http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MeganCarpenter/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MeganCarpenter en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:04:12 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:04:12 BST I am home I wasn't originally planning on returning to the US until midJune 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 955 am so with a 45 hour drive to the airport we http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Pennsylvania/blog-280503.html Sorry about not posting these yesterday I was having computer difficulties.Voici Paris http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-276483.html 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 c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/-le-de-France/Paris/blog-276142.html VERY difficultNate and I caught at 1009 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 frow http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/blog-274472.html So Rome. A tourist trap for sure. Today Nate paid 7 Euros for a slice of pizza. Ridiculous.Wersquove spent the last two days doing all of the touristy things. Yesterday was the Pantheon Piazza Navona and Campo dersquoFiori 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 i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-273588.html 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.httpedition.cnn.com2008WORLDeurope0504latvia.cruise.aphttpit.youtube.comwatchvDhIROlJsjpE http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Latvia/blog-273086.html We arrived in Patras Greece late Friday night with no place to stay. We read about the only hostel in town ahead of time and knew it would be gross but I wasn't quite expecting stains and hairs and dirt and mold everywhere. We had to rent sheets for our beds which we gladly did. The shower was absolutely disgusting and freezing cold so it was one of those rinse as fast as you can and go showers. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-273076.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/blog-272426.html I wrote this last night April 29th. Itrsquos now the night of the 30th and wersquore at a hotel in Athens. I donrsquot have time to update about today so enjoy this news from yesterday and Irsquoll post with pictures as soon as I can. xoLast night was our night in Nis. Itrsquos actually a pretty nice town...therersquos a street with lots of little cafes that are extremely cheap th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Macedonia/blog-271615.html 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 Monteneg http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Serbia/South/Nis/blog-270836.html Dubrovnik is amazing but it has changed so much in the last year. It has suddenly become a tourist trap There are groups of white haired English people roaming around on their rascal scooters and it is impossible to walk around without being in someone's photo. It's kind of too bad because last year it really felt like we were exploring the undiscovered. I suppose this is what happens but I was http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-270320.html We left Verona yesterday morning and took a 1 12 hour train to Venice. Nate and I did some talking and realized we would have to make a couple of sacrifices to our schedule to please the budget and timetable we are trying to adhere to. Unfortunately Venice had to be a part of that sacrifice. That means instead of spending the 2 or 3 days as we originally scheduled we ended up with 6 hours to do http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-270001.html Where did I leave off Oh yes disembarking the Oceanic II. Saturday morning was pure craziness...try to get 200 people checked out of their rooms checked out of their onboard accounts collecting their passports and off the boat by noon. I did it...somehow...and in fact I managed to get a 1030 shuttle to Central Station in Amsterdam. Nate and I didn't have a place to stay for the night becaus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-269310.html Well this will be my last post from the boat. We are all packed and ready to go. We had closing ceremonies today in which everyone cried and exchanged contact information. We just threw a bottle off the side of the boat with messages from everyone in the community inside...wouldn't it be cool if it washed ashore somedayTomorrow morning my shuttle leaves at 1030. We have to check out pay our de http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/blog-267773.html Itrsquos unfortunate we had only 12 hours in Lisbon. Itrsquos definitely a city I could have spent a week in. We spent the morning searching for internet getting our bearings on the city and eating delicious soup and spaghetti. In the afternoon we headed to Castelo Sao Jorge which is a beautiful castle. I really have no idea of the history of the castle which is a shame but the building wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/blog-267379.html I am in Lisbon We found an internet cafe first thing so I dont have anything to report about Portugal yet but I thought Id upload some pictures from the last week http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/blog-266705.html Two months from today is June 14. June 14 is the day I board a plane in Paris with two fully stuffed oversized bags and head back to the US. It will have been nearly 7 months since I was statesidehellipmy longest time away yet. June 14. When I get home it will be less than 3 weeks until my 22nd birthday. My hair will have grown my wallet will have shrunk and my entire view on the world will hav http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/blog-266471.html Let me tell you a little story about the Macquarie grading system. It is set up in a way so that you either get a fail F conceded pass CP pass P credit C distinction D or high distinction HD. HD means your work is publishable with little or no corrections D means your work is publishable with some corrections and so on. There is a curve set up so that basically in a class of 20 2 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/blog-265653.html Our last day of AFP was decent. We went to the Topkapi Palace in the morning. Topkapi was built by Mehmet the Conqueror as a Sultanrsquos Palace. It was set up like a museum with relics of the past and a harem which was once the living quarters of about 300 women who were sultansrsquo wives and concubines and their children. Lunch was served at a traditional Turkish restaurant that only serve http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-263580.html Istanbul is incredible. My first day in Istanbul was relatively uneventful. Nate and I wandered the streets and came across a pretty cool local market. We enjoyed peoplewatching and eating some delicious chocolate cake. For dinner a group of us went to a local restaurant. The place wasnrsquot on any of the main roads and nobody that worked there spoke even a bit of English. They found a man th http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-262715.html