I love traveling.

It is one of my hobbies besides diving and reading books, but because of my hectic schedules and studies in medicine during the last 5 or 6 years, I used to be very busy, so I didnt have much time for vacations. It was very frustrating when you saw your friends or your families go for a vacation and visit some nice places or countries. So right after I finished my education and internship in the hospital last year, I planned to travel abroad. Me and my family decided to take a tour around the Europe for 10 days. I was very excited and prepared everything needed for the tour : clothes, camera, sunglasses, emergency medicines, and of course, visa permit and passport. The day came, and I couldnt wait for our departure. We met the tour guide in Soekarno Hatta International Airport Jakarta. His name is Mr.Steven, and hes a very nice person. We did a little briefing and then he distributed our boarding passes. There were also other families that join the tour. We were all 30 persons in total. Our plane was on time as we left Jakarta at about midnight. It took approximately 6 hours from Jakarta to Dubai International Airport, a very huge and crowded but beautiful airport, where we transited for about 3 hours before we took another flight to our very first destination : Paris,France. At about 8 oclock in the morning, local time, the tour group arrived in Charles de gaulle international airport Paris. Everyone was very exhausted because of the long trip but we were all happy. We got into our bus and straightly start the city tour. As the tour leader, mr.steven told us a lot of informations about Paris and France in general and also our plan and schedule in very detail. In Paris we visited some popular places, such as the monumental Arc de Triumph, Kings palace, Louvre museum, and at last, the famous Eiffel tower. Our local guide told us a brief about the history of the tower. It was very crowded by tourists from around the world, and there was a very long queue to enter the tower. There are some elevators to take the visitors up to the top of the tower, where they can see an outstanding 360 degree view of beautiful Paris. We took some photos and bought some souvenirs before we left. Paris is a small but very exotic city. I fell in love with the design and architecture of the buildings. The streets and alleys are complicated and confusing but neat and clean. Therere a lot of cafes, bakery, and stores that sell various international brand goods like clothes,shoes,bags and perfumes. After a whole day trip we got back to the hotel, had lunch and took a rest. At night after dinner we decided to enjoy the city at night by taking a boat cruise along the Sein river. The view from the boat is very different. Paris at night is very magical and also romantic. We were very terpesona and amused. On the second day we moved from Paris to a small but also famous city: the holy city of Lourdess. We took a TGV from paris station and arrived in lourdess after 6 hours. The city was indeed small, with small streets and small buildings ,and the weather is fresher than paris. On every streets therere a lot of shops selling souvenirs,Rosario,candles,and crosses. The main object in the city is the historical our lady sanctuary church of st.bernadette, one of the holy saints of roman catholic church, and also the famous grotto of st.bernadette . It is believed that the water that come out from is miracleous and may heal various diseases. That is why everyday thousands of people visit lourdess to pray or for a pilgrimage. On the next morning we left lourdess by bus. This time we crossed the border of France to its neighbor, Spain. It was a quite long journey, fortunately the scenery from the window was very beautiful. We passed Saragossa, s, and finally we managed to step our feet for the first time in Barcelona. The city tour started on the next morning as we visited some places, like Olympic park and also Nou camp stadium, the home of one of the most famous football club in the world FC Barclona, but the one that I loved the most in this city is la sagrada familia, the most iconic church in spain. The architecture if the church is unique, or maybe a little bit weird,but still amazing. There are a lot of

ornaments such as leaves,flowers,and figures of Jesus and holy saints carved and sculpted on the exterior wall of the church.The interior of the church is very amazing. The ambience was very relaxing, unfortunately it was crowded by the tourists, and We were also warned of the pickpockets by our tour guide. We spent the rest of the day around La rambla, a famous street in the city. It is located near prt of Barcelona. The weather is much humid and hotter than France. Some of us took a walk around the streets, some visited the shopping mall nearby, while me and my family had lunch in one of the restaurants. I ate paellas, it was delicious. My sister tried some seafood and my parents ordered beef. Satisfied in Spain, on the next day we tripped back to France, this time we visited Nice, where we just stopped by to take a rest. On the free time I took a walk along the beach, enjoyed the sunset and had dinner with my family. After a short transit in Nice, we continued our trip to Monaco. It is not far from Nice, it is a very small country situated in a highland, bordered by the country of France and the sea. The view of the shore and the cliffs alongside the way was very fantastic, therere a lot of famous movie scenes took place here. We went to the top of the city, visited the grimaldis palace ,and enjoyed the view of the city from above, we also passed by the famous Formula one racing tracks that I used to watch only on television. We only spent 2 or 3 hours there because of the tight schedule, from here the bus took us to our next destination Italy and once again, it was a very tiring journey. On the way to Rome,we stopped in Pratto for a while to spent the night and visit the wonderful Pisa tower. After hours of bus trip we arrived in Rome, the capital city of Italy, and then we walked a bit to enter the Vatican city.Vatican is the smallest country in the world. Here we entered the St.Peters Basilica, the biggest and the most beautiful church, the center of roman catholic religion in the world where the pope, the highest leader of christians resides. I tooked a lot of photos in Rome, there were a lot of touristical objects that I love, such as the colloseum where the roman gladiators used to fight for honour, Trevi fountain, where you can throw some coins and make a wish, and many more. Afterwards we all had dinner and took a rest in hotel. We left Italy early in the morning, we headed north to Switzerland. I prepared my jacket and gloves because it will be cold. Because of the traffic jam on the way to Zurich our bus driver took an alternative route uphill. The nature view of Swiss were perfectly pretty. Everywhere I looked were green hills and mountains with white snow, very impressing. There was nothing to see or visit in Zurich, because its only famous for its chocolate, cheese, and fine watches. The bus drove us out of the city, to mt.titilis , one of the most famous hiking site. We took a cable cart to get into the top.The weather became more and more cold as we moved higher, we changed cart three times before we reached the summit of titlis, which is 10,000 feet altitude above the sea level. It was freezing cold eventhough I was wearing my jacket already. It was the first time I saw and touched the real snow. It was very exciting and unbeliavable. We ran around happily and played with the snow despite of the cold weather. My parents were just waiting inside and drinking hot coffees while I explored the whole area. I also did not forget to buy some gifts for my friends before we went back down. The last day in the continent we moved back to Italy. The bus stopped in a harbor and we took a speedboat across the river to Venice, a small city floating on the water. There are uncountable number of bridges and canals ,thus a kind of traditional boat, that is Gondola, is the major transportation mode in this city. We payed about 150 euros for an hour trip along the city with gondola. It was unforgettable experience. After sunset we moved back across the rive to the mainland and continued our trip to the last city in Europe, Milan. We spent the last day in Milan for shopping. The guide took us to the il duormo the oldest and biggest shopping site in town. You can find almost every famous branded goods you want to buy here, and of course you have to bring a lot of money because some of them are really expensive. My mother bought a new bag, while my father added a newclassic guitar to his collections.

My sister and I bought some nice shoes and clothes. After spending out our money, we packed our belongings in the hotel and waited for the bus to take us to Milan airport, where our lovely holiday ended. From Milan we flew back to Jakarta via Dubai and finally we landed back in our beloved country. We had to spent a lot of money for the tour, but I think it was worth it, because I got a lot of new expereieces, I could visit a lot of beautiful places which previously I used to see only in pictures. It was a moment in my life that I will not forget and I promised myself I will return there someday.