgot to mention, in Amsterdam our hostel was... a hostel. And I wasn't entirely fond. Breakfast sucked. I got bug bites, but I didn't have to share a bed! We each had a bunk bed.) Anyway.. the bed in Paris could also be called a rock. Or a piece of slate, but aesthetically its pleasing, and that's all Parisians care about. We went to Sacre Couere and made our way to a local piano bar. 5 freaking euros for a sprite!!!!!!!! When I asked for a lemonade. They hated our French attempts. The city is beautiful at night. Its not what I imagined tho... like in certain parts there little cafes and small cobblestone roads.. but a large part of Paris is dirty and ... well not friendly looking.. we are going more into the city tomorrow, so maybe that will change. We had a sightseeing tour today, our tour guide called Madonna the Queen of America. They love here. I laughed. I we drove past the Love lock bridge, the Eiffel tower, the louvre,&nbsp; musee Rodin, Champs Elysses, the Opera Palace, the old Texas Embassay, lots of Gucci and Chanel stores! He explained the difference between high fashion and ready to wear.. high fashion is like Lady GaGa wearing a dress for one night, ready to wear is like Gucci making 600 copies of the same dress. I went to find a potty and ended up roughly asking a French guard " Out est les toillettes?" He giggled. And replied in English where I was to go.. I laughed and said I know I sound stupid, and apologized.. on my way back he smiled and winked, I was glad he didn't hate me atleast lol.. I figured out that I was suppose to say "Ou sont les toilettes? Instead.. 

Then we took the metro, then the train (which is not as nice as the underground, and not as clean) to get to Versailles.
It was suppppper crowded. It was beautifullllllllll tho!! Sooooo glamerous, all sorts of things painted in gold and silver! It was really awesome learning about all the mistresses and lovers of all the kings and quuens, and the importance of having a male heir. I also learned a lot about the Polish Queen who married King Louis the.... 13th maybe... they all had crazy wigs and even crazier corsettes! Having a blonde wig was hard to get because most French are brunettes, and the younger the hair (from a teen)  the more expensive.. hair from a dead person was myth to bring bad luck, but poor people had to do it.. Did you know to be bald was a sign of being uneducated... All and all Versailles was beautiful, the hall of mirrors was lovely, the mirrors were dirty tho lol.

I'm a little put off by all the scary guys trying to force me into buying crappy plastic Eiffel Towers, and hoe expensive everything is!!.. hopefully I'll get to see a more romantic side of Paris on our Seine Cruise tomorrow and our 4 course meal with unlimited wine :)

Off to the Cabaret tonight!! Gotta go get all dolled up!

The boat ride over to Amsterdam

Soooo we boarded this super huge freakin boat and I was lucky enough to get a little jail cell to myself ...it wasn't thatttttt small but I took the longest shower of my life probably!! There was a BASKETBALL COURT, a theatre, atleast three bars that I saw, a 'living room' ' quiet area, lounge,and place to buy a Rolex. Ha. The food was expensive and they made us even pay for ketchup!! However in the AM they gave out free sprinkles for your toast!?? I took 2 boxes for Will and Char to try! Uhm.... the internet was sketchy but I never got sea sick so that's a good pay off. I stuck my head in a garbage can :( because they dressed it up like a penguin so i got confused... that's all I can remember

The cruise!

I'll have to explain the cruise, I forgot.. but here are the photos :
A mock of the boat (I told Tasha to either smile or get out of the way.. she chose to smile haha ) , the inside of the ship.. I swear it was like the Titanic,  a BASKETBALL COURT on the deck, uhm... re-enacting the Titanic, and.. a penguin .. I thought he was super cool so I wanted to see what was inside... it was a garbage can. No go :/

Random stuff in Amsterdam

The huge letters! Some Grafitti, a crazy light post and the grim reaper in Dam Square

AMSTERDAM

Alrighhttttt Amsterdam ...
So on the bus ride into Amsterdam Andrew explained a little about the red light district ... Amsterdam was a large trading area and there was a nice mix of Protestants and Catholics, so people became pretty tolerant of others beliefs. It is not acceptable to walk down the street high as a kite.. but you are accepted with whatever you choose to do in your own time, behind closed doors per say and as long as it doesn't directly infringe on my own rights. The Dutch were actually a huge power in the world, they even beat the English Navy.. they gave the Brits 'new Amsterdam' or our day New York in exchange for islands that housed nutmeg. Poor choice but at the time spices were more powerful than gold.
So.. prostitution is a trade here.. majority wise, people choose to practice.. I highly doubt that every circumstance is peachy keen but they say as a whole...oddly enough, real estate and retail in the red light district is very expensive.. and hard drug abuse isn't as outrageous as one would think.. I suppose because people grow up with light drugs being okay and they learn moderation or grow out of it.. and there examples like Needle Park where addicts go to get clean needles so kids see it and don't want to end up that way .. class A drugs are illegal. And everything is taxed!

So the house are super super slim! They were taxed on width but not depth of houses! There are hooks connected to the tops of the houses near the roofs where a pull is connected. so things like couches and stuff can be hoisted up thru a large window because hallways are so narrow!!!!

The roadways are NUTS!!!!!! I ALMOST GOT RAN OVER BY A TRAM. It was by the grace of God I didn't. Bicycles have the right away (by the way bicycles are EVERYWHERE OMG I CANT EVEN EXPLAIN HOW MANY THERE ARE.fact there are more bikes than people in the city. It is the major form of transport) the stupid trams are set up on the road, even tho their tracks are cut into the road.. then the car just drive right over it. And AND they can just drive right on up the sidewalks!!!!!!  Like the road is the same brick color as the street and you can be walking down and have to dodge a motorcycle, bicycle,  car, and tram coming every which way at you!!!!! Insane. There are also a poop ton of boat houses everywhere along the canals.  Tons.

Windmills in the country are like social housing in London. They're really sought after too.. you can live in one for free as long as you maintain them...they're huge! And also I searched for a leiderhosen (spelling?) Outfit for William hahahah. But I couldn't find one :( they sell those wooder clogs everywhere tho!

Soooo we went to Anne Frank's house this morning... it was very moving...I can't say I had a very accurate vision of the Annex.. it was very interesting.. I completely forgot that they had a moveable bookcase that hid the stairway to the annex! There was reallllly old pictures of Royalty and writers and movie stars in Anne Franks's room.. I think one of the most powerful quotes was by Otto Frank after the War ended
"We cannot change what happened anymore. The only thing we can do is learn from the past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people means. I believe that it's everyone's responsibility to fight prejudice." I bought a book qboutnthe 7 ,months after Anne frank was captured. I got William a comic type book of Anne Frank's diary, in hopes he'll actually read it haha. And 3 postcards of pictures of the Annex.

I'm still sick so I slept instead of going on the bar crawl... I heard they played Call Me Maybe 4+ times, bummmmmmed I missed it hahah!!!!

Amsterdam photos!

The waterways of Amsterdam, I have heard countless times how the Dutch are masters of reclaiming land from the sea
Us at Dam square
A Heineken cart!
Bicycles galore! Its like the Tour de France puked on Amsterdam I swear!!!
I thinkkkk that building is their government building.. I could be very wrong lol

More from London

Just trying to make it to Hogwartz!
The Olympic Rings
More of the shoreline
Statue from Piccadilly Circus!

Photos of London

London shoreline, experimenting with my selective color option on my camera haha, and the children sign is actually where the Mayflower left for America!! How cool!