An Overwhelming Task

How do you sum up 14 days of galavanting around Europe without droning on and on and boring the world with stories that only 4 people actually think are funny? The same question can and will be asked at the end of the trip-how do you sum up 3 months without making a massive understatement?

My attempt will be in the format of bullet points. I may or may not choose to elaborate on any or all of the points. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

Day 1: Vienna to Salzburg
~A panicked Zak knocks on my door at 6:20, which was late. Rushy rushy, we made it to the train.
~Salzburg:Really neat park with a Pan’s Labyrinth style maze and tunnel, a gnome community, and 2 excellent multi-person swings; Danelle Sound of Music tour, Amy/Lydia/Zak frollick around old town; really very delightful dinner at an Italian restaurant

Day 2: Salzburg to Munich
~A delightful time waiting for Zak’s friend Stefan (with whom we never crossed paths). We made signs.

~Hofbrauhaus
~Octoberfest-which was less like a Renaissance festival (which I expected) and more like a giant state fair.

Night Train to Paris: Train ride from Hell
~4 people and a woman with a baby in one 6 person cabin
~Woman feeding baby gummy bears and coke at 10:30pm
~Another man comes in around 1am
~Steamy sweaty cabin
~My seat breaks, Danelle who is leaning on me sleeps through it all
~Crazy man with an afro and one tennis shoe on his foot, one in his hand, asks at two different times if the train we were on was going to the North Sea
~Police search with black lights
~Creepy woman staring at me from behind the curtain in her cabin
~Lack of sleep

Paris:
~First sight of Paris-Eiffel, beautiful bridge, suddenly fall in all its glory
~Eiffel-Amazing, all of the times I went, even the one where I was feeling quite sick. It had green legs (something having to do with supporting New Zealand and their rugby), and at night it would sparkle on the hour. I have it on video.
~Arc de Triomphe-triumphant.
~Purchased the Little Prince in French
~Anger and yelling from a French woman at a cafe (only angry experience with the French-everyone else was very pleasant and helpful)
~The Left Bank: non-touristy Paris, very cool people, we shared our pizza with 2 strangers. Just like a good revolutionary would.
~Notre Dame: breathtaking outside, a little less than I expected inside
~Versailles: another palace, sharing a lot of similarities to Schonbrunn…giant skeleton sculpture outside
~Cluny Museum: a little burnt out on museums and rushing…the heads from the saints on Notre Dame are here because during the revolution the peasants mistook them for the cruel kings of France and cut them off. There’s also an apparently important tapestry of “The Lady and the Unicorn”. It makes for a great fairy tale.
~Up the Eiffel Tower at Night: Obviously, great.

~Boulangerie, Fromagerie, Vinerie, Flea market fruit, picnic in a park across the Seine from Notre Dame-one of the best experiences of the whole trip.
~The Louvre: obviously very important, but hard to digest as such… I only saw a very small portion with the hour or so I had
~Lots of shopping for others and myself
~Very near train miss: We were at the wrong train station with 15 minutes before our train left. An angel with a French accent told us exactly where to go and walked us halfway there, then we set off running across the river and to the train station. We made it with 5 minutes to spare to find the train conductor welcoming us and congratulating us on making it. Also one of my favorite things that happened…

Barcelona:
~Language barrier: We’ve got the German and French covered, but none of us know a lick of Spanish.
~Really great hostel complete with living room, balcony, our own 4-person room, our own kitchen and laundry room, and a staff that would order pizza for us 2 nights in a row
~Beach lounging: some of the ladies on the beach lost their bikini tops! We girls laid around on the beach for most of the afternoon (complete with bathing suit tops) while Zak walked the sidewalks, eyes averted.
~We got in an animated conversation with some Italian boys in our hostel and got invited to go “speak, drink, and disco” with them. The girls went. I stayed in bed and worried like a good mother hen.
~Gaudi: The Sagrada Familia church is amazing, and I’m pretty much infatuated with Gaudi.

~Caught in a storm, soaking wet, unable to see, half drank sangria, run for the nearest (far) underground

Avignon:
~Palace of the Popes-largest Gothic palace
~The Papal Schism: we found it.

Marseille:
~Flea Market
~Flea Market Track Suits for the Whole Family
~Incredible beach-I think that the coast of Marseille might be my favorite physical place on the whole trip.

Bern:
~Hostel with a great location-out of the town, but easy access…although we had to climb a big hill
~The Swiss have a great sense of humor that comes through on their post cards. Unfortunately I bought a lot of postcards, but none of the ones that I thought were hilarious.
~Home of knives, watches, cheese, chocolate, and neutrality
~Happened upon a rally asking the citizens of Bern to “Stopp Arbeitslosigkeit”. So I supported that for a while…there was a band.
~Great chocolate, lots of shopping
I really liked Switzerland

Our ride back to Vienna was beautiful-flanked by the Alps and the unnaturally blue-green water of their lakes and rivers. We ate pizza at least once in every city but Munich.