Advertisement
Published: April 1st 2006
Edit Blog Post
Started out early from Cinque Terre. The first train was cancelled (more fun), which put me off schedule. I sat and talked to a guy from Sweden for about an hour. He had studied Italian in Perugia for about five months and said it was like one big party (but he did learn a lot of Italian). He also knew German and English pretty well. Very interesting guy. It was his fifth time to Cinque Terre.
From there, I went through La Spezia to Genova to visit the Acqqurio di Genova, which is the largest acqarium in Europe. Genova is also considered to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus (1447).
Outside the train station, there is a large statue in honor of Columbus. From there I walked about half a mile to the aquarium. After some ice cream, I bought a ticket and headed in (by the way, the water in the port is a kind of whiteish aqua-marine).
I have been to some nice aquariums in the U.S., and this one was very nice. One of the first exhibits is the seals. When I walked up to the large tank (covering the whole wall), one of the
seals was looking at me. I looked at him a bit and moved around, and he took notice. So, I tried to trot a little to the side to get him to swim beside me, but he didn't catch on. However, when I would move the aquarium program booklet in front of him, he would follow it a bit. So I got him to turn around and move a little bit from side to side. It was fun and it got some other people smiling.
Passed by a lot more tanks, most of which you would see in a good aquarium (so I won't go into detail). However, I then came across a hummingbird exhibit, which cost 2 euros, but it seemed interesting enough. I walked in through two doors and a kind of fuzzy beaded curtain (all designed to keep the hummingbirds in). Well, the little things are aggressive. One of them flew around my head and another one joined in... they are very quick... and it seems like whenever they land they take a poop, so I had to watch out for that, too. All, in all, I think there were about 10 of them in a
smallish area. Very fascinating to see them so close since in nature it is kind of tough to get up close to them. Also, apparently they only live in North and South America.
The next interesting thing was the sting ray tanks. They are low to the ground and open on top. In the biggest tanks, we were allowed to pet them as they swam by (if they were at the top of the water). I petted one... it was kind of a roughish texture. There was also a sign that said not to grab them by there tail (though, these were the kind that, I guess, didn't have much of a sting... those ones were in some other tanks). While I was wondering about the sign, on swam by missing half its tail...
Made my way briskly through the rest of the exhibits and then walked back to the train station. I wanted to catch a train to Nice and then get to Marseilles and stay there for the night. But I cut it close and there was a long line for the ticket counter, so I missed it. Instead, I went to Turin, hoping to find
a train there to Lyon (to meet Teresa there in the morning and tour the city). When I got to Turin, no trains were going anywhere near Lyon until the morning. So, I searched for an Internet cafe to reserve a hostel room somewhere, but shops were closing (at 8pm) and I couldn't find and Internet cafe anywhere.
Then I tried to make a sleeper-car train to Paris that was departing from a train station across town (then I could double back to Lyon on the TGV early in the morning), but missed that one, too. At that point, I was feeling pretty lost. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a normal hotel. But I remembered seeing a Holiday Inn and since I have a lot of hotel points with them, I went to try and find it.
Along the way I heard a group singing familiar Christian praise music. I was listening and a few of them came over and introduced themselves. They were part of some international group and were on a mission in Turin and later going to Bosnia. They asked about what I was doing, and I told them. They
asked if they could pray over me before I left, and I said "Okay". It was funny, to me anyway, when one of them asked me how my relationship with God was going because I answered them kind of frankly. I said that when I'm in a Christian group like they are, it is easy... but being out in the world surrounded by worldly people... it is a struggle at times. And, it has been a struggle of late, but I keep praying and trying to stay focused and to keep listening to God (and following through).
Next... I found the Holiday Inn. I walked up to the counter, told the guy I was a Priority Club member, and asked how I could make a reservation (if I couldn't use my points, it would be 80 euros/night). He said I had to use the central reservation system. I was kind of surprised, but I then asked him if they had Internet access. He said they had Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) for 3 euros/hour. So, I used my PDA to access the Priority Club website and made a reservation. Then I walked up to the counter and said I had a
reservation... 😊 It cost me 15,000 points (I had 180,000 at the time). The room was great.
In the room, I flipped though the channels and on the news was something about a tourist boat accident... then I looked at my email and saw that I had a few emails from Augusta about Shawn and, sure enough, Shawn was called in to help out. Kind of surreal to see that on the news and know that Shawn is involved. Then I called Teresa and worked out to meet her in Chambery, France in the morning and then go to Lyon. Then I called my mom and talked to her for about 30 minutes.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 21; dbt: 0.0273s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Augusta
non-member comment
Cool pics
I like the aquarium pictures! You really have 180,000 Holiday Inn points?