After Dan and I got back from our trip, we spent a week writing exams and then we were off again touring Europe. This time we hit up Hamburg, Germany with our class.

This is Liz and Lizette. They take care of us here at AMFI. Liz, a fellow Canadian, is from Alberta and Lizette is from Frankfurt, Germany.

Dan was smart and remembered his Mentos just in case we got ourselves into a pickle.

On our first night we went to the Reepervahn, a popular street in Hamburg for partying.
Also seen in this photo, our good friend Aturo.

Jos also came to join the fun. He is from Holland but has spent some time working and having fun in Banff, home of Daniel Booth Esquire.

On the second day we went on a city tour. We stopped to see this church, St. David's. . . or St. Michael's . . . or something like that.

There were also a lot of swans!

This is a model of the harbor area in Hamburg.
Our tour guide thought it was important that we see it.

On the last night our entire group went out for dinner.
We had some soup and a schnitzel.

Overall, the trip was pretty boring. The main point of it was to visit companies to see how they are run logistically, and to see the city. The first company we visited was Otto, an international mail order company and the other two we "accidentally" slept through. The best part of the trip was our last night, when we went out drinking with our teachers. Obviously we were on our best behavour and Dan and I passed all our exams. The next time I got to Germany I'm hitting up Berlin. The plane ticket is officially on my Christmas wish list.

On October 26th, Dan and I were back on the plane again!!
Over the course of our trip we had pretty good luck with all our flights, which was surprising based on my stream of bad luck with airports. But when we landed in London, SURPRISE! No more good luck. We had to immediately evacuate the airport. Fortunately, the evacuation only lasted 10 mins so we didn't have to stand out in the cold, but we did have to wait almost two hours to get our luggage, which they brought to us on trolleys and dumped in the hallway between arrivals and baggage pickup since we weren't allowed back into the airport.

On our second day in London, Dan and I walked around the city checking out all the sites on our list. Since the tube in London is 3 pounds (which is like $8 CAN) we got a lot of exercise!
The line-up for the London Eye looked super long so we decided to come back to it later in the week.

Tower Bridge . . . NOT London Bridge as it is commonly mistaken for. London bridge is not as exciting as Tower bridge, actually it's ugly. . . so there will be no pictures of it here.

Piccadilly Circus was actually a whole lot smaller than I thought. It reminded me a little bit of Dundas Square . . . Dan and I became a little nostalgic during our time in London. Out of the three cities we had stayed in, it was the most like home and the only place we've been in the last three months where everyone speaks English. We immediately fell in love.

On our walk we found this guy just cillin' out on his rock. Later in the week Dan and I found out that he, along with his five brothers and sisters belong to the Queen, as they were a gift to her at some point. They have also been eating stray pigeons which was why they were so popular in the papers. Is that normal?

Ok, so I thought Dan geeked out the most when we were at the Opera House but St. Paul's totally takes the cake. Since Dan's favourite childhood movie is Mary Poppins he freaked when we got here, and then suddenly became upset when he realized there was no bird lady sitting across the street. Actually, there were no birds either. . . it was sad really.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so we waited until we climbed all the way up to the top of the dome to get some great shots of London.

Who can guess which ugly bridge is London Bridge?!

The next day Dan and I made it back to the London Eye, and surprisingly the really long line-up went a lot faster than we thought. It moves really slowly so we had a good half hour to take a hundred more pictures of our favourite city.

Team Canada strikes again!

Parliament buildings and Big Ben.

After we got off the Eye, we decided to check out Westminster Abby, but we didn't have enough time to go in.

Then we said hello to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Our most important stop of the day was Harrods. Like two fashion students would come to London and not go shopping!! We went to Top Shop too . . . which honestly is just like a really big H&M and not as impressive as I thought, but it was still pretty cool. My favourite store in London is Office, a shoe store that has great sales and great boots . . . I got a white pair.

Dan and I stayed at the Generator hostel, which I totally recommend for anyone staying in London (or Berlin). It was a blast! On our last night there was a Halloween party at the bar and since I thought I was missing the big night this year, I made sure Dan and I would be attending. Our roommates joined us too! Karen (from Sweden), Paddy (from New Zealand) and Jodi (from BRAMPTON, ONT!!!) were all up for some Halloween fun!! Everyone who was staying at the hostel was either from Australia or Canada! I even met some guy who was born and raised in good ol' London, Ont!

Marissa (right) and I were proud of our 2.50 pound costumes from Top Shop.

This is our friend Erica from the USA.
She has a killer voice and totally dominated Karaoke the previous night!

These are our Irish buds. We didn't know what they were saying ever cuz they just mumble! But WOW do they know how to drink! If you want to have a great time and you love beer, go to Ireland!

Overall, Dan and I had an amazing trip!! We were both so happy to have seen and done everything we did and totally didn't want to leave London the next morning. Going back to Diemen was really hard (truthfully, it's not that exciting here!) but now that it's becoming home, it was nice to sleep in our own beds. And obviously we went straight to The Crib.

On our first day in Paris, Dan and I went to Notre Dam. Unfortunately, it wasn't as warm as Barcelona, but the long line-up to get in went fairly quickly.

(To keep the blog a manageable size, I've decided to leave out the 400 pictures of pure architecture, and will provide you with the best and/or most interesting.)

Our next stop was at St. Chappell. It is the smallest chapel ever! It is made up of almost all stained glass and when it is really sunny out, it is supposed to resemble a jewelry box. Sadly, it wasn't that sunny when we were there.

The next day Dan and I headed to the Louvre.

We pumped ourselves up for what was going to be a long day at an art museum.
We were officially art geeks.

Although photography is restricted at the Louvre, we couldn't resist snapping a few of our favourite works. This is a statue of Aphrodite. . .

. . . and Athena Nike.

Overall, I was more impressed with the building itself. The architecture is beautiful! And I didn't know that the Louvre used to be a castle! That's one thing the art teachers left out in school. You can still see the remains of the castle in the basement, located in the Medieval area. Sadly, I couldn't take a picture of one of my favourite paintings, The Raft of Medusa, which is in the room next to the Mona Lisa for everyone who has been there, and if you don't know what it is, google it NOW!

After spending 6 hours in the Louvre, Dan and I decided to head to the Eiffel Tower, although I've been told that 6 hours is not that long to spend in the Louvre. But I can only handle so many hours of art previous to the baroque era and after a while even the puti were becoming a little annoying.

We went all the way up to the top despite the freezing cold, windy and rainy weather.

It was the perfect way to see all of Paris. The city is huge!

On our third day in Paris, Dan and I went on a tour of the Opera House. Dan had just recently seen the movie, The Phantom of the Opera, so his reaction was just like mine when I saw Sagrada Familia for the first time. He totally geeked out. It was cute.

We're really good at posing.

The famous chandelier.

The interior of the Opera House is georgous! Dan actually took 60 pictures of the whole thing. I bet you can't wait to see all of them when I get home.

Apparently I'm so beautiful and popular there is a bust of me in the Opera House. Who knew?

Our next stop was at the Arc de Triomphe. This monument is located in the center of the city where 12 of the most major streets in Paris connect.

Yup, it's big too.

Dan and I spent the rest of the day at the Monet Museum and checking out the couture houses. We didn't go inside any of them obviously, but it was just a good reminder of how much money we don't have.

We also came across this carousel. Actually, we found one in Barcelona too. But I just had to add it in because if anyone knows my Grams, you know the second she sees one of these you know your going for a ride. This one's for you Grams!! You would love Paris!

At the end of the day, Dan and I were tired and sad to leave Paris.
But it wasn't all over yet . . .

We had great weather while we were there. 24 - 25 degrees everyday!

Our hostel was super cute, it even had a balcony.

This guy was there too.
It was nice to have someone reminding us where the entrence of the hostel was.

On our first day, we found this huge fountaine in the middle of the city. But we didn't have time to check it out because we were on our way to the Sagrada Familia cathedral.

Here is a close-up of the front facade, known as the Nativity. You can really see the amount of detail and texture, which are common characteristics of Gaudi's work.

The back facade.

The stained glass was so beautiful!

This is the interrior of the cathedral. The vaulting system is really crazy, and since all of his work looks very organic, it is a good example of how Gaudi is inspired by nature.

Dan and I took the lift up the towers to see the city.

City shot! This picture is a way better example of how big and beautiful the Sagrada Familia really is. I think I'm in love.

Our third stop of the day was to Parc Guell, also done by Gaudi.

It is a park overlooking the city and home to this mosaic lizard.

This is a close up of the bench running through the park.
It is the longest bench in the world and I sat on it!

The next day, Dan and I went on a city tour.

We got to see more of Gaudi's work, for example the Casa Mila appartment block. . .

. . . and the Casa Horta appartment block.

The tour bus took us down by the ocean and Dan just couldn't resist going for a swim.

I wish I brought my bathing suit!

The next day Dan and I packed up our stuff and said goodbye to Barcelona.

Next stop . . . PARIS!!!