France

France has been amazing.
We are currently in the French Riviera. We are staying in Nice but on Sunday we went to Cannes for the last day of the Cannes Film Festival. It was absolutely beautiful there and we saw lots of celebs! People like Tim Burton, Salma Hayek, Kirsten Dunst and Benicio Del Toro...so cool! We had great weather that day so we hung out on the beach a lot too and did a trolley tour of Cannes. Such a blast.
We have just been beach bums in Nice the last 2 days. Tomorrow we work our way back to Germany for our flight home. =(

Slovenia, Germany and France

I have had zero time to update lately, my apologies.

Ljubljana, Slovenia was my new favorite place I think. It's definitely a little known gem but weeeelll worth the trip. We went to a University there and a prison as well. We also visited the castle there and climbed to the top which was so awesome. On our way to Germany we visited the resort town of Bled in Slovenia. It is a tiny place set on a lake, almost like Lake Louise but dare I say, much more beautiful.
In Munich we got to visit the former concentration camp, Dachau. It was very sad but also so interesting.
I also had my first European clubbing experience while in Munich and it went quite well. Other than the fact that a single high ball was about 8 euro which is about $12-13 Canadian. Yikes.
After one of the hardest days of our lives experiencing the Eurail system for the first time, we arrived in Paris and were greeted by my parents.
Paris is phenomenal. We can see the Eiffel Tower from the apartment and it's about a 3 minute walk. We did a bus tour today to get our bearings about Paris and it was amazing!
Tomorrow we are doing the Palace of Versaille!!!!!

More to come,
Chelsea
xo

Sarajevo

Greetings!

While I don't feel nearly as safe in Sarajevo as I did in Vienna, it is certainly one of my new favorite cities. It seems like it's situated in a valley and when you look to your left or right you see very cool looking houses on the hills. There are mosques and synagogues and many other churches all over the place.
We were told the city is mostly divided into a Muslim side and a Christian side but we are pretty much in the very middle of both.
I tried cevapi yesterday! And I liked it. (It tasted better than it looks!) Mom and Dad, I hope you're proud of me! It is a traditional food from this area and it is pita bread with sausage, onions and a yogurt/cream cheese type sauce. My breath smelled delicious after.
This city has been the most difficult so far concerning communication. We have come across very few people who speak English.
I still cannot get over the amount of damage left over from the 90's here, it is very sad/scary and it certainly makes me appreciate the safety we experience in Canada.
I stayed in the hotel room with Jess today since she is so sick but hopefully I can do more sightseeing tomorrow.

XO,
Chelsea

Croatia/Bosnia

Hiiii!

We were only in Croatia for one night but it was beautiful. Everything was sooo green. Tons of damage on the buildings there too though. We went out to a pizza place for dinner and then went to bed so we didn't get to really do any sightseeing there other than what we saw on the bus though. =(

We arrived in Bosnia today. It was quite the process getting into the country; we had to go through 2 borders. I am getting some cool stamps on my passport though!

Sarajevo is gorgeous so far...probably my favorite place to look at. Toooons of damage from the genocide still..it is sad. A little boy was asking me for money today, that was the first child beggar I have seen. And anyone who knows me knows how hard it is for me to say no to a child but I did! Haha.

More to come...
Love,
Chelsea xoxoxo

Hello,

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. Since we have been in Budapest our time has been so jam packed I have had no time. We leave for Croatia tomorrow.

Since we have been here we went to a girl's juvenile detention center that used to be a military hospital during WW2. While there we got to talk to 5 of the girls who are incarcerated there with a translator. They asked us if they look like gypsies. One of them asked me if I played basketball too and when we told them there was snow in Canada they were amazed. We also went to the police headquarters and we visited some famous sights.
Today we did a walking tour of a crime ridden section of Pest. It was really neat/scary to see all the damage left over from WW2 and also the Communist regime. There are bullet holes in everything still and most buildings are really damaged. The Buda side was much prettier and unfortunately we didn't get to see too much of. We haven't found the people in Budapest to be as nice as they were in Vienna and there tends to be a funky smell almost everywhere. Still a really cool city though.

Today we went to our first European McDonalds. It was good.

I am really sick with a bad cough and my feet are so swollen I can't fit any shoes on. Attractive, I know.

More soon!

Love
Chelsea xo

Hellllllo!

The prison was really cool..the biggest institution in Austria and it had a ton of history. We went into a room that once housed a guillotine used to kill over 1,000 people during WW2 by the Nazi's. The room was kind of eerie- it had a tap on the wall that was used to wash away the blood of all the victims. We also got to see the actual book that all the victims names, ages, and occupations were kept in. One of few original documents that weren't destroyed.
Later that night we went shopping in the awesome fashion district..so fun! We went to a creepy little bar after. Everything is filled with smoke here which gets really annoying.
Today we went to see the Lipizanner horses at the palace. It was just a training session so it was relatively anticlimactic but the horses were pretty and so were the grounds.
After that we got the rare privilege of getting to go into the UN. There were a ton of security measures and screenings til we could get in. Once we were in we were given a tour and then listened to 3 lectures. It was a really cool experience! We learned a lot too.
Tomorrow we are touring the Law faculty @ the University of Vienna.
After that we are driving to Budapest!
Updates to come!
Love,
Chelsea xoxoxo

PS My connexn at this hotel isn't working well enough to post pics =( but I will keep trying.

Vienna Cont'd

Yesterday we went for a boat ride on the Blue Danube...while not nearly as blue as you would expect it was pretty cool. While on board we tried wiener schnitzel for the first time..delicious! Just like chicken fingers. =)
After that we walked through the city to Sigmund Freud's museum, which is in his actual clinic. Pretty cool. Unfortunately his famous couch was on loan to a museum in New York so we didn't get to see it.
After that we walked to the Imperial Palace which was great, but not nearly as beautiful as the Schonbrunn Palace.
Later that night I went to the Vienna Opera House to see the Nutcracker ballet with Brittney and a few other people. Nosebleed section! Our tickets were only 12 euro so it was to be expected. We actually all fell asleep during the ballet because we had had such a long day, but it was still really good.
Today we are going to visit and old prison...Should be interesting!!!

Until next time,
Chelsea xoxoxox

Vienna

After almost 2 days of no sleep we are exhausted but here safely!

Vienna is stunningly gorgeous. So green and lush. The buildings are so beautiful and almost 'Victorian' like.

Our hotel is really weird. It's like a giant 6 story house with about 5 rooms on each floor. The elevator is tiny and barely fits even one person so we all had to carry our bags up...ouccch.

We went to the Schonbrunn Palace today, built for the Hapsburg Empire. It was the most amazing and beautiful thing I have ever seen. The fountains and gardens were unbelievable and the sheer size of the entire place is unimaginable.

I am falling asleep but I will post a better update with pictures tomorrow...
Until then,

Chelsea xoxoxoxo