I am doing an overview of Europe. I would like to write to every one about how much I enjoyed the food, culture and music etc. This is important to me because this has been the most enjoyable three months in all of the eleven years that I have lived.

 I would like to start off with France. It’s quite big and historically has had a lot of cultural influences on many other countries in the area. I will probably go there again. I liked Paris and Normandy. Lyon was over rated. 
I loved Disneyland and the food in France is pretty good. I am interested in their history, and the Dordogne was my favorite place in France. We went kayaking and saw some cliff dwellings, where the troglodytes lived. And we stayed at an amazing camp ground. It had two great swimming spots; one bright blue natural pool that has creeks running in and out of it, and a platform to jump off of. The second one was a human made swimming pool, it wasn’t very warm, but definitely warmer than the other one! There is also volleyball, mini golf and a restaurant and bar. Also, a great thing about the Dordogne is that there are tons of hot air balloons in the morning and evening, and there are so many chateaus that wherever you are it’s easy to see one. My overall feelings about this country were; Nice(ha ha). Currency is the euro.€?
          The United Kingdom: ( not Northern Ireland)
          England: I LOVED England. It has definitely been one of my favorite countries in Europe. In fact it’s so wonderful that I could totally move there some day. We went to Canterbury (Kent) and visited a marvelous beach called Broadstairs a few times. Directly above it is where Charles Dickens lived. We also explored the medieval town of Sandwich. It’s where sandwiches were invented. Then we continued on to London. That’s where I had my birthday Despite the fact that it’s the stabbing capital of the world, London is simply one of my favorite places in Europe. It’s crowded in and out with every kind of person you could think of, but it’s great. There’s lovely shopping, delicious food, and amazing sightseeing. One could live there a lifetime and never see all of it. I wanted to ride the eye because I have heard that it has breathtaking views, but sadly, we never got around to it. After that we visited Oxford, just for the evening. It was a good experience, and we took a tour. Then we fought an absurd amount of traffic, to get to the small village of Sulgrave where we stayed at a splendid bed and breakfast called the Star Inn, and I wrote a post about that. My overall feelings about this country were; AWESOME!!!!! Currency is the pound.£?
      Wales: Wales was nice. I didn’t get to experience the Welsh culture in the way I wanted to though. I only drove through it at night and slept in an air (rest stop) in the car, and woke up to quickly getting buckled in, and drove to catch the ferry to Ireland. My overall feelings about this country were; good. Currency is the pound.£? P.S. In Wales they also speak Welsh.
     Scotland: Scotland was so fun! Although we only visited Edinburgh,(pronounced edinborough) it was lovely! If you go, definitely try one of the ghost tours of the underground city and the graveyard that’s famous for a few things:
     1. Greyfriar’s Bobby. This is a true story about a policeman who had the hard work of arresting very dangerous people such as bodysnatchers thieves etc. and the the chief of police decided that he needed a friend to work with him and help protect him. So he gave him some money to go off and buy a big strong dog. And the policeman came back with a lapdog. He named him Bobby. Surprisingly, Bobby did a pretty good job during his career, and earned a very good reputation throughout the community and when he finally died, the locals tried to bury him in the graveyard, but the rules were that only humans could be buried there, so they got permission to put up a grave stone there and buried him elsewhere. They also built a statue of him, and it’s good luck to rub the nose, but lately the government made it illegal because Bobby’s nose fell off. The locals still do it though.

      2. The Body Snatchers were people who dug up dead human bodies. This was a business that became quite popular in Edinburgh and Ireland+Northern Ireland because to get a degree in medicine you had to dissect a human body, and there weren’t enough of them for each student. It became a job that was quite well paying, because people were quite eager to get the bodies and many of them would pay ridiculously high prices for them. People who were well respected in the Scottish community, such as doctors and teachers were discovered to be body snatchers, and were caught. People became so scared that the buried bodies of their loved ones would be dug up that people started to sell metal cages to put over the fresh graves. And a man named Robert Louis Stevenson actually wrote a book about it, but I have yet to read it.

    In Edinburgh there is a castle that is very nice and I would definitely recommend. There is a church that King David I of Scotland(not the current king) built in the 12th century for his mother, St. Margret who was the person that brought Catholicism to the city. It fits roughly 20 people and it’s usually packed with around 30! You can also see the Crown Jewels (of Scotland) and the Stone of Destiny in the castle. It has kind of a funny story I won’t write it now but you should definitely look it up. Edinburgh also has great food and a sausage called haggis. I don’t want to leave out too many thing like this and the stone of destiny, but trust me on this, once I tell you what’s in it you won’t want to try it. My overall feelings about this country were; really cool!! Currency is the pound.£?
Note about the United Kingdom. It’s quite expensive. 

    IRELAND!!!!! This place was great! I am disappointed that we only went to Dublin, but wow! It’s AMAAAAAAZING!!!!!!!!!!! First of all they have amazing food! Soda bread! Boxty! Bangers & mash! Leak sausages! A million kinds of stew! Secondly you can go on a horse and carriage tour of the place! It’s always gorgeous outside even when it rains!! Something fun to do there is going Trinity College and seeing the Book of Kells, because I am quite into Celtic culture and I like to practice drawing Celtic knots. I also play the harp. My favorite restaurants there were The Celt, O’Neil’s, and Gallagher’s Boxty house. The all served traditional Irish cuisine. To give you the picture, it’s comfort food. The comfort food that is simply purely DIVINE!!!!! The mashed potatoes are like clouds, and everything is cooked to the point of deliciousness. YUMM!!! If you are like me and love great comfort food be sure to visit Ireland! My overall feelings about this country were; ONE OF THE BEST COUNTRIES I HAVE BEEN TO YET!!!!!! Currency is the euro.€? NOTE: they also speak Gaelic there.

      Italy! Yup. It’s nice, but there are a lot of ridiculous things about it. One of them happened to be that they are extremely proud of their campgrounds, because they are quite fancy. At first, that seems okay. But then you look at the prices and you freak out because it’s almost as expensive as a hotel. We were mostly camping, so that was a bit of a problem. Another thing was that although part of the time we were there in the fall, and it was still PACKED with tourists. I will mention some of the places I visited. Florence was great. Lots of beautiful art in the Uffizi gallery, and the domed church. There was also some good shopping and nice food. Cinque Terra was EXTREMELY overrated. I’m not just bashing it for no reason. I’m being honest. It was just filled with touristy shops and mediocre restaurants. I have to admit, it was a nice view of the little towns from the water. Rome was OK, it was filled with quite extravagant statues and temples. There were a lot of touristy things, but there were places where it was more quiet. We got robbed there. They took my mom & dad’s bags, which had nothing in them. BUT! They took mine which had all my stuff in it. They took my special harp necklace, which really isn’t valuable at all! Other than that it was pretty enjoyable. Venice was also OK. We wanted to go on a boat, but it was SUPER expensive. The food was okay. Basically spaghetti and pizza. My overall feelings about this country were; OK. Currency is the euro.€?

            Spain! It’s a cool place, and it’s sad that it doesn’t have a good economy because it’s a beautiful country and it’s people are super nice. We went to only two places. Barcelona, and a beach called Calla Del Pi. Let’s start with Barcelona. It was really nice. Sophia had her birthday there. They have good paella, and I would definitely recommend seeing the Roman ruins. Sagrada de Familia was amazing, so was the Cathedral of Barcelona. Don’t go to the beaches there though because they were built for the Olympics and the sand is imported from the Sahara desert and is really annoying because it is SUPER fine and gets on everything. 

Calla Del Pi was a beautiful pebble filled beach. If you swim out far enough, you can see the ruins of something, I don’t know what it is. It’s pretty cool though. There is also a good rock to jump off of. To the left of the beach there is a cave. Walk straight through it and there is a big cactus. After that, keep going on the trail until you see the big white rock. Then climb it and jump off into the water! My overall feelings about this country were; super fun! Currency is the euro.€?

         Greece! It’s great! Tons of wonderful Ancient architecture! Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with the food. My dad makes amazing Greek food, so the food there was nothing compared to my dad’s. One of the first places we went was Olympia, where we stayed at the campsite most of the time and met a family from the Netherlands. We played with their kids a lot. The food there was good, but it had one of the problems that food has all over Greece, IT HAS FRENCH FRIES!!! If you are one of the people who are reading this that know me well, you probably know that I REALLY do not like French fries. The rest of the things about the place were nice though. It had a great pool, and the camping spots were great too. They were shaded by overhead mats and vines. Continuing on, I’d like to mention that the Greek countryside is not as charming anymore because all the young people have been going to Athens. About half of the people in Greece live in Athens. I wanted you to know because for a long time I was in small towns that I didn’t know the name of. We spent a short while in Porto Heli where we went to see dad’s old friend. We went to Athens twice, and it’s quite nice. There is the same deal with food, but the temples are nice and it has some really good shopping. It has some good museums too. It’s a great city. Next place is Mt. Olympus! We climbed it in two days. The first day, we climbed about 2/3rds of it and stayed at a refuge. The second day we climbed to the summit and since the rest was downhill, we climbed all the way back down. We did a few other countries before coming back down to Greece, I will list them after I finish telling you about a Greek island that we went to. This island is called Serifos. You can take the ferry there, or you can fly, (don’t get the idea that it’s some big city because you can fly there, it’s tiny) but you should take the ferry. We stayed at our friends’ summer house, in a town called Chora. All of the houses are blue and white. All over the island there are WAY too many cats. You throw a can into a dumpster and cats jump out, because they’re hungry and they’re in the dumpster looking for food. When you go for a walk you count how many cats you saw. In our town, there were 4 kittens that we named Medallion, Princess, Queen and Popoki. Princess and Queen were pure Cyprus breed, although Popoki and Medallion were an interesting looking mix between a Cyprus and a German Rex cat. Princess and Queen died of diarrhea, even though I was feeding them as much as I could to help them get stronger and fatter. But luckily when we left the island, Popoki and Medallion were strong and fat. Something that I really enjoyed on the island was that we got to do pottery at a pottery studio that belonged to our friends (not the same friends that owned the summer house). One night that we were there, we got to participate in a Greek Orthodox holiday that celebrates the island’s patron saints, which are angels. It took place at the monastery that looks like a castle. The walls are interesting. All monasteries have walls, but not like this. There are slits in them just big enough to pour hot oil out of. They did this to keep the pirates out, who climbed up the rocks from the ocean and then tried to scale the walls. Not so fast! And while all the villagers hid within the walls, the monks pored boiling oils and water on the pirates. There is only one monk there now, and he likes to make wine. We got to see his small winery. They also have a tradition of sitting down at long tables with lots of other people and have free food served to you medieval style. Free food! I had chick pea soup and bread. My parents had the same thing, but with wine. After that, we went to a packed restaurant, where we had many different kinds of food. I played with our friends who owned the pottery shop all night. A band was playing. That was a magical night. After that, we bought tons of pottery and left the island. My overall feelings about this country; COOL! Currency is the euro.€?

       We went past a lot of countries that we didn’t really spend any time in while we were working our way back up to Germany to return our car. I will list them:

 

Macedonia: We did nothing.
Montenegro: We did nothing.
Albania: Pretty, but we did nothing.
Kosovo: We stopped to take a photo of the sunset, and we also did later and had a pizza dinner, and stopped for a slice of cake, and while we were eating, we saw a grocery store that was super cheap and we thought we could buy a lot of stuff for a good price. Then we stopped to look at the price for a hotel, and the price was good, so we stayed there, and in the morning we woke up super early from the call for prayer because we hadn’t realized that there was a mosque across the street. We ate breakfast and figured out that we were in the Prizren City, so we explored it, and walked past some mosques and churches. 
Another thing about Kosovo is that it is still recovering from a war called the Kosovo war. any of the roads are bad, and they are building lots of big houses. Sometimes when you are driving down the road, you see lots of furniture shops, and hardware shops, and home decoration shops because people are rebuilding their houses. There are women and children walking to the bus, but the roads are bad and it’s getting dark, but there is not proper lighting. Kosovo is kind of a strange place because it’s like a country under construction.
Croatia: We went to Dubrovnik, and explored the castle a bit, and we camped. Then we went to Rijeka where we explored the market and got some food. When my dad was a little boy he spent some time in Rijeka. We also went to the beach and my dad went swimming, and we looked for the World War II bunkers that he remembers. We couldn’t find them. Then we had lunch at a small seaside restaurant, and my dad thinks that it was the best meal that he’s had yet on the trip.
Slovenia: We did nothing.
I’m disappointed that we didn’t spend more time in them.

      Austria! We only went to Vienna, but it was so fun. Actually, we only spent the evening there. We went to an amazing restaurant that actually turned out to be the stables that my dad remembers from when he went there as a child! It was on a street called Braunerßtrasse (they converted the stables into a restaurant) And after that we left for Prague. My overall feelings about this country; Nice! Currency is the euro.€?
Czech Republic! It was soooo fun! We only went to Prague. It was GREAT!! We stayed in a hostel, and we got our own room! We got to have a strange swirly pastry with Nutella on the inside. If you’ve been there you’ll know what I mean. We went on two free walking tours, and we heard about some things that we would have liked to do that we would have done if we had had enough time. And I really can’t say anything more! My overall feelings about this country; REALLY COOL!!! Currency is the Czech crown. 

Germany! I really didn’t ‘go to Germany’. Because both times that I arrived there, I was gone within 12 hours! My overall feelings about this country; ??? Currency is the euro.€?

 

Belgium! This is one of my favorites! We went only to Bruges, which is the chocolate capital of the world, so you can probably imagine what happened. We stuffed ourselves with chocolate(and marzipan). Also, we went on a bicycle tour, ate lots of waffles, and went on a free walking tour. Fun fact: many of the buildings(including the streets) are not actually medieval, although you may be told so. There is good shopping there. Be sure to check out the nunnery, and Trappist bar(It’s underground, and they have some great appetizers). That is all for Belgium, although I wish I could remember more. My overall feelings about this country; GREAT! Currency is the euro.€?

The Netherlands! We went to three places, Amsterdam, Den Hague and Egmond aan Zee. Amsterdam was nice. The first time that we went we stayed in a houseboat, which was cool! We went to the Vincent Van Gogh gallery, and the Anne Frank House. The Anne Frank house is a building with a secret annex where Anne and her family(also another family) hid from the nazis. The nazis killed Jewish people, and they were Jewish. We also ate delicious Dutch pancakes at the Pancake Bakery. They are simply AMAZING!!!!!! I will admit, the pancakes themselves and their prices are outrageous, but THEY ARE WORTH IT!!!! Trust me. Another restaurant you should try is C taste. It’s the wonderful experience of eating gourmet food in pitch black. It is as if you were blind. You taste things in a whole new way and I would definitely recommend it. A delicious bakery is Dutch Homemade. They have so many different kinds of tiny sweets! Try it! The next city is Den Hague. We really didn’t do anything there except going to Escher in Het Paleis, which is an amazing gallery of many of Escher’s works of art, and how to understand them. Next, Egmond aan zee! It is cute little beach town with warm water, nice sand and good waves. I don’t have much to say about it because we really just enjoyed a nice afternoon of swimming, and left. My overall feelings about this country; FUN! Currency is the euro.€?

And that is it! I hope you you enjoyed! 

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