EUROPE BABY!

Contiki Day 8

2009-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

This morning when we woke up our tents were LOCKED... some of the boys from the concept tour that we were paralleling thought it would be funny to cable tie our zips together... and it would have been, if i hadnt needed to pee so badly.
Today we took a quick drive to Nice. While some of the contiki gorup went to watch australia get beat in the rugby, others went to the beach. Grace and I spent the day in the sun, and got a little (or a lot) burnt. The beach was beautiful! First we went with Nan and Gran to a lookout, the view was amazing... but the cable car was broken so we had to climb our way up.
Then we had lunch on one of the back streets before heading off to the beach. After a few hours here we went back to the campsite to get ready for our night out in Monaco.
On the way out we each put in €1 and picked a number. Mine was 22, Grace picked 18. I WON! I got an extra €30 odd to spend at the casino.... I only spent €15 and didnt win a thing. After this we headed back to the campsight for an early-ish night.

Contiki Day 7

2009-10-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today we traveled to the Antibes, on the French Riviera. On our way we visited Arles, a small, old french town once occupied by the romans. When we arrived in Antibes we set up camp and then went down to the beach- by this time it was night. On our way back to camp we stoped at Antibesland, a theme park down the road from our campsight. then we headed back to camp for an earlz night.

Contiki Day 6

2009-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

BARCELONA

Today we lernt why not to trust street preformers.

We started the day with a quick city tour where we got to see the Olympic arena´s followed by a tour of the Gothic quarter and a visit to the "Sangrada Familia". After this we had free time to explore the "La Rambla", Barcelona´s cuba street. We decided to spend today with our new friends, Jane, Cat and Cherie. Jane and I possed with an odd looking street preformer while another one almost knocked Grace out with his cardboard sword. As we continued to explore the street we saw some people playing a game agents the street preformer, the one where you guess which matchbox the ball in under. While Grace, Jane and Iwere looking in a souvinere shop, Cat and Cherie decided to play this game..... STUPID idea. €200 later... they decided to stop.

That night we went to the Flamenco evening- here we got to drink more sangria and watch, and join-in in some flamenco dancing. After this we experanced some of Barcelonas nightlife.

Contiki Day 5

2009-10-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today we traveled to the wounderful city of Barcelona. On our way from Lyon we stoped at the Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard. The wounderful blue sky made an awesome backdrop to thís amazing ancient building. From here we carried on to Barcelona and sangria (or sanguini as it came to be knowen). Tonight we spent bonding with some of the other contiki travelers.

Contiki Day 4

2009-10-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

Today we traveled from Paris to Lyon, where we stoped at the "Chateau de Cruix" in the Beaujlais region of France. Here we got to sample some of the local wine and relax by the chateau´s pool. From here we carried on to our campsite just outside of Lyon where we spent the night singing campfire songs. The view of the city was amazing.

Contiki day 3

2009-09-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Today we had free time in Paris again. We caught a bus to the metro station and then spent the day traveling on the metro around Paris.
First we went to see the Catacombs, which were suppose to be really cool. However when we got there they were closed :( So we went off to Notre Dame with Jane and Cherie and saw the amazing stained glass windows and gargoyles there. Then we checked out some of the touristy shops around the area. After this we went to the Arch de Triomphe. The round about that it is located in is AMAZING... there are NO rules and it was crazy to watch (and drive in on our tour earlier in the trip). Then we made our way down to the Louve to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. After this we grabbed a drink from Starbucks and headed back to camp. The weather was so amazing all three days in Paris but it took alot out of us.

Contkti Day 2:

2009-08-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

After dishes duty etc, we headed on a 30min bus ride to the Versaillies palace. The lines were sooo massive and we didnt have a whole lot of time there so we didnt go in. we did take photos of the golden gates outside though which were really cool. Afetr walking around the streets and market we meet back at the bus and headed back to Paris. We got off at the eiffle tower. The line wasnt as bad as we thought it would be, we only had to wait about an hour or so to get up to the 2nd floor. To go to the top we had to buy tickets on the 2nd floor. When we got there the ticket place was closed so we thought we must have to wait in the other line and buy them at the elivators. After waiting in this line for about 30min we were then told we had to wait for the ticket thing to open which could be another 2 hours., but luckly it opened in about 20mins and we got to the top real fast. After all that waiting we only spent about 10mins up there taking photos before climpbing back to the bottom. We got french fries for lunch at the bottom.
After finiding some french shoes for Kayla we met the bus bacj at the Louve and got changed on the bus into our nice outfits (when we were all sweaty and disgusting) and went to a french restarant for dinner and the to the cabereigh.
We got free champagine at the cabereigh and on the bus home everyone was really loud, it was pretty funny.

CONTIKI day 1

2009-08-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today we left for Paris!

We took the ferry from the white cliffs of dover over to France. Then we drove for 5hours, maybe, to Paris. Then we set up camp, V, one of the contiki reps at the campsight had snails for us to try... they wernt too bad... grace wouldnt try it though! After this we went on bus tour though Paris, where Stu, our tour manager, pointed out the main sights for us to visit. During the tour we stopped at the Eiffel tour and drank champagne beneath it.

Then we went back to camp sight.

Our tour crew is
Stu, our tour Manager.... he is super cool.
Cam, our mobile cook... hes super good at christoph's accent!
Christoph, our driver...hes polish

They are all pritty cool!

our tour buiddies consist of
14 Kiwi
18 Aussies
2 USA
1 Mexico
1 Japan

or somthing like that!
they are all really nice.
and its unusual to have soo many kiwis which is cool.

Day 5

2009-08-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today we didn't get up to too much. we went to the laundry mat and did some washing. After this we went off to find the contiki meeting point. There was a sign that said

"take the elevators only use stairs in emergency"

so grace decided we would take the stairs.... 175sairs later steep as hell. we got to the top.... grace is never making decisions like that again

then we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon before we had our second pub food and went to the contiki meeting.

Paris. (and Lyon at night)

2009-08-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Photos

2009-08-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Photos from our trip to Oxford

photos!!!!

2009-08-14T06:51:00.001-07:00

photos from London!!

Day 4:

2009-08-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Woke up early, due to the rush hour traffic outside the window! once it had died down we had another nap befoe getting up for breakfast. After breaky we headed to Kensington Gardens and looked at the ALbert Memorial, Princess Diana fountain, Itallian Fountain and Peter Pan Statue. We spent about 2 hours walking around the park. We also saw SQUIRLES!!! they were so cute!!! we took lots of photos!!! After our walk we headed back to the hotel for a nap before going out 4 lunch and to meet Rose! We went with Rose to Oxford st which is really long and lined with lots of huge shopes! like Lampton Quay but a million times bigger and better!!! we then caught the tube to Marble Arch so Rose could show us Primax! its a huuuuge teenage gril shop that is soo massive!!! it would be like the size of Farmers and No1 shoes put together!!! We then caught the tube home and had a rest before heading to Kings Head pub for tea! it wasnt very good but we got our first drinks since weve been here! Vodka and Lemonade! Now we are writing this before heading back to the hotel for bed.

the start!

2009-08-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hiii!

Day 1: Smelly around london. was pretty sucky! got in at 2 (we got to leave our bags here when we arrived at like 6) and slept until about 1am when we woke up hungry but cudnt go get somtething to eat so went back to sleep.

Day 2: BIG BUS TOUR!! was AMAZING! took us right around London to all the sites! was awsum we then went to hyde park where we had mcdonalds lol its a massive park! and then to trafalgar square then to the national gallery and saw the huuuuge and impressive art works! lol and then we went and saw west minster abby and big ben, not inside just right up close outside, then to eye. We waited in the huuuuuge long like for about 10mins in the boiling heat! Then we were told he hadta go get out tickets changed for diff ones! we got so mad that we left and decided to go back later. After we stormed off lol we went round on the bus to the tower bridge and the london tower and then hoped on a boat that took us back by the eye. The line was faaaarrrr shorter at 7pm and so we hopped on after waiting only like 15mins. It was amazing! the day was so clear so we got heeeaps of photos! it was moin!! after this we went home and got there about 9.00pish we then got ready to go out for tea at an english pub. We then walked to find a nice one but by the time we got there it was 10pm and the kitchens were closed so we ended up going to KFC :(.

Day 3: Daytrip to OXFORD!! it is far different from London! seeing the english country side was awsum! and the amazing bulidings that ,ade up the campus were AMAZING!! we got heeeaps of photos! and went to a tapas bar for lunch. the bathroom was sooo cool we waited for everyone to get out so we could take photos of it hahaha. then we walked around some more and looked at the most amazing shops, which made us almost cry that we couldnt buy andything, then back to the train where we headed back to Paddington! We then went back to the hotel and got ready to go and meet Kaylas Aunt and Uncle and Cousin for dinner. It was really good, we went to an itallian restauraunt! (The waiter Adam, he was Hungarian, was awsum!!) then we caught the tube home again.