By Far my favorite place that I visited on my trip!
This place was absolutely beautiful and calm. Its in between 2 absolutely gorgeous lakes and surrounded by the Swiss Alps.
I spent 4 nights at this place and it was a really well needed time to relax.
The first night I got there I got there late and just cooked and relaxed which was really nice.
The second Night I went I slept in, and then had a nice 5 hour walk around one of the lakes. It was so beautiful and the air was so refreshing. That night I got back and cooked some pasta and met some Spanish girls and hung out all night.
The next day I woke up, and realized that I did not want to do anything. So all I did that day was relax, do laundry, and watch CNN. I basically stayed at the hostel all day that day which was quite nice. The hostel staff was super cool and I just talked to them all day. That night I ended up hitting the hostel bar and hanging out with some locals who tried to convince me that Americans were all brainwashed :-P Quite entertaining.
The next and last night I was there I went up to where the filmed the 007 Mivue On Her Majesty's Secret Service on top of Schilthorn which is one of the tallent mountains in Switzerland. I got to go on a beautiful day and I was able to see so much.
Then the next day I took a Fast train to Rome for my last stop
Monday, April 5, 2010
Nice
The funny thing about Nice is that nothing opens until 8/9 ... Even the hostels - I luckly and found a guest leaving one at 7 and got in and dropped off my bag. I then went to the mediteranian and chilled out for a while the beach - it was quite nice. I basically just walked around and found some food for awhile until it was 12 and got to my room.
I was able to relax for a bit and then some canadians checked in and I was just happ to speak to someone who was fluent in English for the first time in awhile. We basically walked around for a bit - we went back to the beach and just hung out for awhile
The interesting thing about Nice is that it's very beautiful and the weather is great - but there isn't alot to see. Just to enjoy the beach and the weather. Which to be honest I was quite ready for.
The rest of my stay I basically just walked around for a while and enjoyed my time there. Just relaxing that's about it though.
Then I was off to geneve where I'll be couchsurfing. For the second time this trip!! I think I may go skiing tomorrow!
I'm on the train there and you can see the beginning of the alps on one side and the medditeranian on the other (we go through marselles and lyon before going to geneve) it is so beautiful! :-D
I was able to relax for a bit and then some canadians checked in and I was just happ to speak to someone who was fluent in English for the first time in awhile. We basically walked around for a bit - we went back to the beach and just hung out for awhile
The interesting thing about Nice is that it's very beautiful and the weather is great - but there isn't alot to see. Just to enjoy the beach and the weather. Which to be honest I was quite ready for.
The rest of my stay I basically just walked around for a while and enjoyed my time there. Just relaxing that's about it though.
Then I was off to geneve where I'll be couchsurfing. For the second time this trip!! I think I may go skiing tomorrow!
I'm on the train there and you can see the beginning of the alps on one side and the medditeranian on the other (we go through marselles and lyon before going to geneve) it is so beautiful! :-D
Ventimigilia
So I got to the layover place around 1am and had to basically wait until 4 until the next train to Nice. The station was just absolutely full of bums or drunks and after being haggeled for money for 30 minutes I left and went to the beach. Haha yes it was 1 am and raining out but I still went out with my backpack on and just chilled on the shore! It pretty much rocked
I spent an hour there and then Decided I was cold. So I went back to the train station.
I got back and was just chilln for a while until I notices this Arab guy who was just absolutely wasted basically harrassing this young african woman. So I basically spent the rest of the morning protecting this woman from this over persistant Arab guy who really wouldn't leave this girl alone for like 3 hours. It was crazy. Finally this arab guy had to catch his train and everyone went their separate ways
Then I finally got to Nice at 6 am!!
I spent an hour there and then Decided I was cold. So I went back to the train station.
I got back and was just chilln for a while until I notices this Arab guy who was just absolutely wasted basically harrassing this young african woman. So I basically spent the rest of the morning protecting this woman from this over persistant Arab guy who really wouldn't leave this girl alone for like 3 hours. It was crazy. Finally this arab guy had to catch his train and everyone went their separate ways
Then I finally got to Nice at 6 am!!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Piza
Piza
So piza was awesome fr the 5 hours that I was in it! Haha - but I'm pretty sure people are right - you really only need part of a day to go through it and be done with it.
I got here around 2 and was ready to leave by 7! I basically went to the square that the leaning tower of piza was in asked some fellow Americans to take a photo of me with it and also went in te free cathedial - everything else was obnoxiously priced! Then I grabbed a pizza and this local desert and ate it in the coartyard across the leaning tower. Again the weather was beautiful and I basically stayed in thy coartyard/park for an hour - twas great!
Then I walked around the city - got lost as usual and found my way back to the train station and booked my way to Nice.
Only problem is that I had a transfer in this town 20km from Nice in order to cross te boarder and The first train had a 55minute delay (don't aske me how - I didn't realize a train could be delayed that much) so now I'm on my way to the town that is in the middle of nowhere and I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing tonight - it's either finding a 24 hour cafe and waiting until the train at 545 or finding a hostel or hitchhiking! I'll let you all know in my next post!!
So piza was awesome fr the 5 hours that I was in it! Haha - but I'm pretty sure people are right - you really only need part of a day to go through it and be done with it.
I got here around 2 and was ready to leave by 7! I basically went to the square that the leaning tower of piza was in asked some fellow Americans to take a photo of me with it and also went in te free cathedial - everything else was obnoxiously priced! Then I grabbed a pizza and this local desert and ate it in the coartyard across the leaning tower. Again the weather was beautiful and I basically stayed in thy coartyard/park for an hour - twas great!
Then I walked around the city - got lost as usual and found my way back to the train station and booked my way to Nice.
Only problem is that I had a transfer in this town 20km from Nice in order to cross te boarder and The first train had a 55minute delay (don't aske me how - I didn't realize a train could be delayed that much) so now I'm on my way to the town that is in the middle of nowhere and I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing tonight - it's either finding a 24 hour cafe and waiting until the train at 545 or finding a hostel or hitchhiking! I'll let you all know in my next post!!
Florence
Florence
So I officially like this whole writig my blog on the train/bus to the next location!
I'm headed on my way to Pisa right now on the train for 5eiro and man this train is nice! There are 3 people in this coach and it's a beautiful view outside! Much more comfortable than the bus
I got into Florence and walked around a bit - grabbed a hostel - took care of some stuff foe the flight back home while cooking pasta - whih btw 2 euro can make you pasta for 3 days! Awesome! And just relaxed and talked this portugese girl the rest of the night.
I think my one complaint with Italy is that is swarming with tourists! Any place you go there are people trying to be Rambo with cameras - it's crazy! Haha - that's actually probably why I'm moving through it so quickly. Otherwise, even in febuary, it's beautiful here! I've barely had to wear my coat so far!
So the day after I got there I spend the walking - and that was a great idea! I got to feel Florence out real well and consideong it's a real small city it wasn't hard to figure out. I found this awesome really little itialian sunday market that I walked through like 3 times I ended up getting this carrotte cake slice and wanted to buy something else but nothing really suited my fancy.
After that I found this awesome garden that I walked around for 2 hours (sorry I'm bad with names - I just didn't catch it - it was near the piazza de pittti. But it felt like a nice fall day with sun and everything - it was a perfect day to be walking through that garden
After that I went to the Stefano caporali which was just an absolutely huge church - no photos allowed - boo!!
I jus walked through the street markets for a bit and just enjoyed the absolutely beatiful day.
After a bit it seemed to wantto rain so I beaded back to the hostel.
Te next day wanst as beautiful so I went to the Musei fiorentini and then decide that I'd go over to pisa for the rest of the day! Now I'm on that train! And it's a beautiful ride! I'll prob get there around 2. And I'll prob drop Off my bag at a luggage place and walk aroud Pisa and go up the leaning tower. Then I'm contemplating staying the night or going to nice tonight - well see.
So I officially like this whole writig my blog on the train/bus to the next location!
I'm headed on my way to Pisa right now on the train for 5eiro and man this train is nice! There are 3 people in this coach and it's a beautiful view outside! Much more comfortable than the bus
I got into Florence and walked around a bit - grabbed a hostel - took care of some stuff foe the flight back home while cooking pasta - whih btw 2 euro can make you pasta for 3 days! Awesome! And just relaxed and talked this portugese girl the rest of the night.
I think my one complaint with Italy is that is swarming with tourists! Any place you go there are people trying to be Rambo with cameras - it's crazy! Haha - that's actually probably why I'm moving through it so quickly. Otherwise, even in febuary, it's beautiful here! I've barely had to wear my coat so far!
So the day after I got there I spend the walking - and that was a great idea! I got to feel Florence out real well and consideong it's a real small city it wasn't hard to figure out. I found this awesome really little itialian sunday market that I walked through like 3 times I ended up getting this carrotte cake slice and wanted to buy something else but nothing really suited my fancy.
After that I found this awesome garden that I walked around for 2 hours (sorry I'm bad with names - I just didn't catch it - it was near the piazza de pittti. But it felt like a nice fall day with sun and everything - it was a perfect day to be walking through that garden
After that I went to the Stefano caporali which was just an absolutely huge church - no photos allowed - boo!!
I jus walked through the street markets for a bit and just enjoyed the absolutely beatiful day.
After a bit it seemed to wantto rain so I beaded back to the hostel.
Te next day wanst as beautiful so I went to the Musei fiorentini and then decide that I'd go over to pisa for the rest of the day! Now I'm on that train! And it's a beautiful ride! I'll prob get there around 2. And I'll prob drop Off my bag at a luggage place and walk aroud Pisa and go up the leaning tower. Then I'm contemplating staying the night or going to nice tonight - well see.
Venice
Venice
Venice was beautiful and definately a place I wan to revisit...just during the summer. I arrived there an started wondering around and then met some Lost canadians that I helped them find the train staion. They assured methat Venice was a beautiful city - but there wasn't a ton to do. They honestly suggested that I just walked around for awhile. I ended up getting an unlimited day pass for the water taxi - which was a lot of fun- I ended up going to one of the small islands off of Venice called lido which was really cool it had some awesome beaches and just a beautiful land away from the hordes of tourists that were in the city center. I hit up a cafe and chilled out for q bit
I ended up going back to the bus station to see about using my eurolines pass to get to Florence and found out thier office was closed with 3 numbers attached to the door with a few Italian phrases on it - needless to say I was lost I ended up calling all 3 of those numbers (with my luck it was the 3rd one I needed to call) an found out that I not only that I couldn't go to Florence but I couldn't go anywhere with my pass - discouraged I looked into renting a car, apparently they weren't opened past 1230 on the weekend and so I went to the train station and got a ticket from there.
I'm really tempted to rent a car once this eurolines pass runs out - yes it'll e expensive but it'll allow me to travel as I please and by the end of renting the car I'll e really good at driving a stick shift... Just sayn
Venice was beautiful and definately a place I wan to revisit...just during the summer. I arrived there an started wondering around and then met some Lost canadians that I helped them find the train staion. They assured methat Venice was a beautiful city - but there wasn't a ton to do. They honestly suggested that I just walked around for awhile. I ended up getting an unlimited day pass for the water taxi - which was a lot of fun- I ended up going to one of the small islands off of Venice called lido which was really cool it had some awesome beaches and just a beautiful land away from the hordes of tourists that were in the city center. I hit up a cafe and chilled out for q bit
I ended up going back to the bus station to see about using my eurolines pass to get to Florence and found out thier office was closed with 3 numbers attached to the door with a few Italian phrases on it - needless to say I was lost I ended up calling all 3 of those numbers (with my luck it was the 3rd one I needed to call) an found out that I not only that I couldn't go to Florence but I couldn't go anywhere with my pass - discouraged I looked into renting a car, apparently they weren't opened past 1230 on the weekend and so I went to the train station and got a ticket from there.
I'm really tempted to rent a car once this eurolines pass runs out - yes it'll e expensive but it'll allow me to travel as I please and by the end of renting the car I'll e really good at driving a stick shift... Just sayn
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Budapest
Budapest
Our bus to budapest was probably the worst bus ride I have ever experienced - i didn't sleep and it left me feeling sick :-(
Budapest want as good as prauge! Haha. It was still cool though. We got to our hostel really early and decided to go to these amazing spas we heard so much about - we went to one which was pretty cool - we really needed a break after that bus ride
We got back to the hostel and took an amazing nap. We then went on a wild google maps goose chace to try finding a tescos - which failed miseraby and on our way back 2 older German women tried getting us to come to a bar with them! Awkward - and besides me and nathan both find the German language completely terrifying! So we left as soon as we could
We then found a gocery store and cooked dinnerand watehed me myself and Irene at the hostel. Nathan went to bed shortly after that but I stayed up and talked/played cards (and eurcre) with 2 aussies (rachael and dan) that were traveling together.
We then spent the next day hanging out with those Aussies. We we to parlement, buda castle a church and climbed up on this hill that overlooked Budapest - really cool sights although I wish I had an tripod so I could have taken better photos. It was pretty late then so we just went back tote hostel and played euchre that night
The next morning we went to book our busses to differnet directions and found out that there was no busses that night so we had to wait until the next day. I just took a chill day and just chilled in the dorm
Nathan left that morning to poland and I basically had the day to myself, which was VERY weird. I ended up finding this island between buda and pest and walking the length of it - which was pretty cool bccsuse it was basically one big park. So it allowed me some time to think and be by myself - Which if you know me - that is definately something i need on a regular basis.
Then I ended up going to this really nice cafe and then spent the rest of my time chilln at the hostels on thier computers. Until I had to take my bus to venice!
Our bus to budapest was probably the worst bus ride I have ever experienced - i didn't sleep and it left me feeling sick :-(
Budapest want as good as prauge! Haha. It was still cool though. We got to our hostel really early and decided to go to these amazing spas we heard so much about - we went to one which was pretty cool - we really needed a break after that bus ride
We got back to the hostel and took an amazing nap. We then went on a wild google maps goose chace to try finding a tescos - which failed miseraby and on our way back 2 older German women tried getting us to come to a bar with them! Awkward - and besides me and nathan both find the German language completely terrifying! So we left as soon as we could
We then found a gocery store and cooked dinnerand watehed me myself and Irene at the hostel. Nathan went to bed shortly after that but I stayed up and talked/played cards (and eurcre) with 2 aussies (rachael and dan) that were traveling together.
We then spent the next day hanging out with those Aussies. We we to parlement, buda castle a church and climbed up on this hill that overlooked Budapest - really cool sights although I wish I had an tripod so I could have taken better photos. It was pretty late then so we just went back tote hostel and played euchre that night
The next morning we went to book our busses to differnet directions and found out that there was no busses that night so we had to wait until the next day. I just took a chill day and just chilled in the dorm
Nathan left that morning to poland and I basically had the day to myself, which was VERY weird. I ended up finding this island between buda and pest and walking the length of it - which was pretty cool bccsuse it was basically one big park. So it allowed me some time to think and be by myself - Which if you know me - that is definately something i need on a regular basis.
Then I ended up going to this really nice cafe and then spent the rest of my time chilln at the hostels on thier computers. Until I had to take my bus to venice!
Prague
Prauge-
I'm jus going to say - I absolutely love prauge! We got there at 9 at night and found our hostel - which was kind of weird because we went to this one hostel, emm hostel, showed them our reservation, and then the receptionist called someone and 5 minutes later this guy shows up and tells us to follow him- kindof sketch to say the least - we got to this place that looked like an apartment complex that was right on the river and went up- we got in and Checked In - then the guy showed us around and told us all the cool things to do while in prague. We got to our room and found out we had a beautiful view of river and prague castle with No bunk beds!! I was very pleased and for only 6 euro a night!
We didn't really have a ton we could do that night so we just chilled out, cooked pasta for dinner and met to these american girls that were studying abroad.
The next morning I decidedthat I'd get lost for 2.5 hours before finding a grocery store that had some pankake mix. But I ended up finding like the super aldi of Europe - tescos - it was super awesome and super cheap.
Got back and cooked "breakfast" (by that time it was more like lunch) and then Nathan decided to go wonder around prague - since I was tired from the morning excursion I just chilled at the host and watched flight of the Concorde on nathans computer.
That night we went clubbing - my first experience doing that - it was quite interesting. The American girls Invited us that morning. This club had 6 differnt stories each one havig a different theme. Nathan went crazy for a bit before he got really tired and went back to the hostel - I hung out with the girls for a bit longer before we headed home
The next day we went up to Prague castle and saw the changing of the gaurd which was pretty cool and then we went to old towns square and then decided to get lost for awhile. We then went on our walking tour which I wasn't huge on. After that we decided to go to a cafe and tried some sheeshe(sp?) then We went home and made dinner and then hung out with this cool aussie girl named Chloë.
Changing of the Guard
Walking Tour
The next day was probably my favorate day. We went up on top of this hill overlooking prauge city and I went up on a tower to get an even better view.
We then went to this meusum dedicated to this guy who's existance is "questionale" we figured it was all crap and were basicLly laughing at all these inventions this guy made - maybe once I get internet I'll figure the guys name out and post it on here.
We actually bumped into Chloë at that point and basically spent a good majority of the day body sleding down the hill we just walked up. Then once we were thoughly frozen we went to a cafe, then changed, booked our bus for the following day, and then had a few drinks in the hostel that night.
The last day we hung out with chloë again. And basically spentthe day wondering around aimlessly and went to cafe until we had to catch our bus to Budapest
I'm jus going to say - I absolutely love prauge! We got there at 9 at night and found our hostel - which was kind of weird because we went to this one hostel, emm hostel, showed them our reservation, and then the receptionist called someone and 5 minutes later this guy shows up and tells us to follow him- kindof sketch to say the least - we got to this place that looked like an apartment complex that was right on the river and went up- we got in and Checked In - then the guy showed us around and told us all the cool things to do while in prague. We got to our room and found out we had a beautiful view of river and prague castle with No bunk beds!! I was very pleased and for only 6 euro a night!
We didn't really have a ton we could do that night so we just chilled out, cooked pasta for dinner and met to these american girls that were studying abroad.
The next morning I decidedthat I'd get lost for 2.5 hours before finding a grocery store that had some pankake mix. But I ended up finding like the super aldi of Europe - tescos - it was super awesome and super cheap.
Got back and cooked "breakfast" (by that time it was more like lunch) and then Nathan decided to go wonder around prague - since I was tired from the morning excursion I just chilled at the host and watched flight of the Concorde on nathans computer.
That night we went clubbing - my first experience doing that - it was quite interesting. The American girls Invited us that morning. This club had 6 differnt stories each one havig a different theme. Nathan went crazy for a bit before he got really tired and went back to the hostel - I hung out with the girls for a bit longer before we headed home
The next day we went up to Prague castle and saw the changing of the gaurd which was pretty cool and then we went to old towns square and then decided to get lost for awhile. We then went on our walking tour which I wasn't huge on. After that we decided to go to a cafe and tried some sheeshe(sp?) then We went home and made dinner and then hung out with this cool aussie girl named Chloë.
Changing of the Guard
Walking Tour
The next day was probably my favorate day. We went up on top of this hill overlooking prauge city and I went up on a tower to get an even better view.
We then went to this meusum dedicated to this guy who's existance is "questionale" we figured it was all crap and were basicLly laughing at all these inventions this guy made - maybe once I get internet I'll figure the guys name out and post it on here.
We actually bumped into Chloë at that point and basically spent a good majority of the day body sleding down the hill we just walked up. Then once we were thoughly frozen we went to a cafe, then changed, booked our bus for the following day, and then had a few drinks in the hostel that night.
The last day we hung out with chloë again. And basically spentthe day wondering around aimlessly and went to cafe until we had to catch our bus to Budapest
Vienna/wien
Vienna
We got to Vienna at 6am we found a random hostel that we thought we might stay at and dropped of our bags. We then walked by a church, bought an electric hair cutter, rented a bike for 1.5 euro for the day then biked around for a while - which Nathan was so excited about renting the bike it was a little bit scary.
We then decided that we didn't really like Vienna (besides the bikes) hHaha and we booked our bus to prague that night. We then spent the remainer of the day in the hostel stealing the wifi, doing my laundry, and cutting my hair/beard with the trimmers we got - then left (yep were offical bums) and then we were off to prauge!!
We got to Vienna at 6am we found a random hostel that we thought we might stay at and dropped of our bags. We then walked by a church, bought an electric hair cutter, rented a bike for 1.5 euro for the day then biked around for a while - which Nathan was so excited about renting the bike it was a little bit scary.
We then decided that we didn't really like Vienna (besides the bikes) hHaha and we booked our bus to prague that night. We then spent the remainer of the day in the hostel stealing the wifi, doing my laundry, and cutting my hair/beard with the trimmers we got - then left (yep were offical bums) and then we were off to prauge!!
Berlin
Berlin-
Wow - to think that it's been almost 2 weeks since I was in Berlin! Crazyness.
So this is my attempt at blogging from my iPod touch. Which probably means that these blogs will be significantly shorter and there will be less photos- sorry!
The reason behind that is because yesterday me and Nathan went different ways - I went to Italy he went to poland. I wanted to have a portion of this trip traveling by myself - just to see what it was like.
So yea - we left Amsterdam and got to Berlin really early in the morning - found a hostel and headed out figure out what to do.
We decided that we would go on the 11am walking tour which was awesome because it really gave us a feel for the history of Berlin and the basic layout of the city. We were able to see where hitlers bunker was - the Berlin wall and the Brandenburg gate. Among many other things. After the tour was done we went to a cafe and chilled for a while before we decided to go back to the hostel. The funny thing is that we got split up on the way home because I got on the wrong train - and considering Nathan was navigating the entire tine and our hostel was out of the city center I wasn't quite sure how to get back. I ended up figuring it out though because I remeber there being a opera near our hostel and there was a stop on the underground that looked like the word opera in German - haha
So we basically just spent the rest of the night relaxing and playing guitar - very relaxing.
The next day was our wondering day - we went up in the parlement building which was pretty cool because on top ofthe building thy give you a free audio tour inside this glass domeshaped roof that if you look down you can see parlement. The audio talked about all the major buildings that you could see while walking up this spiral staircase up the dome. After that we went to the imfamous dunkin douhnuts that my dad told me to goto like 50 times before we left. And then we triedto go to the Jewish momorial - the muesum part of it was closed but we walked throuh the momorial which was cool
The last day we paid to goto a walking tour through the concentration camps that was just north of Berlin
That night we went to the bus station to book our way to Prague but they didn't have a bus for 3 days ...so we went to vienna that night instead
Wow - to think that it's been almost 2 weeks since I was in Berlin! Crazyness.
So this is my attempt at blogging from my iPod touch. Which probably means that these blogs will be significantly shorter and there will be less photos- sorry!
The reason behind that is because yesterday me and Nathan went different ways - I went to Italy he went to poland. I wanted to have a portion of this trip traveling by myself - just to see what it was like.
So yea - we left Amsterdam and got to Berlin really early in the morning - found a hostel and headed out figure out what to do.
We decided that we would go on the 11am walking tour which was awesome because it really gave us a feel for the history of Berlin and the basic layout of the city. We were able to see where hitlers bunker was - the Berlin wall and the Brandenburg gate. Among many other things. After the tour was done we went to a cafe and chilled for a while before we decided to go back to the hostel. The funny thing is that we got split up on the way home because I got on the wrong train - and considering Nathan was navigating the entire tine and our hostel was out of the city center I wasn't quite sure how to get back. I ended up figuring it out though because I remeber there being a opera near our hostel and there was a stop on the underground that looked like the word opera in German - haha
So we basically just spent the rest of the night relaxing and playing guitar - very relaxing.
The next day was our wondering day - we went up in the parlement building which was pretty cool because on top ofthe building thy give you a free audio tour inside this glass domeshaped roof that if you look down you can see parlement. The audio talked about all the major buildings that you could see while walking up this spiral staircase up the dome. After that we went to the imfamous dunkin douhnuts that my dad told me to goto like 50 times before we left. And then we triedto go to the Jewish momorial - the muesum part of it was closed but we walked throuh the momorial which was cool
The last day we paid to goto a walking tour through the concentration camps that was just north of Berlin
That night we went to the bus station to book our way to Prague but they didn't have a bus for 3 days ...so we went to vienna that night instead
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Amsterdam
Amsterdam was interesting...
Alot of bikes.
We got there at night and basically went to bed.
The next day we had to find a different hostel because the one we were in was full for the next day - so we spent the majority of the morning looking for the hostel.
The rest of the day we relaxed, went to a coffee-shop and wondered aimlessly around the city. (If I had to make a pie chart of what we did while in europe “wondering Aimlessly around a city would be a significant portion” )
We went back to the hostel and fell asleep ridiculously early (7pm - i know crazy right?) and then woke up the next morning - showered, had breakfest - found out that the hostel we were staying in didn’t have vacancies that following night so packed up and left. We locked up our bags in the main train station. Then went on the walking tour - after finding out the walking tour really was not that exciting we left 1/3 of the way into it and went to the Anne Frank house - which honestly looks like more of a tourist attraction than anything else - we were not to impressed with it and decided to keep on moving. We looked around for hostels to no avail and decided that amsterdam really wasnt worth staying in because there really was nothing to exciting happening and booked a bus to Berlin
And now i’m in Berlin Writing this!
Whoo Hoo I”m caught up! and its 12am and still have a light on in this hostel...the 5 other people trying to sleep are probably not to impressed - so I shall go now! GNIGHT! :-P
Alot of bikes.
We got there at night and basically went to bed.
The next day we had to find a different hostel because the one we were in was full for the next day - so we spent the majority of the morning looking for the hostel.
The rest of the day we relaxed, went to a coffee-shop and wondered aimlessly around the city. (If I had to make a pie chart of what we did while in europe “wondering Aimlessly around a city would be a significant portion” )
We went back to the hostel and fell asleep ridiculously early (7pm - i know crazy right?) and then woke up the next morning - showered, had breakfest - found out that the hostel we were staying in didn’t have vacancies that following night so packed up and left. We locked up our bags in the main train station. Then went on the walking tour - after finding out the walking tour really was not that exciting we left 1/3 of the way into it and went to the Anne Frank house - which honestly looks like more of a tourist attraction than anything else - we were not to impressed with it and decided to keep on moving. We looked around for hostels to no avail and decided that amsterdam really wasnt worth staying in because there really was nothing to exciting happening and booked a bus to Berlin
And now i’m in Berlin Writing this!
Whoo Hoo I”m caught up! and its 12am and still have a light on in this hostel...the 5 other people trying to sleep are probably not to impressed - so I shall go now! GNIGHT! :-P
Brussels
Gotta be honest - not to impressed with Brussels. Pretty sure all we did there was saw the photo of the little boy pee-ing and walked around aimlessly for awhile. Then went to a coffee shop. We were thinking about going to see the Anatoniam but we were able to see it from a distance and decided that it wouldnt be worth 6 Euros to go see it up close...
And then we left for Amsterdam the next day
And then we left for Amsterdam the next day
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Paris
Paris -
So I’ve been trying to keep up on this blog but it has been obviously failing miserably. For a few reasons.
1) You cant really blog about a city until you have officially left the city
2) The majority of the buses that we are taking do not have outlets in them and considering the age of this computer the battery does not last that long
3) The last few cities we really didn’t stay in that long because - well we didnt necesarily like them that much.
So yes - I’m going to attempt to get Paris, then Brussels and Amsterdam all done while in the lovely city of Berlin right now.
Paris - Yes, hmmm....
Well we went to Paris - Surprise I know :-D
We got to our hostel in paris pretty late, and probably not in the best mood because of the previous day’s bus excursion. So once we got there we basically went straight to bed. The next day I think I was still a bit grumpy so I figured that I’d take a day to myself. It was quite cool because that day I got to see a bunch of cool little sites ... and some of the big ones as well - the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel tower. I contemplated going up on both attractions at that time - but I thought Nathan might end up wanting to do that as well so I waited. (Unfortunately that was probably the best day to do so because it was probably one of the more beautiful days we had in Paris). But it was definitely a good day to take to relax and have to myself. It was really a beautiful day in Paris and it was nice just to be able to walk around.
The next day we slept in and went on the walking tour (I really enjoyed this one - it allowed us to give us a good base to the history of the Paris and also we got to see the little sights and some fun back stories :-D
Then we went to some coffee shops afterward and Nathan tried to figure out how to rent a bike in Paris from one of the Kiosks. It would have been really cool and only 1.5 Euro / Day - but for some reason it wouldn’t accept an american credit card and we were unable to do so :-( at that point we were pretty tired and decided to go back to the hostel and make some dinner. We made some rice that night and actually met some cool british girls that we had a few beers with.
The next day was spent in the Louvre. Basically all day...haha- oh and the apple store outside of the Louvre. (and took some cool photos of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph
Then the last day we split up and did our own things again. I went to Notre Dam then up in the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel tower. Then went and grabbed our bus to Brussels
So I’ve been trying to keep up on this blog but it has been obviously failing miserably. For a few reasons.
1) You cant really blog about a city until you have officially left the city
2) The majority of the buses that we are taking do not have outlets in them and considering the age of this computer the battery does not last that long
3) The last few cities we really didn’t stay in that long because - well we didnt necesarily like them that much.
So yes - I’m going to attempt to get Paris, then Brussels and Amsterdam all done while in the lovely city of Berlin right now.
Paris - Yes, hmmm....
Well we went to Paris - Surprise I know :-D
We got to our hostel in paris pretty late, and probably not in the best mood because of the previous day’s bus excursion. So once we got there we basically went straight to bed. The next day I think I was still a bit grumpy so I figured that I’d take a day to myself. It was quite cool because that day I got to see a bunch of cool little sites ... and some of the big ones as well - the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel tower. I contemplated going up on both attractions at that time - but I thought Nathan might end up wanting to do that as well so I waited. (Unfortunately that was probably the best day to do so because it was probably one of the more beautiful days we had in Paris). But it was definitely a good day to take to relax and have to myself. It was really a beautiful day in Paris and it was nice just to be able to walk around.
The next day we slept in and went on the walking tour (I really enjoyed this one - it allowed us to give us a good base to the history of the Paris and also we got to see the little sights and some fun back stories :-D
Then we went to some coffee shops afterward and Nathan tried to figure out how to rent a bike in Paris from one of the Kiosks. It would have been really cool and only 1.5 Euro / Day - but for some reason it wouldn’t accept an american credit card and we were unable to do so :-( at that point we were pretty tired and decided to go back to the hostel and make some dinner. We made some rice that night and actually met some cool british girls that we had a few beers with.
The next day was spent in the Louvre. Basically all day...haha- oh and the apple store outside of the Louvre. (and took some cool photos of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph
Then the last day we split up and did our own things again. I went to Notre Dam then up in the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel tower. Then went and grabbed our bus to Brussels
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Edinburgh
Alright - Edinburgh was interesting
We got there at 7am I believe and we were very tired (Sleeping on the bus is never a fun task). We got there and we were going to meet our first couch-surfing hosts at 3pm so we had some time to kill. We threw our bags into a 24-hour locker and headed out to walk around Edinburgh. It still was quite dark and we wanted to wait until it got a bit lighter out so we found a Costa Coffee and chilled out for a few hours. I personally took a few naps during that period of time.
Once it got light out we started walking around Edinburgh. The town is kinda split up into this Old Town/New town Set up. There really wasn't much of interest in the New town, except some random shops - so we headed over to the Old town. We were basically walking around randomly for awhile, We went up to the Edinburgh Castle - Which had a BEAUTIFUL view!
We then went through a few shops and walked around aimlessly until we spotted the a Tour host for those free Walking tours we went on in Dublin and London. So we Jumped in the middle of that tour saw multiple things including the Grass Market which was named that because they used to sell hay there. but there was a bunch of cool shops are there. There were a lot of bars there that had really interesting names like "The Last Drop" and "Betty Mulligans" Which both had to do with the fact that outside of these bars is where they used to hang people - So the Last drop was the place people would go to get there last drink (or drop) before they went to go get hung and have another (Last drop) Hah - get it?
And there are alot m ore stories, but I dont really feel like posting anymore - so if you're interested I'm sure you can find them on google - if you want.
Then we went up to a cemetery, Discussed some random stories about the people who were buried there and then Greyfriars Bobby - which is a story of a dog who stayed by his masters grave for 14 years then died shortly after. However they ended up making a Pub after this Dog as well as creating a statue of the Dog. Lets just say - I want a dog like that.
So yea - the tour ended with a story of THE STONE OF DESTINY...Which took the tour guide 20 minutes to tell...so if you're interested - again ... google it -hahaha
After that point we met up with our Couchsurfing buddies, got some Coffee/Tea and chilled out watching TV/ Playing video games for the rest of the night
The Next day we went Hiking around Edinburgh - It was fun. I like hiking Here are some photos... (haha - i really don't know what else to say...haha)
The next day we just relaxed at the Flat for a bit - Played Video Games/ Watched a movie and did our laundry...Oh and we decided to buy a crappy guitar for the trip (More of Nathan's decision than mine but Meh - I dont mind having a guitar around)
That night we went and got some drinks with our hosts - I'm starting to realize that casually getting drinks with people in europe is kind just part of the culture out here...its not as much of as going out to get drunk but just to relax and enjoy being with the people here.
Our Bus was the next day... which.was fun, because we missed it.
Side-note - We ended up getting a Eurolines Pass- Which allows us to travel via bus as much as you want to select places around europe for 30 days. However, Eurolines Subcontracts bussing companies in some places like the UK and Ireland. Well in the UK they use National Express. So I gave them a call and asked them to book us to Paris. They do that and we get on a bus later that night at 2200 - So we just spent that day just chilln' in coffee shops until we needed to go to the Bus station.
We get to London, only to realize that National Express really screwed up our tickets and we couldn't get on our bus because it wasn't one of those *selected* places stated on the Eurolines pass. So we had to book another bus to Paris from London. Which this time we were able to book directly through Eurolines and bypass National Express which actually allowed us to get into Paris at 2130 not 2230 even though we had to leave London at 1200 not 700...which is weird - but whatever.
So we finally get to paris and wondered around a bit before finding a hostel (Per usual).
We got there at 7am I believe and we were very tired (Sleeping on the bus is never a fun task). We got there and we were going to meet our first couch-surfing hosts at 3pm so we had some time to kill. We threw our bags into a 24-hour locker and headed out to walk around Edinburgh. It still was quite dark and we wanted to wait until it got a bit lighter out so we found a Costa Coffee and chilled out for a few hours. I personally took a few naps during that period of time.
Once it got light out we started walking around Edinburgh. The town is kinda split up into this Old Town/New town Set up. There really wasn't much of interest in the New town, except some random shops - so we headed over to the Old town. We were basically walking around randomly for awhile, We went up to the Edinburgh Castle - Which had a BEAUTIFUL view!
We then went through a few shops and walked around aimlessly until we spotted the a Tour host for those free Walking tours we went on in Dublin and London. So we Jumped in the middle of that tour saw multiple things including the Grass Market which was named that because they used to sell hay there. but there was a bunch of cool shops are there. There were a lot of bars there that had really interesting names like "The Last Drop" and "Betty Mulligans" Which both had to do with the fact that outside of these bars is where they used to hang people - So the Last drop was the place people would go to get there last drink (or drop) before they went to go get hung and have another (Last drop) Hah - get it?
And there are alot m ore stories, but I dont really feel like posting anymore - so if you're interested I'm sure you can find them on google - if you want.
Then we went up to a cemetery, Discussed some random stories about the people who were buried there and then Greyfriars Bobby - which is a story of a dog who stayed by his masters grave for 14 years then died shortly after. However they ended up making a Pub after this Dog as well as creating a statue of the Dog. Lets just say - I want a dog like that.
So yea - the tour ended with a story of THE STONE OF DESTINY...Which took the tour guide 20 minutes to tell...so if you're interested - again ... google it -hahaha
After that point we met up with our Couchsurfing buddies, got some Coffee/Tea and chilled out watching TV/ Playing video games for the rest of the night
The Next day we went Hiking around Edinburgh - It was fun. I like hiking Here are some photos... (haha - i really don't know what else to say...haha)
The next day we just relaxed at the Flat for a bit - Played Video Games/ Watched a movie and did our laundry...Oh and we decided to buy a crappy guitar for the trip (More of Nathan's decision than mine but Meh - I dont mind having a guitar around)
That night we went and got some drinks with our hosts - I'm starting to realize that casually getting drinks with people in europe is kind just part of the culture out here...its not as much of as going out to get drunk but just to relax and enjoy being with the people here.
Our Bus was the next day... which.was fun, because we missed it.
Side-note - We ended up getting a Eurolines Pass- Which allows us to travel via bus as much as you want to select places around europe for 30 days. However, Eurolines Subcontracts bussing companies in some places like the UK and Ireland. Well in the UK they use National Express. So I gave them a call and asked them to book us to Paris. They do that and we get on a bus later that night at 2200 - So we just spent that day just chilln' in coffee shops until we needed to go to the Bus station.
We get to London, only to realize that National Express really screwed up our tickets and we couldn't get on our bus because it wasn't one of those *selected* places stated on the Eurolines pass. So we had to book another bus to Paris from London. Which this time we were able to book directly through Eurolines and bypass National Express which actually allowed us to get into Paris at 2130 not 2230 even though we had to leave London at 1200 not 700...which is weird - but whatever.
So we finally get to paris and wondered around a bit before finding a hostel (Per usual).
Oxford
Hello Everybody!
I’m writing this while I’m in Edinburgh and to be honest it seems like Oxford was such a long time ago. So here’s to hoping that I remember everything that I did in Oxford.
So...Oxford - Yea
We got to Oxford the night of the 22nd. It was raining when we got here (Who Hoo!) and we were not quite sure where there might be a hostel (besides Nathan’s iPhone - which here’s an interesting fact - the iPhones Google Maps and GPS is definitely not as accurate as it is in the states :-( ) So we ended up walking around quite a bit trying to find a hostel, found one, and then booked 2 nights. We were quite wet/tired by the time we got there so we just relaxed for the rest of the night and attempted to dry out our clothes :P
The next day we got up around 830-9 (which has been typical while we’ve been over here) and started walking around Oxford. The architecture there was quite interesting and I really liked the atmosphere of oxford. We first went to Christ Church - Walked around that for a bit - then went through the stores of Oxford - they have a really cool covered market there that i liked alot. Which also had this nice little cookie shop called Ben’s cookies - hmm cookies :-D )
Then we went on a Museum run . We hit a few free museums and then the Pit Rivers Museum and then at that point we were a bit tired and headed back to the hostel. I grabbed a quick nap, then went coffee shop jumping for the majority of the rest of the day. After I was done with that I went to Eagle and Child Pub (Where CS Lewis used to write) grabbed a quick cider and then headed back to the hostel.
The next day we went back to London and bought a Eurolines pass (Allows you to travel unlimited via bus for 30 days -159 pounds) and booked our bus to Edinburgh. The bus departed later that day at 730pm - Meanwhile we had 5 hours to kill in London. I ended up going to starbucks because I was feeling sick and wanted free internet(Surprisingly in London it was much more difficult to get Wi-fi than the other towns I was in) While I was there I was just able to relax - update my blog - and meet random people. It was quite funny actually, while sitting in that Starbucks I was approached and had decent conversations with 3 different people. It was quite nice.
Oh - also at that point I was getting a bit sick (sore throat, sinus thingy).
So we leave London at 7pm and got into the station (after 2 transfers) in Edinburgh at 7am - Gotta love long bus rides :P.
...Sorry no really good photos from Oxford Guys, it seems like we're getting kinda lazy when it comes to the photo side of things - Sorry!
I’m writing this while I’m in Edinburgh and to be honest it seems like Oxford was such a long time ago. So here’s to hoping that I remember everything that I did in Oxford.
So...Oxford - Yea
We got to Oxford the night of the 22nd. It was raining when we got here (Who Hoo!) and we were not quite sure where there might be a hostel (besides Nathan’s iPhone - which here’s an interesting fact - the iPhones Google Maps and GPS is definitely not as accurate as it is in the states :-( ) So we ended up walking around quite a bit trying to find a hostel, found one, and then booked 2 nights. We were quite wet/tired by the time we got there so we just relaxed for the rest of the night and attempted to dry out our clothes :P
The next day we got up around 830-9 (which has been typical while we’ve been over here) and started walking around Oxford. The architecture there was quite interesting and I really liked the atmosphere of oxford. We first went to Christ Church - Walked around that for a bit - then went through the stores of Oxford - they have a really cool covered market there that i liked alot. Which also had this nice little cookie shop called Ben’s cookies - hmm cookies :-D )
Then we went on a Museum run . We hit a few free museums and then the Pit Rivers Museum and then at that point we were a bit tired and headed back to the hostel. I grabbed a quick nap, then went coffee shop jumping for the majority of the rest of the day. After I was done with that I went to Eagle and Child Pub (Where CS Lewis used to write) grabbed a quick cider and then headed back to the hostel.
The next day we went back to London and bought a Eurolines pass (Allows you to travel unlimited via bus for 30 days -159 pounds) and booked our bus to Edinburgh. The bus departed later that day at 730pm - Meanwhile we had 5 hours to kill in London. I ended up going to starbucks because I was feeling sick and wanted free internet(Surprisingly in London it was much more difficult to get Wi-fi than the other towns I was in) While I was there I was just able to relax - update my blog - and meet random people. It was quite funny actually, while sitting in that Starbucks I was approached and had decent conversations with 3 different people. It was quite nice.
Oh - also at that point I was getting a bit sick (sore throat, sinus thingy).
So we leave London at 7pm and got into the station (after 2 transfers) in Edinburgh at 7am - Gotta love long bus rides :P.
...Sorry no really good photos from Oxford Guys, it seems like we're getting kinda lazy when it comes to the photo side of things - Sorry!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
London
So we arrived in London at the Victoria Coach Station, and Immediately attempted to find a hostel...2 hours later we finally found one!!
We booked 2 nights and dropped of our luggage, Got food (We were dying to get it) then walked around for a bit - saw an interesting Book store, A Sherlock Holmes museum, A quick walk through Hyde Park and then back home to the hostile.
We got into the room (Which was Co-Ed - so that was interesting) But we started talking to this Aussie girl, Sara, and we just struck it up real well and had a great conversation. We took a break around 6 and went to go make dinner(some pasta that Nathan made this awesome sauce for - very good) Then we ended up back in the room and ended up talking to Sara until 11ish. It was alot of fun.
The next morning we woke up for breakfast and then went on the walking tour of london with Sara, and thats also where we met another Aussie, Evert, and those two were the two we basically spent the rest of london with.
This tour was much bigger than the one in Dublin, which I wasnt huge on but it was ok...
We were able to end up hitting the Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard which was cool and there was ATON of people
Oh and unfortunately there were no guards we could mess with and attempt to make them smile or anything :-(
We saw multiple other things on that walking tour - the WW2 Museum, Big Ben / London Tower.
After we were done we went back to the hostile and took a nap because we were exhausted - we didn't sleep well on the bus ride to london and just decided to get a good nap in.
Then for the rest of the night we really just relaxed and enjoyed some good time/talk with the Aussies :P
The next morning we went to Harrods - which was an awesome - really high end shopping store in London and we played the game "Whats the most Expensive thing we can find in this store" - I won with 187,000 Pounds - For a watch...really??
Well during that period we lost nathan - and spent 30-45 minutes trying to find him :-/ We ended up not being able to find him so The Aussies, Sara and Evert, and I adventured out and went to Hyde Park. Which was a lot of fun because these two Aussies Never saw a squirrel before, so once they saw one it was priceless! So we easily spent 1-2 hours in that park just having fun with the squirrels.
ONe thing that was alot of fun was that while we were there a squirrel came up to me and climbed on my leg as if i was a tree!! And that actually happened 2ce! Sara got a photo of it so Hopefully I'll be able to post that soon!
After that was over we were done with that - we went to a few stores, then we decided to leave Sara by herself to continue doing the shopping (Kinda an obsession of hers apparently) and Evert and I went back to our hostiles.
I was able to do my laundry there and take a short nap. Nathan Finally came back at that point and we had dinner / went to starbucks so we could get online. Then for the rest of the night we just spent some more time with the Aussies and Packing. Sara Flew back to Australia the next day and me and Nathan were going to Oxford the next day.
The next day - we took Sara to the Station where she grabbed a cab - We put our luggage in the Luggage room in our Hostile then walked around, Saw the London Bridge, London Tower, The Marketplace there, The Globe theater, the Tate Modern, and the St Pauls Cathedral. After that was over we went back to the Marketplace for Lunch - I had a Kangaroo Buger :D Hmmm) and then went back to the Hostile while we waited for the Bus to Oxford (At 7).
We got to Oxford - Did some more wandering(In the rain! - which it was actually pretty warm rain) before we found a hostile
We booked 2 nights and dropped of our luggage, Got food (We were dying to get it) then walked around for a bit - saw an interesting Book store, A Sherlock Holmes museum, A quick walk through Hyde Park and then back home to the hostile.
We got into the room (Which was Co-Ed - so that was interesting) But we started talking to this Aussie girl, Sara, and we just struck it up real well and had a great conversation. We took a break around 6 and went to go make dinner(some pasta that Nathan made this awesome sauce for - very good) Then we ended up back in the room and ended up talking to Sara until 11ish. It was alot of fun.
The next morning we woke up for breakfast and then went on the walking tour of london with Sara, and thats also where we met another Aussie, Evert, and those two were the two we basically spent the rest of london with.
This tour was much bigger than the one in Dublin, which I wasnt huge on but it was ok...
We were able to end up hitting the Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard which was cool and there was ATON of people
Oh and unfortunately there were no guards we could mess with and attempt to make them smile or anything :-(
We saw multiple other things on that walking tour - the WW2 Museum, Big Ben / London Tower.
After we were done we went back to the hostile and took a nap because we were exhausted - we didn't sleep well on the bus ride to london and just decided to get a good nap in.
Then for the rest of the night we really just relaxed and enjoyed some good time/talk with the Aussies :P
The next morning we went to Harrods - which was an awesome - really high end shopping store in London and we played the game "Whats the most Expensive thing we can find in this store" - I won with 187,000 Pounds - For a watch...really??
Well during that period we lost nathan - and spent 30-45 minutes trying to find him :-/ We ended up not being able to find him so The Aussies, Sara and Evert, and I adventured out and went to Hyde Park. Which was a lot of fun because these two Aussies Never saw a squirrel before, so once they saw one it was priceless! So we easily spent 1-2 hours in that park just having fun with the squirrels.
ONe thing that was alot of fun was that while we were there a squirrel came up to me and climbed on my leg as if i was a tree!! And that actually happened 2ce! Sara got a photo of it so Hopefully I'll be able to post that soon!
After that was over we were done with that - we went to a few stores, then we decided to leave Sara by herself to continue doing the shopping (Kinda an obsession of hers apparently) and Evert and I went back to our hostiles.
I was able to do my laundry there and take a short nap. Nathan Finally came back at that point and we had dinner / went to starbucks so we could get online. Then for the rest of the night we just spent some more time with the Aussies and Packing. Sara Flew back to Australia the next day and me and Nathan were going to Oxford the next day.
The next day - we took Sara to the Station where she grabbed a cab - We put our luggage in the Luggage room in our Hostile then walked around, Saw the London Bridge, London Tower, The Marketplace there, The Globe theater, the Tate Modern, and the St Pauls Cathedral. After that was over we went back to the Marketplace for Lunch - I had a Kangaroo Buger :D Hmmm) and then went back to the Hostile while we waited for the Bus to Oxford (At 7).
We got to Oxford - Did some more wandering(In the rain! - which it was actually pretty warm rain) before we found a hostile
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Galway
Well I'm thinking it'll be easy just to summarize each city instead of each day :P
So the next day we woke up and tried to decide what to do. So after wandering around for awhile we saw that the ticket from Dublin to London was 48 Euro at the station. So we decided to head over to Galway Ireland and hoped that we could find a cheaper price online while in Galway.
We took a 12 Euro Bus ride over to Galway and got there between 4-6. We walked around for a bit, but unfortunately it quickly turned dark on us so we decided to back to the hostel and just relax for a bit. Thats where I did my last few blogs - Nathan went to bed.
We woke up around 830 and decided that we would go on a Bus Tour of Galway and the surrounding area, which I dont think we'll end up doing that again, simply due to the fact that it seemed WAY to touristy and the whole time you are surrounded by people doing the same thing the ENIRE day. But we hit some cool places.
The most Impressive places we hit were the Cliffs of Moher
Oh and there was a Irish Rainbow Mom ;)
An another attempt at a panoramic...
Then after we finished that tour we walked around (it was around 7-8ish) and we went out, met some new people at some Pub/Restaurant types and apparently the Irish go out on Sunday but they start at like 10-11 and if you finish at 4 its early -haha.
Then we went back to the Hostile, and crashed for the night.
The next morning we spent some time around Galway, Hit the "Awesome" Spanish Arch - which was quite disappointing....
Then we hit the Cathedral there, attended a mass, and checked out the University there as well.
After that was done we headed to the station and headed to the bus station. Then through the next day we spent traveling to Dublin VIA Bus, stopped at a Cafe as we waited for our Buss to London, Took a Buss/Ferry to London and got to London around 9/10am the next day.
It was a first for the Ferry and we actually found this really awesome room at the front of the Ferry that we had to ourselves so we relaxed and kicked off our boots and relaxed. :D
And then we were in London!
So the next day we woke up and tried to decide what to do. So after wandering around for awhile we saw that the ticket from Dublin to London was 48 Euro at the station. So we decided to head over to Galway Ireland and hoped that we could find a cheaper price online while in Galway.
We took a 12 Euro Bus ride over to Galway and got there between 4-6. We walked around for a bit, but unfortunately it quickly turned dark on us so we decided to back to the hostel and just relax for a bit. Thats where I did my last few blogs - Nathan went to bed.
We woke up around 830 and decided that we would go on a Bus Tour of Galway and the surrounding area, which I dont think we'll end up doing that again, simply due to the fact that it seemed WAY to touristy and the whole time you are surrounded by people doing the same thing the ENIRE day. But we hit some cool places.
The most Impressive places we hit were the Cliffs of Moher
Oh and there was a Irish Rainbow Mom ;)
An another attempt at a panoramic...
Then after we finished that tour we walked around (it was around 7-8ish) and we went out, met some new people at some Pub/Restaurant types and apparently the Irish go out on Sunday but they start at like 10-11 and if you finish at 4 its early -haha.
Then we went back to the Hostile, and crashed for the night.
The next morning we spent some time around Galway, Hit the "Awesome" Spanish Arch - which was quite disappointing....
Then we hit the Cathedral there, attended a mass, and checked out the University there as well.
After that was done we headed to the station and headed to the bus station. Then through the next day we spent traveling to Dublin VIA Bus, stopped at a Cafe as we waited for our Buss to London, Took a Buss/Ferry to London and got to London around 9/10am the next day.
It was a first for the Ferry and we actually found this really awesome room at the front of the Ferry that we had to ourselves so we relaxed and kicked off our boots and relaxed. :D
And then we were in London!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Dublin/Hoath&Brae - Day 3 - 15.1.2010
This was my favorite day - by far so far this trip. We woke up early and got our free breakfast at the hostel. Then headed to their public train system "The Dart" We got a 2-man all-day pass and went to Hoath and Brae. We first went to Hoath.
Hoath
By far - Highly recomend this place to anybody going anywhere near dublin!
We woke up and it was really a beautiful day. and Got on the train to Hoath
It was actually pretty interesting - Not alot happened except that we went out on a port as well as did some "Hill-walking" (They dont call it mountain Climbing) and then went to Brae and had coffee/Dinner.
(Which btw - that was where the really cute french girl blew me a kiss :P ;) )
We really were just able to relax and enjoy ourselves this day.
We got back and were looking at things online when we spotted Nikki from the night before. I went oover and started talking to her. and Apparently She actually just met a girl, Katie, we all struck up a conversation. Then when things died down a bit we saw this girl sitting by herself having some soup and Nathan started talking to her(Vera). We all ended up having a really good conversation and then considering it was a Friday night we all decided to go to a Pub. It was a real Irish one with some good live music and alot of people. I really Enjoyed it!
Hoath
By far - Highly recomend this place to anybody going anywhere near dublin!
We woke up and it was really a beautiful day. and Got on the train to Hoath
It was actually pretty interesting - Not alot happened except that we went out on a port as well as did some "Hill-walking" (They dont call it mountain Climbing) and then went to Brae and had coffee/Dinner.
(Which btw - that was where the really cute french girl blew me a kiss :P ;) )
We really were just able to relax and enjoy ourselves this day.
We got back and were looking at things online when we spotted Nikki from the night before. I went oover and started talking to her. and Apparently She actually just met a girl, Katie, we all struck up a conversation. Then when things died down a bit we saw this girl sitting by herself having some soup and Nathan started talking to her(Vera). We all ended up having a really good conversation and then considering it was a Friday night we all decided to go to a Pub. It was a real Irish one with some good live music and alot of people. I really Enjoyed it!
Day 2 - 14.1.2010
Ello!
So today - was pretty chill. it was the first night that we actually SLEPT in Dublin. Which you read about in the last post. Well I finally fell back asleep at 5am and then woke up around 10 for a total of 8 hours of sleep. This day we really just spent relaxing. We walked around a good bit of Dublin and Saw St. Patrick Cathedral and also went to Mass at this other cathedral / church as well as stoping by this other church which was really nice.
After that was done it was around 4 and we went back to our Hostel because we were hungry and wanted to have some of our PB&J that we bought the previous night. Then headed back around Dublin, We were able to hit the Stephens Green which is an amazing park in Dublin. It was so Beautiful (See Photo Below). (Oh and I know - its not the best photo-stitch I've done...but this computer takes a bit too stich them and I didn't want to redo it - It'd take like 15 minutes :(
Oh And here's a good story - While at this park Nathan Decided that the Ice that was over one of the ponds would be strong enough to hold his body weight and decided to attempt to put some of his weight on the ice (Which btw was melted away from the land) And then promptly went into about a foot and a half worth of water!! It was pretty funny, but apparently not very cold because when we went back to Hostel He totally change his sock...haha.
Nathan's Wet Sock
That night we went to Seomra Sprao and just relaxed for a bit. We found a guy that was there who was origionally from Las Vegas and then moved to Ireland for school. He was really cool and helped us out with some lingo as well as telling us with some places to go. We then had some tea were social with some other locals that were there, and went on our lovely way. :D
We came back that night around 11 and met some fellow americans Nikki and Ian. Then suprisingly enough we ended up talking until 2am! haha. There were pleanty of times during that night that we were like - "Oh we're tired - we want to go to bed..." But we just kept on finding new things to talk about.
That was a great way to end the day
:D
So today - was pretty chill. it was the first night that we actually SLEPT in Dublin. Which you read about in the last post. Well I finally fell back asleep at 5am and then woke up around 10 for a total of 8 hours of sleep. This day we really just spent relaxing. We walked around a good bit of Dublin and Saw St. Patrick Cathedral and also went to Mass at this other cathedral / church as well as stoping by this other church which was really nice.
After that was done it was around 4 and we went back to our Hostel because we were hungry and wanted to have some of our PB&J that we bought the previous night. Then headed back around Dublin, We were able to hit the Stephens Green which is an amazing park in Dublin. It was so Beautiful (See Photo Below). (Oh and I know - its not the best photo-stitch I've done...but this computer takes a bit too stich them and I didn't want to redo it - It'd take like 15 minutes :(
Oh And here's a good story - While at this park Nathan Decided that the Ice that was over one of the ponds would be strong enough to hold his body weight and decided to attempt to put some of his weight on the ice (Which btw was melted away from the land) And then promptly went into about a foot and a half worth of water!! It was pretty funny, but apparently not very cold because when we went back to Hostel He totally change his sock...haha.
Nathan's Wet Sock
That night we went to Seomra Sprao and just relaxed for a bit. We found a guy that was there who was origionally from Las Vegas and then moved to Ireland for school. He was really cool and helped us out with some lingo as well as telling us with some places to go. We then had some tea were social with some other locals that were there, and went on our lovely way. :D
We came back that night around 11 and met some fellow americans Nikki and Ian. Then suprisingly enough we ended up talking until 2am! haha. There were pleanty of times during that night that we were like - "Oh we're tired - we want to go to bed..." But we just kept on finding new things to talk about.
That was a great way to end the day
:D
Friday, January 15, 2010
Dublin - Day 1 - 13.1.2010
Hey Everybody!
So here we are - its 16.1.2010 - And yes, I'm attempting to adapt to thier ways of doing things, using Meters, Celcius, and even thier format of using dates. And I'm finding that the states are really messed up! We should totally be on the same system that Europe as well as the rest of the country is on! Meters makes so much more sense - especially with the convertion to KM, CM ect. and Using celcius is so much nicer than fairenhight. And the date system makes it so it is counting up from the beginning of the year to the end of the year...much easier than the states...but Whatever.
Now As for Dubln! We flew out of chicago on Tuesday the 12th at 730PM at Night and got in the Dublin Airport at 830AM with around 4-5 hours of sleep - took a bus into Dublin City Grabed some money and foudn this really cool Hostel Called Abbey Court. They have Free Wi-Fi, A decent amount of free food/Tea and a Free Breakfest all for €10 a night - Which is pretty sweet!
So we crashed there for a bit - put our bags away and relaxed for a bit. Then after realizing that if we stay still for to long we were going to fall asleep at like 11am - which really would not help the JetLag so we decided to go get some food. We found this Local Diner Grabed a bite to eat and then walked around a bit before hitting the...
Dublin Walking Tour
Dublin Castle
Which was also - Free and Awesome! haha. We were able to go to the Dublin Castle - which is one CRAZY Piece of archetecture! It had all sorts of different type of brick involved and then halfway through the external wall just decided to go to all sorts of multi-colored primary color patches. Kindof hard to explain - however I'll load a picture soon so you guys can see! Also the Statues at this Castle were quite(As the tour guide put it) "Pathetic". There were two - however I only took one photo for whatever reason. It was the Blind Justice Statue, and it was fun to hear our Tour Guide ranting about this one! First of all that statue did not have a blind fold, kind of ruining the point of the name of the statue and the symbolism behind the statue, Secondly It was pointed in at the courtyard of the castle (Where all the hearings would take place) and apparently that statue is supposed to be a symbol to the people and having it facing in toward the people DOING the governing was a huge mistake, then Lastly the scale that she was holding was a working scale so the scales are ALWAYS changing because Dublin gets a decent amount of rain.
And I'm sure he ranted on about some other aspects of it - but its been a few days and I dont quite remember.
Coffee Shop/Temple Bar
Then after that the tour headed to this local coffee shop - where we all got coffee/tea. Although it was quite awkward because it was quite a small shop and we had to fit ALOT of people in. But we got our drinks then headed off to Temple Bar.
At temple bar - which is a location within the city where there are alot of touristy bars, its not actually a bar - we really didn't do much in that area except the tour guide told us about a pub crawl sponsored by the touring company that was happening that night.
Trinity University
Then we walked through Trinity University campus and talked about the architecture of the place and also the Book of Kells that was kept at the University as well at the "Long Room". We also talked about a good bit of the history of Trinity University.
Oh - and it was a beautiful day
After the Tour was done we(Nathan and I) Went on a tour of the book of Kells and the Long room for 8 Euros - which looking back on it it was probably over-priced but oh well. After that we went back to our hostel - relaxed a bit and enjoyed ourselves.
C(No photos were allowed in that room so I dont have any :( Sorry! )
Dinner
That Night we went to this place called Seomra Sprao (Sp?) Because a guy from Couch Surfing Invited us to have a Vegan dinner. There were a bunch of people there and we were just relaxing and this guy named conor came up to us and showed us around the place, we had food, and played some games then went back to the hostel.
(For some reason I didnt get any photos of this place - I guess I didn't want to look to much like a tourist in front of everybody)
Hostel : Abbey Court
(Which as a Sidenote there is this hostel in Dublin called Abbey Court in Dublin and it is only 10 Euro a Night(For a 12man dorm) as well as it has free: Breakfast, WiFi, Computers, and Luggage storage. It was really nice. We were really tired so we went to bed around 9. I slept like a rock for those next 3 hours. Then I woke up at 1 AM and couldn't fall asleep. I was stairing at the top of bunk for a few hours and then finally I got hungry, and went downstairs made myself a PB&J or two - used the computers then went back to bed. I finally fell asleep at like 4-5, then we woke up around 11 - unfortunately missing the first free breakfast.
(And no mom - I didn't take photos of the places I stayed either - sorry - that is just plain to much documenting)
Well yea - don't expect this thoroughness for each day - That would be insane!
So here we are - its 16.1.2010 - And yes, I'm attempting to adapt to thier ways of doing things, using Meters, Celcius, and even thier format of using dates. And I'm finding that the states are really messed up! We should totally be on the same system that Europe as well as the rest of the country is on! Meters makes so much more sense - especially with the convertion to KM, CM ect. and Using celcius is so much nicer than fairenhight. And the date system makes it so it is counting up from the beginning of the year to the end of the year...much easier than the states...but Whatever.
Now As for Dubln! We flew out of chicago on Tuesday the 12th at 730PM at Night and got in the Dublin Airport at 830AM with around 4-5 hours of sleep - took a bus into Dublin City Grabed some money and foudn this really cool Hostel Called Abbey Court. They have Free Wi-Fi, A decent amount of free food/Tea and a Free Breakfest all for €10 a night - Which is pretty sweet!
So we crashed there for a bit - put our bags away and relaxed for a bit. Then after realizing that if we stay still for to long we were going to fall asleep at like 11am - which really would not help the JetLag so we decided to go get some food. We found this Local Diner Grabed a bite to eat and then walked around a bit before hitting the...
Dublin Walking Tour
Dublin Castle
Which was also - Free and Awesome! haha. We were able to go to the Dublin Castle - which is one CRAZY Piece of archetecture! It had all sorts of different type of brick involved and then halfway through the external wall just decided to go to all sorts of multi-colored primary color patches. Kindof hard to explain - however I'll load a picture soon so you guys can see! Also the Statues at this Castle were quite(As the tour guide put it) "Pathetic". There were two - however I only took one photo for whatever reason. It was the Blind Justice Statue, and it was fun to hear our Tour Guide ranting about this one! First of all that statue did not have a blind fold, kind of ruining the point of the name of the statue and the symbolism behind the statue, Secondly It was pointed in at the courtyard of the castle (Where all the hearings would take place) and apparently that statue is supposed to be a symbol to the people and having it facing in toward the people DOING the governing was a huge mistake, then Lastly the scale that she was holding was a working scale so the scales are ALWAYS changing because Dublin gets a decent amount of rain.
And I'm sure he ranted on about some other aspects of it - but its been a few days and I dont quite remember.
Coffee Shop/Temple Bar
Then after that the tour headed to this local coffee shop - where we all got coffee/tea. Although it was quite awkward because it was quite a small shop and we had to fit ALOT of people in. But we got our drinks then headed off to Temple Bar.
At temple bar - which is a location within the city where there are alot of touristy bars, its not actually a bar - we really didn't do much in that area except the tour guide told us about a pub crawl sponsored by the touring company that was happening that night.
Trinity University
Then we walked through Trinity University campus and talked about the architecture of the place and also the Book of Kells that was kept at the University as well at the "Long Room". We also talked about a good bit of the history of Trinity University.
Oh - and it was a beautiful day
After the Tour was done we(Nathan and I) Went on a tour of the book of Kells and the Long room for 8 Euros - which looking back on it it was probably over-priced but oh well. After that we went back to our hostel - relaxed a bit and enjoyed ourselves.
C(No photos were allowed in that room so I dont have any :( Sorry! )
Dinner
That Night we went to this place called Seomra Sprao (Sp?) Because a guy from Couch Surfing Invited us to have a Vegan dinner. There were a bunch of people there and we were just relaxing and this guy named conor came up to us and showed us around the place, we had food, and played some games then went back to the hostel.
(For some reason I didnt get any photos of this place - I guess I didn't want to look to much like a tourist in front of everybody)
Hostel : Abbey Court
(Which as a Sidenote there is this hostel in Dublin called Abbey Court in Dublin and it is only 10 Euro a Night(For a 12man dorm) as well as it has free: Breakfast, WiFi, Computers, and Luggage storage. It was really nice. We were really tired so we went to bed around 9. I slept like a rock for those next 3 hours. Then I woke up at 1 AM and couldn't fall asleep. I was stairing at the top of bunk for a few hours and then finally I got hungry, and went downstairs made myself a PB&J or two - used the computers then went back to bed. I finally fell asleep at like 4-5, then we woke up around 11 - unfortunately missing the first free breakfast.
(And no mom - I didn't take photos of the places I stayed either - sorry - that is just plain to much documenting)
Well yea - don't expect this thoroughness for each day - That would be insane!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Pre-Trip Chicago
Alright - So Nathan got here on Saturday around 5pm. We got back home relaxed had pizza and hit up a bar that night.
On Sunday I woke up early to check out The Willow Creek North Shore Church Campus. Had a good time enjoying some techy time and then headed back. We had Chili for dinner then decided to hit up Chicago for a brief period of time. We went to one of my favorite stores "Saturday Audio" which deals in high-fi Audio. Enjoyed that then Went to a coffee shop for a few hours. After that we hit up Park Community Church so I could lend one of my audio engineering buddies some gear, and check out one of the services.
Then Today, Monday, we went down early to Chicago. We hit walked by the Sears tower (didn't go up) - then walked through Grant park - where I started my collection of panoramic photos. Heres the first
and YES I Did this all by Myself - And I like it alot!
Then After that we decided to hit up the planetarium - because it was free admission day - My advise - unless you are under 12 - DO NOT GO THERE! haha It was more of kid thing so we kinda left fairly quickly. and then from there we took some pictures before hitting up the apple store!
We stopped by the apple store - Grabbed some foodage - then went to Millennium park
and then We hit up the Art institute and then went home!
WE LEAVE TOMORROW on our 730PM FLIGHT! AHHH - Crazyness!!
On Sunday I woke up early to check out The Willow Creek North Shore Church Campus. Had a good time enjoying some techy time and then headed back. We had Chili for dinner then decided to hit up Chicago for a brief period of time. We went to one of my favorite stores "Saturday Audio" which deals in high-fi Audio. Enjoyed that then Went to a coffee shop for a few hours. After that we hit up Park Community Church so I could lend one of my audio engineering buddies some gear, and check out one of the services.
Then Today, Monday, we went down early to Chicago. We hit walked by the Sears tower (didn't go up) - then walked through Grant park - where I started my collection of panoramic photos. Heres the first
and YES I Did this all by Myself - And I like it alot!
Then After that we decided to hit up the planetarium - because it was free admission day - My advise - unless you are under 12 - DO NOT GO THERE! haha It was more of kid thing so we kinda left fairly quickly. and then from there we took some pictures before hitting up the apple store!
We stopped by the apple store - Grabbed some foodage - then went to Millennium park
and then We hit up the Art institute and then went home!
WE LEAVE TOMORROW on our 730PM FLIGHT! AHHH - Crazyness!!
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