By: David Goldstein

Winter break is a nice week off from school at the end of February; relaxation, sleeping in and no school work for

nine days.  This is the case for most of the students that attend Galway High School.  But for the few people that went to Europe, that vacation was life changing and unforgettable.

The beginning of the trip isn’t always fun–it’s a 4-5 hour bus ride to JFK International Airport. Then security checkpoints, take your shoes off, no belt, no liquids in your bag, please. But after that small annoyance is out of the way, the best week of your begins.

You land in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. After baggage claim, you board the coach bus for your first panoramic tour of a beautiful foreign country; seeing the most incredible architecture, eating at the best restaurants and being able to enjoy the experiences of a lifetime with your best friends. Personally, my favorite part of Amsterdam was the red light district. It was the most vibrant and interesting couple of blocks that I have ever

seen in my life. I’m sure some of the people that will read this article have heard of the red light district; everything is true. The city has an entirely different feel and pace than any city I’ve been to. Everyone rides bicycles to their destination. This is because of road taxes and gas prices in Europe. The road tax is priced depending on the weight of the vehicle a person chooses to drive and can cost anywhere from 100Euros to 1000Euros a month. And if gas prices are too high for your liking here, the price per gallon in Amsterdam was $8.00 a gallon when converted from the Euro.

The next stop was Brussels in Belgium. We took a bus 3 and a half hours to the capital. We went on a fantastic walking tour of the city center and of different cathedrals in the general area. We only had one day to explore and appreciate the different and new cultural experiences that Belgium had to offer, but one day was better than not being able to visit the country at all.

France was the third stop on the trip. The city of Paris was more beautiful than I could have imagined. My favorite part of Paris was visiting the Eiffel Tower. It was one of the most amazing structures that I have seen in my entire life. Going on the tour couldn’t compare to the great experience that I had viewing the entire city from the top. It was breathtaking. The City of Lights holds true to its name and a tourist can truly appreciate what an old city with fantastic sites has to offer. The Louvre (the largest museum in the world) had the most amazing paintings and sculptures that I had ever seen. “The Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Da Vinci was the best thing the museum had to offer. My favorite sculpture was “Venus de Milo,” the woman with missing arms. I learned that it was sculpted from marble in 120 B.C.  We only had two hours to look through the museum and since it is so large we only saw a few pieces of work and got lost the majority of the time.

On the second day in Paris we went to the Palace of Versailles. It was by far the most expensive home I’ve walked through in my entire life. It was weird, just thinking about how one person owned that palace and all its contents. One can’t even speculate on the value of the structure because it is so priceless.  Paris was by far the best part of the trip.

In London we went on a 3 hour panoramic tour of the city and occasionally stopped to take pictures of famous buildings. It’s difficult to explain what you’ve done in different countries around the world. “Oh yeah, we just stopped at Big Ben, how cool is that? So cool!” said Rachel Mueller, over and over again. We also had the opportunity to visit Buckingham Palace, see the crown jewels and see the different periods that England went through such as the Dark Ages. My friends and I also went on a Jack the Ripper tour. Our guide brought us down the same streets as the famous murderer and told us stories about the terrible things he did to his victims, too harsh to put on a school website. We spent the next day in London, and it was all free time. We took the Tube to different shopping districts and just took time to unwind before the long flight home.

Europe is always the best part of the school year. I can’t even fathom the amount of joy and happiness that one has when they can chill with good friends in different countries. The European Quartet was one of the best weeks of my life. I’m even considering going next year during college.