Day 21 - Ferry to Venice

Tuesday, June 1st - I woke up the next morning feeling less than great - I was only on a few hours of sleep and hungover. I was thankful that we had a late start, we didn't have to be on the coach until 10am. We were catching a ferry to Venice but still had a some time to kill before it docked. Apparently we were lucky to even be getting a ferry as most of them were on strike. We spent about an hour in the markets of Corfu and then Sukhey and I grabbed some cappuccinos and relaxed until it was time to get back on the coach to head to the port. We ended up waiting over 2 hours for the ferry but we weren't sure exactly when it was coming in so we couldn't wander off very far. For the most part I just watched the boys kick around a soccer ball and grabbed some gelato. When the ferry finally came in it was well worth the wait - it was huge with tons of shops, a pool, disco and a few restaurants; as an added bonus beds were actually super comfy. Definitely an improvement over the ferry we took to Corfu. This would be our home for the next 24 hours.

After taking a quick tour of the ferry I decided to take a nap for a few hours. Sukhey, Jas, Sandra and I all met up for dinner and we joined Starr, Rochelle and Matty Ray. It was a high school cafeteria concept diner - just grab what you want. It ended up being really expensive, over 20 Euros and the food wasn't very good. Other members of the tour waited until 9pm for the restaurant to open up and apparently they had a great meal, I was jealous. After dinner we decided to get a game over Crazy 8's going in the lounge. We then started up a big came of Cheat with some of the other tour members. I'm horrible at this game, every time I tried to lie Alex knew right away and called me out on it. After our card game most people went to bed but a few of us stayed up. In the end it was Tom, Rochelle, Sukhey, the Amigo's and I left. We spent most of the night looking at all the pictures the Amigo's had taken from the first two weeks of the tour. I should mention that when I refer to the Amigo's I'm talking about Shane, Matt F and Ben, they were nicknamed that early on in the tour and it stuck. Between the 3 Amigos they were pretty good at documenting the highlights of the tour as well as everyone's worst moments. We all then decided to check out the disco but it ended up being a bunch of 15 year old kids dancing so we decided to just head to bed.

I woke up pretty late the next morning, the room was so dark I probably had my best sleep of the entire tour. We still had a few hours until we docked so I went wandering around looking for something to do. Eventually I ended up in the lounge and the Amigo's taught me how to play Hearts and we played a few games until it was time to dock.

Waiting for the Ferry to Venice

The Ferry - such an improvement over the first one!

Pool on the Ferry

Day 20 - The Greek Adventure Continues

Monday, May 31st - We had a free day to spend in Corfu so a large group of us decided to make the 1.5 hour trek to the beach. Most people caught the 10am bus, but Sukhey, Rochelle, Lorraine and I were a bit slow moving so we ended up catching the 11am bus. When we went to transfer buses we found out that the next bus to the beach wouldn't be coming for another 2 hours! We didn't want to miss out on the beach so the 4 of us decided to grab a cab to the beach. 20 minutes and 25 Euros later we made it, and only about 20 minutes after the rest of the group. The weather was perfect for the beach - clear blue skies and it was hot! The group of us spent the afternoon goofing around on the beach and in the water.

Sukhey, Rochelle, Lorraine and I decided to squeeze in some quick shopping in the city before going back to the hotel. There wasn't too much open because of siesta but we did find a few open shops where I was able to find a cute outfit to wear out that night. After quickly stopping for some gelato we went back to the hotel to get ready for our organized Greek dinner. My "contiki cough" was starting to get really bad so Suhkey and I went to the hotel bar to for a hot brandy. Another Contiki tour had arrived at our hotel the evening before and we ran into their tour guide at the bar, he was super friendly and really good looking. Can speak something like 5 languages - can we trade Sian for him?

We arrived at our Greek dinner and were greeted with a shot of Ouzo at the door - pretty good way to start a meal! The actual food was alright, nothing to complain about but didn't blow me away either. There was some Greek dancing going on during our dinner and after we got to partake in the traditional Greek dancing - the dance when everyone links arms in a big circle and dance around. By the end of dinner everyone had a pretty decent buzz going from all the free wine that came with our meal. A bunch of us decided to go out for our last night in Greece. Sian organized cabs for us and we were on our way. We ended up at an outdoor bar that was right on the water. This turned into a pretty drunken night - lots of free shots from the bartender and everyone got pretty smashed. Yuri and Jake were throwing people's shoes in the water - thankfully Kristen saved my Guess shoes from Jake. I would have been livid if they had gotten thrown in. Ended up being a pretty late night - everyone stumbled home around 4am. Kristen, Alex and I thought it would be a good idea to go wake up Ben who didn't come out that night, we found him and Shane sleeping and woke them up. I don't think they appreciated it! Finally got to my room around 5am and decided to sleep outside on the balcony because it was so hot in our room. It my drunkness I thought it would be quite nice to sleep outside, it actually kinda was!

Beach in Corfu

Sukhey and Rochelle enjoying some Iced Coffee, yum!

Waiting for the bus after the beach

Sukhey, Jas, Karisten and I at the Greek Dinner

End of the night at the bar

Day 19 - More fun in the sun in Corfu

Sunday, May 30th - We all got up early the next morning for our all day boat cruise on George's boat. We were all pretty hung over, especially Brylie and Jas. Before arriving at George's boat I had envisioned a boat of decent size with sun loungers and lots of space. I was wrong, the boat was actually pretty small with only benches to sit on. It was pretty chilly and overcast that morning, definitely didn't feel like a good day to be out on the water. George was an interesting character, loud and a bit vulgar. It's obviously a show and I got sick of it pretty fast. The first stop of the morning was a sports adventure place. I signed up for the banana boat with some of the other girls. I was only thrown off once, some of the other girls were thrown off twice and Chloe managed to stay on the entire time. I got my first gulp of salt water...I had no idea it was actually taste that salty. I did get a nasty bruise when I got thrown off - between the bruise from the previous night and the one from the banana boat I was starting to look pretty banged up. The boys then took their turn on the banana boat, they had more people then seats so Ali sat in the middle. The driver of the boat was a lot more harder on the boys then us girls, they were thrown off in about 30 seconds. Funny to watch. After I grabbed sun lounger on the and took a bit of a nap in the sun and then it was time to eat lunch on the boat. Yummy tzatiki, veggies and some really good fries.

After lunch we were back out on the water and we stopped after about an hour and a bunch of us jumped into the water for a swim. The water was nice and refreshing. After about 30 minutes we were back on the boat and headed over to skinny-dipping island and stopped off at a seal show on the way. A few people jumped off the boat at skinny-dipping island and a couple of guys took off their shorts in the water but I opted to stay on the boat. I had finally just dried off and didn't want to get wet again. Once everyone was back on the boat George had everyone stand up for their country and sing the national anthems. The Aussies went first - their national anthem is pretty upbeat, especially with 32 of them singing. Next us Canadians went up - there were 8 of us and wow, "Oh Canada" sounds pretty boring compared to the Aussie national anthem. After the Canadians the 3 Americans went up followed by the 3 UK representatives and finally poor Yuri got up alone to sing the Japanese national anthem. It was finally time to head back to land which I was more than ready for, it had been a long day.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. After another buffet dinner a group of people starting playing charades. I watched for a bit but then went to bed pretty early - the day in the sun had me exhausted.

George's Boat

Boys on Banana Boat

Girls on Banana Boat

Aussies Singing

Canadians

Day 18 - Greece!

Saturday, May 29th - We arrived in Corfu around 8am and got to our hotel around 9. The hotel was fairly nice but not exactly what I thought it would be. It did have a nice pool but it was really far away from the beach - two bus rides away! This was a bit of a let down. Our hotel room was pretty good, fairly large and had a balcony. After a quick shower we headed into the city for a few hours. There wasn't much sightseeing in Corfu so Sukhey, Jas, Sandra, Sarah and I decided to go shopping. We wandered around the markets in the old part of town and ended up at the port. We stopped to grab lunch at a restaurant called Tweety's and it was a fantastic meal! We were seated right on the water and the waiter was fantastic. The food was fabulous - feta, olives and tzatziki and large platters of chicken, lamb and pork. Finished everything off with complimentary shots of Ouzo. The 3 year old daughter of the owner of the restaurant took quite a liking to me, picking me out from the group to give me a flower and a hug. She was simply adorable and stole my heart. After lunch we ran into the amigos and a few others who pointed us towards the newer part of the city. We then found some decent shops and I picked up a few more things - a cute dress and a couple shirts.

It was time to head back to the hotel and I decided to check out the pool. There was already quite a lot of our tour mates in the pool and on the sun loungers. Sukhey and I grabbed a couple loungers and soaked up some of the delicious Greek sun. After a quick swim we went to the poolside bar and I got the most extravagant cocktail I've ever had - it was topped with rose petals! Tasted as good as it looked. Back on the sun loungers a bunch of us started playing Telephone, yes the same game everyone plays in kindergarten - still fun years later! I decided to go and grab a quick nap before dinner. I grabbed some pillows and blankets and stretched out on the balcony for a few quiet moments.

It was Amy's and Dustin's birthday so most people planned to go out that night. We did some pre-drinking in some one's room and then headed to Eden Bar which was suggested by Sian. The bar was pretty great - it was right on the water. First thing I did was kick off my shoes and role up my jeans to go test out the water. The bar also had watermelons for purchase that came with 26ers of vodka - a bunch of us bought one and Sian bought another one for Dustin and Amy. The only downfall to the night was the step from the patio going into the bar, I tripped on it more than once and banged up my knee pretty badly. Had a few nice bruises the next morning. After a long night of good drunk fun and dancing, I decided it was time to go home. Ben and I grabbed a taxi and last minute Amy and Kyle jumped in. Being Amy's birthday she was quite drunk, our cab had to pull over a couple times when she got sick - yuck. Despite the cab ride it was a great first night out in Corfu!

Yummy Cocktail

Watermelon and Vodka Slush

Alex, Tom, Ben and I

Kyle and the Watermelon at the end of the night

Day 17 - Pompeii and the ferry to Greece

Friday, May 28th - We had the earliest start of the tour this morning - we had to be on the coach by 5:30am. Lucky for me I was woken up around 4:45 am by a rooster crowing. There was some kind of farm adjacent to our hotel and they evidently had roosters and since I decided to sleep with the door open to our patio I got quite the wake up call. This lead to quite a grumpy morning. We had another "picnic breakfast" on the coach which consisted of fruit, pastry and some water. Similar to Barcelona I ate nothing of it. I slept a good part of the way to Pompeii, only waking up at our service stop where I had one of my favourite cappuccinos of the trip. It was so good I went back for a second, I'm still craving a cappuccino that would be close to the same. We arrived at Pompeii around 9am and met with our tour guide. He was probably the best tour guide of the entire tour, such an authentic Italian and really seemed to love his job. I was really excited to see Pompeii, I've been looking forward to visiting it ever since I learned about it in high school. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was - this probably sounds horrible but I was hoping to see all the artifacts including the dead bodies strewn about as it was when the volcano erupted but they were all being preserved behind glass. Pompeii was still awesome, it was great to hear about the history and walk the streets of an ancient place that has been preserved so well.

After our tour we had almost 2 hours to kill and Sian advised us to grab some lunch because we wouldn't be stopping for a while. I ordered a pizza and I've never seen anything greasier in my entire life. I tried to to blot out the grease but it was hopeless, I ate once piece and threw the rest out. Ben ended up stealing his lunch by accident; I had just finished paying for mine and he followed me out without paying and then some attendant just ushered us both to a table so he got his sandwich for free! Afterward Sukhey and I did a bit of shopping in the market and then it was time to drive to the ferry. We made it to the ferry and we all found out we were in for a rough ride for the next 12 hours. Sandra and I got to our room and found our toilet and shower shared the same space, how lovely. After getting settled we grabbed dinner which was quite interesting, I'm still not sure what I ate that night but I do know it tasted horrible. Going hungry was the better choice. A bunch of us hung out in the bar and I got a game of Crazy 8's going - seems to be a Canadian game, I had to teach the Aussies how to play. We played a few rounds but our group thinned out pretty quickly. Eventually it was only Sukhey, Ben and I. I had heard that we were steering into a storm so I really wanted to go out to the deck to see the storm. It was actually quite clear, full moon and heaps of stars. Sukhey ended up going to bed and it ended up just being Ben and I hanging out on the deck. Ben actually turned out to be a pretty funny guy, cracking jokes and such. We hung out for about an hour and then each went to bed. It was a fun night despite being stuck on a ferry for 12 hours.

Pompeii

More Pompeii

Even more Pomepii

Ferry to Greece

Day 16 - More Rome

Thursday, May 27th - The next morning was another early morning as we had to catch an early train for our Vatican City tour. I was lucky and was 1 of the 3 people who managed to get a hot shower before the hotel ran out of hot water. What kind of hotel runs out of hot water? We had a quick breakfast and then we were off. We caught the train and the only way I can describe the train was "ghetto train"; definitely not what I'm used to back in Canada. We arrived at the main metro station so we can switch trains. Sian led us through a complete maze of an underground system similar the to the PATH system in Toronto but was about a thousand times more confusing. It took us 10 minutes to get from one train platform to the next one. Sukhey, Rochelle and I had originally planned to do some shopping in Rome but scrapped that idea as there was no way we could find our way back on our own.

We hopped on the train and then arrived at the Vatican to wait for our tour guide. We had to wait in the tour queue for about 15 minutes, much better than the hours people spend in the public queue! We finally got inside and our tour guide had us all sit down and then proceeded to talk about the artwork of the Vatican Museum, The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's for 45 minutes. It was probably the most boring 45 minutes of the entire tour, everyone was struggling to keep their eyes open. Finally Sian broke in and reminded the tour guide that we only had a limited amount of time so we ended up racing through The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica in about 45 minutes. The Sistine Chapel was beautiful but St. Peter's was seriously amazing, it was absolutely huge and the artwork was beyond impressive. I would have liked to spend more time there but we were on a tight schedule to make our train for 1pm. After St. Peter's we hung out in St. Peter's Piazza while we waited for everyone in the group to catch up. The best part of this was Matt F and Jake "ghost-walking" some unsuspecting people, it was hilarious to watch.

We had the option to head back to the hotel or stay in Rome but the idea of trying to get back to the hotel on our own was too daunting, especially since trains stopped running at 6pm. We headed back to the hotel, some people headed to the pool, others napped and Sukhey, Sandra, Alex and I hung out on our patio. The boys were playing with a ball in the pool and somehow it ended up over the fence in the bushes, they spent about 25 minutes trying to get it out - it was pretty funny to watch. They finally got it out only to lose it again a few minutes later. We then all went up to the main lodge for dinner which was again quite horrible although I shouldn't have been surprised given everything else that had gone wrong at this hotel.

By now I was starting to develop the "Contiki cough" as most of the rest of the tour members by now. Sukhey had been treating herself with hot brandy's since Barcelona so Jas, Sukhey and I decided to all get one and take them outside and watched the sunset by the main pool. The bartender was nice enough to give us our drinks for free - wow the hotel actually has perks! The three of us had a good chat by the pool and then they decided to go to bed and I hung out with some of the other tour members by the pool. After an hour or so we all headed to bed as we had a very early start in the morning. Before heading to bed I grabbed a shower which turned out to be cold, I was quite happy to be leaving this hotel.

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Piazza

The boys rescuing their ball

The pool at the main lodge

Day 15 - Off to Rome!

Wednesday, May 26th - All roads lead to Rome! We left Florence around 8am and arrived in Rome shortly before 2, one of the shortest drives of the entire trip. We drove right into the city and started a whirlwind tour of Rome. Our first stop was the Mouth of Truth although I was never actually able to see it. The queue was too long to wait so we all just snapped photos through the gate. Next we headed to the Colosseum which was simply an amazing sight. Sian got us tickets so that we could jump the queue and walk right in. Once we actually got into the Colosseum I was blown away, I was in awe of standing in a place where so much history has taken place over two thousand years. Next we went to check out the Roman Forum, we wandered around the ruins a bit but Rome was super hot and we ended up spending most of the time in the shade trying to keep cool. I regret not having more energy to explore the Forum, judging from Ali's snaps there was a lot of great things to see but the heat was too much combined with exhaustion. Overall I wasn't prepared for our walking tour of Rome, Sian really hadn't given us heads up on the day's plans.

Next stop on our walking tour was Trevi Fountain. We only had about 10 minutes here but it was enough time for Sukhey and I to throw our 2 coins into the fountain - 1 to make a wish and 1 to ensure our return to Rome. Trevi Fountain is such a busy tourist spot - 3000 Euros are thrown into the fountain everyday! After that our next stop was the Roman Catacombs but I decided to skip out on going in and grabbed some gelato with Jas, Matt F, Shane and a few others. Definitely worth it, it was some of the best gelato I had on the trip. We then headed to the Spanish Steps and had a quick look around and then took a bit of a break sitting on the famous steps. We then walked past the Pantheon (although no time to stop) and then ended up in Piazza Noavona where we all broke off for dinner. We were all starving by now having just spent the last 5 hours wandering around Rome. Jas, Sukhey, Sandra, Pete, Monica along with a few others grabbed some dinner at an Italian Bistro and then it was finally time to head to our hotel.

I was excited to see our hotel, it was one of three "feature hotels" on the tour. After a an hour drive out of the city we finally made it. We were so far out of Rome that taxi's wouldn't come out to get us so we wouldn't be able to go out during our stay in Rome. The room at first seemed fairly decent - Sandra and I had a great balcony, it was huge! Things quickly went downhill from there, both Pete and Monica and Kyle and Amy's sheets were so damp I would call them wet. The rooms were super hot and smelled musty and we were told the pool wasn't open. We got settled and then a few of us went to see if we could at least grab a drink in the main lodge but no dice, the bar wasn't open either. With nothing left to do we decided to call it an early night and head to bed.

Mouth of Truth

The Colosseum

Roman Forum

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

Day 14 - A little more Florence

Tuesday, May 25th - We had a full day to explore Florence and I was pretty excited - it's the home of the Statue of David! Our first stop of the morning was a leather demonstration - again I wasn't too interested plus all the guy did was show us how to make a leather box. After the "demonstration" we were pointed in the direction of the shop but I wasn't interested in what seemed to be a blatant money grab, similar to the perfume factory tour. A bunch of us skipped the shopping and headed to a bistro for some coffee and pastry. Again the coffee was delicious and Sukhey and I shared some kind of caramel pastry - so yummy! After our coffee break we had a walking tour planned to show us the sights of Florence. Right before our tour Sukhey and I ducked into a Chanel store to check out a bag she wanted to buy, it was 1700 Euros. We spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out if it was cheaper to buy it in Florence or the States in the end she decided to hold off.

We then started our guided tour, the first part was alright - we sat on some stairs in Piazza della Signoria and our guide showed us the different statues and explained their history. She also explained a bit of the history of Florence which I found interesting. We then headed out for a walking tour and it was hard to hear our tour guide and the streets were full of tourists, way too many people for my liking. I noticed there was quite a lot of good shopping in one of the alleyways that we were in so I suggested we split off from the group and do some shopping. The H&M in Florence had heaps of great things, I spent about 50 Euros but left with 7 items - not bad. My next purchase wasn't as economical, we went into a Guess shoe store and I found a pair of black heels that I fell in love with. 130 Euros later I left the store with a killer pair of heels - I try not to think that it cost me $175 Canadian. I would never spend that much money at home on a pair of shoes!

We had a few hours to ourselves in Florence but it didn't leave enough time to do much sightseeing, the ques were too long. I wanted to go to Accademia Gallery to see the actual Statue of David but there wasn't enough time. We decided to grab lunch at a restaurant that Sukhey, Jas and I had seen during our walking tour the night before. It was really busy when we first got there and we had to wait for a table but it cleared out pretty fast. This was one of my favourite meals of the trip - the food, the company and the wine was perfect. We were a bit disillusioned by Florence (it was too touristy) and this meal definitely saved it. After we took it upon us to explore a bit and then stopped for another glass of wine. The afternoon flew by and it was time to catch the coach back to the hotel.

We got all dressed up for our Tuscan dinner and for Ali's birthday. We also had our official group photo of the tour, it turned out pretty good - we had Florance as our background and everyone looked great. Dinner was pretty decent, Sian told us it would be the best food on the tour. It was definitely the best organized dinner of the tour (that I went to). We had authentic antipasto and the rest of the courses were great. After dinner everyone went to "Space Disco." It was a pretty fun night, almost everyone from Contiki came out. I stayed until the very end caught a cab home with Matt F and Ben.

Exact Replica of Statue of David

Shots for Ali's birthday

Florence Lunch

Day 13 - Onwards to Italy

Monday, May 24th - After a quick breakfast we were saying goodbye to France for the last time and we were making our way down to Italy. Our first stop of the day was at a French Perfumery which was definitely not my thing. The tour was pretty boring - Jas and I bailed as soon as we possibly could and sat in the parking lot until it was time to move on. Our next stop was for lunch at a service station where Sian swore that the pizza would be the best we would find in Italy. I'm not sure if it was the best I had, but it definitely didn't disappoint. I miss Italian pizza almost as much as I miss European coffee. Our third stop of the day was Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa of course! It was pretty cool to see, we all took pictures posing with the tower. We had about 90 minutes to kill so a bunch of us hit up a cafe for gelato and hung out in the sun until it was time to leave. Pisa is full of souvenir stands, some are legit and some are not. It you're caught buying from the illegal stand the police will actually fine the buyer not the seller. Right as we were leaving Pisa the police tried to round up the illegal sellers, you should have seen them run! They just dropped their stuff and took off.

We finally arrived in Florence at our hotel around 7pm that evening, it had been a long day of driving especially with making so many lengthy stops throughout the day. Our hotel was alright, I was super excited at first because Sandra and I had a laptop in our room so we bought the unlimited internet time. It quickly became disappointing as it was slower than dial-up; in the end I just gave up on it. We had a tour dinner right in the middle of Florance and the food was pretty decent - authentic spaghetti and meatballs! After dinner Sian took up to a Karaoke bar, I stayed for one drink and long enough to see Alex sing "I will survive" but I decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel.

Pisa - Don't ask what we're doing, I don't think we know

Getting it right

Day 12 - Weekend in the French Riviera Continues

Sunday, May 23rd - It was our first almost entirely free day of the tour so I took advantage of that and slept in. I had the hardest time waking up even though I had slept 10 hours. Sukhey and I decided to venture to Cannes for the last day of the Film Festival. We went to the train station to catch the express train out to Cannes but we got a bit confused with the schedule. We went to the information desk to get some help but the attendant dismissed us right away because we didn't speak French. It was beyond frustrating. We finally figured out the system on our own but found that we really didn't have enough time to get to Cannes and back before dinner. Instead Sukhey and I decided to explore Nice instead. First stop was lunch as we both hadn't eaten since dinner the evening before. We walked towards the beach and eventually settled on a bistro with a patio; Suhkey was craving breakfast food but I wanted something a bit more substantial. Sukhey ordered eggs and sausage and I ordered lamb. Our meals came and my lamb was delicious, I was quite pleased with it. Sukhey's was a bit more interesting - apparently sausages in France are actually just what we Canadians refer to as hot-dogs!

It was finally time to explore the beaches of Nice! Since we had originally planned to go to Cannes we didn't have our suits but we decided to still walk around. There are both private and public beaches. The private beaches have drink service and sun loungers - essential if you want to lay on the beach as they are pebble beaches not sandy beaches. Sukhey then spotted a waterfall up on the bluff so we decided to go check it out. It was a bit of a trek but definitely worth it once we got up there. The waterfall itself was gorgeous but it also allowed for a great view of the city. Next we headed back down to the beach to grab a quick drink to cool down and then explored the markets that were just opening for the day. Since it was Sunday in a resort town most of the market places didn't open up until 2pm. We stumbled upon some great shopping and then we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for our Monaco night.

We ended up getting completely turned around in the market, I've never felt so lost in my life. Sukhey and I spent an hour trying to find our way - but it seemed impossible. At one point Sukhey and I pulled out our map on a cobblestone side walk, or so we thought it was the sidewalk. We were actually standing in the middle of the street with cars just veering around us! After an hour we were still lost as ever and starting to get concerned that we weren't going to make it back in time to go to Monaco with the rest of Contiki. We tried to ask for directions but no one recognized the name of our hotel. We finally came out by the Port and found a taxi stand and luckily one of the drivers knew where our hotel was. We had actually wandered quite a ways away from our hotel; it was under a ten minute walk to the beach from our hotel. Our taxi ride took almost 20 minutes to get back from the Port! We made it back with just enough time for a quick outfit change and then it was time to hop on the coach!

The drive up to Monaco was really pretty, it was right along the water going up the hillside. We passed the spot where Grace Kelly died in the car crash. Once in Monaco we stopped for a quick group photo and then it was off to dinner right beside the Royal Palace. Dinner was fabulous - a traditional 4 course French meal. After dinner it was time to hit the Monte Carlo casino! We only had about an hour there which was disappointing. Alex and I first tried to suss out some poker tables but there weren't any open; we really didn't have time to play poker anyways though. Instead we hit the blackjack tables. I sat at a table with the Amigo's which I was hoping would be a benefit to me because both Matt F and Ben are blackjack dealers at a casino back in Australia but I still lost 80 Euros pretty quickly. Jas decided that she wanted to gamble but didn't actually want to play so I offered to play for her. I got back on the blackjack table with the Amigos and ended up doubling her money in just a few hands, although I do have to give Matty F some credit - he helped me out when I needed it. After doubling Jas's money I was able to win back what I had lost as well! After that it was time to leave Monaco and go back to our hotel for the night. Once we got back a few of us decided to head to the pub for a few beers and then planned on hitting a club but by the time we left the pub the club was already closed. So with nothing left to do we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Waterfall in Nice

Sukhey and I

Group Shot in Monaco

Monte Carlo Grand Casino

Day 11 - French Riviera

Saturday May 22 - Around 5:45am I came down to the hotel lobby and ran into Suk, Jas and a few others who were just getting in. I thought I had a late night out! We boarded the coach complete with our picnic breakfast - basically a cheese sandwich, a pear and some pastry. I ate exactly none of it. I sat with Brad on the bus and I was finally able to grab a bit of a rest. At the first service stop I ended up grabbing not one but two cappuccinos so I was quite wired after this. I haven't mentioned how great the coffee is all over Europe - it doesn't matter where you are the coffee is almost guaranteed to be great. Honestly it could be the most dodgy service station but the coffee will be fabulous, I have yet to find anything nearly as great back home. Brad was pretty awake as well so we ended up chatting for a while and then I told him I had been downloading "24" episodes onto Sandra's Ipod so he caught up on that for a while and I was able to catch up on a bit more sleep.

The drive into Nice was beautiful! The water was a spectacular greenish blue colour with a gorgeous shoreline. We arrived in Nice around 5pm and got to our hotel only to find out there had been a mix-up and there wasn't any room for us. We had to drag our luggage through the busy streets of Nice to our new hotel only to find out it was pretty small with a tiny lift. I got impatient waiting for the lift so I decided to just carry my luggage up 4 flights of stairs to my room, it was a struggle but I was able to do it. The room was quite nice although a bit dated, quite large - 3 beds and a cot for just Sandra and I. We had a nice view of the city streets, I was pretty happy with it. Turns out we got lucky, most people had tiny rooms without any view to speak of.

We then went for a tour dinner at a nearby restaurant, again the food was just alright. Quiche to start, chicken schnitzel and veggies. Definitely not very French and by now most of us were getting pretty sick of chicken. After dinner Sian had organized a night out at an Irish pub and about half the people on the tour came out for it. Even though I had slept a bit on the bus I was beyond exhausted - I probably hadn't had more than 12 hours of sleep in 5 days. I managed to go for one beer but I decided to head home after that and get some much needed sleep.

Trekking along the streets of Nice

Paradise (Nice Shoreline)

Streets of Nice

Day 10 - The Adventure Continues in Barcelona....

Friday May 21st - Despite only getting about an hour of sleep I was up at 7am for breakfast and it was worth it. It was a full buffet of eggs, bacon, fresh fruit and yogurt, a far improvement from the French breakfast of pastry and jelly. Our first stop of the day was Sagrada Familia - a massive Cathedral that has been under construction since 1882! It's slated to be finished around 2020 or so, only a few years to go! Afterward the girls and I decided to do some shopping so we hit Las Ramblas, even though it was still quite early in the morning it was packed with people. After only a couple of stores and some really great purchases, I was exhausted - the week and lack of sleep was finally starting to catch up with me. I decided to split off from the group and catch the metro back to the hotel. I had a bit of trouble trying to find my way to the correct metro station - it didn't help that I don't speak one word of Spanish. On my way to the station guess who I see again? The naked man just strolling about! I apparently wasn't the only one to see him that day - he should be part of the tourist brochures for Barcelona.

I made it back to the hotel and ran into a bunch of the guys from the tour in the lobby and they told me that Jono had been pick-pocketed on the metro. Barcelona is known for being a trap for this but it's always a wake-up call when it happens to someone that you know. It definitely soured the day a bit. I headed up to my room for my own Spanish Siesta and I realized that this was the first time since I had left Canada that I was actually alone - the peace and quiet was quite nice. Still I was unable to sleep, I felt that I was missing out on the day and Barcelona itself. I decided that I would enjoy the day and then have an early night in that evening instead.

I decided to head out to find some lunch and ran into the girls who were just coming back from shopping. They were heading up to the rooftop pool but I opted to go grab some food instead and I wanted to go explore a bit more. The weather was absolutely amazing - sunny and hot, so much better than the humid hot we get in Ontario. I first walked down to the beach so I could take in the view and then try to find a place to eat. By now it was about 2 in the afternoon and Siesta was in full swing so not much was open. I finally found a place that was open but the cook had stepped out for a few minutes. The server offered me a glass of wine so I sipped on that and read my book while I waited for the cook to return, which he never did. Finally I gave up, went to pay for the wine but the the server wouldn't let me pay for it which I appreciated. Around 4 I headed back to the hotel and ran into Sandra and convinced her to come out and eat with me, even though we had a tour dinner in a couple hours - there was no way I could wait until then. We ended up finding a great place around the corner from the hotel where we had Sangria and tapas - it was delicious!

It was time to get ready for Spanish Flamenco dinner that was organized by Contiki. This was one of the worst tour dinners of the entire trip. The food was beyond gross with the exception of the Gazpacho and I'm pretty sure I was the only one who even enjoyed that. Even worse was the entertainment - over an hour of watching sweaty flamenco dancers stomping around on stage. The people sitting up close got a real treat - sweat flying off the dancers and onto them! Definitely not worth the 56 Euros. The dinner finally ended and we were back onto the coach to the hotel. Despite my earlier plan to have a quiet night in I decided against my better judgment to go out with the rest of the group - it was our last night in Barcelona, how could I miss that? We decided to hangout in the hallway as a group instead of someone's room as it had been really hot in Jake and Tom's room the night before. I'm sure the other hotel guests appreciated 20 people drinking and being loud in the hallway, I have a feeling that future Contiki groups will not be invited back to this hotel.

We decided to go to Catwalk which was in the club district right on the beach.Sukhey and I tried to organize taxis but being such a large group and Friday night it was impossible. We decided to walk down to the beach as it really wasn't that far. We got to the beach but had some trouble finding the club but eventually I found some guy who was handing out flyers for Catwalk who was able to point us in the right direction. He also gave me a bunch of free entry passes for the girls. The lineup was rather long and I went to talk to the doorman to see if our passes could bypass the line and to suss out the cover for the guys. The cover was 20 Euros which I felt was bit steep, although after traveling around the rest of Europe I know this is pretty much the norm. In the end the guys ended up getting a free drink or something with entry, not great but better than nothing. Catwalk overall was pretty decent, it had 2 floors - one for hip-hop and I think the other was dance/techno but I never ventured away from the hip-hop floor. The night was heaps of fun and I lasted until about 3:30am (I think it was 3:30ish - I don't wear a watch and didn't carry my phone around in Europe) but by then my feet were killing me and I was super exhausted. Ben was ready to leave as well so we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Once we got back Ben and I ended up hanging out for a while even though I was quite tired. After losing my room key not once, but twice, in the span of about 10 minutes, I was finally able to get into my room to catch a bit of sleep. I quickly jumped in the shower as I knew there was no way I would take one when I got up. As I was heading to bed I went to set my alarm and saw it was already 5am. The coach was leaving at 5:45 - all I had time to do was dry my hair and pack my luggage! My plan for an quiet night in had some how turned into an all-nighter!

Sagrada Familia - Taking over 130 years to complete!

Ivan and I at Catwalk

Day 9 - iHola Spain!

Thursday, May 20th - back on the coach and we were heading to the next country on the tour - Spain! This was another long day of driving on the tour; it took us most of the day to make our way to Spain. Continuing our way south we stopped at Carcassonne, an old fortress in France. I opted to not pay the money to go inside and instead grabbed some lunch just outside the fortress walls.

We got into Barcelona around 6pm and the first thing we did was a coach tour around the city. I saw my first palm trees ever! It was nice and hot there, Spain was paradise. We saw the 1992 Olympic Stadium, a great view of the city from Mt. Monjuic and....and a naked man. Yes this old guy was just wandering around the city centre completely naked, it was not a pretty sight but it was hilarious! We then checked into our hotel and it was definitely the nicest of the entire tour. I highly recommend the Ibus to anyone who stays in Barcelona. The rooms were huge, very comfy beds - overall very high class at least for contiki. After checking in we had dinner at the hotel - just chicken and potatoes. I was hoping for some seafood seeing how we were in Greece but no dice. Although not what I was looking for it was still pretty tasty.

After dinner it was time to get ready to go out for the night - things don't start going until about 1am in Spain so we had a bit of time. We predrank in Tom and Jake's room, there were so many people in there - felt like the entire tour was in there. We finally decided on a destination and we ordered a bunch of cabs - Suk, Jas, Tom and I got the worst one ever. Even though our driver had a GPS she still couldn't find the bar we wanted to go to. Our driver decided to drop us off and pointed us in the direction of the bar and told us to walk. We decided to not pay her. We got to the club and found the cover was something like 18 Euros. Way expensive, but if we went and bought a drink at the pub beside the club, entrance was free. So we went to the pub first and bought a drink and then headed to the club. There were a few hookups this night - Rochelle and Tom, Matty R and a cute random. The conitki tour members were definitely a fun group to party with! This was probably one of my favourite nights out of the tour, ended up being a pretty late night - I wasn't home until about 4:30am!

1992 Olympic Stadium

Alex, Ben, Ali, Matty F and Shane

Sandra, Jas, Ben and I

Day 8 - The long road to Bordeaux

Wednesday, May 19th - After grabbing a few hours of sleep it was time to say goodbye to Paris and make our way south to Bordeaux. Our first stop of the day was Chateau de Chambord, a French castle built in the 1500's. I never actually got to see the actual Chateau; we ate lunch just outside it and the wait service was slow so I missed out. A few hours later we stopped at a service stop to grab a bit of food and then continued on our way to Bordeaux - this was one of our longest driving days of the tour, over 11 hours including our 2 stops. A lot of people slept on the bus but even though I was only on a few hours sleep I was unable to. The French countryside is a sight in itself, heaps of Vineyards and quaint sights - at one point we drove by a woman on the riverside spending her afternoon painting - it seemed so French!

We finally arrived in Bordeaux around 7:30 that evening, we checked into our hotel and then we were off for our first "walk about dinner." Here Sian gave us a quick tour of the heart of Bordeaux and then we were off to explore on our own. Bordeaux is a fabulous place - cobblestone streets, tiny bistros and great 18th century architecture. About 10 of us girls decided to suss out a restaurant where we could experience some genuine French cuisine. We checked out the menus of a few restaurants, I tried to translate for the group as best as I could. My French was definitely started to come back after being in France for a few days - all those years spent in French class finally started to pay off! We finally decided on a place and I had one of the best meals of the trip - a very simple fish entree but it was delicious.

After dinner we walked along Rue Sainte-Catherine which is the best shopping district in Bordeaux. All the shops were closed which was slightly disappointing. We ended up at an American pub called "The Parliament" were the entire staff was from the States. We only stayed for one drink and then moved onto a more traditional French pub. I didn't travel all the way to Europe to go drink in a North American style pub! In the end we met up with some others from the tour and then sussed out a club and went dancing.

Chateau de Chambord

Day 7 - Paris Continued...

Tuesday, May 18th - After a quick breakfast at the hotel which again was slightly disappointing (this becomes a recurring theme for the tour) we were off to explore Paris. We had the option of taking a cruise down the Seine River or doing our own thing, Sandra, Sukhey, Jas, Sarah and I decided to do our own thing to maximize our time in Paris. First stop was the Eiffel Tower - it was fairly early so the queue was quite short to go up, we only had to wait about 20 minutes. Any later in the day and you will be waiting over an hour. We decided to take the lift up to the top, although we made a brief stop at the first level. The view from the tower is simply amazing, you can see all of Paris in all directions. We spent some time up there and then decided to head back down. I convinced our group to take the stairs all the way down which took about 20 minutes on a circular stair case. By the time we got to the bottom we were all pretty disoriented as we had been running around in circles for 20 minutes! I definitely think it was worth it though. We decided to head to the Arc de Triomphe next, to get there we took a really nice walk along the Seine which took about 45 minutes. Before arriving at the Arc de Triomphe we decided to grab some lunch and ended up at an Italian bistro - yes the irony is not lost on me. We had a great meal of Caprese salad, real pizza and red wine, after Europe I can never enjoy Canadian pizza the same way again - it's so much better overseas!

After lunch we continued on to the Arc de Triomphe and I again convinced everyone that we needed to see the view from the top. There were no lifts, only stairs and our legs were already feeling like jelly from the Eiffle Tower and the walk by the Seine but I didn't want to miss out. The view was spectacular, again definitely worth it! By now it was getting late in the afternoon and we need to catch the coach by 4 so we had to make our way back. I was disappointed that we didn't have enough time to see Notre Dame, but there just wasn't time to make our way over. On our way we did a bit of shopping, most of the shops are the same that we have in back home - H&M, United Colours of Benton, FCUK. We did stumble upon a store called Promode, the shopping was great here! We all ended up buying heaps of stuff here - I found a great dress to wear out that night.

That evening we were off to Moulin Rouge so we all got dressed up and a bunch of us met up in the hotel bar for a drink. We were then off to Moulin Rouge which consisted of dinner and the show. Dinner was more than disappointing - I had steak which was horribly over-done. The show itself was alright - the story was hard to follow but the dancing was great and if you're into it there were heaps of nipples to be seen. Afterward the show wrapped up and about 20 of us headed to the O'Sullivans - the pub beside Moulin Rouge. This was the first night we hung out as a group and it was heaps of fun! We stayed until closing and then it was time to head home. In the end we had one odd man out for all the cabs so Matty R and I ended up sharing a cab. Our cab driver picked up on the fact that we were tourists and took us on a joyride of the city. We ended up paying 45 Euros (about 20 more than most groups paid) and still got dropped off 10 minutes away from our hotel because our driver couldn't find it. I ended up running barefoot through the streets of Paris trying to find out hotel - in the end it was quite the adventure!

Eiffel Tower by day

Arc de Triomphe

Moulin Rouge

Ivan, Sarah and I after Moulin Rouge