http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Renan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Renan en-us Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:10:31 +0000 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:10:31 +0000 I arrived in New Zealand on the 12th in the late afternoon. Louise picked me up from the airport at Auckland and we checked in to a hostel she had booked. That night we wandered around the city centre and had a good Indian meal in Parnell. The next morning we went to some local markets to the Auckland Domain park and then to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The museum was good Louise showed m http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/Devonport/blog-364631.html I arrived in Amsterdam at midday on Friday the 25th of July. I picked up my backpack only to find it almost completely destroyed and sadly no longer had Louise there to sew it up for me In Amsterdam I was staying with my good friend Tamar who lives in Amsterdam but I had met in London th previous semester where she was also doing exchange at UCL. I took the train from Schipol airport to the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-300679.html We arrived at the very modern thanks to the 2004 olympics Athens international airport around lunchtime and waited an hour fr the train to athens. We went out immediately to the centre of the tourist area Monostaraki looking for cheap food and didn't find it. We kept looking and eventually gave up and had expensive food. We had greek salad potato salad and bread from a little cafe on Monos http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-300677.html We arrived in Rome on the 13th of July at 9pm. We then took the train and the bus to the camping village we were staying at on the outskirts of the city not too far from the Vatican. The village was not very central but a very quick and easy 1 euro bus and train ride so we were quite pleased with the location. The company plus was the same company that we had used in Florence. They have decen http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-300676.html We caught the 740am train from Venice to La Spezia on the morning of the 10th of July. We arrived at 1240pm 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 ne http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-302663.html Louise and I arrived in Venice by train at 630pm. 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 wande http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-300674.html 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 c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-300673.html I arrived in Prague at 930pm 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 b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-300671.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-291880.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-289258.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-291302.html I left London from Heathrow Terminal 5 on the 11th of June at 145pm. 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-289247.html 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 w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/blog-286272.html HelloI'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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Camden-Town/blog-279398.html I got back to Geneva on Saturday evening and went back to Phil and Lucy's in Gland. On Sunday morning I decided to check out the nearby city of Lausanne which is another city on the shorefront of Lac Leman aka Lake Geneva and also the home of the International Olympic Committee. I got off the train and made my way upwards towards the Cathedral. The cathedral was impressive although to be hon http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Geneva/blog-266050.html I arrived in Annecy at 10am and dropped my bags off. I went straight back to the train station and bought a return bus ticket and ski pass for the ski resort The Grand Bornand in the French Alps one hour from Annecy on the bus. The bus ride was very pleasant and scenic. I hired my skis from the town and headed up the mountain on the telecabines. I've only been skiing once before and that was f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Annecy/blog-266049.html I was very lucky in Geneva to have a place to stay with the Griffiths Phil and Lucy good family friends from the Hong Kong days. I met Lucy at the train station who took me back to their office to drop my bags off. I then went back to town to explore and to see the lake. It was a beautiful day clear blue sky and a spectacular view of the mountains over Lac Leman aka Lake Geneva. I was imme http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Geneva/blog-266046.html I arrived in Lyon at midday on the 30th of March. I dropped my bags off at the hostel which was situated halfway up a mountain which had perched on it one of France's many impressive cathedrals. I then went back down the mountain to Vieux Lyon old Lyon to meet up with my New Zealand friend Louise who I had met in Dublin. She is spending a year abroad improving her French. Louise was an excelle http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Lyon/blog-266044.html I got back from Normandy and went to my third hostel in as many nights the unfortunately named Oops Hostel near Place d'Italie in Paris. To ruin a good joke they were very helpful and nothing went wrong. From there I went to Western Union to try and collect the money that Peggy had sent but apparently I can only get it in England. I consoled myself by going to a guitar shop and playing some http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-260117.html On Tuesday morning I got up early packed my bags and headed to Paris St Lazare on the metro to take the SNCF overground train to Normandy to see the DDay landing beaches. I was amused to find out that the anouncement signal is the first three notes of Soulja Boy. I felt like busting out the dance but managed to restrain myself. I arrived in the small town of Bayeux around midday and walked to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Lower-Normandy/Bayeux/blog-259975.html