Basically on Contiki we had one day of travelled followed by a day in the city that we had travelled to. What I've done is basically summed up the main event in each city instead of doing a day by day account as I have done in the past. Oh yeah it managed to rain in every single country we visited! We had some of the massivest thunder storms and we survived it all in tents!!! Even though it was wet the ground we pitched our tents on was so hard that before long all tent pegs were bent!! Paris Our [View Full Entry]

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Day 106 Newgrange Today I went on a day tour out to see the Newgrange Tomb. Our first stop was to Tara Hill were the High Kings/Queens of Ireland would rule from. The hill offered a fantastic view of the majority of the country. On the site there is also some ancient burial mounds. From here we moved onto the Town of Trim. Here we walked around Trim Castel which is the only standing castle in Ireland that was built before gunfire and hence used to have a functioning moat around it. By now it was close to lunch and when [View Full Entry]

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Day 88 Derry Today Emma and I were in at Paddy Palace by 8am to leave on our 6 day tour around Ireland!! We started off with a drive around phoenix Park, Europes largest! 5,000 Red Deer running wild. Stopping for a photo stop of the Papal Cross and a look in on Aras an Uachtarain (the home of the Irish President Mary). From there we drove into Drogheda where we stopped for lunch and saw the preserved head of St. Oliver Plunkett (executed 1681) in St. Peters Cathedral. From there we drove through a town which has 4 identical houses [View Full Entry]

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Day 71 I arrived in Athens airport at 5.30am to find out that the buses were on strike until 8am so I was going to be stuck at the airport until services resumed. Well I can now officially tell you that airport benches are definitely not made for sleeping on!!! Anyway I somehow managed to pass the time until the buses arrived. Well because there were so many people waiting I missed the first two and spent my time chatting to an English couple. We finally got onto a bus by a quarter to 9 and were finally on our way [View Full Entry]

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Day 74 Today I was u pearly to catch the ferry to Santoroini and was due to meet the girls on the ferry. We later found out though that we had managed to catch two different ferries which meant that I had arrived several hours later than the others. This was fine except that it was pouring rain and none of the hotels actually have proper address. So when I finally made it to the town where the hotel was I then spent the next ½ hour having to look for it!! Once I made it there we then headed down [View Full Entry]

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Day 78 Today after Emma and Lauren had left I went on over to the travel agent to buy myself a ticket to Crete. While I was there I also managed to find out that Plykias the place I was heading too I would not be able to reach that day due to the bus times. I was then lucky enough to have the lady find me some accommodation in Heraklion where the ferry was due to dock. While I was waiting for the bus to head down to the port I met a couple from Brazil who were looking in [View Full Entry]

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Days 82-84 After arriving and checking into our apartment we spent the next couple of days doing nothing too much at all. Actually the series of events is much the same for both so I wont bore you and just give you the quick overview of the next couple of days. We went to the various beaches, strolled around and of course did lots of shopping. During the night we did our spot of people watching before heading out for a few drinks on the town. There we met a range of interesting and some quite boring people to say the [View Full Entry]

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Day 67 Today I met Roger down at the ferry dock for our trip over to Gozo. Once we got there and had booked ourselves into the hostel we started to walk into the capital Vittiros. We didn't make it too far before catching a ride on one of the Gozo buses. Once in town we headed to the tourist office for maps and alist of things we could amuse ourselves with. Our first stop was to check out the main Cathedral in town. We didn't go inside but instead walk around the outside and visited all of the small craft [View Full Entry]

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Day 54 I arrived in Malta at some ridiculous hour with no baggage or sleep only to have to wait 1/2 hr for a bus and then another 1/2 hour for the next one to get me to my hostel. After negotiating the busy streets I managed to find the place I'd be living in for the next 2 weeks. My next mission was to get toiletries so I could shower lucky for me I had a change of clothes in my carry on so I didn't need to worry about a new wardrobe until maybe the next day. My first [View Full Entry]

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Day 53 Easter Monday I finally arrived in Girona before 9am and stopped for a morning snack I now had 14hrs to kill before my bus would leave for the airport. My first port of call was to find a tourist info office and hopefully a placce to leave my bag. I managed to do both and by 10am I was backpack free! With my map in hand I went out to explore the old city of Girona. I walked through the old winding streets of the ‘Call’ or Jewish Quarter visiting along the way the Jewish and Histroy Museums, the [View Full Entry]

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