Sarah Goes to Europe!

Here are some pics from the past couple weeks!

All the girls on the Prague pub crawl!

The John Lennon wall in Prague

The giant Heineken museum/brewery in Amsterdam.

Eiffel Tower!

Jaz, Me, Caroline, Natalee, and Dana in front of the Eiffel Tower!

Arc de Triomphe.

The Louvre!

The Moulin Rouge... kinda disappointing but at least I finally got to see it my 3rd trip to Paris!

Another thing crossed off the bucket list, we toured the Paris Opera house, it was absolutely stunning! Jazmine wants to get married here. It's gorgeoussss!

The Grand Staircase in Opera Garnier! I had Phantom of the Opera songs stuck in my head for days after this!

Notre Dame!

More to come later of the French Riviera, which is absolutely gorgeous! Barcelona tomorrow!

XOXO <3

...Okay I'm a lot behind, but here's what's been going on!

When I left off we were spending our last day in Munich before going to Prague! Maybe it was all of the hype that I had heard about Prague before I got there, but I really wasn't terribly impressed. I think I may have been expecting too much. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty city, but a large percentage of it seemed a little sketchy. The John Lennon wall was one thing that was really cool and I LOVED! Also Prague had an amazing nightlife. One night we went to this really neat 5 story club, and another we did a planned out bar crawl where they lead you through the city to 5 of the coolest bars and clubs. If you're ever in Prague, make sure you go on one of the many pub crawls!

After leaving Prague we drove through Austria (which apparently makes it count as one of our 9 countries, even though we were there for 3 hours), and continued on towards Heidelberg. It was a very relaxing 2 days because we stayed out in the countryside outside of the city and there was literally nothing to do. When we did head in to the city it was a really pretty little college town. We walked through the campus of Heidelberg University and through the old city streets, even spent a little while in the college bookstore and reading for a while in the Starbucks near campus.

After Heidelberg we headed to Amsterdam. It is SUCH a cool city! It's very relaxed, a gorgeous city, and a monkey could navigate it because their public transportation is amazing. The coolest thing we did while we were there was go to the Heineken museum/brewery. It was literally the best museum ever! (Even Jazmine agrees and she hates all beer). They take you through the history, then through the entire process they go through to make beer, and then there's a ride! They teach you the technique to drinking Heineken to get the most out of it, and included in your entrance fee is free beer! I have a new found love for Heineken after that trip.

After Amsterdam we headed to Belgium. We spent a few hours during lunch time in Bruges before heading on to Brussels. Unfortunately, we didn't get much time in that city. We got in that evening, had one night in the town, and left the next morning. From what I saw I liked it, even though the area of our hotel was a little sketch. I may try and head back there at some point in my life to try and get more out of the experience.

We've now entered France and are spending 3 nights in Paris! It's already been amazing 2 days and I'm so sad that we have to leave tomorrow. Every time I come to Paris I love it a little bit more. Yesterday I finally saw the Paris Opera house and the Moulin Rouge, which I somehow had never seen before. We also took Eiffel tower pictures, started at the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs Elysees to the Louvre, and ended the day touring Notre Dame. Today we opted to skip out on the Louvre since many of us have been there before, and are spending a relaxing day shopping and seeing SATC2 before going out for a nice dinner our last night!

Tomorrow morning we're waking up ridiculously early (like 5:30 am) to hop on a train to take us to Nice in the French Riviera. Should be a gorgeous couple of days before heading to Barcelona, then back to the U.S.!

The Neuschwanstein Castle!

Hofbrauhaus!

Hofbrauhaus!

The Exterior of Hofbrauhaus.

Canals of Venice!

Venice gondolas!

View from our Gondola!

Doges Palace!

Venice was absolutely GORGEOUS!! The day started out a little rocky (AKA we got caught in a monsoon and I was convinced the city was just going to sink right there), but surprisingly enough the rain went away and turned into one of the most gorgeous days I've ever experienced. We walked through the streets, over the bridges of the canals, rode in a gondola through the city, and left no stones unturned. I only wish we had had more time there, and that the pictures could do justice to just how amazing it was.

Monday, May 31, 2010 5:00 PM (11:00 am Orlando time)

We’re in Florence! I’m way behind in blogging due to lack of internet access and time, so I’ll catch you up!

We left Corfu on a ferry to Italy and were in Rome for 3 nights. That’s definitely one of my favorite cities in Europe and even though it was the third time I’ve been there, it’s still gorgeous and breathtaking. We saw all of the tourist spots; the Vatican, the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, etc. We did a tour of Rome at night with our tour group and had an amazing time! The city lights up at night and is absolutely gorgeous!

After Rome we decided as a group we wanted to do a wine tasting so our tour guide set it up for us! We stopped in Tuscany at a Vineyard that has been owned by the same family since the 1700s and had a wine lesson and tasting. Tuscany is GORGEOUS! I’m obsessed, I could live there forever and be okay with that. I have several pictures that I’ll post when I get a chance that don’t even look real they’re so pretty.

Last night after our wine tasting we finally made it into Florence. Our hotel is a 15minute walk to the city center and Duomo, so it’s nice to be centrally located. We grabbed dinner with the 4 of us and some of our fabulous new friends and then ended up coming back and going to bed early because we were all exhausted.
This morning was a walking tour of Florence where we ran into Colleen randomly! We knew we were going to be in Florence at the same time but we didn’t have phones so I never dreamed we’d be able to see her. Such a lucky coincidence!
After the tour we grabbed lunch, did some shopping, and took a lazy afternoon to reorganize our lives! Tonight we have a bar crawl through the city and tomorrow is our last day in Florence before heading to Venice!
We had wifi for about half an hour and lost it, so photos (and this blog) will be posted as soon as we get it back!

Love and miss you all!

XOXO
Sarah

One of the many beautiful streets of Corfu town!


This random duck posted up under our umbrella on the beach for like 20 minutes til jazmine decided she didn't like him there haha.


Corfu's gorgeous beach!


Fabulous little beach bar where we spent some time, the owner/bartender loveddd Americans so she gave us all free shots. Fun times for sure!

Today was our last day in Corfu and it was an extremely long, fun, and interesting one! We're currently sitting in a ship port waiting for our ferry to Italy! More to come soon!

XOXO,
Sarah <3

A pretty little church on the coast in Patras!


A gorgeous little beach town that we drove through on our way to Corfu!


Me in front of one of Europe's largest olive tree groves! Not sure why I'm standing like a flamingo, but 10 feet behind me it drops off the cliff.


Our hotel room in Athens! Yeah, it's that tiny, I'm backed up against the door.


Me in front of the Parthenon.


Me, Jaz, and Alyza on the Acropolis in Athens!


More pictuers will be coming soon when I have more time, still haven't uploaded photos of Corfu so those will coming when I find faster wifi!

Love and miss you all!
XOXO

Sarah

Tuesday, May 25 3:39 PM (8:39 Orlando time)

Yay we eventually made it to Corfu! After sitting in the port for hourssss the boat finally arrived. The ferry was actually really nice, like a little mini cruise in the middle of our vacay. Corfu is absolutely gorgeous! We are in a little area just north of Corfu town and it’s precious. After we got in yesterday we all walked around, sat at a little tiki bar on the beach, and had a nice Greek dinner. I’ve learned that tequila shots should not be chased with a lime! What are American’s thinking? We got shots on the beach and chased it with an orange sprinkled with cinnamon and it was DELICIOUS! I’m never eating limes again.

Most people in the group are starting to get to know each other so like 30 or more of us went out last night to this Oxygen bar a couple minutes from our hotel. There are still quite a few that really keep to themselves, but I guess you’ll always have those.

The weather is perfect and we’re staying at an adorable little hotel right near the beach. There really isn’t anything historically significant about this town so we have free time the entire time we’re here. Today was spent in a lawn chair on the beach for 4 hours, followed by lunch in a cute little Greek Restaurant, and now I’m blogging and taking a nap. The only complaint that I have about their beaches is that there’s no sand... it’s all rocks and pebbles which is miserable to walk on. Other than that the water is crystal clear blue and there are blue skies and mountains in the distance.

The views are stunning, and no worries, I have pictures . Also, in the interest of saving space in my suitcase I didn’t pack sunscreen assuming I’d just get some here. Turns out that the Greeks are very proud of their sunscreen and the cheapest, tiny bottle that we could find was 9 euros (like $13). They went all the way up to like 20 euros. Crazy.

Tomorrow night we leave on another ferry for Italy! The next week will be in Rome, Florence, then Venice! Already signed up for a gondola ride in Venice! I’ve taken over 200 pictures already, and as soon as I find wifi I’ll be posting some!

Love and miss you all!
XOXO

Sarah

Sunday, May 23 11:23 PM (4:23 PM Orlando Time)

It's been a fun couple of days! We toured all of Athens yesterday, it was definitely a long and tiring day but I loved it. The Parthenon, Acropolis, and everything there was breathtaking. There are these HUGE, sketchy dogs roaming all over Athens. .
I’ve come to realize that animals we keep as pets are like rodents here. There were the giant dogs roaming all over Athens, then in Delphi there were hundreds of cats everywhere. Cute, but kind of creepy and annoying and too dirty (and probably diseased) for me to cuddle.

We went out last night to a little tavern down the road from our hotel, and it ended up that the owner was from Jersey. It was a fun atmosphere and we found the cheapest drinks of our trip so far so that was fun!

We woke up ridiculously early today to drive 5 hours to Delphi. I had never even heard of it. There's something meaningful about looking at ruins from up to 5,000 years ago. We ended up getting rained out and left Delphi early. That turned out to be a great thing because we stopped in this gorgeous little town on the water and got to walk around for a couple of hours. (Pictures of this will be posted soon!)

Tonight we were supposed to leave on our overnight ferry to Corfu at 12... so as I sit here writing it's already 11:32 and our ferry is running 2 and a half hours behind. We're sitting in the port for the next 30 minutes until they kick us out... not really sure why... but we're going to be homeless for the next 2.5 hours... I'll let you know how this pans out. We're a group of 50, including a bunch of guys, so I'm sure we'll be safe...

Since I don't have wifi I'll be posting this as soon as I do get wifi... so you should know the outcome to this situation before you have time to get worried (mom and dad).
Love you all! XOXO

Sarah

Friday, May 20. Time in Orlando: 11: 38. Time in Athens: 7:38.

So we made it to our hotel in Athens! It's nice enough but our room is tinyyy and they have 2 beds and 2 cots set up for us. We all took a nap and a shower (in approximately a 2' x 2' shower in which the shower head wasn't attached to the wall). I look forward to taking a shower in which i can have 2 hands to wash my hair and not worry about holding up the shower head.

We're still fighting off the exhaustion so we can fix our sleep schedules. It's finally setting in that we're going to be here an entire month, looking forward to it though! Our tours start in central Athens tomorrow and then it's on to Corfu, which from the pictuers looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL. We're going to attempt cliff diving there (like in sisterhood of the travelling pants, not like extreme sports). Pictures coming soon!

XOXO, Sarah

May 21. 3:46 am Orlando time, 10:46 in Athens.

WE'RE FINALLY HERE! We just landed and there's no wifi, but i have an hour to kill so I'm writing now to post later. We met up with some people from our group in Athens, and so far the group seems to be made up of some pretty cool kids, so it should be an interesting month! We met our tour guide, nice but a little awkward. Personally I think that could make the trip all the more interesting. We've got two hours to kill in this airport before we head to the hotel.

After sleeping for a grand total of 1 hour before boarding in Orlando Thursday morning, and sleeping for maybe about 4 hours on the flight from JFK, I'm pretty exhausted. Luckily we'll have some free time to nap/shower/meet up with the group before our Rage tonight! According to Frommer's, Athenians are pretty dedicated to their partying and take naps in the afternoons to prepare. Glad to be fitting in already! We're planning on having a fun (and safe!) first night to kick off the rest of the trip!

10 more days until me, Jaz, and Alyza leave for Europe!