TravelStream™ news feed for member nicolettacat on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nicolettacat en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:08:00 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151754900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151754900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151754900/tpod.html Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:08:00 -0400 Nico travels over seas to partake in many wild adventures

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Cinque Terre, Italy

After leaving Ian the Irishman, we boarded a train from Pavia to Monterosso, the most northern town of the Cinque Terre (5 lands). On the train were were all checking out the bites I'd gotten the night before. I'd say about 50 altogether, no joke. We also realized that both of my ankles were swollen up like ballons and it felt like someone was squeezing my ankles and pulling on them. It was going to make the hike a little more difficult I knew. After some confusion, about where we could lock up our big backpacks, and finding food to bring on the hike (we decided we were going to camp out, another free night of lodging!) we jumped in the water for a swim in Monterosso, and at about 2 we were on the trail. Boy was it hot, and those first 2 towns were by far the roughest. Many a many steps. But oh boy, the views were breathtaking. In a way, it reminded me of Big Sur with the cliffs over looking the ocean. There were also soem vineyards along the hillsides. With it being later in the day, were didn't have to fight for the trail with two many hikers. When we got to the second town, we swam there as well. After having swam way out to these rocks, me and Conar got out and sat on this little pier where boats tied up. When we decided to swim back to the beach, I tried climing into the water via the rocks, and slid right into what I think was a sea urchin. I thought this because when we made it back to the beach, there were tons of needles sticking out of my toes! I pulled out what I could, with a little bleeding, but I was just fine. That night, near sunset, between the 3rd and 4th town, we hopped a gate to an old abandoned house and made out way down to the rocky beach. I climbed a tree and hopped some sketchy fences, somehow I did it. We ate some bread and jam and drank a bottle of wine that Conar had bought us and later on tried to get some sleep on the hard rocks. It was quite an uncomfortable and cold night, but how many times do you get to sleep at the foot of the Meditteranean Sea?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151753520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151753520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151753520/tpod.html Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:51:02 -0400 Nico travels over seas to partake in many wild adventures

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Pavia, Italy

In Munich, we gained a new travel buddy, Dave. He was staying at our hostel and we all became better friends at the Hofbrauhaus. He decided to come to Italy with us. That next morning, on the 30th, we jumped on a train heading to Milan towards La Spezia, which is close to Cinque Terre, a sort of national park. What it is, is 5 towns that you are able to hike to. All in all it's about a 5 mile walk. It's on the coast of Italy, overlooking the Meditteranean Ocean. Anyways, once we boarded our train from Milan to La Spezia, we happened to end up in a room with an Irish fellow named Ian. He'd been living in Italy the past 6 years teaching English to Italian managers of companies. He was quite put out that the trains were all running late and he was going to miss the Italy vs. Austrailia game. He suggested we stop in Pavia (sp) to watch the game with him, since there was no way were were going to find a hostel in La Spezia by the time the train finally got there. So he took the 4 of us Americans in for the night and we watched the game, discussed music, drank too much beer, and of course, went out for a late night pizza. The streets were wild with proud Italians, with Italy having beat Austrailia. Ian informed us that Pavia was one of the hottest places in Italy, with the worst mosquito problem. What an understatment. They ate me alive!! At about 4 in the morning we all settled down for a few hours rest before we hiked Cinque Terre in the morning!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151666400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151666400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151666400/tpod.html Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:32:09 -0400 Nico travels over seas to partake in many wild adventures

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Munich, Germany

After leaving Svens in Braunschweig, we hopped a train to Munich, the motherload of the World Cup. Sadly, the 2 days we were in town, there were now games...None the less, we stumbled around Munich, visiting the famous Glockenspiel and the English Gardens. It's quite a lovely city. It starting rainging in the afternoon, so that made things kind of rough, but around 6 or 7 we'd made our way to the infamous Hofbrauhaus beer hall and restaurant. Oh boy, what a party it was in there! They sell beer by the liter, so you can only imagine the chaos this entails. I orded the pork knuckle and I got to eat meat off the bone like a savage. It was great. After a couple of rounds, we noticed some old English guys who were making quite a ruckus over the English football team. They were yelling and singing, and eventually joined the table behind us and had the whole beer hall going nuts. Someday, ask to see the pictures...hilarious. There was a big brass band of old Germans who made the place just that more lively. After a couple of hours, we headed over to a blues club with some German guys we met, and later on the way back to our hostel were pulled over by a van of Polizei! They demanded to see our passports, felt up Dylan, and let us go on our merry way. By 1:30 we were sleeping sound in our bunks....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151492940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151492940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151492940/tpod.html Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:31:46 -0400 Nico travels over seas to partake in many wild adventures

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Braunschweig, Germany

So after meeting up in Paris with Dylan, we did a fancy dinner at a nice French restaurant and then went up the Eiffel Tower on the last ride of the night. It was raining and from the very top, it was so cloudy, you could only see bits of the city lights! At about 8:45 the next night, we boarded a night train to Braunschweig to visit Alex's friend Sven. We arrived early the next morning and Sven showed us around town for most of the day. We visited his English class at his school...we were like subjects on display, it was weird. That night, after watching the game, France against someone, Sven took us to a club. We all had a great time and somehow, all got back to Sven's apartment allright! Thanks to Sven for taking care of us all so well on our visit there! Iche lieber Deutschland!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151185380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151185380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1151185380/tpod.html Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:09:31 -0400 Nico travels over seas to partake in many wild adventures

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Paris, France

So, we are here in Paris on our second day. We rode the Eurostar from London to Paris yesterday morning. When we arrived, we wandered around the train station for a bit calling several hostels to book a room. Almost every place was booked! Finally, we were referred to the Hotel Utrillo, right in the Montmartre area of town. Right when we came out of the metro station in to the daylight, BAM! there was the Moulin Rouge. Quite unexpected to say the least. It was new and different to have our own HOTEL room, and we liked it. We had a sneaking suspicion that Alex's credit card HAD made a reservation at this one hostel near us, so we left Conar napping to go figure it out. After getting very lost, FINALLY finding it, and making our way back (getting lost again), about 3 hours had gone by. But hey, we sure got to see a lot of town! When we rendezvous'd with Conar later, we head out to find something to eat, we were very hungry from only eating in the morning. We found this great crepe place right up by the Sacre Coeur (right in our neighborhood!) and we grubbed out on the huge set of steps overlooking the city. It was unreal. We trekked back to our room a bit later, of course not before getting a half pint of icecream to share on the way! We enjoyed our 'glace' in the comfort of our own room while watching the France vs. Togo World Cup game. Both times France scored, we could hear all of Paris yelling with excitment. At first we thought it was coming from the T.V., but realized it was coming from the streets and bars. Shortly after, we all crashed out, after having woken up at 5 to catch our Eurostar train, and barely sleeping our last night in London!

On Saturday morning, we woke up to enjoy our FREE breakfast here at our Hotel. Hard boiled egges, cheeses, croissants and fresh apple sauce. It was beautiful. Some time later we head out towards Nortre Dame Cathedral. Boy do those Paris metros stink!! After a bit of wandering around the area, guessing what might be Notre Dame, but knowing it was much greater and bigger, we FOUND it, glaring at us in all it's glory. It was huge! Conar fed the birds bread in his hand as me and Alex got several shots of the place. We headed over towards the front to go inside, but it was closed until 2 for something. To kill some time, we headed for a cafe to quench our thirst, Conar bought a Cuban on the way. He was amped. We enjoyed some pricey limonade and pizza and shot the shit for awhile, talking and people watching. Later we headed back to the Notre Dame and explored the inside. Nice stained glass for sure. We wanted to go up to the top, but there was a huge line and it cost money, so we decided we were gonna be going up on the Eiffel Tower tomorrow, so we skipped it and walked down the the River Seine instead. Crazy Conar decided to go for a swim and gave some onlookers a great show. He said it was refreshing, but tasted a little funny. It was such a beautiful day, so we just sat on the ledge for awhile. Later on, we rode the metro back towards our side of time, and decided to find a shop where we could buy some fresh french baguettes and Nutella. Alex also bought some fresh strawberries from a fruit stand. What a delicious and cheap dinner! Plus, it was Alex's first Nutella experience and she enjoyed it. After a great little nap, we're going to head out now and just take a walk and explore. We head out to the other side of town to another little Hotel near the Eiffel Tower. Dylan is meeting up with us from Nice, and we will head out to Germany with him. Bon soir!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1150847400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1150847400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nicolettacat/europe_2006/1150847400/tpod.html Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:01:44 -0400 Nico travels over seas to partake in many wild adventures

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London, United Kingdom

Soooooo....we're here at our hostel in London (St. Christopher's Village) It's pretty awesome in here and the people of London (and Canada!) have been muy helpful to us so far. After a minor "situation" at the airport, we found each other and we headed down to the underground to go exchange some Chunnel tix. After that, we rode the underground to our hostel which is right next to the London Bridge station. After a clothes change (man we STUNK!) and a brushing of the teeth, we headed out into the city to buy Conar some socks (he REALLY stunk). Haha. After some wandering and popping in and out of shops, we found this tower that you could pay to walk up to the very top. Even though we were super tired and jetlagged, we payed the £2 and did it! 310 steps and all, but man the view was great. Gave us a good insight to just HOW the city looked and how big it was. After finally finding some socks, we decided to head back towards the hostel for some grub and R&R. On the way, we stumbled upon a fish and chips place. After many questions (what's a shawamba?) and a great salesman (he lowered his prices for us!) we ended up with some cod and chips and some shawamba wraps (lamb). We took the food back to the hostel, hoping to catch a world cup game on the big screen while we grubbed. Well, I've got to admit, we're all pretty tired, so I'm gonna wrap it up. Plus, this is the second time I've written this...the last one was erased. Until next time pals--Nicoletta
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