TravelStream™ news feed for member sunnygurl on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sunnygurl en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:44:14 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186442400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186442400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186442400/tpod.html Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:44:14 -0400 The Great Road Trip - 2 girls, 1 car, plenty of luggage and 9 days of driving fun!

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Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Once we got past the border and into Vermont, the interstate was very well....repetitive. You don't see life for pretty much the entire route. It's funny because in Toronto, bad roads are so common that there are no warnings that there is a bumpy or uneven road. In Vermont, every time there is a slight change in the road there is a huge sign saying "bump". The first one I saw, I slowed down to not do any damage to the car, and we both looked at each other and said "where was the bump?".

We had a scheduled stop in Waterbury, Vermont to visit the Ben and Jerry's Factory. At the time, the rain was coming down so hard it wasn't safe to be driving. It was a good thing we had already planned on stopping at that exit, otherwise we would have gotten off anyways. We found the factory with no problems, but all of the parking was on grass. This posed a problem since it was really wet and muddy. And between the two of us we had no rain jacket and one small umbrella...hmmm. We made it to the factory and the rain had pretty much stopped. We went in and there was a crowd of people. We found out that it was going to be over an hour to wait for a tour. Since we still had a few more hours of driving we decided to pass on the tour. We walked around the main area for a bit before leaving. We didn't even get any ice cream because that line was way too long.

Once we got back on the road, there was no more rain for the rest of the drive. We continued through New Hampshire into Massachussetts. Once we got into the city of Boston, I was driving through a tunnel. There were no signs inside of the tunnel warning that there was a sharp turn. I slammed on my breaks, and because the ground was still wet, I skidded into the other lane. I was lucky there wasn't a car there. Julianne called it her Princess Diana moment.

Since I was driving, Julianne was in charge of the directions. She told me to turn left at a street, but it turned out that it wasn't a left hand turn it was just a lane that went to the left. We ended up missing that turn. Now we were in trouble. There were two lanes and one said it was going to Cambridge and I definately knew we didn't want to go there so I stayed in the other one, which turned into a main downtown street. After driving on that for a bit and freaking out because we were lost, I saw a sign that said "inbound". I didn't know where inbound was, but I figured it was better than outbound! I asked Julianne what the address of the hotel was and as we were driving along, I recognized the street name that was written on a bus shelter. I turned right, just for the sake of it, and we looked up and there was our hotel! Thank goodness for our luck. That luck was with us for the whole trip.

We stayed at the Hotel 140. There was a parking garage right next to the hotel which was convenient. We checked in with no problems, and went straight to the room. We had a tiring day, but there was no time to waste because we had dinner reservations.

We were in Boston during Restaurant Week, which is similar to Toronto's Summerlicious event. Higher end restaurants offer a fixed menu with an appetizer, entree, and dessert at a lower price. We ate at 29 Newbury which is located on trendy Newbury Street. Newbury street is full of designer shops such as Chanel, Marc Jacob, and Burberry.

We had the best meal we've ever eaten at 29 Newbury. For the appetizers I had bruschetta, and Julianne had the calamari. For entrees, I ordered the duck and Julianne had the steak. My duck was so tender and seasoned perfectly, it tasted amazing. We both finished of the meal with the brownie. This was reasonably priced at $33 each.

After dinner we took a walk through Boston Commons. There was supposed to be a movie in the park but we couldn't find it. We had had a really long day so we headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

The next morning we had booked a whale watching tour. We took a taxi from the hotel to Long Wharf, which cost no more than $10 which was much better than we were expecting (considering the taxi prices at home). We weren't sure what to expect out of the whale watching because the weather was damp and foggy. The tour was through Boston Harbour Cruises. The boat left at 10:00 a.m. and was a 3 hour scheduled tour. It took approximately an hour to get out to where the whales are located. On the boat, they have a whale watcher, who tracks data about the whales and tells you all about the whales and their habits. We were able to see 3 or 4 whales who kept coming to the surface. They were very close to the boat and it was a great experience.

By the time we got back to land, the weather and cleared up and turned into a warm day. We walked over to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Marketplace for lunch. We walked around the shops there for a bit, and we each purchased a Boston hoodie.

From there we walked up Beacon St. to the original Cheers. It was the middle of the afternoon by this time, and we were going to stop in for a drink. They had this weird rule though where if you are only coming for a drink you have to sit at the bar. Well the bar only had about 8 seats and were all full, yet the tables were all empty. Needless to say we took our pictures and left. We continued our walk, up Marlborough street to look at the houses and headed to Fenway Park.

Fenway Park was pretty cool, and it would have been nice to see a game there. After that we took a cab back to the hotel to clean up a bit before dinner.

We went to Legal Sea Foods for dinner. I ordered a sampler dish which had three small portions of fish. Julianne ordered some lobster combo. When it came to the table, we both just about died. It was wrapped in tin foil and the waiter referred to it as 'Christmas dinner'. It most definately was the size of a turkey. The guys at the table next to us couldn't stop laughing. But Julianne the trooper that she is, finished the whole plate!

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and were on the road by 9:30. Julianne was doing this leg of driving, and we somehow missed the onramp to the interstate THREE times! We kept circling around, and eventually made it on.

We drove through Connecticut into New York! Finally....we were going to New York City!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186960980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186960980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186960980/tpod.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:36:10 -0400 The Great Road Trip - 2 girls, 1 car, plenty of luggage and 9 days of driving fun!

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

We were finally headed home. We drove to the border in Buffalo, where we stopped at the duty free. It also started to rain once we got to the border. Go figure. We stopped to eat as well and then continued on home.

The trip was quite the adventure, but we made it home with no tickets, accidents or without killing each other. I think I found myself a new travel buddy. Where the next adventure takes us is unknown but I know that we'll have a great time and explore a new area of the world.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186788060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186788060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186788060/tpod.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:33:15 -0400 The Great Road Trip - 2 girls, 1 car, plenty of luggage and 9 days of driving fun!

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Grove City, Pennsylvania, United States

The drive to Pennsylvania was the longest of our drives. We drove through New Jersey to get to PA. Once we crossed the border into PA, Julianne said we had to get off at exit 29. We started to get excited because we saw a sign for exit 30...until we realized there was something blocking the second half of the sign so it was actually exit 309...we knew we had a long way still ahead of us.

We were staying at the Comfort Inn in Barkeyville, PA which was about 15 minutes away from the Grove City outlets where we were going shopping the next day. When we got to Barkeyville we realized there wasn't a whole lot to do there. We went to King's Family restaurant which was next to our hotel, and I think the only other thing in Barkeyville. When we walked in, the entire restaurant looked up at us. It seemed we were a bit out of place. We had a big diner type meal, and our bill came to less than $20 for the two of us (this even included the milkshakes we both had)! The restaurant actually had a smoking section in it, which was strange to us.

The next morning we got up early and headed over to Grove City...a shopper's paradise. We spent about 8 hours shopping. We both bought a few things, not as much as we had hoped to though.

We then headed to Perkin's to eat dinner...it felt like a repeat of the night before. It was us and a bunch of farmers in the restaurant! But the meal was good and cheap. We went back to the hotel and watched movies on tv all night long.

The next morning we went back to King's for brunch before we headed home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186615260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186615260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186615260/tpod.html Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:23:33 -0400 The Great Road Trip - 2 girls, 1 car, plenty of luggage and 9 days of driving fun!

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New York City, New York, United States

We found our hotel fairly easy. We stayed at the Best Western President's hotel. We parked outside and took in our luggage and checked in. We were told the parking garage was about 2 blocks away and we set off to find it. Because of the one way streets we actually had to drive right through Times Square! We found the parking garage only to be told that it was full. Uh-oh now we were in trouble! We continued on down the street and found the next parking garage about another 2 blocks away. They had one spot left and took the car. We headed back to the hotel, and that was when we realized how hot it was outside. We got back to the hotel and had a drink to calm us down after that drive. Then we headed out as we didn't want to waste any of our time in the Big Apple.

We went out to Times Square which was only 1/2 block from our hotel. I tried hailing a taxi and miraculously one stopped for me. We wanted to go to the World Trade Centre site, but he wouldn't take us because it would take him to long. He told us to take the subway. So we headed to the subway station and managed to find out way to the site. The world trade centre site is now under construction to build a new building and memorial site. After that we walked to Chinatown. The walk there was a little sketchy and I think we may have crossed into some neighbourhoods we probably shouldn't have been in. We finally made it to Chinatown. It is not like any other chinatown I have ever been to. It was craziness! There were a ton of fruits and vegetable stores and we didn't find many shops to buy things in. We headed up towards Little Italy. Little Italy was great, I felt like I was back in Sorrento! We stopped at a little cafe to have an iced coffee and cool down from the heat outside. When we arrived there was only one other table in the back that was occupied. The 4 guys at this table reminded me of a mob. When we sat down, I had my back to them and Julianne was facing them. As we were talking she kept looking past me at this table. I finally asked her what she was looking at and she said that she recognized one of the guys. Turns out he's from all Casino, The Sopranos and a few other mob movies. He came over and took a picture with us, seemed to love the attention!

We went through Little Italy onto Soho. I really liked Soho, it was very Trendy and had some good shopping. We continued on to Greenwich Village. We were on a side street when we heard lots of yelling and camera flashes. We walked up the block and found a ton of Papparazi. We looked and there was Amanda Bynes. She was going into a building for a party in her honour. We were having a very Star studded day in NYC.

We went and had dinner on the patio of a restaurant in Soho. We had had a really long day, so after dinner we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next day we were out the door of the hotel by 9:30 ready for our big adventure in NYC. We took the Subway to 34th and Broadway. We went to the Empire State building. We went inside but didn't go up it, as we had been up the CN Tower in Toronto before. We headed up 34th street to do a little shopping. We went to Victoria's Secret which is HUGE and then to Payless. Payless Shoes is much better in the states then it is in Canada. We went to the big Macy's store which is 11 stories. It was massive. Most of it was out of our budger but we did walk through the whole thing.

We walked back up Broadway to Times Square. We went to the Hard Rock cafe for lunch. We took a ton of pictures in Times Square. There is a ton to see there and it's just as flashy as you can imagine. We loved it. We went into the Toys R Us store because it has a ferris wheel inside of it. We also went into the M&M's store and the Hershey's Store.

After all the fun at Times Square we walked a few blocks to Rockefeller Centre. There was lots to see there, Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios, and the outdoor area where they put the rink and Christmas tree in the winter. I definately want to come back one day to skate on that rink at Christmas time. Over the summer it had been converted into a restaurant/bar.

We walked up 5th avenue to see all the high end stores. It was funny because the only one we didn't see was Saks 5th Avenue which was kind of ironic. I did go into the Apple store which was amazing! I played with the new iPhone which isn't in Canada yet.

We walked through Central Park for a bit which was really nice. There is a lot to do in Central Park and it doesn't feel like you are in the city.

After our long day of walking we headed back to the hotel to clean up before our big night out. We got all dressed up and went to the Olive Garden in times square for dinner and then to our first NY Broadway show....Mamma Mia! We loved the show and were singing along the whole time. It was the perfect day in the city.

The next morning we were leaving to go shopping in Pennsylvania. It was raining yet again, and it was my turn to drive. We had to go through Times Square again to get out, and then through the longest tunnel I have ever been in. It was crazy how long it was, just to get out of the city. We were beginning the last leg of our road trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186269420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186269420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186269420/tpod.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:48:34 -0400 The Great Road Trip - 2 girls, 1 car, plenty of luggage and 9 days of driving fun!

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

We stayed at the Maritime Plaza Hotel. We booked the hotel online and was for a great price and in a great location. It was also easy to find from the highway. After checking into the room we changed and headed out to Rue Crescent which was a block away. There was a street festival taking place that day so there was plenty to do. We walked around and took in the atmosphere and then continued on our way to McGill University. McGill is huge and has a beautiful campus although walking up the hills to get there was quite the trek. We then walked back down to Rue St. Catherine, where there is lots of shopping. We found a great all you can eat Sushi place where we ate WAY too much food. Yet still so good. We took a cab back to the hotel after dinner.

A little while later after we had digested and figured out what we wanted to do, we headed back down to Rue Crescent for a drink. Turns out the street festival was still going on and there was a free concert. We had a drink on the patio at Sir Winston Churchill's pub and then went out to enjoy the concert. We had a great time, the band played all hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. After they were finished we decided to call it a night since we had a big day planned for tomorrow.

Day 2 in Montreal we took the subway to Old Montreal. Being in Old Montreal, reminded me of being back in Europe. All the buildings, and winding roads with cobblestone drives was beautiful. We saw the Notre Dame (we didn't go in as it was busy for Sunday Mass). There was a protest against sexually abusing children taking place right outside, which kind of took away from the beauty of the building, but otherwise it was still great. We saw the Museum of Archeology, City Hall, Place D'Youville, Point-a-Calliere (birthplace of the city). We walked along De la Commune street which is along the waterfront up to Jacque Cartier place. This area was lined up with restaurants and had street performers and booths selling various items. We had lunch here where I had real Montreal poutine.

We then walked up to Chinatown where we tried Dragon Bear Candy. It looks weird but it melts in our mouth and actually doesn't taste to bad. We then took the subway back to the hotel where we went for a swim in the pool to cool down.

That night we went to Dundee's for dinner, which was a pub on Rue Crescent where we shared a few appetizers and had some Corona's. It was a perfect summer night on the patio. We went for dessert crepes afterwards which were very yummy.

The next morning we were leaving Montreal for Boston. It was pouring rain really hard that morning, and it took us forever to find a gas station. The only one we could find ended up being Full-Serve only which was actually convenient since neither of us wanted to get out in that weather to pump gas! Julianne made the horrendous drive to the Canada-US border, in the torrential downpours. We were stuck in line at the border for about an hour.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186269180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186269180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/randomtrips/1186269180/tpod.html Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:08:53 -0400 The Great Road Trip - 2 girls, 1 car, plenty of luggage and 9 days of driving fun!

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

So the day has finally come to take the long awaited road trip. Julianne picks me up and we are on the road by 9:00 a.m. This was after a bit of delay trying to fit the two suitcases in the trunk of a cavalier. We finally managed to find a system that worked. (When two girls take a trip for 10 days there is way too much clothing and shoes to bring, let me tell you). We're all packed up with snacks, the ipod, the newest Harry Potter and of course the Google Maps (these by the way were the saviour of our trip. Thank you to google for not getting us too lost!)

We made a pit stop somewhere between Kingston and the Ontario-Quebec border for Wendy's and a washroom break and then we continued on our way. The first stop was Montreal where we are staying for two nights.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1156339680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1156339680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1156339680/tpod.html Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:08:47 -0500 My adventures working on a cruiseship in the Mediterranean...

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Valletta, Malta

It was one of the hottest days of the summer I think on the day we were here and Marten wanted to take us on a walking tour of the entire city....sheesh! It is a very nice town though, and then we had a nice lunch before heading back to the ship.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1155923520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1155923520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1155923520/tpod.html Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:58:15 -0400 My adventures working on a cruiseship in the Mediterranean...

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Taormina, Italy

Went to the beach in Taormina. The sun was very hot so even though the sea in this area isn't as nice as it is in Greece, it was very refreshing! And I worked on my tan so I won't be AS white coming home as when I left.

Last night we had a sushi and wine party in my cabin. We used our connections to get both free sushi and free wine. Who knew I would ever grow to love sushi. I'm impressed with myself.

Coming home in a few days, so excited! Still haven't started packing yet. Found out that I have to have my luggage to security on the morning of the 20th. I think I'm going to have to talk about that with them, because I don't know what I'm supposed to do for the next 48 hours. (I leave on the 3rd and final day we are in Athens...everyone else is leaving the first and second day).

See you all soon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1155803280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1155803280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1155803280/tpod.html Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:52:14 -0400 My adventures working on a cruiseship in the Mediterranean...

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Livorno/Pisa, Italy

I did it! Paola, Kristine and myself went back to Pisa to take the picture properly and thanks to Andrea's tip to stand on the posts, it worked! It actually turned out kind of cool. I will post it eventually, promise.

We were super rushed though. It was a holiday in Italy that day so the trains were on a holiday schedule. We got to Pisa and had an hour and 15 minutes to get to the tower (which is about a 25 minute walk) and back to the train. We got a cab to the tower which was good, but we only had about 15 minutes to get our picture taking done in. We had planned on taking a cab back to the train station so we went to the taxi stand and there were about 10 taxis lined up. I asked if one of them could take us to the station and they told me that the taxis aren't running today. Needless to say I got in an argument with him (hello...we took a taxi there so obviously they are running). We ended up running back to the station and made it with 2 minutes to spare. What a day.

I got my flight details and apparently I'm not leaving here until the 22nd instead of the 21st as I originally thought. Anyone flown with Lufthansa before?

Countdown: 5 days (again).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1154887320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1154887320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sunnygurl/cruising_2006/1154887320/tpod.html Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:36:24 -0400 My adventures working on a cruiseship in the Mediterranean...

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Livorno, Italy

I had quite the adventure today! We are in Livorno which is the closest port to both Pisa and Florence. Kristine and I decided to take the train to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We made it there only after getting lost a few times :)

The local tourist agent at the Hospitality desk on board gave us a map to the train station and said that it was about a 20 minute walk or we could take a bus. We decided to walk....we got to the location she circled for us on the map only to discover that there was no train station there. We walked around in circles for a bit and finally asked for directions. That was interesting in itself, what with our minimal knowledge of Italian, and theres of English, but eventually we figured out that we were still about 3kms away from the train station. So we hopped on a bus. Apparently you are supposed to buy the bus tickets in advance, but we had no idea so the driver let us on for free. We got to the train station and had to wait about 1/2 hour for the next train. A round trip to Pisa only cost 6 Euros. The train ride was about 20 minutes. When we got to Pisa, we were told that the buses there were on strike (as you can tell we didn't research this much...and it's sunday which means that next to everything in Italy is closed). But the good news is that it was only a 15 minute walk to the Tower.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is very cool. It was a complete tourist area though...the rest of the town was dead except for this area. We tried taking pictures of us holding the tower up but I don't think they turned out to well. We would have gone up the tower but we only had about 20 minutes there before we had to start heading back to the ship. We did make it back though without getting lost!

Tonight is crew bingo again...think I can win twice in a row? I'm also going to dye Sarita's hair tonight...yikes, this could be interesting!

I haven't been able to upload pictures lately because the Systems Manager had to fix something on my computer the other day and he must have done something to the settings because I can't access my camera anymore...so I'm going to have to borrow someone else's computer for a bit to get to my pics.

Talk to you soon!
Shannon
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