Trip Notes #4 - Spain

The fourth stop on our trip was by far the easiest to travel into. Besides Andrea being faced with an "over weight limit" luggage charge of 70 euros (her suitcase was bigger than she was), there was no problem getting on our plane from Geneva, and we were lucky enough to be greeted by our friend, Gerard, at the Barcelona airport. Gerard and Victor (both pictured) had spent the Spring term at Ivey on exchange.

After some general sightseeing (mostly just wandering around Las Ramblas and various small alleyways downtown), we ventured to eat the best meal of the entire trip at a fancy tapas restaurant (pictured). We were treated to some wine-tasting lessons and delicious food of all sorts. We finished the evening with a drink on top of a mountain and a home-cooked meal at Gerard's.

The next morning we embarked on a 6-hour, sickness-inducing ferry to the legendary party island of Ibiza (or Ivissa, if you prefer). Our ship arrived in the late hours of the night and we were greeted by a host of drunk, scantily-dressed British people (who's nights were just beginning). We were too tired and worried about finding our hotel that we failed to find the humor in their various antics. Eventually the hotel (3 single beds for a change!) was reached, food was acquired, and much sleep was had.

Upon waking, we went to a fairly secluded (and nude) beach that was surrounded by beautiful cliffs and turquoise water. Our dabble with "clothing-optional" came to an abrupt halt when a school bus of German children arrived unexpectedly in the afternoon. That evening was spent viewing an amazing sunset (shown above).

Having only one night on the island, we decided we must try out the infamous nightlife. We made it to the opening night of a huge stadium-sized club somewhere inland. They didn't allow cameras, probably because then there would be photographic evidence of all the people doing drugs inside! (We didn't actually witness any of this, but I don't see how the crowd could stand the one-beat techno music that played all night long without the help of narcotics!). We actually ran into a friend from Ivey completely randomly at said club. Small world! Overall our night was annoying at best, and we were glad to be leaving Ibiza the next morning.

The girls had managed to find a cheap flight back to Barcelona, but I pinched pennies and took an extra slow, 10-hour ferry back, which I spent currled up in the corner of a bar. I have nothing further to say about that.

Overall, Spain was a bit of a disappointment. It would be nice to go to Southern Spain sometime, however, because I hear that is much nicer.

Pictures of Barcelona.
Pictures of Ibiza.

Trip Notes #3 - Switzerland

Although our four days in Nice were lovely, we were ready for new adventures on the 5th morning, and we were off to Switzerland! Having made no arrangements for our transportation to the airport, and realizing about 1 hour prior to our flight as we packed up our suitcases that: public transportation hasn't started running yet, the phones in our room don't work (not that we knew any cab numbers anyway), and it would take at least 2 hours to walk there. Distressed, we made our way outside only to find a cab waiting there - just for us! We still haven't figured out how this happened, and resolved to grant the good deed to either our thoughtful hotel managers or the kindly gods of travel (who must have been taking pity on us ever since our London ordeal).

The flight was uneventful, but our arrival in Geneva was unpleasant: it was about 10 degrees and I, for one, had not packed proper winter wear. Arriving at our hotel (the 'Nashville', how American) we passed many interesting sights including numerous strip clubs and prostitutes, finally realizing why we had obtained such a good rate on the room. In Geneva we ate extremely overpriced meals and marvelled at how little there was to do. We also took a 30 euro train ride to a completely boring and dreary French village and resolved not to do random day trips again. We also began calling all the extreme sporting venues we could find on the internet, often to rudely awake people because we insisted on making our inquiries at 6 in the morning. Finally the weather behaved itself, and we made our way to picturesque Interlaken - a stop that I highly recommend if in the area. Our adventure for the day was originally to be sky diving - but was downgraded to paragliding to save money.

Paragliding is not at all scary, it's like drifting over the clouds in a miniature plane ... minus the walls. (And excepting the cliff jump beginning). We payed a little extra for some "in flight" pictures, which I will develop and post here one day. Overall we enjoyed Switzerland but were quite pleased that our next stop, Barcelona, had considerably more favorable weather forecasts.

Pictures.

Trip Notes #2 - Nice, France

After our uneasy, sleepless start to the trip in London, we arrived in Nice extremely thankful that it was a beach town with not a lot to see. We got off the bus from the airport at the wrong stop, and had to walk about half an hour to our hotel - but we could have cared less at that point. In fact, the walk was right along the beach so it was a nice introduction to the beautiful green/blue waters. We stayed at a bed & breakfast about one block from the promenade, and surrounded by traditional French street-front cafes. In fact, we woke up every morning (or afternoon, depending on how lazy we were feeling) to the sound of accordians. We spent most of our days (and nights) on the beach working on not being so Canadian (i.e. pale). On Day 3 we took a small boat cruise where the girls conveniently ducked as waves crashed over the side and straight into my face. The boat's tour guide pointed out Elton John and Mick
Jagger's palatial ocean-view estates. That same evening we were able to take a $5 euro trip over to Cannes to catch the very last day of the film festival. No movie star sightings (fun fact: Caroline had been in an earlier year and saw the cast of Star Wars), but we did see lots of people running around in tuxedos and evening gowns, giving the town a very glamorous feel.

Photos.

Trip Notes #1 - London

London: Day 1

- Flight was interesting, sat next to a 30-something music teacher from San Fransico who grew up with Sofia Coppola, used to date Reese Witherspoon's best friend, and frequently attends Quentin Tarantino's parties (which are apparently quite weird). Yelled at by cranky old woman for talking while she was trying to sleep.
- Arrived in Heathrow, took an all-too-expensive (but still the cheapest option) 13 pound subway ride to Central London. 30 bucks for a subway ticket? Seriously?
- Found hostel easily, dismayed at poor quality of carpets. Generally confused by the "hostel system", which takes some getting used to; left keys in room which automatically locks, flooded a bathroom, failed to persuade French-speaking man to let me into the luggage room, etc.
- Went to meet travelling companions, two girls from Ivey, at the London Eye at 11am. Disorientation took hold as I exited the metro and ended up walking straight ahead to what I thought was the closest bridge (there was also one behind 10 feet behind me) only to find that bridge was closed, and I would have to walk the 10 minutes back to the bridge I should have taken in the first place. Mid-walk the 11am bells started ringing and I was worried that being late would start the trip off on the wrong foot - so I ran to the London Eye and arrived at 11:02am sweating quite profusely. Of course, they were half an hour late.
- Walked around Central London with them, stopped for lunch at Covent Garden - decided Sangria is gross - got lost because we didn't have a map, agreed to go back to our separate hostels and meet at Picadilly Circus later that evening. I left them with the warning that I might just stay in that night and sleep off my jet lag.
- Had a nap at the hostel and met a few nice Chinese girls, one of whom was using the hostel as her permanent residence while she looked for a teaching job.
- Decided not to start the trip off on an anti-social note, and went to meet the girls for a night of dinner and dancing. How I would regret this decision later!!
- As you probably know by now, the evening ended tragically with us waiting for a bus home at 4 in the morning and the London underbelly swallowing up my purse. I did actually see whom I presume was the underbelly agent, walking quickly in the other direction (when we realized my purse was gone, we went to look for him but no trace). But then again, he could have just been a guy in a hurry.
- The rest of the night was spent filing police reports, making midnight phone calls home, retrieving luggage, and (barely) catching our early afternoon flight to Nice. Quite the day!
- Lessons learned: 1) when travelling, no matter how jetlagged and disoriented you are, have the wherewithal to separate your valuables and leave some of them locked up in your luggage. 2) never take both your eyes and hands off of your purse or wallet.

Hi there

Hello blog readers, if there are any of you still out there!

I am writing to you from Vilnius, Lithuania today. It is 9pm here and a bit cold despite it being July. (But this is apparently quite unusual, despite how far North it is).

I like it here. On Friday I am off to Riga, Latvia. After that Estonia, Finland, Germany, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Belgium, London - HOME.

So far I have been (oh gosh this is difficult!): Nice, Switzerland, Barcelona, Ibiza, Paris, Prague, Venice, Milan, Rome, Greece (Mykonos, Santorini, Athens), Vienna, Budapest, Poland, and Lithuania.

Top 3 trip highlights: Versailles, Pompeii, paragliding over Swiss Alps.

If you want, you can inquire of Matt for photos from Nice and Switzerland (it took about 3 hours to upload each because the computers here don't seem to have a much-needed Java plugin and I don't have admin priviledges to download it) ... so you can understand why I stopped there!

Well then. I have not much else to say!

Can't wait to write a travel (b)log

I'm thinking maybe I'll take a paper journal with me, jot down notes and thoughts along the way, and then try to find an internet cafe every few days to transcribe them, along with some pictures. It certainly won't be difficult to figure out what to write every day.

Speaking of that, it's looking more and more like I'll be doing the majority of the trip all by my lonesome. I just don't have any one particular best friend that has the money, desire, and time to go with me. I'm alright with this. As I discovered over the past few days I quite enjoy travelling by myself. I enjoyed being able to choose where I was going to go, and which ways I was going to get lost. Often if you're travelling with someone else it's easy for either of you to get frustrated when the other one insists the wrong way is the right way.

I liked the flexibility of making all the decisions and not having to consult anyone else. Albeit this mainly consisted of what to do during the wait for connecting flights, but it will be much more important in Europe where there are literally thousands of options as to what countries, cities, attractions, hotels, restaurants to visit.

The last few days also weren't all that stressful. All the airports I was in (London, Calgary, Kelowna) were quite small, easy to navigate around, and everyone spoke English. I'm sure there will be many times in Europe where it's getting dark, I have no idea where I am or where to go, no one around me speaks English, and then I'll really wish I had a travelling companion.

Fortunately I know a lot of people in Europe thanks to the exchange programme, although I'm not sure how many of them will have left Canada by May. I have definite plans for Greece (2 girls from work), and hopefully can arrange to travel with friends in a few other places.

Mostly I just can't wait to blog about it!

Europe Trip Planning, Stage 2

Current (oversized) plan for my 6-8 week trip with the planned length of stay in days:
- Austria: Vienna (2), Salzburg (1)
- Germany: Cologne (1), Munich (1), Rhine/Bavaria country (2)
- Switzerland: Interlaken (2), possibly Geneva (1)
- Belgium: Bruges (1), Brussels (2)
- Italy: Rome (3), Florence (3), Venice (2), Pisa (1), Milan (2), Cinque Terre (2)
- Greece: Athens (2), some islands (4)
- France: Paris (3), Bordeaux / wine valley region (2), Cannes (1), Marseille (2)
- Spain: Barcelona (3)
- Czech Republic: Prague (3)
- Great Britain: London (4), Bath (1), Brighton (1), Lake District (2), York (2), Edinburgh (2), Inverness / Loch Ness (2), Cardiff (1)

= 61 days ... it'd be nice to cut this down a bit. Perhaps I'll speed through my trip faster than I expected?
Looks like I might have to miss grad. School lets out in mid May, and grad is mid June. I don't want to travel in the peak, hot, crowded, expensive summer months of July & August, so I'm keen on going from around May 15 - July 15. This does not agree with grad at all! Guess I'll go to the one in September. Hmm.

Anyways where have you been and what do you recommend?