TravelStream™ news feed for member travelbug4 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/travelbug4 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:19:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215843120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215843120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215843120/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:19:53 -0400 Off on another adventure

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Athens, Attica, Greece

WE'RE OFFICIALLY IN ATHENS!! After a harrowing experience with not knowing if we were getting back to Greece AT ALL, we got a sleeper train ticket and arrived this morning.We shared a cabin with a cool couple from San Diego and had a great time. We're now waiting in the airport for Gus' other friend to arrive from NY and should be in Loutraki, where we're staying at gus' grandparents apt, by 1 pm. HALLELUJAH!!!

And i checked my bank account....eeeeeek.

So anyway, we're here in one piece. :) and nice and tan by the way
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Loutráki, Peloponnese, Greece

So the past 2 days have been kind of a blur of sun, beach, swimming, mixed drinks, greek salad, tiropeta (cheese pie), spanikopita, frappe, sunblock, afternoon naps, ATMS, reading, adventures, watching sunsets from the beach, and taking walks on the boardwalk to people watch.

It's been incredibly beautiful and pretty relaxing. Gus lives a block from the beach and the water is so clear and blue. There are restaurants, lounges, clubs, gelato shops along the boardwalk. We're going to Ancient Corith tomorrow, check out about bungy jumping and probably go to Athens the day after. Its going so quickly but I'm having a great time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215753780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215753780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215753780/tpod.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:36:43 -0400 Off on another adventure

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Rila, Bulgaria

Yeah so thank you Gus' people for going on transit strike while we're out of the country trying to get back in. So we've absolutley LOVED Sofia and I can absolutely see myself coming back here and visiting the rest of the country and spending more time in Sofia. We spent the past 2 days hanging out with my friend Mario from Semester at Sea and had a great time. Yesterday we went to the Rila Monastary about 2 hours south of Sofia and began to really experience life outside the city. Small villages, town, gorgeous people and even more beautiful scenery. Flowing hills with towns on top and steep tree covered mountain ranges. The Monastary was gorgeous, about 500 yrs old.

We napped in the cab ride back, we traveled with a Scottish woman we met, and awoke to The Beatles. :) Made me super happy. So we get back and walk to the train station to buy our tickets for today and realize there is a strike. No trains going into or out of Greece. Awesome. So we meet some ppl who want to rent a car with us, nope! Can't take it across the border. Let's take a bus!! Twice the price. Let's just take a plane...doable but soooo tired of planes. So now we're just trying everything. Sleeper train but in a regular seat for 12 HOURS!

So we give up for a while and go and meet Mario at a traditional Bulgarian restaurant, VERY traditional. It was called the little village. We drank stuff that tasted like fire and food that was amazing. Some very good beer as well. And I thought the italians took their time eating...we got there at 745 and left around 1230!! They had live music and dancing and at a certain point EVERYONE was up dancing...especially Gus and I. We had a great time. We're very hung over now bc we went to a club after and just more drinks ensued.

Thanks again to Mario, if you see this, for being an amazing host and Bulgarian Ambassador to us "foreigners" :)

So now Gus is on his way, after breakfast, to the train station...making up for not getting up in time to catch the 630am train, to try and figure out what options are available....Train, Bus, Plane...that's the order of our options.

We'll see :)
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Sofia, Bulgaria

Wow we finally made it our 2nd to last leg of the Eastern European tour. (But as we're calling, "just a taste") Considering we've met a bunch of Australians who are traveling for a year or 2, our tour is very tiny. We got back to our hostel yesterday afternoon, one in which id highly recommend if not only for the fact of how nice they were and let us shower AFTER we checked out and let us nap also!! We then made our way to the train station, past more barking dogs, and caught the 19:53 sleeper train to Sofia. My first sleeper train, didnt know what to expect but reallllly loved it. Its pretty much a bunch of random young travelers sharing cabins and staying up till the wee hours to watch the scenery, wake up and give passports to yelling guards at border control and just thoroughly enjoy how travel used to be. I loveed it! I shared a room with a 25 yr old Aussie nurse who was just starting her 2 years abroad!! wow!! and gus stayed with an Aussie at the end of his 2 years and a Singaporean guy who was in Bucharest for 3 months for his job and wanting to kill himself ( a day in bucharest is PLENTY of time)

We got in at 630 am and just started wandering, looking for any hostel in the city centre bc Gus said its more fun this way! Well considering I had blisters from the day befores excursion, let's just say I was no happy camper. It took over an hour to find a hostel which was full and then a 10 min walk to the next which we are now at. I had all intention of calling my friend Mario who's here but fell asleep for about 2 hours first. Uh so pooped. Just keep dreaming of the beach where Gus lives that I havent even seen yet :)
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Bucharest, Romania

Yes so I'm actually in Romania now, Bucharest, and its 340am and i cant sleep. you'd think id have no problem since i was going to about 48 hours straight but i slept 3 hours and couldnt fall back asleep. There are stray dogs everywhere and many Roma (gypsy) ppl wandering around. My friend Gus is such a scaredy guy and we barely made it the 1/8 of a mile to the convenience store for water bc he was getting freaked out lol. (Though I wouldnt go by myself so I'm a scaredy cat too)

The people have been pretty helpful here...giving us the right directions and taking the correct of amt of change when we have no idea how much a RON is.

We might go into Transylvania region tomorrow but if not we'll wander around the city here. The first impression was "Wow...this is definitely a Soviet/Communist era city". I didnt take any pictures yet bc I was so focused on finding the hostel bf dark hahaha. We got here and met some Aussies and went to dinner and had a great conversation about politics, culture, travel...you know..the things ppl traveling through hostels have in common. We're sharing an 8 person mixed room with 2 French students who have been traveling for 10 months and writing articles for a travel magazine (omg i want to do that!) and got a scholarship to do it!!!!!! The Aussies are traveling a year and are a few months in.

Well i should probably try and get more sleep so I'm off. More of Bucharest tomorrow and then Sofia the next!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215478500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215478500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215478500/tpod.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:03:01 -0400 Off on another adventure

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Athens, Attica, Greece

So I arrived in Athens around 10 am and met up with Gus. We wandered around Athens for a couple hours looking at stores, getting cranky from not having slept in a while, ate feta, tomato, and olive sandwiches and drinking FRAPPE!!! So this frappe, Gus wouldnt describe it to me..only "that i needed to experience it for myself". I get this foamy iced drink and automaticaly, like any Westerner who lacks control of instant gratification to a degree, i start slurping away at it. He stops me and tells me to start from the frothy top and work my way down like a true Greek. So i go for it. Wow...what an intense coffee flavor..i thought I was getting an instant ulcer!! hahah. but so delicious. I made it last about 10 more minutes while we wander around the Omonia district, wandering in and out of random ruins that jsut spring up at the end of alleyways :)

He shows me Athens University, part of it, and he obliges me by showing me a Starbucks. I took a couple pictures like a good little tourist and we sat down and ate our sandwiches and 2L bottles of water like anyone in any starbucks in the world would do. 4.50 EUROS FOR A LATTE!!! Are they nuts! thats like 8bucks!! Now that's rediculous!

Anyway, we realize we better get going if we're gonna get back to the airport for our flight to Bucharest so we set out and get to our terminal with about 15 seconds to spare bf boarding. eeek! We get on this tiny, 2 engine aegean plane and set off for a 2 hour flight where we GOT A MEAL!!! I didnt get one for a 6 hour flight from CA to NY!!! not even peanuts!

GO GREECE!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215320940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215320940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/2/1215320940/tpod.html Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:18:16 -0400 Off on another adventure

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NYC, United States

So I'm not much for this travel log thing. Never know who's gonna look at it. Who really cares. I just seeing that it's up there. Though I might take it down tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm here at home the night before I'm off on another adventure. I will not feel guity for this. I saw friends from home tonight and almost all of them were aghast when I told them I was going away again ( I was in California a couple weeks ago). "How do you do it Joanna? Jeeez!" I do it because I love it. Becuase it feeds my soul. Because I feel whole when I've visiting a new place, seeing a new culture. I tear up thinking about it because I really feel it to be my passion. I'm also tearing up bc its very unlikely I'll be able to make any money doing this.

Anyway, so my flight is at 3:55pm and I get into Athen at 8:30am the next day. Gus will be there to pick me up and we'll wander around Athens for the day until we go back to the airport to catch a flight to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. We'll stay there overnight to the 8th, not sure what we'll be doing there and then that night take a train/bus/ who knows to Sofia, Bulgaria. From there we will meet up with my friend Mario who is interning in Sofia and will show us around!!! Sweeeet! We stay there for a few days then take a train back down, 11 hours, to Athen to spend the rest of the 4 days laying on the beach in Corith and going bungyjumping! Can not wait!

Hopefully I'll write another entry when I'm over there
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/semester_at_sea/1157085240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/semester_at_sea/1157085240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/semester_at_sea/1157085240/tpod.html Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:35:31 -0400 The voyage of a lifetime. 10 countries, 100 days. Who knows who I'll be when I return.

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400 Nautical Miles from Hawaii, United States

Hey everyone,

Still here on the boat and everthing's going well. I've met a bunch of really awesome people from all over the country and parts of the world. My roommate, Izumi, is from Japan and I've met someone from China, Puerto Rico and Spain.
This program is really incredible how it is set up. We have our Global Studies class everyday, which is partly a drag but really is going to prepare us for the countries we visit. We've most recently been discussing the future of the political and economic systems of the world and what "race" means. My Global ethics class has been pretty in-depth, my art class is fascinating learning about Chinese and Japanese culture, and my Women in World Religions...well my teacher is pretty kooky. Well most of my professors are....in a good way :).
We're arriving in Hawaii in like 36 hours which is so exciting but I'm really anxious bc that means that the adventure has really begun and I gotta start planning. Its so hard to look ahead 3 months and know where I want to be in Croatia. Im not much for the planning.
I took a bunch of cool pictures so far and I'll try to get them up here. Miss you all soooooo much.

luvvvv jo
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/semester_at_sea/1156405380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/semester_at_sea/1156405380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/travelbug4/semester_at_sea/1156405380/tpod.html Thu, 24 Aug 2006 02:56:04 -0400 The voyage of a lifetime. 10 countries, 100 days. Who knows who I'll be when I return.

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Valley Stream, New York, United States

Sitting here at almost 3 am making a last minute list of things to do, to get, to remember. Its all coming so fast. I just started really feeling how hard it is going to be so not see my family for almost 4 months. This amazing adventure has been put before me and I feel so ready for it and at the same time so unprepared. I feel I have outgrown Valley Stream, proabably have a couple years ago, and its just time to check out the rest of the world.

2 days and I'm outta here.

Time to grow up...im so excited :)
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