Eurotour Part 1

 My Yule Log Birthday Cake

Less than two weeks. This feels so weird!! It's all going by increasingly quickly and I'm mentally preparing myself for going back to the States. I know I haven't been very good about writing in this blog lately, and I feel kind of bad because we don't have very many more entries together. So, against my host family's pool and hammock wishes, I am devoting some of my time this afternoon to all of you.

First (and biggest) thing you need to be caught up on is my bus trip throughout Europe. It was one of the most amazing and fast-paced vacations I've ever had, and I got so many great memories out of it (most of them relating to food). We visited Paris, Reims, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Prague, Vienna, Lido de Jesolo, Venice, Milan, Chamonix, and Geneva.

The places that left the strongest impressions were Nuremberg, Prague, Vienna, Lido de Jesolo, Milan. Nuremberg wasn't a very pretty city, but the atmosphere made it stand out. We visited the huge, idealistic Nazi center and propaganda stadiums were Hitler was stationed. That was remarkable in itself, but what made it really rememberable was the rock festival that was held there when we visited June 3. There were hundreds of rebels that were drunk, drugged, and decked out in black prowling the Nazi grounds, and it was one of those visions you don't forget.

Prague was a beautiful, medieval city and I guess I would say the medieval-ness made it stand out. Prague has a one of the largest center-city areas in Europe, and between the castles, cathedrals, bridges, clock towers, and little bugle men blowing their trumpets every hour, you felt like you were in a fairy tale. And who doesn't want to live in a fairy tale?

Vienna was another really impressive city. We weren't there for long, but there were three things that I really loved about it:
1. The architecture - The buildings were so gorgeous and the palace was ridiculously big and impressive. The cathedral was also one of my favorites.
2. The history - I love all the music history here with all the waltzes and famous composers and royal balls, and it makes me wish I could take a step back in time, find a prince, dress up for a ball and dance to the Blue Danube.
3. The ferris wheel - I went on it, my Dad went on it when he was a youngin', and the contestants on the Amazing Race went on it a couple of years ago. Since I am going to win the Amazing Race in a few years, I just thought it was a fitting connection.

Lido de Jesolo is an island with a beautiful beach on the Adriatic. 'Nuf said.

Milan had the most amazing risotto ever so of course it stood out among the rest.

I spent all of my time with Pruthvi and we had so much fun together. Since we never get to see each other, we made the most of our time and cried and hugged and laughed and all that good stuff. It was terrible to say good-bye because it will probably be a long time until the next time we meet, but life is life and you can't do much about it.

Now I'm back in good 'ole Chomérac, soaking up the sun by the pool, sleeping in late, and trying to make sense out of the end of this year. I had my choir concerts this weekend and I celebrated my birthday yesterday. I finally got my Yule log cake (!) that I had been waiting for ever since I found out that I was going to France, and it surpassed all of my expectations.

It took me way too long to write this post because I decided to listen to the Hair soundtrack at the same time. Because I know every word to every song, I was mostly just having a sing-a-long by myself and I wrote one or two sentences in-between each song. I couldn't even skip a song because they're all just so amazing. In addition to that, I had my little host doggy cuddled up beside me the whole time, so we had a little photo shoot together. Now that I have spent a sufficient part of my afternoon on this post and/or being distracted by the best musical of all time, I'll say goodbye for now!

Oh wait, one more thing - I'm going to upload another blog right after this with some of my pictures from the Eurotour. This one's already getting kind of long, so hold tight, and I'll keep em coming.