Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Spring Break 2008! - 2nd Destination, the BEAUTIFUL Portugal!
Spring Break 2008! - 1st Destination, BARCELONA!!!!
This vacation was more of a relaxing one because we have been traveling soooo much it tends to get tiring and we all decided it would be nice to see some things but because we were there for 5 days we would have some time to just lay on the beach and relax. The food and liquor was cheap in barcelona, and our hostel was within 2 minutes from a grocery store, so it wasn't difficult to get what we needed. Also the stores in Spain had extended hours and was open until 11pm (alot different from the stores here in France!).
The tour we did through our hostel was called the Gaudi Tour. Gaudi was a famous architect in Barcelona, and created some of the most beautiful and well known buildings in Spain, such as Familia Sagrada. I loved every minute of this tour and learned alot about this well known artist. We also walked through the Parc of Guell - which was his most beautiful piece in my opinion. This parc was filled with interesting landscaping and REMARKABLE mosaiic art work. There was a beautiful view of Barcelona once you reached the top, however the beauty is something a camera could never capture. Once you go to the middle section of the parc there are beautiful rows of benches made of mosaiic, its colorful art pieces are something that i could stare at for hours. Gaudi had something special and i enjoyed viewing all of his pieces. i DEFINATELY recommend seeing anything he created in Barcelona.
The days where we were not on the beach or doing a walking tour were mostly spent shopping and taking in the beautiful town of barcelona. I loved the shopping in Barcelona - Spain is where the beautiful store called "Zara" is created, so the clothing i would usually pay tons for was cheap! The transportation in Barcelona, like most European cities, was exceptional and very easy to get from point A to point B. TIP: Make sure you get the 10 use pass for 7 euros, otherwise you will pay 2 euros each time you go on a bus or metro. This way is ALOT cheaper!
I also had the opportunity to go and see the Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona, very different from the one in Paris. I actual thought the Arc in Barcelona was prettier, the stone and detail was very different to the one found in france. I particularly enjoyed the walk to the Arc with the surrounding palm trees, definately worth the trip there if you are in Barcelona!
Me and some friends also went to this HUGE market in Barcelona. The market was lively and filled with tons of colorful fruit and veggies. The atmosphere was like something i have never seen, it was jam packed with people and the vendors were yelling to beat the others with prices. I have never seen such colorful foods as i did in this market....definately outshines our market in Saint John!
Overall, our stay in Barcelona was Exceptional and am so happy i had the opportunity to go there, definately a place i would like to go back to someday!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam - the town where anything goes and is LEGAL! My trip to amsterdam was awesome. I got to see tons of museums and experience a culture so diverse and competely opposite to the one i am used to. Me and 2 Canadian friends traveled by bus to get to amsterdam which was about 8 hours, but it really went by fast and was only 60 euros there and back! We arrived on a Wednesday evening and decided to start our time in amsterdam with an adventure to the Red Light District. Surprisingly this is actually a nice part of town, and not as dangerous and scary as others made it sound. We found a decent place to grab some food and then we felt pretty worn out, so we headed back to our hostel.
Day 2 we headed out to the Van gogh Museum! This museum was very cool, 10 euros to get it, and i learned ALOT about the artist and his life. The way the museum was layed out was genius and made it fascinating to walk through the life of Van Gogh. After the museum, we decided to go for a walk in the parc and get some cool shots with the infamous "I Amsterdam"sign. You have to get to this one early though folks, the amount of people jumping on this thing was insane! After a little walk in the parc, we decided to get some shopping out of the way, walking the streets looking for tourist nic nacs. Amsterdam is also well known for their BEAUTIFUL canals. So after lunch we decided to go for a canal tour. This was a very interesting boat tour and i learned ALOT by going on it. I learned that Amsterdam has over 2,000bridges! and that people have boat houses all over the canals (2,500 to be exact), and some poeple have to wait up to 8 YEARS to get their spot in a boat house!
All in all this boat cruise is the TOP thing i suggest doing if you are ever planning on going to amsterdam! After a long day we decided to head back to the hostel until a few other friends arrived to meet up with us!
Once our other friends arrived we headed to the "Hard Rock Cafe". The service wasn't that great but the food was awesome! It was nice to have a good meal after a long day of walking! After dinner we decided to walk around town and explore amsterdam at night.... while walking around i saw some hilarious people doing the strangest things!! We finished of the night by visiting one of the infamous "cafes" in amsterdam.
Day 3 - Our last day in Amsterdam was spent power walking the streets to see last minute monuments and museums we hadn't had the chance to see yet. The day included the ever so classy, sex museum (many laughs), the Anne Frank house - which is VERY cool, i highly reccomment this place! And of course no visit to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to the "hemp and hash museum". I had no idea that Amsterdam was filled with such history and wonderful sites! i had an amazing time and would love to go back some day!