Rennes (still)

Hello hello!

So our time in Rennes has been pretty laid back. Yesterday we didn't really do anything all that interesting. It was just a nice relaxing day. We wandered around looking for a place to buy a tent, but weren't very succesful (we need a tent for the music festival we're going to so we figure we''ll get one now, do some camping and save some money from now until then). We did come across a HUGE Saturday market though and had a wonderful, cheap lunch with lots of fresh fruits and veggies :-) We found out from the tourist office that we have to take a bus to get to a tent/camping store, so we thought we'd do that today instead.

We originally had planned to leave Rennes today for Spain but (also along our wandering) we saw some postcards of beautiful coasts, so we decided that after our day of R&R we would spend another day finding out what there is to see in Brittany (the province of France we're in). So this morning the first stop: getting a tent. We made sure to check that stores were open on Sundays but unfortunately forget to ask if buses were running on Sundays. So we got out to where we were supposed to get the bus (took the metro) and found out we couldn't get to the store. So back to the train station we went and we were off to St. Malo! Neither of had heard of St. Malo before, but when we asked the tourist office how to get to the coast, that's where they headed us. When we got there, it wasn't quite as much nature as I had hoped, but it was certainly on the coast. St. Malo is a city sticking out in the ocean that's completely walled off. We had a nice lunch, wandered the city for a bit (reminded me a little of Avignon, except on the ocean) and walked along the wall for a bit too. After that we were on a mission to find some nature, but before we were successful it started to rain. From where we were back to the train station was a nice tour of the port part of St. Malo with lots of fertilizer, wood and (REALLY) big rocks.

Tomorrow we're headed to San Sebastian in Northern Spain, but the only train we could get is an overnight one to Irun. I have no idea where Irun is, but the women told me it was close to San Sebastian, so we'll just figure it out when we get there. Since it's an overnight train we now have all day tomorrow too, so we're going to try again to get a tent and then see maybe try again to find some nature :-) The train passes are fun because we don't need a reservation for the little trains around here. We're thinking about getting on a random train and just staying on until we see something that might be nice :-) I'll let you know what we find tomorrow :-)

Oh, for those of you who don't also read Tim's blog, the music festival we're going to is called The Lowlands, Paradise 2005 and is somewhere in Holland from August 19-21. I'm not nearly the music fan that Tim is, but some of the bands in it that I've heard of are Incubus, Foo Fighters, K-Os, Buck 65, Bad Religion and Death from Above 1979 and a couple that I haven't heard of that Tim's REALLY excited for are Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Coheed & Cambria. If you're interested, the entire line-up is at www.lowlands.nl.

Anyways, that's all for now! Now that Justine's home, I'm hoping she'll post her pictures online so that I can show all of you some of what I've seen in the last 6 weeks (Jus: if you're reading this, I hope you can get around to it before you leave for Australia! I would love to see all your pictures)
Kaila

Where was I?

Oh yeah, I remember: leaving Brugge. We got to Brussels really easily, but finding our hostel was another story. I had forgotten to write down which HI hostel we were staying in, but I figured there were only 2, so it couldn't be too hard to find! I started questioning that mentality when we got to the first hostel and it wasn't where we had a reservation. Then we walked all the way to the second and found out there was a third. So two hours later (plus getting to see a lot of Brussels) we finally were at the right hostel. Brussels is a cool town... Similar to other European cities we've been to I guess... but not really the same... It's hard to explain.

Once we were at the hostel we took a few hours just relaxing, did some well needed laundry and had a nap. Around supper time we headed out to see (more of) the city. We thought we knew where we wanted to go for supper, but got there and didn't really want to go, so we wandered (as usual) to find a place. The place we ended up was okay food, kind of expensive, but the awesomest couple ever ran it :-)

Along the way somewhere we found the Mannekin Pis, which apparently Brussels is famous for. It didn't really impress me all that much though. It's just a little boy peeing (it's a fountain). And it's not even that big!

Anyways, I had read that at night the town hall has a light show that they show along with classical music. Sounded cool to me, so off we went! It was dusk when we got there, but there were already people sitting in the middle of town square waiting for the show. A huge bustling town square where an hour before there had been people everywhere all crowded watching a dance show of some sort and now people are just strewn everywhere sitting down and chilling everywhere. Very cool atmosphere. As it got darker more and more people were sitting and/or hanging out until the show finally started. I guess it was cool... big old building being lit to music. But I didn't like the music very much so I didn't really get that into it. I liked the atmosphere of the place and just sort of hanging out much more than the actual show itself.

After that we pretty much headed back tot he hostel, played a couple hands of cards and headed to bed. Next morning we were up early and off to the train station. Most of today was spent taking the train from Brussels to Rennes. Don't be upset if you've never heard of it, because I had never heard of it either. We just wanted a place to stay on the way to Spain and this is where we ended up. Turns out it's the least touristy place EVER. For instance, when we asked where we could find a place to use the internet, we were told that most of the places in the city are closed because it's the summer. Seemed kind of backwards to me, but whatever. We're here to spend a couple days relaxing and recouping. We'll probably explore some tomorrow, but mostly just have a nice relaxing couple days. So far the weather here is much nicer than Belgium which was hot and stuffy.

I guess that's all for now! Thanks for comments and emails :-) They make me smile!
Kaila

Amsterdam, Belgium

Hey there!

I don't have a lot of time to post today, but I haven't done it in a while, so I'll do as much as I can. Amsterdam was a lot of fun. It's a crazy city, but unlike some people had told me, I didn't feel unsafe at all. I think that's mostly because we are in such a big group, plus we weren't staying anywhere near the red light district. We didn't get there until later in the afternoon. Once we were settled in (and the rain had subsided a bit) we went out to see the city and get some supper. We walked through the red light district in the evening but before it was dark (and it was crowded with tourists everywhere). Even in those circumstances it still is crazy... I know I wouldn't want to be there at night when it was less touristy.

The next morning we decided to check out the Van Gogh museum. I find with each museum I go to, I appreciate what I'm seeing a little better (although I'm still far from what I would call an art buff :-P). The Van Gogh museum was cool because it had a lot of his work and most of it was in chronological order, so you got to follow along his career and see how he progressed. It was really cool. After that we grabbed some lunch and wandered the city some more. Early in the afternoon we headed back to our hostel to get checked into our new room and had a bit of a rest. Then we headed out again wandering, and intending to make it to the Anne Frank House, but when we got there the line was really rediculous and none of us felt like waiting. So we wandered a little more and called it an early night.

Yesterday morning, it was time for Justine and Graham to head to London. We parted ways at the hostel because they were heading right to the airport. It's weird having them gone. They've been my travel buddies for a whole 5 weeks! Wow, 5 whole weeks, that's so long... I feel like it's been forever since I was in Canada.

After they had left Tim and I took our time but eventually made our way to the train station and we were off to Brugge in Belgium. Last night was our only night here, but I really like the city. It has a really small town feel to it. And even though our hostel is a bit out of town (but still within walking distance) I really like it. After wandering the city for a few hours, and of course trying some Belgian Chocolate, we hung out in the hostel for the night with a few of Tim's roommates from Spain. It was another interesting night of trying to communicate with people who don't speak a whole lot of english, but I think we're getting better at it :-) It helped that they understood french a little.

So now we've just checked out of our hostel and we're headed to Brussels for a night. After that we're staying in Rennes for a few nights on our way down to Spain. We originally thought we'd spend quite a while in Spain, but we're changing our mind. Apparantely inland everyone goes on vacation in August and the coast will be rediculously crazy busy. Plus we've bought tickets to a concert outside Rotterdam on August 19-21 so we need to speed things up to make it there :-)

That's all I have time for today! Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Rotterdam: unexpected but awesome

Okay so I'm an idiot and just wrote about half of an update and my time ran out and it all got deleted. But I can't buy any less than an hour more so now I have lots of time and will try to write it all again.

I think I left off before supper at Pieter's (graham's relative) house. Having a home cooked meal was incredible. I find in Holland they eat a lot of meat and a lot of cheese: two things I like a lot! :-) It was probably the best meal I've had since I've gotten here. Even better than the greek food, and that says a lot! After supper we walked to the dyke, about 800m from their house. I didn't know this, but I guess most of Holland is actually below sea level, so they have a huge dyke all along the coast. When you stand on it it's really cool because the level of the water on one side of it is actually higher than the level of the ground on the other. I don't think the pictures are going to turn out, but it was really really neat.

By the time we got back to the house, more family members had started to arrive. The evening was very amusing. There were in total about 15 people there: 4 (us) didn't speak and dutch and about 5 didn't speak any english. But they were all very friendly and even the ones that spoke very little english tried really hard and were very patient with us. I learned how to say a few things in dutch, but I won't attempt to spell them. Even after the huge meal we had just had, the food just kept coming! Tray after tray of different cheeses and meats and crackers and then when those were done, out came bowls of snack food! It was a great night. By the time everyone went home, I was exhausted, so I was the first of us to head to bed.

Early to bed, early to rise. The next morning I was the first one awake and got to experience life in Holland unlike the rest of them did. I had breakfast with the family. Can you guess what it was? Of course, more meat and cheese! It was basically a table covered with different breads, meats, cheeses and spreads. Unlike any breakfast I've ever had, but so so good! After breakfast, the others still weren't awake, so I got to get to know the kids a little better. Renee (7) and Arne (5) were so much fun to play with! I helped them with their chores, which involved feeding the chickens and Sloeber (the bunny). I miss Winston so much! But Sloeber was a very nice bunny. After that they showed me around their place, played on the trampoline and played with the kittens. Their cat Fleur just had them in May so they are still pretty small, and SO cute. Their names are Bloen, Schneush and Hanke (I have no clue how to spell them, just how to say them). We even played on the computer for a while (paddington bear in dutch... Renee basically had to play for me) before the others started to get up.

Once they got up it wasn't long before they had had breakfast, we had gotten packed up and we were off to the train station (with a packed lunch). The train system is absolutely amazing here. It's easy and quick to get pretty much anywhere. We arrived in Sittard less than 2 hours after we left and after a few minutes of searching found the person we were looking for. First stop: Jules and Mil's house. They live in a very nice house that is in a town, but still has a big yard with chickens and a nice vegetable garden and everything. They also have a very happy, very rambunctious chocolate lab called Mielus. Reminds me a bit of Ellie, but not quite the same! I miss Ellie!!

After visiting with them for a little bit, we were off to Jules' mother's house for supper. Another evening of people who can't really communicate very well. But we had had practice and were getting better and getting our point across in the simplest way possible. The family at this party were a lot older than the other party but still very very friendly. Supper was, once again, amazing. The main dish was this fish platter with probably at least 4 types of fish on it. It was SO good! Jules' mother (same relation to Graham as Elizabeth) doesn't speak english, but showed me a lot of the weaving she had done. You can do amazing things with weaving!!

It turns out there was a little bit of a misunderstanding and they hadn't realized that we were planning on staying for the night. I couldn't find us a place to stay in Amsterdam for the night, so we decided to go to Rotterdam for a couple of days. So after the party, it was back to the train station and off to Rotterdam. Again, I love the train system, and it was really really easy to get there. It was fairly late when we arrived, but I had gotten directions to the hostel, so we got there pretty easily and still got a good night's sleep.

Next morning we grabbed breakfast at the hostel (the best hostel breakfast we've had yet) and were off to see the city! I really really like Holland a lot. Of all the places we've been I think I would most like to live in Holland. Not that I haven't loved the other places too, but I couldn't really live there. It probably helps that we've been places other than the tourist hubs and big humungous cities, but even Rotterdam, which is the second biggest city in Holland, is beautiful. Where most places we've been are filled with really really beautiful, old buildings, Rotterdam got pretty much flattened when it got bombed in WWII. So the majority of the city is less than 100 years old and there is a lot of really cool architecture. Also, there are a lot of sculptures randomly places throughout the city. Modern stuff, like one, as Tim explains, that looks like someone ate a Dr. Seuss book and threw it up. We spent most of the day wandering around the city enjoying it, but also took in the big modern art museum. It was my favorite modern art museum yet. It did have all the normal stuff that the other's we've been to have, but it also had a bunch of stuff that was a lot different. It was really interactive and made you use more senses than just looking at things. It's hard to explain but it was really really cool. We were there for a few hours and only saw about half of it, but I really enjoyed it a lot more than any of the other museums we've been to (except the natural history museum of course).

Later in the afternoon we split up so that Justine and I could do a little shopping :-) When we got back to the hostel, Justine and Graham called it an early night while Tim and I hung out in the hostel playing pool and meeting other people. I got to play a little soccer with some people, but don't think I learned where they were from, and we met some german guys that go to architect school.

This morning we slept in, checked out, grabbed some food and came here. Now we're headed to the train station to make our way to Amsterdam. I have to run because Graham, Justine and Tim are all waiting for me. I'll talk to you soon!
Kaila

Anyone know dutch?

Hello!

For the first time since I've left Canada, I'm actually using the internet for free!! I don't have a lot to update since yesterday. Germany was... interesting... I can't really say much about it seeing as I really didn't see anything. Tim and I wandered around for a while, but didn't really find anything of interest. I suppose if we had a map we may have been able to find something, but it was raining so we didn't bring our guidebook with us. We did a little bit of shopping and then headed back to the hostel where we called it an early night. This morning we woke up fairly early to catch our 8:45 train to Roosendaal. It was a long, boring day of sitting in trains. We had a stopover in Deventer, but it was only for 10 minutes, so really we saw the train station and barely that. I don't even know where Deventer is for that matter.

Once we arrived in Roosendaal, Graham's relative was waiting for us. I think his name might be Pete, but I don't really remember.... or I'm not sure if he told us. From the train station it's about a 45 minute drive to their house. The house and the family is all so friendly! They've set us up each in our own room with our own beds! Luxury :-) They have 2 kids, that don't speak english, but seem very nice. The girl left us each a bowl of candies in our room :-) They live on an old farm (where Graham's grandfather grew up) but their only farm animal right now is chickens which I guess they only got last week. On top of that though, they have a fish, a cat and 3 kittens and last but certainly not least, a bunny!! It makes me miss Winston!!

I have to say it's SO nice to be here... I'm especially looking forward to a home cooked dinner... mmm.... I think there's a bunch more of Graham's relatives coming over for supper, but none of them speak any English. I'm sure it'll be an adventure :-)

Anyways, that's all to update today. Tomorrow we're off to some more relatives for a night.
Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Germany blitzfest

Hello hello!

So the remainder of my time on the Greek Islands, was great, as can be expected. The sunset in Oia was a little bit of a disappointment. I've definately seen better in Nova Scotia. But that's okay, it was still cool.

We woke up super early on Tuesday so that we could fully use our time remaining with the rental car (we had to return it at 11am). Our waiter at supper the night before had told us about a place called White Beach which just happened to be on the only peninsula of the island that we hadn't explored that day. So off we went in search for it. Down a narrow dirt, not so flat, road we found a secluded little beach which supposedly you can swim to White beach from. It was really cool, especially since we'd only really been at completely sand beaches since we arrived in Greece. We didn't make it all the way to White Beach because of time constraints and we didn't want to get tired and not have the energy to swim back, but the beach we were on had some super cool little caves for us to explore! Not only that, but we saw animals too!! There were lots of periwinkles, barnacles, limpets and we saw a cool little crab too. I swam out around the point a little bit (but not out of sight from Graham and Tim) until I could see White beach. It was beautiful with big jagged, black rocks sticking up out of the water with the white sand beach and cliffs in the background.

After that little excursion our day was pretty laid back. We had been in the sun for a few days and pretty much just wanted to relax and stay out of the sun. So when we had to check out of our hotel we found a shady spot across the street from the beach and just hung out reading\talking for a few hours. We started heading to the port well before our ferry left and got a chance to have supper in a cute little restaurant in Fira (the biggest place on Santorini) where we met a couple from near Toronto who were on our boat with us. They're just island hopping for a month and just got engaged while on Santorini. Very nice people.

As it was our second overnight ferry and 4th ferry in total, we knew a little better what to expect, but it was still crazy. When we first got on we found seats in a big room where there were lots of people. We lasted there for a while, but Justine and I both though we wouldn't really get any sleep in a seat so went in search of a place to lie down. We ended up in a hallway, which wasn't actually too bad except for the annoying sweedish teenagers who were (presumably drunk and) very very annoying.

The ferry arrived in Athens at about 7:45, despite being PROMISED repeatedly by the travel agent that it was always on time (supposed to arrive at 6:30). Like I said earlier though, we had already been on 3 ferries and knew better than to believe him, so we weren't too worried. We just had less time than we would have liked to make it to the airport for our 10:15 flight to Berlin. The trip went pretty smoothly. When Tim arrived at Athens he had had to take a bus into Athens and then take the metro. So we were all set to do that when we saw that the metro we were on went to the airport. That seemed a lot simpler so we figured we would just stay on. Little did we know they were going to charge us 10 euros each (the bus would've only been 2 each). Oh well, it all worked out fine, we made our flight and here we are in Berlin!!

My first impression of Germanz: wet! Other than a few sprinkles in Paris (which was actually nice because we were dying of the humidity), this is the first real rain we've had. That on top of the fact that Berlin actually has trees makes it feel ALMOST like home! Or at least the closest we've been in the first 4 weeks. The other thing I've noticed about Germany is that fewer people speak english than any other place we've been. It makes it hard to communicate with people (even the people at the train station didn´t really understand) but I actually like it. I mean, it's nice when everyone speaks english, but if I worked in the tourist industry and was expected to know Italian by tons of people every day I would get pretty frustrated. It seems to me that I'm the one in their country so really I should be the one trying to communicate with them. Justine knows a little german (and I do stress the little) so hopefully we'll be able to manage, but it will definately be an adventure!

We take the train to Graham's relatives in Holland tomorrow morning, so we really don't have a lot of time, but after this and grabbing some food we're going to go wandering and see what we can find. It is really wet though so I don't know how far we'll get.

Anyways that's all for now! I can't wait to get to the dutch farm where we get to not be tourists for a couple days! Talk to you soon!!

Kaila

Santorini

Hey!!

So, as usual, I've had another amazing day. When we first arrived in Santorini we weren't too impressed because it seemed a lot more crowded than Paros and the minute we got off the boat we were approached by people trying to find us a place to stay. We accepted, but we felt a little duped because they got 15 euros from us! But the place we're staying in is really nice and it's all worked out fine.

This morning we slept in fairly late, and around lunch time headed out. We rented a car again, which I really think is the best way to see these islands because the traffic isn't nearly as crazy as anywhere else in europe (although it is still a lot different from home) and it lets us go places where it's not just a bunch of tourists.

So we headed out in a random direction because we didn't know where we were really. The first thing we found was a 'traditional settling'. We pulled off and got out. It was really really cool because unlike where we're staying which is completely tourist-ized, this was just an old town with all the old building and VERY narrow streets (we were walking because I was nervous about how narrow it was). All the houses are pretty much connected and it's so cool. We found a little restaurant and had an amazing lunch outside in this little tiny town. (I've definately fallen in love with tzaziki... it's awesome)

Next stop: the beach. Even though we're staying in a beach town we decided to try to find a less crowded beach, so we headed north and made our way through Fira (the biggest place here) and Oia (pronounced ee-a). The mountains here are spectacular! Around every corner there's another amazing view. The rocks are super cool too. A lot of the island was formed by a volcano a few thousand years ago so there are some really cool rocks that we never see in Nova Scotia.

The beach we found was amazing, and not crowded at all. The beach is made of black sand (from the volcanic ash) and there were actually waves, so we got to go body surfing! Fun!!! We stayed for a while, but not too long because the sand is really really hot and so being out of the water wasn't really THAT much fun.

We decided to try to get back to our hotel before supper by going on the opposite side of the island, but there aren't really any direct routes that way, so really we ended up wandering down small side roads and dead ends for about an hour and a half. It was super coolt though because we kept finding really cool spots. The best was what's called Ancient Thira, which I think is an archaelogical site, but I'm not sure because it wasn't open. The cool part was the road up to it. It was a super narrow road (sometimes just cobblestone) that zigzagged all the way up the super steep mountain. From the top we were able to see both sides of the island with spectacular views on either side. Again, so cool!

Anyways, now we're back at the hotel for a minute before we head out for supper. After supper we're heading back to Oia where there is supposed to be one of the most spectacular sunsets in the world. Tomorrow morning we have to give the car back, but then have until 10pm before our overnight ferry leaves the island. I'm sure we'll be able find some fun adventures without a car :-)

I absolutely love Greece, so I'm not REALLY looking forward to leaving the day after tomorrow, but I'm sure Germany and Holland are going to be cool too :-) I can't wait to get to Graham's relatives. That'll be the only place where we actually get to experience what it's like to live in one of these countries!! Until September I guess.

Hope everything in Canada is going well. Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Paros a.k.a Paradise

Hey guys!

So after what felt like weeks traveling, we finally made it to Paros and it was SO worth the trip. The ferry ride from Athens was long and boring, as was expected. Plus, the whole way I was a little stressed because we weren't getting there until after 8pm and we didn't have a place to stay. I thought we would end up having to pay an arm and a leg to stay for the night, but it turned out the exact opposite! There was an information booth as soon as we got off the boat. We told them we needed a place to stay for 2 nights and they found us a place right in town (and a 30 second walk to the beach) for about 12 euros each a night! We were exctatic, but were expecting a pretty run-down place, but again we were pleasantly surprised! We have 2 double rooms, each with a bathroom and a fridge and they both open up onto a shared balcony. It's absolutely amazing!

Today we slept in, which was desperately needed. When we finally got up and going (around lunch time) we decided to check out if we could rent a car or some motorbikes to explore the island for the day. The only real option we had was renting a car, but it was awesome!! We got to explore the whole island stopping wherever we wanted and not having to worry about buses and everything. One of the coolest random things we saw was an old marble quarry which was so cool! We spent a few hours on a GORGEOUS beach with awesome water where Graham rented a windsurfer for an hour. This time I managed to mostly avoid the sunburn except a few spots where apparently evaded the sunscreen.

After the beach we headed to this place called Butterfly Valley which is beautiful and has the breeding ground for a rare type of moth. It was sooo cool! The butterflies were EVERYWHERE and when they flew they flashed a bright orange colour. At one point there were about 15 flying all around me and it was SO cool!

The butterfly place was up the most windey (I know that's not spelt right), narrow old road ever! On the way back we took a different route, which was similar, but the coolest thing happened! We literally got intercepted by a herd of goats! We were driving down this road that wasn't wide enough for 2 cars and a whole herd of goats started coming at us! We just sorta sat there letting them pass us. It was so funny!!! And the babies were SO cute :-)

Anyways, everything about this island is amazing. You know those houses that are cement an white with blue trimming and look sort of like boxes? Well, everything here looks like that, it's so gorgeous. And the views are amazing with the mountains and those white houses and then the ocean and some smaller islands close by. I know my description can't do it justice, so you are all just going to have to come to Paros some day!

So that's about all. We're hanging out for the night, might get a small supper (we didn't have lunch until about 4). Tomorrow we're heading to Santorini which is supposed to be the most beautiful Greek island there is. I can't wait to see it because I can't really imagine anything being more beautiful than here. I'll let you know soon! We don't have a place to stay there either, we're hoping it's just as easy as it was here.

That's all for now! Stay cool!
Kaila

P.S. For those of you wondering, I did learn from someone in our Rome hostel that Michelangelo didn't paint the WHOLE Sistine Chapel, just the most prominent ones. They had names, but I forget what they were... Apparently it took him 24 years... and he wasn't the first person he asked to paint it! The person they asked originally said no. Oh, and it was his first fresco ever. Before that he had basically done sculptures. This person knew a lot about it because he was spying on all the tours that were going on there... he didn't actually pay for one himself. I thought that was pretty smart!

Not much time

Hey guys! I literally have about 4 minutes here, but I just thought I'd let you know that we all made it to Greece safely. Graham, Justine and I had an interesting 22 hour ferry sleeping on the floor along with TONS of other people. The highlights were definately watching the sun set over the horizon and meeting the captain :-) Tim says that that just happened because he was hitting on me, but he was friendly enough and it was SUPER cool to be in the room, so I'm fine with it. Speaking of Tim, he also got here safely. We met up in the hostel last night. This morning we missed the 8am ferry for Paros (the first island we're going to), so now we're just wasting time for a few hours waiting for our 2pm ferry. I haven't really seen much of Athens. The area we stayed in was pretty dirty and scuzzy. Here by the ferry terminal it's much nicer, and we find a cool local market to get some fruit for breakfast at :-) Anyways, that's all I have time for for now. I'll talk to you soon! Kaila

Stupid internet place

So it's been a few days, and there's a very good reason for that. Last night, we were at an internet place and I wrote a whole long post, but when I finished, the internet stopped working and it never got posted :-( Sadness! I wasn't very impressed because it had stopped working at around half an hour, I sat there for 15 minutes trying to get it to work and then gave up and they made me pay for an hour! GRRRR...

Anyways, I don't really feel like writing everythign all over again, but I'll give you the main gyst. The rest of Florence was great. We decided to get out of the city and took the bus up to a town called Fiesole. It was beautiful and not crowded at all. On one side of the town we had a view of the mountains with Florence at the bottom and on the other side a view of the Tuscan countryside. Absolutely gorgeous, I LOVED it!

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Rome and found our hostel. It turns out my friend Laura (Turner) is here at the same time, so we've been doing all our sighseeing together, it's been really nice. Last night we walked down to the colosseum. We split an audioguide between the 4 of us and it was well worth it! Mostly because there was a whole long explanation about the games that went on in the colosseum and how it all happened. It was pretty grusome! Although, I think it might be sort of interesting to see hippoppotamuses fighting.

Today we started early with the intention of getting to the sistine chapel before the crowds. However, we got there and there was a line up around the block (literally... and the whole Vatican city is one big block... so I mean SUPER long). We decided that wasn't worth it and went on our way. First stop: St. Peter's basilica. It was nice because since we got up early, we DID get there before the crowds. It's spectacular, especially the square outside with sculptures all the way around (I think of all the apostles). It's hard to explain but it was really really cool. After that we made our way through Rome checking out all the sights. Well, not all of them because there is SO much to see in Rome, but all the ones we had heard of and a few more: a castle, a few piazzas, the Pantheon and Trevi fountain. I threw my 2 coins into the fountain :-) Then we got some lunch in a park and were off again. We saw a sign for a zoo and followed it a while, but didn't really find a zoo, so we gave up. I'll have to find a zoo somewhere else...

From there we headed back to the Vatican Museums (where the Sistine Chapel is), expecting to have to wait in a line for a while, but that was okay because we'd been walking around for about 5 hours by that time. To our surprise, we got there and there was NO line at all!! So in we went and to the Sistine Chapel we headed. We hadn't REALLY intended on looking at the museum too much (except maybe the really cool parts), but the way they have it set up, you basically have to walk through a bunch of the exhibits to get to the Sistine Chapel. That was kind of nice. We didn't spend a LOT of time anywhere, but it was good to get a glimpse of stuff. The most annoying part of it all is the MILLIONS of tour groups everywhere that block the way and make it SO crowded and not fun to get through.

It was all worth it though when we actually got to the Sistine Chapel. Despite the number of people in the room, it was AMAZING. I can't imagine having painted that. Speaking of which, I don't really know a lot about it. I was sort of wondering if Michelangelo painted the WHOLE thing or just the important parts. Does anybody know? And how long did it actually take? I suppose I could look that up if I wanted, but I don't really have time right now.

Anyways, now we're back at the hostel for a couple hours for laundry/internet/napping and then we're meeting Laura again for supper. We get up early again tomorrow to catch the train to Ancona, then we have a 22 hour ferry ride to look forward to... fun. But it'll all be worth it when we get to Santorini and get to spend a few days relaxing and not being in the city and SWIMMING (it's SO hot here in Rome). Plus Tim meets us in Athens, which we're all looking forward to :-)

I don't know what the internet situation will be like in Greece, but I'll do my best!
Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Florence

Hello all!!

It's been awhile, I know. Internet was just SO expensive in Venice that it didn't seem worth it. But now we're in Florence and so I have a little bit of time! Venice was absolutely amazing. I don't even think we really did THAT many touristy things. It was just fun to wander around the city (usually get lost) and see all the tiny streets and canals everywhere. That's pretty much all we did for a whole day. During that day we also went to a few beautiful churches. One of the churches we went to was kind of on the tip of a peninsula where you could see across the opening of the Grand Canal to the rest of Venice. It was the coolest view ever :-) On the way back from there (if it weren't for the lack of a bridge we probably could have made it in about 10 minutes, but instead it took about half an hour), we found a museum that was pretty cool. I still don't particularly 'get' a lot of art. Like I see the paintings and I think that the person who painted them is very talented but I don't usually understand the whole significance of it all and what makes it a masterpiece and worth being displayed in a museum. But it's still fun to see paintings by people that I've actually heard of like Picasso and Dali and so on.

Our last day in Venice we bought a 'bus' pass (which are actually boats, but look a lot like busses) and went exploring the islands. Murano is famous for the glass blowing. Apparently all the glass makers got kicked off the mainland because their furnaces would blow up or something? The things they can make out of that glass is spectacular!! At some places you can actually watch them making stuff, and it's so cool!!! We mostly saw them making horses (which must be the famous thing to make because they are EVERYWHERE) and it's the coolest thing ever! I would love to be able to see someone making one of the spectacular pieces of art, but I suppose it makes sense that they wouldn't let hoards of tourists watch when they're making something that difficult. The other island we went to was Burano which is known for it's lace. For those of you that know me (which is hopefully everyone) you know that I'm definately not a lace person, so I didn't get anything (although the little baby clothes WERE really cute), but once again I think it's amazing that it's all handmade. I can't even start to imagine how they make it! The islands themselves are also really cute because they're old fishing villages with super bright houses. It's like from a painting (and I'm sure there are probably lots of paintings of it).

So between the glass, that would for sure get broken along the way, and the lace I didn't end up getting anything for myself, but it was still a really cool day. Justine actually bought a little glass cat, but broke it before we even left Venice.

Yesterday we left Venice and came to Florence. It would have been a pretty laid back day, just sort of hanging out in the hostel, but when I walked into the hostel, my friend Sarah was actually there!!! I knew she was visiting Italy, but had no idea when she was going to be where, so it was a complete coincidence that we ran into each other and SO nice!! She was meeting her friend for supper, so Justine and Graham had supper on their own and I went back into Florence for supper with Sarah and her friend Mahmed (I really don't know how to spell it). It was awesome to catch up with her and spend some time with someone from home. She just spent 10 days in Parma with her orchestra and is now travelling around Italy for about 2 weeks.

Today is our only full day in Florence. First thing this morning we went to the Duomo, which is spectacular, and climbed the stairs of the tower (414 of them) to see a spectacular view of Florence and surrounding areas. I love the mountains and green that surrounds Florence, it definately makes for a nice view. Since then we sort of have wandered around the city and checked out a few places, but haven't really gone into much of anything. We're all pretty content just sort of experiencing the city. I don't know what we'll do this afternoon. You'll have to wait until my next post to find out :-) Tomorrow we leave for Rome and after a couple days there it's off to Greece!! I'm so excited for the islands!! :-)

Anyways, that's all for today! Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Venice, part 1

So we made it to Venice! The overnight train wasn't exactly the most pleasant of situations, with 6 people squeezed into a tiny tiny room. But the people we were with were super nice and all spoke english. There was a guy from Vancouver and a couple from South Africa and they were all doing a very similar trip to what we're doing. It was fun to sort of compare notes. OH, I almost forgot! When we were waiting for the train we were talking to a guy from Toronto who just graduated from Queen's with a degree in engineering. I thought that was sort of ironic seeing as Justine is about to go to Queen's and Graham is about to start engineering :-)

Anyways, Venice is spectacular!! The first thing we did was walk through the city to Piazza de San Marco and went to the San Marco Basilica which was absolutely fantastic. The whole ceiling and walls are covered with these spectacular mosaics with gold backgrounds. We went up to the top of it to get a close up view. In the piazza (or square, but i think the Italian is more fun) Graham bought pigeon food and was feeding them. They are EVERYWHERE: at one point he probably had about 10 on him and then another 50 or so surrounding him.

Hmm... I'm running out of time so I have to be short (internet is is about $10 an hour... ugh) We had lunch outside at a cafe - FUN. Early in the afternoon we were ready to get to our hotel because we hadn't had a very good nights sleep. The hotel that we were originally staying at wasn't right on the island but when we got there they offered us a room in their hotel right by the San Marco Square for the same price!! It is a little pricy compared to the other places we've stayed but SO worth it!!! So much fun to be right in the middle of everythign!! For supper we just wandered around for a while until we found a restaurant that we thought looked good.

Anyways, that's about all for today, tomorrow we're going to check out some more of the sights of Venice and eventually we're goign to explore the islands where there's cool art work like glass being blown and lace making.

Oh one more thing! Today I bought the first thing for myself. It was a leather journal handmade in an old fashion Italian style. It's from this cool store hidden amongst the tourist traps (it was even in our guidebook) and has the cutest man ever sellign the stuff while the wife makes the journals. I can't wait to fill the journal I'm working on now so that I can start writing in it!

39 seconds, gotta go!! Thanks for all the comments!! I couldn't believe how many I had today!!

Luv,
Kaila

Leaving the beach

Hello all!

I don't have too much to report today. The last couple days have been extremely laid back. We got to Nice with no problem (it's only about an hour train from St. Raphael) and then, once again hung out by the beach until we were allowed to go to our hostel (5pm). The beaches here are so different from the St. Raphael ones! The beach itself is actually rocks, not sand and the water is the bluest water I've ever seen in my entire life. It's unbelievable. Yesterday the wind was pretty strong, as were the waves. Put that together with the rocks and it made it kind of difficult to get in and out of the water :-P But it was worth it (of course!). I was smarter here and mostly stayed in the shade (the sidewalks above the beach have tons of benches under a canopy type covering).

The hostel here was absolutely amazing. It was a whole little resort with a swimming pool and a 'soccer court' type thing (not grass, but had soccer nets). For the first time since we got here, the girls and guys were separated so poor Graham had to stay in a room with a bunch of people he didn't know. I don't think it was too bad though. Instead of going out and finding our own food, we opted to get served by the hostel. Not too bad, plus we got to talk to some of the other people staying in the hostel. The evening consisted of relaxing, reading, swimming and generally just hanging out. Justine and I talked to a Mexican that just finished an exchange in Austria. He's been travelling around to different places for the last few months, so had lots of advice for us: especially for the greek islands which was greatly appreciated!

Today was another day of rest. We spent the morning by the beach reading (none of us decided to go swimming). For lunch we found a market that was selling fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a collection of other goodies. It was a lot of fun to explore!! :-) This afternoon we decided to get out of the sun and heat by going to a movie. We watched War of the Worlds in english (with french subtitles). The jury's out on it: both Graham and I enjoyed it while Justine didn't at all.

Now we've had supper and are just hanging out for an hour or so before our train for Venice leaves. I'm interested to see what the sleeping arrangements on the train is (I think it might be a dorm type thing) but mostly excited to get to Venice!!

Thanks for the comments! Keep them coming!!
Luv,
Kaila

I'm Back!!!!

So after a short hiatus with no internet, here I am again.

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, leaving Paris heading to Avignon. That day we learned the hard way that we should book trains in advance and ended up paying for a first class seat to Avignon (YUCK). But we made it! After an hour long detour through Avignon's industrial park, we found out we came in at a different train station than the one on our map and found a bus that took us to the right place. Haha... I guess not a very good start to the day. Anyways, it got better.

Avignon was absolutely gorgeous and it was really nice to be somewhere that wasn't a huge city. We basically spent the afternoon wandering around the town, exploring. Like me, I'm sure a lot of you have only ever heard of Avignon from the song. The funny thing is that the bridge from the song isn't a real bridge!!!! It only goes half way across the river. I think that's hilarious. And they actually charge money to go on it! Anyways, we were content looking at it from the outside. The coolest thing about Avignon, in my opinion is the wall that goes all the way around. And in some parts you can walk on it :-) We had supper in an actual restaurant (I think that may have been the first time) and then headed back to the hotel (yes, a REAL hotel! Luxury!). That evening, I decided to go for a walk by myself. I found a spot by the river where I read my book and watched the sunset. It was really really nice.

The next day, we were off to St. Raphael. Graham and I slept in while Justine went out shopping (again.... she's a big shopper :-P). Since we had learned our lesson and booked our train in advance, we made it with no problem. When we got here, we went to the Tourist Information who helped us find a hostel, but it didn't open until 5:30, so we went to the beach :-) Oh how I missed the ocean!! And the Mediterranean is BEAUTIFUL. The water is SOOOO blue. We spent a few hours swimming and hanging out on the beach and then caught the bus to our hostel. The hostel was definately the nicest we've been in yet (and the cheapestt). It's in a sort of park, pretty secluded from the town and we had a room to ourselves with our own bathroom!

Yesterday was Graham's Birthday, so we decided to celebrate we were going to rent a sailboat and go sailing!! (I've never actually been sailing, but Graham promised me he was good :-P) The guy at the hostel told us where we could rent boats so we got there nice and early (around 9:30). The only problem: there was no one there. So, after hanging around/wandering/going to the tourist info. for about an hour, we found a guy who told us we couldn't rent them until the afternoon. So back to the beach we go. We bought a beach ball to play with, so we spent the morning sunbathing/swimming/playing with our new toys. After lunch we headed back to the boat place and (after a short delay when they told us not until 2) we finally got a boat! We rented a catamaran for an hour and it was so much fun!!! I could definately get used to sailing... have I mentioned yet that I love the ocean? So after a bit more swimming/reading/playing we headed back to the hostel and then walked into Frejus to find a restaurant to have a dinner in Graham's honour. It was a very nice restaurant (if a little expensive) and the waiter was awesome. So, on the whole I think Graham's birthday was a success. I hope he had fun!!!

After those 2 days in the sun, I'm a little burnt (that might be a little bit of an understatement) despite ample application of sunscreen, so today I don't really feel like being out in the sun very much. So here I am, on the internet instead. Justine's out shopping again, and I might to a little myself when she gets back. We're heading to Nice at some point today, but like the hostel here, the hostel there doesn't open until 5pm, so we're in no rush (it's about and hour's train ride). I'm going to try to answer some of my emails (though I likely won't get to all of them). Luckily I can't get distracted by MSN because it's only 6am at home... hahaha....

Anyways, I think that's all for now! I don't know if Nice will have internet, but we'll be in Venice tomorrow and I'm sure they will. Talk to you soon!!

Kaila

Last day in Paris

So today was our last day of sightseeing in Paris and despite another day of scattered showers we definately made the most of it. The only subway that goes by our hostel had an accident and wasn't running, so it took us about an hour to get out of Clichy (where we're staying). First stop was the Arc de Triomphe which was WAY bigger than I ever imagined it would be. We didn't bother to go up, but just the size of it and the intricacy of the carvings was super cool. From there we of course had to walk down the Champs élysées, which made me want to sing and dance (those of you in Mme. Christie's Grade 12 french will understand :p).

After checking out the Latin Quarters we headed to the Catacombs which I think was my favorite in all of Paris. For those of you that don't know what it is, basically, in the 1800s when the cemeteries were getting full they started throwing all the old bones down here. Then some engineer decided it would be cool to make it more organized. So basically its a bunch of underground passageways that are piled with human bones on either side. Its pretty creepy because its all organized and there will be a row of skulls in the middle just sort of staring at you. Does it make me morbid that my favorite part of Paris was all the dead people? Me being the biologist that I am, I had fun figuring out what bones and what joints we were looking at (and explaing to Jus and Graham how the knee joint works, seeing how many times I've been explained that). The majority of them were femurs; I don't know where all the other bones went.

Anyways, we didn't do anything too exciting after that... explored Chinatown a little, but it xas sort of disappointing. Now we're back, but have just heard that there's a Canada Day celebration at the Canadian embassy. If Jus or Graham are up for it we might check it out :-)

Happy Canada Day!!! I hope everyone is enjoying it!!! Thanks to everyone who has left me comments and/or written me emails. I'll respond as soon as I can. Tomorrow we're heading to Avignon for the night and then the beach is waiting!! I'm hoping the weather will clear up before we get there :p

That's all for today!!
Kaila