Sunrise in Sweden: July 2014

In the morning when we started hiking it was very cloudy and we weren't sure if it would clear up for us. Never fear, it did!

When we came down from the hike we got the choice to go through the gorge at the bottom. It was very refreshing with all the cold air from the water!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures from this tour.
Left to right: USA (me), Italy, Argentina, and Mexico

The last morning I woke up at 4 to watch the sun rise. I could not see the sun, but I could see the sun line on the mountains as the sun went up.

Before we got to Italy we spent the day in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana!

And then we were in the scorching heat of Italy!

The main shopping street ran parallel to the beach and shops were open till 10pm!

It was amazing how many people were already on the beach when we got out there around 10 am!

We stayed in Lido Di Jesolo where we sunbathed, ate gelato, pizza, and pasta!

Then we spent one day in Venice!

By the way in the picture above if you look to the left side you can see some white canopies. Ya that is the worlds first cafe!

We also got to take a gondola ride through the water streets of Venice!

Italy was beautiful and hot, but after three nights, I was ready to get a good nights sleep without sweating and ready to not have to wear sunscreen 24/7!

Paris!!!

See the rainbow!!!!????!?!?!?!

Do I need words to describe Paris? It's Paris! And to be honest, it was really cool to be there and say I was there, but it was a little bit too touristy for me.

But it was real pretty!

On the bus ride to Paris we watched Moulin Rouge the movie, so I just had to go here.

One morning we woke up early and stood in a 3 hour line to go under the city of Paris and look at the Catacombs. It was a very interesting experience. For those of you who do not know, this underground city was used for mining until the Black Plague when there was a shortage of graves for those who were dieing. So they threw them all down into the underground city. I guess I can't really say "threw" them down there because the bones were placed in orderly stacks and the skulls were made into patterns. It made me wonder who had done that...

Notre Damn!

Lock bridge

Unfortunately we did not have time to go in, but we were able to walk around the building a little bit.

The last night a bunch of us went up the Eiffel Tower. We only went up to the second level, but that was enough because it was a little cloudy and we probably could not have seen anything from the top. I also wanted to walk up it, but we didn't have time so we took the elevator up and walked/ran down.

When we got back to the hotel that night we went up to the roof and watched a light show!

And then it was time to move on. Before coming back we took a stop in Brussels!

I wish we had spent a night in Brussels, it was a really pretty city and I felt that a couple hours didn't do it justice.

And then we were back in Germany for our last night and the start of the goodbyes.

Our fabulous 4 Rotarian leaders

We did a little talent show as well:

And then the real goodbyes when we got back to Sweden. Before going on exchange everyone prepares you for the culture shock and the switching of families and the goodbyes to families, but no one ever told me about the goodbyes to the other exchange students. The people who understand exactly what you have gone through (both the goods and bads), they are all like my brothers and sisters, life-long friends. And I will never be able to call one place on Earth home, because now I have life-long friends all over the world!