Guten morgen, buongiorno and bonjour. I’m on the last leg of my 18-day European Encounter tour. For those who missed my column last week (shame on you!), I’ve been traveling around Europe for the past couple of weeks with the youth-oriented, STA-approved Contiki tour group.
Shortly, you’ll hear me unjustly whining about normal college stuff when I study at Oxford Brookes. But for now, I will continue with my travel guide/epic tale.
Kati, my guest commentator and roommate surely is raking in the cash.
Including this week, I have paid her a grand total of 3 euros to put toward her daily McDonalds Happy Meals.
Chapter 4: Austria, Schnopps Happens. We didn’t climb every mountain, but we definitely yodeled to “The Sound of Music” soundtrack on the bus ride up. Here, we spent the day at the Swarvoski crystal store in Innsbruck. Kati says: I wish we’d stayed in Switzerland. There are no kangaroos in Austria.
Chapter 5: When in Rome.
In Venice, we sat in awe as a man blew a glass horse in less than five minutes (dirty!), and we bartered for scarves and T-shirts at the local market. I found the new staple of my diet, gelato, which is Italian for ice cream.
The gondolier scolded my new friend Claire in Italian because she nearly tipped the gondola.
My two days in Rome played out exactly like my favorite movie, “Roman Holiday.” I sat by the Trevi fountain, ate my third gelato on the Spanish Steps and was romanced by a young Gregory Peck. The extreme heat, however, may be contributing to some sort of delusion.
I was in Florence for the commencement of the two-day extravaganza known as My 21st Birthday. I began by dropping a lot of euros on Florentine leather products and devouring my fourth gelato. Later that night we danced to 50 Cent at the space electronic disco because we “partied like it was my birthday.”
Kati says: The Sistine Chapel was amazing and smelled like a sweaty museum. We also trekked up the 349 stairs of St. Peter’s Basilica, home of the Pope. Too bad we got winded after 40 steps.
Chapter 6: Vive la France
Day 2 of the birthday hoopla included pictures at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and eating my fifth and final gelato. I lost 30 euros in 15 minutes at the Monte Carlo casino before crashing at the hotel on the French Riviera. I am pretty certain that all my birthdays will be downhill from here, as I will be over the said hill.
Nice is nice, but Cannes is better, as the beach wasn’t man-made and fortified with rocks. I discovered the French version of gelato, glace. Several of the male travelers discovered that European chicks like to sunbathe topless.
Kati says: When I win the lottery, I will buy a $2 million citizenship to Monaco and a yacht with helicopter.
Next stop, Paris. Au revoir, y’all.