Happy Travel Tuesday everyone! As I went through my travel memories vault today, I blew some dust off my 2005 travel journal: The first time I traveled outside of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Mom, knowing her daughter so well, gave me the gift of a lifetime: My very first trip to Europe! I was not savvy or knew much about how to travel the world on a budget back then, so I simply went on a 10-day graduation trip through EF Educational Tours, which was organized by my high school. We went though Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy–and I was an ecstatic 17 (soon-to-be-18) year old!

Not only was this trip challenging because I had never had an actual conversation in English with a native speaker in person, but also because I had never been outside of Puerto Rico for more than a week (even though I had already been to Disney as a child, NYC and Chicago through my local theatre company). Surprisingly though, I was not nervous or scared, but rather excited and could not wait to practice my conversational English skills! This innate, uninhibited drive I have always had reminds me each day that traveling and languages are such deep parts of me; that I must make a career out of them.

So! I’ve decided that for the next few weeks, I’ll be featuring some pages of this old travel journal on Travel Tuesday! It will be a mini series of journal entries/photo essays I published back in 2005 on Kiwibox.com. Back when I was a newbie 17-year-old blogger with no real English training or travel experience. Hope you find them cute and humorous! =P Below, part one! Please note, I have not edited the grammar nor writing style: That’s the whole point of the post! Yeah? 😉 =)

Oh and don’t forget: Click on any image to enlarge! =)

Posted on 06/20/05, 3:58 AM on Kiwibox.com

NOW! =D the TRIP! That’’s all u are waiting for. So, the format might seem a bit weird, changing between present and past, but the thing is that I‘m typing all this directly from my EF *travel journal*, which means I was writing about everything *during* the trip, so I wouldn’t miss a thing. I won’t post everything @ once, since I warn ya it’s pretty lengthy, but I’ll split it up in few days during this week, and the same with the pictures since I took a *LOT* (about 2OO aprox, without including the ones left taken with other cams when I ran out of memory). So, here are my European trip ramblings! Hope u find them descriptive enough, and enjoy the pictures below that! =D

Group picture before leaving to Europe from Puerto Rico airport (me on the far right, white polo)

June.9th.2OO5

So, on my connecting flight to Newark right now. I already laughed a lot by the silly doings of my classmates (yeah, the fun already started!). Right now I’’ll see yet another mag, this time from the actual airline, which has some pics of Italy! *Quick note* – Continental Airlines meals + in-flight mags are much better and entertaining than American Airlines’.

We are in Europe! Frankfurt from the air

June.10th.2OO5

Streets of Rothenburg!

In Frankfurt, we just saw the airport and highway. Note: I only got 7O-ish euros for 1OO American bucks; THAT *SUCKS*. From there to Rothenburg were *3 hours*. Me no likey the highway’s view for now; didn’t feel in Germany, since all I saw were just TREES. And even more trees. Then, we went on tour through Rothenburg; yes, with all of our luggage still in the bus. So, this lil’ medieval town was very nice and cute, and some *cute* pics were taken. We went to a “Kriminal Museum” and then just around town looking and shopping. I bought most souvenirs (which were very few, since everything was DAMN expensive and so the food, so I had to save MADLY) and something called “Snowflake balls” in nut chocolate flavor, sprinkled with hazelnuts as well; that was YUMMY. After that we went to take supper @ a pasta restaurant; we had lasagna. It was different, but still good. Theeeen, around 9PM, we *finally* checked in @ our hotel (it was 3AM PR’s time). By then, we had all been *31 hours* without a bath; don’t worry, we still didn’t stink, by miracle *lol*.

Cool building at a plaza in Rothenburg!

These kind of houses are the trademark of this medieval town I believe. Or at least one of them. (Note photo-bomber on the far left. Ha)

yummy ‘snowflake balls, made of soft wafer strips, then covered with chocolate or other toppings”. They were *everywhere*

I just found this big teddy bear too freakin’ cute! I think these kind of bears are another trademark of Rothenburg

 

Me (left) and Fefi (Stephanie) @ the entrance of the Kriminal Museum, in some “cortacabezas”. I look freaky. Really freaky.

Chastity belts. I found them interesting. They should be used nowadays. They are DESPERATELY needed for girls ages 12 and up. Today’s world is just too tough.

Me in front and beside weird cages used in ol’ times. They are scary.

Me in front of our 1st hotel in Germany. It was around 9PM by then

Me trying to take a pic of myself in my room with my retarded camera, which always takes about 3 secs. to actually take a picture. Don’t know why.

June.11th.2OO5

So, the guys in the back are now testing a German condom they bought @ one of the restrooms out of curiosity, which seems to be more thick in size than Americans’. Oh! Yarielis just tested it with her nails and it’ still intact. Wow, those seem to be better than Durex, the girls over there just said. Anymoo, right now we are just arriving to the castle. As for what I see from here, it’s gorge! Right now I’m trying to get a good pic of the Alps, which are pretty much seen from here.

Best pic I could take of the Alps alone, in the bus

For part two of this photo essay, click here