After yet another very scenic train ride from Florence, Tamsin and I arrive in Rome, and boy was it hot. The Rome train station seemed like a small mall as it had plenty of shops located underneath and even had its own supermarket which proved very useful. A short walk through what seemed like a pretty dodgy area and we where at our hostel. I am becoming used to sleeping on bunk beds but this was the first one that had no sides on the top bunk and I was very fearful of rolling off during the night. I did [View Full Entry]

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If you do ever decide to visit Italy, I suggest travelling by train. The countryside is amazing to look at. Especially in the Tuscany area. After a short walk from the train station we arrived at our accommodation in Florence called Plus Florence Hostel. This is quite possibly the nicest hostel we have stayed at. The staff here are incredibly friendly (all seem to be fluent in english) and gave us an actual introduction to the services the hostel provides, which was a refreshing change from our last couple of stays. The room itself almost feels like a hotel room too. [View Full Entry]

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Well, its been awhile since my last entry so I thought it was time for an update. Tamsin and I left Barcelona for Marseille by train with a quick changeover in Montpellier. After spending most of the day travelling we finally arrived at our destination only to realise we didnt actually know where our hotel was located. A short visit to a nearby internet soon fixed that and we were on our way again. We had unfortunate luck of visiting Marseille over two public holidays so not only was sightseeing limited but so was being able to buy things like food. [View Full Entry]

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Once again making the most of our Rail Passes we head off to Milan by train. Travelling along the coast of France and Italy was pretty cool,but I think to truly appreciated the views of the landscape you would need to be on a boat on the Mediterranean looking towards the land. The directions we were given to get to the hotel were really good up to the point where we actually needed to find the hotel entrance. This is where it got confusing. We found a sign (written in Italian) that said "Hotel Diablo, 10metres" followed by an arrow pointing [View Full Entry]

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After catching the TGV back to Paris, the Metro to another train station, a train to the airport and a monorail to our terminal we finally boarded our plane to Barcelona. We left Paris pretty much overcast and threatening with rain as Tours had done for the last 3 days. When we arrived in Spain it was a completely different story. The weather was awesome. Sun shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky and a nice cool breeze coming in off the mediterranean to keep you cool. Our first day in Barcelona was kinda wasted as we had to book [View Full Entry]

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On April 28th we caught the TGV from Paris to Tours (the Loire Valley) for 4 days. Riding on the TGV was quite exciting, afterall its not very often you get to travel 300km's an hour on a train (especially in Auckland). Pretty much the only reason to go to this area is to check out the Chateau's that are dotted around the Valley. There are about 50 in total. While we were there we took a couple of day trips to see Chateau's Chenonceu, Villandry, Amboise and Azay-Le-Rideau. With the tour we took we were taken by mini-van to each [View Full Entry]

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After a short plane flight from Edinburgh we arrived in Dublin. Getting directions from the airport to the city centre proved interesting as we were given 3 different sets of directions and two were from bus drivers standing next to each other. We eventually made it to town and found our hostel without too much hassle. As with previous cities we did the sightseeing tour to get an idea of what to see and do in the city. The following day we headed to the Guinness Brewery in search of free Guinness. The tour itself was interesting but not quite what [View Full Entry]

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The first thing I noticed about Paris is how absolutely massive it is. The Airport is gigantic! We had to catch a train and the metro just to get to our accommodation. The hostel we stayed at was basically brand new and located near several metro stops. The metro itself is very easy to navigate once you figure it out and you can travel just about anywhere for the one fare. That following day we met an american from Los Angeles who was over for quick visit and I ended up heading to St Michel with him to see Notre Dame [View Full Entry]

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I have to say York is a fantastic place. We stayed at the YHA (a rather nice place considering it's hostel accommodation) which was about a 20 minute walk from the city. The sightseeing tour was by far the best of the trip so far as it had a live guide rather than a pre-recorded audio tour. The following day we went off to the National Railway museum which is absolutely huge, easily more than 50 trains including various Royal Trains that carried the likes of Queen Victoria and Alexandra. Right next to the museum was a ferris wheel which gave [View Full Entry]

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Tamsin & I travelled by train to Bath and experienced one of their delightful unscheduled stops in the middle of nowhere. After sitting for about 5 minutes we eventually got under way again with no reason as to why we stopped. Nevermind, we arrived pretty much on time anyway. The hostel we stayed in was pretty much as expected, cramped and hot. But hey, you get what you pay for. As for the city itself, Bath is very cool. All the buildings are built of the same stone and designed the same way. The Roman Baths were a very impressive site [View Full Entry]

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