So here is my travel journal from my backpacking trip to Europe. It's more involved than my day log stuff that's already been up the site. There has been some complaining (you know who you are) that my daylog was rather boring and that it focused too much on the details of transportation. I can't promise that this is less boring, but's there's certainly a hell of lot more of it. Occasional parts of the journal have been omitted to protect the (not-so)innocent. These parts really weren't that common, but hey - use your imagination. Keep in mind that this is a journal and things like punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph breaks, grammar, and spelling may or may not been a part of the writing process. Not to mention my almost criminal use of parenthesis. Like my pictures, the writing is quite erratic as far as consistency of content. The journal style kind of mutates over the course of the trip. Read at your own risk.
 4/28 Cincinnati 4/30 Paris 5/02 Paris 5/03 Paris 5/04 Bayeux 5/06 Toulouse 5/07 Barcelona 5/08 Barcelona 5/09 Madrid 5/11 Salamanca 5/12 Salamanca 5/13 Barcelona 5/14 Portbou 5/15 Narbonne 5/17 Nice 5/18 Venice 5/20 Naples 5/21 Rome 5/22 Rome 5/24 Florence 5/25 La Spezia 5/26 Lucerne 5/29 Interlaken 5/30 Interlaken 6/03 Amsterdam 6/04 London 6/06 Salisbury 6/09 Nottingham 6/11 Edinburgh 6/13 Kyleakin 6/15 Dublin 6/17 Dublin 6/23 Hamburg 6/27 Brussels 6/29 Berlin 7/01 Prague 7/02 Munich 7/03 Munich |
5/17 - Nice, France We made it to Nice fine (2 nights ago). There was about 15 of us checking into the same hostel, because someone had a reservation there earlier, and that number kept getting passed around. So we managed to frazzle the guy at the front desk by showing up all at once. I ended up in a room with 4 of the girls I'd met at the train station, 2 americans(Page & Kelly) and 2 canadians(Tanya & Heather).  After everyone had gotten their turn at a much needed shower, we all went out to dinner and a nice 3 course dinner, which was very nice after the previous 24 hours. Followed that up with bottle of wine (shared) and then the best sleep I've had on this trip. I had been planning to only stay in Nice one day, but I decided to stay an extra one so I could sleep in late and relax. That and I was enjoying hanging out with everyone from the train station. No one in the room was up before noon. I finally got up and did a little exploring. I went and saw the beach, which I didn't find very impressive. I dunno, maybe it's nicer when it's sunny, it was somewhat overcast. I decided to go see the Matrix Reloaded (which had premiered at nearby Cannes the previous day). Like X-Men, it had french subtitles, but you barely notice it. Man, the nerve of those guys to do a cliffhanger like that. I walked out of the theater shaking my head and muttering to myself. Can't believe that I have to wait six months for the next one. Very interesting plot twists though. I think I need to see it again, just to understand it all. Anyway, I headed back to the hostel and met up with everyone. We polished off 6 or 7 bottles of wine before going out. I think I drank a little too much, because I ended up puking in the bathroom. I still went out, I just didn't drink any more. We stayed at this one bar until right before the curfew(3 am) at the hostel. This morning I didn't have the luxury of sleeping in because I was checking out, and checkout was at 10. I was halfway through eating the complimentary breakfast, when I realized that it was only for people staying in doubles or triples (costs more than dorms). Oh well, no one stopped me. I went and got my ticket for the night train to Venice, and then hopped on the train to Monaco (25 min). Spent a while just walking around, it's a pretty nice city (er..country). I did see a few Ferraris, and one Lamborghini (although that was in a shop window). I went and blew €1 at the Monte Carlo Casino (I was actually up to like 3 or 4, but of course I lost it). I headed back to Nice and went to the Colline du Chateau, which is a park atop an old medieval fortress. I had fun just walking around (I'm slowly remembering that I rather like public parks, I don't know why I don't go more often in the states). I had my headphones on, blaring Underworld, and for some reason that was just the perfect music for the occasion (for me, anyway). There was also a cemetery that was pretty neat(took me forever to find it, kept getting turned around). There was a Jewish only section, but for some reason it was locked. After that, I went and got my second batch of pictures burnt onto a cd.
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