Untitled Julie J Vanover I arrived in Nice and got checked in then headed out to Cannes. It took me forever to get a bus to take me back to the train station. I chose the hostel because it was recommended to me and it was very nice, but it was so far out from everything. So I finally got to the train station and got on the train, but it didn´t go anywhere, then everyone got off. The train had been cancelled, so I hopped on the next one. I walked through Cannes and saw the main building where [View Full Entry]

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Cinque Terre Julie J Vanover As sigh, the Cinque Terre! The Cinque Terre is five towns on the Northwest Italian Coast that have walking trails to the different towns along the coast line, and it is beautiful. On the way there I met Luke from Boston (but grew up on Bainbridge Island) on the train and we both had our hostel booking at the same address. We arrived there and we were in seperate hostel locations, but we and several people from my hostel met for dinner later. I explored Riomaggiore, the town that we were staying in [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Julie J Vanover I woke up and went to the bus stop to go to Siena for a day trip, but the bus weren't running because it was a holiday. Hmmm, this is the second Italian holiday in less than a week. So I am really mad because all the things in Florence that I want to see are closed because of the holiday. So I decided to walk to the train station and go see Siena anyways. I got to the train station and headed out for Siena. I met a couple from Atlanta on the bus and [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Julie J Vanover When I was booking my hostel for Florence there was very limited availability anywhere, so I decided to book a tent/cabin thing. It looked like a little cabin, but it was fabric and had a door that closed and locked, and it was cheap! The only problem was that in the morning it was really cold, I didn't want to get out of bed it was so cold. But, the whole campsite was on one of the hills of Florence so I would wake up to the most beautiful views of Florence. So it turned out [View Full Entry]

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Venice Julie J Vanover I took the train from Rome and I arrived in Venice. I got there and the streets were flooded! The place was a mess, so I left. Just kidding! I thought that this post needed a little more humor. I originally wanted to stay in Venice for 2 nights but everything was booked for Sunday night because of the holiday in Italy. So I got to Venice, dropped off my pack and headed across the water on a vaporetti (little water ferries that run like busses) to St Mark's Square. I start walking towards the Square [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Julie J Vanover Ahh, Rome! I arrived in Rome on Wednesday afternoon, not having a hostel booked because I ran out of time in Naples. But one of the girls in my room assured me that I would find a hostel very easily, she said I would get off the train and people would be coming up to me asking if I needed a hostel. Well, I got off the train and noone came up to me. Ultimately this is Italian independence week or something and almost all of the hotels and hostels were booked, so I walked around [View Full Entry]

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Untitled Julie J Vanover On my way to Pompeii I met a couple from Australia, which it is a good thing I met them otherwise I would have gotten on the wrong train. So I got there and bought my ticket and there was a group looking for English speakers to make their tour cheaper. I said all I could afford was 5€ and so they said that the hostel people only had to pay 5€! So I took a tour of Pompeii, which was very nice. We went to the major sites and say so many wonderful buildings and [View Full Entry]

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Trip to Italy Julie J Vanover So, after my almost 2 whole days of traveling I arrived in Naples. I traveled 4 hours from Athens to Patras on the train, then had to wait 3 hours for the ferry so I decided to explore Patras a little. Well, they had an old Greek ruin, so headed there up the steep city streets and then climbed 11 flights of stairs with my backpack on in the heat. Ugh, but the view was amazing, I could see all across the bay at the many craggy islands. Then I took a 16 hour [View Full Entry]

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Island Cruise Julie J Vanover So today, I took a Greek ferry and the good new is it didn't sink! I did a one day excursion to a Greek Island called Aegina. Now it is definitely no Santorini (which is what I really wanted to see but it was just too long of a ferry) but it was cute. There were too different ruins in it, one the Sanctuary of Aphaia had a really nice temple that was quite beautiful. Then I went to the beach and I really wanted to swim in the Mediterranean for the first time, but [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, I arrived at my hostel with no sleep and exhausted at 7:30 in the morning. So, I walked into my room and laid down on the bed to sleep. Then I thought that I would be better off if I just made myself stay up until at least early evening and get onto the right time zone/sleep schedule. So that's what I did. I headed to the Acropolis after the guy in my hostel drew the route on my map. Now I'm pretty good about navigating and figuring out where I am, but Athens was very hard for me [View Full Entry]

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