Paris-Southern France

Over the course of three days, we stayed in two different places in Southern France. The first night we spent in a little town called Grenoble. Before going to the hotel, we got to visit a famous "Chartreux"-liquer cellar. While there, we had the opportunity to taste test the wine they make there. I personally found it to sweet so I decided not to buy some for anybody. Sorry guys.

Jen and Me taste-testing the wine!

The exchange students enjoying the opportunity to drink even a little bit

The area where our hotel was located!

And again!

And again!

Just a random picture of how our bus looked most days!!

After our one night stay in Grenoble, we headed off to Nice where we stayed 2 nights. On our way to Nice, we stopped at a Perfume factory. It was really cool to see how they made perfumes and how they invented new fragrances.

The special room where the person who makes new recipes works.

Our visit to the perfume factory, although good, was also quite sad because we lost a member of our bus. One of the boys had been having stomach cramps for a few days and ended up having to go to hospital to have his appendix removed. We have seen him since, and luckily he is fine now. Unfortunately, he was unable to continue along Euro Tour with us :-(.

Some picutes of Nice!

This thing is called 'The Box Head' or something like that because underneath it, there is infact a Library.

During our stay in Nice, we had a day trip to Monaco. I will make a new entry for this because there are quite a few photos.

Monaco

Today we got to have another guided tour, this time around Monaco. For those who don't know, Monaco is the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican. Monaco is only 2 sq kilometres big and has a population of 32,020 people. Monaco is a very rich country, so to purchase anything there it is quite expensive. It is quite hard to become a citizen of Monaco, one criterian being you must have a minimum of €1,000,000.

While in Monaco, we got to visit Monaco Palace where the royals still live occassionally. We also got to drive along the Formula 1 Grand Prix Track and visit the Monte Carlo Casino. We weren't allowed to go inside though because we were there to early and it wasn't open yet.

We were told this bridge is quite famous because lots of people decided to commit suicide of it so there is now a little police station on the other side of it.

View from the bus as we were driving into Monaco

Another view

Part of the Palace

A church on the Palace grounds

Our bus photo

A view from the palace grounds

The tourleader and tutour from our bus

Heather and me

Paulo(my Brazilian oldie) and me

A sign in one of the shops on the Palace grounds

Part of the Formula 1 track

The Monte Carlo Casino

Monte Carlo Casino again

A very expensive hotel next to the casino. We asked if we could go in and got told no so instead we stood at a window and looked in.

Just some of the cars parked out the front (these are for you Andrew)

Another car

Southern France-Italy

Today we headed off from Nice to a beach town in Italy called Lido di Jesolo. On our way there though, we stopped off at Verona, where the movie Romeo and Juliet was set. We visited Juliet's balcony and also got to see a statue of her.

Juliet

Juliet's Balcony

In the entrance way to Juliet's Balcony there is a wall where you can write the name of your true love. Nearly all the exchange students wrote a name up from there family to there boyfriend. And yes, I did write a little note up for Lauri in Finnish.

The day after visiting Verona, we all travelled across to Venice on a small boat. There were a few activites planned for us in Venice so again we had an early start. After having an hour of free time in Venice we all met up again and headed off to have a Gondola ride.

Our Gondola group, plus Jen who was taking the photo.

Paulina and me!

Heather(Canadian) and me!

Water Police!

After our Gondola ride, we went and visited a famous glass factory. While we were there watching, the man made this awesome horse in the picture below. It was so interesting to see him make it because he did it so easily, although it looks so hard.

A random robot man.....reminded us all of the movie Euro Trip

Most of our nights in Italy were free to do what we wanted to do. The picture below is of some German boys who tried to chat Heather and me up one night. No need to worry Lauri, they had no chance.

Italy

Well what a day we had today. Today we got to climb the Italian Alps. I know in all the pictures, the mountains look really steep, but luckily for us we didn't actually climb the really steep bits. Although we did have to walk uphill for a bit.

The view from the bottom before we started

The Italian Alps

BK and me touching some ice from the Alps.

A group of us on the Alps

The view up from where we were sitting

Paulina (my favourite little Mexican) and me!

Italy-Austria-Germany

Well today was another big day for us. We travelled through three countries and had time to stop for a look around a small town in Austria. Before leaving the hotel though, we had a small games and activities morning. It didn't last long because I think everyone was still tired from our hike the day before.

The Austrian Alps

Hehe....I found this in Innsbruck, Austria.

The town of Innsbruck

Going through the alps, there is this really cool new road that is like one big bridge. The photo below is of a special part of the road where people can go Bungy Jumping.

Someone Bungy Jumping

Another bit of the road

That night for dinner we were treated to a very German meal, a Barvarian style meal. While eating we had a man playing in the background, I can't at this moment remember what the instrument was called. We also had a boy come and perform a traditional 'slap dance'.

A real glass of beer, german way!!

Our massive meal.

The Slap Dancer

The next day, we visited the Nurberg War Museum. I don't have any photos at the moment, but I will put some on as soon as possible.