EuroTrip 2022
EuroTrip 2022.
OVERVIEW
2019 // 5 Unique Countries (Italy, Vatican City, Monaco, France, Spain)
Part 1: "Italy" Venice, Florence, Rome, Vatican City
Part 2: "Cruise" Pompeii, Monte Carlo (Monaco), Cannes, Palma de Mallorca
Part 3: "Spain" Barcelona, Madrid
2022 // 6 Unique Countries (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria)
Part 1: "Northern Europe"
- Paris, France (4 days)
- Brussels, Belgium (1 day)
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (3 days)
- Berlin, Germany (2 days)
Part 2: "YPSO Celebration of Music Tour"
- Leipzig, Germany (2 days)
- Prague, Czech Republic (2 days)
- Vienna, Austria (3 days)
Hi.
This summer, the transition from junior year to senior year of high school, is a busy one.
One major contributor is this 2-week EUROTRIP. We planned this because I am in an orchestra called YPSO (Young People Symphony Orchestra) based in Berkeley/Oakland, and this orchestra is going on a European tour this summer. We have three concerts in each of the three cities we visit.
My sister and mom decided to go to Europe a week early and visit some cool European cities. This blog post will just mainly document my experiences in this genuinely epic vacation.
I got most of the photos from myself as I took them, but a lot of the pictures from the tour section of the EuroTrip is actually from the YPSO smugmug, basically taken by the YPSO photographer. So the photos appear in more quantity and also more quality in the tour section
2022 Part 1 (w/ family ; Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin)
Day 0 and 1
My flight was on a sunday afternoon, at around 8 PM.
Here's roughly what I packed for myself outside of the essentials:
- Two GAN skewbs
- Angstrom GAN 3x3
- Celeritas Weilong GTS 3M (signed by nolan yiu and max park)
- Cubicle Pro Shop MGC 4x4
- Stackmat timer
- Wallet
- Phone
- Charger + Adapter
- Charging power bank
- Kindle Fire (for games)
- Water Bottle
- Tripod
- Box of pentapping pens
- Music Folder
- Concert Clothes
My friend, in YPSO, who was only going on the YPSO European tour, was going to bring my French Horn for me so I don't have to lug it around while in my "pre-tour" vacation in Part 1 here in 2022 EuroTrip.
So anyway,
- Flight roughly departed at 8:00 PM in San Francisco time
- Flight is 12 hours long roughly
- When I arrived at Paris, it was 8:00 AM in Still SFO time speaking
- Since Paris was 9 hours ahead, this meant it was 5 PM in Paris when I got there.
When we got there, we walked to the hotel, put our stuff there, and went out for dinner. We were pretty messed up because we didn't get enough sleep, and airplane food was pretty bad, so we opted for some korean food. I forgot what we did after that, probably just walking around and stuff.
Day 2
I woke up at around 5:30 AM due to jetlag, and was also kindly greeted by a warriors win, leading the series 3-2. I was fairly devastated seeing that.
We ended up visiting the Louve, Eiffel Tower, and the Sacré-Cœur. Very iconic places in Paris.
Our hotel was literally like a 2-minute wak from the Louvre which was pretty cool. It's pretty much what you envision it to be. The same glass pyramid. Very cool. We didn't go inside though.
The Eiffel Tower was very cool. We rode a train to nearby, and that thing was so big. Other than that, there isn't really much unexpected about it
The Sacré-Cœur was very cool, and easily the best part of Paris. You basically just go up a lot of stairs to this huge white church overlooking it all. When you get to the top, you literally see a breathtaking view of the entire city of Paris. It's a big city.
It's 100x better in-person. I just can't describe it. You literally see everything.
And on top, beyond the church, is literally a whole 'nother city. At such a high altitude. THere's literally restaurants, shops, apartments, houses, and a lot of runners enjoying the view. We ate dinner up there and I'm not gonna lie, the dinner was so bad. It was just low quality food. I ordered a sandwich that tastes worse than pre-made ones you can get at costco.
Other than that, my first full day in Paris was pretty exciting and eventful. We learned that running culture in France is PROMINENT. There were running clubs of groups of 5-10 people and just lots of runners running around in general. Additionally, we observed the fashion there to be pretty bleak in terms of shoes:
Day 3
Here was the hotel breakfast that we had to pay for :
Of course, the French people love their baguettes and bread. Along with this there was a wide selection of jams and spreads, like raspberry jam, strawberry jam, nutella, butter. The breakfast tasted pretty good with that.
Other than that, we went to this big palace/castle thing where the French king used to live. There were lots of big rooms and stuff and a super big garden. It was pretty boring if I"m being real with you.
Day 4, June 16th
We ate breakfast at this Cafe/Bakery which was pretty stacked. The waiter was rude tho. VIDEO: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5CLsQYP7xffwSAFWA
After, we went to the Notre Dam. It was quite fascinating, as there were lots of signs detailing the burning and recovery efforts of Notre Dam. I remember hearing and seeing on Twitter of it being burned. It was pretty cool to see everything in person. I really understood the significance of this symbolic building better.
Then, we did these events in some combination.
2. Explore a side of Paris with some famous streets and churches and stuff
3. Eat Lunch at a really good falaffel place that is super well-known in Paris
4. Explore some more
4. Go to an art museum with a Van Gogh exhibit
Art musem photos:
Other photos:
Stoplight for cars here. Imagine learning how to drive here.
Ate breakfast at the hotel
Took a train from Paris to Brussels, Belgium. The train was pretty nice, it was like a 1 hour train ride I think.
After that, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then we ate lunch at a place called woodpecker.
I CANNOT STRESS HOW FILLING THIS WAS. It was a salty belgian waffle with grilled chicken, and then two eggs. Also, a salad on the side.
I thought this wasn't that bad, but after I managed to finish this, I WAS FAZED OUT. It was just too much food and this got me tired. Anywya, we visited some Belgian waffles and Belgian chocolate shops along the way to the Brussels main city center or main square or whatever you call it.
One takeaway: Belgian waffles are AMAZING. I love them, and no, I'm not tlaking about the ones you make on the waffle iron. I'm talking about the pre-made small soft waffles that they sold in the waffle store.
What I'm talking about are the waffles on the right that's whiter. THe other waffles are stroop waffles that I got at netherlands later on. Those are also pretty good but those belgian waffles are FIRE.
Anyway, we ended up exploring and then eating dinner at a fries place.
The fries weren't bad, but they also weren't exceptional. For a place where the specialty is fries, I expected much better. The sauces were cool though.
So yea, that was pretty much Brussels. The city center was super cool:
Day 6, June 18th
We ate breakfast at the hotel which was pretty good. Afterwards we took a train ride to Amsterdam and I forgot how long it was. It was relatively short I think.
Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we noticed a STREAM of bikers in a bikelane while walking to the hotel. There were bikers scattered everywhere. This city is known for the biking culture, and it shows because there are more bikes in the city than people. You can try fact checking that.
There are bikes parked along any rail imaginable along rivers and sometimes streets. There's patches for bike parking once in a while with so many bikes. It was almost unsettling.
Amsterdam has a very peaceful aura. It's a very enjoyable city.
We were pretty hungry, so we took a tram to this very cool market.
This chicken with peanut sauce on it was really good.
We also bought fresh and packed stroopwaffles. I love them.
THen we went to this big park with a bunch of ducks. I didn't get many photos cuz I think my phone was low on battery but we fed them some cracker crumbs and they loved it so much it was sO CUTE I LOVE DUCKS I LOVE THE WAY THEY WALK. DUCKS SO CUTE.
For dinner, we went to a place known for their apple pie.
It was pretty good. We also got unique meatballs that I didn't get a picture of. It was good tho.
That pretty much wrapped my first day in Amsterdam!
Day 7, June 19th
For breakfast I had this cool madeleine and a chocolate croissant that we bought in a bakery.
We then went to this Van Gogh museum. There's.a vast history of this guy and his background. He has a very interesting story. I think the ear-cutting feature of him is what appeals to everyone. No one really cares about starry night.
We spent around 2.5 hours in there. My mom especially enjoyed it.
After, we got lunch at a place I don't remember. That probably means it was some basic restaurant. We went on this pretty long boat ride that went across the rivers in New Amsterdam and the huge ports in Northern Amsterdam.
The boat ride was so nice. There were speakers going over some sights which were cool too. Pretty worth it.
Day 8, June 20th
We took a bus to a neighboring city of Amsterdam to see some peaceful cities and stuff.
Baby swan with parents !
There aren't many neighborhoods in the cities I went to so far. People just live in apartments above businesses or other buildings.
Cats !
Another cat that want's food !
One of the best videos IVE TAKEN OF ALL-TIME. INSANE SWAN.
The place we went to was known for windmills, and I guess it was cool. I thought that the sheep and goats and cows and chickens we saw were even cooler and cuter. THere were just chicken vibing outside of houses and dogs looking at them. It's just such a peaceful town.
For lunch, we went to this place that was pretty good, but somehow the salad had cashew and my day was instantly ruined.
We ended up just walking around while I coped and considered throwing up. My throat was so dry and my stomach felt empty. We bus'd back and went back to the hotel and yea. I forgot what we had for dinner, I think we went to some restaurant but I forgot.
Day 9, June 21st
Took a 4 or 5 hour train ride to Berlin in the morning. It was a really nice train ride because the train was pretty empty. You could like go to other seats and just rly vibe. It's hard to explain.
I bought this the day before and I thought it was raspberry juice, but it was literally a syrup for raspberry lemonade. You're supposed to mix it in a 1:11 ratio. I was literally so confused on why it was so strong.
After we got off the train, we had the whole day to explore Berlin before having to join YPSO the next day. We planned to go to the Berlin wall and also a holocaust memorial.
Berlin is a HISTORIC city. It held tons of significance as it was/is the capital of Prussia and Germany. Other than that, Berlin was a major place where Hitler lived, and ultimately killed himself. Also, the Berlin wall, separating East Berlin and West Berlin, and also East Germany and West Germany. There's so much more but that's all I'll go over.
This is pretty much what it looked like tho. There was a whole wall full of signs that went through a timeline of the history of Berlin, and it was kind of liek reading a textbook. But it was still interesting.
After that, we went to eat dinner. We were pretty hungry as our lunch was pretty bs'd on the train.
We saw this on the way
Along with some music festival going on. The music they played was fairly uninteresting.
After that, I'm pretty sure we just explored a bit more and went to the hotel to sleep.
2022 Part 2 (w/ family & YPSO ; Leipzig, Prague, Vienna)
Day 9, June 22nd
Took a train to the Berlin International Airport, where we were going to meet up with the YPSO people. We waited for a while before our assigned bus arrived, and so we took a bus ride from the airport to the hotel. It was a long bus ride since it was going from Berlin to Leipzig. Somehow, when we got at the hotel, it was like 9 PM. They had a nice dinner buffet at the hotel where I ate a smoked beef and rice and some other stuff I forgot. I also got a raspberry cake which was pretty good for dessert.
I was rooming with Isaac, and hes a good roommate. After dinner there wasn't much time left, I just went to the hotel gym and did leg extension and bicep. Pretty refreshing to workout after a while. The gyms I had in Part 1 of eurotrip were cheap 2-3 star hotels where the rooms aren't as good as this hotel and they don't offer pools and bars and a gym and a huge lobby.
Day 10, June 23rd
We woke up at like 5:30 AM because we forgot to close the curtains and the room was super bright. We ended up going to the lobby to play pool and saw some other kids, victim of jetlag, and we went on a walk around Leipzig and saw some cool buildings I guess. When we got back, it was breakfast time, and I just ate some bread with jam and stuff like that.
Breakfast:
Then, we got on the bus and went to the place where we would have the sectionals. The brass sectional was pretty fun to be honest. Our coach was really nice and genuinely just a good coach overall. I wouldn't say I learned much, but it was just fun.
Here's a picture of a woodwind sectional because I didn't get any photo of brass sectional.
After my sectional(I was group 1) me and two friends went to get lunch.
There was a cafe nearby and this stuff was pretty good. Especially the strawberry kiwi fanta.
Next, we went to the bach museum, and that thing was so boring. We went to the house where this random composer lived in and saw this room:
This room was super cool. The screen had a camera which can detect your movement, so you are basically conducting the orchestra. You could choose which piece to conduct out of a select range of pieces from the composer guy. It was super cool cuz if u conducted faster, the orchestra would play faster, and vice versa.
Literally that room carried the exhibit. Everything else was just ancient paintings or weird artifacts that no one cares about anymore.
After that, we went to another museum for more touring, but me and isaac ditched to go look at a holocaust memorial, and also buy some drinks since we didn't get enough sleep. Isaac bought two coffees to wake himself up and I found 15 cent water and 30 cent apple juice in the same store. I shoud've stocked up on that becuase THAT'S A STEAL. I was so shocked to see those prices.
Here's something we saw on the way back.
Anyway, after that was rehearsal and concert. Pretty boring tbh, the only funny part was Jerry because he got 0 hours of sleep the day before and 2 hours of sleep the day of. You could tell the man was DOZED out. Wow it was a sight to see.
After that, we went home, ate dinner ( i had ravioli and chocolate pie, iT WAS SUPER GOOD. Wow it was good) and went back where me and isaac went to jerry and chris' room to chill. In the middle I left to shower and that's pretty much the entire day... We snuck out maybe and maybe followed chris into some place but it closed... but maybe not.
That's all I'll say, hopefully I don't forget what happened, as I didn't write down the specifics on here.
Day 11, June 24th
Today we were traveling to the capital of Czech!
We took a bus to a nice area in Prague to eat lunch. I think it was the city center, but I'm not sure.
After lunch, we shifted to spending the rest of the afternoon touring the Prague castle, a huge area with tons of architecture and history and i genuinely dont give a damn about. It was the most boring afternoon, and also it started raining. The sky was POURING LIKE A BABY.
After what seemed like forever, we finally got on a bus and went to the hotel. The hotel was a little worse than the previous one, but it was alright. I went to the hotel gym before dinner and did some chest and shoulder which ended up straining my chest for the next two days, but it eventually healed.
Day 12th, June 25th
We woke up at like 4:30 AM because Isaac couldn't sleep after randomly waking up that time. Oh well
Here's a blurry picture of the view from a cable car in the hotel. You can tell that it's been raining.
Next up was rehearsal:
We ate dinner at some place that served us soup, meat + bread, and a blueberry cake thing that had nuts in it so I got a fruit bowl instead for dessert :D
That's pretty much all I remember. I THINK it was this night that I stayed up until like 2:30 AM or something writing the first half of this blog. Right now, I'm at home in USA writing it, but the first half of this blog was all written in the hotel in Czech on my sisters computer at like 11:30 PM - 2:30 AM
After writing the first half of my blog, I realized that I NEED A LOT MORE PHOTOS, so I took a photo of my breakfast for the first tiem. Those apple pie things were SUPER GOOD, I ended up eating like 4 or 5 of them.
After the bus ride, we landed at a nice area where we went to this restaurant that according to Jerry and Chris were the "best ribs ever" or something. I think it was because they were hungry because I ate some and it was pretty good but not like STELLAR.
After that we got ice cream for 1.90 euros
Then, we had to go on a bus, where we drove to a top of a hill, and then hiked down a long way to a Bheetoven museum. The hike was pretty generic and nothing special, but it was nice to be outside.
The Bheetoven museum was pretty bad. It was just like any other museum we went to: dull, same sh*t in every room, boring. Maybe if I was a classical music enthusiast I would've understood stuff and had fun. But they had a showcase for Bheetoven's hair and I don't think anyone asked for that.
There was a garden which was the most underwhelming thing. I'm pretty sure my backyard was bigger than the garden. The whole museum was underwhelming.
Then we went to dinner at some restaurant again. There were these musicians playing which made the entire atmosphere super lively and vibrant honestly. I loved the music.
They served soup first, then this chicken thing for dinner.
Day 14, June 27th
We began by eating breakfast at the hotel. I tried the blueberry yogurt and that was SUPER GOOD.
We then made our way to a musician cemetery. Apparently u only get invited to have ur grave here if ure like super qualified and stuff. Bheetoven, Brahms, Strauss family are here. If I was a classical music enthusiast it would've been so absorbing to be here, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.
There were A LOT of graves here. Like, I wasn't even close to looking at all of them in the 30 minutes of freetime I had here.
After that we went back on the bus and stopped by this government place. There was such a huge open area.
Then, we were on our own to eat lunch as they dropped us in the same area as yesterday where we ate lunch.
Me, Jerry, Isaac, Chris, and Kyle Chan (very kind friend i met on the trip :3) went to a place called "le burger" and the food was pretty good. It's just that we ordered lemonade they basically jsut gave us water but with low-effort lemon infusion. It literally just tasted like slightly-sweetened water. Like how do u mess up lemonade? Maybe it's just a European thing.
After lunch, we took a bus to this random palace thing in Vienna that was equally as boring as any other church/museum we visited.
Europeans do celebrate pride month btw, pretty prominently too. That was pretty cool to see.
After having another lame experience we went to another restaurant for dinner where they served the same chicken thing food as yesterday.
Idk why but I thought the lemon was for decoration, until I saw Jerry using his brain and squeezing it on the chicken. The flavor was way better with the lemon juice, idk why I didn't think of it. Anyway, I had a particularly fun time at this restauraunt. It was just fun and open in there and we had some funny conversations.
They similarly again had the violin/accordion players playing, and even lent their violin to some violin players in the orchestra. The two co-concertmasters played their solos in the pieces which was super cool. Here's a video of another violinist just playing something.
We got back pretty early and I really wanted to go to a gym, but the hotel didn't have one. I searched and saw one on google maps that was nearby (around 12 minute walk) and saw that u can buy a 10 minute daypass. So I got clay and aaron and we went there. Along the way we walked past a mall in Vienna and just in general some super nice views:
The weather was so nice, and it was just such a good time of day to be outside. Wow.
The gym was a pretty typical gym.
After that I hopefully got some protein from this kebab box:
I can't stress how good this was. It was just so good, something about the toppings they put on after hte kebab. MAN THIS WAS GOOD.
I can't describe it. It was one of the best meals I've ever had. This topped off such an amazing day.
Day 15, June 28th
Today was the last day on tour before we had to depart the next day. I didn't know that this one would be ONE OF THE BEST.
We started off the day going to our 94th boring museum/church that was indistinguishable from literally anything else I visited.
Then I think we walked to another museum. Here is what we saw along the way:
Now I thought this next museum we go to was just another one of those random houses with artifacts on display that I'll forget in two days. However, this hosue WAS ONE OF THE BEST MUSEUMS IVE EVER BEEN TO. It glossed over super cool exhibits of the physics of sound and some very cool concepts. There were actual electronic interactive exhibits, and IT WAS SO FUN.
This room was like something straight out of Chime or Virtual Riot's studio. EDM does occur in the natural world!
There were just so many rooms and all of them were so fascinating. THIS IS HOW MUSEUMS SHOUDL BE. jk, theres a different feeling to those simplistic ones.
So after exploring that museum for like an hour, Aaron, Clay, and I went to this burger place nearby and it was super good. Like, the meat was just super special and really stands out. I've never had a burger like that before.
Then we walked to our place for rehearsal, and did rehearsal. Pretty boring stuff, apparently we can't take photos of the hall we were playing in, and if we were caught then there would be a 2k fine, but no one really cares and ppl took photos, including me. I'm not gonna post them tho just to be safe.
Then we walked to our place for rehearsal, and did rehearsal. Pretty boring stuff, apparently we can't take photos of the hall we were playing in, and if we were caught then there would be a 2k fine, but no one really cares and ppl took photos, including me. I'm not gonna post them tho just to be safe.
So after rehearsal we went back to the hotel to change and eat dinner. I remember that the only good option for dinner was the lasagna. After that we quickly headed back to perform and also watch the other groups performing.
So yea, we watched Napa Valley, got ready to perform, performed, and then watched Chicago Youth Orchestra. Apparently the Chicago Youth Orchestra is one of the best youth orchestras in the country, and it makes sense cuz hearing and watching them play was pretty insane. They were just SO TOGETHER and there were some quiet sections during the song that were executed so beautifully. It was so satisfying. Almost gave me chills. A lot of the people there seemed pretty old tho. The conductor was super into the music and super passionate about it. This itself gave me a whole new perspective on orchestral music. It's just different from EDM as it's longer and is more stretched.
We got back at around 10:30 I think, and we were getting ready to sleep, when Clay invited me over to some room and I went and there were like 10 ppl crammed in one hotel room hanging out. It was a scene, but it was super fun. Then we decided to try to sneak out to mcdonalds, a whole gang of like 15 of us. We took an iconic selfie in the elevator but I'm not trynna face reveal yet.
Right when we were sneaking out, this guy named Thomas who is so goofy decides to "do a monkey dance" and starts hollering like a monkey at 1 AM in the hotel lobby and next thing u know one of the YPSO staff saw us in the lobby and told us that she understands that we are excited but that it's too late to be going out. Right when she said that I see zach make A BOLT OUT and this entire time hes literally barefoot.
So what just happened?
1. 15 of us go down on an elevator to sneak to mcdonalds at 1 AM
2. Thomas sells the bag by replicating a monkey and making monkey noises and dancing
3. Zach sprints out alone barefoot
😂😂 I couldn't stop laughing bruh. This is just insane. I can't even fathom it.
So we came back, and so we asked a chaperone, who was an alum of YPSO so still homies with us, to get the mcdonalds for us.
I won't point out who sold the bag, but I'll always know and remember him. Man I love thomas. Some people are just so funny
So you can actually climb out of that window there and you'll be at a balcony.
At the balcony you can climb to the hotel roof and get this type of view. Having access to this along with jsut chilling with everyone on the tour in that hotel room was such a vibe and experience. I stayed up until 4 AM in that room and called Isaac to come here too sometime in the middle. Most ppl pulled an allnighter because we had to wake up at 5 AM to catch the allnighter, and it was ltierally like 4 AM. So I went back to my hotel room at 4 AM and caught 1 hour of sleep :)
First place I went after waking up and doing waking up things was going back to the room and seeing everyone just DRAINED, but they were still talking and it was the same vibe.
Day 16, June 29th
I was going on a different flight then the tour, so after going on the bus I said goodbye to some people I would probably never see again. You wouldn't think you would get so close to some ppl you didn't know before the 7 day tour.
So yea, we transferred at Amsterdam with a 2 hour layover, where I bought this sick combo 3 packs of stroopwaffles for 10 euros. There was a wide variety of flavors but I ultimately chose these three:
Apple Pie, classic honey, and milk chocolate. The apple pie tastes like the regular one but with apple in it ; it's pretty god.
The milk chocolate one is SO GOOD. If you make it in the same shape of twix, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to tell apart the taste between the milk chocolate stroopwaffle and twix. SERIOUSLY. It's like a candy bar. The milk chocolate one is by far the best one, it's so good.
One of the best purchases I made in Europe. All three of those packs of stroopwaffles are so good, and only for 10 euros. THATS A STEAL IN MY BOOK.
EPILOGUE
Two days after I come home, I feel a sore throat that just won't go away.
Later, I test for COVID-19 and it's positive. I find out a lot of other people in the orchestra test positive. I know around like 10+ at the moment I would say.
What an experience. I'll never forget this tour.
Lyric(s) of the Post:
"
I know that the world keeps telling you that it's trivial (trivial)
I know that you wanted a picture but it's a video (it's a video)
"
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