TravelStream™ news feed for member julienicholas on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/julienicholas en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:20:54 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199814300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199814300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199814300/tpod.html Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:20:54 -0500 Marrakesh Express

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Fes, Morocco

we spent  nights at todra, taking a fab day trek through the gorge which was covered with snow, managed to get through it by stepping gingerly through the iciest bits. we had tea provided by a local berber family who manage to eek out a living on the mountain. in the evenings there was drumming and dancing and a good time had by all. next stop was ait benihaddou and its famous casbah as seen in gladiator et al. there is a surprising lack of hassle in morrocco, everywhere we go people are really friendly and offer us mint tea and there have been quite q few impromptu drumming sessions along the way. oh Pip and i got our bags the morning we left fez by the way, great timing as the temperature dropped significantly after fez and the thermals ave been well used.oh...remind me to tell you my hamman story when i see you, i dont think i should write it on here as is too ridiculous and best retold in person; it actually beats my 'baby crapping on a chinese train' story for grossness, although my skin does feel lovely.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1200142200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1200142200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1200142200/tpod.html Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:01:32 -0500 Marrakesh Express

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Marrakech, Morocco

So its the last day of the trip, will be home tomorrow evening. We arrived in marrakesh 2 days ago and have taken ourselves off on a tour around the ed badii palace, medina, Majorelle walled gardens owned by yves saint lauranrt and the museum which was incredibly beautiful, probably my fave building  this trip. the hotel is a bit grotty but fortunately we have one of the rooms that doesnt smell of sewage so its not too bad!!The night before last we had dinner in the main square surrounded by snake charmers, bustling crowds, hawkers and agressive henna tatooists, the place only comes alive at night, walking through this morning the area is pretty quiet , though the  fresh orange juice stalls are already set up and hit the spot for 3dh (20p).last night was our final group dinner as some people left this morning so we did the obligatory chessy gift secret santa and I received a box which you open up and out pops a little snake, I screamed my head off in a workshop when i first saw one a few days ago much to everyones amusement so am quite pleased with it...After another shopping frenzy (though i was quite restrained compared to anna and pip) we found a fab place called  kozybar which does a very good martini and took a break from purchasing for a while to enjoy the sunset over the city, was so lovely we are going back tonight. last night we went for a dance after our meal, but alcohol is so expensive in bars its hard to get too drunk when you are paying 6 quid for a bloody mary!!anyway thats all from morrocco folks, sorry for the lack of photos i will download some when i get home as have lost the computer thingy....have some good ones though (lots of pictures of tiles!!)see you all soonJ xxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199814480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199814480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199814480/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:04:52 -0500 Marrakesh Express

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Essaouira, Morocco

hiya, am in essaouira on the beach and have just bought lovely green shoes. yesterday we spent the night at a gite in the high atlas and it was freezing. the trek up was difficult because of the ice and everyone was very good and took it in turns to hold my hands when i started screaming on the way back down this morning as i have no tread in my boots and kept sliding around. we left the gite 2 hours ahead of schedule as it was too dodgy to do the trek and arrived in lovely essa early instead, much warmer and lots of shopping to be done.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199212560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199212560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1199212560/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:52:23 -0500 Marrakesh Express

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Fes, Morocco

happy new year everyone!Day 4 and pip and julie are starting to smell...not really we are keeping ourselves clean and presentable ...just. Good news is our brill Intrepid tour leader Siobhan has arranged for our bags to be picked up from the airport today and brought to fes tomorrow as the driver taking us to the atlas mountains tomorrow is coming from marrakesh. so we know he has managed to pick up our bags already and they are en route hooray!! we visited the roman ruins of volubilis yesterday before catching the bus to fes for our big night out... new year was fab although was hell deciding what to wear, in the end i just went in what i was already wearing...although i did get to borrow nice toiletries and straighteners from some of the girls in our group to spruce myself up a bit.We had a 6 course banquet in a gorgeous riyadh in fes medina and all went up to the roof top terrace with an outstanding view of the city to see in the new year with the cheap champagne pip and i bought from the bottle shop accross the road from our hotel. Today we have had a day long tour in the medina with local guides, bought some nice red shoes fro, the leather store; a gorgeous silk throw and so,e nouget so a, happy. quiet night in tonight as we leave for the atlas early tomorrow. i cant access my email by the way
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1198951500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1198951500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/2/1198951500/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:32:40 -0500 Marrakesh Express

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Casablanca, Morocco

apologies for typing letters on keyboard in different order to home...So arrived at gatwick with minutes to spare and not feeling too happy when told that all rucksacks must go to oversized luggage, where the vacant stare of the man in charge surrounded by bags on the floor gave us our first hint that there may be trouble ahead. We landed in Marrakesh on ti,e; but our luggage did not. Here is my ode to an airline...sorry about the swearing....Damn you easyjet damn you to hellyou have lost my caseand now I must tell  ...my rucksack is in marrakeshbut I am in casablancaf*ck you easyjetyou are a w*nker!no cotton buds, no trousersno straighteners, no socksno penknife, no toiletrieseasyjet are c*cks!!I have relied on the generosity,friendship and pityof total strangers becauseyour airlines so shitty...hope you like itam so angry because we had to get to casablanca that day and the only guarentee was that they would get our bags to us the next day in marrakesh!! grrrrrthe girl at the airport said that she would try to get them on an internal flight to casa but could only tell us if she had the next day around noon. this meant we couldnt go to rabat with the group though we did go see the gorgeous mosque; the market and had a lovely freshly cooked fish lunch in the market when we received the news that our bags were staying put in marrakesh.we had to get to meknes so off we went on the train, really annoying woman in our cabin who wouldnt shut up but she gave us some dates to eat so it was ok. the group arrived after us as they had spent the day in rabat so we had ti,e to purchase our new wardrobe; socks; pants; t=shirt toothpaste, shampoo and toothbrushes...had a great meal out that night lovely salad and tagine and the local wine is pretty bloody good, so drowned our sorrows and hoped our socks would be dry by the morning!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1153080600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1153080600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1153080600/tpod.html Thu, 05 Apr 2007 03:54:02 -0400 Three continents, six months

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Newport, United Kingdom

Julie Nicholas
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1173290520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1173290520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1173290520/tpod.html Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:25:21 -0500 Three continents, six months

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Dublin, Ireland

Having a couple of days in Dublin with Gary and Jo. Today Gary and I took a boat trip around the harbour and beyond,which involved dressing up head to foot in waterproof gear although we remained perfectly dry, was a good laugh though. I fly home tomorrow, last time I will be on a plane for a while, well until I go to Shannon at the end of the month anyway....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1172654760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1172654760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1172654760/tpod.html Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:45:04 -0500 Three continents, six months

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Beijing, China

Am in Beijing....Yesterday we arrived at the station at 6am, got to our Hotel (City Cntre Youth hostel- not bad), and left again at 9am. First stop Tiananmen Square. Our Chinese tour guides dont seem to have any idea of the iconic significance of the square with regards to flags and tanks imagery, to them its famous because its the biggest square in the world. Not surprising really I suppose 'the News' here isn't exactly objective; bad things seem to happen abroad but not in China, unless its an act of God or absolutely nothing to do with the government! This morning for example there was a news items about a fall in the chinese stock market which featured an interview with a woman on the street cheerfullly stating the fall didn't bother her in fact she was going to buy more shares because now they were cheaper. The only english channel TV station has been featuring an 'english language competition' that culminated a couple of days ago with a 'heated debate' about the future of the world, the focus of which began and ended with how best to enforce population control, which seems to be a Chinese obsession.After the Square we went to the Forbidden City with our Beijing guide Vivian. Unfortunately the 2 main palaces were surrounded in scaffolding being tarted up in time for the olympics. I had read about the national utcry the opening of starbucks had triggered in this world heritage centre, and it seems my journey from lefty feminist to capitalist pig is now complete as I sat in the Forbidden city hugging my Latte. The City was interesting, lots of little courtyards and annexes for the different members of the royal household. We walked to the Hui Ling centre for lunch prepared by the students there. It is a day centre for people with learning disabilites, and our tour agency Intrepid sponsors them. the students put on a show for us after lunch, and we all took a calligraphy class (I was brilliant of course having already studied this art earlier in the trip for a full hour). Outside the Forbidden city, but within the Beijing city wall was the area that housed the Emperors administrative population . The governemnt workers were all of Manchurian descent as was the Emperor, after we left the Hui Lin project we took Rickshaws around the old quarter for half an hour and were dropped off at someones house to have a look around (was a bit odd to have a 5 minute walk around someones home, though maybe some of you already offer the same service to tourists back home). Then back on the rickshaws and a taxi to the hotel. That bight we went to see the Shoulin Kung Fu show, which was excellent, and we got to sleep- hooray as had survived on about 2 hours sleep from the train the night before.Up for a 7.30am start to the Great Wall today. We went to the Simatai section which is supposed to be the most 'architecturally interesting' and it was pretty gorgeous. The cable car was shut for the winter, so we walked up a steep path for hal an hour, a frozen resevoir, and reached the wall. Fortunately I bought a 'great wall' wooly hat from a bloke in the carpark, so as well as looking just like a native I was quite warm.We kept going past the gates, numbers dwindling along the way as it was pretty hard going and cold. A lack of other tourists and some snow falling all added to the serene atmosphere. I was followed for the entire time by a 'local guide' so had to buy something from him at the end as felt bad, actually turns out the book I bought for about 3 quid has got some stunning photo's in it so quite pleased.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1173079260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1173079260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1173079260/tpod.html Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:35:46 -0500 Three continents, six months

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Newport, United Kingdom

So this is the last section of the blog and the final map pin to complete the circumnavigation; can you believe it?Dad and Maggie picked me up from Heathrow last night (slight delay as Beijing woke up to couple of inches of snow) and I arrived home yesterday evening.I tried to stay up late last night to combat the jet lag, but was still wide awake at 5am this morning :(. Want to go and see the new Newport foot bridge later- very exciting!!!My mum had brought down all the packages I posted home over the last 6 months- God, I have bought so much crap, and have no choice but to share it with some of you if I ever want to be able to see the carpet in my house again, just pretend you like it. Am off to Dublin tomorrow (I love flying soooo much!) to visit Gary and Jo for a couple of days as wont get to see them til the wedding otherwise, so will phone people when I get back, probably over the weekend. Anyway thanks for reading and keeping in touch, and yes it was all worth it; the trip of a lifetime was a blast!Julie xxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1172139540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1172139540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/julienicholas/world06-07/1172139540/tpod.html Mon, 26 Feb 2007 04:01:40 -0500 Three continents, six months

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Shanghai, China

Hello, we arrived at Shanghai yesterday morning after a much nicer night train where there were no defecating children or awful seats- sleepers all the way thank god. Yesterday was spent seeing the town, which is chocabloc, it still being new year,  shopping (as this is the shopping/financial centre of China) and Kathleen getting her foot run over by a taxi. We went to the hospital as I thought an x-ray would be a good idea, and fair do's we were in and out in under an hour (no fracture luckily), a damn sight quicker than any hospital back home would be and Kathleen learnt a valuable lesson; cars only stop in Shanghai if they feel like it even if their traffic light is red and the pedestrian crossing is green, so alls well that ends well. Most of us then went to see the Shanghai acrobats, who were very good, but the stage design and musical direction needs some work- you can imagine my delight when not only were we favoured with Celine Dion singing the theme from Titanic start to finish, but in the background Jack and Rose actually flew over the sea for 10 minutes of the film, somewhat changing the focus of the piece away from the amazing feats of the on stage performers, to my own personal cinematic hell.Today we took a trip to Wuzhan, a 'water town' 2 hours from Shanghai, very pretty and of course crowded with tourists, although we are generally the only western ones wherever we go, so lots of staring naturally. Tomorrow we go to the useum, then 1 more day before we hit Xian, and I finally get to see the Terracotta warriors- hooray!------------------------Last 2 days in Shanghai; Had coffee in the Grand Hyatt hotel cafe in the Jin Mao tower, a damn sight more civilised than a 2 hour queue to go to the observation tower and the views just as good (yet another tall building!!!!), wandered around the shops and went for dinner to the Brasil restaurant, managed to have incompetent taxi drivers there and back, meant we arrived everywhere much later than the others and went the 'long way' round,  finally we all had evening drinks in the YHA bar, overlooking the Bundt. The15 hour train to Xian, was ok as we were able to watch the pilot episode of classic 70's series wonder woman which gary and guy had bought from a street trader. They kindly set up on their lap top for us to watch it. Certainly explains alot- did you know she was an amazon who left her female-only utopia to help the americans fight the nazi's? I always thought she had some kind of accident with a nucleur reactor or came from another planet like most super heroes... hmmmmmm.
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