I was about to lose my European virginity with a tour with Topdeck, it was a 14 day tour around the "Wonders of Europe". Christina was accompanying me on this amazing experience. We headed with our giant packs to The Clink hostel in Kings Cross, London as this where the bus was leaving from at 6 am the next morning. Got to see the platform 9 and 3/4's that was filmed for the Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone movie (don't judge me because I like Harry Potter). After getting to our hostel and finding our mixed dorm room - which were were sharing with 13 other hearty travellers we decided to head down to the underground basement bar to see if we could meet any of the others that would be on our tour the next day. Each night they have a theme and tonights was Beer Pong, as we proceeded to say the famous last words "we will only go for 1" as we have to get up early and travel tomorrow, I did not know what I was getting myself into (well to be honest I did - but it sounded good). We ended up playing beer pong most of the night, Christina aka 'Irene Van Dkye' and I aka 'Maria Tutaia' (although not so tan and smaller boobs) against an Irish and a Swedish guy, fair to say there was not just the one drink consumed and did not get to bed till 2am - what a great start!

The next morning I awoke to the horrendous snoring of one substantially large, hairy beast of a man in the bunk opposite, who slept naked on his back with his legs open, not the view I would of liked this early in the morning. Headed down to breakfast where I managed to down some toast as I was feeling a bit queasy after the devil beer pong games. All packed up ready to go, got to reception and everyone had already gotten on the bus (I blame Christina who was in the toilet at the time), ran out the door into our tour leader Noukie, from Amsterdam (now known as Amsterdamage) ran to the bus and hopped on and luckily there were 2 seats left near the front for us.

Had a nice wee kip on the bus as we drove to the White Cliffs of Dover to catch the ferry to Calais, in France. The ferry ride was not one of my finest moments as I spent the majority of it in the toilet, losing my breakfeast - I have always been a victim to sea-sickness ;)

We got on our home on wheels for the next 14 days and meet our driver Toot, a cheeky aussie that made us all laugh. We travelled to Paree Paree or better know as Paris, the capital of France, the city of lights and love, fashion and food, creativity and culture. Practiced our basic french 'Bonjour' 'S'il vous plait' 'Merci' 'Au revior' and headed to dinner to an anuthentic french local restaurant. For starters was snails still in the shell covered in pesto (quite nice but a bit gritty) frogs legs (were in a batter and tasted kind of like chicken) baguettes and the most amazing french onion soup I have ever sampled. The main was a beef in a red wine sauce topped off with a glass of rose'. After dinner we hopped back on the bus and did a
City Lights tour, we climbed up a huge amount of stairs leading to an amazing church where you had to be silent inside, Christina turned to me and said should we say some kind of prayer, I tried not to laugh as I could not say a prayer to save myself and laughed at the thought of my parents thinking about me in a famous church not knowing any prayers. Sorry God maybe next time. It was an gorgeous night outside and we sat on the stairs with a huge crowd watching the most amazing busker I have ever seen - he sung all his songs in english and I knew every single one of them, I want to marry him, also worth a considerable mention was the breath taking view of Paris that we got whilst sitting here, its moments like these that you know it is worth all the money spent! As it got dark we travelled to see the Eiffel Tower, which lit up with thousands of twinkling lights when the clock strikes the hour a "Topdeck Special" haha.
The next morning we did a Fat Tyre Bike tour around Paris, (if your laughing about me riding a bike I will punch you haha). Our guide was a halirious American man who described Paris as "smelling like piss, being covered in broken glass and ciggy butts". Saw all the famous sights and learnt alot of history. For tea we had a gourmet picnic in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, which consisted of numerous salads, breads, cheese's, chicken, shrimp, fruit etc (Im hungry just writing this). After tea we hopped on a boat and did a night cruise down the River Seine - saw the famous bridge at the end of the Sex in the City movie.

Switzerland
A 9 hour bus trip to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, stopped on the way and had a delicious picnic lunch with salad, fresh fruits, breads and cheese. It was SO HOT as the bus was always well air-conditioned, I stepped outside and it hit me like a brick wall, Southland does not breed us for this kind of heat. Such a scenic country kind of similar to Queenstown but much more vast. Where we were staying was a cute wee camping ground set in a deep valley, with towering cliffs and tumbling waterfalls, framed by the snowy peaks of Europes great mountain range - the Swiss Alps.
Dinner was in the Topdeck Cook Tent with we had our own chefs cooking us a traditional Swiss meal, the most amazing cheese foundue which consisted of 4 types of Swiss cheese, white wine, and peach schnapps and mini bits of bread to dip in it (my favourite meal of the whole tour), the main was roast pork, new potatoes, and vegetables. Gave us all "Welcome shots" of peach schnapps in a wee bottle, the traditional swiss way to shot it is to bang it on the table 3 times, take the top off stick it on the end of your nose, put the shot in your mouth, stick your fingers in your ears, tilt your head back and down she goes! Had a pyjama party at the camping ground bar, which was ridiculously expensive.

The next morning went on a 2 hour train ride on the historic Jungfraubahn railway, straight upwards to the summit of the Jungfrau mountain, it is over 12000ft high - the highest mountain in Europe accessible by train. Went to the underground cave Ice Palace, where there was the most detailed skillfully made ice sculptures, of course being on a top of a mountain it was covered in snow and ice, and snowing at the time - some of the aussie's on the tour had never seen snow before. Went on a flying fox kind of contraption across the mountain, was quite scary, and went tubing down a man made track and got sconed in the head with a snowball. Went back down the mountain and explored the cute wee town of Lauterbrunnen.

Florence, Italy
Said goodbyes to Swizterland and Ciao to Florence, in Italia, had another picnic lunch with all its usual deliciousness. Was another cracker day, so hot but so good not to be surrounded in snow, rain, and coldness. Saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is rumoured that in 100 years it will have completely collasped and lost forever. Had tea at the hotels restaurant, to prepare for the drinking competition I had some how got myself into with a Canadian guy who sat opposite me on the bus. The hotel had a roof top bar with fairy lights everywhere, again Topdeck provided us with some free shots (Cheers Noukie) and the night began, the roof top bar closed and everyone headed down the the basement bar. Fair to say I did not do to well in the drinking competition, and the last shot I can remember was Jack Daniels, which did not stay in me too long, my location in which I disposed of this (and my tea) will remain undisclosed as its good chat which my mum would not be so proud of my actions (Hi Mum).
Woke up and went to the restaurant for brekky, headed out for a walking tour of Florence and I was well and truely in struggle town, because of the extreme heat and my not so well state the history of the Renaissane period, beautiful buildings like the Duomo, and Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo's statues were completely lost on me - I will definetly have to return.
Florence is world famous for its Florentine steak which is a thiiicckkk peice of steak seared for 1 minute each side - raw in the middle. I was not brave enough to try this as Im not sure my stomach would of agreed so settled for a cheese, ham and mushroom pizza instead. Went to a leather store and got showed how to tell a fake from the real deal, and how they embellish the designs onto the leather. Sampled some famous Italia gelato (icecream) had cookies and cream, and pastichio flavour, headed back to the hotel as we were leaving for Rome at 3pm.

Roma (Rome), Italy
Buongiorno Roma! nicknamed the "Eternal City' the historic centre of the great Roman Empire. Our amazing Topdeck guide Noukie took us on a walking tour around Rome, taking in 2000 years worth of history and heaps of beautiful building including the Colosseum, had pizza for lunch and headed back to the camping ground 'Camping Roma' (which was my favourtie place to stay of the tour) which had its own pools, poolside bar, restaurants, supermarket, and white sand volleyball court. One of the nights there was a traffic light party, you could buy 'Ciao Bella' tshirts which pretty much translates to "your hot" in english. Red tshirts for the taken people, yellow tshirts for the "its complicated.. or what happens in Rome stays in Rome" and green for the single and ready to mingle. When in Rome.

Vatican City
This morning we had a guided tour of Vatican City, the worlds smallest state and home of the Catholic religion. Our guide was the most craziest, energetic lady I have ever seen, an english woman named Fiona who bounced around with her umbrella and could not stand still, it was great to see someone so passionate about a place. She showed us the treasures of the Vatican Museums and the world famous Sistine Chapel with its ceiling frescoes by Michelangelo, then the worlds largest church St Peter's Basilica.

Venezia (Venice), Italy
Took a boat into Venice, an array of islands, connected by countless bridges serviced by a beautiful network of canals, no cars, trucks, vehicles here other than the canal boats gondola's. Went to a local lace making school and learnt how the traditional Venetican lace is made. Went on a traditional gondola ride around the canals with a man in a striped black and white shirt, and hat - disapointing he did not sing to us, not like the movies. But was still a fantastic way to see around the canals of Venice!
Took a ferry back to where we are staying across the sea, saw all the docks and numerous speed boats, jetboats, superyachts, and yachts Bruce you would be in your element here. I will take you here when you come and visit me hint hint nudge nudge. One of the nights was a foam party, which was way more extreme that in O week in Dunedin, foam for Africa and a drink they served which was all spirits mixed with orange bicardi, lethal! the second night was a toga party where I spent most of the night playing ping pong (in my toga) with some boys from Leeds (I won by the way as I'm half chinese when it comes to ping pong as we used to have a ping pong table in our woolshed!).

Tyrol Region, Austria
Ciao to Italy and hello to Austria. We made our way upwards - literally - to the Austrian Tyrol region, the landscape is a rival to Switzerland. Went canyon jumping which is the craziest thing ever! No one really knew what they were getting themselves into.. and boy if we did no one would of done it. After being kitted out in full length wetsuits with hoods, helmets, and harness's we got driven to the entrance of a paddock where we walked up a hill for about 5 minutes crossed a bridge and saw the first task, at 25 metre raging waterfall that we had to abseil down, then a combination of jumping off cliffs, sliding down rock paths, and abseiling makes for a great adreneline filled day! We had a bbq dinner and explored the small town.

Rhine Valley, Germany
Willkommen in Deutschland! Welcome to Germany! one of the worlds nations with a history like no other, not it a good way though. This is where I visited the Dachau concentration camp, where I learnt about the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust, and paid respects to the people who lost there lives to the hands of the Nazi regime. It was an eye opening experience to think that people can be that evil, saw where / how they lived and the gas chambers where the new entrants into the camp got told they were "showers" and thought they would get a nice hot shower after there long journey, but met there fate instead.. a horrible place.
In a brighter note, other than Dachau it was a beautiful place teeming with vineyards, where they harvest the grapes during winter when they are covered in icicles, and make an Ice wine - unfortunately I did not get to sample this wee treat. The landscape was dotted with castles and fortresses and we stayed the night in a medievil castle!

AMSTERDAMAGE (Amsterdam), Netherlands
The last stop of my tour.. the Amsterdam, famous for many things like cheese, clogs, drugs and sex. On the way there stopped to pay a visit to a local farmer to see how these typically Dutch products are made, he was crazy as had probably been on drugs his whole life, but a great laugh and got to try some amazing cheeses! Had a walking tour from Noukie (her home town) through the red light district, saw some interesting things, and then headed out to a sex show. Was halirious, with a few different acts with the only props the girls used were a pole, a scarf, a banana, and a vivid without using there hands - I will leave the rest up to your imaginations!
Went to a "coffee shop" and Christina and I shared half a space cake, special brownie - whatever you want to call it. After nothing happened we shared another one and along with a group of us spent the night tripping out around Amsterdam, was a great/weird/crazy experience.

The next day destroyed KFC like never before, and went to Madame Tussards wax museum, was amazing so life like I thought they were going to jump at me yelling "surpise!!" saw all the famous celebrities and politicans. That night we went out for our Farewell dinner in a chinese restaurant, was a delicious meal to end the tour, we then hoped on a cruise boat and had an hour cruise around the canals of Amsterdam with all you could drink, dangerous or what! Went out in Amsterdam that night and had heaps of fun!

Up bright an early in the morning to head away in time to catch the ferry in Calais back to Dover, stopped in Belgium, where I tried some famous fries with mayonaise. Found a shop were they had made chocolate genital parts, both male and female. Caught the ferry back to England and headed back on the bus to Londontown, got back to the Clink hostel where all this madness started and deposited of our packs. Noukie took those who were remaining out to an Italian restaurant for a relaxing dinner was a great way to wind down, everybody had also contracted the Topdeck Flu, I slept like a baby that night. Overall I meet some amazing people, and was an awesome/drunken/hungover/exciting adventure that I would recommend to anyone!

Now back to the big bad real world, job and flat hunting begins.. wish me luck! xoxo