Nadi, Fiji

Made it! With my bags, even!

Vancouver was good, great to see people again. And as was astutely pointed out , the day i get back is St Patty's day! So another good Van visit ahead!

Vancouver to LA was fine, it was in a little CR7. And I learned an important lesson. Do not go through LAX. It is so massive and every airline has its own terminal, and if you are switching to another airline, good luck trying to connect. Especially when trying to checkin after finally finding the checkin desk and finding out you lost your bagagge tags and having to run back to another terminal to get the numbers.

However, it really is true what they say about "Fiji Time". After rushing through the terminals and getting a special escort through securiity to make my flight on time, the flight was 40 minutes late anywayy.

On thee flight they were very nice though. Youu got your own TV, a blanket, pillow, eye shades, toothbrush and paste and socks (??? Those goofy bastards). However the seatts were intended for verry narrow people, so not the most comfortable ever. I got 4-5 hours of sleep, 1 hour at a time.

Getting of the plane, the first thing i noticed was that Fiji smells just likke Costa Rica. I hadd fforggetton Costsaa Rica even had a smell (okay.. thiiss keybboard likes to double letters a lot for no reason... i'm siick of going back and chhanging it, so peoople will just have to ddeal).

Ourr flight got in at about 5:30am Fiji time (9:30am minus a day Pacific) and getting through cuustoms and baggagee claims and checkss took about 2 hours. Now I am in the airport terminal, killing time till my shuttle comes in 20 minutes.

Fiji is, of course, beautiful. I would llike to go out exploring, but there are no baggage locker here. Oh, and another thing. When did people my age travel with tonne (the key between a and d no longer work. Weird) of bag? I have the leat amount of bag of annyoone I ee.

Okay, thi i jut gettiing ridiculou.

On the reort I won't havve any interrnet coverage, no one freak out when I don't pot anything for the next 3 day :).

Off to lounge on a beach!

Vancouver, Canada

Well I made it to Vancouver. My bags didn't, but hopefully that will be rectified soon.

Most of my university friends got together last night and went out to a pub, after some finagling by Lauren. It was great to see everyone again, after three years.

Right now I am sitting half naked in bed with my gracious host Kyle, drinking some coffee, getting ready for the day. (that sounds worse than it is)

Today's plan is to go for some good ol' sushi and meet up with May from Nicaragua and plan some of our SE Asia trip together.

Right now I have to shower and get ready because they are picking me up in 15 minutes!

Yellowknife, Canada

Alright, time to fire this baby back up!

I just got back from one last night out with the boys, I am glad to say I behaved myself and am very-nearly sober. It will make tomorrow's trip all that much easier. And leave room for all of tomorrow night's Vancouver/University reunion adventures :).

This time I am off to Fiji by way of Vancouver, Australia, Thailand (probably), Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Wish me luck!

Edmonton, Alberta

Another one for the list:

• Rode in first class for the first time

I decided to upgrade my San Jose - Phoenix flight to first class. It was a nice experience, dampened only slightly be the man beside me's flatulence problem.

A few hours now till I get home. Right now I am just waiting.

San Jose, Costa Rica

I forgot one from yesterdays list.

• Saw two oceans at the same time

While flying into Panama City from Bocas del Toro, we could look out the left side of the plane and see the Atlantic Ocean, and look out the right and see the Pacific Ocean.

Done Day One of the Three Day Travelling to Get Home. It was a 9 hour bus ride. Gross. Terry thinks he picked up a STD from the bus seat (or something like that). Tomorrow I get up at 4am to catch my airport shuttle.

Rafting! (Boquete, Panama)

Rafting was AWESOME. Such a great time. There were 91 rapids in all on our route (normal white water routes have 10) and we had two great guides and three other great rafters. The guides were Freddy and Ivan (Who had a tatoo of the Star of David on his chest. I had no idea there were indigineous Panamanians who were Jewish. Learn somethin new everyday!) and the other three rafters were Lara and Stella from New York and Elaine from London.

We started off with the manager driving us WAY up into the mountains and giving us a talk to scare the hell out of us (If you get trapped between rocks in white water, you will probably die. If you panic when ejected from the raft, you will probably die. On average, one person gets tossed out of the raft every 6 trips. This is trip 8 with no ejections. Etc.) before going off with the guides. Oh, and as it turned out, the only one to be tossed from the raft was one of the guides, Ivan. He was trying to fix his paddle and we hit a rock and he went flying. Good times. I´m glad I didn´t tell him about the rock we were about to hit.

The first part of the trip was the most dangerous. It contained mostly Class 2 and Class 3 white water, but had a few Class 4 parts. I was in the back, beside all the bags of supplies and food and thank God. There were quite a few times that if I didn´t have the strap that was holding down the bags to grab on to, I would have been thrown off. We jetted down these rapids, people tossed all over the place, it was insane.

We stopped for a surprisingly big lunch, and then the guides switched positions. Originally Freddie was in the Safety Kayak (to rescue any of us who may be tossed out) and Ivan was in the raft with us. The second part of the route was less challenging, both because the rapids weren´t as bad (fun) and because by then we had a better handle of how to do it. So then during the calm water periods inbetween rapids, Freddie made it his mission to sneak up on every person in the raft and throw them out, to liven things up. Over the next hour he managed to get all of us except for Elaine, the girl from London. Elaine was way up in the front, and a hard target. Especially since she was VERY paranoid, knowing she was the only one left, and was keeping a constant eye on Freddie.

Well, I saw what a nervous state this girl was in and took it upon myself to alleviate it. At one point Stella half-heartedly kicked Terry, who were sitting beside each other in front of me, and I saw my chance and went on a kamikaze dive between them and grabbed Elaine and dunked us both into the water. Success! After that she was much more relaxed.

So that was definetly an excellent way to end my trip. From here on out it´s just travel, travel, travel until I get to YK on the 15th. Tomorrow morning we leave Boquete and grab the bus to David. From David we catch a 8:30am bus to San Jose, Costa Rica. Overnight in San Jose, get to the airport for my 7:30am flight to Phoenix, spend 8 hours in Phoenix (groan), fly to Edmonton, overnight there, and then catch the 8pm flight to YK.

Oh, Barry, will you be home on the 15th between 10:30 pm and 11pm.... I do not have my keys.

I hear it´s around -30 in YK right now. I am FULLY acclimatized for 30+. This will not be fun. But let´s see... this trip I have:

• Climbed two volcanoes
• Ziplined over the jungle
• Walked through the rainforest
• Spent many days lazing on the Pacific tropical coast
• Been high enough to walk through clouds
• Kayaked on the ocean
• Bogeyboarded in some big ass waves
• Been to Tourist Town, Granada!
• Taken the scariest ferry ride of my life
• Swam in shark-infested water
• Learned to surf
• Snorkeled in the Carribean Sea
• Rode a mechanical bull
• Seen actual Nicaraguan markets
• Experienced Central American buses (trust me, it is an experience)
• Seen the Panama Canal
• Seen monkeys, sloths, crocodiles, turtles, iguanas, toucans, tropical fish and many more
• White water rafted!

So all in all, I can´t be too sad. :)

Boquete, Panama

Still alive!

Panama City after that first night got better. It is a city with some definite cool points. The city buses for one, and Via Argentina, the street with all the university pubs. And I got to see a movie in English for the first time in a month and a half! That is always a big deal for me when I go travelling.

I accomplished my two main goals of the Panama part of my trip as well. I got a Panama hat, and saw the Panama canal. Check and check. Unfortunately the ass in the bunk above me in our dorm room decided to drop his bag right on top of my brand new hat and crushed it. So it is a little deformed, but still cool. And Panama canal was also very cool. I think this is the one part of the trip where Terry got bored by something WAY before I did.

In all Panama City was alright for me. Terry liked it a lot more (he was excited to be in ANY city again), so if you want more glowing reviews you can go to his blog.

Now we are in Boquete, a small mountain by the Costa Rica/Panama border. The population is either 3,000 or 15,500, depending on who you listen to. My guide book says 15,500, Terrys says 3,000. I think that the main town is 3,000, but if you count all the people in the expansive countryside, then it is more like 15,000. It is a good compromise at least.

We just got back from a hike back up into the mountains. It was a stunning piece of nature. I have some good pictures. One hundred and twenty of them, in fact. For a three and a half hour hike. Perhaps I went overboard. On our way back down it started to POUR rain. We eventually made it to the bus shelter, and hid there for a while. Eventually a local came by and told us (I think, my Spanish sucks) that this is the first time he remembers it raining since November. So good timing us, on the hike....

After waiting for a bus for half an hour we were getting very cold, and a local came by and hailed us in to his truck. So Terry and I had our first ever hitch hiking experience! In small places like this in Central America hitching is almost the defacto way of travel, but we never actually worked up the nerve to do it ourselves. Since I leave in a few days, I am glad to say I got that experience in there.

Tomorrow is white water rafting!

PS - And on our way to the hike we ran into two Dutch girls and a Aussie we had originally met in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. I love the small-worldness of backpackers.

Panama City, Panama

So we are now in Panama City, Panama. And we are not off to the best of starts....

A couple days ago we booked our flight from Bocas del Toro (whose airport runway shares space with the local baseball diamond - Terry has pictures) and booked our hostel in Panama. So yesterday we got on our flight, got into Panama around 5:30, got our luggage and grabbed a cab from the airport (who over charged us) to our hostel to find out that our reservation was not going to be honoured. Apparently the front desk clerk had made some mistake and overbooked the hostel, and some people he thought were going to leave didn't. So it's about 6:30 at night, we just want to unload our bags, and we find out we have nowhere to stay. The clerk had called around and got us room at another place, and since you can't get last minute space in Panama, we had to go where ever he put us. He got us a cab and told the driver where to go. As soon as we took off quoted us an overcharged price. Terry began to say that that's not the price the clerk said, but right away he pulled over and told us to get out. Us with our bags in a foreign city, not knowing where we're going had to just choke down the price and keep on going. We got to our new hostel, with the driver swearing at us while we walked up the steps.

This place isn't bad, actually. Two people we met in Mal Pais, Irish Katherince and Aussie Scott, are here, there's a very nice back garden and free internet. But the problem is that it's about 20 minutes further from the center of town than we would have been at the other place, and that place was already a little out of the way, and whereas the other hostel is known for being fun and youthful, this place is decidely quiet and it looks like we're the youngest people here. In nine days (nine!) I'll be back in Yellowknife, so was looking forward to socializing and having some fun....

But regardless, today we are going to go check out the old parts of Panama, and catch a movie later on, before checking out the Panamanian nightlife.

Cheers!

Panama City, Panama

Bocas del Toro, Panama

I take it back, THIS is the slowest computer known to man.

We are in Bocas del Toro, a chain of islands on the western edge of Panama. It is gorgeous here. Yesterday we hired a water taxi to take us around the islands snorkleing, it was great.

Okay, this computer is so slow that I canh type faster than the characters hows up on the screen. So I am just typing and hoping that later it will all show up. So this is probably horribly spelled. I apologize. I am running blind here.

About the water taxi guy... it is dangerous when you are talking to someone with an accent, and SEVENTY sounds a lot like SEVENTEEN. Not as good a deal as we thjought. But still worth it.

Tomorrow we head off to Panama City!

Cahuita, Costa Rica

About 50 clicks north of the Panama border, on the Pacific coast.

I´m really just wasting time while Terry emails.

We were in Tortugeuro this morning. I think it is likely I did not spell that right, but that is okay because I don´t think I ever pronounced it correctly either. It was a Village with a capital "Hoooooly sh*t this place is isolated and there is nothing to do". I still liked it though. We went on a jungle boat safari this morning with the highly recommended Darryl and saw a whole mess of animals, including, but not limited to:

• three toed sloths
• howler monkeys
• white faced monkeys (same ones from Friends and Ace Ventura)
• a turtle

And then on the water taxi from there to here abouts we also got to see a crocodile baby and a full adult crocodile. Also, you can´t say Ticos won´t build restaurants out in the middle of nowhere for no damn good reason. Actually, the reason this restaurant the water taxi stopped at existed at all was because this was where ALL the water taxis stopped to drop off their tourists for lunch. I imagine the captains get a nice little cut. In 45 minutes, two other taxis stopped at this restaurant in the middle of the unpopulated Tico bayou.

I am using the slowest computer known to man...

Now we´re here in Cahuita, a more populous and less isolated Carribean-flava town and Terry wants to get drunk.

Cheers!

Laguna Apoyo, Nicaragua

The last nights in Granada were a blast, I loved the people we were with. Note to self - I need to make a special trip to Vancouver to find May and marry that girl.

From there we went with some of our Granada peeps, Tad and Lolly from Seattle, to Ometepe. Ometepe is the island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and is mostly made up of two volcanoes. On the ferry over, we picked up two Canadians from Toronto, Pete and Matt, and a girl they were travelling with, Melissa from Ohio. By the way, that was the most harrowing ferry experience of my life. I have pictures and videos. Words can express the death-defying-ness of it.

The seven of us went to this place called Finca Playa Venecia on the southern coast, that was recommended by Eduardo, a tour guide we met while waiting for the ferry. A SUPER nice place. Great view, great bungalows, right on the lake. We lazed around at the hotel restaurant that first night, got some good quotes from Lolly.

The next day we hiked up Maderas, the smaller, inactive volcanoe. It was a rather brutal hike up. It took four and a half hours to get to the top, cold and muddy most of the way.

This morning we left our travelling companions, except for Pete and Matt who left yesterday for Granada, and now Terry and I are at Laguna Apoyo, a giant crater lake outside of Managua. The view is gorgeous, the staff are fantastic.

Dinner time!

Granada, Nicaragua

This is the first real city I´ve been in this trip. It´s nice, I like it.

Today we went to Mayasa, a town very close to Granada, for the market. There´s not really anything in Mayasa but markets. A few notes about buses in Nicaragua:

- You find out which bus you want by listening for the drivers loudly yelling out their destinations as they stand beside their vehicle. They also yell out where they´re going while driving, to groups of people on the road.

- They seem to be decorated with whatever stickers and stencils are laying around. Today our middle aged bus driver had Hello Kitty and Tweety Bird on the roof of his bus.

- There aren´t really bus stops. You can just flag down a bus anywhere you are and get on.

- If you catch a bus in a bus station, while you´re waiting for the bus to leave you have a lot of people coming into the bus, offering you food and drink. It´s convenient!

- Apparently we are the only tourists in Nicaragua who take the local buses.

So we get to Mayasa. We don´t really know where the Old Market is, so we just head off in the direction everyone else on our bus was going. Everyone else on our bus was local, so we end up in the New Market. Which is to say, the local Nica market, and not the tourist market. That was a very interesting comparison to do once we found the Old Market. I have some pictures that illustrate the differences much better than I can explain. Suffice it to say, Nicaragua is poor. Really, really poor.

The tourist market was cool, it had a lot of local crafts and such. I would have bought more, in not for the logistics of getting it home unbroken. As it was, I bought a $3 t-shirt (which was probably over-priced, but I feel bad haggling when I probably make more in a year than most Nicas will in their entire lives) and shirts for the niece and nephew. Now my niece will have clothes from Granada, Spain and Granada, Nicaragua.

Now I´m tired and smell bad. Time for a nap and a shower, then off to see what this town has to offer for Mardi Gras.

¨You´re an interesting person, but you could be nicer¨

- Old lady to Terry at the bar last night

Apparently of the two of us, Terry is the asshole. Also, we can rip apart cement benches without meaning to.

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua (2)

Today we spent the day at one of the beaches near San Juan. We rented a bogey board, played in the waves.

To get there we drove in the back of this open air trailer, that was fitted with two long couches, back to back so you´re facing out the side. The trip took about half an hour, passing through the rural areas of the coast on a dirt road, the first dirt road I´ve taken in Nicaragua.

This was the first time I really saw the countryside of Nicaragua. We´ve taken a lot of tico buses in Costa Rica, gone through a lot of towns, seen the houses and stores and workplaces of the people there. Nicaragua life is a completely different story.

Most homes and no more than shacks, made of scrap wood and tin. The shacks were small, no more than three rooms. There were gaps in all of the walls, dirt floors on the inside. There was typically a outhouse behind the house, made of tin, with holes in the side. There was garbage all across the road, littering the ditches. The yards were packed with small bits of junk and wood, anything that might be useful at some point, I suppose.

We complained in Costa Rica that it was too touristy, everything was so highly priced and gringo-fied in the hot spots. People are saying that Nicaragua is what Costa Rica was 20 years ago, so I guess it follows then that Nicaragua will hopefully be what Costa Rica is like in 20 years. The living standards in Costa Rica are clearly behind our own, but it´s nothing worse than what I´ve seen in some parts of Canada. So even if we tourists complain that it won´t stay this forever, I gotta say that that´s not really a bad thing.

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

This keyboard is really hard to type with. You have to pound on some of the keys.

There is a lizard on the wall behind my computer. There are lizards EVERYWHERE here.

So Terry and I decided to catch the 9am bus to Liberia instead of a 11am or 1pm bus, which meant we were able to get to Nicaragua in one day. Our bus across the border was playing a clearly bootlegged DVD of 80s music videos. To get through this border you have to push a button, and then a street light signal thing behind the official turns either red or green. It´s like a game! If you win, you get to pass through the border, if you lose you get the rubber glove treatment*. Terry and I both won. Horray! Then we drove into San Juan with a guy with a old Toyota and a love of Celine Dion.

So we´re in another beach town San Juan del Sur. It´s very nice, and a good break from the over-touristed Tamarindo. There are still a lot of tourists here, but it doesn´t feel like it´s completely overwhelmed by them. And holy is Nicaragua cheap. Apparently this is one of the more expensive places in Nicaragua, and it´s not that expensive. Our hostel is $6 a night. Breakfast this morning was $2.25. A beer is $1.

Next is Granada, a colonial city on the shore of Lac de Nicaragua. I´m excited for it! We´re into about our second week of just beach towns. There nice and all, but it gets old for me after a while.

OH, and SUPER UPDATE! The morning we left Tamarindo I had a dream that my camera was working. I had kinda stopped checking it, assuming it was toast. But because of the dream I dug it out.... AND IT WORKS NOW! Craaaaaazy.


*Not really

Shipwrecked! OR The story of why Terry will never go kayaking again

So what did you do for Valentines day? Me? Oh, I got shipwrecked.

So today was Kayaking Day for Terry and I. We were both excited. I had kayaked before in Victoria, and have lots of canoe experience, so was not worried.

We rented our kayak from Iguana Surf. First off, this was not a proper kayak. It was cheap, plastic affair. But I figured, whatever, it is inexpensive and the bay looks pretty calm. The guy renting the kayak asked if we wanted lifejackets. Uh... yeah? I could not believe that was even an option.

We went out, went to an island that was on the lefthand side of the bay. It was full of shells and crabs and bright yellow fish. Neat. The guy at the rental store talked about a island somewhere around here, but this island was rather small so I was not sure if this was what he was talking about. I spied some land further along, but could not determine if it was part of the coast or perhaps THAT was the island he was mentioning.

We made our way out towards the "island". Unfortunately, that meant passing by one rather rough beach, with large waves and rocky outcroppings. We had been good up to that point at making sure our erstwhile kayak was always orientated into the waves so we would not capsize. But it only takes one lapse of attention.... and then we were in the water. I know how to flip capsized canoes and get back in, so was not too worried about this little kayak. I flipped it, got back in and instructed Terry to get in from the nose. He had some troubles doing so, and it took about three tries of him to get into the kayak.

Once we are both back in and seated, I notice that the kayak is sitting substatially lower in the water and has lost a lot of its stability. We flip again. I flip over the kayak again, get back in and get Terry to do the same. Flipped over again. At this point I realize something is not going right, so we have to make it for shore.

SIDENOTE: Terry has his sandles with him, I have a t-shirt I have taken off. Throughout all of this we had MIRACIOUSLY managed to lose none of our stuff.

We are both holding onto the kayak, weakly swimming for shore. It is very slow going and awkward so I tell Terry I can probably flip the canoe over and paddle it to shore myself, so he can just worry about getting himself to shore. I flip the kayak over, get in and paddle most of the way to shore. I periodically hear Terry yelling and swearing behind me. I stop and look back, and consider going back to get him. Back it seems he is actually doing okay, just being Terry.

I get to shore, and Terry follows shortly afterwards. I inspect the kayak and discover that the reason it was sitting so low as because THERE IS A HOLE IN THE KAYAK. Not in the bottom, but it looked there was a plug on the nose of the kayak that was unplugged. So everytime Terry was trying to get back into the kayak he was holding the nose underwater and it was filling up, making it unusable. I prop up the kayak and wait for all the water to drain out. It takes about 15 minutes.

Once we are both on shore, I laugh and kid around, saying what a great story this is. Our best story so far! We got shipwrecked on a deserted beach! Terry does not share my enthusiasm, since we now have to carry the kayak down this beach to another beach inside the bay to get back into stable water and then kayak the couple kilometers back to the beach we rented the kayak from. Whatever. Weirdo.

So we make it back into the main bay, Terry terrified into immobility everytime a wave hits us. I decide that this is not a good time to mention that we seem to be taking on water again, and will probably be half sunk and the kayak will be unusable again in about half an hour. I figured we had another 15 minutes to get back to the beach, so no worries. Terry was on a need-to-know basis at this point, and I decided he did not need to know.

We make it back to the shore, amid catcalls from passing yahting enthusiasts. We capsize from a wave once more, for good measure. It was in waist high water, and seemed to amuse the fishermen beside us. We take it back to Iguana Surf completely tired and drenched and get the deposit back.

So that was my Valentines day.

Tomorrow we are off to a night in Liberia, before heading to Nicaragua!

Tamarindo, Costa Rica

We are now in Tamarindo, another Pacific coast beach town. It is actually slightly better than I expected. That being said, it is still a huge construction zone/gringo town. And the weird thing is, it actually has the worst beach of the three we have been too. Proving middle-aged tourists just have no taste, I guess :P. Despite the gringo-ness of Tamarindo, Terry has been in a surprisingly good mood! I think that is helped along by three things.

1) Everyone told us before we came that it was awful here, so we had VERY low expectations.
2) We booked a kayak for tomorrow, and Terry gets to prove he is not totally mechanically inept
3) We are three days away from being in Nicaragua, the land of 5 buck lobster.

More from Nicaragua!

Playa Samara, Costa Rica

We made it out of Mal Pais. Samara is lovely. A great string of beach bars and a beautiful, unsurfable beach.

We did end up taking a surf lesson in Mal Pais. And yeah, it is fun. But I really can´t imagine it being the ONLY thing that I find interesting and am capable of talking about. Anyhow.

We grabbed a shuttle from Mal Pais up to Samara. We used a shuttle ($$) because the only other option involved backtracking quite a bit, and it would have taken probably more than one day. And using the shuttle we got to enjoy Costa Rica´s coastal "highway". And by "highway", I mean a near damn impassable dirt road. We had to ford 8 rivers with the old Toyota Protestant shuttle van. We lost 1 oxen and 200 pounds of food.

Samara is a really pretty place. We did some bar hopping last night, ran into some Brits that were on our shuttle to Samara. Terry retired early, and I hung around talking to an economist.

Today was just another day of lazing on the beach. Terry and I are constantly butting heads about the beach situation. My idea of a good beach day is to walk around, go in the water for a bit, get a snack, see about some snorkeling or kayaking. Terry´s is to do absolutely nothing. So that´s an issue. Today I just bought a mask and snorkel and went off on my own. There are TONNES of tropical fish here. Makes sense, being the ocean and being tropical. There were two I saw, about a foot long each, one bright blue and the other bright red. Very cool. But I didn´t go too far out, since I was afraid of being eaten by sharks. Don´t know if that´s a valid fear or not.

Tomorrow we´re off to Tamarindo, and Terry has agreed to try out kayaking. He tried out my mask and snorkel and almost managed to drown. So we´ll see how that goes.

Oh, and I HAVE to mention where we´re staying. It´s a beach front bar called Las Olas, that has huts and shacks to rent. At night the bar is quite a lot like the Gold Range. Lots of Shady Characters, who love to Mill Around. Our shack has walls of sticks, and the door locks by pulling a chain across it and padlocking it. The floor is concrete and the ceiling fan is rusty. THIS is what we were expecting of Central America. Way to come through, CA!

Mal Pais, Costa Rica (2)

We've been in Mal Pais for three days now and done NOTHING. This town is kinda dull, unless you're a hardcore surfer. I went to write in my paper journal yesterday because I hadn't written in it for a few days and usuaully a day will take 2 pages to summarize. I wrote 3/4 of a page. Most of that was describing how hard it is to get to Mal Pais.

Everyone here is a surfer, and incapable of talking about anything but surfing. It grates after a while. The only respite has been one Irish girl, who doesn't surf and is lovely (when are Irish girls NOT lovely?). This afternoon Terry and I are taking a surfing lesson, so hopefully we'll gain some insight about what is so fascinating that you have to either be doing it, talking about it constantly or watching video's about it. And even if we don't, tomorrow we're off to Samara, a town where we here surfing is impossbile! I look forward to snorkeling in the Pacific :).

I've also lost Terry. He was supposed to be in the internet cafe I'm in right now, but clearly he's wandered off somewhere else. Need a leash for that boy.

Mal Pais, Costa Rica

Firstly, Lauren - There's a difference between voluntarily not speaking to people, and not being comfortable enough to speak to people. And a Week-Long Vow of Silence is something I would encourage everyone to try once :).

So we finished off our time in Monteverde with a morning hike around the Cloud Forest and in the afternoon we took a canopy tour. First the hike.

It was actually through the Santa Elena entrance to the Monteverde Cloud Forest, since that one was less used and slightly cheaper. The Cloud Forest certainly did live up to it's name; it's a forest in the clouds. So it was kinda cool. However it was also not that interesting. We didn't see any wildlife. We did get some pictures of me surveying the land though.

HOWEVER, the canopy tour through the mountains in the afternoon was freakin awesome!! We went with our German friend Steph and there were also two other young Canadians on our tour from Victoria, Glen and Shirley. It was definetly a fun, solid group. And our two guides, Freddy and Alberto, were also supberb.

So basically what a canopy tour is, is a adrenaline-filled loop through the forest and across valleys in a 'what the hell am I doing?!' manner. We started with taking zip lines that criss-crossed the mountain valley, giving us beautiful views as we zipped along these wires suspended 100 meters off the ground, some of which were over half a kilometer long (the longest was the last, at 750 meters).

After an hour of ziping between tree tops, we made it to the repelling station. When I hear "repelling" I think a slow walk down the side of a cliff. This repelling was a free rope, attached to a tree branch, reaching about 60 feet to the ground. Somehow I was first in line for this. Freddie is on the ground below us, and Alberto tells me that I don't have to do anything once I'm harnessed in, Freddie will control my speed. So I step off the platform - AND FALL. For about 25 feet at least. Turns out Freddie is a bit of a joker and wanted me to get a good adrenaline rush. Oh, that Freddie. I thought something had gone wrong and I was going to die. Har har hard :P.

Next was what is called a "Tarzan Swing". It's a rope that you're attached to, and you step off the platform and swing out about 60 feet, swing back, swing out again, etc. all while watching the ground 40 feet below whizzing by. Again I'm the first to try it. So I get all harnessed in and get REALLY freaked out by this, the repelling was scary, but this just seems loco (and don't worry parents and people of a more conservative-persuasion, this was all done with harnesses and extra safety lines and Freddie and Alberto seemed to be very comptent. One thing I do have to mention though, is on the waiver you sign at the beginning they waive all "moral responsibility" if you have an accident by not following the guides instructions. I had no idea you could sign a piece of paper and people won't feel bad anymore!).

So I step off the platform - AND FALL. AGAIN. I don't know how I didn't see this coming. It was only for about 6 feet though, until the roap catches and swing out, almost but not quite, directly into a very large tree branch, yelling and whooping all the way. As soon as that was over, I wanted to do it all over again. And the way they stop you is to throw this huge rubber seatbelt over you. Terry went next, and of course, being Terry, they managed not to catch him on the three times he swung within range and ended up stranded on this rope, dangling over the slope of the mountain. We were a little worried that they didn't have a plan B here, but after consulting for a little while they threw Terry a rope that he clipped to his harness and they dragged him back. He has a rope burn from the affair that he's very proud of. Increasing his TGMOTW credentials, of course.

That evening we went to dinner with the German girls, and it was pleasant as always. They were our favourite people so far this trip, it was sad to leave them.

We left to get to Mal Pais at 6am the next day. That sounds early, but Terry and I have had problems sleeping in this entire trip, usuaully waking up between 5am and 7am everyday. Today was the first day we managed to sleep in all the way to 9! Horrah! So anyway, we leave at 6am, take a bus, a ferry and another bus and get here at 4pm. 10 hours to get less than 100km. Welcome to Central America :).

We're staying at a Surf Camp, since it was close to the bus stop and we had no reservations anywhere. We were told by a Canadian couple from Kelowna who are motorbiking around Cental America that every other budget place in town is booked up, so it's just as well that we stopped there. We're actually in a open air dorm, a shack with fencing for walls, a roof and 6 beds. Thank goodness they have a security lock up for our stuff.

Actually, tonight is "party night" at the surf camp, so they moved us to what I think must be the best room in the place for no extra charge. Apparently things get a little crazy around our dorm-area on party night, so it's not the best place to sleep.

We spent today on the beach, swimming and reading and generally being lazy. My sunblock is apparently not water-proof as it claims, since I now have a rather noticable burn on my chest and stomach. Tomorrow I'm trying to cajole Terry into taking surfing lessons or to go snorkeling. I'll let ya know how that goes.

Cheers!

Santa Elena, Costa Rica

So, where did I leave off... ah, with Cerro Chato. So that afternoon we went with a tour group and hiked to the opposite side of Arenal that we were on, the side that had the lava flows and all the expensive hotels and resorts. Our group was made up of rather dull people, and the hike itself was nothing special. However the view was spectacular, on top of black volcanic rock and Arenal behind us and Lake Arenal and mountains in front of us. Lake Arenal is a man-made lake and provides 60% of Costa Rica´s hydro-electric power. It is MASSIVE.

After the hike we went to Baldi hot springs and ran into Jake and May again. We hung out and walked around the springs. There were lots of different pools and a swim-up bar. I really have to get back into my backpacker social level. There were plenty of interesting (hot) people (girls) there, and we didn´t really talk to any of them except for one English girl, to ask where the sauna was. But even without stimulating conversation, it was a very good time.

The next morning we packed up and took a Jeep-Boat-Jeep to Monteverde. While my socialability isn´t what it once was, I can say my cleanliness standards have dropped back down to where they used to be. I´ve already started classifying clothes without any too obvious stains and an acceptable odour level as "clean".

Jake and May were also on our trip to Monteverde, and we just saw them walk by as we were having lunch here. Anyhow, the boat was across Lake Arenal and was a great boat trip. The lake was about 13 km long and is a very relaxing ride, although docking the boat seemed to be an overly complicated maneouver. After the boat was the shuttle to Santa Elena, a town by Monteverde that is a less costly place to stay. The roads were pretty frightening at times, but in the end I realized it was no worse than the Ingraham Trail, so I relaxed. Travelling by road here is kinda ridiculous. A 100 km trip will take about 4 hours. You can´t reach any kind of speed on these bumpy dirt roads.

So now were in Santa Elena. It is a town created exclusively for tourists. That is apparently the ONLY industry here. We´re only spending one more night here before going to Mal Pais, on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific coast. We were going to go to Tamarindo, but then ran into two German girls, Kersten and Stephanie, at our casita who said it was just a English/American, over-priced, party town, so we figured we´d try Mal Pais first, and pass through Tamarindo later if we feel up to it.

This morning we hiked through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve (a less crowded version of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve). We didn´t manage to see any wildlife, but did get to confirm that it is entirely feasible that those jungle vines could hold a person´s body weight. In about an hour we´re going off on a canopy tour, which is basically taking zip lines from tree-top to tree-top, and then we´ll probably go back to our casita, grab dinner with the German girls and hit the hay for the 6am bus we have to catch to get to Mal Pais tomorrow.

PS - Camera Update: it´s drier here, so hopefully will dry out soon. It can turn on and off now, but can´t switch modes or take pictures, but it´s something.

La Fortuna, Costa Rica (Part 2)

Another day in the shadow of volcanoes...

Yesterday Terry and I visited a nearby waterfall and climbed up Cerro Chato, a inactive volcanoe with a lake in the crater. We walked to the waterfall from our eco-lodge, Miguel pointing us in the right direction. It was quite the hike up the road. Once we got there we had to spend the rest of the day sans-shirts due to the sweat streaming off of both of us. We hiked the last bit to the waterfall, and I went for a little swim beside the waterfall, a towering drop of water, I would guess it was about 100 meters high. Terry refused to go in since the water was a little chilly and he claimed "Greeks don´t swim in cold water".

Next was Cerro Chato. The Cerro Chato was - by far - the hardest hike either of us have either done. It only took two hours to get up there, but most of the time it seemed like it was two hours STRAIGHT UP, through rainforest and mud. The first hour wasn´t too bad, it was through grasslands (with cows!), and was tiring, but not too bad. The second hour, however, was a completely different story. That´s when we entered the rainforest portion of the hike (Terry insists on calling it "jungle" to enhance his tough-guy, man of the world credentials). That consisted of pulling ourselves up through mud and vines, over tricky roots that enjoy tripping the unawares.

Even though it was probably one of the physically hardest things I´ve ever done, it was SO worth it. We felt very manly afterwards (hiking through the jungle without shirts and all), and you feel a lot of satisfaction once you get down to the lake itself. Oh, right, DOWN. I forgot to mention the last section of the hike is a hundred and twenty meter drop into the crater, that is more of a semi-controlled fall than a hike. I slid most of the way down on the mud, with the sounds of Terry´s occasional swearing behind me.

We met up with two other hikers from the US down at the lake, Jake and May. It turns out that Jake and May are actually staying at the same lodge as us. There were also some other hikers who were coming down while we were going up, and today we saw them at our lodge as well. We´re planning on seeing Jake and May again tonight at the hot springs.

So we climbed back out of the crater (not as hard as I imagined) and made it back down the volcanoe in an hour and twenty minutes. We walked back to our lodge and told Miguel that we had climbed the entire thing. He said that we were very strong men, that not everyone can do it and we should be proud. We were. He also told us that he has climbed it 67 times. Miguel is now my hero.

An unfortunate side effect to the hike is that my camera now seems to be broken. I think it was probably the humidity of the climb, or possibly the shaking around of going up. I´m hoping it´s just the humidity, because that will dry eventually and it might start working again. Although it´ll be a while to find that out since things just DON´T dry here. I´ve gotten used to being constantly slightly moist from the humidity, but Í´ve had a pair of pants hanging outside my cabin now for over a day and they still feel as damp as when I put them out.

Today Terry and I just lazing around, recovering from yesterday, although Terry says he feels fine. I´m fine except for - and I apologize that I don´t know the technical term here - my ass muscles. Those are as sore as hell. It´s just as well we´re not doing anything this morning/early afternoon since it´s been cloudy and raining all day. Although just as I´m typing this it seems to be clearing up a bit.

I hope it clears up a little, since at 3pm we´re going on a combination package, a tour of Arenal volcanoe to (hopefully) see the lava flows, and then dinner and a trip to the Baldi hot springs.

Seeing as how this post is reaching Terry-esque proportions, I´ll sign off here!

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Well, I made it!

I got into Allajuela from Edmonton/Phoenix last night. My flight was delayed and then customs was a pain, so while Terry was supposed to get in half an hour later than me, he ended up waiting for me for an hour and a half.

We made it to our hostel, even though I wasn´t entirely sure the cabbie wasn´t planning to rob us. Terry says the absolute chaos of the Costa Rica cab system is nothing compared to Havana´s, and I have no desire to test that claim. So we got to the hostel, had a few beers and went to bed. We got up this morning, had breakfast at the hostel (my first -of many- tastes of gallo pinto! It was good!) and then checked out and finally met the operator/owner of the hostel, Isabel. She is GORGEOUS. Married and with a kid too, but still a very attractive woman. It seems that there are a lot of beautiful, short, dark skinned, well endowed women here. Horray! Anyhow, she was nice.

Next, we hopped on a bus for La Fortuna. Or rather, San Carlos, where we could catch a connection to La Fortuna. Except we got off early and got to take a stroll through San Carlos for half an hour with all of our bags. It wasn´t too bad. We had to repeatedly ask for directions, and I must say people are very kind and accomodating here.

So now we´re in La Fortuna, at a SUPERB lodge. I really had no idea it would be this nice. I´m used to dingy hostel affairs, but here we have our own private cabin with bath, and the grounds are immaculate. Cerro Eco Lodge, I recommend it. We have a lot of options open to us for the next few days.... my votes are for a hike to a nearby waterfall tomorrow, and then continuing onto a lake that´s on top of a inactive volcanoe, then going to see the lava flows on Arenal the next day, and a stop by the hot springs, and then who knows! I can see La Fortuna is going to be a fun place.

Done Work!

I'm done work for seven weeks! Woo!! If Yellowknife had a spare field of yellow, sun-drenched daisies, I'd be running through it right now.

And I also have some new malaria medication to pick up. While the old ones didn't give me crazy dreams, there were side-effects that I really don't want to take on vacation with me. And the new stuff has a warning with it, saying that this medication increases the effects of "blood-thinning" drugs. So as an added bonus I'll be saving a few bucks at the cantina! There's also a warning saying that it may cause increased sun-sensitivity and propensity to burn. Not as fun. I guess I'll know what it's like to be ash white for a few weeks. It'll be like that book "Black Like Me", but white and not socially relevant.

I feel like I have so much still to do before I leave in four days.....

Yesterday was the first day...

Yesterday was the first day I took my malarial pills (more accurately, my ANTI-malarial pills). The particular brand of pill I'm taking is known for giving you vivid dreams. EXTREME vivid dreams in some cases. I had been hearing some horror stories to the effect. Stories about people quitting them halfway through in malaria stricken areas because people would rather have malaria than take these pills.

So I take the pills, go to sleep and... not much happens. I'm entirely under-whelmed. I suppose my dreams were a bit more realistic, but nothing to really Knock my socks off.

So much for selling my surplus pills for a profit.

Paranoia

I'm getting so close...

It's my last week of work, and then just a few days after that I take off. It's getting so close now that I'm starting to think that there must be something critical that I'm forgetting, and couldn't possibly get in time before I go. I'm sure I will forget SOMETHING by the time I'm down there, always do, but hopefully it won't be something too bad.

"What, you mean you didn't get anti-baboon pills before you left? Yeah, without them you're pretty much certain to be attacked by baboons."

"$#%^!"

It's ridiculous I know. Who could ever forget their anti-baboon pills??

New trip... new layout?

Not sure if I like it....

So close..

Bought some new travelling equipment on Saturday.

1) a mummy sack (sleeping bag liner) for those places that require it
2) a small ditty bag, a little mesh bag for holding my watch and glasses while I sleep
3) SmartWool socks for hiking
4) a compression bag for clothes

I'm getting very eager to get going.... it's hard everyday to hold back from starting to pack. I have all my travelling gear out, with my backpack, just sitting there..... AHHHH

If you dislike witty and concise posts, you can also reference my traveling partner Terry's blog for rambling forests of pretension and the occasional pond of lucidity.

First Week Planned + Vague Inclinations

Day 1: Get into Alajuela around 9pm, a little city outside of San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica). Just staying for the night before going to...

Day 2-4: La Fortuna, the town outside of Arenal volcanoe, waterfall, hotsprings, etc.

Day 5-6: Taking a jeep/water taxi/jeep to Monteverde, home to the Cloud Forest reserve with ziplines and canopy tours.

Day 7: Off to Liberia, a gateway town to the Pacific coast beach communities. Don't know if we're staying there, might go straight to Tamarindo, a town recommended by the sis and bro in-law.

Week 2: Up and Down the Costa Rica Pacific coast.

Week 3-4ish: Nicaragua. Granada, that big lake in the middle, etc

Week 4-5: Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica and a southern Costa Rica forest preserve.

Week 5-6: Panama. Some cool islands. Try not to get robbed. From what I've read, that's tricky.

Needles

I've been injected with so many diseases this past year, I can't even count them anymore.

Had a flu shot a couple days ago. It was the first time I'd ever gotten a flu shot. It gave me the flu. I won't be getting anymore flu shots.

Getting the first of three rabies shots this morning. Apparently they hurt...

And.... Central America

Who knew I'd be using this site again so soon?? Off to Central America for 6 weeks in February/March. Just booked the tickets!

And.... Yellowknife

I took off from my hostel in London, got to the airport three hours early, made it through the rigorous but surprisingly quick (One hour. It's relative to my expectations.) security checks, sat down for some fish and chips (last meal in London, could I really have anything else?), perused the abundant and over-priced duty free shops and got on my plane. After some barely made connections and misdirections from well meaning but hardly competent airport staff, I got back to Yellowknife.

It's raining. And it's cold.

1 summer. 92 days. 17 countries. 35 cities. 1207 pictures. Hundreds upon hundreds of new people. Thousands of conversations.

Man....

London

I only spent one night in London. Having been there on multiple occassions before, I felt no real need to see the sites (again). After a brief visit to the National Portrait Museum (going through the last day of my trip and not seeing at least one museum would have been just wrong somehow) I spent the rest of the afternoon in London shopping and then decided to see a movie.

And then the least likely thing to ever happen, happened.

I bought my ticket to A Scanner Darkly (if you like Philip K. Dick, then go see it, or if you just do a lot of drugs, go see it, or if you just really enjoy high concept cartoons, go see it) and walked into the lobby. I walked past someone who looked vaguely familiar, but seeing as how I have met hundreds, upon HUNDREDS of people this trip I am very used to seeing familiar people around, so I ignored it.

I sat down in the exact center of the theatre, as I could determine it, for the best audio quality (simulating audio accurately is very difficult, and impossible with multiple listeners, so theatres calibrate their audio according to one point in the theatre, typically the very centre of the theatre seating. Movie geek aside - Done). After a few minutes the familiar looking man walks in and sits a few rows in front of me.

"Huh" I think.

"That guy looks like Barry.", Barry being my old roommate from Yellowknfe.

"Actually, that guy looks A LOT like Barry."

"...."

I get up, walk down a few rows and look over to the man. He looks back. We just stand there for a few minutes. Slowly a look of complete and total disbelief takes over both of our faces.

IT IS BARRY!

Barry had just finished working the summer in Gambia, Africa as a biomedical technician and was spending sometime in London before heading to Edmonton and then back up to Yellowknife.

So after randomly wandering London (Pop. 7.5 million), and picking any old movie theatre to go into, I run into my roommate from halfway across the world.

And that was London.

Rotterdam/Brugge/Ghent/Brussels

Alright, long time no update...

Rotterdam

Boring, but met some cool people, rained the whole time. The hostel staff was very friendly and helpful. Got taught a new drinking game by some Dutch girls.

Brugge

I had been saying that Cesky Krumlov was the most beautiful town in Europe.... nope, it's Brugge. Absolutely stunning town. I have TONNES of pictures from there because everything is photo-worthy. I am glad I had three days there, even though it is a small place and you could do it in one or two days.

I stayed in a hostel (supposedly the best in town) for one night and then a cheap hotel the next two nights (a room to my self... such luxury to a backpacker), but went back to the hostel bar every night. Hung out with Belgian girls who I think were mocking me the entire time the first night, but as the Belgians speak English, German, French and Dutch I could never keep up to make sure. I went to bed early the second night. The third night I hung out with some really cool Aussies and Kiwis who were on a busabout tour, and had a chat about first impressions with a property analyst. Tried a couple dozen different kinds of beers. Paid for it the next mornings.... But developed a good rapport with the bartender.

They really like spareribs there.

I kissed a vial of Jesus Christ's blood.

Top notch street musicians.

I think that's it...

Ghent

On my way from Brugge to Brussels I stopped in Ghent, since it is almost exactly half way. It was also a very pretty town, I just wandered around it for five hours. But don't trust the tourist info lady, she has no idea where internet cafes are.

Brussels

Kinda dull.... definetly second-rate compared to Brugge and Ghent. However I have met some fun people. Spent last night with some English people who are travelling around for a week. "I fucking love this shit" "... and this is the Brussels of church." Mixed with late night street calamari, it was Good Times. Today I walked around town. Met up with some Canadian girls who were going to the train station, so ended up walking all the way across all of central Brussels chatting with them about the nature of backpacking. Other than that... checked out ANOTHER cathedral, saw the Grand Place.... not very interesting stuff, really.

Tomorrow I am off to London for a night, and then home! CRAZY. It's going to be strange making the switch from a backpacking lifestyle to being in the same place for more than three days... I am looking forward to it and also not.... My own room and space will be nice, and I am pretty tired, but not being able to pack up and go to another country whenever I feel like it.... it will be different, that's for sure.

PS - oh, I never blogged about Munich, did I? Lots of beer gardens, hungout with some cool Jews.

Amsterdam

• I went to a coffeeshop. I had a latte, it was nice. I don't get what the big deal is.
• Free tour guides are awesome.
• I stayed in the most ghetto, sketchy hostel. It was appropriate for Amsterdam.
• A two person outing can quickly become a dozen person adventure.
• Germans continue their streak of being friendly in a really, really weird way.
• Heinekein Experience well worth experiencing.
• Elementary school teachers do coke? I feel my innocence draining away...
• I hate my hair SO, SO MUCH. Semi-fro = not cool.

Dresden and Berlin

Dresden

Didn't do much. A lot of sleeping. Wandering around old buildings, that weren't actually old since they all had to be reconstructed after the firebombing.

Berlin

Great, great city. Very funky architecture, lots of history. Did a walking tour one day and say the place where they had the book burnings and the Riechstag and the Bradenburg Gate and stood on top of Hitler's bunker. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews in really something. It's made of uneven solid black columns, approximately 12 feet in height and in a depression. You wander between the tightly packed columns, never knowing if someone is around the corner... the designers point was to simulate the paranoia and fear that the Jews in Germany felt... I'd say it works.

I now have some very excellent photos.

Went on a pub crawl that night too, and I must say Berlin has some very interesting clubs... one was underneath train tracks and the entire place rumbled and shook with every train that passed. It was a 'authentic' East German bar. I suppose it might have been authentic 18 years ago, but now the tourist shtick on the wall kinda ruins the ambience. Other than that, lots of bars within bars and wonderfully sarcastic Yale English lit majors...

The next day I just wandered around Berlin, through this huge outdoor festival of bad DJ music, bratwurst and beer, in through the Sony Centre which is supposed to be a glass and metal Mount Fuji.

Munich

Berlin made me really, really tired. 4am bedtime the first night, 5am the next, took it easy with just a 2:30am night the next. Plus hours and hours of walking, so I haven't done a lot in Munich yet, except of course visit a beer hall last night. So I just booked another day, because today I have just laid around and read. Those days are nice too sometimes.

Berlin

During Drinking Poker last night in the hostel bar, amidst the standard misbegotten collection of travellers you get in such places, it occured to me to write a breakdown of the different types of backpackers:

Australians: Laid back, friendly, loud, they will claim that they feel they are most like Canadians even though they are perhaps more like Americans, but you forgive them for that fault because, well, they're not Americans.

New Zealanders (Kiwis): Almost EXACTLY like Canadians, if a bit quieter.

Americans: Fall into either the category of "Offensively obnoxious" or "Polite Darlings", with no variations in between. Most likely to be the ones the rest of the group is embarassed by around 3am in the bar.

Mexicans: Continually smiling and cheerful, most likely because they are thinking "Oh, thank God I am not in Mexico".

English Boys: Quiet and reserved until you get a few drinks into them, and then.... well, they're still quiet and reserved, but at least then they're a bit racist too, which is entertaining.

English Girls: See "English Boys", but add "sluts".

Scots: They hold this silent intensity about them (that only maginfies after a few drinks). Their accent ranges from "muttering and incomprehensible" to "primal grunts and moans".

Irish Guys: I've been told that Irishmen are allowed to take a break from drinking whiskey and sheep farming to travel, but I've never seen any evidence to the fact. I also haven't been looking very hard, because who cares when you have....

Irish Girls: Charming, winsome and as lovely as a group of unbelievable drunks can be.

Spaniards: They will smile, nod and laugh for a good 30 minutes while you're talking to them before you realize they don't speak a word of English. Prone to forming impromptu dance parties to whatever music happens to be playing at the time.

Italians: Really not as degenerate as everyone would have me believe.

Germans: Friendly in a very weird, weird, sort of way. Never trust the ones who look normal, the punks are the much more endearing of the species.

Canadians: Conceintous, friendly and beloved the world over. Except for French Canadians. No one likes French Canadians.

Japanese and Argentinians: Miserable bastards who will wake you up early in the morning (11:15) with their inconsiderately loud packing after a night of Drinking Poker, right when you're hangover is gaining steam, but past when all the tours you were thinking of doing have already gone past, forcing you to waste time writing up cultural stereotypes on your blog.

Dresden

The guy at the front desk looks like David Bowie! Phew, man, I have been trying to figure that out for days.

Prague (cont.)

Alright, so more on Prague.

I left Cesky Krumlov with reluctance, since I had met some really fun people there the night before I left. And I still HAVE NOT gone rafting, and they were going the day I left. I am going to stop talking about it because it makes me sad.

I made my way to my hostel, The Boathouse. Turns out it is way out there. It took half an hour to get there from the train station, and for a European city that is a lot. It was an odd kind of place... First of all, it was in the middle of a golf course. We constantly had golfers walking in front of the hostel. The building itself seemed like an old club house, or a yacht club that was no longer being used. The old lady who ran it, Vera, was really nice and fun. I got in during the late afternoon and hoped to meet up with some cool people and go czech out the Prague club scene ('Czech'? Get it?! Man, I am SO funny). Unfortunately all I could find were Americans. Oh well. We went out anyway.

We started at this little bar with numerous shots of absinthe which is DISGUSTING. Then we tried to get to the famous five level club in Prague but the line was an entire block long, so instead this guy took us to a club where the locals go. Which is cool because you can meet the locals, but not so cool when they (for the most part) do not speak English.

After a while I got bored and wandered off (as I do) in search of a kebab. And I swear, THERE ARE NO KEBABS IN PRAGUE. I spent over an hour wandering around looking for one. It was ridiculous, at this point I began to seriously question what kind of backwards society I found myself in.

The next day I went to Prague castle for the day. It was alright. The cathedral there was filled to the brim with art, which was interesting. The 'castle' itself is actually more like a small village. It is a massive complex. I probably would have been more impressed with it a couple months ago, when I started this trip. I am just too worldly now for my own good.

That night everyone in my room was leaving and looking to get rid of all our change. Beers were really cheap (20 crowns for a half liter, which is about one Canadian dollar) so we each bought a half dozen or so and just hung out with some Irish girls.

Today I caught a train with two of the guys from my room who are on their way to Berlin. Now I am in Dresden, hanging out in the lounge, looking to meet people for the five millionth time this trip. I hate socializing...

PS - It is STILL raining..... Been going solid for a week now....

Prague

It's alright. I shot a crossbow.

Cesky Krumlov

I only have a little over three weeks left!! AHH!!

Cesky Krumlov is supposed to be one of the most beautiful towns in Europe. I would say that is accurate. It tiptoes dangerously close to be cheesy, since it is very touristed and pretty, but manages to walk that razors edge. Next year it will probably be crap.

It would be even better if it would STOP RAINING. I have been blessed with fantastic (if overly hot) weather this entire trip, with next to no reason to use my rainjacket or sweater, and I was beginning to resent carrying them around for two months, but huzzah, at last, in one town, I have had occassion to use both! I was actually rather happy to use them for the first time (s?), because I'm a dork, but now the novelty has worn off and I have been informed by Australians that the 'Roots' that is emblazoned on my sweater means 'sex' in Australia, so I may be advertising the wrong (right?) message.

And the penultimate reason I would really like it to stop raining is because in Cesky Krumlov (pop. 15,800), after you've spent half a day seeing the castle, there are only two things to do. Dance to Gypsy music at night, and float down the river during the day. However, when it is cold and drizzling (not even real rain, DRIZZLE. I hate weather that can't make up its mind) getting together a group of people to spend the day on the water, under the water, is difficult.

But the wandering of the town and the reading I have accomplished has been nice and mild. I just finished off Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' and feel very close to figuring out what it was about any moment now.

Next on the list is the Prague of No Expectations and then Dresden, and then the oft recommended Berlin. There is so much left and so little time!

The Internet Lies

So I am in Prague right now... even though I should be in Cesky Krumlov. The internet lied to me, and told me that there were buses out of Prague to Cesky Krumlov after 6pm. Apparently this is not the case.

So after finding this out I tried to wander through Pragues streets, looking for a hostel my guide book recommended that is right by the bus station. Prague has the most complicated road system EVER. It is horrible, I think it was designed by Escher. So after wandering around the same 5 block area for an hour I just went inside a building with a huge HOSTEL sign outside (never a good sign, by the way) and got a room for a night. This is one of the worst hostels I have stayed in so far, which actually still is not that bad. And I have a ticket for 9 am tomorrow to get to Cesky Krumlov. I might even run into MEgan and Chrissy, who are also going to Cesky Krumlov, but opted for the night train rather than the day one. Smart girls....

I am not impressed with what I have seen of Prague. I just got back from wandering around for a while, and it all seems to be casinos and neon lights... not so charming. Coming back from Cesky Krumlov I will stay give it a couple days before heading to Germany, but I will not be expecting much.

Krakow

Bratislava was great, for the short time I was there. The Communist influence in the city was so palpable. And yet they were also so proud... a very interesting mix of people. A little dirty, a little run down, but all part of the charm.

Now I am in Krakow, Poland (I know, I don't know how I ended up here either!). It is giving a good fight for one of, if not the, favouritist (making up words is fun!) city in Europe. It is a lovely city, with lovely people, all so dramatic, loving, sad. The past two days I have spent seeing Wawel castle and cathedral (I LOVE tombs. Is that strange? I find them cozy...) with MEgan and Chrissy (Aussie girls... naturally) and wandering around the town square (which is all of - literally - 15 seconds away from my hostel) and watching live Polish music and dance and visiting the Jewish quarter.

Today I finally worked up the never to go to Auschwitz. I really can't even describe what it is like. There is so much horror and sadness in the place. Even sixty years later it saps every last piece of you. I went on a three hour tour. Most everyone in my tour group was under 25. By the end, no one was talking, no one was touching, holding hands, kissing. We plodded forward, dragging one foot in front of the other, heads down, hearts heavy.

I have seen displays showing tonnes and tonnes of human hair that was cut off of women after they were murdered in the gas chamber and then sold to make blankets. I have stood in a room, not an arm span across, where they would cram 4, 5, 6 people for days as punishment, no light, barely any air, pissing, sleeping, shitting, standing breast to breast. I have looked at the certificates that were paid for by Jews for homes and land in Poland after their Nazi "relocation". I have touched the furnaces where hundreds, thousands of bodies were burnt after dying from the gas chamber. I have a pebble in my pocket from beside the Killing Wall where anyone who opposed the Nazis was executed.

I would go again, without hestitation.

So..... next is Czechy Krumlov! It is a little town in the south of the Czech Republic. It is supposed to be beautiful and fun and relaxing. I need it....

Bratislava

So turns out that Venice is way, way, WAY out of the way of where I was. Oh well. And it also turns out that ticket people should not be trusted. After not getting the ticket I wanted to Venice and showing up there a day night and having to take a night train, I decided to be smart and get my ticket to Bratislava as soon as I got into Venice.

"A ticket to Bratislava on the 27th please."

Confused look on ticket lady's face.
Uh oh.

"Bratislava. 27th. Vingt-sept?"

I trace 27 on the window of the ticket counter.

"Oh, okay."

She checks the computer.

"Umm... no trains to Bratislava on 27. Vienna?"

Vienna has a train every 20 minutes to Bratislava, so I say okay.

I get my ticket, hang out in Venice with LCD, walk across the entire city twice, go to the beach, heart-wrenchingly buy a mask and hope it won't get broken during the next month in my bag, go back to the station to get on my train.

I used my Eurail pass to get the train reservation, so I take it out to write down the date for this day of travel. I look at the date on the ticket, and write down 25/07 on my ticket. Oh, wait..... Turns out she gave me a reservation on the day I bought the ticket, not on the day I had requested. I have half an hour left before the train leaves. I go and stand in the ticket line for what seems and eternity and finally get to the ticket office.

"Hello. English?"

"No."

Crap.

I struggle through it and manage to communicate that I was given a reservation for the wrong day, and he gestures that I have to go to the Railiway Information desk to get it resolved. So I do. 15 minutes left. I stand in line for the Information desk and he tells me I have to go to the Ticket desk. 10 minutes left. I cut through the line and he again tells me to go to the Information desk. (I told this story to Josh, an Italian student I met on the train and at this point he laughs and says "That is SO Italian!"). So this time a young guy who speaks some English goes with me and has a long conversation with the Information desk guy, and I can tell from the conversation that this still isn't going to help me at all. So I turn to the young guy and he says "Ummm... Just get on the train."

So I do. Apparently it wasn't an issue that I had no reservation. Just being told that would have been very useful.

So now I am in Bratislava. It is dirty, poor, cheap, proud and I love it.

More later!

Budapest, Venice

Internet in Venice is tres expensive, so this will be a short one.

Budapest

Funky, beautiful, cheap, Terry is a maniac. Definetly a place to go back to at some point.

Venice

THRONGED with tourists. I cannot take it. The canals are kinda cool, and I may have got a picture of the library from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and even if it is not it I am just going to say it is. Oh, and I hung out a bit with those Vancouver people, whatever their names were :P.

Next

Train to Vienna at 3pm, getting into Vienna around 9;30pm, trying to make it Bratislava, Slovakia that night. I better, I have no where to stay in Vienna that night!

Vienna

It just took me a couple minutes to remember what city I was in. Travelling does that....

So I am in Vienna (duh), about to leave for Budapest in a couple hours. Vienna is a massive, MASSIVE city, it sprawls more than any other city I've been in. It also has an incredible amount of tourist attractions and historic sites. So many in fact that I couldn't decide which to go to, so went to almost none of them.

My first night I met up with some Aussie girls, Emma and Cass, and we went to a film festival that was playing outside the city hall, in a huge square with tonnes and tonnes of booths and people. They were playing a recording of a jazz concert with Harry Connick Jr. We sat in the front and chilled.

The next day we went to the amusement park! Much fun was had. Then we got a load of food from the supermarket and had a three hour picnic in a park. We talked, bonded, etc. They are currently living in London, and offered me a place to stay should I have a couple days in London to kill at the end of my trip. About half an hour before we parted ways I turned to Cass and said "Do you know my name?". She didn't. Heh. That also happens when you travel.

The past couple nights have been long and fuzzy. I switched hostels and in the hostel bar met some working class Brits (James and John) and some people I had met in Madrid (Jerry and Jane) and we hooked up with some more people and all went down to the riverside with the assistance of our appointed Austrian tour guide, Chrissy. We found an outdoor bar and hung out there till about 4am. After fending off attacks of a sleazy German (30) who tried to bring Chrissy (17) back to his place and declining an invitation from some Nigerians to go back to some place that they wouldn't specify, we hopped into a cab and crashed.

The next day I slept through a date to go touring Vienna made the night before and ambled around Vienna before running into the working class Brits and we checked out Parliament and some more parks. Then we met up with the people from the night before and we went to a free open air Sean Paul concert. Sean Paul is insanely irritating. So we go back to the hostel bar and some people go to bed and others hang out and I meet some recently gradded engineers from Queens and they destroy me and a English girl at fooseball.

Now I am killing time till my train leaves for Budapest where good times will be had with Mr. Terry, and then after that Venice with LCD (Lauren, Caroline, Danielle).

And what I REALLY want to do right now is sleep. Stupid 10am checkout time....

Pictures!

I found an internet cafe that has a card reader! Which means I can try to post some of my 500-of the past month and a half! Huzzah!

Drinking and looking generally disreputable with Lauren, Caroline, Terry, Myself and Danielle in London, England.

Temple Bar District in Dublin, Ireland. Yeah, that is what I remember it looking like.

The Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland.

A crazy person singing, dancing, and selling doughnuts from a board that he balanced on top of his head on the beach in Barcelona, Spain.

Dancing in Granada, Spain. On the right is Melissa and Terry and I cannot remember the names of the two girls on the left, but I dearly, dearly wish I did just for the sake of that facial expression.

The hostel kitchen in Seville Spain, Paget, and the beginning of a nights good work.

My old dormmate Fiona and I, late one night in Lisbon, Portugal.

Port tasting at the Sandeman in Porto, Portugal.

Paul doing his best pirate impression on a beach outside of Nice, with Laura laughing in the background. Hey Paul, your nipples are on the internet!

Me, Ethan and Paul trying to look all tough and manly on the Nice beach. Well, I was anyway.

Waterfront in Geneva, Switzerland at night.

Wandering Liechtenstien at night, trying to score some dental products.

Today! I took a day trip around Salzburg with Aryanne (pictured, but very, very smally) and one of the stops was at this luge thing down a hill that you took a little cable sled to get to the top of.

And I finally bought new shoes!

Yep, definetly moving to Austria when I am rich and powerful.

Liechtenstien

It is true my friends, I am in Liechenstien! It is as entirely delightful as I had hoped. The idea that some people travel to Europe and do not visit Liechenstien saddens my heart. It puts me in mind of a country-themed amusement park, on a massive and grand scale. It is the distilled and condensed essence of an entire nation, squeezed into a scant 160 square kilometers.

Today I walked between the most populous city in Liechtenstien (Schaan) and the capital city (Vaduz). It took 20 minutes! My original hope of walking across the entire country, widthwise, has been unfortunately dashed, due to a rather sizable and inconsiderate mountain bisecting my supposed path. I did attempt to walk up to Vaduz Castle, home of the Prince of Liechtenstien and his family, but after 30 minutes of fruitless searching for a path not marked "private" I gave up. Considering that you cannot go into the castle (Could you imagine tourists wandering through your home!) I decided that I could see it well enough from where I was.

My only regret is that I have not found anyone to share my rapture of this fairytale place with. Throughout my time in Switzerland I had been taking a break from talking with people, having gotten quite sick of the same repetive conversations that occur between backpackers (Where are you from, where have you been, where are you going, oh, was it pretty?, repeat ad naseum) and it was a glorious time to be solely in the company of my own meandering thoughs but now I again feel up to setting upon myself the great burden of conversation. Unfortunately, the other guests of my hostel are:

• Three Koreans who share my room and speak very little English. One makes loud smacking noises with his mouth for no reason, I may have to smother him in his sleep.
• A gang of middle-aged German bikers, who despite their hardened appearances are actually very polite. But again, speak no English.
• An American family with a slow-witted patriarch and two young daughters.
• A German-Swiss family

Zurich today, Liechtenstien tomorrow!

I have some internet time left at this cafe, so might as well expound on my trip.

Nice

Hung out with a this soon-to-be Masters of Computer Engineering dude, Paul, a lot. He looks kinda like Jon Heder. Oh, and where is he going to get his masters? UBC of course! I have met so many UBC students this trip, it is surreal....

I switched rooms a lot in Nice, since I kept on adding how much time I wanted to stay there. For my last night I was in the "dungeon", a huge dorm room underneath the hostel bar filled with passed out revellers and building supplies. Two nights before a rager had destroyed a good number of the beds. But thankfully the had been replaced by the time I got there and slept in moderate comfort. Oh Terry, I ran into a poli sci grad from McGill who said she knew you from French class. Her and her friend were kinda annoying though, so I did not spend too much time with them.

Geneva

Definetly international. And definetly beautiful. A good place for sweethearts, but even by myself I enjoyed walking along the waterfront. I never did do the boat trip, but I did watch Superman Returns. Bryan Singer, you have done it again. And I think my guide book writer girl is crazy. She said that there is very little English spoken in Switzerland, but I have yet to meet one person who did at least not know passable English. And the hostel she recommended in Geneva did not love up to my expectations. I was in a 6 bed dorm room that was very spartan and dungeonesque. I have stayed in worse, but it was not as "cozy" as she described. I think she just reviewed the female accomodations and not the male. From what I saw, it is a great place to stay if you are a woman. I am pretty sure I was the only guy there (the yonly have the one male dorm room and I was the only occupant).

Zurich

I like Zurich better when it rains. It is just one of those cities that looks good in the rain. It suits it.

Future Plans

I have my ticket to Liechtenstien!!! I am ridiculously pumped to see this tiny, tiny country. I have to send people postcards from there and buy some dental products. I was hoping to run across the entire country (it is only 6 km wide), but I am still a bit sick, so my have to statisfy myself with merely walking across it.

Terry, I am booked in the Prima Hostel in Budapest (on Laurens suggestion... I will be seeing her shortly after Budapest so she better hope it is all she promised! :P) for the nights of the 21, 22 and 23. If you have some place else you want to stay or have booked somewhere else, let me know.

Zurich

Zurich is uninteresting. You are not missing much Terry. Okay, only 5 minutes left! Here is the intenerary...

Tomorrow in Zurich
Next day in Liechtenstein (the 15)
16 - Salzburg
17 - Salzburg
18 - Vienna
19 - Vienna
20 - Vienna
21 - Budapest
22 - Budapest
23 - Budapest
24 - Bratislava
25 - Bratislava
26 - Bratislava
27 - Venice (??)

Man, I hate having a set schedule... none of that past the 15th is actually booked, Terry, so if you have any preferences, let me know and it can be moved around!

Geneva

So had a good time in Nice, met up with some quality folks, tried to ignore most of the 18/19 year olds (apologies to the 18/19 year olds who may be reading this) who thought I was in my 30s. Visited Monaco, the cleanest city I have ever seen, spent a day on the beach, tried to even out the disparity in colour between my arms and face and everywhere else, and just generally chilled out in the villa.

I'm in Geneva, Switzerland now. And sick again.... it's not a debilitating sickness, I refuse to give in and just stay in my hostel bed (like I probably should). I'm booked now to go to Zurich tomorrow, and then Liechenstein after that. Still trying to get a bed in Liechtenstien, they are not very conscientous about answering the phone. After that, the wind will most likely carry me to Salzburg, Austria and then Vienna, followed by Budapest, Hungary and Bratislava, Slovakia with a perhaps a brief sojourn to meet up with the lovely(-ies) Miss Lauren, Caroline and Danielle in Venice. The only reason I really want to go to Venice is because a number of scenes from "Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade" took place there. Rather like how I want to go to Vienna because that is where "Before Sunrise" took place. I should just have modelled this entire trip based on movie shooting locations.

So so far... I arrived in Geneva from Nice late yesterday afternoon. Took out some Swiss Francs from a bank machine and because I was lazy decided to take a cab. After walking from my hostel to the train station today, I can say the cabbie definetly took the "scenic route". By which I mean he ripped me off horribly. I kinda suspected, since we were at the main train station, my hostel is right beside the main tourist cathedral (which rings very loud bells far too early in the morning), there is no way that many side streets should have been involved. Ah well. Last night I wandered the waterfront of Lake Geneva, and had a lovely dinner at a place that only makes three chicken dishes, it was a very refreshing meal, if a tad expensive (22 francs for a single dish and two iced teas! one france roughly equals one Canadian dollar. I think that three weeks in Spain and Portugal may have spoiled me).

Geneva is the French part of Switzerland. There is also a Italian part and a German part (which is where Zurich is). My guide book said that not many people in Switzerland speak English compared to the rest of Europe, but so far I've heard more English than any other place I've been and have had no problems. This could be due in large part to having a hostel located in Tourist Ground Zero.

Today is more wandering. I may take a boat tour of the lake. I may also go watch Superman Returns, which is playing in a local theatre by my hostel. My movie obsession knows no bounds.

Madrid/Barcelona/Nice

It has been three night trains since I last posted... But now I am clean and clothed, in a honest to God villa (it has it's own chapel! Which is now the hostel lounge/bar...) in Nice. So...

Madrid

Night trained it from Porto to Madrid, ran into a Vancouver girl named Laura and we talked and talked in the bar car before crashing into horribly uncomfortable 2nd class seats.

Madrid was an alright time. I spent two days there, checked out the Prada and Sofia art galleries, wandered around Michelle's aptly named "gaybourhood". Bested a load of Americans at their own drinking games. Did anyone else know that Asshole can be a drinking game? I had no idea.

Barcelona

Night trained it from Madrid to Barcelona. This time in 1st class seats. Which are NOT worth the money. They reminded me of Air Canada seats, with the awful headrest that jutts out and forces your chin firmly into your chest. Who ever designed those seats should be flogged. I managed about 3 hours of sleep.

Go to Barcelona and I went to book my Nice train and found out that Eurail trains schedules lie. There is no morning train from Barcelona to Nice. So instead I booked my third night train in five days to get me to Nice, this time in a second class sleeping car. I went to find an internet kiosk so that I could email my hostel that I would not be able to make that night, and ran into Laura. Turns out we were on the same night train from Madrid and didn't know it. Laura and I seem to have a string of weird coincidences that I won't bother going into.

I spent the day wandering Barcelona with Laura and Gordon, a guy she had met in Madrid. Say some Gaudi architecture, and the big Sagrada Familia (most visited construction site in the world), a massive cathedral designed by Gaudi in the late 1800s and is due to be completed in 2020. It is unlike any cathedral I have seen before. It has to be seen, I don't think my poor descriptions would do it justice.

Laura and Gordon caught the night train to Paris, with Laura saying she'll try to meet up with me when I head to Budapest. I got on the train, and the 15 extra euros for the sleeper car was definetly worth it. I slept some of the best sleep I've had in a while.

Nice

I got to Nice, ran into some Irish girls (yay Irish!) who work at the hostel I'm staying at, and they guided me here. It looks like a nice place in Nice (badoom-ching), and I talked to a guy Paul this morning who said it has a great atmosphere. Nice is my break town from the constant travelling and site seeing, I have five days here to just relax and do as little as possible. Paul said that this is definetly a good place for that.

Future Plans

Due to all the time spent of trains in the past week, I've had some down time to consider what my next steps will be. Places that I want to go, but not nessecarily in this order:

• Florence, Italy for two days
• Rome, Italy for three days
• Somewhere in Sicily is a volcanic area that sounded really cool, but I can't remember the name of it just yet. Two days.
• Budapest, Hungary for 3 or 4 days
• Bratislava, Slovakia for 2 days (might try to find the Voytilla name's home, Provac, Slovakia while I'm at it)
• Trencin, Slovakia for a day
• Vienna, Austria for 3 days
• Salzburg, Austria for 2 days
• Prague, Czech Republic for 3 days
• Brno, Czech Republic for 2 days
• Krackow, Poland for 2 days
• Dresden, Germany
• Berlin, Germany
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Brussels, Belgium

And now that I've made the schedule, I can throw it out the window and tell you that I probably won't be doing anything much like what I've just written. In fact, right at this second I am thinking about throwing out Italy all together (it just doesn't interest me, even though I know so many people who love it) and passing through Switzerland to go to Vaduz, Liechtenstein just for the pure freaking novelty of it. In that case, I'd go to Salzburg, Austria and then head east, then north, then west.

But who knows?

Porto

Porto is a fantastic, fantastic city (you missed out Terry....). I was a little worried about it, since I ran into a Brit girl in Lisbon who said that Porto was a hellhole and she hated it. Once again demonstrating that the English cannot be trusted. I mean sure, it´s dirty and smells bad.... but c´mon, it´s Portugal, OF COURSE it´s dirty and smells bad. But it is also friendly, beautiful, vibrant place.

My first day I ran into a Canadian named Dave, who of course went to UBC and graduated the same year, same faculty as I did. We went out to dinner at a little cafe and had some meat on a hook. Portugese food by the way is also fantastic. Very.... hardy. Then we stopped by a grocery store and picked up 2 one liter bottles of beer and a bottle of wine each. Grand total..... 3 euros.

We then went back to the hostel and sat down in the courtyard and I brought out a pack of cards and we started playing. Within two hours we had about half the people in our hostel sitting with us, playing cards (it is not a big hostel, 30 people at most I think). After a few hours of that we decided to see if the nightlife in Porto is as nonexistant as we had heard. It is pretty dead, but we managed to find a place.

The next day I started some more random wandering. Porto is a great city to wander by the way. Tonnes of cool little alley ways and really breathtaking views of the entire city as it slopes down to the river bed. I then went to one of the more famous port distilleries, Sandeman. While there I ran into Tex, Edmonton and Melbourne from the night before (Isiah, Christine and Liz, respectively. Oh, and here is an odd YK connection.... Christine used to date Chris Mercredi´s brother Paul). So we all went on the Sandeman tour, learned about how port is made and did some tasting. Then we went to another tasting place and after tasting about my seventh port I decided to buy a half bottle of one I liked. It is a 1998 vintage, and should be left to age for another 4 years or so. And I have to carry it in my backpack for two more months. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

After the tasting we found a cafe to watch the Portugal-England football game. Porto LOVES its football. They have big screens set up all around the city centre, showing the football game to the public with hundreds (if not thousands) of people crowded around. But we wanted to eat, so we after some extensive searching we found one with a free table and a TV. AND.... PORTUGAL WON!!! The whole city went NUTS! The energy on the street after that blew me away.... And Tex walked along the top of a bridge walkway, teetering on the railing, ready to fall 100 feet into the river below and freaked me and Christine out.

That night was me, Christine and Dave celebrating Canada day, and handing out Canada pins and naming all who were willing honourary Canucks for the day. Good times were had. I ended the night chilling in the courtyard with some Aussies. Ainsley, Jimmy, John and Matt. They´re doing almost EXACTLY the same route I am, so I will probably run into them another half dozen times over the next two months.

In three hours I am off on the night train to Madrid. YeeHA.

------------------------------------------------------------

So here is the schedule:

1. Madrid tomorrow, for two days
2. Barcelona for one day
3. Nice for two days, three if I can find some more accomodation
4. Florence
5. Rome

Ever been to Florence Terry?