Germany

On my holiday in Europe, in between each destination I was staying in Germany with my girl Lara and her family. Lara lives in the country-side where there are cornfields and windmills, cows, horses and a few little village/towns all within short distances of each other. The little town/village where she calls home is Xanten. Here in Xanten is where Lara attends school (yeah shes still in school) and because she was at school during my time in Germany, Xanten was also where I attended school for a few days over a couple weeks. Yes, thats right.. While I was on holiday I attended school.. I didnt attend school because i love school, in fact i didnt like school at all and am glad that Im done with highschool back home here in New Zealand. I went to school in Germany because I was really interested in seeing Laras school and what schools are like in other countries, so I thought 'Why Not?', plus it meant more time with my girl.

I made new friends in school, and before you start to think 'wait wouldnt classes be in German?', the answer is yes and no. yes because normally classes would be in German, but whenever I went to school with Lara, I'd go to classes with another one of her friends and a whole bunch of european exchange students who had all their classes taught in English. The students were also 15-16 years old and Im now 19, so I found classes pretty easy (except maths) and yeah, I actually did work, but I enjoyed it, and when I eventually came back home to NZ, I felt kinda sad to be leaving Germany, the new friends I'd made and even the school itself.

But before you think that all I did in Germany was attend school, of course I did other things..
I did sight-seeing in the little village of Xanten, taking photos of the cute brick/cottage-like buildings, I also went bike-riding, which is a huge thing in Germany, and I found it really difficult because I havnt ridden a bike in years and so when I first got on a bike in Germany I was so scared of crashing into others, getting hit by cars, not being able to stop etc etc. but in the end I got the hang of it.

I also went to my first nightclub in Germany and it was so much fun! Loud music, Dancing and Friends. I had so much fun dancing with Lara and 3 of my new friends at PM (thats the name of the club) and even if I did get a little 'over-excited', it was one of the best nights of my trip, even if we did get home at 4am and we needed to be awake the next day at 6am.
Of course theres so much more to Germany than what Ive just mentioned, but I think for now I'll just let the few pictures at the top show you how cute and hsitoric Germany is. And Im off for now..
Bye Bye

Paris, France

SURPRISE!! I say that literally. My girl Lara and her family surprised me by taking me to a mysterious/secret destination for a day, that turned out to be Paris, France and I couldnt have been more surprised, shocked, excited and overjoyed at being in one of the places I had always wanted to visit since I first watched the MK&A movie 'Passport to Paris' when I was younger. The day started by waking up and having breakfast at 6am, in Germany. At 7am we then traveled 3 hours to Paris by car. After that we parked the car and took a train to the centre of Paris and continued the rest of the day on foot, admiring this beautiful city.

When I first saw the Notre Dame I literally stopped mid-walk just to admire the beauty of the Cathedral, and that was just the outside. I got to go in! Inside, Outside, the Notre Dame is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever had the pleasure to see. Next we walked the streets, did a little bit of clothing and souvenir shopping (how could I not?!), saw a few street performances and continued to admire everything. We came to the Louvre, which has always been a dream to visit, unfortunately, we didnt get to go in because our time was limited, but I got a photo of the outside and even some rather silly and embarrasing photos with me and lara trying to "touch" the tip of the pyramid (a photo would be a better description of what I mean but alas, there are no flattering photos that I wish to share haha). The day was beautiful and we walked through this massive, I guess its a park?, with gardens, trees, giant ponds an deck chairs everywhere which you can take and sit on anywhere in the large vacinity and just read, admire the amazing views, take photos, whatever takes your fancy. From here we began to see the Eiffel Tower from a distance..

We thought having an early dinner at about 4pm was a good idea since we'd basically skipped lunch altogether, somehow though, we ended up in an area where we could not find a decently priced restaurant to eat, until we came across an Italian restaurant where we all agreed was a good place to eat. Yes.. I went to Paris and ate Italian food, not exactly what you'd normally do but to make up for it, I bought a box full of Macarons!! After dinner we continued to head towards the Eiffel Tower and when I say that I jumped up and down and started giggling and going hysterical with excitement, I am not exaggerating. I felt like a little kid at Christmas. Lara and I were the only ones to buy a ticket and go up the eiffel tower and after waiting in line for a while, by the time we got up, the sky was dark and the whole of Paris was alight, and to say it was one of the most amazing views ever would be understatement.

Unfortunately, my visit to this beautiful city was short lived - 12 hours long approximately, but I saw alot, experienced a bit of Paris, felt like a Parisian girl in my new H&M outfit I'd bought only 2 days before, went up the Eiffel Tower (girly, excited screaming) and had a whole lot of fun. I also managed to take quite alot of photos in such a short time, which was a major plus for me. And even though the time was short, it was definitely one of the best days in my life and I cant wait to go back again, hopefully for longer next time :)

St Wolfgang, Austria

 

 While I was staying with Julia and her family in Vienna, they took me a little road trip to a cute little village called St Wolfgang. We stayed here for 2 nights, over the weekend, in the cutest little (well i say little but it had more floors than you'd first think) hotel which you can see in the fifth picture (with the red car in front). Julia and I got a to share our own room on the 4th floor and it was alot fancier than I'd have imagined, it even included a huge flatscreen TV, (not that I'd be able to understand anything on TV as it was all in german). 

We only spent one full day in St Wolfgang and for most of that day we went hiking.. I dont hike and I also am not used to living out in the mountains so I wasnt exactly prepared for this little trip. I had no raincoat (which was well needed) just a warm trench coat from H&M, i had a scarf (thank god!) and a beanie, but I didnt have any form of footware suitable for hiking.. I ended up wearing canvas shoes, luckily Julia only had canvas shoes. Obviously neither of us are very bright. Despite the fact that I wasnt really prepared or like hiking that much, it was an enjoyable walk which wasnt that long and did end with an amazing view of the village and huge lake. After our hike we settled down in the mountains restaurant where I ordered soup because I wasnt at all that hungry. Once we got back to our hotel, we all thought it was a good idea to just relax until dinner.

Dinner was YUMMY! Julia and I ordered the exact same thing, which ended up being the hugest plate of food I've ever seen but somehow I managed to eat, not only all of my food, but half of Julias food as well. At one point, while stuffing my mouth with forkfuls of her potatos, I even said to her 'please stop me' which cause Julia to laugh so hard she choked on her drink and ended up having a laughing/choking/coughing fit in the restaurant and everyone was staring at our table. good times. After dinner, Julia, Julias Dad and myself headed to another, more expensive, hotel's bar where Julias Dad bought us 'End of the day Drinks' and for 2 and a half hours we ate pretzels, salted peanuts, had a couple drinks each and played P&As (if you dont know what that is, its a card game). It was a great day/night all in all. 

On our final morning we roamed around the little village taking a few pictures of the adorable buildings and I did a bit of souvenir/gift shopping for back home. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in St Wolfgang, even though Im not much of one for cold, it was great to visit somewhere new and different.

Vienna, Austria

Vienna was a whole new experience. True I'd been in cities before, cities with cinemas and shopping malls etc, but compared to cities in New Zealand where Im from, Vienna was the biggest city I'd ever visited. Before I started my travelling, somehow I never imagined any of these places to be so huge, even Vienna, capital city of Austria, I didnt expect it to be so big and as well as the size, I didnt know if I'd love Vienna as much as I did because, in my mind, it was just another city. Of course I knew that I'd enjoy my time there and would love seeing all the awesome things that Vienna had to offer, but Vienna had so much more to give than Id originally thought and I loved that.

For the week that I was in Vienna I stayed with my friend Julia (more like a sister) who lives in Vienna with her family. Together we did touristy things. She took me to Schonbrunn Palace (top picture), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum. 2nd & 3rd pictures), Naschmarkt - the largest food market in Vienna, we also went to the zoo, we ate at Figlmueller which is the best place to eat Schnitzel with cranberry jam and we also spent a day at Prater, Vienna's local themepark which included rollercoasters, log rides, tandum bikes and Madame Tussauds wax museum. One night I even went to my first ever Cirque de Soleil circus with Julia, and her mum and sister, it was incredible, unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos during the show.

I loved Vienna so much. The people, the vast amount of shopping places, the beautiful buildings and even the subway, which I got so used to taking every day that I kinda miss it. The time spent with Julia and her family was wonderful, they made me feel at home and even took me away for a weekend to a small village (which I'll write in another post). Their hospitality as well as the city of Vienna itself makes me want to go back and see it all again and everything else I might've missed out on. When I do get the chance to go back, I wont hesitate for a second, but hopefully before I do return, I'll have been on a few more trips to other places and maybe even have learnt a little more German (sometimes not speaking the native tongue can be difficult, especially when wandering the streets alone).

I have a big list of cities/places that I wanna visit, but for now Vienna most certainly makes the top 5 so far. Now onto the next place, wherever that might be..

Rome, Italy

Rome is like no other city that I have ever visited and I knew, just after a few short hours, that it was already going to be one of my most favourite places in the world. I havn't been to many exotic places, in fact I'd barely ever left Oceania (New Zealand and Australia) till my trip to Rome, but I cannot see how any other city could compare to the beauty and wonder that is Roma.

Being in Rome was like living in a fairytale, I just could not belive that I was really in such an exotic and incredible place as this. Its always been a dream of mine to travel and see the world, but now that its actually happening, its even more amazing than I ever could have anticipated. Rome is breath-taking and there are not enough words to fully describe just how wonderful this city really is. Everywhere you look there is history, beauty and dream-like moments just waiting to happen. There was never a moment of disappointment in Rome, everything lived up to and beyond my expectations.

The Colosseum, even though I saw just the outside, was so incredible. the Pantheon was astonishing. The Vatican and St. Peters Church were outstanding. The Fontana di Trevi was everything I'd ever dreamed it would be. The city, the people, the atmosphere, it was all beyong anything I'd ever imagined in even my most dizzying daydreams. I loved it all, right down to the smallest brick in the oldest building and every crack in the pavement. 

I feel like Rome will always be a part of me, the city captured me in a way no other place has, it opened my eyes to everything and became the starting point of my journey to becoming a new me. Rome was where I realised that if Im going to achieve my goals, I have to start living my life as much as I can and get out there and thanks to Rome for showing me that there is more out there in the world and that I can be whatever and whoever I wanna be, Im actually doing it. But Rome is just the beginning of my travels, I'll be off to Vienna, Austria in just a few short days and after that, who knows, maybe it'll be a surprise, but wherever I go, Im sure I'l learn many more things about myself, and if not, then I saw another magnificent place that I can check off my list and add to the many memories that I wil always cherish.

I already cant wait to go back to Rome again, but for now, its onto the next place, the next adventure.
Ciao!