http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/RyanT/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from RyanT en-us Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:54:58 +0000 Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:54:58 +0000 New York City a long overdue roadtrip which I have finally got around to doing. It only took us a relatively short 6 hour drive to get there plus some additional time for some rough food at a Friendlies on the way. Our home for the week would be a 6 bed dorm supplied by 1291 Youth Hostel. 40 per person per night gave us a wonderful little Bachelor apartment with 3 bunk beds a small kitche http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-69665.html Oslo hmm a very very beautiful city but not very exciting. But generally I have found that how much fun you have in a place often depends on the people you spend time with while there. I never got too friendly with anyone at the hostel here so my time was alone to myself. I still made the best of it though.The trainride here from Copenhagen was a long one 9 hours But comfortable enough si http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/blog-12476.html I LOVE this city5th JulyAfter a dreadfully boring trainride possibly six of the longest hours of my life I arrived in Stockholm and immediately set about getting my bearings on how to get to my hostel which is located in an area known as Zinkensdamm. A quick metro check revealed that there is a stop within 1km of the hostel brilliant. I grab a 10 stop ticket to see me through my stay here an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Sweden/Stockholm-County/Stockholm/blog-12711.html Nine days back in Scotland 4 of which were in Edinburgh and the remaining 5 in the Glasgow area. Welcome to a cold and rainy country my luck finally caught up with me weather wise but in Scotland I would have it no other way hahaI mostly took the time to relax and do normal things while back here. So I didn't get very much tourism done. Some may wonder why I am not seeing more than I am w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Glasgow/blog-14841.html After being held up in Prague waiting for my laundry to be done which should have been done on time I grabbed the 1530 train to Berlin. The laundry cost me a euro1 for wash and dry but I don't deem waiting until that late for it to be done as a worthwhile use of my time. But anyway....I arrived in Berlin around 2100 and headed for the undergound to grab the subway to get over to my hostel. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-11522.html Normally I wouldn't mention this but things didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked them to have done. After Stockholm I decided to head back to Scotland for just under 2 weeks before then flying homeward to Canada. I did a lot of searching for cheap flights and could have flown from an airport near Stockholm called Skavsta for about 50 euro but that airport was 70Km south of the city an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-13978.html A short stay for me in the Danish capitol. Due to limited hostel availability I had to settle for only 2 days here and sadly almost all of the first day was spent in transit from Amsterdam to here. I didn't do a whole lot of exciting things here so hopefully the journal won't bore you all too much...My room this time had only 9 beds in it thank god but I got the top bunk. These bunks sit 3 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Denmark/Region-Hovedstaden/Copenhagen/blog-12371.html Whoever is responsible for coining that phrase was a shortsighted fool. Amsterdam is infinitely nicer and more interesting than Venice is and even though they both share canals it's still an insult to Amsterdam. Quick useless stat for people like me that love them 70 of the Netherlands is under sea level. There you go and now on with my journal. During my time in Amsterdam I am staying at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-12057.html Brussels has to be one of the most underrated cities in Europe really. By this time I have travelled to most of the heavily hyped cities and seen what people will tell you is beautiful and so on but Brussels has just as much to share as any of those places. I arrived around 1700 on the Thursday dropped my things off at the hostel and went for a walk around to see the city at dusk. I walked http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-11874.html Prague what a city Amazing old buildings everywhere some history and it's nice to be in a place where I don't constantly go over my budget this is a wonderfully inexpensive place to take a trip to. I arrived in Prague at about 2300 not the best time for it but oh well. The train station in Prague is dodgy as hell and at that hour I wasn't looking forward to navigating my way to the host http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-11070.html What an interesting few days and each was certainly very different from the other.My first day was spent almost purely in transit from Venice to Munich. I got a quick haircut in Venice too before I took the train my first since leaving Canada. The barber didnt speak English but my passport photo is very recent and was taken the same day as I got a haircut perfect I just showed him it and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-10778.html Not a lot to do in Venice but I had a good enough time just walking about...and getting lost every five minutes. When on the island there are no cars or anything everyone is stuck on foot. And since this is the case there are no roads only small and claustrophobic alleyways. Alleyways they often lead to dead ends or in circles but this is fun in it's own way. For accomodation I was sta http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-10602.html An English scholar once wroteAs long as the Colosseum stands so shall RomeWhen the Colosseum falls so shall RomeWhen Rome falls so shall the worldLuckily for us it is still standing and this is where I chose to begin my Roman experience. And a truly excellent start it was at that. After grabbing the metro to take me to the Colloseo stop which is right outside the building it began. Walk http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-10206.html Well not that I saw any flowers here but anyway...Florence for me was only okay I was a little disappointed. Bad to start this journal on a slightly sour note I realise but here is how things went for me. I arrived in Florence around 2000 on the 2nd and very quickly made the move to check in my backpack for safekeeping at the train station since I didn't have a room booked until the 3rd. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-10089.html Wow this should be interesting....So I left Madrid on the 30th of May and my destination was to be Florence. It took me four full days to get there and I saw a lot in that time. The first train I took got me from Madrid to Barcelona this took about 5 hours. I had 2 hours to kill until my train to Montpellier in France and since Nou Camp was nearby I ran there to see the Barcelona FC museum http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-9838.html My day of travel from Barcelona to Madrid was a long one but not by any means a waste. I arrived at the train station around 10am hoping to grab a direct train but sadly every single direct train for the day was fully reserved ugh. Luckily the girl at the tickets booth managed to work out a route for me to get to my destination. The 1500 train from Barcelona to Valencia and the 1845 train f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/blog-9643.html Arrived safe and sound at 8am on Tuesday after my first hotel train experience. The train from Paris to Barcelona took 12 hours and I was sharing a cabin of 4 fold down bunks with 3 other gentlemen. 4 strangers in a 2x2m room interesting experience. It wasnt bad though I got talking to the two that spoke English and before I knew it 3 hours had passed and it was time to kip. The only prob http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-9345.html After the sketchy details on my previous journal it's time to expand on what I have seen during my tim here in Edinburgh. Last Thursday I spent over 3 hours exploring Edinburgh Castle. The castle itself is built on an extinct volcano and is the centerpiece of the city it can be seen from practically anywhere. The main reason for this is simply because the city council won't allow building to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-8864.html Well all is going well and I'm enjoying myself. But I got off to a rather shaky start here. I arrived in Paris around 2000 hours on Friday and didn't really know where to start. But since I had all my luggage a very heavy backpack and a small bag it definitely seemed best to get a room for the night asap. Common sense prevails. However this seemingly simple process ran me into a wall http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-9194.html Well I finally have a chance to get caught up with this.I arrived safe and sound in Glasgow at 4am on Wednesday the 4th of May. Was lucky enough to have a friend of the family offer to pick me up at the airport the prospect of navigating myself through Glasgow at such an hour wasn't a fond one. The whole week was spent at my Aunt's near Hamilton. Most of the time was spent catching up with ol http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-8527.html