Best /Worst of Eurotrip 2008

Jeffrey has pressured me into making this list...

1. Best/Worst Pub Crawl - Dublin Backpacker's Pubcrawl (1st)/Paris (last)
- met some awesome icelandic guys and didn't make it home until 5 am!!!/mostly didn't like this one because of one stupid guy...

2. Best/Worst Day - Biking the Austrian Wine Country/Day trip to Capri
- wine, schnaps, chocolate, easy biking in the rain, cool climb, amazing lunch, swimming in the Danube / hot, touristy (mega lines), too expensive, cancelled boat tours... grr!

3. Best/Worst City - Vienna/Naples
- Beautiful (disregard blue mouthed drug addicts/dirty, icky, yucky

4. Best/Worst Meal - Ricotta stuffed pasta with truffle sauce (Tallinn)/meat on a stick, beets and other assorted yuckies
- oh baby, ate it twice!/the German man may be right, there is no good place to eat in Riga... my meal looked amazing but it was not.

5. Best/Worst Drink - Cappucino/Black Balsam
- anywhere, cappucinos are where it's at/Deanna couldn't finish hers, enough said.... drink with mix!!!

6. Best/Worst Boy - Douglas/Estonian Creeps on the Cruise
Said the most romantic thing ever and made me laugh, sadly I have not seen or heard from him since/married, old, stalkers.

7. Best/Worst Line - St. Mark's Cathedral/Eiffel Tower

8. Best/Worst Walking Tour - London Royal Tour/Self-guided Riga walking tour?

9. Best/Worst Hostel - Alessandro's Palace (Rome)/Blue Corridor Hostel (Vienna)

10. Best/Worst Lapdance - Amsterdam/Regina (though I never got one in Regina, but I can imagine)

11. Best/Worst Castle - Versailles/King Richard III prison in Vienna Wine Country
My grown up doll house/why so far up on hill????

To be continued...

Last Post From This Side Of The Pond

Well its that time. Time for me to go home.... oh wait, I have no flight home.

Yes, Zoom airlines declared bankruptcy and I found this out last night at 3 am after the pub crawl. This morning I got up and started searching for a new way home. So first I tried Expedia... it found an Air Canada flight for $800.... only 50 more than my Zoom flight so I was pumped.... until I clicked on it and it said 'I'm sorry, the flight price has changed to $5000'. WHAT?!?!?!

So after much searching I used http://www.cheapflights.com and got an Air Canada flight for $1600. Wasn't anticipating the extra cost but I have to get home! The flight leaves at 1030am here and I get to Montreal at noon and flight out at 230 (time to get through customs I hope) and I get into Calgary at 5pm and must drive to the cabin from there. I am also packing a lot of stuff of Deanna's in my pack. I am going to hate my life tomorrow but at least there is my own bed at the end of the tunnel to look forward to!

So now that is settled.... yesterday we decided to go and shop!!! We went to the Forum Des Halles again and I got some back to school clothes :) So many cute things, each store got better and better! I was standing outside of one store waiting for Deanna and this guy approached me and told me he wanted to be my friend. I told him I didn't even live here and he was like that's ok, I can come visit you, can I give you my e-mail etc. so I just called him on it... I was like you don't even know me, what do you want from me and he throws out some line about sensing that I was a nice person.... gah.... Au revoir buddy! I still cannot figure out these imports... are you trying to steal my wallet or do you want Canadian citizenship or what!?!? I am excited to be home and not cling to my purse for dear life and dread people talking to me.

So after shopping we came back and got ready for our last pub crawl together. It started infront of the fountain in Place St. Michel in the latin district. Pretty neat place to hang out. This guy starts blasting music and doing a crazy dance, then another import starts circling us like a shark so we bolted to the first bar. We met 2 Americans from Seattle, Brian and Kaley. We were worried there was going to be no one on the pub crawl. There turns out to be about 40 and more guys than girls. We went to Rive Gauche first, then an Irish pub where we ate supper that night (wonderful stew). Two locals in there, one tries to follow Deanna out of the bar when we leave. Next few bars I don't remember the names but we ended at a club that stays open till 5 am. Took a cab at 3am to the hostel, only like 7 euro, score! We also met 3 other Canadians, one girl from the peg, 2 from Ottawa, Jamie and Sarah. They were actually on our Montmatre tour and Sarah got lost when we visited Sacre Coeur.

So needless to say at 1030am I get kicked out of bed by the cleaning lady, I stumble to the shower and then down to find a flight. We ate lunch here at the hostel and then went back to my room to do some creative packing to fit all Deanna's stuff in my bag. Then we had naps and went to McD's for supper cause we didn't want to deal with the subway. There are no other places to eat around here that aren't creepy.

So that is the fantabulous ending to my trip ;)

Harvest Sunset

I really missed Saskatchewan on the train ride home tonight. There was a big red sunset and before sunset the sun had sun dogs. I've only seen them in the super cold winter so I don't know what that means.

Normandy is such a great area of France... lots of farming, reminds me of N. Sask. Turns out we were on an American tour. 2 people from Illinoin, 2 from Iowa and 2 from Mach (I can't spell it or say it). We therefore went to Omaha beach which was fine cause what do I know about WWII... sadly, not very much.

So we started off by going to a German cemetary. They are buried differently than the Americans so it was neat to see and to realize that most of these dead were 19 years old or younger. Pretty sad.

Next we went to Point du Hoc and saw all the craters from the bombings. They closed the area down in 1945 to preserve it. There are still bunkers, wire sticking out of the ground and gun towers. Took a tumble and hurt my little camera but he snapped back with a few scratches only.

We then sped off to Omaha beach (litterally the lady drove 140 all day and ranted about the police hiding in bushes with radar). It used to be a pebble beach but every person took a pebble and now it is sand. This is a 4.5km long beach!! That is insane... I took a couple sea shells.

We hopped back in the bus and went to a Museum which was very well put together. It was some guy's personal collection as people came and took things from the beach after D-day. We watched a very good movie and I wanted more time in the gift shop but there wasn't any.

We finished the day at the American cemetary where only 10% of the dead are buried. The rest were shipped back to the states. I wish I could put pictures on here now but you will all have to wait. It was a great day and I wish students could come here and I wish I could have gone to Juno beach as well.

Tomorrow will be sleeping in, last laundry trip and walking tour and pub crawl. Whew.

As a side note, our fellow travellers Ben and Derek rented a car in Spain and had everything stolen from their car and they are stuck with only 25 euros and the clothes on their backs and we have no idea how to help them but give them the number to the Canadian consulate. I hope everything turns out for them, I still can't believe the situation myself!

The most scared I've been on this trip

Well lots to say... lets start with the crazy situation we just left on the subway where this black dude was yelling crazy stuff and banging stuff around and when people tried to intervene he backhanded them. So we run past him and we have people telling us not to run or be scared.... um no. I'm from Canada eh.

Anyways... pretty much the most scared I've been all trip.

So what have I been up to.... last night we didn't know where to go eat, we decided to jump on the subway after not finding much around here but ghetto drinking places. We went to Les Halles again where we went to shop the first day and found a great little place called 'L'imprimerie' or the print shop in English. Had an excellent wine (côte du Rhone) and a nice pasta dish and cappucino. I am addicted to cappucino's... mom dust off the machine! By the time we went there, ate and came back it was like 11.... subways take forever.

Anyways, this morning got up early, left the hostel a little after 8 and again caught the train to Versailles. Got to see the palace and it was definetly worth it but with tons of people. Ate at McD's and went back to the hostel. Back around 330.... had an hour and a half to nap/relax etc. and then we went to the Moulin Rouge for the start of our Montmartre tour. Our tour guide, George was from Texas and he was hilarious. Lots of famous people lived in the area such as Van Gogh and Picasso. After the tour we found a restaurant in the area and again had wine, pasta, cappucino and Tiramisu. How I have not gained a billion pounds, I dunno but my jeans still fit so I figure I'm good.

I also bought a purse tonight, found a cute little shop with a purse I had wanted in Italy but cheaped out on so I went ahead and bought it. May go back and get another one there too...... Gah.

Tomorrow we are off to Normandy!!! D-day beaches tour. Costs a pretty penny but again it will be nice to be out of the city and learn at the same time. We leaver at 1043 but had to get to the train station and we back back at like 10 so it is a full day. I think Thurs we will do another walking tour to tie up loose ends and a pub crawl and Friday will be shopping/hanging out with Deanna one last time before I leave on Saturday!!!

Louvre, Notre Dame, and Versailles

Yesterday we went to the Louvre and did the super condensed version of it. I showed Deanna La Jaconde (Mona Lisa), The Victory... (Nike) and the Venus de Milo then we ate lunch in the cafeteria. I had Mexican food (mmm guacamole) and Deanna had Chinese. When we left the Louvre it was raining and we bought umbrellas from a street vendor... 2 for 15 euro. It was the cheapest we saw so far but like 10 min later we saw them for 5 euro and at Notre Dame the guy was selling them for 5 euro too. Boo. 50 days in Europe and 6 left and I get an umbrella. Oh well...

We tried to find this outlet mall that we found out about from a street flyer handed to us but it was Sunday and it was closed. We decided to head to Notre Dame. We waited in line to get in and it went fast (yay) and we took the opportunity to sit and rest. My foot is still killing me :(

We then went to Père Lachaise cemetary to find Jim Morrison's grave and we also found Chopin's. On the train there we met 2 other girls from Ontario who had been working in Dublin for the summer as cocktail waitresses and then were taking 2 weeks holidays before they went home. We started talking to them cause they were exactly like us.... talking about the next place to get chocolate :)

Anyways, we didn't get a map of the cemetary which made for lots of unnessesary walking as per usual ;) We stumbled upon Chopin's and then finally found Jim's. He is way out of the way and it isn't that great a resting place, I expected something fancier. Really nice place to stroll though and we saw all sorts of cool graves. My goal when I die is to have a really creepy tomb like the one I saw with arms sticking out of it or something ;)

Anyways, back to the hostel to rest and at 8 we went to the hostel bar and had Nachos and fries with a girl we met in Florence whom we keep running into and this girl who is staying in her room from Ontario. She was so annoying I am not even going to talk about it. Ditched and went to bed...

So I enter my room at 1130 and expect it to be dark and hop into bed.... nope there are 5 police officers from Singapore in my room who just arrived and they proceed to cook dinner on hot plates. They finally went to bed at 130. They are here till Friday, YAHOO! They are also all sick like me cause they were in Scotland for a military tattoo and it is too cold there. So stayed up late and coughed all night together. They were up at 4 am and 630 am. I got up at 830 and beat the shower line-up and actually had breakfast today.

After breakfast we hopped on a train to Versailles.... 2.90 euro each way not too bad. We get there and the palace is closed on Mondays.... WHAT!? We decide to tour the gardens and the grand and petit Trianon as well as the Hamlet of Marie-Antoinette. It was sooooo beautiful. It was like a fairy-tale place... ducks, herrings, fish, goats, donkeys, cows and vineyards and gardens. It smelt of flowers and vegetables. The most beautiful part I thought was the Queen's theatre which I couldn't take a picture of. I could not imagine being Marie-Antoinette and having all this at your disposal.... 7800 hectares of land (today 800), the size of the current city of Paris!!! I took so many pictures. By the time we got back today it was 5pm and we didn't even do the castel. We are going out tomorrow morning to do it, we have to. We were going to take the waking tour of Monmartre at 6 but we're pooped. Rest time then out for supper!!!

First day in Paris

Due to going to bed at 3 am we got off to a slow start. I skipped breakfast at 930, showered and then went on the net. Remember how I said my throat hurt that last few days, well singing butchered my voice for the day and we did so much walking that my foot isn't doing so well either. I don't know what I've done but it is all swollen and stuff most of the time. Just gotta make it through 6 more days.

So what did we do. Well we went to a stop called Les Halles and got off to do some shopping. Managed to wander over all the way to the Louvre and we went into Lafayette's which is a 7 floor designer department store. You can get a personal shopper there, we are talking Gucchi, Prada, Jimmy Choo the works. So did I buy anything... what do you think? Ouch.... later stumbled upon a purse store and almost bought a $300 one then gave my head a shake.

Stopped for lunch in a little area called St. Honoré. Ate Italian food that was amazing just by chance. Went to Starbucks later to rest my foot then decided to get cheese, wine and crackers and sit by the Eiffel tower. After being bothered by about 6 gypsies and 2 imports (immigrants of Algerian decent?) we decided to leave and get in line. Might as well go up since we are there. So at 7:45 we are in line... we were at the top for the 10 o'clock light show. Yah I am so sick of lines. 12 euro to get to the top and by the time you are there you just wanna kill yourself. While we were on the second floor all these papers flew off the top in protest for the stuff going on in Georgia. Then we get to the top and there is a backpack with the same size stack of papers sitting on it but it is like a love letter or something. So when we got down we tried to grab a paper but the park was all blocked off and we found out they were protest papers..... so I dunno.

So we got home at midnight after a long subway ride and stopped at McD's for food since we missed supper.

Today we are going to tackle the Louvre and a few places around it like the Pantheon and perhaps Notre Dame.

Safe and sound in Paris

Just a quick note to let everyone know I made it through the last leg of my trip and am currently in Paris. Had one last meal in Napoli, a local specialty - gnocchi a la sorentina (tomatoes). It was very good and the restaurant we ate at was called 'Sofi' (after Sophia Lauren I think). I took a picture of the menu anyways. The bad thing was they held us hostage. I am not kidding. They would not give us our bill until we had coffee, dessert or fruit. We denied and sat and watched the olympics. Finally I made a stink and got out of there. It was insane.

We got up the next day and got out of there as soon as possible. Of course that meant sitting in the airport forever. Checking in took forever and again the Italians were loud, annoying and pushy and butted infront of everyone.

Made it here, jumped on a train and then a metro. Very easy to find out hostel. It is right on a canal and looks like a house boat. Very cool design, brand new hostel.

We ate at Belushi's, the restaurant chain that is a part of it, got the wrong drink and meal... got the meal replaced. Met a French guy who lives next door... bought us wine, ditched him to do the Jager train (113 shots of Jager lined up on the bar and dunked dominos style). I only had one, don't worry. Went downstairs and sang kareoke the rest of the night. Not too bad.

Not sure what the plan is today.... the temp is nice, probably around 20. It rained yesterday, I love it!!!