EuroTrip: From Austria to Dachau

On your way out of Austria Contiki will take you to the Swarovski Crystal World Museum where you can buy a ticket as a Me time option. They make you through the museum and show you some weird movie from what I was told. Phil and I did not go on the tour, neither one of us are into Swarovski so we went to the cafe and got hot chocolate which was perfect for another rainy, cold day.

After that short break, it was back on the bus where we made our way to Dachau concentration camp. This was one of the more humbling experiences of the trip for me. I had begun a masters in European Studies and all of my classes that semester had been about the Holocaust. My dad is also German and yes, my grandfather was technically a Nazi as most young men were forced to be under Hitler. It destroyed my grandfather as he was captured early on by the Russians and was held on the Black Sea at a POW camp for seven years. It fragmented my family in more then one ways and I have always felt that.

In some way, I knew by going to Dachau I would make a sort of peace with who I was. It was a very sobering experience. You enter the grounds and it is almost like a park. You walk past the gift shop and down a path until you hit the main gate.

Me at the gates of Dachau

The words on the gate reads, "Work makes you free." However, we all know what a big lie that was. After you walk through the gates, you can feel a change in the air. It's cooler there and there is such a stillness that you can only associate it with the mass death and devastation that occurred there. There is a heavy sadness, but at the same time, it doesn't have the burden, but rather the peace that come after such a sadness.

Most of the buildings are gone, but there are still a few to walk through. One has the bunks of the Jews that were imprisoned here:

You can see how they progressively got smaller as the Nazis move forward with their ideas for the Final Solution. Very terrible. I also noticed how quiet everyone was in walking around, people were very polite and very much to themselves. It is a very personal experience.

Guard Tower

Inside the prison where high-ranking captives were held

The grounds.

After walking around, we walked back to the gift shop and we bought a handmade yarmulke for a friend. We had to rush back to the bus because from here, Contiki takes you into Munich.

EuroTrip: From Venice to Austria

We woke up pretty hungover from the mistake of Amnesia the night before. It was the second and last time I had drank on the trip. It was a crazy early day again where we would then spend the day on the bus traveling.

I was ready though because Austria was really one of the top reasons that I had booked this trip. Phil and I had also signed up to go whitewater rafting and we were both really looking forward to doing that as a couple.

(google images)

I am not sure how neither of us took photos, but I have none from Austria. We drove for a long time before we got off the bus to whitewater raft. You cram yourself into a wet suit in a parking lot, carry your raft with your team and then listen to your guide give you a crash course in rafting. Then you got down to the river and jump in to feel the water. 

It is freezing. 

It is also the most delicious water you will ever taste. Picture the best bottled mountain water you have ever had and then multiply your like factor by ten. There is nothing like it, it's amazing. 

You then go back with your team to get your raft and begin a long hike to where you can begin. If you have a good guide then it becomes a lot of fun once you're on the river. Our's were Scottish guys that were hysterical. The one thing I found hard was when you jumped out of the raft or were thrown out. Getting back in is hard and they have to pull you up. Phil pulled me up so hard that I wound up flying into the boat, hurting my neck and landing in his crotch. Our guide promptly said, "I hope you guys are together 'cause you sure are now." Everyone laughed. I eventually was able to get up once Phil moved. I didn't get out of the raft again. 

You ride the river down, hitting some rapids and seeing some of the most beautiful scenery that you will ever see. It's over pretty quickly and then you have to get the raft and walk again to where you'll clean your wet suit and change back into your clothes. There's a place with WiFi and you can buy a pretty bland hot dog and Kraut soda which we did because it was our first of the trip. Both of which I could have done without in the end, but there really wouldn't be much of a chance to get it anywhere else. 

You stay in a Contiki property again. It's four to a room and they're bunkbeds. My bites began to get very bad here and after a sleepless night, I was really ready to kill someone. 

The next morning, it was pouring rain so paragliding was cancelled and there really wasn't much of anything to do. We did not do the bike ride and we were glad because that was when the storm started. The people who came back were miserable. 

I complained about my bites to Contiki again, but this time I went to on-site staff. There is a man there named Rob and he was THE BEST Contiki person I dealt with. He froze our sleeping bags and we had all of our clothes washed. He drove me into town where for 130 euros a doctor saw me and gave me medicine. We also got real blankets that night for our beds and I began to feel a lot better. 

See my later post about Contiki travel insurance to find out more about that rip-off. 

I got a good night of sleep and Phil really took care of me. He timed when I had to take my antibiotics, anti-histamines and would put lotion on every bite I had. I knew that Phil was the man I was going to marry before this, but it was this that made me realize I was very much right about it. They're was some crazy Contiki party here as well. I think it was a fluorescent party which we didn't go to. It seemed pretty lame. Everyone was beginning to feel burnt out by this leg of the trip. 

Phil and I spent time together and got ready for Germany and Switzerland. There really was not much to do in Tyrol other than the outdoorsy stuff that got cancelled or ruined with the rain. The town is beautiful and quant, but also closed early so there was not much to do here. 

Whitewater rafting though? Definitely worth it. 

EuroTrip: Rome to Venice

I wish I had more to say about Rome, but much fit reminded me of Florence...only hotter. I liked the Colosseum and the shopping. Phil got his sister a really cool wooden bowl here. I also liked going into the Pantheon. It took me back to taking Roman and Baroque Architecture at Rutgers in the musky Art Library with what would become the chair of my department...he was such a stickler. I really hated him by the end of that class, but what had kept me attending were the slides of Italy and all of its beauty.  It kept me going through my junior year and into my senior, where I would get to go to Paris for the first time and completely and absolutely fall in love with everything European.

Phil & I on a Gondola.

We got to do the romantic things like riding a Gondola. I had done this by myself in my teens and it was cool, I had some awesome roommates, but it's very different when you're there with the one that you love. WE really made some amazing memories here like this Gondola ride and when we walked so deep into Venice, I got worried we weren't get out to find me ointment for my bites.

Kelsey, Ellie and I.Venice Summer 2014

We also met up with these ladies and got to have a fun afternoon. Ellie's GoPro never got old. Phil also wanted to feel ever manly here and  bought me a keychain. I had carried all the money in my purse so he had saved for a day or so and I now have a Venetian mask keychain that came from the change he gathered.

Back at the campsite, we were introduced to the Contiki bar and Amnesia...a drink that goes down like juice, but within 30 minutes has you having out of body experiences. Phil and I had two, and I have little remembrance of that night other than the photos from people we were traveling with....

Siobhan and I. 

Hannah and I. 

This was the first and nearly last night that I sort of "let go" and partied. I was too focused on my last graduate classes that I was taking during this trip and my job that I was going back to. Venice, though, was beyond romantic and beyond fun.

I again, was really sad to leave it.

EuroTrip: From Florence Into Rome

I felt rested and rejuvenated after my birthday. I think that this was the part of the trip where jet lag subsided and I was ready for more adventure. This was another early departure for us. We left our nice campsite in Florence for Rome.

Now, for those of you reading this blog to learn more about backpacking with Contiki...please be sure you read my Rome entries. Our TM bragged that this was like an award winning campsite and that we should all be excited. It was similar to the last one we stayed at in that there were two people to a room, four to a cabin and a shared bathroom. However, these cabins were wood ones. And they were old and absolutely disgusting. These were also Contiki cabins which enraged me to no end. I really began to see here how Contiki rips off people by cramming them into these dirty accommodations to make money. I've done budget tours before and I was in now way expecting Rockefeller treatment, but I was expecting to be kept clean and to feel safe. Here, I felt neither. Latches held the doors closed and the campsite is pretty much empty during the day when you're in Rome, leaving your stuff open to anyone with poor intentions.

Also, if you are going to get bedbugs, you will be more than likely to get them here. The cabins are wood so they live in the walls and Contiki just sprays when you complain. They did move us to a new cabin, but that too had bugs. I got bitten badly, but Phil only had a few bites. This is where I really began to hate Contiki. Our TM literally just stared at me when I complained and there was nothing done about it. We had to deal with it for the two nights we were there.

For those of you who have had bed bugs, you haven't seen anything yet! These bugs are HUGE and black, when you roll over, your bed becomes covered in blood from squishing the ones that have been sucking on you. You can literally pick them off your body.

I spent much of my time in Rome feeling uncomfortable, sweaty and tired because we couldn't sleep. Then in the day, you would be in Rome where there is little to no shade and that Mediterranean sun beats down  on you unmercifully. The last time I had been in Rome, I had been 19 and it was March. It was cold and rainy then, but I liked it so much more than the humidity that killed me at the end of August at 28. Now mix that humid sweat with your bug bites and you are just miserable.

I wound up missing the Vatican which was not a big deal to me as I had been there before, but I felt bad that Phil felt he had to stay with me and miss it too. He has never been.

My favorite part of Rome? I think it was finally getting to go into the Colosseum:

From Rome, we would leave for Venice and on to an entirely crazy part of our trip and one that renewed my crushed spirit after the Contiki curse of Rome. 

EuroTrip: Florence

Like I have said, I had mixed feelings about returning to Florence since the last time I was there I felt as though it was such a bust. I was also 19 then and it was also March...and it snowed and rained and was cold.

This time Florence came alive for me. Our first trip into the city, we went to the same leather works store that I was in the last time I was there. This time though, I bought a puzzle ring. A puzzle ring is something from Florentine culture that husbands used to give their wives as their wedding band. A puzzle ring falls apart and is actually pretty hard to get back together, so Florentines did not take them off and if they did, it would obviously fall apart and would be evidence that they were cheating...because who takes their ring off?

I am still trying to figure out how to get mine back together. I had it home for about a month before I had two little girls visit me and in playing dress up, the ring went to pieces. Must love kids! Haha. This is where the real teasing of Phil began too. Every girl that was close to us on the trip began to give Phil a hard time for not proposing in Paris for my birthday and then not in Florence on my birthday. It didn't help that I bought myself this ring.

This still is probably the most fun I had on the trip. We had the most delicious pizza that because of the Italian way, got for free. In Italy they have a receipt system where you order at one counter and then pay at another. We had come late so they messed up our checks and never put our food on it. Our waiter was also so annoyed that he would not come back for us to tell him he forgot to put us on it. We stood and waited for 15 minutes, even bought gelato from their ice cream counter and waited for him to come over. He never did and so we left. 

I also do believe that this lead to the run in with the gypsy woman and the beginning of our bad Italian luck because we were sitting on the steps of a church getting WiFi and Phil came over to get money out of the secure bag and was followed over by a gypsy woman who once she saw money exchange between us, began asking us for some. Phil told her to get the hell out of here and she totally gave him the stick eye of death before she went away. His mom got a very nice gift, but it was there that the Italian curse began. 

We walked around for the rest of the day and hit more shops and Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, which will always be one of my favorite cathedrals because it was the first one I have ever visited. Phil also snapped this ridiculous picture of me:

"I wish I were a real, girl!"

We went back to our campsite, changed clothes and relaxed for probably 10 minutes before we went back into the city and enjoyed a Tuscan dinner. This is also where everyone sang me happy birthday and Phil and I split the tartufo that they had put my candle in. We also had too much red wine and this this picture now exists...it's actually one of my favorites:

Florence is beautiful. Pizza is delicious and when you get to celebrate your birthday there with the man that you love, it's just magical. This was a dream come true within my dream come true. I fell in love with Florence and even more in love with Phil.

We headed back after dinner and fell asleep very quickly. The next day we were up early because we were leaving for beautiful, Roma! 

EuroTrip: Monaco to Florence and Turning 28

8/2014. Florence.

I had mixed feelings about Florence. I had been there before when I was 19. I had done a trip with my college and we travelled all over Italy. That trip, Florence was my least favorite, but it was also the trip that would decide one of my college majors-- Art History.

So, I felt like I owed Florence a second chance and besides, it was my birthday. We spent much of the day traveling, but we did get to Florence at a reasonable time and we got to walk around a little. This campsite was really nice and clean. I was happy to be there and felt a lot safer there than I had when we stayed outside of Monaco.

It was a long day and with my body still on full-blown bloat mode Phil took me back to our cabin and rubbed my feet for probably a good hour after we had another crappy Contiki dinner. We eventually headed back towards the main area, got a real dinner, a couple of beers and sat outside in the Florence night air. Everyone else had gone back into the city and took part in the Contiki orchestrated karaoke night where a lot of people regretted going the following day when the hangover hit from the 2-liter drinks that the bar your TM takes you to sells you "on special." To me, this seemed like a concerning night when one girl from our tour went unaccounted for (and a guy from our tour went to look for her, no one from Contiki) while others were driven back by strange Italian men that picked them up after they drank 2 liters of alcohol in a bar.

That just seemed like a huge recipe for disaster and in many ways could have been had it gone differently.

I was glad to have stayed in that night and had a quiet birthday with my man who really is the best foot rubber, ever...no really, like EVER.

Phil on the other hand was just overjoyed to be out of France where small portions dominate. Phil couldn't wait to be in his country, Italy and immediately fell in love with Joe Pinette's take on France vs. Italy:

Overall, 28 began probably the best any other age had began up until the point. I was in Europe, with the love of my life and we had an entire trip to still go!  

EuroTrip: From the Beaujolais into Monaco

We said goodbye to the chateau and began our journey towards our final French-related stop, but the chateau would be a huge part of our trip because it's where so many of us came together as a group and started to make our friendships. These girls became my best friends and my magnet sister (we were on a mission to get a magnet from every stop):

P Party at the Chateau.

I was particularly excited about this leg of the trip because this leg also meant my birthday. I turned 28 in Monaco and spent the rest of my birthday in Florence. I was excited for Monaco because of Grace Kelly. As an American myself, it's a very romantic story that an American was picked by a prince and married into royalty even if her end was tragic. I couldn't wait, I had even packed a really great dress just for this part of the trip.

The views were beautiful driving from our camp site into town.

By Phil. (philgoestothemovies.blogspot.com)

Beaches in New Jersey do not look like that and the clear blue of the water was absolutely breath taking. Oceans in New Jersey are green and dull, but in Monaco it looked like a beautiful painting.

We walked up to the castle and Phil, Kelsey, Ellie and I all went on to look for magnets after we took our pictures.

By Phil. (philgoestothemovies.blogspot.com)

I was at this point suffering from what some travelers get: body bloat. It started in my feet and then my ankles and then my entire body blew up. It was very uncomfortable and also most unattractive, so I won't be posting pictures of myself, but here's Phil's selfie:

By Phil (philgoestothemovies.blogspot.com)

After the castle, we went back down to the casino areas which was just boring. Neither Phil nor I are gamblers so this was a bust. We walked down to the McDonald's and stood in an insane line to buy overpriced fast food. I was so let down and annoyed for having to have packed a dress that I just walked around in and then sat in McDonald's wearing as we used the WiFi.

We went back to the campsite after that as a cab ride back would have been way too much money and there was nothing to do there unless you wanted to gamble. We stayed at the campsite and hung out at the bar. We drank and laughed and then at midnight, those from the group that had come back with us, all sang me happy birthday. It was a fun night!

This was also one of the two worst camp sites of the trip so we wound up staying up really late because sleeping was scary. The bar closed and we had to go stand by the laundry rooms. Tipsy and tired, we stayed up talking and then the bright idea of what would be referred to as Mission 3AM was born. A guy on our trip brought with him a blue Angry Bird and he would take a picture of it wherever we went and wanted to get a picture with everyone on the trip. So, tipsy on my birthday we all decided it would be a great idea to steal the bird. We did and for the next couple of days we would pass the bird between us and whisper "3AM" to know that Blue was in transit. The bird was eventually given back to him and he was able to finish his mission with Blue.