The Tour is Over =(

"Travel is only glamorous in retrospect" Paul Theroux

So...the tour part of my trip is officially over and the traveling to see old friends has begun. We ended the tour with Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and of course Amsterdam.

Prague I actually saw very little of because I was working most the day, but the shopping was nice and the bars were appropriately irresponsible with their serving, as they do in Europe, so it was pretty cool. I was impressed with the glass, it reminded me of Venice, and my name was on all the jewelry signs so yey me. Never made it to the castle but I got some great pics of it at night from the outside.

Stopping in Dresden was cool, tried to find a doll so I could bring back a Dresden Doll (band reference for those of you not familiar) but the best I could do was a little wooden man on a string. Close enough I'd say. The leaves were so pretty here, all the colors of fall with a nice lake in the background. It was a peaceful place to have lunch.

Berlin is tied for my top 3 cities visited. It isn't overly glamorous or pretty but it has such compelling history and you can just feel the importance of it. I learned so much about WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as Nazi Germany ect. that I never knew before. The view from the hostel was amazing, you could see the whole city. Did a TON of shopping there as well, we had a bit of a girls day after an amazing German lunch and gigantic beer. Definitely one of the more memorable places.

Amsterdam was very bittersweet. I had been waiting the whole trip to get there and had big plans for my time there, but at the same time it also meant the 38 of us (41 with our awesome crew) would no longer be together every day. We stopped in a city outside of Amsterdam and learned how clogs and cheese are made. F'n random. Once in the city, we of course did all the things you would do in Amsterdam. Bike tour, museums, coffee shops, tattoos, red light district, bars, street vendor food...the list goes on. The last night we all had an amazing dinner and went on a cruise through the canals. The morning everyone left there were some tears, mostly mine, but we were happy to see that 8 of us were staying Amsterdam so we had each other for a bit longer to continue the craziness. My official take is this place is amazing and I'd stay for a month if I could!

Off to France today and then Belgium next week for Thanksgiving!

<3>

When in Rome...and Verona, and Venice, and Prauge =P

Week two was just as crazy as week one!

The end of Florence was fun, never really made it out of the hostel between work and partying, but did go to a kareoke bar and drank wine on the steps with a local until all hours of the night.

Rome overall was a huge let down. Spent the whole trip saying "when in Rome..." just to be like wow Rome sucks. It was cool to go to the coloseum for sure, and there is a ton of history there. It was hailing when we went on our walking tour so that may have affected my opinion a bit. Got to drink out of the Trevi fountain which apparenty gives you your virginity back...bonus!

Verona was a cool suprise, we got to go to the balcony of Romeo and Juliet. I hadn't ever really put it together that it was a real place.

Venice may be my favorite place so far, which was great since the rest of Italy wasn't nearly as awesome as I had imagined it would be. The gondola ride was SO much fun and the water front lunch was amazing. The glass in Venice really caught my eye. They are also apparently famous for lace and leather which made for some overall good shopping ;)

Made our way to Austria which had a beautiful countryside and mountains. Went to a concentration camp which was really sobering. It was a good reality check that these places are amazing, but they have a history behind them that shouldn't be forgotten any time soon.

Each day keeps suprizing me, everything I thought I'd love I haven't really, and the things I thought didn't matter to me that much have me in awe. GREAT TRIP SO FAR!!!!

Love you all,
Team America

What a Week!

Holy crap it's been a crazy week! So far I've been to London, Paris, Nice, Switzerland, Pisa, Florence, and Monaco. I have 38 people on my tour and at least 30 of them are from Austrailia so it's a bit of an Australian holiday for me, which I love because I've always wanted to live there. I am the only one from the states so I am officially nicknamed Team USA. There is also quite a bit of "America...FUCK YEAH!" going on.

Of course when I first arrived I had no bags, they were lost somewhere in the US for 5 days =( All I had were the clothes I was wearing and a bunch of rolling stone magazines, not exactly the essentials lol. I made the decision to not let it bother me and to just make the best of it and it was actually fine and will make for a hell of story I'm sure. The only major dissapointment is the lack of pictures in the first 3 countries, but I suppose it gives me an excuse to come back.

It was a holiday in Paris the day I was authorized to buy clothes by my insurance so all the major stores were closed, everything I owned for the next 3 days said Paris on it in some way or another because all I could find was a tourist stand =P As you can imagine it's become a running joke in the group.

As of now I never want to come home but I do assume after 3 more weeks of living out of a backpack and spending every other day on a bus I'll eventually be ready...I just can't imagine it now!

Love you all!

<3 Team USA