Euro tour day 8

Half way through Euro tour. It doesn't feel at all like we've been traveling for 8 days. And it's even less believable that in 8 days my time with these wonderful crazy people will be up and we'll have to say goodbye. To some of them forever. 

Today we went to the Gaudi mosaic gardens. My mom had told me about this place before Euro tour and I had looked it up on line, so I was especially looking forward to seeing it. Wow, what an amazing place. Austria is a beautiful country, but it’s a very stoic country. Spain on the other hand is so lively, with vibrant colors, clashing designs. Gaudi’s mosaics display that Spanish feel so well. Each of the tiles alone are stunning, and then broken and pieced back together creates just a whole new exciting feel. It’s kind of like a little amusement park there. After a few hours of more photo taking we headed into the city again. This time with Emilie, Evan, and Tia. We ventured through the winding side streets and found some really interesting shops including a hand-made guitar workshop where a guy was sitting inside carving a piece of wood into a guitar, and a little hipster, vintage cupcake bakery. Plus we got all our tourist shopping done! Later they headed to the beach and Emilie and I went back to the hotel to drop stuff off and rest for a bit before dinner.

After dinner they took us to see an amazing fountain show! There were tons of people gathered around the fountain and the water would light up and change direction and patterns to the music. It was so much fun. And being exchange students we of course were up on the ledge dancing and singing along at the top of our lungs. It was also a pretty emotional evening. The tears were already pouring from some people. These are some of the most amazing people I've met in my entire life. We've seen each other grow up, and been there for each other when we've needed a shoulder to lean on. We've become such a family, and though we try to ignore it, imagining having to break up that family in a week is just heartbreaking. I can tell Bregenz is going to be really hard to deal with.  

Euro tour day 7

I think we got to sleep in later today than any other so far!! We didnt have to be in the buses till nine! It was our first day in Barcelona and I was so excited to see the city! First they took us up to this huge Spanish fortress where we had an amazing view of Barcelona. The sun was shining, and there was a perfect breeze coming from the Mediterranean. This was exactly what I needed after days of rain and overcast. We then drove to this museum and took a group photo. The architecture in Barcelona is so pretty. I love that Spanish style! The museum was up on a hill and then leading down, away from it was a huge stair case lined by fountains and at the bottom a really big fountain. And we of course took tons of pictures. It's always funny after our Rotary events, when all the pictures show up on Facebook. The same photo will get posted by ten different people.
The buses dropped us off at the Columbus statue and we had free time for the rest of the day. A group and I ate lunch on an old plaza, then wandered through the old town, and did some shopping along the way. Barcelona is the stop where everyone was looking forward to the shopping. Everything was so much cheaper there. The Graz girls and I bought some matching bracelets from this little jewelry boutique.
Everyone in the group was itching to get to the beach. Sun, sand and water. That's really what we all payed 1,000 euros to go on Euro tour for! Finally we made it there. The water was still pretty cold, but we still went running in right away! And Lucas, being a swimmer, dived right in. Then we just chilled on the beach for a while and met this group of guys from Frankfurt. It was pretty cool to be able to chat in German with them.
Note: it’s impossible to sit on the beach without being endlessly pestered by people trying to sell you drinks, hair braids or other weird stuff. we tried to say we only speak German hoping they would stop trying to talk to us. But they switched easily over to German. Dang!

After dinner, I went back to the beach and met up with a small group there. We built a sand castle under the sinking sun, and went on a really romantic beach walk along the shore! I love Barcelona!

To see the pictures from Euro tour check out my flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saminosterreich/sets

Euro tour day 6

We had to get up and in the buses so early. Day six was mostly a driving day since we were making our way from Paris to Barcelona. But we stopped for a few hours in Andorra on the way. Andorra was kinda of a strange stop. It's its own country, but it’s so tiny, it's really just a city. Andorra is pretty much just a ski resort, but since it’s not ski season the town was pretty empty. It was also raining super hard the whole day so we spent most of our time going into shops and stuff. Since it’s such a small country, with such a stable economy they don’t have any taxes and a lot of the clothes were a lot cheaper, so was the alcohol according to Doris. which is why she also warned us there would be bag checks before getting back on the bus.

Finally, we made it to Barcelona. Already I could feel the warm weather bringing people’s moods up, especially the Latinos, who were all so happy to be in a place where they could understand everything and speak to the locals. We got our hotel and then went to dinner in the city. We didn't really have time to explore the city afterward but on the way back to the hotel after dinner William asked if we could take him to the Apple store so Lucas, Izze and I took him to the Apple store. It was giant! William was like a kid in a candy store! Apparently they don’t have an Apple store in Taiwan. Already I can tell Barcelona is going be a great city 

Eurotour day 5

I woke up from the fiasco of the night before feeling at least a bit more refreshed but ready to tackle another day in Paris. Unfortunately, our group was now one person less. One of the girls had made some bad decisions the last night, and had been sent home to Austria. 

We pretty much had free time all day. So right after breakfast I headed out with Crash, Johnny, Lucas and Emily to check out the famous Louvre museum. We spent a few hours getting lost in the underground maze of art. There are so many different halls and rooms filled with paintings, and sculptures and other unique arts. We of course visited the Mona Lisa, it’s a lot smaller than I originally thought, and a ton of the other famous pieces. We then went to the Saccre Courre, this beautiful, white church on a hill that looked over the whole city. On the way we passed this little market street and bought a small round of cheese and a fresh, still warm baguette. We sat in a park near the church enjoying our stereotypical French lunch. Below the church was a long set of stairs and this old hippie guy had set up a mic and a guitar amp there, and was playing tons of oldies for a huge crowd. It was so much fun siting on the steps swaying to the music. We also randomly met another exchange student who’s spending a year Barcelona there. The world is so small when you're a Rotary exchange student. At two Crash met up with a girl who had been his host sister earlier, and we all decided to go to this huge park in the city. On the way we passed by a really cool thrift shop and I bought a jean jacket for 5 euros! We finally got to the park and sat and chilled there for a bit. A coupple different bands were playing including a pep band which was interesting to listen to.
It was our last night in Paris and enjoyed it on an evening boat tour along the Sine. We passed under twenty-four bridges and by a few other big monuments. I actually endded up spending my last night in Paris at the police to file the theft of my wallet. Which wasn't too fun but had to be done.

All in all, J’adore Paris! It’s a crazy city , its dirty, smelly, and full of pickpockets but Paris also has a refined beauty that makes it sparkle. Literally. No wonder its called the city of love.

Euro tour: day 4

Je suis a Paris! What an incredibly beautiful city. We started the day with a bus tour through the center part of the city, and got to see and learn about a lot of the big monuments and old buildings there. We saw the Opera house where the Phantom of the Opera was made, the Court house, le Louvre, and of course the Eiffel tower! It’s actually quite surprising how different all the areas of Europe are. Paris, for example, has a lot of gold incorporated into the architecture. Many of the big, old buildings have ornate designs in gold on them or are partially plated in gold. It really makes Paris feel like a city for kings and queens. We took a few stops where we got to get out of the bus and look around for a bit. For one of the stops we took an elevator up one of the tallest buildings, and had an amazing view of the whole city. Paris is so huge! Our second stop was.... can you guess?!  Eiffel tower, of course!!! I don’t know what it is about this huge metal structure, but walking up to the plaza below the tower was such an incredible moment. Pictures never do justice the sensation of really seeing the Eiffel Tower. You can’t help but stare up at it in awe, and think, "Wow, I'm really in Paris!"

After our tour we had free time for the rest of the afternoon. Wandering around Paris is really overwhelming. A few girls and I tried to go shopping but between our lack of a map and some other problems we ended up not finding much. But still, we got to see a lot of the inner city which was really beautiful, and experience what daily life in the heart of Paris is really like. I'm a city girl, but i couldn't do that everyday. It's just so big and busy! 

We also got a bit of free time that night after dinner. A bunch of us went back to the Eiffel tower again to see it sparkle at night! I decided not to go up it since it was so expensive, but I met up with a bunch of the rest of the group and we had a little photo shoot under the tower. I'm sure we looked pretty interesting laying on the ground, trying to get the right angle, and yelling at each other how to pose. We headed back to the hotel as a massive group. Everyone was in pretty high spirits from the beauty of the city and everything. 

That's when it happened. The fact that we were all speaking English so loudly, and were so unaware of anything happening outside our perfect little exchange bubble, probably made us all really easy targets. but as I was getting onto the metro I put my hand over my bag and in a terrible second noticed the zipper was open. Someone had stolen my wallet! I got a hold of my mom right away to cancel all my cards since everything had been inside that wallet. Luckily I had left most of my money at the hotel so I only had about fifty euros stolen. The wallet part was really sad but otherwise it was a pretty amazing evening. 

J'aime Paris.