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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      111

      Venice to Salzburg

      15 april 2024, Oostenrijk ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      Today, we are leaving Italy for Austria. I'm actually pretty excited to be leaving Italy. I thought it was awesome, full of amazing food and scenery. I'm definitely not a fan of the Italian people though lol. Actually, though, 8 days in Italy was more than enough for me. A man can only eat so much pasta before it gets old. Plus, it's time to add a new country to the list. The first little while in the coach, the scenery really reminded me of BC a little bit. There were rivers that branched out into small streams with some blue ass water, and we were surrounded by mountains. Definitely not as nice as the ones at home, though. It was still so beautiful, though. We got to a check stop right inside of austria, and immediately, I could tell the difference of where we were. It was cool. It was really cool to see how fast everything changes with just a two hour drive. At the check stop, I got my first schnitzel with fries. It was really good, especially just for check stop food. Something else that changed abruptly is the weather. It be kinda chilly over here. Despite that, we ate outside and enjoyed the views. We got back on the coach for the next little bit of the ride. Pearse and I are still sick, so we both tried sleeping on the coach. Pearse managed to pass out pretty quickly, which kinda sucks because he missed the entire drive through the Austrian alps. It was breathtaking, but I also didn't want to wake him up because any rest at this point is huge. I was trying to write yesterday's post while we were driving through there, and I just couldn't focus. I love the warm weather in the beach cities we've been to, but nothing beats the views of the mountains. These are the only mountains I've ever seen that are almost as beautiful as the ones at home. After a few hours of me taking shitty pictures out of the bus window, we were getting close to the hostel when bec told us this hostel has been ignoring her all day and she has no idea what's going to happen when we get there. We pulled up in a rush because some people were doing the sound of music walking tour. I didn't do it because I'm not a fan of musicals and don't really care lol. I was just gonna walk around with some people. Well, the alternative was we had to sit in the lobby for almost 2 hours while the dude at the desk called corporate office to figure out the rooms. Once we finally got sorted, I went to my room to shower before Pearse got back from the tour. He came back pretty quick after I got out, so I asked how it was. I found out they only briefly talked about the sound of music, and she just gave a breakdown of the history of Salzberg. I was actually pissed off. I just sat on a couch waiting around instead of learning. Pearse was nice enough to take one of the lads with us and show us where the tour went and told us about what he learned. We walked, throwing a nice garden that was built with perfect symmetry than through the old Town Square, the old rich and poor areas. Pearse told us Salzberg had problems with flooding, so the farther you lived from the river, the more well off you were. We then saw Mozarts birthplace, and Pearse told us a bit about his life. I didn't know he died in his mid 30s and, it was because he spent the last 17 years of his life traveling in a horse carriage writing music. He was super sick and couldn't get rid of it (sounds familiar), so he started taking a cocktail of drugs. He was taking opioides and emphetamines for his pain. After that, we made our way to an ancient graveyard, Pearse didn't make it here yet. We walked around for a little while, trying to find the oldest headstone we could. I think we found one from the 1500s, but I think most of the graveyard was closed by the time we got there. The church bells were ringing as we were walking through. It was pretty eerie, actually. It made it feel like a movie lol. Tonight is Cass's birthday, so we have another night out planned, we went for dinner with Nathan before meeting up with everyone. We all pregamed in the hostel a little before we left for the bars. Pearse ended up staying back to drink at the hostel with a few people who decided not to come out. Austria only has a population of 8 million people with Salzberg at about 150000 people. Basically, it's not a party city lol. We walked for 30 minutes to get to the first bar, stopping to pay some respects to the GOAT of compossers. We walked into the first bar, and we were the only ones there, so we just grabbed a beer and left. At least there were 20 of us we bring the fun. We tried a few average bars until we found this tiny little place with one guy working. It was by far the best place we went. Pearse called me up around 2am and him and Nick walked on down for a few brewskis. We left pretty late and walked back with Cass. It was so windy and cold and i was wearing a hoodie and jeans. Cass was wearing a crop top and light pants lol. She absolutely froze the entire walk back. We only have a day in Austria, but it's up there for one of my favorite places I've been to, I'll definitely come back one day.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      11221

      Venice

      14 april 2024, Italië ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      Another early morning this morning because we had to catch a ferry from the main land to the island for our gondola ride through the canals of Venice. We were told this hostel would have the best breakfast on the trip. Yeah, that's not true. It doesn't come anywhere near the Sorrento breakfast lol. The eggs were really watery, and the bacon was slimy and the opposite of crispy. It definitely needed a couple more minutes. They did have yogurt and granola, though, so that's good enough for me. We all got on a train to get to the ferry, both of which were chaotic experiences. Especially finding the right ferry for all 30 of us. Once we finally got there, the first thing I noticed was how many people were on the island. It was packed. We had to speed walk through the crowds of people who walk like their on a Sunday stroll. I actually hate slow walkers. Because it was already 24 degrees at 10 am, Pearse and I had to put sunscreen on, and we were still walking faster. We were broken up into 6 groups with 5 people per boat. The boats are pretty small, so everyone got to know each other pretty well. Maybe some of us got a little too comfortable lol. Despite the boats being small when we passed another boat, we were uncomfortably close to the wall, and the other boat it was so narrow. I really liked the metal jutting out from the front of the boat. It could have been on some warships lol, they were intimidating. They looked like an axe head almost. After the gondolas, we had all day to tour around and see what's up. There was a dinner that Pearse and I didn't sign up for. Bec gave us a challenge where we had to make a collage of different photos. So we got lunch and started getting our photos ready while walking all around Venice. We managed to kill about 3 hours when we met up with a bigger group for some cocktails in the sun. The 8 of us hung out until some of them left for their dinner. The rest of us went to go find a different bar. In hindesite, that was a mistake because we couldn't find anything cheaper or big enough to fit all of us. While looking, Pearse saw an £22 screwdriver. That's actually fucked up lol. After aimlessly walking for what felt like hours, we got back to the original bar. When we got there, everyone was too tired from drinking in the sun to even speak. We just sat there staring off into the distance or on our phones. I really liked Venice, but I don't think we needed 12 hours there. It also doesn't help all we had for lunch was a charcuterie board split between 3 of us. Venice was just too expensive. We took the ferry back to the mainland to catch a train where we finally got to mcdonalds. We rocked up to the hostel with our food and just sat outside with a group just chatting and chilling out. Overall, it was a really fun day, but the sun really drains you.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      1

      Rome to venice

      13 april 2024, Italië ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

      Today, we are leaving 14 others in Rome, but we gained 5 new ones. I'm excited to have a smaller group. 42 people is probably too many. I felt bad for the new people because everybody got on the bus hungover, sick, and had no sleep. There wasn't a whole lot of people introducing themselves or even talking lol. Today was a really long day on the coach. We stopped in a city called Verona. The city style wise was similar to Rome but definitely not as cool. It has Europe's 3rd biggest amphitheater there. After seeing the colleseum, it was a little lame lol. The coolest part is that they still use it for entertainment once in a while. The city is also known for Juliets balcony and statue. People visit Juliets statue to grab on her tiddies it's supposed to be good luck to grope her. We checked it out and looked, but there were so many people touching her. Over all the years of people touching the statue, it is completely miss coloured on her chest. The only thing I could think about were the germs. We collectively decided to pass on it because we weren't feeling good and didn't want to sit in line just to contract pink eye or something. Instead of sightseeing, we just sat and had a coffee with our friend Nick to kill time before we had to leave. This definitely helped the hangover but not the raging cold. There's absolutely no way we get over this cold while on the Contiki tour. It's impossible. After a couple of hours in Verona, we were off to the hostel. We got there around 8:00. We were told to stay in the hostel at night because outside the hostel at night was a little sketchy. There was no need to even leave the hostel because there's a club downstairs in our hostel. I thought this club was only open to the people staying there, but it turns out anybody can come in. There was so much security in the hostel that it was kind of crazy. We got to our hostel, and it just happened that 2 of our roommates were the new guys. They both seem cool it's a good way to get to know them. Ones Canadian and the other is Kiwi. The Kiwi came with a lady everyone assumed was his girlfriend, but their actually exs. They booked the trip together while they had different partners as well. They get along, which is good, but it's a really strange situation lol. He says they will not ever get back together, but I don't believe them. Pearse and I went for some sushi with just the 5 new people, and they all seem really cool. After we wrapped up at sushi, it was time to welcome them to the crew by going to the club. You could hear the music from around the block and all through the hostel, so it was a disappointment when we showed up and it was dead. Slowly, the urge to party was disappearing. Right before we were gonna call it a night, it started getting wild inside. Unfortunately, neither of us was really feeling it anymore lol. Pearse went up to bed around midnight, and I stayed for about an hour and danced for a while before I had enough. We packed it up pretty early because we have a big day in the canals of Venice tomorrow. Not a huge picture day forsureMeer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      11

      Rome and Vatican

      12 april 2024, Vaticaanstad ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      My Brothers 23rd birthday in Rome, WHAT? We both went to bed pretty early last night so we could get up early today. We wanted to spend our entire free day in Rome just walking and sightseeing. By 1030 it was already 24 degrees! We bought sunscreen back in Madrid, so we sat at a Café lathering it on. We picked a few monuments on Google maps we wanted to see and bought tickets for the Vatican Museum and sistine chapel for 3:00! After a coffee, we began our treck. It was so hard to stay focused on our original plan because every street has something mind blowing on it. We managed to make it to the pantheon, which was super cool. The pantheon dome is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. It was built in 126 AD. That's pretty insane to me. We didn't go inside because we wanted to see as much as possible. Next, we went to Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. This building isn't as old (built in the 1800s), but it was just as impressive. This building was made for one reason. It's just a monument to the first king of a unified Italy. Maybe over the top, maybe not. The statues outside were some of my favorites I've seen on this trip. They're so big and just so impressive. Inside, there is a soldier buried somewhere named the unknown soldier. He's named that because he was so badly injured in the Great War that he was unrecognizable. They buried him in there to represent all the lost lives of Italians. I thought that was pretty cool. Next was the trevi Fountain. I thought the colleseum was busy. I've never seen so many people on one street. We just pushed our way through to get right up to the fountain. If dudes with rifles weren't on stand by, I'd go for a swim. It was so hot it was almost 30 degrees. After taking a few photos of the fountain, we stopped for a much needed beer and sandwich. Right across the street was the place ceasar was assinated. So yesterday, we got to see where he was cremated, and today, we saw where he was killed. We had to continue on the main goal, the Vatican. We had to meet the group at 230 so we needed to be early. Walking outside of the Vatican, we saw so many people lined up waiting to get in. Jokes on them we had skip the line tickets. It feels good walking past all of them lol. We got into the museum and had to go through another airport like security check. Once we got through, the first thing we saw was an ancient Egyptian museum. We read that one of the popes just thought they were dope, so he opened a museum for them in the Vatican. We saw tablets and artifacts from almost 2000bc. There were even mummy's which were so cool. We wondered through the museum, looking at different eras through time. This museum was massive. It had everything from the Egyptians to van Gough paintings. After walking around for a few hours, we finally got to the sistine chapel. The sistine chapel was probably one of the only reasons I wanted to go to the Vatican, so I was really excited. Even though everything before was awesome, I don't think anything there beats the sistine chapel. It was so beautiful inside. I tried walking in with my camera out, not knowing you couldn't record or take pictures, so the guy immediately told me not to. Sucks to be him because I took like 40 pictures and videos. It was so strict that you weren't even allowed to talk inside. The detail and depth in the painting are so cool to see in person. There were parts that looked like it was 3D pictures dont do it justice. We stood in the middle of the room for about an hour before we left. Another country under our belt in 4 hours lol. I've officially been to the two smallest countries in the world. We took the train back towards the hostel. That was an experience. They only have 2 or 3 train lines because anytime they try to excavate, they find more ruins underground. The train cars we packed with sweaty Italians and about 10 minutes away, 2 guys walked on with a speaker playing their music. It was my nightmare. Rome is the only place I've been so far where I felt like if I'm not careful, I'll get my pockets picked. Obviously, nothing happened. It's just me being paranoid. After the museum we went to pearses birthday dinner. We went to this nice place, just a block away from the hostel. We split a pitcher of beer, and I had some carbonara for dinner. Today we are feeling better so we could actually taste the food and it was so good. I had panocatta for dessert again because it's too good. Becs planned a big celebration at the bar across the road from the hostel for Pearse's birthday. The theme was "shit lemon shirt" because of sorrento and at a bar called yellow bar. I think Pearse and I won best dressed for sure lol. We both bought cheap dresses there, and some of the guys were supposed to do it with us, but only one other guy did. It's crazy when I cross dressed I got more compliments from women than I have my entire life. Also, thanks to a random guy for ruining with Pearse Nick and i The bar was so much fun. We played beer pong and foosball downstairs danced and socialized with people who were leaving the next morning to go back home. It's kind of sad seeing some of the people go. Good ridens to a couple, though.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      1

      Sorrento to Rome

      11 april 2024, Italië ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      I can confirm that the contiki cough is stronger than copious amounts of wine. The cold just keeps getting worse. For some reason, instead of having a sore throat, my tongue hurts. I couldn't even swallow any water. That mixed with a hangover, and another long day on the bus creates a miserable morning. We had to be on the coach at 7:30 this morning, and we woke up a little late. Not too late, though. Pearse said he needed a shower before we left, I thought he just wanted to stand under some cold water to wake up and maybe feel a little better. At 715 he was still in the shower, and his bag still wasn't organized. I started banging on the door, telling him the time, and we needed to go. Over the water, he couldn't hear, and I thought his response was okay. So I went downstairs to drink some water and juice. I wasn't feeling good enough to eat breakfast. I went back up about 10 minutes later, and he was still in the shower. I basically broke the door down, banging on it. While he was drying off, I started putting random shit in bags, and he came out to help me. We ran downstairs and ran to the pickup spot. It turns out he thought the bus was leaving at 8. Again, though, we made it, and everything was alright. Except neither of us had a drop of water. Our first stop was 3 hours away in Pompeii! So when we got there the first thing we did was buy 3L of water. Our guided tour of Pompeii was pretty cool. We got there before it was busy, so we got to see empty streets and could just walk into any building without waiting. The tour guide took us to all the main spots while also giving a decent amount of history. Learning about the history of a city from the year 500 was awesome. We got to see the theater they used as well as the bathhouse, kitchens, and, of course, brothels. It's funny they used penis engravings as symbols pointing to where the hostels are. They used them so people who traveled and didn't speak the language could find where they wanted to go. I thought the coolest part, though, were the mounds of dirt and grass. Most of the city hasn't even been excavated yet. Who knows what's under there. After the tour, they had a restaurant ready for all 40 of us to get a quick meal in before leaving to Rome. I ordered a pizza, but my tongue hurt too much to even finish it. I'm glad I went to Pompeii and thought it was cool, but to be honest, I've enjoyed other things more. In a way, it's almost like seeing the leaning tower of Pisa. I can say I've been there now. We had 3 hours more on the coach, but I slept for all of it. When I woke up, we were only 5 minutes from the colleseum, which was our next stop. Seeing the colleseum from the bus, I still couldn't even believe I was there. We started the tour of the collesum outside in the ruins. We walked around and got to learn what some of the buildings used to be and the relevance of them. We even got to see the building Julius Ceasar was cremated in after he was assinated. I enjoyed these ruins more than Pompeii, even though it was way smaller. Leaving the Roman Forum next was the colleseum . It's pretty intense going to the collesum. It was like an airport where we had our bags scanned twice and walked through metal detectors. It took a long time, but it was worth the wait. This time, we were there way later in the day, so the colleseum was packed with people. It was insane how busy it was. We learned it only took 8 years for slaves to build it. That's so crazy to me, especially after seeing things like the Sagrada Familia, which has taken over a century, and it's still not done. The guided tour it's self was short, and the lady didn't give us a whole lot of information. She did have a book with pictures in it from what the colleseum looked like in its prime and after it was abandoned for centuries. The illistration she showed us from the Middle Ages was so cool. Everything was covered in grass with trees growing inside. It's hard to believe there was a point in time, something as famous and well known as the colleseum went untouched for hundreds of years. After the tour ended, we ditched our group and stayed for longer, reading facts inside and eventually forcing ourselves down to the bottom where we could see where the battlefield used to be. The floor where the entertainment used to take place was made of wood, so after years of aging, it's no longer there. Now, all that's left is what supported the ground as well as the trap doors where they kept the exotic animals. It's so cool to just imagine what went on here. It's so different to anything we've ever seen it makes it hard to believe there was actually I time people paid to watch men fight each other to the death. I still can't believe I was there. After we left, I had to go buy more cold meds before dinner. I was suffering. We had our second included dinner of the trip tonight. It was a 3 course meal consisting of bread, cheese, meats, pasta, and panacotta. I think it all tasted good, I have no idea since I can't taste or smell anything. The good news was we were absolutely dead tired and we had free time now. We pretty much just checked into the hostel and climbed into bed to get a good sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a massive day.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      1

      Sorrento and Capri Island

      10 april 2024, Italië ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

      So the early night and drugs did not fix the Contiki Cough. That doesn't matter, though, because we had a cruise around Capri Island today! We all got up early and had our free breakfast. The breakfast at this hostel was definitely the best breakfast we've had yet. It was like a buffet with sunnyside up eggs (the best way) toast, sandwich meat, cheese, yogurt, and fruit. I made 2 of the meanest sandwiches of all time. After filling up, we went into town to catch the ferry. The difference in weather was ridiculous. Yesterday was 27 and not a cloud around. 8 am it was pissing rain and kind of cold. We sat in the front row of the ferry, not expecting the water to be ridiculously choppy. We were getting some airtime while riding the waves lol. I've never been sea sick before, but I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. Some people on the Contiki tour were yaking all over the ferry, though. I think if I was closer to them, it would probably would have been the end of me. On the way to the island becs, the tour manager told us the cruise around the island was canceled because of the waves, so we were pretty disappointed because we had no idea what we were gonna do. Pearse and I immediately hopped off the ferry and found a Café to sit at and make a plan. 5 others from the group joined us. It was nice because we hadn't really talked to these people a lot since we've been on the bus. To be honest, I didn't even know their names lol. That was an awkward conversation. Pearse and I decided we were going to go on a hike, and they wanted to tag along. Just as we started the hike, the clouds disappeared, and the sun came out. It was perfect. Capri was a very vertical island, so just to get to the hike, we had to hike up a couple hundred stairs. Those stairs were nothing compared to what was to come on the hike. The hike took us to a couple of lookout points with some beautiful views and places to take pictures. When we finally started getting into the trees, we all spotted a couple of lizards running away to their hiding holes. My younger self was going crazy. I was hyperfocused and catching one of these little guys for a quick picture. They were faster and probably smarter than me, so I didn't manage to get one. We made it to these stairs that were pretty steep. They were a breeze at first, then we turned the corner, and we couldn't even see the end of them. It was a bit of a soul crusher, actually. Pearse and I are in much better shape than two of the ladies that tagged along, so we just crushed them out and waited at the top for them. At the top of these stairs was a massive cave. It was a pretty wild place to catch our breath and wait for some of the others. Again, I was looking for lizards lol. Once everyone was good to go, we left the cave just to find more stairs, not as much but still. We got to the top at around 1130, which was almost perfect because there was a bar at the top that was opening at 12. We decided to finish the last bit of the hike and come back for a cold brew in the sun. The last part of the hike was a natural arch over looking the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful right there. I could have sat around there all day. I did a little extra climbing and just went up on top of this huge rock. Pearse joined me for a little photoshoot. We safely got down and went back to the bar. It happened to be closed for the day, so we found a little restaurant instead. Everyone got some grub and drinks, and now it's time to head down and find a different restaurant closer to the port. The servers at this restaurant try to pull you in like street vendors it's kinda weird. This one guy stopped us and asked me where we were from. I said, canada, and he ran to his closet to grab his jacket. It had a canadian flag pin on it. He told us he'd give his canadian friends discounts on drinks. It's funny cause we were with an American, 2 ausies, and a Kiwi. He still gave the whole table discounts and even some free limonchello shots. I think I had more fun hiking and exploring Capri than if we did the island cruise tour. We all packed on the ferry again to head back to sorrento. The water was a lot calmer by this time. Sitting there gently rocking almost put me right to sleep. We had a free afternoon to do whatever, and if we wanted a free ride back, the coach was leaving at 8pm. We chilled out with some of the guys we've been talking to daily. After walking for a little while, we got some dinner together and kinda just chilled. We missed the coach, but we weren't stressed it was only an hour walk back to the hostel. On the way back, we stopped in a grocery store and looked at the bottles of wine. I bought a 4€ bottle! That'll do. The boys grabbed their own bottles, and off we went. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, we were sharing a bottle on the walk back, then another, then another, and finally, the last one. Just dudes being dudes. By the time we got back to the hostel, the 4 of us were feeling fantastic if cold meds won't fix the contiki cough wine will. We walked back into the hostel and got our refund for the Capri cruise. Outside, there were probably 25 people from the crew playing drinking games. I jumped in and hung out with everyone. I think today was one of my favorite days. Everything just worked out in the end, and I feel like I got closer with a lot of people I hadn't really talked to. Hopefully, all this wine kills whatever alien disease we have.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      11212

      Pisa to Florence

      8 april 2024, Italië ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

      Had an early start back on the coach today after a really long day on the coach yesterday. We started the day by going to the leaning tower of Pisa! We had a solid 30 minutes to walk around and take pictures. Both Pearse and I were feeling like shit so we didn't put any effort into taking pictures of us holding up the tower or whatever else. The tower leans a lot more than I thought it did. I didn't know this either, but they've had to straighten it out a couple of times. We got back on the bus to go to Florence. I've been really excited for Florence because I've heard it's beautiful. I can now attest to that. It was almost 30 degrees out, which makes me like it even more. We went to a leather, gold, and silver store where we learned about Italian leather and how to differentiate real and fake leather. After their presentation, we left really fast, which is good because I probably would have talked myself into buying a chain or something. We went to go get a sandwich just down the road. Other than our bread being butchered and cut really thin, my sandwich was so good. It was prosciutto with truffle honey and garlic mayo. I absolutely destroyed it. You can't go to Florence without getting some gelato, so we found a store that was packed. There were too many flavors to pick from, so I asked the lady to just give me her favorites. Of course, the first one she scooped was peanut butter. I also got a pecan one, mango, and raspberry. Other than the peanut butter one, they were all delicious. You can definitely tell the difference between gelato at home and here. Maybe it's just biased lol. We walked around a little bit more before we had to get ready for the Tuscany dinner we paid for the other day. For me, this was the highlight of the day. It had a 4 course meal with wine. This restaurant is pretty much in this guys backyard. He sang opera for us with another guy on the piano. They played some songs that we could dance to as a group as well as some slow songs for couples to dance to. Pearse and I played rock paper scissors to see who had what role. I lost, so he was the lead. We were trend setters once we got up there dancing together. Other people went up with their friends for fun. Someone caught a cheeky little video of us dancing lol. The main course was a Tuscan tomahawk steak and potatoes! We've been talking about how we want a steak dinner since we got here, so it was much needed. All the food was so good and the wine was so tasty. The coach took us from the Tuscany dinner and into town, where it dropped almost everyone off. Pearse stayed back and went to the hotel to get a good nights sleep
      cause he's sick. I went with the group to Florence's famous karaoke bar. I needed a few drinks for confidence, but I got up there and brought Canada to Europe. I started with Higher by Creed and followed it up with Rockstar by Nickleback. More people knew Rockstar for sure. I called it a night pretty early because we have another 8 am. start tomorrow. I walked back from the bar at 1230, not realizing it was almost a 1.5 hour walk. Halfway through the walk, I realized my phone was going to die, so I looked ahead at the directions and tried to memorize them. Luckily, it was basically a straight line the whole way because my phone did die. I'm so bad at directions, so I was worried, but somehow I actually found the hotel. Overall, it was a pretty chill day, but it was a really fun one ,      Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      11

      Florence to Sorrento

      8 april 2024, Italië ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

      Today, we had to be on the coach at 8. For once, Pearse and I were responsible and almost gave ourselves enough time to get there lol. Our roommate got back from the bars at 6 am and thought we were getting on the bus at 830. We woke this poor guy up multiple times, I bet that was a fun bus ride for him. We stopped a couple of times for food and to stretch our legs. We've been pretty drained and still sick, so I think we both got a little bit of sleep on the bus. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw we were on a narrow mountain road right in the edge of a cliff. Again, these tiny roads are two-way. They definitely shouldn't be. For the first time, I heard Paulo, the driver, raise his voice in frustration. Still though absolute ice in his veins. The views were unreal. It's going to take a lot to beat the views from this mountain road in Sorrento. It just happened to be 5 minutes from the hostel as well. After a 10 hour day, we finally made it to the hostel. The first thing I did was claim the double bed lol. Pearse and I made a deal he gets bottom bunk at the next two places because he was stuck on a single bed. I hopped in the shower, and when I came out, Pearse was already passed out on the bed for a quick power nap. I just went downstairs and relaxed in the sun and spoke to my parents for a bit. We had about 2 hours to chill before the bus dropped us off in town to explore and have dinner. I just lounged in the beautiful weather for that time. Sorrento is known for their lemons, lemon trees everywhere, limoncello, and lemon clothing stores. Anything lemon is there. On the shop streets, they pull you in and give you some free limoncello to get you to buy some. I felt bad going into all the stores pretending I've never had any and getting different tasters, I also didn't buy anything from them lol. After wondering for a while, we got some dinner with some people in our crew. I finally got some gnocchi. It was delicious. The portions here are so much smaller than at home, but after every meal, I feel full. It's pretty deceiving. After dinner, we got back on the coach to go to the hostel. Everyone was so tired from traveling all day, so it was a pretty early night. We are really hoping a good nights rest will cure the Contiki Cough up.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      2

      Cinque Terre

      7 april 2024, Italië ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Today, we hopped on the coach leaving the French coast and into Italy! We stopped at a checkpoint on the highway and had my first pizza in Italy. The way you order here is unorganized chaos. It's kinda like a bar. If you force your way up, the bartender has no clue you just showed up, so they take your order. I ordered a slice of pizza and an Americano. After I paid, they gave me 2 different receipts, one for the coffee and one for the pizza. You then have to force your way to the till and hand the guy warming pizzas your pizza receipt. Once you get that, you go to the other side of the restaurant and give the guy making coffee your coffee receipt. I'm not a huge fan of this system. It's so hectic when it doesn't have to be. Apparently, it was just a small one for us to practice at as well, so we're gonna have a more hectic one soon. We had 45 minutes here, and then we got back on the coach for another 3.5 hours. At least it's a beautiful drive, but stressful. I don't know how our driver, Paulo, does it. We were driving down a mountain with one-way traffic in this giant bus. He obviously has to honk around blind corners, but some people do not care. He honks to let people know, and all of a sudden, a dude on a motorcycle rips around the corner. He's like less than a foot from our bus and a foot from the gaurd rail on the side of a mountain. Doesn't seem like the brightest idea I don't know. Paulo is so calm when everyone else on the bus is stressing. Ice in his veins. We finally got to cinque Terre after 5 hours of driving. We were told we have 6.5 hours to explore all 5 towns. It's kind of a shitty ratio, but oh well. Our tour guide told us the trains in between the 5 towns are very easy to use. She told us you just use the same train everytime, same side of the tracks every time. Gave us our all day train passes and told us to explore. In the first town we went to, we sat on the beach in our trunks, sharing a liter of wine with 3 other guys. That wasn't enough, so we ordered 2 cocktail "buckets." They actually tasted really good. One of the guys we were chilling with is a fire fighter from New York, and every new years he does a polar plunge, so he had no problem with the cold ass water Pearse and Nick jumped in too. Again, I'm a baby and just went out to mid thigh. Once the fellas got out, Nick tackled me into the water, and we went for a quick swim. I couldn't let Pearse go back without me tackling him too lol. The drinks and the sun were feeling really good for everyone. Then we looked at the time and realized we spent a little too much time at the first town and we should hop on the train to the next one. Pearse and I were going to hike between a set of the towns, but we didn't leave ourselves enough time, unfortunately. We were joking around about how Becks was telling us the trains are the easiest trains ever, and the only thing to remember is to not hop on the express train. The express train only goes from town 1 to 5. You alreasy know what we did. The first train we hop on is the express and end up at our final town. We finally figured out the train and got on the proper train, but now we had to do 3/5 of the stops to get to the second town. Long story short, we wasted a lot of time lol. The second town had a small castle and lookout point at the top. It was absolutely beautiful. Overlooking the ocean and the hills behind us, but we had to get a move on because it was already almost 5. We still had to eat and visit 3 more towns. The group made a business decision to skip on the next town because we didn't have time to do everything now. So we got back on the proper train and skipped a stop then got off at the 4th town. This one was probably my favorite. The buildings were so colorful and vibrant sitting on the edge of the hills. I think it's beautiful but I have no idea why anyone would live here. Only tourists and so many stairs everywhere. I feel like if you're living here, you're probably retired. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know too many retired people excited about stairs. Anyways, we were told we have to eat before leaving Cinque Terre because everything around our hotel will be closed. That's not a typo. We're sleeping in a hotel tonight! So we climbed all the stairs to the top of the hill to sit at the restaurant way at the top. Once we got there, we saw there was a huge line to get a seat, and we weren't about to waste more time. We finally found a restaurant that wasn't insanely expensive. We walked in, and almost pur whole contiki group was dinning together. That's okay. I don't want to eat with most of them anyways lol. The 5 of us went to the second floor of the restaurant and began looking. The prices for a liter of wine were too good not to get 2 lol. The area of Italy that were in is known for pesto! So I had to order some speggahti pesto. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but I prefer my mom's homemade pesto. Maybe that's because I had it lots back in the day, but it just wasn't the same. After dinner, we got back on the train to the last town, also the meetup spot for everyone. We had to be back on the bus at 8. After yesterday, we got to know Becks and Paulo dont care if you're late, they will leave you anywhere. We were told everything was closed around our hotel so the five of us were going to bring some wine and beers back with us to our rooms. As the first of us entered the store, Becks yelled from behind us "no boose at the hotel boys" how the fuck did she know lol. Pearse went in to go to the bathroom before we got back on the coach. I waited and waited for him to come back. Then Becks said we have to go, so can you please text him. The problem is I did, and called him and sent him my live location on what's app. I hadn't had reception since we entered Italy, though. So I ran up to one of the guys we were with all day and frantically told him to text Pearse. we are leaving and to hurry up. He texted called and sent Pearse his live location as well. It was about a 10 minute walk from the meet up spot to where the coach was at. I walked as slow as I could, constantly staring down the street, hoping to see his dumb ass come flying around the corner in a full sprint. He wasn't there though when I got to the bus. I love the guy, but I'm not getting left in some town. I walk on the bus, and Becks says to me "some how he was the first person on the bus." I look at our seats, and sure as shit he's there dripping in sweat. There was a bit of confusion between us. He was pissed off that I didn't text him or call him. What he didn't know is I was trying so hard, but I had no reception. Whatever we both made the bus, that's what matters. We found out we had almost a 3 hour bus ride to the hotel, which really sucks because Pearse and I got so sick at the same time. He was leaking like a faucet with a cough, and I had a fever with the shakes. After the second worst drive of my life, we finally got to the hotel. So tired and ready for bed everybody's grabbing their things. Becks stood up at the front of the bus and said, "Um guys, we've never had this problem before. We are at the wrong hotel." Origanlly we were supposed to stay at a hotel not far from where cinque Terre is, but they moved us to this hotel halfway across Italy, WITHOUT TELLING THE OTHER HOTEL. I'm not being dramatic about halfway across Italy. You can see it on the map of my trip. We had time to empty our bladders on the side of the road and get back on the coach to go back the exact way we came from. This was the worst drive of my life. My backpack is in the storage underneath the bus, so I couldn't grab my hoodie or anything, and my fever made me so cold. I couldn't stop shaking and sweating at the same time. My skin and muscles hurt, too. Towards the end of the drive, my guts started turning on me. I was gassing the bus with the worst farts of all time. I felt bad for Pearse cause he also had to sleep in the same room as me lol. Today was a good day, but I'm glad it's over.Meer informatie

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    • Ethan RivestReizigerEuro trip
      111

      Day trip to Monaco!

      6 april 2024, Monaco ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Had another early start today after having a long day the day before. We got up and had to pay for our excursions up front. Yay☺️ after biting on my tongue as hard as I could, we had our breakfast and left for a Café with a large group of people. Some people split off and did their own thing while Pearse, two others, and I sat to have coffee right next to the beach. After a while, the four of us kept on going down the beach. They signed up for the overpriced bikeride, so they had to leave after a while. Pearse and I made a plan to go to the shopping street because he needed a new outfit that was nice enough for the Monte Carlo Casino! We were told there was an H&M not far from the hostel. When we finally got to the shopping street, the first thing we noticed was Gucci, Chanel×2, Louis V. If you can name it, it was there, and we definitely can't afford. Finally, we found H&M tucked away in the corner like they were embarrassed by it lol. Still, the store was like one of the craziest chain stores I've seen. Why does an H&M need 3 levels? Especially when everything was so spaced out. All the shit in the store could have fit in the one at West Ed, but they still had a sky scraper for this place. Everything was very expensive in Nice, unfortunately. Anyway,Pearse grabbed a banging outfit, and we left to grab a burger at a place called Big Ferdinand. Finally, I had a well-done burger. Get your slimy medium rare burgers outta here. Our burgers were so good, though they disappeared like magic. It was kind of late afternoon at this point, so we decided we were gonna go shower a little early and get ready for Monaco. We had to be on the bus at 5:00 sharp because Monaco has very specific times and rules for coach busses. So, I showered first and went out to find a restaurant for a beer while Pearse prettied himself up. After my shower, I just got back into my regular clothes because I knew I wouldn't be too long and would come back earlier to get into my going out outfit. Pearse met up with me at about 4:15 for a quick beer. Shockingly, we don't like 9€ beers. They don't even taste good at that price. We left with more than enough time to get back to the hostel. Until we saw street food. To be fair, though, we didn't know if we were gonna be able to afford to eat in Monaco. We were pushing it, but we got back to the hostel 10 minutes before the coach left, and I still had to change, and he had to grab his passport. I wasn't worried until I was on the stairs of the hostel and saw our roommate Adam, who we also got coffee with in the morning. He told me "the door is fucked" in the strongest Kiwi accent ever. I asked what he meant. So he took me to the room and sure enough the door was fucked. The sensor for our keycards was continuously beeping, and we couldn't scan our key cards. The two of us ran back downstairs watching our entire group walk out the doors to the bus. We informed the lady at the desk the door wasn't work so she called somebody. I don't think she realized we were part of the group leaving in 4 minutes. I feel bad, but all 3 of us were telling her, "we need to go please you need to hurry up,"so we went up with her master key fob and of course it didn't work either. She had to run to the other building to grab an actual key to let us in. While she was doing that, I started stripping down in the hallway lol. She finally let us in, and it was so chaotic in our little room. I'm half naked, Pearse is rifling through his bag for his passport, and Adam is looking for his stuff while half naked as well. I was last to leave the room. I swear I was still pulling up my pants while in the hostel lobby. I jumped down every single stair in that building. When I got outside, the other boys were already out of sight. So, I started running as hard as I could around the corner and through the busy market. I caught up to Pearse, and we got to our meet-up spot together. Absolutely gassed and sweating our balls off, we made it. We were actually 2 minutes late, but luckily, Nice isn't exactly coach friendly, so our driver was 3 minutes late. If we had missed Monaco, I woulda lost it. The bus ride was only 30 minutes total to Monaco, and halfway there, we all got out for some pictures. The bus driver and tour guide surprised us all with some sparkling wine. I really enjoyed just looking at the prettiest views ever and having some bubbly. When we got to Monaco, I instantly fell in love with the country, which is smaller than most cities. It's the second smallest country in the world. I went to a souvineer shop with intentions to buy my first souvenir of the trip. I am the most clumsy human ever, I guess, and knocked over all the playing cards in like domino's in his store. The dude kicked everyone out and stopped selling to us after. That's okay because I walked 30 seconds down the road to a way cooler store with way better shit. We all got shoved back into the coach to go to Monte Carlo Casino. To get there, though, we had to drive on the famous F1 track. I've been getting into F1 the last 6 months, so I thought that was super cool. Once we made it to the casino I started to feel so bougee. Supercars were pulling in 1 after the other. Bently,Bently,Ferrari,Porsche,maserati. All one after the other. They were probably thrilled they had to share this fancy ass casino with 40 young adults who are literally just on an 18-day bender lol. Maybe we're not classy enough or something. We went into the Nino and everything there was so beautiful. Everything was gold with huge chandeliers. I swear it's the fanciest place I've ever been. Not just the casino but all of Monico. I actually don't like gambling, so I just put a 20 in a roulette machine and played for probably 30 minutes. I left 63 cents to the good, so that's a huge win lol. After we just went back to the hostel and had beers in the common area with a few people. Monaco was probably Mt favorite place. we've been so far it was so beautiful and made me feel bougee. It also made me feel broke lol, we definitely couldn't afford to be there for more than an evening. I'm tired now after writing a novel.Meer informatie

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