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Renan - Renan Grace

My name is Renan, and I'm a 20yo student from Perth in Western Australia. I'm studying a combined degree in civil engineering and psychology at the University of Western Australia, and will spend the next year on two consecutive study abroad programs.

I'll be studying at Penn State University in the USA for the Fall 2007 semester, and will then head to Uppsala University in Sweden for the Spring 2008 semester. In between I'll do some travelling in the USA and Europe, and after Sweden, I have about seven weeks to get a teaser of Europe.

Feel free to subscribe to my blog, I hope you enjoy following my adventures!

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Joined on: August 6th 2007
Last Login: October 11th 2008

Blog Entries: 38
Photos: 372

TB Code: [blogger=44863]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Renan, order by Date newest first.

By Renan
July 11th 2008

Cinque Terre and Florence

Europe » Italy » Liguria » Cinque Terre

The view

We caught the 7:40am train from Venice to La Spezia on the morning of the 10th of July. We arrived at 12:40pm, had lunch and left our bags at the station. We then took the short train trip to Monterosso, which is the furthest of the five towns at Cinque Terre national park, separated by a series of scenic hikes. When we arrived at Monterosso, we went straight down to the beach, after I bought a new pair of sunnies (I had lost my old pair in Austria. We went swimming crammed between two private beaches (we didn't want to pay [View Full Entry]

By Renan
July 10th 2008

Venice

Europe » Italy » Veneto » Venice

Canal

Louise and I arrived in Venice by train at 6:30pm. We spent some time trying to figure out how to get a ticket for the bus (it requires either a phD in transport or some basic Italian), and took the bus to our hotel. Our bus driver was the most stereotypical Italian I can imagine and was therefore a very bad driver with aviators (yes at night) (note: that might be a reconstructed memory). We wandered around for a while trying to find the hotel, asking some locals and getting some blank stares. When we found it we checked in and [View Full Entry]

By Renan
July 7th 2008

Austria: Vienna and Innsbruck

Europe » Austria » Vienna State » Vienna

A clear case of sexual repression

I arrived in Vienna a little after 10am on Saturday morning, and met Louise where she was waiting for me on the lawn outside Westbahnhof station. It was great to see her again after over a month apart. We went to the hostel, left our bags and then walked down the shopping strip to the centre of town. On Louise's Lonely Planet guide's recommendation, we took the tram on a circle route around the centre. After seeing many rundown buildings and crappy neighbourhoods we concluded that either the author didn't go to Vienna, or this place is a bit crap. We [View Full Entry]

By Renan
July 5th 2008

Czech Republic: Prague and Cesky Krumlov

Europe » Czech Republic » North » Prague

Karlstein

I arrived in Prague at 9:30pm on the night of the Euro 2008 final. I met Martin (my Czech flatmate from London) at the train station, and we took the underground to the flat we were staying at, owned by a friend of Martin's Dad. We met the owner to grab the keys, dropped our stuff off, and went to the pub for a one dollar fifty pint (!) (a good one at that) and watched the end of the game. Spain beat Germany, and people seemed to like that. Maybe there's some anti German sentiment still lingering from WWII... On [View Full Entry]

By Renan
June 26th 2008

Berlin

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Brandenburger Tor

I arrived in Berlin at 10am on Wednesday. I went to the hostel, dropped my bags and walked straight to the Brandenburg gate. I had lunch and then went on a "free tour" (it's tip based) of Berlin. The tour lasted four and a half hours and I really enjoyed it. The guide was really good and he told us some German history and showed us around former communist East Berlin. I really like Berlin, it has some weird energy. It's so steeped in history. I instantly had the feeling that my four days here will not be nearly enough. We [View Full Entry]

By Renan
June 24th 2008

Deutschland: Kiel and Hamburg

Europe » Germany » District of Hamburg » Hamburg

Boats in Kiel

I arrived in Kiel on the northern coast of Germany (on the coast of the Baltic sea) on June 21 in the mid afternoon. The train from Copenhagen took about five and a half hours, but went very fast due to the very good book I was reading, "Unweaving the Rainbow" by Richard Dawkins. When I arrived in Kiel I was greeted at the train station by my friend Janine who i studied with at Penn State last year. She lives and studies in Kiel, a town of about 250,000 with a lot of students. My trip fortuitously coincided with a [View Full Entry]

By Renan
June 19th 2008

Copenhagen

Europe » Denmark » Region Hovedstaden » Copenhagen

The Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen is like a god here.

I arrived in Copenhagen at 11pm after an eleven hour train trip. The secenery on the Swedish west coast between Gothenburg and Copenhagen was absolutely spectacular. In Copenhagen, I stayed with two different hosts, both of who I contacted through an online organisation called Couchsurfing. When I arrived in Copenhagen I took the train to the apartment of the guy I was staying with (Mark) and went promptly to sleep. The next morning I went into the centre of Copenhagen and to the tourist office to plan my movements. I went to the Copenhagen city museum but it was closed. I [View Full Entry]

By Renan
June 17th 2008

Sverige: Stockholm and Uppsala

Europe » Sweden » Stockholm County » Stockholm

Gamla Stan

I left London from Heathrow Terminal 5 on the 11th of June at 1:45pm. The terminal is brand new and is really good; the check in is right in front of you when you get out of the lift from the tube station and it's computerised so you just touch the screen and type in your reference. It was really quick and easy to get through to the gate. I arrived in Stockholm at about 5pm and took the bus to the hostel. Sweden is really easy to get around in because everyone speaks such good English. I checked in, got [View Full Entry]

By Renan
June 11th 2008

The end of London, and the Lake District

Europe » United Kingdom

Sheep

I spent the last week in London working constantly (nine consecutive days) and then frantically trying to pack up my entire life and do some kind of organisation for my Europe trip. I write this from a hostel in Stockholm which I have just arrived at on the evening of June 11. I moved out of my residence on the 6th of June and spent my last few days in London at Hazel's house in Bushey. Yesterday was Hazel's 21st birthday so I promised I would stay for that. On the morning after I moved out of my residence we got [View Full Entry]

By Renan
May 23rd 2008

Work, Study, Friends and Scientology.

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Greater London » Camden Town

Tower Bridge

Hello! I've spent the last month studying for my final exams and working part time at the pub. I finished my last exam on May 14, and since then I've been working full time, saving a bit of money for my upcoming adventure through central Europe. My exams went pretty well, but I was very glad to be done. In the one engineering exam I had I messed up the easy question which everyone got, but I got the hard question which noone else got, so I guess it balances out. At the beginning of May we had ten straight days [View Full Entry]

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