Thessaloniki, Greece

Thessaloniki
June 4th, 7th & 8th 2008

Not many beaches in Thessaloniki, but the city is unique with plenty to do!

Day 1
What a long travel day this was! It all began at 5:50 am in Dusseldorf Germany! My flight was 30 min’s late arriving in Greece, which was only the beginning of the long day! It was about 10:15am when I finally found fresh air again. Well almost fresh, everyone was smoking by the bus stop, which I had to take into town. The bus was due to come in 15 mins which was nice considering they only come every 30 mins! I bought my ticket for 50 cents, got on the bus and continued making process. My goal for the bus ride was to get to the train station; unfortunately I couldn’t read or understand Greek. So it was really just a guessing game! Randomly I decided to get off the bus. Then I asked someone how to get to the train station and was told to get on this bus and take it to the end. So I did and it took about 45 mins for us to get to the train station. Later I found out that I could have just stayed on the bus from the airport and it goes to the train station, oops! Anyway, I bought my train ticket to Skopje, Macedonia my end destination for the day! I had about 4 hours before the train left so I stored my bag in a locker and then went to explore the city. I went to the water first, naturally, and took some pictures then gazed at the boats far off in the distance. After day dreaming for a while I decided to sit down and read. I found these amazing outside restaurants with big cushy couches and tables. I sat down and ordered a chocolate milkshake. I was there for about 1.5 hours. It was great. But then I decided to head back to the train station. On the way I people watched and window shopped. I arrived at the train station got my bag and boarded the train and was on my way to Macedonia!


Day 4 cont
I arrived back in Thessaloniki after spending time in Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo! I took a train from Macedonia, which was 2 hours late, to Thessaloniki. I walked to the hotel that I booked the night before. It was cheap and I had my own room, double bed, bathroom, TV and balcony! How exciting! After checking in and putting my stuff down, I went in search of dinner. I decided on Goody’s, the Greek version of Wendy’s (not McDonalds because it has more healthy choices like Wendy’s does!) I had the Golden Special Green Edition. After that I walked around enjoying the weather and atmosphere. I bought ice cream on my way back to my hostel. After that I was in for the night. I was too excited to just relax and watch TV!!! I never get to watch TV, let alone TV shows that are not dubbed in German or that are LAME! I watched TV until late then fell asleep.


Day 5
I woke up at around 9am, unfortunately. I was trying to sleep in more considering my flight wasn’t until 8pm that night. But I stayed in bed for a while, watch TV, repacked, showered, ate breakfast then checked out. I stored my bag, so that I wouldn’t have to walk around with it. I went out and walked, walked, and walked. I ate a late lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s, and it was delicious! After lunch I read outside for a while, enjoying the fresh air. Although the weather was beautiful, I was a little tired of being outside so I want inside to watch TV at the hotel. Now don’t think that all I do is watch TV, it’s not that, it’s just that I never really get to at home!!! Anyway, at about 5pm I went to go to the bus stop that goes to the airport. It takes about 40 mins to get to the airport by bus. I arrived there at like 7pm checked in, and waited. I finally arrived in Dusseldorf at around 10:30pm


Thessaloniki was a 2. the city is nice with lots of shopping to do, but it lacked the beach scene!

Luxembourg

Luxembourg

May 1st, 2008

Luxembourg is very interesting, it is built on valleys and ravines.

Day Trip
I decided that since I had not been to Luxembourg yet I would just make it a day trip. It is quite expensive to stay the night and it was only 4 hours away so it’s worth it. It’s funny because Mexico is so close to me in Arizona, but I don’t just drive 4 hours there and back for the day!! Anyway I took a train first thing in the morning and Jessica met up with me on the train. We got to Luxembourg at around 12. We walked around taking in the city, which was disserted, because of the holiday. We had a map that we got from the tourist info center. Luxembourg was crazy because it has many ravines, and valleys. Then they just built on hills and on the valley floors and it all came together nicely. We eventually become hungry, so we looked around for a good, cheap restaurant. Those are non existent in Luxembourg, well the cheap part. So we agreed on Mexican food. It was pretty good. So after lunch we just wondered around, coming across this little outdoor festival. We watched this band with dancers for a while. Then I bought some traditional Luxembourg cake and then headed back to the train station. It rained off and on a little, but it was sunnier than I thought it would be. Anyway I got back home around 6pm




Luxembourg is small but very pretty, on a sunny nice day luxembourg is a 3!

Nice, France

Nice

April 26-28 2008

Nice was Nice, and I had a really good time, taking in the sun and enjoying the weather!

Day 1
Victoria and I left for Nice on Saturday at 11:50am. We had a direct flight from Dusseldorf to Nice. Once we arrived we caught the bus into the city centre. The bus ride was along the beach, which made us want to be outside, instead of on the stuffy bus! While on the bus, we were map-less, direction-less and clue-less! We were already later than we thought we would be to check into the hotel. We got off the bus at the wrong time, making us even later to check in. Once we got our bearings and found the hotel it was too late to check in because the lady had already left. She left a note saying she wouldn’t be back until 5:30, which meant we had to lug our luggage around the city! Despite that, we had a good time, we had lunch at this place on the main strip of stores then headed to the beach. We played cards while sitting on the ledge looking out to the beach. It was really nice to just sit and relax, which was the main goal of the whole weekend! After 7 we were finally checked in, rested and ready to go out and find dinner. We walked down the popular “restaurant” street, and had a nice dinner at a restaurant that was suggested by the hotel lady! We played more cards outside then went to our room.


Day 2
Upon arriving we had declared that the second day of our trip would be spent on the beach. We woke up around 9, and went out in search of breakfast. We ate at this cute little restaurant, just off the boardwalk. After breakfast we went back to the hotel to change and grab our beach stuff, then hit the beach. There were a lot of people out there tanning without tops on! I was really tempted to try but there were too many children around and I felt weird!! Oh well, maybe some other time! Anyway, the sun was shining and we were soaking it up, living the dream!! After a while though I started to fidget, it is really hard for me to sit out in the sun for too long. I felt like I was burning. So we got up and started playing volleyball! It was a nice break from just laying. After that we went to the water to test it out and it turned out to be freezing. I did not go in however; because I’m not a big fan of oceans especially ones that are freezing! After being outside for 4 hours or so, I declared it was time to go inside! It’s a good thing I did too, because I was burnt! We watched a movie, then changed and went for a walk, took some pictures then went to find dinner. We went to another restaurant in the area that was supposed to be good. It was good, although we couldn’t read anything on the menu! We went back to our room, showered, repacked, relaxed, and then went to bed.


Day 3
We once again woke up early. We went for breakfast, but this time at a grocery store! We had sandwiches and juice and it was amazing. We ate it along the boardwalk, and played cards, while enjoying our last day in Nice. After breakfast we went for a walk and did some shopping, but didn’t really buy anything. We want back to the hotel checked out and then walked to our bus. We were getting a little worried because the bus wasn’t coming to the stop we were standing at. So we had to walk to the main station, where we found the bus and got on. The ride to the airport is short and we had plenty of time before our flight was supposed to leave. We got back to Germany around 7pm. It was a really great trip, very relaxing!


Nice was a 4. Pretty, multicultural and great weather, what more can you ask for?

Scottland

Edinburgh

March 22-24, 2008

Edinburgh Castle

Day 2
We arrived really late in Edinburg, but found the bus that we needed to take to the hostel. We got off at the stop that the direction told us too, but they were wrong! We were heading in the opposite direction. So we turned around found our hostel, checked in and then went for dinner. We found a nice place called McDonalds! The only place that was really open that late, so we had some food then went to relax back at the hostel. We played cards for a while then went to bed.


Day 3
The next day we created our own walking tour of the city, starting at the far west end up by these columns and working our way back to the castle. The old town was nice to walk through, and we would have spent more time there if the weather had been better. Despite the fact that London has more to offer in terms of attractions and things to do, I think we all fell in love with Edinburgh’s charm. To escape the rain we found a movie theatre...It was amazing to see a film in English without subtitles. Later dinner was in a Scottish pub and was followed by another movie. We wished that we had more time in Edinburgh and had been able to take a day trip up to northern Scotland.

Day 4
We woke up early and took the bus to the airport. We were tried but we knew we would have a long day still a head. We arrived in London at around 10ish, ready for more action!

Edinburgh was a 3. The weather was much nicer, and the city much quieter.