TravelStream™ news feed for member pyres on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/pyres en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:55:00 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1248051230/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1248051230/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1248051230/tpod.html Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:55:00 -0400 EuroTrip 2009

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Made it safely back home!
The flight was 2 hours late, because it had to stop in Halifax for refueling, but overall it was a good trip.
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Interlaken, Swiss Alps, Switzerland

Coming soon...
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Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands

Visited Montserrat today, a nice and peaceful monastery on top of a rock. It was a great break from the crowds of Barcelona, so we took it slowly and relaxed a bit. There's a famous statue of Black Madonna in the monastery, which they supposedly couldn't move, so they had to build a monastery around it.

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Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands

Covered a lot of ground today in Barcelona. Bought tickets to the tour bus, which goes around the city providing commentary in various languages. We rode 2 routes of the bus, 2 hours each. Hopped off a bus and toured Gaudi's masterpiece Casa Milà a.k.a. La Pedrera, an amazingly organic-looking house.
We had lunch at La Ramblas, the main and most famous (and most pickpocket-riddled) pedestrian street of Barcelona. The service here is uniformly horrible as far as we've seen. The waiters make almost no effort to communicate in English (most of them don't communicate at all). Bringing the bill, our waiter reminded us that the tip is not included in the bill, while it's not customary to tip here at all. Leaving we said "Gracias" to him and received no answer.. Oh, well, each country has a different culture.
After the sunset we enjoyed the amazing Magic Fountain near National Catalan Museum. It performed an amazing show with classical music, lights and streams of water.
After we caught the last subway to the hostel. Subway is a unique and tiring experience in Barcelona. Entering the subway system is similar to entering a hot sauna, there is not a single conditioner or even fan anywhere. However the trains feel like they transport refrigerated meats and not people. So going back and forth between hot and cold places, filled with people all the time can be a exhausting.
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Monaco, Monaco

Went for a day trip to Monaco today! What an amazing little country it is! It's really tiny (about 2 sq. km.), but very modern, clean, full of bustle and life. I took 512 photos there, so it is too much to describe right now.

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Nice, Provence, France

Walked to Marc Shagal Museum today. Apparently a lot of artists and poets were living and working in Côte d'Azur (a.k.a. French Riviera) and there are plenty of interesting museums around the area. The art of Shagal is very unique, lots of bright colours and diagonal lines.
After we walked to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral that was built in Nice by the widow of Tzar Nicholas I, who had her house destroyed to provide the land for the church. The building is very pleasant looking, brightly coloured and richly decorated on the outside.
Next few hours were spent relaxing on a beach, getting some tan. I swam quite a bit, it's much easier to float in the sea, since it supports more weight because of its saltiness.
After the beach we went to the old Nice, checked out the farmers' market, the narrow medieval streets, the colourful cathedral.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1247351112/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1247351112/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1247351112/tpod.html Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:32:20 -0400 EuroTrip 2009

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Nice, Provence, France

Nice is a nice little place, nothing to do here, just swim and enjoy the sun. We slept on a beach (stony not sandy unfortunately), swam a bit, then went for a stroll along the main promenades, surrounded by fancy hotels and casinos. Also seen a local gay pride parade.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1247254835/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1247254835/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pyres/2/1247254835/tpod.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:18:58 -0400 EuroTrip 2009

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Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France

Lyon is so worth spending 2 days! It's such a pleasant and beautiful place! We visited all 3 cathedrals of the Old Town of Lyon: St. John, St. George and St. Paul (they really need to build St. Ringo to complete the set =]). St. John is obviously the biggest (no offense to Paul, whom I love very much) and it houses an amazing astrological clock, supposedly the oldest working mechanism in the world (over 500 years old and still ticking!). The clock tells hour of the day, minute (on a separate egg-shaped dial for some obscure reason), current zodiac sign, phase of the Moon, year, month, day of the month, day of the week (in Georgian and Roman formats) and the list of Catholic holidays for the year. 4 times a day (at noon, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm) the clock plays a little show, which starts with triple crooning of a rooster, followed by an angel popping out of the door behind virgin Mary and a pigeon dropping from a trap door above her, followed by god blessing Mary with a jerk of the hand and a red-coated Swiss guard walking around the bell tower.
After visiting the main cathedral, we walked around the old town through a maze of narrow medieval streets and "traboules" - narrow passageways under long buildings that allow quick access to the next street.
Having traversed the old part of Lyon back and forth, up and down, we headed to a more modern area to see the regular life of the inhabitants of the city. A short streetcar ride took us to Etats-Unis (United States) neighborhood, built by a famous local architect Tony Garnier for industry workers. While the general area is pretty nice and quiet, the houses are mostly gray concrete rectangles, featureless and rather dreary.
Returning back to hotel after a long day, we had a dinner of crackers and Alpine cheese (that we bought in highland village of Gimmelwald).
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Lyon, Rhône-Alpes, France

Lyon turned out to be quite a nice and beautiful city with lots of interesting and unusual landmarks and monuments.
We spend most of the day exploring the historical Lyon on foot; walked from one end to another; climbed miles of stairs up and down the two main hills: "Praying Hill", filled with churches and various religious institutions (like Lyon's Catholic College) and topped with a magestic white four-towered Notre Dame and "Working Hill", historical home of silk workers, crazy artists and left-wing activists.

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Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

Coming soon...
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