TravelStream™ news feed for member christianbjork on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/christianbjork en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:39:15 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258874707/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258874707/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258874707/tpod.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:39:15 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

I haven't written as of yet because I've been out most of the day the past few days enjoying the atypically beautiful weather (for this time of the year) in Paris.  I've had two days of lots of sun and practically warm weather (when it should have been raining and cold), riding around all of Paris on Caroline's bike.  Caroline is my French friend who I met in Lima a while ago, and who is kind enough to let me stay with her and borrow her bike.So far I've been to practically all of the main sights, including the amazing Eiffel Tower (but not up it), outside of the Louvre (going probably tomorrow, Monday, as it should be raining most of the day and not so many tourists), Notre Dame, cemetery of Montparnasse, up the Montparnasse tower at night for some amazing views of Paris, etc, etc. So yeah, great times in Paris.  I'm so glad to have come and I will most definitely miss it when I leave.  The people so far (knock on wood) have been incredibly friendly when asking them for directions, practically always smiling and taking time out of their day to explain which way to go.I have a few more days left, so we'll see what else I visit before I leave...As the touristy tshirts say... Paris, je t'adore! ;)word.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258656937/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258656937/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258656937/tpod.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:56:36 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

So last night I went out for one last (pretty early, in comparison) night in Budapest with Dirk.  We went out around 11pm or so to a jazz club, only the musicians had already finished.  Oh well!  We still hung around for a while, as Marc (Dirk's friend) had a beer.  We were back by around midnight or so.Then I did some stuff online and then Dirk watched Southpark for a bit, untill 1 or 1.30am.  Then I finally went to sleep, which couldn't have come any sooner, as I then had to get up at about a quarter to 7 this morning.  I had a nice shower, got all of my stuff ready, and then Dirk helped me get to the train station and get my ticket to Budapest airport. It was all quite easy, and after asking a friendly Hungarian guy on the train, I got off at the right stop, checked in, and arrived at my gate with plenty of time.  Turns out the Budapest airport (or at least that terminal) is super small.  My flight left right on time, and arrived right on time at Orly airport (which I think is Paris' budget airport, compared to Charles de Gaule, the main one).Just a quick sidenote, as I don't think I mentioned before - I'll try to add this in the more relevant Budapest later on...  The metro/buses in Budapest are about 300 HUF (Hungarian Furint) per ride (a bit over a euro / about 2 USD or so) and they definitely check a lot, from what I saw.  I always walked all over Budapest, so I didn't have that much of a problem, but yeah.Anywho... I arrived in France, which was awesome, being able to understand the language once more.  It was super easy, since I guess, it being a inter-Schengen-zone flight, they didn't even check my passport or anything.  I just walked right into the baggage claim area, got my big backpack, and headed off to the Orlyval, the (about 10 euro) train/metro connection with Paris proper.  After about 45/60 minutes and 3 or so train/metro changes, I arrived the wrong metro stop.Yeah, that's right... being the genius that I am (and a bit cocky with how easy everything was), I got off (because of a mistake of abbreviations) one stop too early.  Anyways, after about 10 or 15 minutes of confusion, a nice guy pointed this fact out to me, and I hopped on and off a stop.Then I was a bit worried as I wasn't able to find Caroline (my host in Paris, who I met several months ago (through CS) in Lima), and I didn't have her phone number.  Luckily, I was able to find an internet cafe (1 euro for 0-15 minutes!! give me a break!!), got her address and number which she had sent to me after I had left Budapest, and quickly found her apartment, where I'm sitting now.We had a nice conversation during the evening, and if the weather is as nice (no clouds today, wow...), I hope to be able to walk/bike (she has a bike she might be able to lend me) around Paris.. :)  I'll be here probably till next Wednesday or Thursday, when I leave to Lille.So yeah, that's it for now... Nice long post, as I don't have internet on my laptop, so I'm just writing along, and then posting it once I get online.Till next time.. :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258548220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258548220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258548220/tpod.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:07:51 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Budapest, Hungary

Ok, so I admit I definitely have been lazy on updating my travel blog, but I've been in Budapest for the last week having a nice ole time with my German friend, Dirk.  I met Dirk through Couchsurfing this last year, when he spent several months in Lima/Peru.  I contacted him when I knew I was coming to Budapest, where he's studying, and have stayed with him for this past week.So anywho, I've gone walking around town for most of the days that I've been here. On one of my first days I walked all over town with Dirk and up the hill to the Budapest Castle area, which was quite nice.  Another day I walked with Jimmy, Dirk's roommate, towards another area of town up another hill to the "freedom statue", and where I had some amazing night views.I've also been going out quite a bit with Dirk and his friends to different clubs and bars.  Plenty of pictures documenting my trip on facebook.  I'll try and remember to paste the links in here later on, but the internet is quite slow at times.Today it's raining and the weather is pretty crappy, so I'm just relaxing at Dirk's place while he works on school stuff.  Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Budapest airport and flying to Paris around noon.  I'm pretty excited, since it IS friggin' Paris and all, so that should be nice.  I'll be there for about a week, and then most likely heading up to Lille, then Belgium and the Netherlands, before reaching Dusseldorf to take my flight to Florida on December 8th.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258065373/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258065373/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1258065373/tpod.html Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:37:31 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Budapest, Hungary

just took the bus from Bratislava... and now I'm here... relaxing at my friend Dirk's house...more posted when there's something to post...word.(no need to comment, mom...) ;)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257954780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257954780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257954780/tpod.html Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:02:21 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Bratislava, Slovakia

So yeah, I got here last night from Vienna.  The bus cost 7.70 Euros, and the lame bus driver made me pay an extra euro to put my bigger backpack in the cargo compartment under the bus... oh well.  We did arrive exactly an hour and a half later, though, from Vienna to Bratislava, passing through the airport along the way.So yeah, I arrived right on time, and then took a couple of minutes to go ahead and book my ticket for my bus ride tomorrow to Budapest (just under 6 euros, super cheap, I think).  Then I went to look for my CS host and waited...and waited...I freaked out a bit, since I couldn't communicate with her for whatever reason; every time I rang her from the public phones I would get an error message, but after about 40 minutes, and me freaking out, I was finally able to reach her via a nice man's cellphone, and she was just arriving, so we finally met up and went to her apartment, where I met her boyfriend, who was really nice as well.We hung out for a bit, playing some guitar and talking, and then went out in the freeeezing weather to a small bar with some live rock cover band playing.  We had a couple of beers and went home a bit later.Then this morning, they went to work, and I left around 11:30am or so, trying to wait out the rain, which never went away (and still hasn't gone away).  I had quite a wet day, walking around a bit of the old town, and into a really nice church and it's catacombs.Then I rested at a KFC to have some soul food and relax for an hour or so, away from the rain, and then walked a bit more, and am now finally able to get online at a restaurant with some wifi.  I'll head back "home" in about half an hour, since I should arrive by the time my host is back from work.Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain so damned much, I'll do a bit more walking, or I might just relax... better than walking around with wet feet, freezing in Bratislava... we'll see.Then, off to Budapest at night, where I should meet up with Dirk (a German friend I met in Peru who's living there now), with whom I'll stay the next week, before flying to Paris.word.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257754416/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257754416/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257754416/tpod.html Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:16:54 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Yeah, today I walked for several hours, from my host's house, through the historic downtown.  I'm a bit tired to write in all the details,but I saw lots of beautiful sights, including the Mozart house, the Stephan Cathedral (Stephandom), and just walked around the beautiful city for several hours.Tomorrow I'll go to the city cemetery where Beethoven, Brahms, and others are buried.  It's supposed to be quite beautiful.  I'll also try and visit "Schonbrün", a palace nearby.  Then on Tuesday afternoon I'm headed to Bratislava.I'll add links to pics later... bye..
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257609087/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257609087/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257609087/tpod.html Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:07:54 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Vienna, Vienna, Austria

OK, so I'm at my host's house in Vienna. Took the bus at 10:30am, as I'm sure I stated earlier, and after the change in Brno (Czech), Got to Vienna about an hour or so ago.I tried to help Erin, a friend from my TEFL course in Prague, to find the bus station, since apparently she's going right back to Prague tomorrow night, but we didn't have much luck.  So tomorrow we'll try to meet up around 10am and maybe do some sightseeing.After we said goodbye, I walked about 15 minutes or so (including me getting slightly lost) and finally was able to find Anna (my host)'s apartment. Not far at all, and it's oh so nice always to get to your destination, take your shoes off, and relax.Tomorrow I'm hoping to maybe walk around town and see what all there is to do, going to do a bit of research online.For now, just a bit of relaxing and taking it easy... sounds good :)tschuss
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257592177/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257592177/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257592177/tpod.html Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:11:12 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic

I'm actually typing this between Prague and Brno, but I will change buses a Brno, and head towards Vienna from there...I love internet on buses, but this one isn't that great, and cuts out pretty often...I'll bein Vienna around 3:30pm this afternoonword.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257555460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257555460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257555460/tpod.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:00:18 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic

So yeah, I finished my TEFL course today :)I took my final exam a few days ago, and taught my last lesson (advanced grammar - mixed conditionals, yikes), which actually went quite well... Then we all went out for some beers and food.  Had some amazing nachos with meat, cheese, etc... and a nice last czech beer.I'm not writing much since it's 2am, and I have to get up around 8am to get ready for my 10:30am bus to Vienna (16 Euros with Student Agency bus line), and arrives in Vienna at 3:30pm.I'm WAY too tired,and need go get some sleep... next time I'll be writing from Vienna.. :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257063712/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257063712/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/christianbjork/7/1257063712/tpod.html Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:23:20 -0500 First Time in Europe...

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Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic

This afternoon/evening I change address for the last time.  It's a little bit further from school, but should be no problem.  Also, tomorrow I have my "big" test, which I apparently have to pass with 100%.  Needless to say, I will be studying this afternoon before changing homes.Finally, I leave for Vienna this upcoming Friday at midnight / Saturday morning.  There you have it.
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