Category: Europe

Posted on

Finally Home

Spent another almost 24 hours traveling home, though on paper it only looks like 9. It was an amazing but exhausting trip, but if I wasn’t tired then I wouldn’t have done as much so it’s all worth it. I’m definitely glad I got to do all the touristy stuff that everyone dreams of doing, especially with some tour guides that could make the experience more meaningful, but I would like to go back to see the not as populated places. But it’s also cool at the tourist spots to see the different cultures from all over the world that are also there.

*Here’s a vlog that I made about the trip:

Posted on

Starting Our Way Home

We didn’t have to leave until after 10 today which was very nice, then we flew back into Frankfurt and spent the rest of the day in a hotel near there. Finally got to fulfill dream of riding in a double decker bus since one picked us up from the airport to take us to the hotel!

Posted on

Cruise

Set out for our day cruise today where we laid out on the front of the boat soaking in the sun. On the first island, Aegina, there was a beach near the port so a bunch of us went swimming for about an hour and a half or so which was really fun. It seemed that there was more time spent on the boat to get to the other islands – Hydra and Poros – than there was actually on the islands, but we at least got to wander around a little bit. On Poros there were lots of cats and donkeys which were pretty fun to see. On the about 3 hour long boat ride back to Athens, I lathered on sunscreen in hopes that eventually I might tan a little bit, but even after many reapplications, I got so burned :(. It was a really fun day though, and when we got back we walked around in the rain to get another gyro.

Posted on

Exploring Athens

We had a great breakfast this morning, there was actually normal Greek food instead of just soggy hotel eggs and such. We went up to the Acropolis which was really cool, and we had a great tour guide, Thanos. He was very informative and interesting, and talked a lot about things that weren’t necessarily related to exactly where we were or what we were doing, but more about Greek life and traditions and such. From the Acropolis we could see an ancient theatre which was really huge and cool. We also got to see Mars Hill where Paul gave a speech that’s in the Bible. Thanos took us on a walking and bus tour where we also saw the first modern Olympic stadium, a statue of Harry Truman (thanks to Mrs. King I actually remember the Truman Doctrine), and the grave of the unknown soldier. Our guide was talking about how Lord Byron loved it here and was buried here; this stuck out to me because we visited his castle in Switzerland, and I really enjoy being able to learn about and see these connections across different places. We went out to dinner and got a really delicious cheese ball (reminds me of the hunk a chunka cheese I got in Mexico) and there was a band playing traditional Greek music the whole night. Halfway through dinner a few dancers came out and started folk dancing, and then later they brought up some people (including me) to dance with them. It was a really fun night, and now I can brag to the theatre company about being a part of a real oppa.

Posted on

Off to Greece

Had to say goodbye to most of the peeps I’ve been hanging out with for the past 2 weeks which was kind of a bummer, but I’m super stoked to go to Greece so it’s ok. It’s really strange, I’ve been able to sleep really well on the coach whenever everyone else is awake and talking, but now that everyone’s asleep and it’s silent, I can’t sleep.

The Acropolis museum was very cool; it astounds me 1) how they are able to find all this stuff and 2) how they are able to piece it all together. There were lots of statues of Nike, whom we saw the big statue of in the Louvre. We got a Greek buffet for dinner which was very good – they put some kind of dressing on the cucumbers that made me actually enjoy them, and there was this pastry thing that I have no idea what was in it, but it was very good. Then a couple of us wandered around Athens just exploring. There’s someone playing some type of instrument on basically every corner, and it’s Greek music which makes the situation even cooler.

Posted on

Exploring Rothenburg

We had a very free day today, and we had done a lot last night already, so we just walked around all the shops. We visited the Christmas shop which was actually pretty cool. We had our last concert in the square and then after dinner we played exploding kittens in our fancy balcony. Since it’s most people’s last night in Europe, we had a celebration thing where we all just gathered together to watch the slideshow from all the bus cameras.

Posted on

Drive to Rothenburg

On our way to Rothenburg, Germany, we made a stop at the Dachau Concentration Camp. It definitely gives you a different perspective actually being over where the war was fought and seeing the places from it rather than just hearing about it or watching videos in history class. I think I also got something more out of it after learning more about the Holocaust from the play And A Child Shall Lead.

Rothenburg is a really quaint town; it still has its medieval feel to it, especially with its surrounding wall and towers. We took a night watchman tour, and the guy was pretty funny and made it really interesting to learn about the history of the town. Then we walked along the top of the tower wall which was really cool.

Posted on

Venice

Drove like 5 hours to get to Venice, Italy, and we only got to spend a few hours there in the very hot weather, but it was still fun. There are no cars there and has around 340 bridges connecting the 180 islands that it’s made out of, so it has a lot of small alleys to walk through, and they’ve had to put tiny bridges in between some of the buildings so that they wouldn’t squish together. Saw and sung (shoutout to Little Women) in front of the Bridge of Sighs, got some gelato and pizza, and saw the choir perform in the St. Marks cathedral. We also saw a glass making demonstration that was really cool. We had another 5 hour drive back, and got our first bad  weather driving through the rain.

Posted on

Innsbruck

We went to the Wilten Basilica and the choir got to sing in there. Then we went to the Olympic ski jump place (the Olympics have been held here twice) and actually got to see someone jump which was really cool. In town, we saw the golden roof and looked around Swarvsky in which there is a exhibit of everyday items like cereal and laundry detergent covered in jewels. We also got an Austrian apple strudel. We came back to the hotel pretty early, so we played cards before going to our concert.

Posted on

Lichtenstein & Austria

Drove about 3 hours to get to Lichtenstein from Crans-Montana, which is only about 14 miles long and 4 miles across. We had a couple more hours to drive to Austria, but the trip was quite entertaining because, little did we know, the German word for exit is Ausfahrt. The town of Seefeld is very quaint and cute and so we explored it a little before dinner, and after dinner we went to the Olympic sized pool and hung out.