Goodbye Topdeck, Hello Rome

We arrived in Rome in the evening with the tour and our amazing tour guide lead an awesome walking tour of the city which hit most of the main sites and monuments.  In the evening we checked into the campsite/resort where we stayed in bungalow tents which had two bunk beds and the showers were amazing! The next morning we took a tour of Vatican City which marked the end of our 10 days on the tour. While a large portions of the group stayed for the second half covering Germany, another group of people joined the tour at the halfway point as well.  My friend and I made our way to the Airbnb place we booked which was great (although we missed being bused everywhere) and we spent the next three days going back to a number of the sites we wanted to check out again and we of course ate lots of pizza pasta and gelato.

Spanish Steps

Vatican City  was pretty neat - they happen to be filming X Factor Italy that day (hence the chairs)

-M

Topdeck Southern Nomad: Florence

Florence is gorgeous! The art  and history surroundings city is insane and you can see it in every street corner. We drove from Nice to Florence stopping by the leaning tower of Pisa where we got some funny photos I probably shouldn't post on the internet in case I seek employment in the near future ;)  We lucked out and were upgraded at the campsite resort and got to stay in little cabins/sheds which had two beds and a shower/toilet inside.  Our first day in the Florence involved a walking tour where we saw most of the big monuments before going to explore the city on our own.   A group of us stopped for some lunch; ricotta cheese goodness and pizza!  My friend and I then visited one of the basilicas which housed the tombs of Da Vinci and Michelangelo.  Then we headed to the Duomo, a Dome attached to a church which has a narrow staircase going to the top with views of the city.  It was quite the climb and the view was fantastic!  In the evening my friend and I watched the sunset from the bridge in Florence and joined the rest of the Topdeck group at a Karaoke Bar!

-M

Topdeck Southern Nomad: Nice + Monaco

Nice is nice, really really nice.   It was perfect weather when we arrived in Nice and we quickly set up camp and grabbed a bite to eat.  The site was outside of the city but it was still close to the water front which was absolutely gorgeous.  We headed into town the next day for about 5 hours and raced around trying to see everything.  Nice was great for shopping, and people watching on the board walk was amazing as well.  We also had the time to check out the markets and climb to the top of an old castle which had amazing scenic views.  In the end, I feel like I definitely needed at least another day to fully absorb Nice but it was amazing nevertheless!

In the evening after everyone got dressed up we headed out to Monaco stopping along the way for a picnic dinner.  We went straight to the casino where some people headed to the Monte Carlo casino (which had a 10 euro cover) while the rest of us went to the Sun Casino downstairs.  I managed to win two cents in slots before we headed back to the campsite to packed for our trip to Florence the next day.

-M

Topdeck Southern Nomad: Switzerland

So the photos aren't showing up the way I would normally format them which is driving me nuts!  The perfectionist side of me is going crazy, but you'll have to bear with me until I can edit this all when I reach a computer.  Switzerland is gorgeous, hands down beautiful! We packed up camp in Paris and drove 10 hours to Lauterbrunnen stopping along the way for a picnic lunch.  The campsite was absolutely amazing, surrounded by the mountains and waterfalls.  We were told it would be really cold, so practically everyone upgraded to the dorm rooms, and I can't say I regret it at all. The facilities are very nice compared to a hostel and all in all its very comfortable (although it isn't as cold as they said.....but I still don't regret it).  My friend and I chose not to do the optional activities for the day (train ride up to the highest point in Europe or skydiving) so instead we decided to head to the waterfalls.  Long story short we couldn't find them and ended up hiking for four hours on a pretty cool trail.  We later went back with some other people and we made it to the falls twenty minutes before closing.  We all ran up to see the falls which were absolutely gorgeous and had an amazing twenty minutes before our trek back.  The others who went on the optional trip said their experience was amazing as well...so overall it was an awesome day.
 

-M

Topdeck Southern Nomad: Paris

We joined the topdeck southern nomad tour (camping) in the morning which headed first thing to Paris via ferry.  The tour is quite convenient as the bus drives us from place to place and things like food and tents are pretty much taken care of.  The group, as with most Topdeck and Contiki tours consists of young people from Australia and New Zealand and yes, as is expected with most youth tours, drinking is a staple.  The nice thing is we get a lot of free time in the places we go and the whole "stay with the tour" thing isn't required. Unfortunately it was pouring rain when we got to the site and getting soaked on the first day is never fun. We set up camp while the rain continued to pour before grabbing dinner from the food tent and heading out for a night time bus tour. 

Paris is amazing, literally everything I imagined but more.  One day was not at all enough to see everything, I mean even three months wouldn't be enough.  Since my friend and I are coming back to Paris in a couple weeks, we spent the day walking along the river and looking at all the major sights along the way.  

-M 

Toronto to London

And we're off!  My friend and I headed off from Toronto to London at 9pm and landed at 10am London time.  Because of the tube strike,the transition system was unfortunately quite slow but we arrived at our hostel in good time.  The hostel, Click 78 is located very close to Kings Cross station which was amazing in that sense, the hostel itself was pretty standard as hostels go...I was in a fourteen girl dorm with questionable sheets, funky smelling washrooms and a stuffy room; nothing particularly surprising as most hostels go.  We spent the afternoon in a bit of a jetlag/sleepwalking daze but explored the area while getting excited for our trip back to london at the end of the month!  I didn’t bother bringing my laptop this time, and my Internet is very patchy so hopefully these photos show up properly on a computer because they aren't on my tablet xD! (also why all these posts are going up at the same time...found a cafe!!)

-M 

Getting Ready for A New Adventure!

I haven't blogged in a while...it's reassuring that no one actually follow this blog so it adds absolutely no pressure to anything.  BUT school's ending, and I'm going on another adventure!  A very expensive - so expensive I might regret it, but actually even if I'm dirt poor I'll probably never regret it type of adventure! Ever since High School I've loved everything British...something inside me just snapped and I magically woke up and decided to fall in love with the UK.  So I was chatting with a friend early in the school year and we decided it was completely necessary to go to Europe, especially since we are both graduating, and who knows what happens once we hit the job force or go back to school.  Plans flipped and flopped, and finally we bit the bullet and started buying plane tickets, tour packages, booking accommodations etc. Somehow, this is all actually happening!  So this is the plan:

• We'll be joining the Topdeck Southern Nomad Tour (camping!!) which covers: London, Paris, Swiss Alps, French Riviera, Florence, Rome 
• We'll stay in Rome a couple days before heading to Barcelona
•  From Barcelona we'll be taking a bus to Lyon 
• A couple days in Lyon then back to Paris
• Then the most exciting part: LONDON! 
• We may or may not hit another area in Britain before going to Edinburgh 
• Then finally, back to London before flying home (just in time for Convocation)

So this entire trip will be 36 days and besides the fact that we're already down $2000 (and barely anything is booked), I'm ridiculously excited!  I'll of course try to blog and whatnot, but since laptop isn't on the packing list, we'll see what happens! 

-M