TravelStream™ news feed for member mira on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mira en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:32:00 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mira/israel-europe06/1148746140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mira/israel-europe06/1148746140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mira/israel-europe06/1148746140/tpod.html Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:32:00 -0400 Mira's Adventures in Israel and Europe

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Monaco, Monaco

So, somehow Freda and I ended up from that Gypsy Kings concert in Portofino to the VIP section of the F1 Grand Prix in Monaco.
Let me explain...
So Freda and I were staying in the beautiful town of Cap D´Antibes casually looking for some day work of the yachts nearby, if anything came about. This guy at staying at the hostel said that they were looking for serving staff to serve private parties on yachts at the Monaco Grand Prix. Well... it didn´t take much thought as to whether to accept that job!
In the end, we weren't working on yachts, but the private sponsor VIP lounges, which had the best views overlooking the track. Now, I am not the least bit of a car racing fan, but that was one great experience. The excitement, the noise, the speed, and all in Monaco...
Monaco... what an interesting place.
It is a principality surrounded by France. It´s own country in a sense, but still has strong ties and relations with France. It is beautiful and surreal, almost like an adult Disneyland or Vegas. It is set on a harbour, with the hills surrounding it. Built almost entirely into the rock, it has a maze of outdoor public escalators and elevators!
I took a wrong turn exiting the train station, and in the elevator discovered that I was not on the first floor, but -13! There are 13 levels of "underground" parking built into the rock. So, I rode the elevator up and found myself halfway up the mountain, with a spectacular view of the waterfront below.
Freda and I had a great time in this area, staying at a villa converted into a hostel right on the water. We were in awe everyday!
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Paris, France

In Paris right now, exploring the sites. Went to the interesting Montemarte area yesterday, with the beautiful Sacre Couer church.
Heading off to Champs Elysees now...
Home in a few days.
I will update the site with photos once I get home.
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Biarritz, France

After parting ways with Freda, I moved on to the great town of Biarritz. I got one day of surfing lessons in, but there were no waves the remaining days, so 'unfortunately' was left with the choice of just laying on the beach with a few others I met at the hostel. And going for the occasional dip, of course.
I then took at night train to Paris... not sure exactly why a night train, considering it takes double the time (!), but just wanted the experience of it!
And here I am now!
Coming back home in a less than a week...
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London, United Kingdom

I'm here in London right now, staying with Ari's friends here. On Saturday we're parting ways and I'm meeting up with my sister Freda in Italy.
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Rapallo, Italy

I'm at an internet cafe in Genoa, Italy right now with my sister Freda, who I met up with a week ago here in Bella Italia.

We've been having a fantastic time in this area, the Ligurian Coast, east of Genoa. We started off in the Cinque Terre, a cluster of towns along the coastline with trails adjoining them. A very beautiful place... but unfortunately we heard more English than Italian there, tons of Canadian and American tourists! And our hostel was the "house o' rules" with lockout during the day. But I did bump into Sam, a fellow OT from Lions Gate, which was pretty cool!

We moved on to stay in Rapallo, a small resorty town on the water. It's a great place, good size, not too touristy and resorty and we are staying at a great pension with a restaurant serving great local food.

The food in the country.... oh my... fantastic foccacia and pizza everywhere, refreshing gelatto, amazing pesto.

Luckily we've been walking A LOT... the other day we calculated that we had walked 24 kilometres in ONE day. Yes, over a half-marathon! We also happened to see a free Gypsy Kings show that day!
It was quite the day:
Went on a beautiful hike in the mountains hugging the coast, where we encountered wild boars (hideous creatures) and mountain goats. Then headed back to our town for a short rest before heading to Portafino, this ridiculous ritzy resort town, where the Gypsy Kings were playing a free concert in the centre of town overlooking the harbour. And there were no more that 500 people there! And it was quite the scene, as everyone was there for a sailing race/regatta, so you can imagine the crowd. Everyone immaculately dressed, not dancing to the music as they might be seen by others! There was a strong aroma of cigar smoke, as opposed to the typical pot smoke you smell at concerts! We felt slighty out of place, like wedding-crashers or something.

The next day, despite our exhaustion, we headed to the annual fish festival in Camoglia. A 5 metre diameter frying pan is set up for this event, with hundreds lining up for a helping of free locally caught fried fish! Luckily I still had my 'assertiveness skills' left over from Israel and was able to push through the crowds to get us a hot helping of little fried fishies. Yikes!

We're off to France tomorrow. Going to stay in Antibes in the south and try and catch a film at the Cannes Film Fest, if we can scrounge up last minute tickets.

Hope everyone is well!
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Berlin, Germany

Had a fantastic week in Berlin... what a great city!
The most memorable day there was probably our last. May Day. When thousands of locals go onto the streets to demonstrate for labour rights and other causes.
The tradition on May Day has evolved in Berlin. Initially, the day focused strictly on demonstrations and protests. Unfortunately, among those who were there for a legitimate cause, were those who just wanted to cause a ruckus. A few years ago they had major riots break out. Since then, the city decided to change the whole concept of the day. Instead of focusing primarly on demonstrations, they have made it into a full day festival on a major street that they close off to traffic.
The event started with a peaceful march, of mainly young people, who interesting enough were waiving red flags and photos of Karl Marx! Post demonstration, there were stages set up everywhere with live music, stands selling beer and food and a great vibe altogether. We met up with a crew from our hostel and had a great time just lounging on the grass, listening to the music and people watching.
It was after dark when things apparently do get out of control, with lots of angry people banding together to fight causes such as 'cop-hating'. But we were gone by then, didn't really care to partake in that!
That night, I hopped on a train to get to London, where I am right now. Staying with Ari's friends here.
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Tallinn, Estonia

After a few days in the Czech Republic, Ari and I flew to Estonia via Berlin. Why Estonia? Well, why not!

Facts and figures: Estonia is North of Latvia and Lithuania, bordering Russia to the East. The country only has around 1.4 million citizens.

Overall impression: Slightly boring but very 'pleasant'

We spent a few days in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It has a beautiful old town, with lots of good restuarants and few historical museums.

We then moved onward to Tartu, the main university town in Estonia. A VERY quiet university town. There was not a whole lot to see and do there but forntunately we caught the start of the 'student days festival'. The whole student population congregated on the centre square to watch traditional Estonian dancing and hear their university president speak (I'm a little weak on my Estonian, so didnt catch a word!) We then proceed down through the town on a torch procession led by their rodent-like mascot 'Vilem'. Definately the most exciting experience we had there (!).
Oh wait, there was the University museum we visited - didn't know waht to expect. We entered and found a room full of ancient greek and roman sculptures... but then we looked a little closer... and they were all plaster of paris replicas!

All in all, in was a relaxing few days... to charge up before the excitement of Berlin...
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Prague, Czech Republic

I met up with Alex, who was my roomate in Israel, in Prague. We stayed at a great hostel, called Sir Toby's, just a tram away from the centre of town. Spent long days out exploring the sites, in the cold!!! At one point I had to run in to a shop and buy a scarf... it was a little chillier than I expected.
Visited the Jewish museum there, which is a series of synagogues that are all clustered in an area that once was the Jewish ghetto in Prague. They had a very moving exhibit of childrens drawing all done during WWII (around 1942) when the Jews were living in the ghetto, shortly before they got shipped to Terezen, a concentration camp close to Prague. It was a very disturbing exhibit... listing 3 dates for each painting. Eg. birthdate 1934, date of drawing 1942, date of death at Terezen 1944. There were some haunting drawings of what the children experience in the ghetto, when the worse was yet to come in the concentration camp.
The Jewish cemetary there was incredible. There were tombstones from hundereds of years, all scattered about the grounds, every shape, size, condition - stacked on top of eachother, sprouting diagnolly from the ground, everything.
We were there right before Easter so there was a great market set up in the Old Town Square.
I met up with my mom's cousin and her family who live in Prague, meeting for the first time, and had a great time with them (Ari and I acutally stayed with them on a later visit to Prague).
After a few days of sightseeing and fighting the crowds, Alex and I went onward to the beautiful old town of Cesky Krumlov...
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Vienna, Austria

I woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground in the small town of Cesky Krumlov, the morning I was on route to meet Ari in Vienna.
I trekked through the snow with my pack to the bus station to get on an overcrowed steamy bus full of high school kids, to catch my train in Cesky Budjevice (the home of the ORIGINAL budweiser beer), to Vienna.
There I met Ari, where we spent a few days exploring Vienna, which is a beautiful city but not as lively as we expected. We visited the castle grounds, walked around the city, saw the Gustav Klimt exhibit (one of my all time favourite artists) and ate lots of shnitzel and drank lots of beer!
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SPINDLERÙV MLÝN, Czech Republic

Ari and I spent a couple of days in the North of Czech at a ski resort with my relatives who invited is up over Easter weekend. Unfortunately the weather was not so nice, VERY much spring conditions (rain and slush), so we just relaxed, walked around the village. It was cool to experience a ski resort in a more obscure place (a little different than Whistler!).
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