Thursday, July 29, 2004

Da TrIp
tuesday-june 15, 2004

went to the airport. felt weird because i didn't really know anybody. anyways, went from honolulu to dallas to chicago to england. the flight was a total of about 18 hours. my butt hurt and sleep...only for 3 hours. landed on wednesday night, england time and went on the coach (bus). driving on the wrong side! it was scary! got to meet our preppy tour guide, jessica and the other group from the big island/maui/kaui. total of 29 people. man...sometimes jessica never shuts up...then i got 2 hours of sleep....basically 5 hours for 2 nights. we didn't get to go to windsor castle. grr...the other group did though.

thursday, June 17

ate breakfast which consisted of bread, crossaints, cereal, yogurt, cheese, ham, milk, and orange juice. that's basically what we ate EVERY morning on the trip. ugh...then boarded the tubes (subway system). super paranoid because jessica told us to avoid all eye contact and guard our belongings. went to westminster abbey. it was really pretty. too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures. went to listen to a member of the british parliament. then went to the cabinet war rooms museum. mostly about wwII. kinda boring. then ate at a chinese place. tasted funny. then went to go see a british play called blood brothers. i was falling alseep..but the second part had lots of loud noises so i woke up to see the very dramatic ending.

friday, june 18 (day 4)

went to buckingham palace and watched the changing of the guards. the ones that wear red and have those tall fuzzy hats. hehe. then went to tower of london and learned about the kings and saw the crown jewels. then went on the london eye (oversized carousel) it was awesome. it had a really nice view of london. then went to hard rock cafe.

saturday, june 19 (day 5)

went to the globe museum where they had a stage that they thought would be like the one's back in the old days of shakespeare. then went to the british museum which used to be someone's house. it was huge! then went shopping. whoohoo! and then met our homestay. aww...they were so nice.

sunday, june 20 (day 6)

then went abseiling. kinda like repelling. other people went kayaking with yucky green stuff, while other people did archery. then went back to our homestays.

monday, june 21 (day 7)

went to the city of bath. got to see the yucky green roman baths. then went shopping. whoohoo!!! went back to our homestays. ate a traditional english meal and watched mtv (lots of usher and brittney spears) and then football (soccer) england lost to netherlands. so sad. last night with them...

tuesday, june 23 (day 8)

left our homestays. so ---> went to stonehenge. whoohoo...didn't get to go very close to it though. cool that it's still standing after 5,000 years. played more soccer at a nearby park. then went on the cruise to france. the beds came from the ceiling. that was scary

wednesday, june 23 (day 9)

arrived in caen. then went to the american memorial. it was really haunting. thousands of white crosses...and blood red rose petals dancing in the wind. then went to eat some french food. kinda crappy. the went to another museum about d-day. then talked with chawn, white thomas, and barbara. it was hilarious. lol. that was one of the highlights of my trip. they were all very surprised. i was laughing nonstop for half an hour. it all started with lollipops...then just got nasty from there. then rode the coach to paris.

thursday, june 24 (day 10)

went to musee du louvre. it was really cool. there were so many paintings and stuff. can't believe it was 12 miles long. saw the mona lisa. attempted to get a picture of it, but it turned out all blurry. then went on a ferry. made me sleepy. cool to see notre dame. bummer that we couldn't go inside because they were renovating. then we went to eat escargot. tasted like the sauce, chewy, and a little bitter. went back to the hotel. ate at mcdonald's. (mcdonald's is crappy there) then yoshi and jason cross dressed. that was HILARIOUS.

friday, june 25 (day 11)

went to the chateau de versailles. really nice house. wandered in the garden w/ amber, rachel, and pam. then went to the eiffel tower. whoohoo! it was awesome. looking over the edge made you feel like you were gonna fall. sights were great. then we wrote a peace letter and played telephone. o, and the olympic torch came by. that was cool. went on the metros (subway) and met this SCARY french guy. he was hitting on shelley and talking to white thomas in french. he looked like an old bum. went back at the hotel and had more mcdonald's. lol.

saturday, june 26 (day 12)

went to belgium. went to flanders field museum. mostly about ww1. it was ok. then went to menin gate. where there were names written on the white walls. thousands of them. i wanted to see poppies...but they were out of season. darn...if only i came a few months earlier. then ate fries. didn't know fries came from belgium. ate that with mayo. gross. but we had belgium waffles. yummy. then went to brugges and went to a chocolate shop and showed us how they made it. bought some very expensive chocolate. then rode on a horse and carriage around brugges. tthat was cool. there were 15 cathedrals in that town. that's kinda surprising. then went to the hotel. novotel is the best. there was a ps2 downstairs (too bad only had one game, soccer) and a pool and a playground with a really awesome see-saw and swings. went swimming and played on the see-saw.

sunday, june 27 (day 13)

went to amsterdam in the netherlands. whoohoo! went to anne frank's house. that was kinda cool. there were LOTS of kinky shops and gay bars everywhere. i guess it lives up to it's name of the sex city.

monday, june 28 (day 14)

peace palace and international court of justice. then went to ride on old granny bikes. but it was really cool. everything was really pretty. i guess i prefer the country side of europe. then learned how windmills work and saw how cheese and clogs were made. stinky cheese...

tuesday, june 29 (day 15)

went to germany. (my favorite country in europe so far!) went to windmill park. then went on a cruise down rhine river. the water was really pretty. can't really describe the color, but it was like really dark blue. it was really pretty. then uhh....i forgot...i know we did something else, just don't remember.

wednesday, june 30 (day 16)

rode the coach to friedburg. cool city....then walked around, ate really good ice cream and went...shopping!!! hooray!

thursday, july 1 (day 17)

wemt to the cuckoo clock shop and learned how they were made. bought one for my family...it's still sitting in the box. o well. then went to plant the people to people tree. then took a hike through the black forest. it was really pretty. just a thick curtain of trees. too bad we didn't see animals i played soccer the whole afternoon. some people went mountain biking. i didnt go cuz the bikes were too big. legs cramped up after playing for so long. then ate a traditional german dinner while a guy played the accordian for us. that was fun. then went back to the hotel and explored friedburg some more. saw some drunk guys saying hi and a bartender thought we were japanese tourists and kept bowing to us. then started to say stuff in japanese...weird. the guy wasn't asian at all. that was funny though.

friday, july 2 (day 18)

arrived in switzerland and saw the rheinfall, the largest waterfall in europe. saw lots of ducks and swans! >_< ducks are cool. then went to the lion monement which was kinda cool cuz there was a lion engraved in the mountain.

saturday, july 3 (day 19)

went to check out a monestary and watched more cheese making. then went to do the farm "olympics." actually just a bunch of farm related, group activities. like horse shoe tossing, wheelbarrow racing, and stuff. we didn't actually get to milk cows. used rubber udders that just squirted out water. and went for a short hike.

sunday, july 4 (day 20)

independence day! went shopping. swiss watches are very expensive. then went to the top of schilthorn mountain. it was very cool. another highlight of my trip. SNOW. it was kinda hard but it was still fun to have a snowball fight. my hands were super numb. we all thought we were gonna fall off the mountain cuz there were no guard rails or anything. that would've been a veeeeery long fall. the mountain was...uhh...very tall. then stop in lauterbrunnen and see the trummelbach falls. that was cool. jessica left us... it was weird because i really hated her in the beginning. but after talking with her, i learned so much from here and felt really attached to her optimism. then travelled to zurich and stayed at the golden arch hotel. well, called park inn now) they had a huge mcdonald's...that was really expensive. the hotel had a small gym downstairs. was there for like two hours. and had those cool beds that you can make it go up and down and stuff. thing that sucked was that the shower was in the room. you could totally see whoever was in the shower and if they came out, they'd be in plain view. stayed up for most of the night. just talking and watching mtv...and...some more...porn...lol. only cuz they guys wanted to. super tired.

monday, july 5 (day 21)

went to the airport and boarded the plane to dallas. went from dallas to san jose and san jose to honolulu. got back at midnight.
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