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Euro trip

March - May 2024
Doing whatever we want for 6 weeks Read more
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  • TravelerEuro trip
    Day 12

    Madrid to Barcelona

    April 2 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Hungover, face hurts, missed train, Barcelona cool

  • TravelerEuro trip
    2
    Day 13

    Barcelona day 2

    April 3 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Today, we got up and B lined to the beach. The sun was out, and it was finally our first hot day. We walked for probably an hour and half (half of which was on the highway). Once we got there, we realized we walked straight to the cargo port, and the beach was almost a 2 hour walk away. So we changed our plans. We started walking to Sagrada De Famillia, and it was also an hour and a half away. We stopped for lunch once we got halfway there and learned all the tickets were sold out. We were getting frustrated, but luckily, we ordered carne paella, and it saved the day. It was so good. Now, back to the beach plan. We found a nice spot to chill in the sand and just relax. The beach was so busy it was ridiculous. There were so many beach vendors trying to sell us alcohol, drugs, blankets, and massages. These guys start their prices really high, and when we say no their very quick to lower their price. One guys starting price was 2 beers for 4€ we said we needed 4 beers and that his price was too much. He said he only has 3, but if we pay him now, he'll go grab us another. We said no, thank you. About 30 minutes later, he came back with 4 beers and changed his price to 5€. We took the fella up on it, and all of a sudden, we were swarmed by vendors lol. Maybe I'm a baby, but the water was way too cold to swim in lol. I got a sunburn on my neck because I absolutely refused sunscreen. It'll be a tan in a few days, though lol. We took the bus back to the hostel because it offers free vegetarian dinner every night. So we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some sandwich meat to add to the veggies they cooked lol. You'll have to ask Pearse if the veggies were good, but the sandwich meat was pretty good lol. I think the sun drained us because we were so tired last night. We just chilled out in the common area. Pearse passed out down there, and when we were finally kicked out, I woke him and said, "Let's go to bed." His response was, "No, I'm just gonna go back to the hostel" I think that says how tired we were lol.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    11
    Day 14

    Barcelona day 3

    April 4 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today, we got up and had some breakfast beers in the sun with some donairs! After we joined our hostel for a walking tour of Sagrada famillia. A building has never left me lost for words, but the Sagrada Famillia did. We learned how the city of barcelona was expanding fast. They decided to build way outside of where the city was because they knew the city would catch up. They wanted to represent that by building the fanciest craziest church around. The first architect only worked on the church for a year because he wasn't making extravagant enough. They fired him on good terms and asked him who he thought could do what they envisioned. He recommended a young Antoni Gaudi, who was fascinated by nature and its fractal shapes. He loved that nothing in nature was a straight line. He wanted to apply that to Sagrada Famillia. He definitely did, as you can see. He dedicated the last 30+ years of his life to this project, designing all the sculptures and designing the entire building himself. Every detail of this building is symbolic for something, and I thought that was so cool. Once it's done, the only thing in all of barcelona that will be taller than Sagrada Famillia is a nearby mountain. He purposley designed it to be 2M shorter than this mountain because he didn't want to offend God. That's pretty generous towards a fella he's never met. If it was me, I'd make it 2M taller than the tallest mountain lol. I guess that is why I'm not the lead architect on one of the seven wonders of the world. He was completely obsessed with the Bascilla. At the time of his death, his baby was only 25% complete. He was buried in the crypt. The Sagrada Famillia has been under construction for the last 142 years and is expected to be completely finished in 2026, but the tour guide doesn't believe it at all. That's because in Gaudis's plans, there is supposed to be a park across the street from the front gates, but when they bought their land way outside of the city, they couldn't afford to buy the land across the street. A private company bought the land and slapped an apartment building up right next to it. Since then, the church has been saying they will tear down the apartments once construction is complete. The apartment has a banner hanging from it, saying, "Our houses are legal." That might delay some things. Unfortunately, tickets were completely sold out, so we couldn't go inside. Maybe one day I'll make it back and see the inside. After we walked up a massive hill to go see a place called parc güell, which was also sold out. I'm gonna be honest I got a little frustrated. We walked way too long for that shit to be sold out as well, so I was annoyed. I guess we need to start booking ahead. Afterward, we decided we'd go check out the Gothic Quarter. This was super cool. The other church we saw was called La Seu. Its constriction was finished in 1448, so it's decently old lol. We kept wandering in the Gothic Quarter and found these narrow streets filled with little bars, so we stopped for a beer at one. Once we sat down, I swear I had to try not to fall asleep inside. We were getting hungry, so we went to a grocery store, we grabbed 4 burgers, spaghetti, and pasta sauce all for 8 euros. That might be the cheapest spaghetti meatsauce I've ever had, but it was so good! That's about it for today, though.

    I want new tattoos so bad    Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    Day 15

    France!

    April 5 in France ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Today, we woke up at 5am. We had to catch the train to go to the hotel for our guided tour! To be honest, the first couple hours with the entire group I was really overwhelmed. There's 40 names we need to remember, and the guide was kinda pushy about the excursions we need to pay for. As the day went on, though, we slowly started meeting some new people and getting to know them. We left Barcelona at 8:00 and started driving to France. For some reason, neither of us thought it would be a good idea to eat before we left. Even though we knew we'd be traveling almost all day. Luckily, at the first small town inside of France, we stopped to grab some sandwiches. We're in brie country so you know I had to get a brie sandwich. Some random check stop on the side of the highway had the best sandwich yet! After 45 minutes, we packed onto the coach again to start heading for Nice, France. After two more hours, we stopped in the town Van Gogh lived in when he cut his ear off and went crazy. We learned the entire community wanted him to leave, which he did on his own terms. I really hope we get to learn more about that crazy mf on this trip. You gotta be crazy to be as talented, I think. In this small town there is a small colleseum! Pearse and I were walking around with a guy named Nick. We sorta accidentally snuck into this coliseum for free lol. We just walked in through the exit. The lady at the desk couldn't give a shit lol. We walked around for about 30 minutes before getting a coffee. I paid for all 3 of our Americanos, which came out to 5€. I handed the lady a 50 dollar bill. She gave me 65 back in change! I swear I'm honest, and at home, I'd definitely say something, but I'm on vacation and need all the money I can get lol. Basically, she bought our first drinks tonight lol. So we ripped this little town off twice in 45 minutes. We got back on the coach for the last 3 hours of our nine hour drive. The last hour and a bit we drove up the coast of France! When I was awake, I honestly thought it was some of the most beautiful scenery ever! We had the mountains to our left and the ocean to our right. I'm so happy the tour guide likes music and has it on the whole time because I need music, and my left earbud is dodgy. People sing along and just talk almost the whole time. It might get old after a while, but it made me feel more comfortable. Everyone seems like they get along really well! When we finally made it to the hostel, we started some laundry, showered and right out the door to our included dinner. We had beef stew and mashed potatoes. At first I was disappointed it was beef stew but it turned out to be delicious. I told a stupid story from lisbon everyone thought was pretty funny and managed to finish two other peoples stew lmao. I felt so bad for the employees though because there's 40 of us and english is their second language lol. We had to be at our bar for 10:15 to celebrate our new friend, Nicks, birthday. In this bar we could stand on the tables and do whatever we wanted really lol. They had some live music that was awesome. These guys performed all night and the crowd loved all of it. We were banging on the roof and singing, dancing and chanting random shit between songs. It was 30000 degrees inside though, we were absolutely drenched in sweat lol. I had so much fun with our new friends! Once the guys were done performing we made our first mistake in France. We left the bar to find a new one with some other hostel mates. We didn't end up finding anywhere other than a gay bar. I'm definitely good on that. So we went back to the hostel with some other guys. We went to the basement and had a ping-pong tourney. We're gonna get up early and go walking with some people from out hostel along the beach of Nice and see what's up. I was so stressed and overwhelmed this morning but after our first full day with the crew I already feel so much better!Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    111
    Day 16

    Day trip to Monaco!

    April 6 in 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.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    2
    Day 17

    Cinque Terre

    April 7 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    11
    Day 18

    Florence to Sorrento

    April 8 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 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.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    11212
    Day 18

    Pisa to Florence

    April 8 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 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 ,    Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    1
    Day 20

    Sorrento and Capri Island

    April 10 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 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.Read more

  • TravelerEuro trip
    1
    Day 21

    Sorrento to Rome

    April 11 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 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.Read more

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