Thursday, January 1, 2009

The first week of traveling!





I do not even know where to start. These past few weeks have been completely crazy Sarah a friend from High School came to London to visit and we traveled around for two weeks. We were in 6 different countries (7 but Germany does not count), more trains than I can count and saw so many amazing things. 

    On December 15th Sarah flew in to London, I meet her at the train station that has a link to the airport, and because the tube line that I am on sucks most of the time, I was an hour late to meet her. We were told our trains breaks were not working and had to wait for about half an hour until they could get a different train for us all to get on. When I meet her she was exhausted but that did not stop me from dragging her all over London that day. We went back to my flat to drop of her stuff then set out. We took the bus into city center so she could see more of London. We got of at Piccadilly Circus and walked all over ending at the London Eye. It is probably about a three mile walk that takes you by Lesciter Square, Trafalgar square, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Westminster Abby, House of Parliament and ending with the London eye. We then got on the tube and walked down to London Bridge and Tower Bridge (not the same thing by the way) and then to the Tower of London. We went back to my flat and figured out the last details of the trip and then went to Pizza Express for dinner. It is a chain but has pretty good Pizza in my opinion.

            On December 16th, my dad turned 60 or 61! (we cant get a very definitive answer out of the man) and Sarah and I went to Paris! We took a 5:20 train out of Kings Cross station, but you have to be there 45 min before for security and check in. But the tube does not run that early, so we had to call a cab and come pick us up at like 4 am. So that sucked. But we made it in to Paris at about 9:00 I do love the Chunnel! When we got into Paris we decided to get our train tickets for the next day to Salzburg. We had bought a Euro rail pass, it allows you to have unlimited travel on 5 days in three countries or that is the one that we bought. WE picked France, Austria and Italy, the countries have to be touching and those where the places in Europe that we wanted to go to. But since to get to Salzburg from Paris we would have to go through Germany and switch trains there we had to pay for the part of the journey for when we were in Germany. We were a little disappointed that we had to pay because we did not think we would have to with our pass. But we did not completely understand it before but now we do.

            We went and checked in to our hostel and left our stuff. We took the metro to the Louver, we did not go in but walked around it from there we walked to the Champs Elise and to the Arc De Triumph. We then walked down to the Seine and to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately it was cloudy and we were not even able to see the tip of the tower.  We took all our photos from every angle then went and had hot chocolate at a café. It was so cold! We then took the bus to Notre Dame and toured inside of it. It is an amazing cathedral the work and detail in it is beyond amazing to look at! We went and had dinner at a place that I had eaten at last time I was in Paris. We both ordered Onion Soup, which is French, and Frittes, which are French Fries. So we had French onion soup and French fries in France, I love it! We took the bus back to the Effie tower and got there just as it started to sparkle, it is an amazing site to see. So we took more photos from every angle then took the metro back to our hostel. We were so tiered from our early train and had another early train the next day also, but we had girls who were ridiculous in our room. Granted it was about 10 at night but there were about 5 girls trying to sleep in our room but two turned on music and were just taking as if they were alone in the room. No one said anything so the fault is ours I guess. We should have spoken up instead of lying there not sleeping getting annoyed, I learned my lesson so next time watch out.

            On December 17th we woke up and grabbed a chocolate croissant from a bakery and took the metro to the train station. We were on one train for about three hours and another for four. It sure felt like we were wasting valuable time on the train already. It was really pretty though going through the countryside. We stopped at a train station in Germany and had lunch. I had McDonalds not very authentic Germany food but that is what I had. We got back on a train and finally got to Salzburg. We again got our train ticket for leaving the city. We decided that it would take so long to get from Salzburg to Florence so we decided to take a night train. We found our hostel and checked in that went and had dinner at a place the guy at our hostel recommended. It was good food and the wait staff was very helpful with speaking to us in English. So on that day we had breakfast in France, lunch in Germany and Dinner in Austria. We went and walked around old town Salzburg for a while. It is a really amazing city it has a castle on one side and sharp cliffs on either side. There were Christmas lights everywhere and it was a very magical fairytale city.

            On December 18th we had breakfast at the hostel and then got picked up for our sound of music tour. We were able to go to different sights farther out of the city that they had filmed such as the gazebo and the back of the house where they filmed the backyard scenes. We were also able to go out in to the hills and look at a few small towns where different scenes where filmed. It was really fun they told little secrets about the movie and the real family. It was fun they played music and people sung! When we got back to the city they told us where to go to see more sights mostly from the Do-Rae- Me scene so that was fun. When we got back into the city it was snowing so obviously so cold. We walked around a little then went and had a hot coco at a hotel where they have a café on the top floor with windows all over the place so it was great to watch the snow fall and drink coco. We went and had dinner at the same place we had before and then hung out for a little at our hostel before our night train. We took one train that was 2 hours and then switched to a different one. We were in a sitting car with three other people. We were both in the middle seat, I was between to large Italian old men and Sarah was next to an Austrian women. It was so hot in the car and I could not get comfortable to I went and slept at the end of the train car by bike storage on the floor. I wrapped up in my coat and had my travel pillow and actually slept.

            On December 19th we got into Florence at about 7 am. We found our hostel and I tried to talk the guy into letting us into the room then instead of wait until 1, but there were people in the room so we could not do that. We went and got breakfast at a bakery nearby, Sarah ordered a hot chocolate and it was sludge. We ended up taking a day trip to Pisa; it was about one hour away from Florence so it was nice we were able to sleep on the train again. We walked around the city a little and made our way to the tower. It was incredible to see it in person. I have seen so many pictures but never understood how dramatic you incredible it is that it is still standing. We took the must have pictures of us holding up the tower and walked around for a while. We had lunch in Pisa and went into a few different shops I got a pair of earrings that I like but are not really my style but I still love them! We took the train back to Florence and were able to check into our hostel and so we took naps and showers, which felt great after the night train from hell.  We went to the Muse De’ Academia to see the statue of David. You are not able to take pictures, which I don’t really understand because its stone you cant hurt it but that was the rule. Again I had seen pictures of the statue and how large the statue is. The statue from head to foot was probably 20 feet tall. We walked around the museum for a while and looked around and then headed back to our hostel. We had dinner there and ended up playing cards with people at the hostel and drinking wine.

            On December 20th I turned 23! The night before we had signed up do a vespa tour of Tuscany. We meet our driver and guide it ended up that it was just going to be Sarah and I with the guide. He was a few years older than us and I was a little concerned that it would be uncomfortable but it was not. We drove a way out of town and rented two scoters. Sarah did not have her driver’s license so she was not techniquly meant to drive so she was going to ride with the guide. We did a little test-driving in a little car park, Sarah went first and did well, and then it was my turn. I was having trouble turning with out putting my feet out. I also had trouble slowing down on turns not speeding up. So I was trying to turn and I jumped a curb, and ran into a light post. Only my arm hit the post and then I jumped off the scoter and let it fell. When It fell the mirror broke off, so at that point I thought I had just bought a scoter. I ended up riding with the guide, which was fine with me because it allowed me to take pictures as we went. It was not strange until at one point he said he would be my Italian stallion, but it was ok. It ended up being a great day, and a fabulous birthday! We went to three different little villages in the area and stopped in them. At one we got coffee and at the next we had an amazing lunch. We had four different types of wine to sample from the region, a meet and cheese plate, three different pastas the best definitely being the one with truffle sauce, now I see what the fuss is all about with truffles.  We even got a few different desserts to sample. The whole meal was amazing and possibly the best meal I have ever had! We made our way back to wear we started and I had to pay for the mirror which was not as bad as I thought so I was ok with it. Our guide took us back to Florence and dropped us off at the Square of Michelle Angelo, which has a great view point of the city. We were able to take photos and saw the sunset from there which was amazing. We walked down and along the river and across the bridge. I don’t know the name but it is one of three in the world where there are shops and homes on the bridge. We got gelato, I got tiramisu flavor and that was my birthday cake.  We walked around a while and looked at all the different stalls at the markets all around the city. We went back to our hostel and ended up playing cards with some people again. It was a really great hostel called PLUS they have them in a few different city’s but it was just really nice.

            On December 21st we took the train to Rome, we got to Rome no problem and found our hostel and checked in. We started walking and went all over the city. We walked to the Coliseum, the Parthenon,  a few different plazas that were beautiful and the treve fountain. We went back to our hostel and found out that we are in a room with smelly boys, we did not care about the boys but that they smelled so rank!

            On December 22nd we walked to the Vatican, it was far away and is its own country which is amazing. I brought my passport hopping that I would get a stamp but I did not L.  The Vatican was un real to be in a place that is so old and has seen so much it makes you feel small and a part of something much larger all at once. While we were in line to go through security there was a nun walking by me who sneezed, I said bless you as I do to anyone who sneezes, she smiled only after she walked away did I think that it was strange that I just told a nun bless you. It is definitely a high light! We took the audio guided tours and that was great it gave us a lot of information, I little bit to much at times but it was still really great. We also went into the copula that is the dome on top of the Vatican. We took an elevator half way up then walked up stairs so small with walls leaning in you had to lean on the other wall to keep walking upward. There were also spiral stairs that were so skinny and also so many of them that we had to take breathers every once in a while. You are able to stand on the inside of the copula looking down at the Vatican and able to see all the mosaics up close. Up towards the top there are a ton of mosaics of cherubs and saints, they are so detailed that it is so incredible the detail and time that must have gone into them. Then you walk up more stairs and get to outside of the dome at the very top. The view of Rome was amazing; the weather was so nice it was sunny and warm to us. I walked around in jeans with a long sleeve shirt and jeans on which is incredible compared to all the snow in Salzburg. We hung out up top for a while then went down a level and walked around on the roof. There is a little shop up there which is sad yet I still went in. Inside there are nuns who are working, they were all so friendly and it was great to talk to them. We then hung out in the sun for a little while and overheard a young priest whom it looked like was with his parents where the pope’s room is. It was so funny to look at the windows and think that Pope Benedict could be right behind the curtains. We went back down and got food from a street vendor, luckily we looked to see what time our train left that night, it left 3 hours early then we thought so we had to hurry, We skipped the crypt of other popes but went to the Vatican museum. We pretty much ran through it because it was important to both of us that we see the sis tenth chapel. It was amazing to stand under it and gaze at the detail as well as the affect that it had on others around us. I wish we would have had more time to spend there and in Rome in general. We went back to our hostel and packed and headed for the train station. This night train was so much better than the last; we were in a sleeper car!!!!! There were three beds and we were in the top two, the other person came into our room in Florence, it was a women who seemed nice but was a little strange. It was so great to be in a bed and not have strange Italian men in the room with us.

            On December 23rd we got into Paris and checked into our hostel, it was the same one that we were at last time so it was nice to know where it was and all that. We went up to Sacla Cur ( SP?) which is this temple that overlooks the whole of Paris it was a sunny day and it was nice to sit up there and just take in being in Paris. We then went to the Eiffel tower and were able to take pictures of it now that we were able to see all of it this time. We then went over to the Catacombs. It was creepy but mostly walking to where the bones were, you have to walk in long tunnels where there were sometimes no one else with you. When we saw other people we definitely tried to stay with them so it was less creepy. When we got to the bones it was kind of amazing and you were able to look at them with out thinking that they are bones in designed patterns. That was the strange part, that they made patterns, at one point there was a heart made out of skulls! It also got really slippery so now I was so worried that I would trip and reach for the walls to hole me up and I would freak out because they are made of BONES! We left and got wine at a café by the tower and waited for it to sparkle again because it is so magical to watch. We went back to the hostel and ate dinner with a few girls in our room.

            On December 24th we went to the airport which was a pain to get to, we had to take the metro for an hour and then ride a bus for an hour and a half. It was a crappy airport but that is what you get when it is just a ryanair airport. We flew to Glasgow and took a train into the city center. When we got there we asked about trains to Edinburgh on Boxing day and where told that there would not be trains that day. So we decided to go to Edinburgh that night so that way would be able to make our flight in two days. We took a train that night to Edinburgh and went to our hostel. We hung out and watched Muppet Christmas Carroll which was the movie for move night.

            On December 25th when we woke up the hostel had hung stockings from all of our beds. There was just a bag of crisps and candy but it was just such a nice thought and it made it feel more like Christmas. We went and walked around the city and looked for food since we missed breakfast we finally found snacks at a news agent which was all that was open besides tourist shops, which we also went into. When we were waiting for Christmas lunch we started playing cards with a few girls and ended up eating with them and a brother and sister. It was nice to have a Christmas dinner. It was not as good as moms cooking but it was still really nice! After lunch Sarah and I and the other two girls went in search of dessert, we ended up buying ice cream bars at the news agent and went up to Edinburgh castle and ate in the parking lot over looking the city and looking at the stars. It was my first Christmas away from home and I thought I would have been a mess, I defiantly missed home and would have loved if I could have been transported home for that day but it was a pretty great Christmas day considering. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This sounds like so much fun. I want to see more pictures!!!! love you <3