amneris
Allison MacD Joined: June 12th 2007
Logged in: September 8th 2008
Logged in: September 8th 2008
Travel Blog Posts
Gift
This morning I pulled myself from my bed with a great scowl - not because I was tired, but because I knew tour time was winding down to its final few hours, and that was depressing. I quickly got dressed and went downstairs for a final French breakfast. Juice and a croissant…how exotic. I heard about the cabaret from Laura, Erin and Anita, and it sounded like they had a great time. I’m not sorry I missed it though. I quickly went back to my room to get my suitcase so I could jump on the coach and get a front seat. Seeing as I was one of very few going all the way back to London, I figured I could claim one for myself. I stashed my backpack then went to wait with my suitcase ... read more
The Arc
Just a note: I'm using my journal as a reference for this entry, but it was written at 11:30 at night after a very long day of sightseeing, so sadly, I'm sure there are details missing - but you'll get the idea.* Breakfast was pretty much the same as it had been through France. I was pretty excited about it - the upcoming day, not the breakfast. We got onto the coach, and Pom Pom played the day song as we drove to the Arc de Triomphe to be dropped off for the day. A bunch of us (the usual crew), took a few quick photos and then went through the underpass to the middle of the roundabout to go up the Arc. The bunch of us started the ascent up the few hundred stairs spiraling ... read more
Thief!
I made my way back to my room at around 7:15am, and Rachel answered the door with a grin. I quickly informed her of the innocence of my absence through the night. I don't think she was quite convinced. I grabbed my things and hopped in the shower. I felt surprisingly okay - awake and alive...a little parched, but otherwise fine. I got dressed, put on my makeup and went downstairs for food. I was loving the breakfasts in France after the minimal spreads in Italy. I'm sure some people were wishing for some grease this morning though, to ease their fuzzy heads and rumbly bellies. After eating I rushed upstairs to get my bags down to the lobby via the elevator before the rush started. Before we left, the coach got trapped in the parking ... read more
Fragonard
Staying up late always seems like a good idea at the time. Although I had to physically pull my eyelids open, I got up and stumbled over to breakfast. Better than Italy, that's for sure. Croissant, yogurt, fruit and coffee. Not too shabby. Today was primarily a traveling day, which was fine by me. I ran back up to the room, did a quick re-pack of my stuff, and dragged my suitcase to the lobby. As Pom Pom played our day song, it hit me that we wouldn't be hearing it many more times. Sad. He told us what would be happening for the next few days as we drove for about 45 minutes to a perfumerie. As we went in, the overpowering scent of so many perfumes mixed together hit us like a wall of ... read more
So blue
And this is the point when I say, "Holy crap, there are so few days left...I'm not ready for it to be over!" I woke up this morning pretty early, all things considered, and because of my lack of sleep, felt a tad crappy. I pulled some clothes on and went down for breakfast. I didn't hear or see any of the group, and, being me, I didn't go exploring, so I picked up a croissant and went back out to the lobby. I sat myself down and waited to see if anyone was up and about. Dan came down on his own and asked if I wanted to join him for a walk. It was a beautiful, sunny day and so I said "sure", and off we went. We walked all along the beachfront, and ... read more
Pisa
Got up early and didn't quite mind this morning, which was strange, all things considered, for our "big chunky drive" today. I got on the coach and sat down next to Sara. Although I was fairly awake and alert, I was in no mood to chat after the insanity of the previous night. I was kind of relieved when she fell asleep and I was left to stare out the front window, taking in the scenery and the valiant attempt on Pom Pom's part to cheer Damian up (apparently he'd been woken up a lot the night before and hadn't gotten all that much sleep. I'd be cranky too...). I don't think there were too many other people awake on the coach for that first stretch of the drive, and I didn't blame them. As we ... read more
Driving to Florence
I think a lot of us were feeling a little bit sketchy at breakfast after the big night at the hotel. I was again quite unimpressed with the hard buns and Tang that the hotel was feeding us. Ah well. C'est la vie. Hopped on the coach and snagged a front seat again - love the front. I'm such a nerd. Today was our last day with Zoltan. Damian was about to make his great return. The drive was uneventful. I propped my feet up and wrote for an hour and a half straight. It was a bit of a chore - I was tired and kind of wanted to catch up on a little sleep, but between the pact I'd made with myself to stay as alert as possible during the trip, and the fact ... read more
Me
Now that my body's pretty much fully adjusted to the time here, I'm growing more and more resentful of my alarm clock tearing me out of dreamland. Even when I get a lot of sleep (a whole seven hours) I'm still tired. Today was a huge day though. Breakfast at 7. We went down the stairs to the breakfast room to be greeted with the worst breakfast yet...hollow buns and Tang! Wow. Definitely not substantial enough to get us through our huge day. In any case, I stuffed a bun down my throat and hopped on the coach. Zoltan drove us to the train station La Giustiniana (I love how that rolls off the tongue) to Valle Aurelia (that too!). This is where we first implemented what Pom Pom called "the spiderman technique" - basically smashing ... read more
Driving into Rome
Another day of waking up ridiculously early and not wanting to get out of bed...seeing a trend here? The sun lured me slowly out from under the covers. A quick shower and packing job later, I was headed downstairs for breadfast. Bread and cornflakes. How novel! The thing that made up for the carb overdose was the coffee. Mmm. Italian coffee. When I was going back up to the room to get my bag after caffeinating myself, I walked through the little courtyard of the hotel, first amazed that it was so ridiculously warm at 7:30am, and second, looking around, totally content and thinking that life really doesn't get much better than this. Hopped on the coach and we took off, driving through a particularly boring stretch of road. We drove to one of the Contiki ... read more
Lovely
Even though I'd turned in early the night before, 6:30 came far too quickly for my liking. I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed. I did though. Got dressed, did a quick re-pack of my suitcase and went down to breakfast. Mmm. Bread. :P We were on the road quickly this morning, and within half an hour or so we were crossing the border into Italia. The views as we drove over the Brenner Pass were pretty spectacular. The scenery was so pretty it didn't look real, and with the hot sun beating down on the landscape...I was happy that I wasn't asleep and missing all of it. (I may have napped on the bus once throughout the whole trip, which Pom Pom told me later was "freakish"). As we drove, Pom Pom ... read more
