MeganCarpenter

I am home! I wasn't originally planning on returning to the US until mid-June but I decided to cut my stint in Europe short and head home. I didn't post a blog earlier because nobody knew about my return and I wanted to surprise my friends and family. The trip home itself was nothing short of a nightmare. My flight was scheduled to leave Paris at 9:55 am so with a 4-5 hour drive to the airport, we left the house at 3 am. Of course Paris traffic is ridiculous and we ended up sitting on the motorway for a good 3 hours and I arrived at Charles deGaulle at 9:25. They wouldn't let me through because check-in had already closed, so I missed my flight. There was another flight on the same airline leaving at ... read more

Sorry about not posting these yesterday, I was having computer difficulties. Voici Paris!... read more

We arrived in Paris Saturday just after one and made our way to our hotel. Poor Nate had to drag his suitcases up and down flights of stairs (are there elevators in Paris anywhere?), but he was able to manage. We stayed at L'Hotel de Notre Dame, which was right across from Notre Dame. Our room was lovely, two comfy beds and a marble bathroom. Of course the shower was French which meant no shower curtain and no place to hang the shower head, but c'est la vie. We started off the afternoon by walking to Notre Dame, where there was a line at least an hour long. We opted to skip it since we were so close and could come back at any point throughout the weekend. We then walked to Le Louvre to check ... read more

VERY difficult! Nate and I caught at 10:09 train to Pisa from Rome on Wednesday morning. According to the timetable Eurail had given me, getting to Lyon (in France) would be no problem that day. According to the real world, it was impossible. We arrived in Pisa just after 2 in the afternoon and headed to the information desk to figure out when we could get to Lyon. The nice lady behind the desk frowned and said we had missed the only direct train to Lyon, but we could go via Milan and Dijon, but we would be charged an overnight carriage fee of 25 Euros each. We wanted to avoid these costs, so Nate and I sat down with every schedule and a map to try and figure this out. We thought about going through ... read more

So, Rome. A tourist trap for sure. Today Nate paid 7 Euros for a slice of pizza. Ridiculous. We’ve spent the last two days doing all of the touristy things. Yesterday was the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and Campo de’Fiori which awesomely enough was a place of execution during the Inquisition and Caravaggio went on the run after killing a man who beat him at tennis on the piazza. It rained in the afternoon so we made a quick trip back to our hostel to grab jackets and umbrellas and then headed to the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and Spanish Steps. All very touristy and very over priced, but undeniably beautiful. Today we headed to the Vatican, where we both got in for the student price. I showed my expired student ID and Nate brought a copy ... read more

We disembarked the MV Oceanic II (The Scholar Ship) on April 19. On April 21 it was renamed the Mona Lisa (it's original name) and chartered back into a cruise ship for the summer. And then the captain ran it into the ground. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/04/latvia.cruise.ap/ http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=DhIROlJsjpE... read more

We arrived in Athens two days ago at about 6pm with no plan, no clue where we were and no place to stay. We hopped on the Metro and took it to Syntagma, which I read in my guide book is the center of all activity. Nate was able to get some wireless and we went to hostelworld.com only to find out there was exactly one hostel left in Athens within our price range. It was 20km away from the center of town which isn’t ideal but we didn’t have much choice. We wrote down the vague directions the website gave and found some dinner. After a chicken bacon gyro and Greek salad and 40 minutes on a bus, we made our way to Miramare Hotel. The old man behind the desk had no idea we ... read more

I wrote this last night, April 29th. It’s now the night of the 30th and we’re at a hotel in Athens. I don’t have time to update about today, so enjoy this news from yesterday and I’ll post (with pictures!) as soon as I can. xo Last night was our night in Nis. It’s actually a pretty nice town...there’s a street with lots of little cafes that are extremely cheap thanks to the exchange rate. Nate and I ate at the Pleasure Café...we both had fufu fruit drinks, he had a sub/panini thing, I had a steak salad and we shared yummy raspberry cheesecake...all for less than $15. Nate also bought a new wallet that was handcrafter leather from a Serbian gift store. He doesn’t have anything to put in the wallet...but it’s still nice ☺ ... read more

I've always known that every travel experience has one of those 'oh my god' stories that nobody can believe. I just never thought this one would involve being taken away in a Serbian police car... Nate and I headed for the bus station in Dubrovnik to find out that no bus was headed to Bar that day, despite the online timetable saying there was. The lady at the ticket booth suggested Budva, Montenegro which is a big tourist attraction known for its beaches. Without much other option, Nate and I forked over the exorbitant cost for two bus tickets and headed south. We met an Australian girl and American guy who were both traveling alone and chatted with them for a bit. We also met another guy who had just come from Budva and said we ... read more