Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Almost Home!

I can't believe my trip here in Europe is almost done! I am flying out on Friday from Hamburg to London, then from London to Seattle! It has been a lot of fun here, definitely has been a trip of a life time!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a very beautiful city (once again)! Many canals and parks next to the water. This city is also know for its more wild side as well... This was our last stop on our trip before returning to Germany, we were all tired of sight seeing - so once day we went to the zoo! It was a refreshing change of pace (eventhough we were the only people over the age of 10 there).

I dont have very many pictures that are exciting but heres a few:









Saturday, August 23, 2008

Brussels & Brugge

Brussels was a great city to visit - especially the people. We planned on camping here... no different than the rest of our trip. After our train arrived we were walking long the street getting ready to take a bus to our camp ground. A few random guys came up to me and asked where I was from - I hesitated for a moment, and then told them I was from America. He could clearly see we were all packpackers. After talking for about five minutes they offered for us to stay at their appartement. (They just returned from a backpacking trip themselves, and some people did the same for them, so they wanted to "pass on" the favor!) Because this trip is "ALL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE" we agreed and followed them to their appartment.

They had this very large loft apartment - one of their roomates was out of town so the two others (Matthew and Pierre) let us stay as if it was our own place - even giving us a key!! We hungout with them and all of their friends to a festival in the city that night with about 5,000 youth! These guys were great!

We also did all of the other "tourist" stuff and took a day trip to Brugge as well. Once again, here are some pictures:













Back on the road again! Next stop... Amsterdam.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Paris

I think Paris was one of my favorite places on the whole trip. I've been there once before so it was nice to get a second look!

Daniel, Lenart and I would like to thank Brian and Jody Rasom for hosting us! The Ransom's are awesome people, and I really appreciate their generosity towards us!

While in Paris we saw Notre Dame, Louvre, Sacre Coeur, Ave des Champs Elysees, St. Germain, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and the catacombs. We also took a day trip to Versile Palace.

Here are some pictures:

























Next stop... Brussels, Belgium

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Roma (Rome)

Rome was a great city to visit! It is so rich with history!

Arriving in Rome was an adventure however. Our train from Venice arrived at the station at about 10pm. We found the other train we needed to take to get to our camp site - once on board the train passed the station we wanted to get off at, and continued to an outskirt of Rome. Here we are, a Danish, German and American kid stranded in the country side of Rome.

We walked around the empty train station trying to find a living body and ended up talking with a young couple who spoke very little english. After a few minutes of caveman gestures they understood where we wanted to go and offered to take us there. We piled into their car and they drove us to our campsite!

Another shock was how "un-camplike" this campsite was! They had a resturant, club, two pools, bars, supermarket... not quite what we were used to! Plus a bunch of wildly drunk Australians singing karaoke. Nevertheless it was an adventure within our first two hours in Rome.

The next few days we spent exploring the city - the Colosseum, Roman Forum, St. Peters basilica, the Vatican Museum and many other sights. Here are some pictures below:



















After Rome we took a night train to Paris - we were lucky to have some fun bunk mates from Holland. We played card games through the night until we all fell asleep. Here are a few pictures from the train.






Next stop... Paris!