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It's certainly hard to write when you're jet-lagged, so I'll write a brief itinerary from where I left off.
Munich, Germany: We went to the Dachau Concentration Memorial Site. It was extremely depressing, and both my mom and I cried bucket loads of tears. We then spent the rest of the night until 10:00 (when we needed to leave for our train to Amsterdam) at the hostel talking to Lucas, another Brazilian we met.
Amsterdam: Our first day there was really only an afternoon, but we spent it by walking around and exploring the city. It really is the city of bikes, where ever there's NOT a street with an incredibly wide bike lane (which is not often), the biker dominates the road. The next day we did basically the same thing, except we also spent some time in the hotel resting, due to heavy rain. The weather in Amsterdam seems to be pretty unpredictable, making the people very hardy. The next morning we put our bags in a locker, then set out to rent some bikes. Here's a helpful hint when renting a bike: make sure that your seat is TIGHTENED. Otherwise, you have to constantly be twisting so you're not facing the complete opposite way you're biking. The wonderful thing about biking is that you can cover a lot of ground in a small amount of time, so we had time to bike in the parks outside of Amsterdam. People really enjoy their parks in big cities. There were lots of people on bikes, skate boards, roller blades and just walking. Then there were picnics, football (soccer), and people just hanging out. There were people trying to make a little money by sharing their talents: jugglers, singers, instrument playing. It was awesome!
A night ferry to London: We took a train to Hoek Van Holland, which was where our ferry to London left from. We said good-bye to the windmills, the rolling country side, and the beautiful flowers of Holland. We boarded the cruise, Stena lines--it was not as nice as the cruise that we took from Rome earlier, but very comfortable and almost as big. We slept soundly and awoke to some reggae music that they used to wake up everyone aboard.
London: Our last day in Europe!!! We spent it with my uncle's (my mom's brother's) friend, Bruce. He brought us to a cafe that had an outdoor screen playing the Wimbledon tennis matches. The crowd was cheering for their man: Murray, if he would win he would be the first one in 75 years to win (from Great Britain). We spent most of the afternoon there. Bruce told us about his two kids; his daughter, 22, plays rugby and lacrosse and his son, 24, lives in NY and is a professional ballet dancer. A funny concept, isn't it?
When it was time to split, my mom and I went to check out a modern art museum. There was a pile of sunflower looking seeds. It was actually ceramic pieces though, each "seed" made separately. It was done by an artist from China who thought sharing sunflower seeds was very human, as opposed to mass producing things and adding "made in China" to it. From there, we quickly found the nearest metro station and rode to the airport.
Flight from London to Iceland: We left at 9:20 PM and arrived at midnight. Both my mom and I were exhausted, so we decided to spend the night in the airport instead of walking around the city like we had planned. The hard, concrete floor was my mattress, my bag was my pillow, and my jacket was my blanket. It wasn't the most comfortable bed, but it had to make do.
Flight from Iceland to Boston: Our plane to Boston left at 10:00 PM, so we spent the morning checking in and looking at the Icelandic gift shops. The plane ride was 5 hours and 15 minutes.
So that's the end of our trip. No more Europe. It was a great experience, and it taught me so many things. We met thousands of people, some we'll keep in touch with still, some we'll probably never talk to again. But the thing is, everyone of them were kind, enjoyable, and absolutely amazing. Every experience we had was positive, even our crazy Germany experience had positive lessons involved. This trip, even though it has come to an end, will never, ever, actually be ended. It's still with my mom and I, and we're still enjoying every moment we've shared in this enchanting continent.
- comments
Kirk and Kylee Chris and Ce! Thx for taking us with you on your trip by keeping this wonderful blog!!! We loved reading every bit of it!
kellie courtney wow, sounds like you are having some powerful experiences. Your memories will last a lifetime!
Danielle CeAnn, this is a great blog! Your a wonderful writer and sounds like you had a lot of fun! Hopefully I'll see you soon!