This final Euro Trip post (before we get back to Switzerland) is to sum up my impressions of each city. In particular it is dedicated to Tim and Kate who might be coming over next year, or anyone else that plans on travelling to Europe in the future. Hopefully these tips/comments will be able to make your trip even more enjoyable than ours. Places Rome - Rome as a place to visit is a must.

After a few quick hours of sleep in Munich, we were checking out again. At the train station we waited for the tour to start, and then after seeing a sign for the Neuschwanstein Tour, signed up. Turns out it was the wrong one, and not the Sandeman’s one that we had to planned to go on. Our guide was perfectly good though, and in fact probably needed the money more as the other group was much bigger and there was only 2 other people with us.

Due to our delayed flight from France, we got into Prague later than we were supposed to. By the time we found our Hostel we had 30 mins to get to the walking tour we had booked. We asked at reception how long it would take to get there and got told about 30 mins. So we made a mad rush, but got the tram in the wrong direction, got a bit lost and went to a Mexican restaurant instead.

Coming in on the train in the morning we got to see some epic countryside. France was a lovely country and I want to go back again and see more of it one day. When we got off our train we needed to catch the Metro to our Hostel. The ticket system sucks. There was only one ticket machine and about 40 people lined up to use it. After we finally got our ticket we were on our way, and despite being very crowded it was pretty convenient and cheap.

I’ll take a short break from the Euro Trip story to tell you about my first time ice skating. I went into Zürich last night with a few other guys from IAESTE to go ice skating at the Dolder Ice Rink. The rink itself was so much cooler that I was expecting. Not only is it an open rink, but in the centre they had a massive lit up Christmas tree.

Coming into Venice was pretty exciting, especially when the train finally got past the mainland and we were on a bridge, heading out to sea and the island of Venice. My first impression wasn’t that great to be honest, I expected it to be cooler. The view from the train station wasn’t particularly dazzling and it wasn’t until a bit later that we got to see places that were more like my expectations.

We start our story of Florence at first with the train journey. We got to meet a diverse range of people during the trip. Immediately opposite Rachael and I was a British couple. I don’t think I heard the girl say a word during the whole journey. She sat there for the whole trip with headphones in ear, basically ignoring our existence. The guy was a polar opposite, extremely chatty and engaged us in conversation for the entire trip.

My Euro Trip started in Turgi on Saturday morning… and it was raining and cold. Got a train to Zürich where it was also raining, and waited for my train to Milan. Once on the train things got better, and eventually we got away from the rain and up into the Alps. I was sitting next to a lady from Berlin and her daughter and they were pretty cool to talk to.

So after waking up and waiting for the train to arrive, we stopped at Roma Tiburtina Station. It was not what I was expecting at all for the capital city of Italy. The train station had several homeless inhabitants, and smelt a bit funky. My plan had been to walk to Roma Termini Station to meet Rachael about an hour later, but there was no signage as to what direction anything was.

FRIDAY So the trip to Oktoberfest started with a long train ride from Zürich to München. It went fairly quickly but, as someone brought cards, so we played a Canadian variation of Presidents and Assholes. At the train station it was clear that we had arrived at Oktoberfest, as people were walking around in Lederhosen and Dirndl and there was massive Pretzels for sale everywhere. Also a big clue was the fact that many people were staggering around and one guy (who looked to be in his 40’s) even fell over when he got on an escalator and only just managed to stand up again before the top.