The first (this one), I'm going to write about my adventures in Europe (we were 68 Exchange Students in Europe for 17 days. Lots happened) and then in another I'm going to put as many photos and videos as I can.
Okay, so, here goes:
Day 0: 25th June - I met with my first host dad, Fredrik, with Dan and Sam and we drove down to Malmö. Once we arrived there we bought tickets to Denmark and took off for the day. While there we saw the Little Mermaid Statue (originally a Danish story, by the way), toured the city and visited a huge lego store (also Danish). For dinner that night we ate Australian cuisine (steak and veggies) before heading back to Malmö to sleep.
Day 1: 26th June - On the bus we went. After a quick breakfast and introductory briefing we were on our way. Driving through Denmark and taking a huge ferry into Germany. Seriously though, we drove the 4 metre high bus onto the ferry - along with numerous other trucks, cars and caravans - before walking up 4 flights of stairs to get the the restaurant, past all the shops. That thing was huge.
Then, after arriving in Germany we drove to Berlin and crashed in the hotel after eating an Italian meal of pasta.
Day 2: 27th June - We got up, ate breakfast and then visited the Stazi Museum. The Stazi were the secret service of Eastern Germany who basically ensured that everything went as the government would have it in the country. We saw numerous ways of capturing people, heard about imprisonment tactics and got to check out heaps of different spy technology actually used by agents to ensure that no one was conspiring against the government. Afterwards, we visited East Side Gallery, the largest open air art gallery in the world. The East Side Gallery is a section of the Berlin wall, 1.3km long, with multitudes of different artworks all over it. Afterwards, we visited Checkpoint Charlie, one of the major crossing points between Eastern and Western Germany. For the rest of the day we had free time and so I just toured the city.
Day 3: 28th June - Travel day, part 2. We drove from Germany, Berlin to Poland, Krakow.
Day 4: 29th June - We had a tour of the Jewish Districts in Krakow. We saw the Ghettos and the Synagogues.
After lunch we were off to Auschwitz. That was powerful. There are not words for the feelings seeing a place like that brings. We saw cells, torture rooms, execution places, gas chambers, ovens, ash disposals, a giant urn full of ashes, the hair of 2 million people, lost shoes, lost socks, stolen luggage, valuables and walls of photographs of those who died there. We saw photos of children, adults, death dates and occupations. We saw organisational systems and racial segregation. It was awful. But so unspeakably important. I wish I could explain fully the feeling of walking into a 1x1 box of pure darkness where they would keep 4 people for nights on end, of seeing where they dropped canisters of pesticide down onto hundreds maybe thousands of people to kill them, seeing where they cremated the bodies and then just dropped out the ashes, walls with bullet holes still in them from where people were shot, double barbed wire fences, quotes of people justifying these actions, huge latrine pits where hundreds of people would go to the bathroom at the same time or seeing underground cells for 'misbehaving' prisoners.
The thing that really helped to send home the message was at the end of the tour we were hit with torrential rain that drenched the ground within minutes. Thick mud almost immediately formed and I just imagined having minimal clothing, being cramped with so many people and then adding in this rain and mud everywhere and I just felt so bad for these people.
Day 5: 30th June - Another travel day, we were off to Hungary, through Slovakia. We ate in a Slovakian restaurant on the way and I drank this Slovakian drink like a cinnamon-y coke. It tasted kind of funny but it was an experience. That night we were in Budapest (Pronounced Buda-pesht, because in Hungarian, 's' sounds like 'sh' and 'sz' sounds like 's'. I know it's confusing).
Day 6: 1st July - We had a city tour to begin our morning, and our tour took us up to the top of a mountain on the Buda side of the city. From there we had an amazing view over Buda and Pest and Hamish and I begun to scope out our plan. After the tour, we went straight back to the Hotel to get our swimmers and towels and then we went straight back out again. First, we went to a huge food hall and ate some traditional Hungarian food; Goulash soup in a bread loaf. Next on our list was the beautiful parliament building, and a short walk away was the Jewish memorial. A beautiful monument set into the pavement along the river including numerous metal shoes representing the way that the people had to remove their shoes before being shot into the river. There were even children's shoes. Just past there we walked across the chain bridge and took some happy snaps. From there it was out to Heroes Square and then a Hungarian Bath House for the remainder of the afternoon. At the bath house they had about 20 different baths, ranging from 20°C dip pools to 40°C hot tubs. From inside to out, they had every bath you could imagine. There was even a radioactive bath were you could only stay in for 20 minutes maximum. I saw people playing chess in there with the inbuilt chess boards so I don't know how serious that was. We spent about 2 hours there before coming home for dinner.
Day 7: 2nd July - We drove to Austria through Slovakia again. After a quick stop in Bratislava, we drove up the Alps in Austria to our accommodation, at 900m above sea level.
Day 8: 3rd July - We hopped on the bus and took off up the Alps for a hike up to a height of 1500m and then back down to about 1100m. We ate a quick lunch and swam in the snow melt (at about 6°C).
Day 9: 4th July - We drove from Austria, into Slovenia and toured Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. After a quick lunch we continued into Italy, Lido di Jesolo.
Day 10: 5th July - Beach day. Having no plans for the day we hung out on the Italian beach and caught some sunshine. For lunch we ate pasta or pizza and finished it off with an Italian ice cream.
Day 11: 6th July - We had the morning free after breakfast and then afterwards we were on the bus and off to the ferry to Venice. We spent the remainder of the afternoon in Venice. It was so beautiful there. The entire city is situated on these huge stone tiles and there are stalls and little coffee shops everywhere. In all of the stalls you could see the most beautiful Venetian masks. The city is split into small parts by narrow canals and we started off our tour with a gondola ride through the city. After our time we returned to Lido di Jesolo for the night.
Day 12: 7th July - We spent the morning again in Italy, chilling on the beach before driving to Chambéry, France.
Day 13: 8th July - We drove to Paris. It was a long drive.
Day 14: 9th July - We had a city tour of Paris, seeing the Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triumph, The Louvre and the Notre Dame Cathedral from the bus. Afterwards we had free time to see anything we wanted. I spent the afternoon seeing the Notre Dame and the Bridge of Love, with all the padlocks on it. The padlocks are actually so heavy that the railings are collapsing and so in some sections they've started to remove some locks. We also walked to the Pantheon and saw the underground tombs.
Day 15: 10th July - On this day we went to the catacombs underneath Paris. We arrived at 9ish and after a 2 and a half hour wait we finally got in. We descended 80-something stairs to reach the bottom where there was a short museum before we entered the tunnels. We walked in near darkness for about 500-600m before reaching the graves. During the black plague, there were so many bodies that there wasn't space to bury them all so they were brought down to the catacombs and after a time, the bones were all arranged in patterns. As we walked through there were hearts made of skulls agains walls of bones and other patterns and shapes drawn throughout the corridors. This section stretched out for another 1km and every step, the walls were lined with bones. After we made it out at the other end, we went to an Australian Restaurant for lunch. Afterwards we went to the Louvre Museum, and looked around the outside (I didn't get to see the Mona Lisa because we were so short on time after the Catacombs) before walking through the gardens and then heading back to the hotel for dinner.
Day 16: 11th July - We left Paris, and drove to Brussels, Belgium. There I ate Belgian Waffles and saw a statue of a little boy peeing. After our quick stop we drove into The Netherlands just to say we'd been there and then continued on into Bochum, Germany to stay the night.
Day 17: 12th July - We got up really early and then drove back to Sweden, through Denmark. When there we said our goodbyes to some of the students leaving that night back to either host families or home countries and then slept.
Day 18: 13th July - We finished saying our goodbyes and I took the train back to Stockholm.
Eurotour was an experience I'll never forget. I had such an amazing time with all those amazing people and I just can't thank them and the Rotarians who chaperoned us enough. I saw things I'd never dreamed I'd see before 1 and just overall had an unforgettably incredible time.
Just to continue, since Eurotour I've been in Croatia for a week with my first host family, laying on the beaches around Hvar, outside Split, and visiting the islands that surround it. It doesn't sound like much but it was so great just to take some time out and chill out. Plus I got a great tan :)
Anyways, I'm not sure what comes next on my list, but until then,
The Swedish Adventurer
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