AmsterDAYUM

Arriving at 1am in Amsterdam is no fun, but turning up to THE #1 STEEPEST stair’s I have ever seen let alone climbed with our back pack’s on is downright painful! Then we get into our room which is 3 floors up, above a "coffee shop" (weed smoking cafe) and in the roof so we have to bend over not to hit our heads on the slanted ceiling. Our beds are two extremely dirty single mattresses squished into the room with a graffiti covered bedside table and bin. Our luck has finally run out and we have found ourselves stuck in one of those nightmare hostels you hear read online reviews about!

Our time in Amsterdam was actually really cool, there is a fair bit more to the city than just weed and the red light district.

Magical Marrakech, Morocco

Arriving in Marrakech at 9pm and the 20 minute taxi ride to our hotel is the first taste of a few things we can expect over the next few days. First of all the airline has lost my luggage, the cab driver has charged us 250 dirims which is 25 Euro for the trip to our hotel which we discover later is only worth about 50 dirims on the meter! Out the window i see entire familys with children of different ages huddled together sleeping on the sidewalk outside their cars. It smell's, really disgustingly bad in some places. Finally there is rubbish and delapadated/deserted buildings everywhere. Don’t worry Marrakech is really cool and there’s plenty of crazy fun stories ahead but  just so you can imagine how i felt after that taxi ride, i was culture shocked.

Portuguese Custard Tarts

 

This morning we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal bright and early, so early the sun isn’t even up yet! We head to our hostel and put our bags down for a small siesta in the common room and then are up about 9am or breakie.

Ola Amigo's

So to start off our Spain trip we missed our flights, ended up costing about $3000 Australian dollars for the one flight from Athens to Spain, i mean there had to be some hiccups i was expecting that but did it really have to be a $3000 (insert EFF Word) mistake via Moscow?

Cruise Boatin through Turkey and the Greek Islands

Today Kyle, Lyndal, Ben, Michael, Tim, Pheobe, Daniel, Jess, Adam, Nikki, David, Nicole and I (okay so there is a few of us left) start our three day Turkey & Greek Island Cruise with Louis Cruiselines. We meet our new Contiki tour guide Paola and the rest of our new Contiki group in the morning. We all love Paola from the get go, she is so nice and just one of those people you immediately like.

Greece: Corfu & Athens (aka Crackville)

Today we arrived in Corfu Greece, first thing you notice is the absolutely crystal clear water, pebble stone beaches and tropical atmosphere, everyone on Contiki is relieved to be here! As soon as we arrive at our hotel everyone heads straight to the pool for a beer and Gyros (Yiro’s). Tonight we have a Contiki dinner at a restaurant and the lamb on the spit they serve us is delicious, they also put on a greek dancing and plate smashing show.

In Italia: Venice, Florence, Rome and Pompeii

Our first stop in Italy is Venice, you know the place with the gondola's, water filled canals and pretty narrow cobblestone streets you see on postcards. Well imagine that but packed FULL to the brim of people, like you’re in a crowd at a festival or something and every second shop is a mask store (like masquerade masks). It’s funny I’m starting to realise that all the places I was most looking forward too that looked like the best places in all the pictures are actually not my favourites. Don’t let me make you think I don’t like Venice it’s not bad, it’s just different (stole that saying from Lucian).

Schnitzel's come from Austria

On the road to Tyrol, Austria we stopped by the Swarovski Crystal Museum. It was one of those things i was not really interested in i was just going cos all my friends on Contiki were but it turned out to be really cool! It’s not just a bunch of fancy things made of Crystals it’s a trippy museum of lights and weird creative things.

My first taste of Munich, Germany

As soon as we arrived at our hotel in Munich and dropped our bags off  and headed out for a bike riding tour of the city with a company called Mikes Bikes, I highly recommend it if your heading to Munich for the first time. Our instructors Matt and Charlie were two of the funniest guys ive ever met. They are nuts. Or they pay out everyone else around them for being nuts.. either way.

National Swiss Day in Lucerne, Switzerland

Last night in France ended with a few drinks (and by a few drinks I mean body shots & Vodka poured straight from the bottle into our mouths by our tour guide...) so to say the least some of our Contiki are a bit seedy on the bus on the way to Lucerne.

Bonjour from Paris

Well Contiki starts with a big fat bang! Up at 6.45am and on the bus to head towards France. Kyle and I are both really tired because we didn’t get much sleep from nerves and messed up sleep patterns from all the planes!

New York City Sampling

Back in the big city we decided to seriously get our tourist on! Went on the hop on hop off  tourist bus around town. Dinner and shopping in Chinatown and then Little Italy for dessert and Kyle had the best barber cut I’ve ever seen! After headed straight to Time's square to see the big M&M's store, i was like a kid running around getting samples of all the flavours, pretzel, mint, peanut butter, almond and raspberry flavour. Choc mint M&M's are amazing i hope they start selling them in Adelaide sometime soon! YUM!

Beautiful Boston

Boston is simply beautiful, if anyone is going to New York I highly recommend getting on a greyhound (its about $25 each way and 4-5 hours drive) and spending a few days in Boston. We stayed at the Friend St Hostel in the North end of Boston which is a short walk to Little Italy, the Charles river Piers and The Boston Public Garden.

Good Morning New York

Well we have arrived in NYC after more then 27 hours of flying and waiting in airports! Cant get over some of the turbulence I seriously had to shut my blinds so I couldn't see the engine bobbing

The Itinerary.

Here's the grand plan!

July 17th - at the pits hour of 6.00am we are outta here

July 17th - July 19th - We will be in the Big Apple

July 20th - July 21st - We will be attending the Redsox Vs. Yankees game in Boston

July 22nd - July 28th - Back to the Big Apple for more exploring

31 days to go!

Today there are 31 days to go until the big trip, we have just opened our travel wallets on the couch with lollies, chocolates, cupcakes and DC! ErMahGerd, Sahhhhhhhhh excited, Yewwww beauty!
Just read Contiki only allows 20kg of luggage, could be interesting :)
Feel free to post me travel tips!

- K