Friday April 2nd 2010 - France (Montmorillon and Limoges)
-Train: Montmorillon to Limoges
13h21-14h36
-Hostel: Etap Hotel
14 Rue de Chinchauvaud, Limoges
Tel: 33 892681118
Saturday April 3rd 2010 - England (Bristol)
-Flight: Limoges to Bristol
10h35-11h05
-Hostel: 007 Traveler's Hostel
150-152 West Street Bedminister, Bristol
Tel: 44 1179662936
Sunday April 4th 2010 - England (Bristol and Cardiff)
-Bus: Bristol to Cardiff (day-trip)
Depart: 10h10-11h20
Return: 17h15-18h35
-Hostel: 007 Traveler's Hostel
150-152 West Street Bedminister, Bristol
Tel: 44 1179662936
Monday April 5th 2010 - England (Bristol and Bath)
-Bus: Bristol to Bath (day-trip)
-Hostel: 007 Traveler's Hostel
150-152 West Street Bedminister, Bristol
Tel: 44 1179662936
Tuesday April 6th 2010 - England (Bristol) and Morocco (Marrakesh)
-Flight: Bristol to Marrakesh
15h55-18h30
-Hostel: Hostel Riad Marrakesh Rouge
Riad Zitoune Jdid, Derb Zenka Dika no. 40, Marrakesh
tel: 212 670 760 149
Wednesday April 7th 2010 - Morocco (Marrakesh and Casablanca)
-Train: Marrakesh to Casablanca
?5h00-8h10? ?7h00-10h10? ?9h00-12h10?
-Hostel: Hotel Central
20 Place Ahmad el Bidaoui, Ancienne Medina, Casablanca
tel: 212 661 162 826
Thursday April 8th 2010 - Morocco (Casablanca and Fez)
-Train: Casablanca to Fez (day-trip)
Depart: ?5h15-8h35? ?6h15-10h10? ?7h15-10h35? ?8h15-12h10?
Return: ?14h50-18h45? 15h50-19h10? 16h50-20h45? ?17h50-21h10?
-Hostel: Hotel Central
20 Place Ahmad el Bidaoui, Ancienne Medina, Casablanca
tel: 212 661 162 826
Friday April 9th 2010 - Morocco (Casablanca and Marrakesh)
-Train: Casablanca to Marrakesh
Depart: ?4h50-8h05? ?6h50-10h05? ?8h50-12h05? ?10h50-14h05? ?12h50-16h05?
-Hostel: Hostel Riad Marrakesh Rouge
Riad Zitoune Jdid, Derb Zenka Dika no. 40, Marrakesh
tel: 212 670 760 149
Saturday April 10th 2010 - Morocco (Marrakesh) and Italy (Pisa)
-Flight: Marrakesh to Pisa
17h55-22h45
-Hostel: First Night
Via F. De Pinedo 4D, Pisa
tel: 39 3470880244
Sunday April 11th 2010 - Italy (Pisa), Slovakia (Bratislava) and Hungary (Budapest)
-Flight: Pisa to Bratislava
7h00-8h35
-Train: Bratislava to Budapest
?9h51-12h32? ?11h51-14h32? ?15h51-18h32?
-Hostel: Casa Nostra Hostel
31/J Raday Street 2nd Floor, Budapest
tel: 36 204040222
Monday April 12th 2010 - Hungary (Budapest)
-Hostel: Casa Nostra Hostel
31/J Raday Street 2nd Floor, Budapest
tel: 36 204040222
Tuesday April 13th 2010 - Hungary (Budapest) and Slovakia (Bratislava)
-Train: Budapest to Bratislava
?9h28-12h05? ?13h28-16h05? ?15h28-18h05? ?19h58-22h34?
-Hostel: Hotel Possonium
Sancova 20, Bratislava
tel: 42 1220720007
Wednesday April 14th 2010 - Slovakia (Budapest)
-Hostel: Hotel Possonium
Sancova 20, Bratislava
tel: 42 1220720007
Thursday April 15th 2010 - Slovakia (Budapest) and Austria (Vienna)
-Hydrofoil Boat: Bratislava to Vienna (day-trip)
-Hostel: Hotel Possonium
Sancova 20, Bratislava
tel: 42 1220720007
Friday April 16th 2010 - Slovakia (Bratislava) and England (London)
-Flight: Bratislava to London
10h00-11h15
-Hostel: Smart Russel Square
71 Guilford Street, London
tel: 44 2078338818
Saturday April 17th 2010 - England (London) and France (Limoges and Montmorillon)
-Flight: London to Limoges
10h35-13h05
-Train: Limoges to Montmorillon
?13h42-15h03? ?17h25-18h42?
Showing posts with label Hostel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hostel. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg Photos
View of the Bock Casements from Parc Drai Eechelen
View of the Bock Casements from Parc Drai Eechelen
View of the Bock Casements from Parc Drai Eechelen
View of the Bock Casements from Chemin de Corniche
View of Parc Frai Eechelen from the Bock Casements - the stairs going up the mountain that are covered in snow are the ones I hiked up
View of Parc Frai Eechelen from the Bock Casements - the stairs/pathway going up the side of the Mountain are the ones I hiked up the day before when they were covered in snow in order to see the park and MUDAM
My hostel as seen from the Bock Casements
My hostel as seen from the Bock Casements
View from Bock Casements
View from Bock Casements
Quartier Europeen - European Neighborhood (justice courts)
Pont Adolphe - Adolphe Bridge
Pont Adolphe
Place Guilliaume II - Hotel de Ville
Place Guilliaume II
Philharmonie
Parc Drai Eechelen and Musuem
Palace - Changing of the Guard
Palace
Palace
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450857814928013746" />Musical fountain
MUMDAM
Graffiti
Graffiti on a building. I love the 'Anarchy Eat the Rich'
Cool little area I stumbled upon while walking
Cool street I stumbled upon while wandering
Statue outside a church
Entrance to the Cathedral
Cathedral
Cathedral
Bock Casements
Bock Casements
Bock Casements
Bock Casements
Center de Conferences - Architecture near MUDAM
Architecture near MUDAM
AM Tunnel
AM Tunnel
Am Tunnel
AM Tunnel
AM Tunnel
AM Tunnel. Those are thumbtacks!
AM Tunnel. Those are thumbtacks!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Luxembourg
Monday February 15th
Upon arriving in Luxembourg City I had no problems getting to my hostel from the train station, I just jumped on the #9 bus and was there in a flash. I checked in, but wasn't allowed in the room yet so I put my stuff in a luggage locker and headed out to explore the town. The hostel is actually located in a pretty ideal location at the bottom of a hill from the city center. So the first place I hit up was the "Bock Casements" which are caves/tunnels through the mountains (Luxembourg City is built on a bunch of mountains close together, so I was constantly climbing up and down mountains and crossing huge bridges). Unfortunately the Bock Casements are closed at this time of year so I snapped some pictures and continued on my way visiting a church and taking a few interesting side streets here and there before I made my way along "Rue de Corniche" which basically circles the side of a hill so you can get some amazing scenic photos (especially of the Bock Casements). Next stop of the day was the Cathedral, which was unimpressive so I made my way to the two main squares "Place de Guilliame II" (which is where the dull Hotel de Ville and tourist office is located) and "Place d'Armes". Both were rather unremarkable, but maybe that was because its winter and all the trees are just sticks and there's dirty snow everywhere. I saw some postcards of the spring/summer when the squares are covered in greenery and flowers and it looked amazing just like something out of a fairytale...maybe I'll have to visit again sometime when its better weather... I grabbed some lunch before continuing my tour of the town. I passed by the "Casino" and "Place de Metz" on my way to the "Place des Martyrs" (which turned out to just be a park) and "AM Tunnel". AM Tunnel was awesome. It's located 4 stories underground and is a tunnel that is lined with contemporary art. I'm not usually a big art person, but there was some pretty neat stuff down there and it had an exhibit of "Edward Steichen" who was one of the first ever 'portraitist' (he took people's portraits). He's now been added to my list of artist that I really like...the man was a visionary. After the AM Tunnel I braved the cold and the snow again in order to trek across town (I saw the Changing of the Guard outside the Palace along the way), down a mountain and then back up another mountain (using a narrow steep trail up the mountainside covered in snow...right about now was when I regretted not bring more appropriate footwear) in order to see the "MUDAM" (a modern art museum that was designed by the same guy who thought of the pyramids outside the Louvre in Paris), the "Parc Drai Eechelen", the "Philharmonie" (a concert hall) and various buildings of curious architecture located in that area including the European Union Justice Courts. By the time I'd finished looking around and slid my way back down the mountainside my pants were soaked to the knee with cold, ice water and I'd lost all feeling in my toes long before that, so I headed to the hostel (which was conveniently located at the bottom of the mountain) to throw in the towel for the day and change out of my wet clothes before a caught a chill.
Tuesday February 16th
Today was such a gorgeous day full of sunshine and warmth. I started the day bright and early, enjoyed a complementary breakfast from the hostel and then caught a bus to the train station. Before leaving the hostel I had bought a 'billet Reseau' (an all-day unlimited bus/train ticket for all transportation in the country of Luxembourg) for only 4 euros (what a deal!!!). I'd decided the night before where I wanted to go. There are several castles/chateaux located around the little country of Luxembourg and I'd decided to visit "Chateau de Clervaux" in the town of Clervaux and "Chateau de Vianden" in Vianden. First stop of the day was the town of Clervaux. The train ride to the town was gorgeous with bright white snow covering the rolling hills and surrounding mountains, like something out of a fairytale. Upon reaching Clervaux I realized I had no plan and no map (usually there is a tourist information center near or in the train station but not here), so I randomly began wandering in one direction, decided it probably the wrong direction so I turned around and started in the opposite direction. Fortunately I quickly stumbled upon a sign with a map of the little town (which was actually about a fifteen minute walk from where the train station is located), memorized the map and started heading toward the town. My plan was to hit up the tourist office first to figure out what there was to see and do in the town (my guide book hadn't told me much, only that there was a castle and an abbey), but like usual I saw something that caught my eye so I strayed off course to check it out. It was just a church, but I took a look around inside anyways. Upon exiting I discovered a narrow little footpath/stairs covered in snow leading up the mountainside and into a forest and a sign that pointed 'Abbey' so I obeyed the sign and began ascending the snow covered, steep path through the forest and up the side of a mountain until I came to the Abbey hidden deep in the woods halfway up the mountain. What an exhausting, slippery hike!!! But the Abbey was worth it. At first I thought that no one could enter, but as I finished circling the enormous, completely walled structure I found an entrance gate at the very back. You couldn't wander around freely, but you were able to visit the church. I'd timed my visit unknowingly, just perfect. I'd read in my guide book that they hold a gregorian mass (that means they chant the service instead of just say it) everyday at 10:45am which was the exact hour that I arrived, so I sat down and listened for a bit before deciding that I needed to continue my journey in order to see everything today. So I made my descent down the mountain. I'd spotted the Chateau on the way down and headed in that direction next. The tourist information center was hooked onto the Chateau but it was closed for the winter, so it didn't really matter that I hadn't gone there first. Unfortunately everything else was closed for winter too, so I took some photos and headed back to the train station to catch the next train. My train arrived at 11:53am and I took it to Ettelbruck, where I then had to change to the bus in order to reach Vianden.
The Chateau de Vianden was by far the coolest place I visited during my trip and the best castle I've ever visited, so it was well worth the journey. When the bus dropped me off on the outskirts of the town the castle was immediately visible sitting on a mountain overlooking the little village. It was a long hike uphill to the castle. I stopped by two churches along the way and walked around the old ramparts to the city while slowly trekking my way up the hill to the castle. Upon arriving at the castle I only hesitated for a second on whether or not to shell out the money and enter (I didn't take all those trains, country buses and hike a huge mountain not to enter) so I bought a ticket and headed in. The castle has a very medieval 'King Arthur's court' ambiance to it. I kept drifting off to story tales of knights and ladies and medieval times as a wandered the old halls. You could almost picture what it was actually like (banquets in the dining hall, sword fights, wars, moonlight lovers' trysts on the terrace walkway). After I finished visiting the castle (and left my daydreams for reality) I made my way back down the mountain to the bus stop to head back to Luxembourg City. I'd debated visiting some other towns just to look around since it wasn't to late, but I was once again soaking wet from trekking through snow all day and tired from hiking up and down mountains in order to visit castles and hidden abbeys, so I decided it was best to head back to base camp. When I arrived back in Luxembourg City I wandered the streets a bit before heading back to the hostel and packing my bag to be ready to leave first thing in the morning to Switzerland.
Upon arriving in Luxembourg City I had no problems getting to my hostel from the train station, I just jumped on the #9 bus and was there in a flash. I checked in, but wasn't allowed in the room yet so I put my stuff in a luggage locker and headed out to explore the town. The hostel is actually located in a pretty ideal location at the bottom of a hill from the city center. So the first place I hit up was the "Bock Casements" which are caves/tunnels through the mountains (Luxembourg City is built on a bunch of mountains close together, so I was constantly climbing up and down mountains and crossing huge bridges). Unfortunately the Bock Casements are closed at this time of year so I snapped some pictures and continued on my way visiting a church and taking a few interesting side streets here and there before I made my way along "Rue de Corniche" which basically circles the side of a hill so you can get some amazing scenic photos (especially of the Bock Casements). Next stop of the day was the Cathedral, which was unimpressive so I made my way to the two main squares "Place de Guilliame II" (which is where the dull Hotel de Ville and tourist office is located) and "Place d'Armes". Both were rather unremarkable, but maybe that was because its winter and all the trees are just sticks and there's dirty snow everywhere. I saw some postcards of the spring/summer when the squares are covered in greenery and flowers and it looked amazing just like something out of a fairytale...maybe I'll have to visit again sometime when its better weather... I grabbed some lunch before continuing my tour of the town. I passed by the "Casino" and "Place de Metz" on my way to the "Place des Martyrs" (which turned out to just be a park) and "AM Tunnel". AM Tunnel was awesome. It's located 4 stories underground and is a tunnel that is lined with contemporary art. I'm not usually a big art person, but there was some pretty neat stuff down there and it had an exhibit of "Edward Steichen" who was one of the first ever 'portraitist' (he took people's portraits). He's now been added to my list of artist that I really like...the man was a visionary. After the AM Tunnel I braved the cold and the snow again in order to trek across town (I saw the Changing of the Guard outside the Palace along the way), down a mountain and then back up another mountain (using a narrow steep trail up the mountainside covered in snow...right about now was when I regretted not bring more appropriate footwear) in order to see the "MUDAM" (a modern art museum that was designed by the same guy who thought of the pyramids outside the Louvre in Paris), the "Parc Drai Eechelen", the "Philharmonie" (a concert hall) and various buildings of curious architecture located in that area including the European Union Justice Courts. By the time I'd finished looking around and slid my way back down the mountainside my pants were soaked to the knee with cold, ice water and I'd lost all feeling in my toes long before that, so I headed to the hostel (which was conveniently located at the bottom of the mountain) to throw in the towel for the day and change out of my wet clothes before a caught a chill.
Tuesday February 16th
Today was such a gorgeous day full of sunshine and warmth. I started the day bright and early, enjoyed a complementary breakfast from the hostel and then caught a bus to the train station. Before leaving the hostel I had bought a 'billet Reseau' (an all-day unlimited bus/train ticket for all transportation in the country of Luxembourg) for only 4 euros (what a deal!!!). I'd decided the night before where I wanted to go. There are several castles/chateaux located around the little country of Luxembourg and I'd decided to visit "Chateau de Clervaux" in the town of Clervaux and "Chateau de Vianden" in Vianden. First stop of the day was the town of Clervaux. The train ride to the town was gorgeous with bright white snow covering the rolling hills and surrounding mountains, like something out of a fairytale. Upon reaching Clervaux I realized I had no plan and no map (usually there is a tourist information center near or in the train station but not here), so I randomly began wandering in one direction, decided it probably the wrong direction so I turned around and started in the opposite direction. Fortunately I quickly stumbled upon a sign with a map of the little town (which was actually about a fifteen minute walk from where the train station is located), memorized the map and started heading toward the town. My plan was to hit up the tourist office first to figure out what there was to see and do in the town (my guide book hadn't told me much, only that there was a castle and an abbey), but like usual I saw something that caught my eye so I strayed off course to check it out. It was just a church, but I took a look around inside anyways. Upon exiting I discovered a narrow little footpath/stairs covered in snow leading up the mountainside and into a forest and a sign that pointed 'Abbey' so I obeyed the sign and began ascending the snow covered, steep path through the forest and up the side of a mountain until I came to the Abbey hidden deep in the woods halfway up the mountain. What an exhausting, slippery hike!!! But the Abbey was worth it. At first I thought that no one could enter, but as I finished circling the enormous, completely walled structure I found an entrance gate at the very back. You couldn't wander around freely, but you were able to visit the church. I'd timed my visit unknowingly, just perfect. I'd read in my guide book that they hold a gregorian mass (that means they chant the service instead of just say it) everyday at 10:45am which was the exact hour that I arrived, so I sat down and listened for a bit before deciding that I needed to continue my journey in order to see everything today. So I made my descent down the mountain. I'd spotted the Chateau on the way down and headed in that direction next. The tourist information center was hooked onto the Chateau but it was closed for the winter, so it didn't really matter that I hadn't gone there first. Unfortunately everything else was closed for winter too, so I took some photos and headed back to the train station to catch the next train. My train arrived at 11:53am and I took it to Ettelbruck, where I then had to change to the bus in order to reach Vianden.
The Chateau de Vianden was by far the coolest place I visited during my trip and the best castle I've ever visited, so it was well worth the journey. When the bus dropped me off on the outskirts of the town the castle was immediately visible sitting on a mountain overlooking the little village. It was a long hike uphill to the castle. I stopped by two churches along the way and walked around the old ramparts to the city while slowly trekking my way up the hill to the castle. Upon arriving at the castle I only hesitated for a second on whether or not to shell out the money and enter (I didn't take all those trains, country buses and hike a huge mountain not to enter) so I bought a ticket and headed in. The castle has a very medieval 'King Arthur's court' ambiance to it. I kept drifting off to story tales of knights and ladies and medieval times as a wandered the old halls. You could almost picture what it was actually like (banquets in the dining hall, sword fights, wars, moonlight lovers' trysts on the terrace walkway). After I finished visiting the castle (and left my daydreams for reality) I made my way back down the mountain to the bus stop to head back to Luxembourg City. I'd debated visiting some other towns just to look around since it wasn't to late, but I was once again soaking wet from trekking through snow all day and tired from hiking up and down mountains in order to visit castles and hidden abbeys, so I decided it was best to head back to base camp. When I arrived back in Luxembourg City I wandered the streets a bit before heading back to the hostel and packing my bag to be ready to leave first thing in the morning to Switzerland.
Bruxelles, Belgium
Friday February 12th
I woke up at 6am in order to get ready, finish packing and trudge my way through the snow to the train station on the opposite side of town. While walking to the train station I couldn't help but to think that maybe I'd made a mistake by choosing to take my cloth all-star converse sneakers with me, instead of my warmer, more weather appropriate adidas tennis shoes. Considering I was heading further north where it would probably be colder and with more snow, but oh well, too late to change my mind now. My train from Poitiers to Lille was twenty minutes late due to the snowy weather, so I was afraid I was going to miss my connecting train from Lille to Bruxelles, but no worries that train was delayed twenty minutes too. I arrived in Bruxelles around 2:30pm and was greeted by sunshine as I made my way to my hostel to drop off my bag, before heading out to take in the sites. My first stop of the day was "Mannequin Pis" which is a fountain of a little boy pissing (interesting fact: in 2007 he didn't piss for one day as a warning for prostrate cancer). It's the national symbol for the country, but was smaller than I'd been expecting. In basically every chocolate shops you can buy little "Mannequin Pis" chocolate statues. After visiting the pissing statue I started making my way toward the "Grand Place" which is Bruxelles most magnificent square. Along the way I jumped in and out of souvenir shops, chocolate shops and drooled over the waffles that were topped with chocolate, whip cream and all kinds of fruits. When I finally reached Grand Place, I was in awe. The architecture was amazing. Buildings were decorated with intricate statues and symbols and gold. The "Hotel de Ville" (city hall) had the classic gothic architecture going on with tons of little statues and the guildhalls were decked out in gold and statues. From there I continued wandering aimlessly taking in the town. All the streets are made of cobblestone and all the stores are packed with either souvenirs, chocolate or beer (and lots of times all three). Occasionally there would be a clothing store, but they were all tacky and cheap (I hear Antwerp is the town to visit in Belgium if you want good fashion and shopping). I came across the "Galleries St. Hubert" while wandering. It's a strip mall under a glass ceiling. Since it's closed-in it's suppose to help fight against the cold and weather, but it doesn't. It was just as cold walking inside as outside. The galleries connect into a street called "Rue des Bouchers" which is packed with restaurants. Because there are so many restaurants located in one area and not enough customers to fill them all, the waiters (very aggressively) stand outside the restuarant and try to talk to you and get you to eat in their restaurant. Its like walking through a gauntlet. I had actually considered grabbing something to eat there, until I was bombarded by overly-aggressive waiters. So instead I visited the tourist office and then found a little cafe and had some soup for dinner, while I plotted out what I'd do the following day and then I started heading back to the hostel. I jumped into Madeleine Church on my way back to the hostel. It looks really pretty from the outside, but the inside was very plain and dull (and mass was in session) so I didn't stay long. At the hostel I met two of my roommates. Two french girls who study near Paris. They invited me to join them for the evening (dinner and drinks), but I politely refused stating that I'd prefer to go out Saturday night and not Friday (hey, I'm on a budget, I can't afford to go out every night). So I enjoyed my first Belgium beer "Barbar" in Belgium at the hostel bar alone while I continued to read and take notes on my book Utopia by Thomas More (this book takes forever to read. It's so dense I have to reread everything and the man has never heard of paragraphs). After that I turned in for the night, so I'd be fresh and ready to go the following morning.
Saturday February 13th
Upon waking up I continued to talk with the two french girls (in french all the time, of course) and we went to breakfast in the hostel together (the hostel breakfast was actually pretty impressive, usually its just toast and jam but here there were different types of toppings for the toast, two types of cereal, fruit and a large selection of breakfast beverages) and they invited me to spend the day site seeing with them. I was a bit hesitant at first because I actually like traveling alone because I get to see what I want and at my own pace and I was worried about speaking my imperfect french all day with two native speakers, but I decided to go with them anyways. At 10am we left the hostel and headed to an antique open-air market near a park called "Place du Petit Sablon". Antique markets aren't really my thing, but the park was cool. It was surrounded by 48 little statues of men depicting old professions and in the center of the park was a large fountain with two statues of two men who were beheaded for protesting against the catholic oppression by the Spanish Duke of Alba 440 years ago. From there we visited the "Palais du Justice" (courthouse)which was just humongous and way over the top. The Copula is made of gold and it was the second largest (after the Copula in Vatican City) when it was built. The palais sits on a hill over looking the city, so it gives some great views of the town. Next to the palais is a glass elevator that takes you down the mountain, so we jumped in that and headed to our next destination a large flea market located a "Place de Jeu de Balle", like I said I'm not a big fan of flea markets so we had a quick look around and then started heading back into town (we were in the Southwest corner of the city). It was getting extremely cold and starting to snow, so we jumped into a "bio market" (organic food market) to warm up before finishing the trek into town. The Mannequin Pis was the first stop once we'd arrived back in the center of town. Every Saturday the city dresses the Mannequin Pis in the traditional clothing of a different country (this Saturday it was Poland) so we checked it out, snapped some pictures and then began hitting up Chocolateries (chocolate stores). The girls were leaving the following day and wanted to bring chocolate back with them, so I think we visited almost every chocolate store in the city. Which wasn't bad, because lots of them give out free samples or have chocolate fondue fountains that you can dip things in and some having viewing areas where you can watch the chocolate being made. So it was really amusing and tasty visiting them all. During our chocolate hunt we took a break and had lunch in a sandwich shop and then we went to a waffle shop for dessert, where I tasted my first belgian waffle covered in hot fudge and powdered sugar. Yummmmm!! After the girls had finished picking out all their chocolates, they showed me the girl Mannequin Pis named Jeanneke Pis. Yes, it's a statue of a little girl squatting to pee. Then we began wandering to a few other sites like the Opera House, Beer Planet, Passage du Nord (which is similar to Galleries St Hubert, because it's also a covered strip mall but it's walls are lined with statues), then we walked along "Nieuwstraat" street (which was lined with all my favorite shopping stores like H&M, Zara, Pimkie, Promod, etc.) until we reached "Place des Martyrs", then we continued walking toward the Cathedral (on our way to the Cathedral we took a street called "Rue des Comedians" which had some very shall we say 'original' architecture, that is probably hit or miss with a lot of people, but I liked it!). Inside the Cathedral we each paid an euro in order to enter under the church and see the old foundations. After we'd finished looking around in the Cathedral we headed back into the center of town (the cathedral is in the Northeast corner of the city, the exact opposite of where we'd been that morning visting the flea market...we did a lot of walking...helps to burn off all that chocolate and waffles we ate) to visit "Mont des Arts" which is basically a large glass cube you can walk into, but doesn't actually serve any purpose. More cool was the large clock built into the entire side of a wall of a building opposite the Mont des Arts. From there we headed to what I like to call the 'Museum District' because there are museums everywhere, but its also where the "Palais Royal" (Royal Palace) and "Parc de Bruxelles" is located. So we walked by those before making our way back to the hostel and hitting up a grocery store on our way to buy some food and drink for an 'aperitif' at the hostel. After our aperitif we headed out to the bars. The first bar we visited was near our hostel and located in a basement. It had a neat ambiance because it reminded me of an old medieval prison. Then we headed to an Irish bar called "O'Reilly's" across from "la Bourse" (the stockmarket/wallstreet of Belgium), where we met up with our other roommate who was from the Netherlands. We were originally going to go to a concert at a different bar, but when we arrived at that bar we were there less than two minutes before we all mutually agreed that the music sucked and was some of the worst we'd ever heard and walked out (it was some chick spinning horrible remixes of horrible songs). So we passed our evening at the Irish pub and then hit up a kebab shop on our way back to hostel around 3am.
Sunday February 14th
First stop of the day was the train station (located in the southwest corner of the town), which for some reason I decided to walk to, even though it was snowy and extremely cold. I needed to pick up my ticket for my train to Luxembourg the following day. Then I jumped on the metro back into town. The weather was really crappy on my last day. It was snowing all day and extremely cold so by the end of the day my pants and shoes were soaking wet and I was freezing, but I've never let the weather stop me before. Once in town I stopped for some soup to warm up and planned where I was going to go for the day. I decided to trek to the northern part of the city walking by "la Bourse" and the statue of the dog pissing called "Zinneke Pis" (they really like their pissing statues/fountains here). Then I headed to "St. Katerijne Church" where they were preparing for Ash Wednesday, before taking an elevator to the 10th level of a parking structure in order to get a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately, because of all the snow my view ended up not being as great as I'd been hoping for. After that I walked to the Southern tip of town to visit "Place du Luxembourg" and "Parlement Europeen" (European parliament), this is where the European Union headquarters are located. I walked around this area for a while, but the cold and snow finally were getting to me so I caught a metro back to my hostel and called it a day.
Monday February 15th
Woke up at 6am and made my way to the train station in order to catch my 7:30am train to Luxembourg. My hostel was awesome and had packed me a to-go breakfast so I enjoyed that on the train ride. There was a young woman sharing the compartment with me and she had a cat in a basket that you could tell she was way to close to (she's definitely going to be the old lady with lots of cats in the future). I spent most of the trip staring out the window and watching the snow covered country fly by, until I arrived in Luxembourg City at 10:30am...to be continued in the next post 'Luxembourg'...
I woke up at 6am in order to get ready, finish packing and trudge my way through the snow to the train station on the opposite side of town. While walking to the train station I couldn't help but to think that maybe I'd made a mistake by choosing to take my cloth all-star converse sneakers with me, instead of my warmer, more weather appropriate adidas tennis shoes. Considering I was heading further north where it would probably be colder and with more snow, but oh well, too late to change my mind now. My train from Poitiers to Lille was twenty minutes late due to the snowy weather, so I was afraid I was going to miss my connecting train from Lille to Bruxelles, but no worries that train was delayed twenty minutes too. I arrived in Bruxelles around 2:30pm and was greeted by sunshine as I made my way to my hostel to drop off my bag, before heading out to take in the sites. My first stop of the day was "Mannequin Pis" which is a fountain of a little boy pissing (interesting fact: in 2007 he didn't piss for one day as a warning for prostrate cancer). It's the national symbol for the country, but was smaller than I'd been expecting. In basically every chocolate shops you can buy little "Mannequin Pis" chocolate statues. After visiting the pissing statue I started making my way toward the "Grand Place" which is Bruxelles most magnificent square. Along the way I jumped in and out of souvenir shops, chocolate shops and drooled over the waffles that were topped with chocolate, whip cream and all kinds of fruits. When I finally reached Grand Place, I was in awe. The architecture was amazing. Buildings were decorated with intricate statues and symbols and gold. The "Hotel de Ville" (city hall) had the classic gothic architecture going on with tons of little statues and the guildhalls were decked out in gold and statues. From there I continued wandering aimlessly taking in the town. All the streets are made of cobblestone and all the stores are packed with either souvenirs, chocolate or beer (and lots of times all three). Occasionally there would be a clothing store, but they were all tacky and cheap (I hear Antwerp is the town to visit in Belgium if you want good fashion and shopping). I came across the "Galleries St. Hubert" while wandering. It's a strip mall under a glass ceiling. Since it's closed-in it's suppose to help fight against the cold and weather, but it doesn't. It was just as cold walking inside as outside. The galleries connect into a street called "Rue des Bouchers" which is packed with restaurants. Because there are so many restaurants located in one area and not enough customers to fill them all, the waiters (very aggressively) stand outside the restuarant and try to talk to you and get you to eat in their restaurant. Its like walking through a gauntlet. I had actually considered grabbing something to eat there, until I was bombarded by overly-aggressive waiters. So instead I visited the tourist office and then found a little cafe and had some soup for dinner, while I plotted out what I'd do the following day and then I started heading back to the hostel. I jumped into Madeleine Church on my way back to the hostel. It looks really pretty from the outside, but the inside was very plain and dull (and mass was in session) so I didn't stay long. At the hostel I met two of my roommates. Two french girls who study near Paris. They invited me to join them for the evening (dinner and drinks), but I politely refused stating that I'd prefer to go out Saturday night and not Friday (hey, I'm on a budget, I can't afford to go out every night). So I enjoyed my first Belgium beer "Barbar" in Belgium at the hostel bar alone while I continued to read and take notes on my book Utopia by Thomas More (this book takes forever to read. It's so dense I have to reread everything and the man has never heard of paragraphs). After that I turned in for the night, so I'd be fresh and ready to go the following morning.
Saturday February 13th
Upon waking up I continued to talk with the two french girls (in french all the time, of course) and we went to breakfast in the hostel together (the hostel breakfast was actually pretty impressive, usually its just toast and jam but here there were different types of toppings for the toast, two types of cereal, fruit and a large selection of breakfast beverages) and they invited me to spend the day site seeing with them. I was a bit hesitant at first because I actually like traveling alone because I get to see what I want and at my own pace and I was worried about speaking my imperfect french all day with two native speakers, but I decided to go with them anyways. At 10am we left the hostel and headed to an antique open-air market near a park called "Place du Petit Sablon". Antique markets aren't really my thing, but the park was cool. It was surrounded by 48 little statues of men depicting old professions and in the center of the park was a large fountain with two statues of two men who were beheaded for protesting against the catholic oppression by the Spanish Duke of Alba 440 years ago. From there we visited the "Palais du Justice" (courthouse)which was just humongous and way over the top. The Copula is made of gold and it was the second largest (after the Copula in Vatican City) when it was built. The palais sits on a hill over looking the city, so it gives some great views of the town. Next to the palais is a glass elevator that takes you down the mountain, so we jumped in that and headed to our next destination a large flea market located a "Place de Jeu de Balle", like I said I'm not a big fan of flea markets so we had a quick look around and then started heading back into town (we were in the Southwest corner of the city). It was getting extremely cold and starting to snow, so we jumped into a "bio market" (organic food market) to warm up before finishing the trek into town. The Mannequin Pis was the first stop once we'd arrived back in the center of town. Every Saturday the city dresses the Mannequin Pis in the traditional clothing of a different country (this Saturday it was Poland) so we checked it out, snapped some pictures and then began hitting up Chocolateries (chocolate stores). The girls were leaving the following day and wanted to bring chocolate back with them, so I think we visited almost every chocolate store in the city. Which wasn't bad, because lots of them give out free samples or have chocolate fondue fountains that you can dip things in and some having viewing areas where you can watch the chocolate being made. So it was really amusing and tasty visiting them all. During our chocolate hunt we took a break and had lunch in a sandwich shop and then we went to a waffle shop for dessert, where I tasted my first belgian waffle covered in hot fudge and powdered sugar. Yummmmm!! After the girls had finished picking out all their chocolates, they showed me the girl Mannequin Pis named Jeanneke Pis. Yes, it's a statue of a little girl squatting to pee. Then we began wandering to a few other sites like the Opera House, Beer Planet, Passage du Nord (which is similar to Galleries St Hubert, because it's also a covered strip mall but it's walls are lined with statues), then we walked along "Nieuwstraat" street (which was lined with all my favorite shopping stores like H&M, Zara, Pimkie, Promod, etc.) until we reached "Place des Martyrs", then we continued walking toward the Cathedral (on our way to the Cathedral we took a street called "Rue des Comedians" which had some very shall we say 'original' architecture, that is probably hit or miss with a lot of people, but I liked it!). Inside the Cathedral we each paid an euro in order to enter under the church and see the old foundations. After we'd finished looking around in the Cathedral we headed back into the center of town (the cathedral is in the Northeast corner of the city, the exact opposite of where we'd been that morning visting the flea market...we did a lot of walking...helps to burn off all that chocolate and waffles we ate) to visit "Mont des Arts" which is basically a large glass cube you can walk into, but doesn't actually serve any purpose. More cool was the large clock built into the entire side of a wall of a building opposite the Mont des Arts. From there we headed to what I like to call the 'Museum District' because there are museums everywhere, but its also where the "Palais Royal" (Royal Palace) and "Parc de Bruxelles" is located. So we walked by those before making our way back to the hostel and hitting up a grocery store on our way to buy some food and drink for an 'aperitif' at the hostel. After our aperitif we headed out to the bars. The first bar we visited was near our hostel and located in a basement. It had a neat ambiance because it reminded me of an old medieval prison. Then we headed to an Irish bar called "O'Reilly's" across from "la Bourse" (the stockmarket/wallstreet of Belgium), where we met up with our other roommate who was from the Netherlands. We were originally going to go to a concert at a different bar, but when we arrived at that bar we were there less than two minutes before we all mutually agreed that the music sucked and was some of the worst we'd ever heard and walked out (it was some chick spinning horrible remixes of horrible songs). So we passed our evening at the Irish pub and then hit up a kebab shop on our way back to hostel around 3am.
Sunday February 14th
First stop of the day was the train station (located in the southwest corner of the town), which for some reason I decided to walk to, even though it was snowy and extremely cold. I needed to pick up my ticket for my train to Luxembourg the following day. Then I jumped on the metro back into town. The weather was really crappy on my last day. It was snowing all day and extremely cold so by the end of the day my pants and shoes were soaking wet and I was freezing, but I've never let the weather stop me before. Once in town I stopped for some soup to warm up and planned where I was going to go for the day. I decided to trek to the northern part of the city walking by "la Bourse" and the statue of the dog pissing called "Zinneke Pis" (they really like their pissing statues/fountains here). Then I headed to "St. Katerijne Church" where they were preparing for Ash Wednesday, before taking an elevator to the 10th level of a parking structure in order to get a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately, because of all the snow my view ended up not being as great as I'd been hoping for. After that I walked to the Southern tip of town to visit "Place du Luxembourg" and "Parlement Europeen" (European parliament), this is where the European Union headquarters are located. I walked around this area for a while, but the cold and snow finally were getting to me so I caught a metro back to my hostel and called it a day.
Monday February 15th
Woke up at 6am and made my way to the train station in order to catch my 7:30am train to Luxembourg. My hostel was awesome and had packed me a to-go breakfast so I enjoyed that on the train ride. There was a young woman sharing the compartment with me and she had a cat in a basket that you could tell she was way to close to (she's definitely going to be the old lady with lots of cats in the future). I spent most of the trip staring out the window and watching the snow covered country fly by, until I arrived in Luxembourg City at 10:30am...to be continued in the next post 'Luxembourg'...
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
February Vacation Itinerary
Friday February 12th
Train:
Depart Montmorillon at 7:50am
Arrive Poitiers at 8:34am
Train:
Depart Poitiers at 9:36am
Arrive Lille at 1:06pm
Depart Lille at 1:40pm
Arrive Brussels at 2:14pm
Hostel:
Hosteling International Youth Hostel
Jeugdherberg "Bruegel"
Heilige Geeststraat 2
B-1000 Brussel
Tel: (+32) 2 511 04 36
Email: brussel@vjh.be
Saturday February 13th
Hostel:
Hosteling International Youth Hostel
Jeugdherberg "Bruegel"
Heilige Geeststraat 2
B-1000 Brussel
Tel: (+32) 2 511 04 36
Email: brussel@vjh.be
Sunday February 14th
Hostel:
Hosteling International Youth Hostel
Jeugdherberg "Bruegel"
Heilige Geeststraat 2
B-1000 Brussel
Tel: (+32) 2 511 04 36
Email: brussel@vjh.be
Monday February 15th
Train:
Depart Brussel at 7:33am
Arrive Luxembourg at 10:36am
Hostel:
Luxembourg City Hostel
2 Rue du Fort Olisy
Tel: +35 222 68 89 20
Email: luxembourg@youthhostel.lu
Tuesday February 16th
Hostel:
Luxembourg City Hostel
2 Rue du Fort Olisy
Tel: +35 222 68 89 20
Email: luxembourg@youthhostel.lu
Wednesday February 17th
Train:
Depart Luxembourg at 10:00am
Arrive Metz Ville at 10:36am
Depart Metz Ville at 11:31am
Arrive Basel at 2:20pm
I will be staying at my friend Celine's house while in Basel, Switzerland.
Thursday February 18th
I will be staying at my friend Celine's house while in Basel, Switzerland.
Friday February 19th
I will be staying at my friend Celine's house while in Basel, Switzerland.
Saturday February 20th
Train:
Depart Basel at 2:17pm
Arrive Strasbourg at 3:40pm
Depart Strasbourg at 4:15pm
Arrive Paris at 6:34pm
Depart Paris at 7:50pm
Arrive Poitiers at 9:18pm
I will either be staying the night at a professors house or she will be driving me back to Montmorillon. There are no trains that run that late to Montmorillon.
*I'll have my cell phone with me during all the vacation if you need to get a hold of me.
Train:
Depart Montmorillon at 7:50am
Arrive Poitiers at 8:34am
Train:
Depart Poitiers at 9:36am
Arrive Lille at 1:06pm
Depart Lille at 1:40pm
Arrive Brussels at 2:14pm
Hostel:
Hosteling International Youth Hostel
Jeugdherberg "Bruegel"
Heilige Geeststraat 2
B-1000 Brussel
Tel: (+32) 2 511 04 36
Email: brussel@vjh.be
Saturday February 13th
Hostel:
Hosteling International Youth Hostel
Jeugdherberg "Bruegel"
Heilige Geeststraat 2
B-1000 Brussel
Tel: (+32) 2 511 04 36
Email: brussel@vjh.be
Sunday February 14th
Hostel:
Hosteling International Youth Hostel
Jeugdherberg "Bruegel"
Heilige Geeststraat 2
B-1000 Brussel
Tel: (+32) 2 511 04 36
Email: brussel@vjh.be
Monday February 15th
Train:
Depart Brussel at 7:33am
Arrive Luxembourg at 10:36am
Hostel:
Luxembourg City Hostel
2 Rue du Fort Olisy
Tel: +35 222 68 89 20
Email: luxembourg@youthhostel.lu
Tuesday February 16th
Hostel:
Luxembourg City Hostel
2 Rue du Fort Olisy
Tel: +35 222 68 89 20
Email: luxembourg@youthhostel.lu
Wednesday February 17th
Train:
Depart Luxembourg at 10:00am
Arrive Metz Ville at 10:36am
Depart Metz Ville at 11:31am
Arrive Basel at 2:20pm
I will be staying at my friend Celine's house while in Basel, Switzerland.
Thursday February 18th
I will be staying at my friend Celine's house while in Basel, Switzerland.
Friday February 19th
I will be staying at my friend Celine's house while in Basel, Switzerland.
Saturday February 20th
Train:
Depart Basel at 2:17pm
Arrive Strasbourg at 3:40pm
Depart Strasbourg at 4:15pm
Arrive Paris at 6:34pm
Depart Paris at 7:50pm
Arrive Poitiers at 9:18pm
I will either be staying the night at a professors house or she will be driving me back to Montmorillon. There are no trains that run that late to Montmorillon.
*I'll have my cell phone with me during all the vacation if you need to get a hold of me.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Christmas Vacation
Thursday December 24th 2009 - France
Leidy and me spent the day packing and getting ready for our trip. Then in the evening we caught the last bus from Montmorillon to Poitiers. So we arrived in Poitiers around 9pm. We were catching an overnight train so we still had 2 hours to waste before our train. However our train was a hour late due to the weather, so we sat around for another hour waiting impatiently. Blah. Finally the train rolled into the station at midnight and we quickly boarded, found our beds and nestled in for the night. Leidy went straight off to sleep, but I stayed up reading through my trusted Lonely Planet travel guide for a while planning what we'd be doing once we arrived in Madrid.
Friday December 25th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Merry Christmas!! Leidy and me woke up with the sun and watched the Spanish countryside slide by. It wasn't how I'd imagined Spain. I'm not quite sure what I expected Spain to look like (maybe a chic Mexico), but what I watched fly by the window was definitely not what I'd had in mind. There were rolling hills with what looked like olive trees covering them. It was very beautiful. We arrived in Madrid around 10am. Milton, Leidy's friend from Colombia, met us at the train station and then we all headed off to the hostel to drop off our bags. From there we grabbed a map and headed to "Plaza Mayor". The plaza has a rich history and the beautiful "Royal Bakery", which is a building covered in intricately decorated murals, but other than that it seems like a huge tourist trap. People constantly offered to draw your portrait for a 'small fee', people were running around in Disney character costumes who charge you money to get a picture with them, vendors were selling souvenirs and junk. When exiting the plaza we took the wrong exit and started heading south instead of west to the Cathedral and Palace. We'd only walked a few blocks before I realized the mistake and we quickly back tracked, but not before finding one of my favorite squares in Madrid, where the building had brightly colored drawings on them. Next stop of the day was "Plaza de la Villa," one of the buildings was where Francois I (King of France) had been held after being captured in a battle and was ransomed back to the French. We ended up at the Cathedral next. Which really wasn't that interesting, because its actually really modern (it was finished being built in 1992), but we checked out the inside anyways and Christmas Mass was being held, so that was kind of neat. Right next to the Cathedral is the Palace. However, since it was Christmas it was closed to visitors, so we snapped some photos and continued on our sight seeing promenade to "Plaza de Oriente" which is a park beside the Palace with a lot of marble statues. Behind the Palace was another park called Jardines de Sabatini which is full of lush, labyrinth gardens with lots of fountains. Once we'd finished our little stroll we started heading back to Plaza Mayor. We found a store along the way and grabbed supplies for sandwiches, then found a bench by the plaza and had a late lunch before heading back to the hostel to catch a couple zzz's before meeting up with my friend Gloria (a Spanish assistant in Angouleme last year that I lived with). We woke up and freshened up, then we went headed out again. We were meeting Gloria at "Puerto del Sol," which is a popular meeting place for everyone so needless to say it was packed. This is also the same square where the Spanish gather on New Years to watch the Gold Ball drop at the stroke of midnight, while eating their 12 grapes. We arrived super early so we choose a road to walk along to see if we could find something to eat. The road we took ended up being "Calle Alcata" which turned out to have a lot of famous sites along it like "Plaza de la Cibeles" which is a huge fountain where the "Real Madrid Soccer" team always gathers and celebrates after a victory, the beautiful "Palacio de Comunicaciones", "Banco de Espana" and ends with the "Puerta de Alcala," which is was built as a 'triumphal gate' (it looks a lot like the bradenburg gate in Berlin). After our walk we headed back toward Puerto del Sol and stopped by a restaurant along the way to eat some Paella, which is a 'must-try' spanish food (specialty rice with some type of meat, I had it with seafood, yum!) before meeting up with Gloria under the 'Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree' which is the symbol of Spain (apparently Madrid used to be full of bears). Gloria took us on a walking tour to the "Templo de Debod" which I found to be really interesting because it is an actual Egyptian Temple that was given to Spain by Egypt (instead of stolen from Egypt like what the Brits, French and Americans did to acquire all the Egyptian artifacts we currently have in museums) when they helped save the Temple of Abu Simbel when Lake Nassar was created by the dam. I actually visited the Temple of Abu Simbel last year and knew all about the history and story behind it, so I really enjoyed this. From there we started heading back to Puerto del Sol via the "Plaza de Espana" on the street called "Gran Via" which is kind of the 'Champs d'Elysee' of Spain. We also passed by a street that is famous for prostitution and was easy to spot because there were girls wearing hardly anything in huge hooker boots. We went looking at Christmas lights for a bit before finding an irish pub for a quick drink and then turned in for the night.
Saturday December 26th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
First stop of the day "Palacio Real de Madrid" (the Royal Palace). When the plans for the palace were originally drawn up it was going to be the largest Palace in the world, even grander than Versailles, but when the King died before completion the plan was thrown out, so the palace only has 2800 rooms. I tagged along behind a english speaking tour group so I actually found out a lot of interesting facts about the palace (and I also now remember why I never pay for the tours, I get bored after a while and wander off). I was glad that I'd shelled out the money to visit the palace, because even though it is much like every other palace I've ever visited (extremely extravagant and over the top) it still had its own 'flair' of extravagances. This palace imparticularly was filled with really amazing clocks. After the palace we decided to grab lunch (we'd been there for 3 hours). I'd read about a cheap little restaurant near Plaza Mayor that I wanted to try, so we headed in that direction and quickly found the little restaurant which is called "100 Montaditos Cerveceria". Montaditos are little bite size sandwiches. We ordered a sampler platter and tried a little of each. After our lunch we headed to "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofia" which is a world famous art museum. It holds many famous Spanish artists like Salvador Dali, who is one of my favorite all time painters (he's right up there with Van Gogh in my books) and Picasso (who I'm still not sure if I like his works or not because I like that his works actually make me feel something, but what they make me feel is usually not a very comfortable feeling...if that makes sense). It also introduced me to the works of Jean Gris which I really liked. By the time we finished with the museum it was dark and getting late so we grabbed some dinner to-go as we returned to the hostel to rest before meeting up with Gloria and her friends to spend the night out on the town. Gloria took us to a rowdy, cheap bar to meet up with her friends. This bar was great. Not only were the drinks really cheap and large, they also gave you free food to eat while you were drinking. After hanging out there for a while we all piled into a car and drove across town to a night club that was decorated like a large pirate ship on the inside. We were there until 6am when we finally caught a night bus back to our hostel.
Sunday December 27th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Needless to say, we ended up sleeping in even though all the museums are free on Sundays (oh well, I wasn't really that bummed to miss them, because I'm not a huge museum person anyways). We finally rolled our hungover butts out of bed around 2pm and then met up with Gloria at 3pm. She took us on a tour of "Parque del Buen Retiro" which was a really busy, lively park full of things going on. We passed by Christmas carolers, some Italian clowns, people playing bongos, magicians, etc. and there were lots of things to see like a massive lake that has a huge monument to Alfonso XII at the end of it, the "Palacio de Cristol" which is a large glass house and the statue/fountain of "El Angel Caido" (The fallen angel; aka lucifer) which is one of the only statues in the world to the devil. After the park we visited "Museo Nacional del Prado" another world famous art museum (Madrid holds 3 of the top ten art museums in the world). Even though this is suppose to be "one of the world's top museums" I wasn't really that impressed, in fact a lot of the works were really 'hit or miss' for me. After that we all turned in for the night. Gloria caught a bus home and Leidy, Milton and me grabbed some dinner before heading back to the hostel to rest (we were all still pretty exhausted from the night before).
Monday December 28th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
We packed up our bags and checked out of our hotel by 11am and then headed to the train station to put our bags into a storage locker. Then we headed back into Madrid to see a few more sights before our evening train to Barcelona. The first place we visited was a square known for its two leaning towers and then off to the "Real Madrid Soccer Stadium". We didn't actually go into the stadium, because there was a really long line and it was really expensive, but we did walk all the way around and watch some kids get busted for smoking pot. Then we jumped on the metro to "Plaza del Toros" which is the stadium where the famous spanish bull fighting takes place. Leidy and Milton are both against bull fighting and think its cruel, but I'd like to see it at least once. Oh did I mention that during the entire trip to Spain I was only talking in French 24/7 so by the end of the day, my brain was always sooooo exhausted. After that we headed back to the Puerto del Sol area to look around in different stores, grab some food (calamari sandwiches, ummm it was delicious) and buy some souvenirs before meeting up with Gloria. Gloria took us out for some real Madrid Hot Chocolate, which she insisted we try before we left. The hot chocolate is actually made from pure melted chocolate so its really strong. We also ordered some churros to dip in the delicious beverage. After we finished our drinks and gossiped for a bit we headed to the train station to catch our train to Barcelona. The train we took to Barcelona was an overnight train, but it only had chairs, not beds so it wasn't that comfortable of a night. Thankfully I've travelled by train like this many a times before so I didn't sleep in my seat, but I snuck out and headed to the Cafe car and fell asleep on a bench laying down instead, so I had a much better night then everyone else (I'd tried to let Leidy and Milton in on the secret of where to sleep, but they had already been sleeping for a while, so when I woke them up and tried to explain to them its better to sleep in the cafe car they were to groggy to understand my french) .
Tuesday December 29th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
We arrived in Barcelona at 8am, tired and groggy. We slowly made our way out of the train station and to the hostel in order to check in. Everyone took showers before we headed out to see Barcelona. First stop of the day was "Parc de la Citadella" (along the way to the park we also saw the Torre Agbar which is a large egg-shaped skyscraper that lights up different colors at night), which is where the Catalyna Parliament is located. First thing we saw when we entered the parc, was the monumental "Cascada" which is a large fountain designed by a young Antoini Gaudi (my new favorite architect). The park was filled with lots of things like the parliament building, a gigantic mammoth statue, a lake, a zoo and lots of other things. Once we exited the park (after stopping into the "Castell dels Tres Dragons" to look at an exhibit being showed there on zoology) we headed to the waterfront and walked along the boardwalk until we came to the "Port of Barcelona" where there is a huge monument to Christopher Columbus (the people of Barcelona claim that when Columbus sailed and found America, he actually left from this port and not a port in Genoa, Italy). From there we headed along "La Rambla" which is a large pedestrian street that is lined with people dressed in crazy outfits who'll take pictures with you if you drop a few coins into their hats. Then we entered into the "Barri Gotic" (Gothic Neighborhood) to check out the old Cathedral (which we didn't bother entering because you had to pay to get in). We grabbed some lunch at a cafe in front of the Cathedral and then continued to wander the streets of the gothic neighborhood looking at the architecture for a while, before heading to "Placa Catalunya" to take a break and people watch. After the break, we had a long walk to "Sagrada Familia", a huge church designed by Antoni Gaudi. It is still under construction and sadly Gaudi died before its completion. Along the way to the Sagrada Familia, we passed by some other famous houses designed by Gaudi including "Casa Batllo, which I really wanted to visit and see the inside of, but its really expensive to enter and with a forever long line to even get in. After walking around Sagrada Familia (we didn't actually enter, because it was really expensive) we stopped in a cafe and had a coffee and croissant. We wandered around for a bit after that before turning in for the night. At the hostel at 4am, some really obnoxious french boys started pounding on every door in the hostel waking everyone up yelling fire. I was in a room with 8 other people including 2 other french boys, who got up and started yelling at the drunks. Pretty soon a fight erupted which continued out into the street in front of the hostel. That was definitely one of the more amusing hostel stories I've now collected. There were close to 30 people from the hostel brawling in the middle of the street.
Wednesday December 30th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
I woke up early and checked my luggage into storage and then checked out of the hostel. I was suppose to be meeting up with everyone at the Cathedral around 12:30pm and I wanted to do some shopping and wandering around before the rendez-vous. I meet up with Leidy and Milton outside the Cathedral and shortly afterwards Beto, his brazilian friend Yapunkie and a french boy Kevin showed up. We all decided we wanted to go see Park Guell, which is a park that was completely designed by Gaudi. Gaudi began to design the park in 1900 when Count Eusebi Guell bought up the entire hillside and wanted Gaudi to create it into a miniature garden city of houses for the wealthy. However the project was abandoned in 1914 but not before Gaudi had already constructed 3 km of roads and walks, steps and a plaza. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, which is why Gaudi is now my favorite architect. There are also two houses here that he built (one of which he lived in until his death) that remind me of how I always pictured the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel story. We spent a long time wandering around the park before grabbing something to eat at a nearby cafe and then headed to the metro to go see the Barcelona Soccer Stadium and then a quick walk by the palace. After that it was dark and we decided to head to the camping car to rest before a long night out on the town. When we made it back into town we meet up with the others (three of my french friends who were also staying in the camping car with us: Victor, Adrian and Marion) in front of the Cathedral. There was a small drum circle going and we quickly joined in. We hungout with the group (which included a 5 french people, a guy from the czech republic and a few others that I don't remember where they are from) for a long time before we all headed toward the waterfront to find a bar. We found a bar along the waterfront and stayed there for a while before catching a metro back to the camping car (I have no idea when we arrived back at the camping car but it was late, I think past 5am).
Thursday December 31st 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
Happy New Years Eve!! We woke up surprisingly not that hungover, but we still hung out around the camper resting through the early afternoon (we wanted to make sure we were plenty rested for the NYE celebration). By the time we headed into town, it was pretty late. We all met up at the Sagrada Familia and were planning on looking around inside, but apparently it closed early because of the holiday, so we didn't get to enter :(. From there we just aimlessly wandered around the streets trying to find a open, cheap "Tapas" restaurant. But to no avail, so I headed to Placa Catalunya to meet up with some others and the boys bought a few pizzas and brought them along shortly afterwards for everyone. We spent the New Years Eve celebration in Placa Catalunya, where it was necessary to have the police check our bags for bottles before entering, but I don't think they did a very good job, because I know we snuck in a few bottles and when midnight struck champagne bottles were exploding everywhere and we were soon drenched in champagne. People were lighting off firecrackers right next to us and it was just a crazy, awesome time. We stayed in Plaza Catalunya for a while celebrating/hooting/singing/shouting and generally just being silly drunks before walking down "La Rambla" in search of who knows what (honestly I can't remember where we were headed or if we ever made it there, I think we were just wanting to stroll and see what everyone else was doing). La Rambla was covered with a foot deep of broken glass (I think mainly from champagne bottles). LITERALLY!! You had to step up onto a level of glass instead of sidewalk, it was crazy, I guess that explains why they checked your bags before entering Placa Catalunya or it probably would have looked even worse. When we headed back to the camping car at the end of the night, we took the wrong bus and ended up 4 km away from our camping car so we had a long, cold walk back. This might seem like an unlucky start to a new year, but actually in Spain they say that if you walk a lot during New Years then it means you'll travel a lot in the upcoming year. So I hope that turns out to be true!! We made it back to the camping car at some ungodly hour in the morning and passed out. What an exhausting evening ;-D but definitely another New Years Celebration for the record books.
Friday January 1st 2010 - Barcelona, Spain; Carcassonne, France; Toulouse, France
We had already decided not to stay the weekend in Barcelona, so that we could enjoy the roadtrip back to France. I picked up Leidy at the train station and then the boys went for a very, very, very cold dip in the sea before we started our long journey north. We did a lot of sleeping along the way (we were all pretty tired from the night before). At the border of Spain and France we stopped at a store to buy supplies for lunch and really cheap alcohol, then we continued on our journey. It was my first time ever road tripping in a camping car and it was so much fun, because you're not stuck in one place, you're able to get up and move around, there's a table to play games on and you can drink alcohol if you want too. I think its fun as long as you are not the driver (and thankfully I wasn't!! Beto did most of the driving and Adrian did a little too). We arrived at the Medieval City of Carcassonne after nightfall, so the old city was lit up. We wandered the streets for a while, before stopping for dinner at a little restaurant in the heart of the old city. After dinner we continued on our roadtrip to Toulouse, France. I was a little sad that we didn't stay the night in Carcassonne, because I've always wanted to go there and I'd have liked to see it during the day and done a little more exploring, but oh well. I guess I'll just have to return another time :) We pulled into Toulouse around 10:30pm. We were staying the night at Marion's parents' house (well at least the girls were staying in the house and the boys were staying outside in the camping car). Marion's family greeted us, made us some tea and talked with us for a while before heading to bed. Then we all went out to the camping car to play a french board game. Which I'm guessing is something like Dungeons and Dragons, without the dress-up, so needless to say, I didn't like it very much. But it was fun just hanging out and chatting, before turning in for the night.
Saturday January 2nd 2010 - Toulouse, France
When we woke up in the morning we all showered and got ready for the day. We sat around talking with Marion's family while they prepared a large lunch for us. The lunch consisted of a huge pork roast, potatoes, salad, wine, bread, cheese, coffee, fruit, cake dessert, etc. Basically you're average (way over the top compared to the USA) french hospitality meal. After the delicious, enormously huge and filling lunch we headed into downtown Toulouse to wander around and browse through some shops. We stopped by a boulangerie (bakery) and bought a "Galette de Roi" (King's Cake) and then found a cafe to grab a drink in and have a small Galette de Roi party. Galette de Roi parties are a tradition after the New Years throughout the entire month of January. Basically its a silly holiday, where you buy a cake that has a little figurine cooked inside it and whoever gets the slice with the figurine becomes the king and has to wear a crown. It was a fun, little intimate party. At 6pm, Beto, Yapunkie and I seperated from the group to go watch "Avatar" in 3-D at the cinema (it was playing in english with french subtitles). It was the first time I've ever watched a film in 3-D. I liked the film alright, but I don't understand what all the hype is about. After the film, we met back up with the group (and 2 more french people joined our numbers) and wandered around looking for a place to eat. We finally decided on a kebab shop. After our dinner we hunted around for a private bar (not packed with loud music and lots of people, so we could all sit and talk). We finally found one, had a few drinks before turning in for the night.
Sunday January 3rd 2010 - Toulouse, Angouleme, and Montmorillon
We left Toulouse around 11am after a very filling breakfast of bread and jam and coffee. It was a fun ride back to Angouleme we snacked on food and rocked out to music, took naps and gossiped. When we finally arrived in Angouleme around 4pm everyone was so relieved to be home and done travelling, but as for Leidy and me, we still had a long day of traveling left in front of us. We stayed in Angouleme for a little while visiting, before catching a train to Poitiers and then a bus to Montmorillon. By the time we made it home it was 11pm. What a long, fun but exhausting trip. I hope you've all enjoyed hearing about it. I'll post the pictures soon (although I'm guessing most of you have seen them already on facebook).
Leidy and me spent the day packing and getting ready for our trip. Then in the evening we caught the last bus from Montmorillon to Poitiers. So we arrived in Poitiers around 9pm. We were catching an overnight train so we still had 2 hours to waste before our train. However our train was a hour late due to the weather, so we sat around for another hour waiting impatiently. Blah. Finally the train rolled into the station at midnight and we quickly boarded, found our beds and nestled in for the night. Leidy went straight off to sleep, but I stayed up reading through my trusted Lonely Planet travel guide for a while planning what we'd be doing once we arrived in Madrid.
Friday December 25th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Merry Christmas!! Leidy and me woke up with the sun and watched the Spanish countryside slide by. It wasn't how I'd imagined Spain. I'm not quite sure what I expected Spain to look like (maybe a chic Mexico), but what I watched fly by the window was definitely not what I'd had in mind. There were rolling hills with what looked like olive trees covering them. It was very beautiful. We arrived in Madrid around 10am. Milton, Leidy's friend from Colombia, met us at the train station and then we all headed off to the hostel to drop off our bags. From there we grabbed a map and headed to "Plaza Mayor". The plaza has a rich history and the beautiful "Royal Bakery", which is a building covered in intricately decorated murals, but other than that it seems like a huge tourist trap. People constantly offered to draw your portrait for a 'small fee', people were running around in Disney character costumes who charge you money to get a picture with them, vendors were selling souvenirs and junk. When exiting the plaza we took the wrong exit and started heading south instead of west to the Cathedral and Palace. We'd only walked a few blocks before I realized the mistake and we quickly back tracked, but not before finding one of my favorite squares in Madrid, where the building had brightly colored drawings on them. Next stop of the day was "Plaza de la Villa," one of the buildings was where Francois I (King of France) had been held after being captured in a battle and was ransomed back to the French. We ended up at the Cathedral next. Which really wasn't that interesting, because its actually really modern (it was finished being built in 1992), but we checked out the inside anyways and Christmas Mass was being held, so that was kind of neat. Right next to the Cathedral is the Palace. However, since it was Christmas it was closed to visitors, so we snapped some photos and continued on our sight seeing promenade to "Plaza de Oriente" which is a park beside the Palace with a lot of marble statues. Behind the Palace was another park called Jardines de Sabatini which is full of lush, labyrinth gardens with lots of fountains. Once we'd finished our little stroll we started heading back to Plaza Mayor. We found a store along the way and grabbed supplies for sandwiches, then found a bench by the plaza and had a late lunch before heading back to the hostel to catch a couple zzz's before meeting up with my friend Gloria (a Spanish assistant in Angouleme last year that I lived with). We woke up and freshened up, then we went headed out again. We were meeting Gloria at "Puerto del Sol," which is a popular meeting place for everyone so needless to say it was packed. This is also the same square where the Spanish gather on New Years to watch the Gold Ball drop at the stroke of midnight, while eating their 12 grapes. We arrived super early so we choose a road to walk along to see if we could find something to eat. The road we took ended up being "Calle Alcata" which turned out to have a lot of famous sites along it like "Plaza de la Cibeles" which is a huge fountain where the "Real Madrid Soccer" team always gathers and celebrates after a victory, the beautiful "Palacio de Comunicaciones", "Banco de Espana" and ends with the "Puerta de Alcala," which is was built as a 'triumphal gate' (it looks a lot like the bradenburg gate in Berlin). After our walk we headed back toward Puerto del Sol and stopped by a restaurant along the way to eat some Paella, which is a 'must-try' spanish food (specialty rice with some type of meat, I had it with seafood, yum!) before meeting up with Gloria under the 'Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree' which is the symbol of Spain (apparently Madrid used to be full of bears). Gloria took us on a walking tour to the "Templo de Debod" which I found to be really interesting because it is an actual Egyptian Temple that was given to Spain by Egypt (instead of stolen from Egypt like what the Brits, French and Americans did to acquire all the Egyptian artifacts we currently have in museums) when they helped save the Temple of Abu Simbel when Lake Nassar was created by the dam. I actually visited the Temple of Abu Simbel last year and knew all about the history and story behind it, so I really enjoyed this. From there we started heading back to Puerto del Sol via the "Plaza de Espana" on the street called "Gran Via" which is kind of the 'Champs d'Elysee' of Spain. We also passed by a street that is famous for prostitution and was easy to spot because there were girls wearing hardly anything in huge hooker boots. We went looking at Christmas lights for a bit before finding an irish pub for a quick drink and then turned in for the night.
Saturday December 26th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
First stop of the day "Palacio Real de Madrid" (the Royal Palace). When the plans for the palace were originally drawn up it was going to be the largest Palace in the world, even grander than Versailles, but when the King died before completion the plan was thrown out, so the palace only has 2800 rooms. I tagged along behind a english speaking tour group so I actually found out a lot of interesting facts about the palace (and I also now remember why I never pay for the tours, I get bored after a while and wander off). I was glad that I'd shelled out the money to visit the palace, because even though it is much like every other palace I've ever visited (extremely extravagant and over the top) it still had its own 'flair' of extravagances. This palace imparticularly was filled with really amazing clocks. After the palace we decided to grab lunch (we'd been there for 3 hours). I'd read about a cheap little restaurant near Plaza Mayor that I wanted to try, so we headed in that direction and quickly found the little restaurant which is called "100 Montaditos Cerveceria". Montaditos are little bite size sandwiches. We ordered a sampler platter and tried a little of each. After our lunch we headed to "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofia" which is a world famous art museum. It holds many famous Spanish artists like Salvador Dali, who is one of my favorite all time painters (he's right up there with Van Gogh in my books) and Picasso (who I'm still not sure if I like his works or not because I like that his works actually make me feel something, but what they make me feel is usually not a very comfortable feeling...if that makes sense). It also introduced me to the works of Jean Gris which I really liked. By the time we finished with the museum it was dark and getting late so we grabbed some dinner to-go as we returned to the hostel to rest before meeting up with Gloria and her friends to spend the night out on the town. Gloria took us to a rowdy, cheap bar to meet up with her friends. This bar was great. Not only were the drinks really cheap and large, they also gave you free food to eat while you were drinking. After hanging out there for a while we all piled into a car and drove across town to a night club that was decorated like a large pirate ship on the inside. We were there until 6am when we finally caught a night bus back to our hostel.
Sunday December 27th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Needless to say, we ended up sleeping in even though all the museums are free on Sundays (oh well, I wasn't really that bummed to miss them, because I'm not a huge museum person anyways). We finally rolled our hungover butts out of bed around 2pm and then met up with Gloria at 3pm. She took us on a tour of "Parque del Buen Retiro" which was a really busy, lively park full of things going on. We passed by Christmas carolers, some Italian clowns, people playing bongos, magicians, etc. and there were lots of things to see like a massive lake that has a huge monument to Alfonso XII at the end of it, the "Palacio de Cristol" which is a large glass house and the statue/fountain of "El Angel Caido" (The fallen angel; aka lucifer) which is one of the only statues in the world to the devil. After the park we visited "Museo Nacional del Prado" another world famous art museum (Madrid holds 3 of the top ten art museums in the world). Even though this is suppose to be "one of the world's top museums" I wasn't really that impressed, in fact a lot of the works were really 'hit or miss' for me. After that we all turned in for the night. Gloria caught a bus home and Leidy, Milton and me grabbed some dinner before heading back to the hostel to rest (we were all still pretty exhausted from the night before).
Monday December 28th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
We packed up our bags and checked out of our hotel by 11am and then headed to the train station to put our bags into a storage locker. Then we headed back into Madrid to see a few more sights before our evening train to Barcelona. The first place we visited was a square known for its two leaning towers and then off to the "Real Madrid Soccer Stadium". We didn't actually go into the stadium, because there was a really long line and it was really expensive, but we did walk all the way around and watch some kids get busted for smoking pot. Then we jumped on the metro to "Plaza del Toros" which is the stadium where the famous spanish bull fighting takes place. Leidy and Milton are both against bull fighting and think its cruel, but I'd like to see it at least once. Oh did I mention that during the entire trip to Spain I was only talking in French 24/7 so by the end of the day, my brain was always sooooo exhausted. After that we headed back to the Puerto del Sol area to look around in different stores, grab some food (calamari sandwiches, ummm it was delicious) and buy some souvenirs before meeting up with Gloria. Gloria took us out for some real Madrid Hot Chocolate, which she insisted we try before we left. The hot chocolate is actually made from pure melted chocolate so its really strong. We also ordered some churros to dip in the delicious beverage. After we finished our drinks and gossiped for a bit we headed to the train station to catch our train to Barcelona. The train we took to Barcelona was an overnight train, but it only had chairs, not beds so it wasn't that comfortable of a night. Thankfully I've travelled by train like this many a times before so I didn't sleep in my seat, but I snuck out and headed to the Cafe car and fell asleep on a bench laying down instead, so I had a much better night then everyone else (I'd tried to let Leidy and Milton in on the secret of where to sleep, but they had already been sleeping for a while, so when I woke them up and tried to explain to them its better to sleep in the cafe car they were to groggy to understand my french) .
Tuesday December 29th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
We arrived in Barcelona at 8am, tired and groggy. We slowly made our way out of the train station and to the hostel in order to check in. Everyone took showers before we headed out to see Barcelona. First stop of the day was "Parc de la Citadella" (along the way to the park we also saw the Torre Agbar which is a large egg-shaped skyscraper that lights up different colors at night), which is where the Catalyna Parliament is located. First thing we saw when we entered the parc, was the monumental "Cascada" which is a large fountain designed by a young Antoini Gaudi (my new favorite architect). The park was filled with lots of things like the parliament building, a gigantic mammoth statue, a lake, a zoo and lots of other things. Once we exited the park (after stopping into the "Castell dels Tres Dragons" to look at an exhibit being showed there on zoology) we headed to the waterfront and walked along the boardwalk until we came to the "Port of Barcelona" where there is a huge monument to Christopher Columbus (the people of Barcelona claim that when Columbus sailed and found America, he actually left from this port and not a port in Genoa, Italy). From there we headed along "La Rambla" which is a large pedestrian street that is lined with people dressed in crazy outfits who'll take pictures with you if you drop a few coins into their hats. Then we entered into the "Barri Gotic" (Gothic Neighborhood) to check out the old Cathedral (which we didn't bother entering because you had to pay to get in). We grabbed some lunch at a cafe in front of the Cathedral and then continued to wander the streets of the gothic neighborhood looking at the architecture for a while, before heading to "Placa Catalunya" to take a break and people watch. After the break, we had a long walk to "Sagrada Familia", a huge church designed by Antoni Gaudi. It is still under construction and sadly Gaudi died before its completion. Along the way to the Sagrada Familia, we passed by some other famous houses designed by Gaudi including "Casa Batllo, which I really wanted to visit and see the inside of, but its really expensive to enter and with a forever long line to even get in. After walking around Sagrada Familia (we didn't actually enter, because it was really expensive) we stopped in a cafe and had a coffee and croissant. We wandered around for a bit after that before turning in for the night. At the hostel at 4am, some really obnoxious french boys started pounding on every door in the hostel waking everyone up yelling fire. I was in a room with 8 other people including 2 other french boys, who got up and started yelling at the drunks. Pretty soon a fight erupted which continued out into the street in front of the hostel. That was definitely one of the more amusing hostel stories I've now collected. There were close to 30 people from the hostel brawling in the middle of the street.
Wednesday December 30th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
I woke up early and checked my luggage into storage and then checked out of the hostel. I was suppose to be meeting up with everyone at the Cathedral around 12:30pm and I wanted to do some shopping and wandering around before the rendez-vous. I meet up with Leidy and Milton outside the Cathedral and shortly afterwards Beto, his brazilian friend Yapunkie and a french boy Kevin showed up. We all decided we wanted to go see Park Guell, which is a park that was completely designed by Gaudi. Gaudi began to design the park in 1900 when Count Eusebi Guell bought up the entire hillside and wanted Gaudi to create it into a miniature garden city of houses for the wealthy. However the project was abandoned in 1914 but not before Gaudi had already constructed 3 km of roads and walks, steps and a plaza. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, which is why Gaudi is now my favorite architect. There are also two houses here that he built (one of which he lived in until his death) that remind me of how I always pictured the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel story. We spent a long time wandering around the park before grabbing something to eat at a nearby cafe and then headed to the metro to go see the Barcelona Soccer Stadium and then a quick walk by the palace. After that it was dark and we decided to head to the camping car to rest before a long night out on the town. When we made it back into town we meet up with the others (three of my french friends who were also staying in the camping car with us: Victor, Adrian and Marion) in front of the Cathedral. There was a small drum circle going and we quickly joined in. We hungout with the group (which included a 5 french people, a guy from the czech republic and a few others that I don't remember where they are from) for a long time before we all headed toward the waterfront to find a bar. We found a bar along the waterfront and stayed there for a while before catching a metro back to the camping car (I have no idea when we arrived back at the camping car but it was late, I think past 5am).
Thursday December 31st 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
Happy New Years Eve!! We woke up surprisingly not that hungover, but we still hung out around the camper resting through the early afternoon (we wanted to make sure we were plenty rested for the NYE celebration). By the time we headed into town, it was pretty late. We all met up at the Sagrada Familia and were planning on looking around inside, but apparently it closed early because of the holiday, so we didn't get to enter :(. From there we just aimlessly wandered around the streets trying to find a open, cheap "Tapas" restaurant. But to no avail, so I headed to Placa Catalunya to meet up with some others and the boys bought a few pizzas and brought them along shortly afterwards for everyone. We spent the New Years Eve celebration in Placa Catalunya, where it was necessary to have the police check our bags for bottles before entering, but I don't think they did a very good job, because I know we snuck in a few bottles and when midnight struck champagne bottles were exploding everywhere and we were soon drenched in champagne. People were lighting off firecrackers right next to us and it was just a crazy, awesome time. We stayed in Plaza Catalunya for a while celebrating/hooting/singing/shouting and generally just being silly drunks before walking down "La Rambla" in search of who knows what (honestly I can't remember where we were headed or if we ever made it there, I think we were just wanting to stroll and see what everyone else was doing). La Rambla was covered with a foot deep of broken glass (I think mainly from champagne bottles). LITERALLY!! You had to step up onto a level of glass instead of sidewalk, it was crazy, I guess that explains why they checked your bags before entering Placa Catalunya or it probably would have looked even worse. When we headed back to the camping car at the end of the night, we took the wrong bus and ended up 4 km away from our camping car so we had a long, cold walk back. This might seem like an unlucky start to a new year, but actually in Spain they say that if you walk a lot during New Years then it means you'll travel a lot in the upcoming year. So I hope that turns out to be true!! We made it back to the camping car at some ungodly hour in the morning and passed out. What an exhausting evening ;-D but definitely another New Years Celebration for the record books.
Friday January 1st 2010 - Barcelona, Spain; Carcassonne, France; Toulouse, France
We had already decided not to stay the weekend in Barcelona, so that we could enjoy the roadtrip back to France. I picked up Leidy at the train station and then the boys went for a very, very, very cold dip in the sea before we started our long journey north. We did a lot of sleeping along the way (we were all pretty tired from the night before). At the border of Spain and France we stopped at a store to buy supplies for lunch and really cheap alcohol, then we continued on our journey. It was my first time ever road tripping in a camping car and it was so much fun, because you're not stuck in one place, you're able to get up and move around, there's a table to play games on and you can drink alcohol if you want too. I think its fun as long as you are not the driver (and thankfully I wasn't!! Beto did most of the driving and Adrian did a little too). We arrived at the Medieval City of Carcassonne after nightfall, so the old city was lit up. We wandered the streets for a while, before stopping for dinner at a little restaurant in the heart of the old city. After dinner we continued on our roadtrip to Toulouse, France. I was a little sad that we didn't stay the night in Carcassonne, because I've always wanted to go there and I'd have liked to see it during the day and done a little more exploring, but oh well. I guess I'll just have to return another time :) We pulled into Toulouse around 10:30pm. We were staying the night at Marion's parents' house (well at least the girls were staying in the house and the boys were staying outside in the camping car). Marion's family greeted us, made us some tea and talked with us for a while before heading to bed. Then we all went out to the camping car to play a french board game. Which I'm guessing is something like Dungeons and Dragons, without the dress-up, so needless to say, I didn't like it very much. But it was fun just hanging out and chatting, before turning in for the night.
Saturday January 2nd 2010 - Toulouse, France
When we woke up in the morning we all showered and got ready for the day. We sat around talking with Marion's family while they prepared a large lunch for us. The lunch consisted of a huge pork roast, potatoes, salad, wine, bread, cheese, coffee, fruit, cake dessert, etc. Basically you're average (way over the top compared to the USA) french hospitality meal. After the delicious, enormously huge and filling lunch we headed into downtown Toulouse to wander around and browse through some shops. We stopped by a boulangerie (bakery) and bought a "Galette de Roi" (King's Cake) and then found a cafe to grab a drink in and have a small Galette de Roi party. Galette de Roi parties are a tradition after the New Years throughout the entire month of January. Basically its a silly holiday, where you buy a cake that has a little figurine cooked inside it and whoever gets the slice with the figurine becomes the king and has to wear a crown. It was a fun, little intimate party. At 6pm, Beto, Yapunkie and I seperated from the group to go watch "Avatar" in 3-D at the cinema (it was playing in english with french subtitles). It was the first time I've ever watched a film in 3-D. I liked the film alright, but I don't understand what all the hype is about. After the film, we met back up with the group (and 2 more french people joined our numbers) and wandered around looking for a place to eat. We finally decided on a kebab shop. After our dinner we hunted around for a private bar (not packed with loud music and lots of people, so we could all sit and talk). We finally found one, had a few drinks before turning in for the night.
Sunday January 3rd 2010 - Toulouse, Angouleme, and Montmorillon
We left Toulouse around 11am after a very filling breakfast of bread and jam and coffee. It was a fun ride back to Angouleme we snacked on food and rocked out to music, took naps and gossiped. When we finally arrived in Angouleme around 4pm everyone was so relieved to be home and done travelling, but as for Leidy and me, we still had a long day of traveling left in front of us. We stayed in Angouleme for a little while visiting, before catching a train to Poitiers and then a bus to Montmorillon. By the time we made it home it was 11pm. What a long, fun but exhausting trip. I hope you've all enjoyed hearing about it. I'll post the pictures soon (although I'm guessing most of you have seen them already on facebook).
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Spain Itinerary
Thursday December 24th - France
Bus: Depart Montmorillon at 8:01pm
Arrival in Poitiers at 8:53pm
Train: Depart Poitiers at 10:08pm
*overnight train
Friday December 25th - Madrid, Spain
Train: Arrival in Madrid at 9:10am
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Saturday December 26th - Madrid, Spain
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Sunday December 27th - Madrid, Spain
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Monday December 28th - Madrid, Spain
Train: Departs Madrid at 10:50pm
*overnight train
Tuesday December 29th - Barcelona, Spain
Train: Arrives in Barcelona at 7:36am
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Wednesday December 30th - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Thursday December 31th - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Friday January 1st - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Saturday January 2nd - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Sunday January 3rd - Road Trip
*We will be leaving Barcelona and driving back to Angouleme in Beto's camping car. I don't know how long of a drive it'll be. I'll either take a train back to Montmorillon in the evening or Monday morning depending on at what hour we arrive.
* In Madrid I will be with my roommate Leidy and her Colombian friend who is flying in from Germany. Gloria also might be meeting up with us there.
*In Barcelona I will be staying in Beto's camping car along with about 7 other people. Unfortunately there are no camping areas around Barcelona, so we won't have hookups for the car. So we are planning on parking the car by a beach or the olympic stadium, because they have free public showers and bathrooms. I also have a bunch of other friends arriving whom I will be meeting up with too.
*I will have my cell phone with me, if you need to get a hold of me. I will also try to check my email every couple of days and update my blog like usual.
If you have any questions please post a comment on this page or send me an email. LoveYa!
Bus: Depart Montmorillon at 8:01pm
Arrival in Poitiers at 8:53pm
Train: Depart Poitiers at 10:08pm
*overnight train
Friday December 25th - Madrid, Spain
Train: Arrival in Madrid at 9:10am
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Saturday December 26th - Madrid, Spain
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Sunday December 27th - Madrid, Spain
Hostel: Cat's Hostel
Address: Cañizares nº6, 28012
Tel: +34 91 369 28 07
Monday December 28th - Madrid, Spain
Train: Departs Madrid at 10:50pm
*overnight train
Tuesday December 29th - Barcelona, Spain
Train: Arrives in Barcelona at 7:36am
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Wednesday December 30th - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Thursday December 31th - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Friday January 1st - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Saturday January 2nd - Barcelona, Spain
Staying: Beto's Camping Car
Sunday January 3rd - Road Trip
*We will be leaving Barcelona and driving back to Angouleme in Beto's camping car. I don't know how long of a drive it'll be. I'll either take a train back to Montmorillon in the evening or Monday morning depending on at what hour we arrive.
* In Madrid I will be with my roommate Leidy and her Colombian friend who is flying in from Germany. Gloria also might be meeting up with us there.
*In Barcelona I will be staying in Beto's camping car along with about 7 other people. Unfortunately there are no camping areas around Barcelona, so we won't have hookups for the car. So we are planning on parking the car by a beach or the olympic stadium, because they have free public showers and bathrooms. I also have a bunch of other friends arriving whom I will be meeting up with too.
*I will have my cell phone with me, if you need to get a hold of me. I will also try to check my email every couple of days and update my blog like usual.
If you have any questions please post a comment on this page or send me an email. LoveYa!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Stockholm, Sweden
Sorry for the long delay, but here is the 411 on the remainder of my trip to Stockholm, Sweden. I arrived in Stockholm on Monday November 2nd at 9:40 am. I had to take a long bus ride from the airport to the actual city of Stockholm so I didn't check into my hostel until around 11:30 am. This is the first time I've traveled without my Lonely Planet guide (I'd ordered one, but it didn't arrive in time) so I had absolutely no idea what there was to do or see in Stockholm. So I immediately got on a computer at the hostel and began researching what I should do while I was there. I found directions to the tourist information center and quickly made my way in that direction. I grabbed some brochures and maps and bought a 24 hour "Stockholm Card" which gives you free access to museums and public transportation, then headed to the old part of town (the island of "Gamla Stan") where the Royal Palace (aka the Castle of Tre Kronor before it burned to the ground and was rebuilt) is located. Along the way I strolled by the Opera house, Jacob's Church, an outdoor ice skating rink and the National Museum. The island of Gamla Stan is one of the oldest parts of the city and the most beautiful. When crossing the bridge to access the island the first thing you see is the royal palace. The Royal Palace is the largest royal palace in the world with 608 rooms that are regularly used today. Next to the palace is Storkyrkan, the Royal Cathedral of Sweden. Inside the cathedral is the famous statue of "St. George and the Dragon" (which is now one of my favorite statues I've seen). After taking a look around inside the Cathedral I found a cafe across the street from the Nobel Prize Museum and sat down for something to eat and to look over all the brochures I'd gotten from the Tourist Information Center. By the time I left the cafe it was already dark. Normally I try to be back to my hostel by the time its dark when I'm traveling by myself, but since it was only 4:30pm (it gets really dark, really early) I finished wandering around the island before making my way back to the hostel. At the hostel I met an Aussie and a bunch of Belgians. We all ended up staying up until around 2 am chatting. I've decided that I like staying in hostels more than CouchSurfing. Not that I have a problem with couchsurfing, but you meet so many more people when you stay in hostels and you can choose who you want to hangout with or if you don't want to hangout you can be left alone and not feel obligated to mingle and talk.
Tuesday November 3rd was a beautiful, sunshiny, warm day. The perfect day to take a boat ride around all the islands that make up Stockholm, but I read the time schedule wrong so when I arrived at the docks there were no boats leaving :( I had planned to come back later to take a different boat, but I never made it back to the docks. Instead I traversed through the streets of Gamla Stan again in order to visit the island of Sodermalm where the famous (and free) "Stockholm Stadsmuseum" (city museum) is located. The museum was alright. One floor had old black and white photos of Stockholm back in the old days and the third floor had the Swedish film history. So there were tons of old props and costumes from Swedish films and around 12 small theater rooms each showing a different Swedish film with English subtitles. It would have been a good place to visit and hideout if the weather had been nasty, but since it was so nice out I didn't stay long to watch any of the movies (I needed to take advantage of the good weather while it lasted). The island of Sodermalm is located on a cliff that overlooks all of central Stockholm so I walked around the old ramparts and through the neighborhood which is described as the "coolest neighborhood jammed with up-and-coming boutiques and galleries and hip cafes and bars...trendy with indie cool and old-school shab" which I think sums it up pretty good. After finishing walking around the island I met up with one of the Belgian boys for a cafe and then we went ice skating at the outdoor ice skating rink in Kungstradgarden (I hadn't ice skated in a long time and never on an outdoor rink before, but it was a blast). On the way back to hostel we stopped at a grocery store to grab some supplies to make dinner at the hostel. That night I ended up staying up late again (around 3 am) talking with a whole new bunch of people (mainly Australians and a few Belgians I'd met the night before and a gorgeous blond haired blue-eyed Swedish hottie).
Wednesday November 4th was my last day in Sweden and by far the coldest day of my trip. It actually was snowing a good part of the day and the wind was howling. Good thing I hadn't used my 24 Stockholm Card yet. I spent the day popping in and out of museums and taking the public buses to get around thanks to the Stockholm pass. The first place I headed to was the island of Djurgarden in order to visit Skansen and the Vasamuseet. Skansen is actually the world's first "open-air museum" which means I was stuck walking around outside in the snow for the first part of the morning. It basically consists of a bunch of old Swedish structures like farm houses, stores, schools and houses from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It also has an aquarium and zoo with reindeer and other Swedish wildlife. I didn't spend to much time there because it was freezing cold, snowing and most of it was closed because I was visiting during the off-season (normally you can enter each of the buildings and look around to see what the insides looked like). After I finished looking around Skansen, I headed to the Vasamuseet (Vasa Ship Museum) which houses a huge war ship that was built in 1628 and sunk on her maiden voyage. This was my favorite museum I visited in Sweden. The boat was retrieved from the sea in 1961 and is almost entirely intact. It looks like it belongs in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (but they'd have to rename it Pirates of the Baltic Sea). I spent a long time wandering around this museum. They had two theaters that showed different movies (one on theories surrounding why the Vasa sank and another on the history/resurrection/reconstruction of the ship). There were also six floors to the museum each showcasing different things, like items found on the ship, the history of the boat, what life was like for the sailors, who were the people who died when the ship went down (they actually found around 15 skeletons on the ship and they studied the bones to find out what type of life they'd led and they also did facial reconstructions to find out what they looked like...pretty interesting), etc. After the Vasa museum I headed to the National Museum. It was pretty weak for a "national" museum. It lacked a lot of really famous artists and artwork, but they were having an exhibition on Caspar David Friedrich which was quite excellent. I'd never seen his work before, but I really liked it and I think dad would too (you should check him out dad and maybe gets some prints for the house). He paints what they call "nature animated", but what I call scenery pictures. From there I visited the Moderna Museet on the island of Skeppsholmen which was having an exhibition of Salvador Dali's works. I'd never liked Dali's work before (mainly because I don't understand modern art very much), but each painting had explanations for the work and I am now a huge fan of Dali's work. The rest of the museum sucked, but Dali was awesome and well worth the visit. By the time I left the museum it was dark and cold, so I headed back to the hostel and hung out with a whole new group of people who were all Erasmus students studying in Amsterdam ("Erasmus" means that they are Europeans studying and going to college in countries that are not their native country, which is really common in Europe).
Thursday November 5th was a very long day of traveling. It started by walking to the train station first thing in the morning to take a long bus ride to the Stockholm airport, then a flight from Stockholm to Paris then the metro to the Paris train station, then a train from Paris to Poitiers, then a bus to Montmorillon and finally I had to walk 30 mins to my house. So my day of travelling started at 7am and finished around 10:30pm. Not a very fun day, but I did buy the Dan Brown book "Digital Fortress" so that helped make the voyage a little more bearable.
I'll post the pics and try to write again soon. XOXO.
Tuesday November 3rd was a beautiful, sunshiny, warm day. The perfect day to take a boat ride around all the islands that make up Stockholm, but I read the time schedule wrong so when I arrived at the docks there were no boats leaving :( I had planned to come back later to take a different boat, but I never made it back to the docks. Instead I traversed through the streets of Gamla Stan again in order to visit the island of Sodermalm where the famous (and free) "Stockholm Stadsmuseum" (city museum) is located. The museum was alright. One floor had old black and white photos of Stockholm back in the old days and the third floor had the Swedish film history. So there were tons of old props and costumes from Swedish films and around 12 small theater rooms each showing a different Swedish film with English subtitles. It would have been a good place to visit and hideout if the weather had been nasty, but since it was so nice out I didn't stay long to watch any of the movies (I needed to take advantage of the good weather while it lasted). The island of Sodermalm is located on a cliff that overlooks all of central Stockholm so I walked around the old ramparts and through the neighborhood which is described as the "coolest neighborhood jammed with up-and-coming boutiques and galleries and hip cafes and bars...trendy with indie cool and old-school shab" which I think sums it up pretty good. After finishing walking around the island I met up with one of the Belgian boys for a cafe and then we went ice skating at the outdoor ice skating rink in Kungstradgarden (I hadn't ice skated in a long time and never on an outdoor rink before, but it was a blast). On the way back to hostel we stopped at a grocery store to grab some supplies to make dinner at the hostel. That night I ended up staying up late again (around 3 am) talking with a whole new bunch of people (mainly Australians and a few Belgians I'd met the night before and a gorgeous blond haired blue-eyed Swedish hottie).
Wednesday November 4th was my last day in Sweden and by far the coldest day of my trip. It actually was snowing a good part of the day and the wind was howling. Good thing I hadn't used my 24 Stockholm Card yet. I spent the day popping in and out of museums and taking the public buses to get around thanks to the Stockholm pass. The first place I headed to was the island of Djurgarden in order to visit Skansen and the Vasamuseet. Skansen is actually the world's first "open-air museum" which means I was stuck walking around outside in the snow for the first part of the morning. It basically consists of a bunch of old Swedish structures like farm houses, stores, schools and houses from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It also has an aquarium and zoo with reindeer and other Swedish wildlife. I didn't spend to much time there because it was freezing cold, snowing and most of it was closed because I was visiting during the off-season (normally you can enter each of the buildings and look around to see what the insides looked like). After I finished looking around Skansen, I headed to the Vasamuseet (Vasa Ship Museum) which houses a huge war ship that was built in 1628 and sunk on her maiden voyage. This was my favorite museum I visited in Sweden. The boat was retrieved from the sea in 1961 and is almost entirely intact. It looks like it belongs in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (but they'd have to rename it Pirates of the Baltic Sea). I spent a long time wandering around this museum. They had two theaters that showed different movies (one on theories surrounding why the Vasa sank and another on the history/resurrection/reconstruction of the ship). There were also six floors to the museum each showcasing different things, like items found on the ship, the history of the boat, what life was like for the sailors, who were the people who died when the ship went down (they actually found around 15 skeletons on the ship and they studied the bones to find out what type of life they'd led and they also did facial reconstructions to find out what they looked like...pretty interesting), etc. After the Vasa museum I headed to the National Museum. It was pretty weak for a "national" museum. It lacked a lot of really famous artists and artwork, but they were having an exhibition on Caspar David Friedrich which was quite excellent. I'd never seen his work before, but I really liked it and I think dad would too (you should check him out dad and maybe gets some prints for the house). He paints what they call "nature animated", but what I call scenery pictures. From there I visited the Moderna Museet on the island of Skeppsholmen which was having an exhibition of Salvador Dali's works. I'd never liked Dali's work before (mainly because I don't understand modern art very much), but each painting had explanations for the work and I am now a huge fan of Dali's work. The rest of the museum sucked, but Dali was awesome and well worth the visit. By the time I left the museum it was dark and cold, so I headed back to the hostel and hung out with a whole new group of people who were all Erasmus students studying in Amsterdam ("Erasmus" means that they are Europeans studying and going to college in countries that are not their native country, which is really common in Europe).
Thursday November 5th was a very long day of traveling. It started by walking to the train station first thing in the morning to take a long bus ride to the Stockholm airport, then a flight from Stockholm to Paris then the metro to the Paris train station, then a train from Paris to Poitiers, then a bus to Montmorillon and finally I had to walk 30 mins to my house. So my day of travelling started at 7am and finished around 10:30pm. Not a very fun day, but I did buy the Dan Brown book "Digital Fortress" so that helped make the voyage a little more bearable.
I'll post the pics and try to write again soon. XOXO.
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