Another early morning as we had to catch the ferry back to the Greek mainland before our long drive to Athens. Patrick was sound asleep with his headphones on. How the heck was he going to wake up if I he didn't sleep in my room. He would have slept right through his alarm and missed the bus. It wouldn't have been a first for him. It was a chore in itself to wake him up but I eventually succeeded. We went down to have one last amazing breakfast at this hotel before leaving to catch the ferry. Leaving Corfu [View Full Entry]

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It was another amazing breakfast this morning as we all stuffed ourselves silly in preparation for our full day on the water. We were all warned about George, the operator of the boat we were about to board. He was a perverted old man but was loads of fun and laughs. We got off bus and walked towards the docks. I was wondering which boat we were going to get on. I saw this dinky little thing and was hoping that wasn't the boat. Sure enough, George was heading towards this boat. It was so small that I was beginning [View Full Entry]

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I was jarred awake this morning at an ungodly hour by the sounds of someone in my room yelling at me to wake up. "30 minutes until docking" he was yelling. The nerve of this guy to enter my cabin unannounced to wake me up. I was still able to hear him as he went down the hall yelling at all the other passengers to wake up. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly ran in the shower and gathered my things. We docked in the port town of Igoumentsa. From here, we were to catch another ferry that [View Full Entry]

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This morning we said goodbye to Amy, Mar, and Patrice. They were heading to the airport after breakfast for their flight back home to L.A. Today was also Suzanne and Clay's last day of the tour. However, they would be spending a few more days in Rome and along with Chris and Wendy, would be travelling down to Pompeii with us. Back on the bus for a 2 hour drive down to Pompeii. It was a beautiful and sunny morning made even more spectacular once we starting driving along the coast near the city of Naples. Driving through Naples, we [View Full Entry]

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Today was Clay, Suzanne, Mar, Amy, and Patrice's last day with the tour as they chose not to continue to Athens. Suzanne and Clay had a few extra days here in Rome to themselves but everyone else would be flying home tomorrow morning. Today was a full on day of sightseeing. Another early wake up as we were to be met at the Vatican for our tour of the Vatican Museum. We caught the public bus to the stop for Vatican City and rushed to get in line. It was still quite early but the line was already really long. [View Full Entry]

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We left Florence this morning and headed for Rome. I found out this morning that poor Cassie who had been suffering from severe stomach issues for the duration of the trip would be leaving early. Once we arrive in Rome, she would be heading out to the airport to fly home to Australia. I guess she held out for as long as she could. She still had a few more weeks of travelling left as she was supposed to take a cruise through the Greek islands once our tour finished up in Athens. Before Rome, we made a quick stop [View Full Entry]

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I awoke this morning with Patrice already gone. I didn't think she'd really wake up early just to go to a museum. Back on the coach to be dropped off in the middle of Florence for our day of sight-seeing. Our first thing of the day was to watch a demonstration on Florentine leather. It was actually pretty interesting as we were shown how to differentiate between real and fake leather. Again, as in the previous demonstrations in Venice, we were lead into the show room where they sold a variety of leather products. I actually contemplated purchasing something here [View Full Entry]

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This morning we were off to go check out Pisa with its famous leaning tower before heading off to Florence. I was glad to be leaving this nasty hotel which was by far the worst of the trip. I slept above the covers last night after noticing red bumps on my legs from the previous night. My suspicions were confirmed this morning when I heard other people complaining about bed-bugs in their beds as well. We arrived in Pisa around mid-day and were only given about 45 minutes to check the place out. It was quite a warm day out [View Full Entry]

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This morning I woke up with a bunch of red bumps on my legs and feet. The first thing I thought of was bedbugs!!! It wouldn't have surprised me if it was indeed bedbugs as this hotel on the outskirts of Venice was by far the worst hotel of the trip. After a very sub-par breakfast, which was very typical of our Italian breakfasts, we all headed back on the coach for our full day in Venice. Since Venice was an island, we had to catch a water taxi which took about 15-20 minutes. It was a very quiet ride [View Full Entry]

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It's been over a week but I can never get used to these early wake up calls. This morning we all boarded the coach to leave the cool, clean, and efficient Alpine countries and descend into warm and chaotic Italy. First stop in the morning though was for a little white water rafting excursion for a few hours. It was supposed to be Patrice, Suzanne, Clay, and I doing this but apparently Suzanne and Clay starting feeling a bit under the weather and decided to forego this optional excursion. Only about 15 of us ended up going. Once we were [View Full Entry]

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