7. Warsaw, Poland

Poland was great. It was a long trip from Vilnius to Warsaw, but the grass was so green! Greenest grass I've seen in my life!

We went to a concentration camp near Warsaw called Treblinka. It was just a memorial because it had been destroyed by the Germans in 1943. There was one area where there was a big memorial and 17,000 stones around it to signify the day when 17,000 people were exterminated.

Most of Warsaw was destroyed during the war but it has all been restored. We went to the old (restored) town. There was quite a large square with colourful houses and cafes around the edge.

We then had a bit of free time. Most of the group went shopping, but me and two other girls went across the road to a big tower. There was a great view of Warsaw from the top.

From there it was off to Germany!

Look at that greenery:)

The crossing was a piano!

Flowers, green grass and one of my favourite French girls!:)

6. Vilnius, Lithuania

Well we didn't really see much of Vilnius. A group of us walked across a bridge over the river to a shopping centre. It was nice there because there was a little park area, some basketball courts and a beach volleyball court.

5. Riga, Latvia

We arrived at Riga in time for dinner. We went to a massive buffet beside a little carnival. 

The next day we had a tour around the old town. That was really nice. There were rows of cute colourful houses and some nice old churches. Down this one street there were people busking. They played the Norwegian National Anthem as well this other song. The other song was quite up beat and some of the other exchangers knew it so we all joined in dancing and singing. 

From there it was headed for Lithuania! 

4. Helsinki, Finland

Well we did't really do anything in Helsinki. It was basically just driving from one port to the other. 3 kids went back to Norway from here and everyone was crying and hugging eachother. Helsinki showed how strong the exchange student family is.

3. St Petersburg, Russia

St Petersburg was simply stunning! There were so many amazing palaces and cathedrals. The first day here we had a tour around the city. We stopped in a few different spots. We saw some sphinxes at a spot by the river. We saw the Spilled Blood Cathedral which was so cool. It was one of those really Russian style cathedrals with the colourful spires. After lunch we had one hour to walk along the main street. We happened to come across a magician. He pulled a balloon out from behind my ear, turned it into a wine glass and put water in it. Then he got a piece of paper, set it on fire and dropped it into the glass. It turned into a fish! He then ate the fish, but then there was a fish in the glass again! All this was filmed so I ended up being on Russian TV!  In the afternoon we went to St Isaacs Cathedral. This was so amazing! The interior was absolutely stunning!



The next day we had a tour of the winter palace. Wow! basically sums up the whole thing. It was so decorative, everything from the staircases, the floors, the ceiling, the cornices and every piece of furniture! We spent about 2 hours there (we only saw a very small percentage of the palace, apparently it takes about 8-10 hours to see the whole thing!)

St Petersburg was also on my list as one of the best cities on the tour.

2. Talinn,Estonia

Talinn was so beautiful. It was quite an old city, but was so amazing! We only had a few hours in the city. As a whole group we headed to a cathedral. Then we had the rest of the day to explore by ourselves. A group of us walked around the old city. We climbed 258 narrow, winding stairs to the top of a church.It had the most amazing views over the city. It was one of the best things that I did on the whole trip.

We went to a Middle Eastern restaurant for lunch. It had great food. We confused the waiter so much. When we first walked in he only met the Brazilians and assumed the rest of us were from Brazil too. Then he came over to our table and asked why we were speaking english to eachother rather than portugese. We then said she's from Brazil, she's from Brazil too, she's from Argentina, she's from America and she's from Australia, but we all live in Norway. His face was priceless!

Talinn was one of my favourite cities we went to.

The church we climbed

258 steps later! What an amazing view!

We made it! 

1.Stockholm, Sweden

We spent nearly a whole day in Stockholm. We had the day to do whatever we wanted and explore the city. In the morning a group of us wandered around the Royal Palace and saw the changing of the guards. Then we continued to explore the city. In the afternoon we went to like a tourist street. It had all these little souvenir shops and things. Then we went to the old town. It had narrow cobbled alleyways and a lot of cute little courtyards and cafes.

From Stockholm we got on our boat heading for Estonia.

Eurotour!!

So I've just spent the most amazing 2 weeks travelling around Eastern Europe. 12 days, 9 countries, 5 cruise liners and 33 amazing exchange students!