Quick Update

Well the home computer is having some trouble at the moment so I can't do any updates that contain pictures....sorry. If you want to see what I did on Mid Summer just look at Lauri's blog because I was at his house.

I will try do an update once the computer is working again.

I am also off to Lapland on Monday for 10 days so I won't be able to have much contact with anyone. This trip to Lapland unfortunately won't be as glamorous as the last because this time we are staying in my host families Summer Cottage which is a real traditional cottage, no showers, toilets or running water. And yes I did say I am staying for 10 days so you can imagine how excited I am. They keep trying to reassure me that I can wash myself in the sauna (?) or in the lake. I haven't quite figured how you wash yourself in the sauna and the lake doesnt seem to welcoming to me since the temperature up in Lapland is probably only about 15 degrees therefore meaning the lake would be FREEZING!!! Not somewhere I really want to be going near any time soon. Well I think that's all for now. Missing you all heaps. Love Em xoxo

Euro Tour 2006, Sweden-Denmark

Well what an awesome 19 days I have just had. I have just travelled around 9 different countries, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Monaco, Italy and Austria and had the opportunity of seeing many of the awesome sights that Europe has to offer. Well it all started on Sunday June 4th when I had to get up nice and early to catch to catch the 9am train to Turku (the other side of Finland) where it all begun. Once in Turku, we registered that we were there before waiting a few hours to board the Silja Line (the big ferry) that would take us to Sweden where it would all begin.

Once in Sweden, we all got on three different buses that would become our transport for the 19 days. We arrived in Sweden at about 7am and proceeded straight to another ferry in a town called Helsingborg located at the bottom of Sweden. This ferry took all 100 of us and our 3 buses across to a town in Denmark called Helsingör. Once there we drove to Copenhagen where we stayed the night. Before we were able to go to sleep though, we all went to a theme park called Tivoli where we had about 3 hours to run wild.

A group of Exchange Students!

The biggest carousel in the world, not to sure how high it goes exactly but I can tell you now, its pretty high and scary.

The roller coaster!

Denmark-Germany

The next day we all woke up early at 7am so we could get on the buses again and have a sight seeing tour around Copenhagen. We were shown many awesome things including the Winter palaces of the Queen, the Crown Prince and there guests. We also got to see the church that Princess Mary got married in.

Our tour guide and me (she was so cute)

Some portable food van(he looked really funny just walking down the road)!!

A very popular restaurant street!

The canal beside it

The Crown Prince and Princess Mary's Winter Palace!

The Queen's Winter Palace!

The famous little mermaid, and Jodi and me incase you didn't know already!

Sara and me!

The Church where Princess Mary got married in!

And another angle of the Church!

After our sight seeing tour in Copenhagen, we drove to another ferry terminal at Rödby that would take us across to Puttgarden, Germany. We drove a few hours to a town called Breman where we stayed the night. Not many pictures from Germany this time because we didn't stay there long. There will be more photos later on as we spent more time there later on in the trip.

Our Ferry

Our bus (we decorated it lots)

A weird painting on the end of a building that was right near our hotel

Two other Aussie exchange students and me just before getting on our buses

Germany-Netherlands

Once again we had another early morning leaving the hotel at 8:30am. We travelled over the biggest Dam Scenary Road in the world, Afsluitdijk.

The view of the road

We got to visit a Cheese and Clog Factory in the Netherlands. They showed us how they make both cheese and clog these days and we had the opportunity to buy both so of course I bought some Cumin cheese (can't wait to start eating it) and a little pair of clogs. I was going to buy a big pair of clogs but not only were they expensive but they were also quite heavy. '

The Cheese and Clog Factory

One of the girls sitting in a big pair of Clogs

Just a shirt showing how open they are about the drugs

Moni and me wearing some big clogs!!

Moni and me being silly

After the factory tour we were to a little town where we had some free time to look at shops, although most of them were souvenier shops. After our free time we headed off to Amsterdam where we had a water bus tour. I am not including to many pictures of it as most of them are of random buildings, things I didn't think really needed to be included on here.

Instead of a car park, its a bike park!! I've never seen so many bikes in one place before!!

Some really modern building in the middle of a city of old buildings. Stood out quite alot as you could imagine!!

Although really little, this is in fact Anne Frank's statue!

Netherlands-Belgium-France

Well once again we had a wake up call come through at about 6:30. We all boarded the bus nice and tired (we stayed up until after midnight so we could all sing Happy Birthday to one of the Aussie girls Jess who turned 18. She was really lucky because she got it sung to her in quite a few different languages) and headed off for Brussels, Belgium where we had a 2 hour tour. Unfortunately for our group, we had a very creepy tour guide (I don't think any more needs to be said about him). He took us to a courtyear/square where there were some of the most magnificant buldings I have ever seen. These pictures show only a few of them.

There's a myth about this women that if you touch her while making a wish it will come true but if you touch the angel's head above her you will become pregnant in the next year. Don't worry everybody I made sure I didn't touch the angel head.

Well after visiting the angel, some of us thought we would quickly run into a souvenier shop to buy some things. What we didn't think about was that our creepy tour guide wouldn't wait for us, so unfortunatel 6 of us got slightly lost from the group.

The group that got lost. Good work girls!!

Moni (one of my many adopted oldies) and me!

After our tour around Brussels, it was time to head off to Paris, France. Once we had booked into the hotel in Paris, it was time for the thing all of us girls had been waiting for, The Eiffel Tower.

Arc De Triomphe

The Eiffel Tower

View from the top!

Another view!!

Jodi and Me at the top!!

The sunset! Was so romantic and I only had the other exchange students to share it with. It was while around the Eiffel Tower that lots of girls and me really began to miss our boys who were left behind in various other countries.

All around the top there were these pictures of our far it was to various places around the world. I took some pictures of the ones that might matter to our family!

The Eiffel Tower at night time!

Me infront of the Eiffel Tower

All the lights on the Eiffel Tower being lit up!

Paris

Well as you may know already, we were lucky enough to spend 3 nights in Paris. After our first fun filled night, we got to have another guided sight seeing tour around Paris. We travelled around on the bus all day and were lucky enough to see lots of amzaing sights. Lots of photos from this day are on Jodi's camera because unfortunately mine decided to go flat. Once I have had a look at them I will try put some more on.

Lots of the morning we spent just on the bus, but for parts of it we were able to get off so we could go have a closer look at some things. One place in particular which we stopped to look at was the Norte Dame.

The Louvre. We all visited this the next day on our free day so I should have better pictures later on.

After our tour of the city, all 100 exchange students headed out to the Palace of Versailles. This place was so huge. I still can not understand why someone would need to live in such a big place. Sorry at the moment I can't get any pictures to upload so hopefully I can get it to work another day.

We were lucky enough to get a free night with a curfew of 2pm so of course being true blue exhcange students we decided to head to Paris down town and see what we could find. After some directions by other exchange students, we ended up finding an Aussie Bar.

The next day we had a free day where we could wander all around Paris and do what we pleased. A group of us headed off nice and early to go have a quick look at the Louvre. After quickly going and seeing the Mona Lisa, Jodi, Judy and me decided it was time to find some shops.

A group of us outside the Louvre.

We were a bit unsuccessful with the shopping at first, so instead we decided to go buy some food and have a nice picnic in a park.

Our goodies plus some orange juice. Incase your wondering, the girls were dipping strawberries into Nutella!

After lunch we headed off on the train again to go try find the Moulin Rouge. Yes, we did find it aswell as the main sex shop area of Paris. I swear I have never seen so many sex shops in one small area. It was a bit over whelming to be honest.

After visiting the Moulin Rouge, we decided to give the shops another go and see what we could find. And this time, we were succesful. We all bought at least two pairs of shoes (three is your me). I bought my three pairs for €27 which in Finland usually would only buy you one pair of shoes so I was pretty happy.