It has been to the day, three months since I last posted. For my fellow readers, do not fear! This is good news. It means I've been really busy and really happy. Now with good news, comes some bad. Since I have to catch you up on three months of my exchange, it means this post is going to be a longggg one. Actually, I'm going to make two posts instead, but they are still both going to be very long. This one, will be about the traveling I've done.
I spent the majority of the months of April and May traveling around Europe. I went on a southwestern Eurotour (April 23rd to May 13th) and on a Northwest Eurotour (May 13th to May 23rd). In between those 2, I went on a trip with my class from the high school that lasted three days to Slovakia. And finally the weekend after the second Eurotour, I went to Vienna on my own for a 4 day long weekend.
These are the cities we visited on the Southern Eurotour:
Venice, Italy
Florence, Italy
Rome, Italy
Pisa, Italy
Monaco
Nice, France
Luzern, Switzerland
Innsbruck, Austria
We had about 32 Rotary students (all from Hungary except 2) on this trip and 3 tour leaders. All of the travels were done by bus. Venice was absolutely beautiful. It was exactly what you would expect. The weather was wonderful when were there, and everything from the food down to our gondola ride was incredibly picturesque. Something not so picturesque was when a pigeon pooped right on my noggin. Some would call it karma, as the tour guide was warning us about pigeon poop and I thought 'HA that only happens in movies'. WELL. I was proved wrong by the Venetian pigeons. Thankfully my friends had my back and we got it sorted quite quickly. But be careful when in Venice, ladies and gents. Never doubt the power of the pigeon. We also met some German exchange students with Rotary on their Eurotour. Small world. Florence and Rome were absolutely beautiful as well. we stayed in cool hostels where the rooms were little bungalows. We ate ice cream everyday. We got cheaped out on ice cream at Vatican City. We ended up paying close to 12 dollars for 2 scoops. It was good ice cream, but not thaaat good. I also learned that the beauty of Pisa is well kept hidden. Everyone talks about Venice and Rome...not so much Pisa. But it ended up being my favourite Italian city that we visited. And get this....the tower REALLY leans! We had a really fun night in Pisa even partying with our bus drivers! Now if there's one city on this tour that beat Pisa it was definitely Nice. Nice was like a dream. It was the first time I had gone to the beach in a very long time and I didn't even realize how much I had missed it. We got lost a bunch of times but we ended up discovering a gem of a restaurant right on the beach! The last couple of days involved a lot of time on the bus but we ended up getting really close as a group under those circumstances so it was certainly worth it.
Fast forward a couple of days and I'm in Slovakia with my class. Now, being on a trip with Hungarian teenagers is very different from being on a trip with exchange students. I don't think there's a better immersion into the culture of kids your age in another country than going on an overnight trip with them. I shocked them a little with my love for hockey (one I didn't know I had) and how I couldn't take my eyes off the screen when a game was on and the girls couldn't fathom the fact that I wash my hair everyday. Definitely proved how different our cultures are, but we all embraced our differences. My classmates love asking questions about where I come form and getting to know me and my country that way.We did a lot of historical sightseeing and I really did feel myself getting closer to some of my classmates. People who had never talked to me before, did. The language barrier was ever apparent though as I struggled to understand what was going on a lot of the time and I realized one of the most difficult things to convey is humour. I am definitely notttt funny when I speak in Hungarian. (I like to think I'm funny in English :D) That's one of the obstacles to overcome though, when you're on exchange and I'm proud to say that I can have whole conversations with my classmates (albeit, slowly but surely) in Hungarian. I was skeptical about going on my class trip since I didn't think I was close enough to them to really enjoy it, but I'm really glad I went.
Andddd one more week and we're on Eurotour numero dos.
Prague, Czech Republic
Cologne, Germany
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
London, England
Brussels, Belgium
Paris, France
Strasbourg, France
Munich, Germany
This Eurotour was very different in many ways. We had around 15 more students on this one, making everything pretty hectic. We had 6 or 7 students from Italy joining us too! They were a great addition to our group and I'm really glad they came along with us. It was rainy for the majority of this tour which was too bad and we spent a lot of time on the bus, even during tours. I still wouldn't change it for anything, I had a wonderful time and I will always remember and cherish it. London and Amsterdam (...) were breathtaking and I've sworn to myself I'll be back there someday.
Lastly and most recently, I traveled to Vienna for 4 days to visit Hannah, the Austrian inbound to my Rotary club in Calgary next year. She and her family could not have treated me with more kindness. We went to see musicals and we ate out at delicious places and we sightsaw despite the rain and we went to little cafes and I know I'm rambling but a summary of all we did can never explain how much fun I had there. I felt like I had known Hannah forever and my urge to visit Vienna was finally calmed. I am so satisfied with all the traveling I've done and I am so so lucky to have had the opportunity.
It's funny because before exchange I thought that's what it was all about: exchange in my mind was one long trip with a bunch f traveling sandwiched inbetween. Coming close to the end of my exchange I can say that's definitely not it. Exchange is about learning and growing and living so many different experiences than you would at home. All the traveling I got done lately...that's just been a bonus!
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