Hola, ciao, γειά σου!
The past week and a half have been quite an adventure. I will try and sum it up in a quick(ish) post. I arrived in Barcelona after spending a cold and lonely night in Iceland at a B&B during my layover from New York. It was so wonderful to see Jill and Kristen (friends I work with) at the hostel, especially because I arrived at 10pm and thought I was going to get mugged finding the place. Immediately upon my arrival we headed off to another hostel where we met up with a group of people and went to a club on the beach. We VIP'd our way in with no lines and were greeted with champagne. We danced, met some new friends, walked on the beach and grabbed a cab home at around 4am. Lets just say it was a good first night in Europe! The next day we walked around the city for a bit and then spent the majority of the day on this amazing beach. I am going back to Barcelona with Selena, so I figured I'd save the sight seeing until then. That night we grabbed a flight over to Milan.
We arrived in Milan at 12am only to find out that a cab ride to our hostel would be 100 euros (flying into small unknown airports on the outskirts of town is one of the many perks of flying with ryanair). Thankfully just two steps further we were greeted by a much more economical option: a greyhound type bus for 6.50 euros each. We hopped on and then got dropped off at the train station in town. From there we decided again to ask a taxi to take us to our hostel, as it was late and we were not sure how safe the city would be. The cab driver proceeded to tell us it was a 2 minute walk, and not to bother using him. We were very thankful he didn't take our money, and headed towards the direction he had pointed. After about 20 minutes of aimless walking at 1am (with our 20kg backpacks) through the side streets of Milan, passing some creatures of the night, we were about to give up. Thankfully we found the street and got into our hostel at 1:30am. We set our alarms for 6am, bid farewell to the beautiful Milan, and hopped on a train to Cinque Terre.
We arrived in Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre at around 11:30am, the last of the 5 towns. We checked into our hostel, which ended up being tucked away up a few staircases and behind a few buildings (classic Italy), and proceeded to prepare ourselves for the famous hike between the 5 cities. We were told the hike would take between 7-8 hours to complete and were determined to finish the whole thing the first day. The hike was AMAZING. Cinque Terre is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my entire life. We walked along the edge of the ocean, through quaint colorful little towns, along mountainsides eating grapes off the vine and through forests that resembled ones you would find in BC. I will try and post pictures, but they will not even do it justice, you will have to go see for yourself. I am proud to say that we completed the hike in only 4 hours!! I would also like to point out that we were running on 4 hours of sleep. Let's just say we were quite pleased with ourselves. We got to Monterosso (the last town) at 4pm covered in dirt and sweat, but felt so satisfied. After a good cold shower, we ended the evening with dinner, I got pesto Gnocchi and ate every last bite, and then gelato. The next day we went back to Monterosso (by train, not walking) and spent the day on the beach. This was my kind of holiday. We left Cinque Terre the next day by train and headed to Rome.
We got to Rome around dinner time and decided to go see the Colosseum right away because we heard it was beautiful at night. Seeing it was crazier than I ever imagined, way bigger in person and more beautiful than in pictures. We decided to grab dinner at a restaurant that gave us a view of the Colosseum, and dinner consisted of pasta and gelato again. When in Italy. The next day we hit all of the tourist spots. The Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Forum, the Pantheon, etc. We walked to every single one, so we really got to see all of Rome. That is something I love about Europe, you can walk everywhere, which is a good balance for all of my pasta and gelato. Rome was beautiful, but a day and a half, and 300 pictures later, was more than enough.
Next we caught a flight down to Brindisi in Southern Italy where we would catch our ferry to Corfu. Stumped on what to do for the day (it was a small port town and we were tired of walking from the previous day in Rome), we found the closest hotel and paid to lay by their pool for the day. It seemed like the best way to kill the day, until we realized there was NO food to be found. Seriously, none. Not even a vending machine, and the hotel was in the middle of nowhere. We laid by the pool until 4pm, until our stomachs were eating themselves, got showered and called a cab to bring us into the city. Our plan was to head to the Ferry and just grab something around there, but our taxi driver had a different plan in mind. Once he realized we hadn't seen any of Brindisi, he gave us a tour of the town. He dubbed himself the "taxi dj", and serenaded us with some old school songs as he showed us the city. If I can figure out how to upload a video I'll give you a little taste. One of our stops included a fresh fish market, where all of the locals were bartering for the days catch of fish. Our last stop was this beautiful restaurant right on the water, where we each ordered our own pizza and got gelato for dessert. I figured it was my last night in Italy, why not go all out one last time. Then we boarded our Ferry at 9:30pm, and tried to prepare ourselves for a 6 hour overnight ride. At around 10pm I was getting restless, so I put on my ipod and started to dance (while sitting). Jill, feeling a dance battle coming on, put her ipod on as well and proceeded to join me. We synced our music so that we had the same song playing, and danced our little hearts out, entertaining many fellow travelers around us. My ipod eventually died, and we tried to catch a few hours of sleep.
We arrived in Corfu, Greece at 5am and were greeted by the Pink Palace bus. I am not even sure what to say about this hostel, except that it was a once in a lifetime experience, as in I will only ever go there once in my life. We did get to see some amazing beaches and explore the island of Corfu on quads though. What an experience. I had never gone quadding before, but I'd like to think of myself as somewhat of an expert now. We were given 50cc bikes and were flying around these tiny little streets on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the ocean, and dodging oncoming traffic. It was terrifying, but so worth it. We went to the highest part of the island, a secluded beach, a cute little cafe and through a bunch of small towns. This was probably one of the top 3 things I did over the past few weeks. We also ended up meeting a lot of friends from Dubai, Canada, the UK and Australia at the hostel and got to experience some authentic Greek cooking. I also have turned the brownest I have ever been in my life. I seriously looked like a different race. It was then that I knew it was time to get out of the sun, so I bid farewell to Jill and Kristen and headed off to Berlin to meet Selena.
Seeing Selena was SO nice. I was getting a bit homesick at that point, and seeing a familiar face was just what I needed. We rented bikes for a day in Berlin and she showed me around to all of the main sites. Seeing the Berlin wall and the East Side gallery was amazing. There is just so much history in that city, and literally just full of stuff you read in textbooks. We then spent the evening at Harry Potter 2! Ha, we needed a little piece of home, and we figured a movie theatre would be just the thing. Then we headed off to Amsterdam.
I will start a new post for Amsterdam! If you made it this far, you are a trooper. Apparently talking too much translates into typing too much...
The past week and a half have been quite an adventure. I will try and sum it up in a quick(ish) post. I arrived in Barcelona after spending a cold and lonely night in Iceland at a B&B during my layover from New York. It was so wonderful to see Jill and Kristen (friends I work with) at the hostel, especially because I arrived at 10pm and thought I was going to get mugged finding the place. Immediately upon my arrival we headed off to another hostel where we met up with a group of people and went to a club on the beach. We VIP'd our way in with no lines and were greeted with champagne. We danced, met some new friends, walked on the beach and grabbed a cab home at around 4am. Lets just say it was a good first night in Europe! The next day we walked around the city for a bit and then spent the majority of the day on this amazing beach. I am going back to Barcelona with Selena, so I figured I'd save the sight seeing until then. That night we grabbed a flight over to Milan.
We arrived in Milan at 12am only to find out that a cab ride to our hostel would be 100 euros (flying into small unknown airports on the outskirts of town is one of the many perks of flying with ryanair). Thankfully just two steps further we were greeted by a much more economical option: a greyhound type bus for 6.50 euros each. We hopped on and then got dropped off at the train station in town. From there we decided again to ask a taxi to take us to our hostel, as it was late and we were not sure how safe the city would be. The cab driver proceeded to tell us it was a 2 minute walk, and not to bother using him. We were very thankful he didn't take our money, and headed towards the direction he had pointed. After about 20 minutes of aimless walking at 1am (with our 20kg backpacks) through the side streets of Milan, passing some creatures of the night, we were about to give up. Thankfully we found the street and got into our hostel at 1:30am. We set our alarms for 6am, bid farewell to the beautiful Milan, and hopped on a train to Cinque Terre.
We arrived in Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre at around 11:30am, the last of the 5 towns. We checked into our hostel, which ended up being tucked away up a few staircases and behind a few buildings (classic Italy), and proceeded to prepare ourselves for the famous hike between the 5 cities. We were told the hike would take between 7-8 hours to complete and were determined to finish the whole thing the first day. The hike was AMAZING. Cinque Terre is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my entire life. We walked along the edge of the ocean, through quaint colorful little towns, along mountainsides eating grapes off the vine and through forests that resembled ones you would find in BC. I will try and post pictures, but they will not even do it justice, you will have to go see for yourself. I am proud to say that we completed the hike in only 4 hours!! I would also like to point out that we were running on 4 hours of sleep. Let's just say we were quite pleased with ourselves. We got to Monterosso (the last town) at 4pm covered in dirt and sweat, but felt so satisfied. After a good cold shower, we ended the evening with dinner, I got pesto Gnocchi and ate every last bite, and then gelato. The next day we went back to Monterosso (by train, not walking) and spent the day on the beach. This was my kind of holiday. We left Cinque Terre the next day by train and headed to Rome.
We got to Rome around dinner time and decided to go see the Colosseum right away because we heard it was beautiful at night. Seeing it was crazier than I ever imagined, way bigger in person and more beautiful than in pictures. We decided to grab dinner at a restaurant that gave us a view of the Colosseum, and dinner consisted of pasta and gelato again. When in Italy. The next day we hit all of the tourist spots. The Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Forum, the Pantheon, etc. We walked to every single one, so we really got to see all of Rome. That is something I love about Europe, you can walk everywhere, which is a good balance for all of my pasta and gelato. Rome was beautiful, but a day and a half, and 300 pictures later, was more than enough.
Next we caught a flight down to Brindisi in Southern Italy where we would catch our ferry to Corfu. Stumped on what to do for the day (it was a small port town and we were tired of walking from the previous day in Rome), we found the closest hotel and paid to lay by their pool for the day. It seemed like the best way to kill the day, until we realized there was NO food to be found. Seriously, none. Not even a vending machine, and the hotel was in the middle of nowhere. We laid by the pool until 4pm, until our stomachs were eating themselves, got showered and called a cab to bring us into the city. Our plan was to head to the Ferry and just grab something around there, but our taxi driver had a different plan in mind. Once he realized we hadn't seen any of Brindisi, he gave us a tour of the town. He dubbed himself the "taxi dj", and serenaded us with some old school songs as he showed us the city. If I can figure out how to upload a video I'll give you a little taste. One of our stops included a fresh fish market, where all of the locals were bartering for the days catch of fish. Our last stop was this beautiful restaurant right on the water, where we each ordered our own pizza and got gelato for dessert. I figured it was my last night in Italy, why not go all out one last time. Then we boarded our Ferry at 9:30pm, and tried to prepare ourselves for a 6 hour overnight ride. At around 10pm I was getting restless, so I put on my ipod and started to dance (while sitting). Jill, feeling a dance battle coming on, put her ipod on as well and proceeded to join me. We synced our music so that we had the same song playing, and danced our little hearts out, entertaining many fellow travelers around us. My ipod eventually died, and we tried to catch a few hours of sleep.
We arrived in Corfu, Greece at 5am and were greeted by the Pink Palace bus. I am not even sure what to say about this hostel, except that it was a once in a lifetime experience, as in I will only ever go there once in my life. We did get to see some amazing beaches and explore the island of Corfu on quads though. What an experience. I had never gone quadding before, but I'd like to think of myself as somewhat of an expert now. We were given 50cc bikes and were flying around these tiny little streets on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the ocean, and dodging oncoming traffic. It was terrifying, but so worth it. We went to the highest part of the island, a secluded beach, a cute little cafe and through a bunch of small towns. This was probably one of the top 3 things I did over the past few weeks. We also ended up meeting a lot of friends from Dubai, Canada, the UK and Australia at the hostel and got to experience some authentic Greek cooking. I also have turned the brownest I have ever been in my life. I seriously looked like a different race. It was then that I knew it was time to get out of the sun, so I bid farewell to Jill and Kristen and headed off to Berlin to meet Selena.
Seeing Selena was SO nice. I was getting a bit homesick at that point, and seeing a familiar face was just what I needed. We rented bikes for a day in Berlin and she showed me around to all of the main sites. Seeing the Berlin wall and the East Side gallery was amazing. There is just so much history in that city, and literally just full of stuff you read in textbooks. We then spent the evening at Harry Potter 2! Ha, we needed a little piece of home, and we figured a movie theatre would be just the thing. Then we headed off to Amsterdam.
I will start a new post for Amsterdam! If you made it this far, you are a trooper. Apparently talking too much translates into typing too much...
It's almost as good as hearing it in person ;)! Someday I'm going to get to those places!!
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