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 |
5/25 - La Spezia, Italy So I didn't quite follow my hastily made plans, I didn't stay in Siena last night, the hostels in the book were full and I found myself caring less and less about the concert as I walked around the city. I ended up staying in Florence last night, but I'll get to that. It seems like about every week an a half or so (on this trip so far) I have a day where I just feel frustrated and upset, and a result get very indecisive about what I'm doing. Yesterday was one of those days. I got to Siena and found that all the hostels were full (I had been planning to make those calls from Florence, but I ended hopping on a train immediately after getting to the station - see how well planned this day was?). This being somewhat demoralizing, I had a long internal debate and decided to go find the place that makes hostel reservations. It took me awhile to find where it was supposed to be, but then I still couldn't find it. Getting increasingly frustrated, I took a break and went in the nearby cathedral, beautiful of course, but I am so sick of churches. Sat outside the cathedral and decided to go back to Florence that night and daytrip to Cinque Terre today, taking the night train to somewhere in Switzerland. After making this decision I happened to notice the reservations place right in front of me (it was around a corner from where I had been looking before), but at the point I wanted to get out of Siena (think moody and irrational). So I walked around a little more and saw the other sights  (more churches) before heading back to train station (keep in mind this whole time I'm carrying my big pack). Don't get me wrong, Siena's a nice city, very pretty and much quieter than any of the other Italian cities I'd been to. Oddly enough the city has a wall around it , the city doesn't fit inside any more but most of it's still there. It just still felt touristy. So I caught the train back to Florence, to find the hostel I'd stayed at before to be full (not really surprising). I found another one that was fairly low key and cheap (only downside, 1 bathroom for around 25 beds). I was on my way out to grab some food when I ended up talking to a pair of girls named Molly and Kathleen. Sat around talking to them for a while then we decided to go get some wine. What should have taken about 10 minutes took over an hour and a half due to a rather lengthy quest for an atm. When we finally got back we ended up in a long but enjoyably civil political discussion with some other people hanging out in the common room. Got up later than originally planned, caught the 8 something train to La Spezia(you have to go there to get to Cinque Terre) instead of the 6 something because of a late bedtime the night before. I took my pack with me, because I still hadn't completely ruled out staying there tonight. Once I got on the train through Cinque Terre, I realized I was going to have to take my pack with me on the hike I was planning to do. Oh well, I reasoned, it'll be good exercise. Boy was it. I did the hike between Vernazza and Corniglio (Cinque Terre is composed of 5 towns, all of which you can hike between). It was quite hot and the hike includes endless rock stairways, which were a definite challenge carrying all my stuff on my back. I can't remember the last time I sweated that much. My shirt was completely drenched and at times it was just pouring off my forehead. Still, other than having acquired a mild sunburn I felt great after getting to Corniglio. This was a good reminder that I want to do some real backpack camping this summer. Physical triumphs aside, the hike was really nice, the views of the water from the cliffs were spectacular. The only drawback was that it was fairly crowded. Amusingly enough, on the hike I ran into the Aussie girl (I think her name was Des) who watched my bag on the train in Nice when I ran to get my Tevas. When I finished the hike I decided to go to La Spezia because I wanted to get out of the sun, and I don't think I could have managed another hike. In La Spezia, a found a nice well shaded park and read for a while cooling off. After a couple of hours I went back to the train station and caught the train to Florence.
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