Day 29
Antwerp. Caught an expensive train from Rouen to paris, then to brussels then to antwerp. Walked a decent distance to the hostel, but we had a map from a nice tourist office, so it went easily. Antwerp is the diamond capitol of europe and also has a good number of jewish communities. It must be a hair stylist's nightmare for sure since most of the guys seemed to have the same partly shaved head haircut. Fun to see anyway. We walked around town a bit, hit up some stores then went to bed. Our hostel is one of those 12 beds in a room ones, but we lucked out with having only a few people in there.
Since its belgium people smoke everywhere, and our hostel's kitchen and main room were just filled with smoke making us not want to stay down there. But the room was decent.
Day 30
Antwerp. Went to the zoo!! Saw Penguins!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Europe Days 25 - 28 :: Edited June 29
Day 25
Paris. Woke up after the day of hell and switched hotels to our original hotel. We then metroed over to the catacombs, a really cool place, lots of bones (millions!). Definetly one of my favourite places. Then we walked over to the eiffel tower and up to the second level of it (700 steps!). We then walked to the Arc de Triumph, but wern't allowed to go up to it due to some armed guards and a memorial service. I also got to try my first BigMac (who knew i'd eat that), then we headed back to the hotel in the pouring rain.
Day 26
Paris again. Wandered around, saw NotreDame, ate crepes, hit up tourist shops. Went to the Louvre that evening to get in free (Free for students friday nights!), saw the mona lisa and other cool art. Then walked to the Eiffel tower, got some supper and at 11pm watched the Eiffel tower sparkle. really. sparkle.
Day 27.
Trained north to Rouen where we read that Joan of Arc was killed. Got out of the train station and were surrounded by bagpipe players. Quite confusing, but we found out that we happened to get there on the weekend that Joan of Arc was killed, so it was a huge festival in the entire town. So basically the main old-town areas were converted into festival areas with medevel costumes, cooking, blacksmiths, crafts and more. We bought this fresh fire oven bread that was still hot and tasted amazing. That night there were firebreathers, dancing and more. I got to hold the flaming torch as one firebreather blew, really cool.
Day 28.
Went to the 'Grand Picnic', got a plate of amazing stew that had 3 kinds of meat in it. Watched some sweet funk bands playing. We went to the memorial service for Joan that evening, which was kinda cool and weird. I mean shes been dead for so long...haha
Paris. Woke up after the day of hell and switched hotels to our original hotel. We then metroed over to the catacombs, a really cool place, lots of bones (millions!). Definetly one of my favourite places. Then we walked over to the eiffel tower and up to the second level of it (700 steps!). We then walked to the Arc de Triumph, but wern't allowed to go up to it due to some armed guards and a memorial service. I also got to try my first BigMac (who knew i'd eat that), then we headed back to the hotel in the pouring rain.
Day 26
Paris again. Wandered around, saw NotreDame, ate crepes, hit up tourist shops. Went to the Louvre that evening to get in free (Free for students friday nights!), saw the mona lisa and other cool art. Then walked to the Eiffel tower, got some supper and at 11pm watched the Eiffel tower sparkle. really. sparkle.
Day 27.
Trained north to Rouen where we read that Joan of Arc was killed. Got out of the train station and were surrounded by bagpipe players. Quite confusing, but we found out that we happened to get there on the weekend that Joan of Arc was killed, so it was a huge festival in the entire town. So basically the main old-town areas were converted into festival areas with medevel costumes, cooking, blacksmiths, crafts and more. We bought this fresh fire oven bread that was still hot and tasted amazing. That night there were firebreathers, dancing and more. I got to hold the flaming torch as one firebreather blew, really cool.
Day 28.
Went to the 'Grand Picnic', got a plate of amazing stew that had 3 kinds of meat in it. Watched some sweet funk bands playing. We went to the memorial service for Joan that evening, which was kinda cool and weird. I mean shes been dead for so long...haha
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Europe days 21-24 :: Updated June 29
Days 21-23
Barcelona. One of my favourite european towns. We got in around 12 and made our way to a hotel I stayed in before, which is located in a mall (fun!). Its a great cheap place right by the Rambla, the main walking road in the south of the city by the beach. We walked around the area, found a cool antique market, saw the harbor and got some dinner before heading to bed. Our second day was spend first touring around the city, saw the Sagrata Familia, the huge gaudi designed church, plus a few other cool landmarks and parks before heading to the beach to relax for the afternoon. The next day was the same, some touring of ancient runes and churches then heading to the beach for the afternoon. Went out to 'Sinatra's' for dinner of Tapas, our most expensive meal.
Day 24 (aka day of hell #1)
Trip to paris. We headed for the airport really early to catch our plane to paris. got to the airport, couldn't find the ryanair area and were told that we were at teh wrong airport. ok so not the happiest news, but we had 3 hours to make it to the other airport, so lots of time right? We find out that its a 1.5 hour drive to teh other airport. too bad we didn't have a car. so we took a train back into town, and tried to get a train out to the other airport, but the only train we could get would get us there 5 minutes before our flight. so that was bad news. we checked out how much a taxi would cost, and didn't think that 140 euros was worth making it a few minutes earlier. so after trying to call ryanair and getting nowhere, we accepted our fate and knew we would get there late. so we caught the train, which was painfully slow and finally got to the Girona train station hoping the airport was right there. turned out that it wasnt. go figure. it was an extra 20 minute taxi ride to get to the airport. on the plus side we found another guy who missed the flight as well, so we didn't feel so dumb. then going to the ryanair desk we tried to get a flight later that day and coudn't get one until 10pm and they charged us an extra 150 euros just to rebook it. not nice ryanair, not nice. after waiting 10 hours in the airport, we got into 'paris' only to find that it wasn't paris but an hour bus ride away from paris. so at 12am we are stuck on this bus for an hour getting to paris. we were then dropped off in paris where we had no idea where to go. we just followed people who seemed to know where the metro was, and made our way to the station closest to our hotel. after walking for at least 15 mins we finally found our hotel. after ringing the bell we finally got someone to come and although she didn't speak english we understood enough that she had already given our room away since we were late. so now we were homeless in paris at 1am and it was raining. we were not happy. it took us at elast 30 minutes more of wandering around the dark streets of paris before we found a really creepy hotel that was open and had rooms free. We FINALLY got to sleep at about 2-3am.
Barcelona. One of my favourite european towns. We got in around 12 and made our way to a hotel I stayed in before, which is located in a mall (fun!). Its a great cheap place right by the Rambla, the main walking road in the south of the city by the beach. We walked around the area, found a cool antique market, saw the harbor and got some dinner before heading to bed. Our second day was spend first touring around the city, saw the Sagrata Familia, the huge gaudi designed church, plus a few other cool landmarks and parks before heading to the beach to relax for the afternoon. The next day was the same, some touring of ancient runes and churches then heading to the beach for the afternoon. Went out to 'Sinatra's' for dinner of Tapas, our most expensive meal.
Day 24 (aka day of hell #1)
Trip to paris. We headed for the airport really early to catch our plane to paris. got to the airport, couldn't find the ryanair area and were told that we were at teh wrong airport. ok so not the happiest news, but we had 3 hours to make it to the other airport, so lots of time right? We find out that its a 1.5 hour drive to teh other airport. too bad we didn't have a car. so we took a train back into town, and tried to get a train out to the other airport, but the only train we could get would get us there 5 minutes before our flight. so that was bad news. we checked out how much a taxi would cost, and didn't think that 140 euros was worth making it a few minutes earlier. so after trying to call ryanair and getting nowhere, we accepted our fate and knew we would get there late. so we caught the train, which was painfully slow and finally got to the Girona train station hoping the airport was right there. turned out that it wasnt. go figure. it was an extra 20 minute taxi ride to get to the airport. on the plus side we found another guy who missed the flight as well, so we didn't feel so dumb. then going to the ryanair desk we tried to get a flight later that day and coudn't get one until 10pm and they charged us an extra 150 euros just to rebook it. not nice ryanair, not nice. after waiting 10 hours in the airport, we got into 'paris' only to find that it wasn't paris but an hour bus ride away from paris. so at 12am we are stuck on this bus for an hour getting to paris. we were then dropped off in paris where we had no idea where to go. we just followed people who seemed to know where the metro was, and made our way to the station closest to our hotel. after walking for at least 15 mins we finally found our hotel. after ringing the bell we finally got someone to come and although she didn't speak english we understood enough that she had already given our room away since we were late. so now we were homeless in paris at 1am and it was raining. we were not happy. it took us at elast 30 minutes more of wandering around the dark streets of paris before we found a really creepy hotel that was open and had rooms free. We FINALLY got to sleep at about 2-3am.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Europe days 16-20 :: Updated June 22
Day 16
Nice. (The city, not the exclamation.)
Left florence at about 8am to train to Nice, france. Got to Nice around 4pm and found our hostel. The hostel people seem pretty dence, but we got in a room with two girls from Guelph, so that was fun. We headed down to the beach/shopping area to get food and check out the town. Lots of really expensive cars around; fararis and such. Would be a fun place to live if you had money to throw away. A one bedroom apartment downtown is about 450 000 euros to buy.
Day 17
Hiked up the side of a small mountain to check out an archeology museum. Turns out that romans left some buildings there a long time ago. Who knew. We then hiked back down to the beach to relax. For a really expensive resort town, the beach sucks. No sand, just large pebbles. Not too comfy unless you can afford a beach chair. Walking along the beach later in the day to a point that jets into the water, we saw a huge school of dolphins swimming and jumping from one horizon to the other.
Day 18
Monaco. Headed from nice to monaco for the day. Its only a 20 min train ride and costs almost nothing. We also found out that the Monaco Grand Prix was on that week too which was cool, but it made the city busy and loud. We walked over to the palace which overlooks the whole area and gives you a good view of the racing as well. We also headed to the Oceanographic museum which is world renound. Had some sweet looking fish and old relecs. We also walked up right to the races but couldn't get in. Was a great walking day until my $7 walmart sandels decided to completely fall appart (shoulda known), but besides that it was great!
Day 19
Marseille. We trained to marseille and tried to find the hostel that we booked. After taking a metro and a bus, we started walking and walking and walking and finally found our hostel, which turned out to be this couple's house (awkward) and whats worse (and funny for me) is that we were sharing a room with two guys from holland who spent all night drinking and listening to the most random music, and then to make the stay more fun, the "free internet" turned out to be their own home computer in their living room, so when we tried to search for a room for the next day with 5 random people sitting in the room with us was most awkward. Anyway, we did get the chance to boat over to the Chateau d'If (the location for the Count of Monte Cristo), which was really cool. A nice old prison island. Had warning signs about seagulls who attack people...and one happened to divebomb Dani. Really fun! haha
Day 20
Beizers. Found this little town on the coast between marseille and Barcelona. Big mistake. We trained here and planned to get info about our hotel at the train station. Turned out that the station was too small for info...so going with my memory of the general direction of the hotel, we started hiking. After walking for a while, we founda bus stop with a map, which didn't help. We then had a gang of teens throw fruit at the bus stop and start following us while we walked. It was just pure luck when we finally stumbled upon a tourist info building with nice ladies who informed us that the hotel we wanted was not a good place and like 7km out of town. They then got us a hotel right next to the train station, where we spent the res of the day and night in because i'm pretty sure the town was run by gangs. Not happy day. We were glad to leave.
Nice. (The city, not the exclamation.)
Left florence at about 8am to train to Nice, france. Got to Nice around 4pm and found our hostel. The hostel people seem pretty dence, but we got in a room with two girls from Guelph, so that was fun. We headed down to the beach/shopping area to get food and check out the town. Lots of really expensive cars around; fararis and such. Would be a fun place to live if you had money to throw away. A one bedroom apartment downtown is about 450 000 euros to buy.
Day 17
Hiked up the side of a small mountain to check out an archeology museum. Turns out that romans left some buildings there a long time ago. Who knew. We then hiked back down to the beach to relax. For a really expensive resort town, the beach sucks. No sand, just large pebbles. Not too comfy unless you can afford a beach chair. Walking along the beach later in the day to a point that jets into the water, we saw a huge school of dolphins swimming and jumping from one horizon to the other.
Day 18
Monaco. Headed from nice to monaco for the day. Its only a 20 min train ride and costs almost nothing. We also found out that the Monaco Grand Prix was on that week too which was cool, but it made the city busy and loud. We walked over to the palace which overlooks the whole area and gives you a good view of the racing as well. We also headed to the Oceanographic museum which is world renound. Had some sweet looking fish and old relecs. We also walked up right to the races but couldn't get in. Was a great walking day until my $7 walmart sandels decided to completely fall appart (shoulda known), but besides that it was great!
Day 19
Marseille. We trained to marseille and tried to find the hostel that we booked. After taking a metro and a bus, we started walking and walking and walking and finally found our hostel, which turned out to be this couple's house (awkward) and whats worse (and funny for me) is that we were sharing a room with two guys from holland who spent all night drinking and listening to the most random music, and then to make the stay more fun, the "free internet" turned out to be their own home computer in their living room, so when we tried to search for a room for the next day with 5 random people sitting in the room with us was most awkward. Anyway, we did get the chance to boat over to the Chateau d'If (the location for the Count of Monte Cristo), which was really cool. A nice old prison island. Had warning signs about seagulls who attack people...and one happened to divebomb Dani. Really fun! haha
Day 20
Beizers. Found this little town on the coast between marseille and Barcelona. Big mistake. We trained here and planned to get info about our hotel at the train station. Turned out that the station was too small for info...so going with my memory of the general direction of the hotel, we started hiking. After walking for a while, we founda bus stop with a map, which didn't help. We then had a gang of teens throw fruit at the bus stop and start following us while we walked. It was just pure luck when we finally stumbled upon a tourist info building with nice ladies who informed us that the hotel we wanted was not a good place and like 7km out of town. They then got us a hotel right next to the train station, where we spent the res of the day and night in because i'm pretty sure the town was run by gangs. Not happy day. We were glad to leave.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Europe days 9 -15 :: Edited June 22
So this may be the biggest sets of blog posts ever when i'm done with it. Since internet here has been iffy at best, and can cost as much as a good meal for an hour, i could not keep up as much as i would have liked. so what i'm doing now, nearing the end of our trip is i'll condense it into short blurbs for each day/event with the help of Dani's well written notes in her conventional journal and enlarge them when possible. so this post should keep getting bigger until i have filled in all the details. so here we go:
Day 9
heading to the train station to go to rome we met some fellow londoners (what are the odds!)They gave us some advice on things to see in rome, which turned out very helpful even tho i've been there 3 other times...
We arrived in rome late, as all trains it italy are late, and after metros and busses we made it to our hostel which was a campground just on the outskirts of the city. The place was pretty nice, we got our own room and bathroom. It even had a pool and 'jaccuzies'which to them are round tubs with cold water jets...not my idea of a good hot tub...oh well cant complain.
Day 10
ROME! We bussed and metro-ed downtown to check out the old sites, including the Trevi fountain, old ruins, tomb of the unknown soldier and the collesium. My fav part was thanks to the Londoners we met the day before. As they told us to do, we followed the buildings to the left of the unknown soldiers tomb and eventually found a small door that led downstairs into an old cell. turns out this cell is where the apostle Paul was supposedly held. The cell is small and very few people seemed to know about it since it was pretty empty when we were there. Rumor has it that Paul baptised fellow prisoners with a small stream that went through the cell and that the water actually glowed. There's a small mural in the cell showing this event, but besides that it doesn't tell anything except a list of names of who was in the cell, including Paul.
Cool eh!
Day 11
The Vatican. Bussing into the city, we walked into see the vatican's huge walls that surround the city. We didn't know where to go there, so we saw this huge line (as in thousands of people), and decided our best bet would be to join the line and hope we get somewhere. Thankfully it went really fast and we got into St.Peter's Bastilia. Well actually it went UNDER the bastilia to the tombes of the popes. YOu'd think with all the money that the vatican has it wouldn't have to bury the popes in the basement eh! haha. What was really weird was that when we went past the most recient tomb (John Paul?) people were actually praying to the dead pope, leaving gifts and more. NOw i'm not big into catholic things, but thats just weird people. We also saw the tomb for St.Peter (from a distance, since no one is allowed in). We then went into the church itself, which is amazing in terms of architecture and design. I also think that if they auctioned off everything in there they could pretty much end world poverty. But they're too greedy i guess. God only likes really expensive churches, right?
We then decided to get in another huge line and climbed up to the top of the bastilia which was about 550 stairs, some that led through tunnels that were slanted on an angle, so that you had to walk crooked. Came with a great view of the upper roof of the church (painted by michelangelo) and a good overview of the whole city.
Our plan then was to go see the sistine chapel, but after walking all the way to it, we found that it just randomly closed for the day (sign said it closed one day a month and it just happened to be our day there...blah). On the plus side we found this amazing gelato place were we got 6 scoops of the icecream. not bad.
Day 12 and 13
We took a train to our next town, a place called Filgine or something like that. We had booked this campground place that we knew nothing about but it was in the Tuscan area, so we figured it would be good. We got there at about 2:30 and got a shuttle to the campgrounds, on top of a mountain, which we found out happened to be a resort. (but we only payed $13 per night!) IT had 6 pools, tennis, soccer, restaurants, market and more. It was basically like a 4 star camping resort. we decided it would be a good place to relax for a few days (by the pool of course). We also noticed that it just happened to be the weekend that the European chapter of the H.O.G. Club (Harley-Davidon Owners Group), got together at that resort, meaning lots of bikes and noise! Was very interesting.
Day 14
Florence. Took an early train to florence where we left our bags and took another train to Pisa. Walking through the town we found the leaning tower (very cool) and the historic area. After taking the normal 'holding up the leaning tower' photos and wandered around for a bit, we then headed back to the train and back to Florence and a bus to our hostel.
Day 15
Walked through florence. Our hostel is on top of a hill overlooking the city and is right beside a lookout with a huge statue of David on it. We wandered around the streets and churches for about 8 hours. Didn't see the original David...most museums were closed that day. oh well.
Day 9
heading to the train station to go to rome we met some fellow londoners (what are the odds!)They gave us some advice on things to see in rome, which turned out very helpful even tho i've been there 3 other times...
We arrived in rome late, as all trains it italy are late, and after metros and busses we made it to our hostel which was a campground just on the outskirts of the city. The place was pretty nice, we got our own room and bathroom. It even had a pool and 'jaccuzies'which to them are round tubs with cold water jets...not my idea of a good hot tub...oh well cant complain.
Day 10
ROME! We bussed and metro-ed downtown to check out the old sites, including the Trevi fountain, old ruins, tomb of the unknown soldier and the collesium. My fav part was thanks to the Londoners we met the day before. As they told us to do, we followed the buildings to the left of the unknown soldiers tomb and eventually found a small door that led downstairs into an old cell. turns out this cell is where the apostle Paul was supposedly held. The cell is small and very few people seemed to know about it since it was pretty empty when we were there. Rumor has it that Paul baptised fellow prisoners with a small stream that went through the cell and that the water actually glowed. There's a small mural in the cell showing this event, but besides that it doesn't tell anything except a list of names of who was in the cell, including Paul.
Cool eh!
Day 11
The Vatican. Bussing into the city, we walked into see the vatican's huge walls that surround the city. We didn't know where to go there, so we saw this huge line (as in thousands of people), and decided our best bet would be to join the line and hope we get somewhere. Thankfully it went really fast and we got into St.Peter's Bastilia. Well actually it went UNDER the bastilia to the tombes of the popes. YOu'd think with all the money that the vatican has it wouldn't have to bury the popes in the basement eh! haha. What was really weird was that when we went past the most recient tomb (John Paul?) people were actually praying to the dead pope, leaving gifts and more. NOw i'm not big into catholic things, but thats just weird people. We also saw the tomb for St.Peter (from a distance, since no one is allowed in). We then went into the church itself, which is amazing in terms of architecture and design. I also think that if they auctioned off everything in there they could pretty much end world poverty. But they're too greedy i guess. God only likes really expensive churches, right?
We then decided to get in another huge line and climbed up to the top of the bastilia which was about 550 stairs, some that led through tunnels that were slanted on an angle, so that you had to walk crooked. Came with a great view of the upper roof of the church (painted by michelangelo) and a good overview of the whole city.
Our plan then was to go see the sistine chapel, but after walking all the way to it, we found that it just randomly closed for the day (sign said it closed one day a month and it just happened to be our day there...blah). On the plus side we found this amazing gelato place were we got 6 scoops of the icecream. not bad.
Day 12 and 13
We took a train to our next town, a place called Filgine or something like that. We had booked this campground place that we knew nothing about but it was in the Tuscan area, so we figured it would be good. We got there at about 2:30 and got a shuttle to the campgrounds, on top of a mountain, which we found out happened to be a resort. (but we only payed $13 per night!) IT had 6 pools, tennis, soccer, restaurants, market and more. It was basically like a 4 star camping resort. we decided it would be a good place to relax for a few days (by the pool of course). We also noticed that it just happened to be the weekend that the European chapter of the H.O.G. Club (Harley-Davidon Owners Group), got together at that resort, meaning lots of bikes and noise! Was very interesting.
Day 14
Florence. Took an early train to florence where we left our bags and took another train to Pisa. Walking through the town we found the leaning tower (very cool) and the historic area. After taking the normal 'holding up the leaning tower' photos and wandered around for a bit, we then headed back to the train and back to Florence and a bus to our hostel.
Day 15
Walked through florence. Our hostel is on top of a hill overlooking the city and is right beside a lookout with a huge statue of David on it. We wandered around the streets and churches for about 8 hours. Didn't see the original David...most museums were closed that day. oh well.
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