Macedonia

Skopje

June 4-8th 2008

This is the main square with a view from the stone bridge; which seperates the city from its outskirts.

Day 1 cont
The day continued from Thessaloniki, Greece to Macedonia. I arrived in Skopje relatively on time considering how long border control takes. On the train they come by and ask for your passport and tell you that you can pick it up in 10 minutes. So you go to the police office and they just call out the names, and only half glances at the pictures. That’s safe! Anyway, when I arrived in Skopje, this random kid was asking me where I was staying. I was a little taken aback at first but I warmed up and told him. He was just looking for a hostel to stay at. We met this other kid who was staying at the same place as me (Hostel-Hostel), so we all shared a cab. We arrived at our hostel checked in, then the three of us headed out to get some food. We ate at this great place, with traditional food. Everything in Macedonia is dirt cheap. We went to into the center of town to get drinks. We hung out for a while and then headed back to the hostel; I went to bed at midnight.


Day 2
I woke up at 10:45, ate two pieces of toast then went out to see the city. I walked, and walked without a map, or destination. I surveyed the people, buildings, poverty, and trades going on within the city. I was out for about 3 hours, and it was really hot. There weren’t that many places to seek shade unless you stepped into shops, but those shops weren’t even air-conditioned so that doesn’t help! I decided to leave Skopje early and make my way to Albania. I had seen enough. My new friend and I took a bus that left earlier than I had planned to; we made it to the border and had to come back (see Albania for details). So we went to a border city called Tetovo, which was practically Albania. We headed back to Skopje at around 5pm. The drive there and back is really pretty and it was kind of soothing. Anyway, since I had screwed my plans to go to Tirana, I decided to stay in Macedonia for the next two nights, and then head to Thessaloniki. On my way back from the train station I decided to walk a little then catch a taxi. While walking I met this girl who was look for a place to stay. She was from South Korea. I took her to our hostel, we talked, had pizza and then I went to bed early.


Day 3
Since I had an extra day that I wasn’t suppose to, I decided to go to Kosovo (see Kosovo for details). I came back at like 5pm, hung out and talked to the friends that I had made. Then I got food, made it and talked some more. I also went to bed fairly early that night too, because I had to wake up early the next morning and go back to Greece.


Day 4
Every day proves to be interesting when traveling in countries like these. You really have no idea what to expect, and it’s impossible to predict how long things will take. Our train to Greece was two hours late. My friend missed his flight and I missed crucial sun time for tanning! Oh well it all worked out nonetheless, and it’s not the end destination that is important is the journey in between; which is very true. Although you often weigh the end journey to the end destination and wonder if it was all worth it. In this case it was. I had a good time with the people I met, nothing bad happened and I didn’t spend that much money. It was a good journey and an interesting destination!


Macedonia is a 2. It is a very poor country, but they are working toward EU membership. The people are fragile, but interesting and make the best of what they have. It was an interesting trip to say the least!

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?