| June 9th, 2008 | 1781 Comment »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/09/ptm-sorrento-to-ischia-italy/Sorrento+to+Ischia%2C+Italy%212008-06-09+09%3A15%3A45Ryan | Italy, Travel

This morning I had to wake up at 7AM so that I could jump in the shower, and get ready to check out of my hotel. The ferry that I needed to catch was leaving from the Port of Sorrento at 9:30, and there’s only one ferry daily from Sorrento to Ischia so I couldn’t be late!

I threw my backpack on my back and headed down to the train station. It took about 15 minutes to get to the station. I bought my ticket and headed 1 stop down to Sorrento. From there I made the walk down to the port to buy my ticket for the ferry. A one way ticket from Sorrento to Ischia on the only available ferry (Jet Boat) was 18.50 Euro. Sort of pricey if you ask me.

The ferry took about 45-50 minutes to get over to Ischia, I slept most of the way due to being so tired from the night before. When I arrived I immediately hopped off of the boat and headed straight to the bus ticket window. All I wanted to do is drop my backpack and see the island while the weather was nice. I bought a bus ticket for 1.20 Euro, and headed off on the #1 Bus to the port of Forio (Forio is an area on the west coast of Ischia) where my hostel is located.

I found directions to the Ring Hostel on their website the night before arriving and the directions were pretty spot on. I didn’t have any trouble finding it so that was comforting. After about a 15 minute walk from the Port of Forio, I finally arrived. When I walked in I felt like I was in a ghost town, there was one woman at reception that checked me in and the rest of the hostel was empty. When I was shown my room (the Blue Room) I walked through the dorm room and I was glad to see that there were a few backpacks and clothes under a few beds as I walked to the back to find my bed. It was nice to see that there actually were people staying here!

After picking my bed I changed into my bathing suit and planned on heading out to the Baia di Sorgeto (Natural Hot Springs) here in Ischia. I walked down to the Port of Forio and took the CS Bus to Panza where the Baia di Sorgeto is located. Unfortunately I missed the stop originally and had to take another short bus ride back to the Sorgeto stop but it wasn’t a big deal. Once I got off I had to walk about 15 minutes downhill until I reached the top edge of the cove (as you’ll see below).

From there I walked down 228 stairs to get to the bottom. At this point I was already envisioning the walk back up. Once I reached the bottom I dropped my bags underneath this little cave type of thing that is along the shore (as you’ll see below).

I couldn’t wait to get into the water! As you walk into the water it feels like an actual jacuzzi. You have to be very careful though because if you step or jump in the wrong spot of the water or you will literally burn yourself. That is how hot some of the spots are! I was told before I went there that I should only go into the spots of the water that people were already lying in because at least you know it’s not boiling in those areas.

I laid down in the shallow water up rested my head on a rock as the cool tide came in and swept the hot water from the shore edge back out towards me. It was an amazing feeling! I spent about 45 minutes lying in the water taking in the sun and relaxing. It was such a good time.

After spending some time at the Baia di Sorgeto I decided to head back to the hostel to shower and relax for a few hours before dinner. I took the bus back to the hostel, took a cold shower (no hot water here). Figures!

At 8PM a few of us met in the lobby of the hostel and headed on a crazy roller coaster type of car ride from the hostel to the owners restaurant which was located about 5-10 minutes away. Dinner was good, I sat with two girls from California (Rebecca & Kristen) that are staying with me at the Ring Hostel. I had Gnocchi and I also ordered a cheese pizza to go.

I was dead tired from the previous night so I headed to bed around 1AM. Tomorrow I’ll sleep in for a while and then head off to explore the island a little bit.

| June 7th, 2008 | 176No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/07/ptm-sorrento-to-pompei-day-4/Sorrento+to+Pompei+-+Day+4%212008-06-07+22%3A14%3A00Ryan | Italy, Travel

The sky was looking pretty overcast when I awoke this morning. I was hoping that by the time I got back from breakfast that it would clear up so that I could start my day. I had been planning on doing a day trip to Pompei and that’s exactly what I did.

After breakfast I headed back up to my room because it was still raining a bit. Twenty minutes later, my aunt and uncle knocked on the door and were heading down to the pool bar which serves food from 12-2PM. Odd hours, I know. Most pool bars tend to be open all day, not in Italy. They take random breaks during the day like the people of Spain!

I headed down to the pool to grab something to eat and to chat about what our plans for the day were. My aunt and uncle wanted to head to Capri, and I had already given Capri a shot the previous day and it sucked due to the torrential down pours. I wanted to head to Pompei for the day but I was waiting for the skies to clear up first before I even attempted to make the trip.

At around noon time I decided that I would head down to the train station which was a 15 minute walk from my hotel (S. Agnello Station) to head for Pompei. The Circumvesuviana train runs from Sorrento, to Naples with many stops in between, one being Pompei. I found it to be fairly fast, efficient, and very cheap (3.10 Euro – Day Pass). The only downfall to the Circumvesuviana train system is that they are not the cleanest trains. The outside of each train car is full of graffiti and the inside of the cars are no where near modern. I guess you get what you pay for here in Italy! It’s cheap, and it got me to Pompei, so that’s all I expected of it!

(more…)

| June 6th, 2008 | 1751 Comment »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/06/ptm-sorrento-italy-day-3/Sorrento+to+Capri+-+Day+3%212008-06-06+17%3A43%3A57Ryan | Italy, Travel

This morning I woke up and ran down to get breakfast before heading off to Capri for the day. I took the complimentary shuttle down to the center and walked down to the port as I did yesterday. This time I bought a ticket to Capri! There were two options, a ferry for 9.50 Euro, or a different type of ferry called a “Jetboat” which was 14.50 Euro and it gets you there much faster. Normally I’m in no rush, and I wasn’t in a rush today at all. I could have cared less what time I got there. The weather was nice, just heating up to around 65, 70 degrees but it was still early! The problem was that the next “slow” ferry wasn’t for a few hours so I was pretty much forced to take the jet boat to Capri. I bought a round trip ticket for 29 Euro, which I felt was pretty expensive, but whatever I was going to make the best of the day.

As we were cruising across the ocean to the Island of Capri the weather started to go sour. Real sour! I’m talking a giant black cloud sitting over the island of Capri. I couldn’t believe it. It took about 15-20 minutes and we arrived at the port of Capri. What do you know, it was pouring! Absolutely pouring. I told myself that I’d make the best of it so I bought a ticket for the cable car to get up to Ana Capri, a nice lookout that looks over the whole coast of Capri. The ticket for the cable car cost 1.40 Euro which I thought was pretty good. At the top you then need to take a small rickety bus to another point where you then need to take a chair lift, yep like the ones you use at a ski mountain. Finally you arrive at Ana Capri, you lose your breath due to the view, and the rest is happily ever after.

Unfortunately I didn’t get that far! As I got off the cable car I realized that it was pouring buckets. I decided to take the bus up a little further to see if the time would pass and the rain would stop but that didn’t happen either. When I finally arrived at the top where you would normally get the chair lift to the absolute top, I gave up. It was pouring rain, and it wasn’t stopping anytime soon. I ended up taking a taxi down with a few random people because it was raining so hard and the line for the bus was miles long. Everyone wanted to get down and get the hell out of there.

At the bottom I waited for a couple hours for my ferry, and spent more than I should have on junk food due to boredom. I was really disappointed with the day. Capri was a place that I was really looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately I picked the worst day, and I’ll just have to scrap my plans of seeing the top of Ana Capri. Well, tomorrow is another day, and I’m probably going to lounge by the pool for a few hours before deciding what I’ll visit next…

Unfortunately I didn’t get too many good photos today due to the weather… Grrrr!

In the end… Life Is Good!

| June 5th, 2008 | 174No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/05/ptm-sorrento-italy-day-2/Sorrento%2C+Italy+-+Day+2%212008-06-05+17%3A30%3A31Ryan | Italy, Travel

This morning I awoke just in time to run down to breakfast here at the hotel. It was included so, I made a real effort to get down there in time. The breakfast was actually pretty good. There was all sorts of cereals, pastries, eggs, bacon and more. The best part was that there was a chef that cooked omelets any way you liked them. You tell him what to put in and he cooks it up right in front of you. I was quite impressed! Plus it was the first really good breakfast that I’ve had in a while.

After breakfast I chilled out at the pool for a couple of hours. it’s beautiful out at the pool area. It’s located on the 2nd floor, and the pool overlooks the ocean in the distance. It’s pretty amazing. I didn’t get in the water, I pretty much just laid out for a bit.

Around noon time I decided to head back to my room so that I could get dressed to go explore Sorrento a little more. I took the complimentary shuttle down to the center and walked to the port of Sorrento to get some more information on the ferries that run from Sorrento to Ischia, Capri, Positano, Amalfi and more. After finding out some prices I made a last minute decision to take off on a ferry to Amalfi a coastal city that my parents stayed in last year for their 25th wedding anniversary. They raved about how beautiful it was, so I knew I had to make a trip down there.

I paid 9.50 Euro for a one way ticket to Amalfi, figuring that I’ll figure out what type of transportation I’d like to take back to Sorrento later on (bus, ferry, train, etc). I jumped on the ferry and we took off to Amalfi. Our first stop was Positano where a few people got off. The views I had from the boat of Positano were amazing. The houses were stacked one on top of another on the edge of the cliffs. It was beautiful. I actually wish that I got off to check out the city a little more but I was heading to Amalfi and I already paid a euro or two more to head to Amalfi instead of Positano. I stayed on the boat and just took some photos in the meantime as we were arriving and departing Positano. Check out the photos below.

Finally we arrived in Amalfi, it took just a little over an hour to get there. It was beautiful here as well! I jumped off the boat and headed to the store so that I could pick up a few postcards. I bought a few, wrote them all out while sitting on the ocean front of Amalfi and posted them off! It was great.

I headed off to explore Amalfi a bit more, I didn’t wander too far. Just to the Cathedral di Amalfi which was pretty amazing. I walked up and down the stairs, there were 57 stairs to the top. (Yes, I counted!) I spent a couple hours just wandering around and I grabbed some pizza while I walked.

I was thinking about going to Ravello, but I wasn’t sure what time the buses ran to and I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of Amalfi with no bus, or ferry back so I decided to take a different mode of transportation back to Sorrento. A bus! Now, I have to say it was one of the most insane rides I’ve ever taken in my life. The roads back to Sorrento are on the edge of a cliff the whole entire way. At every twist and bend the driver beeps the horn to let drivers on the other side know that he’s coming around the corner. It was unreal! An hour and 45 minutes of pure terror later, I arrived back in Sorrento safe and sound. I headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a couple hours before heading out again with my aunt and uncle.

We planned on heading to dinner down in Sorrento center at this place called the Foreigner’s Club, a restaurant located on the edge of the ocean situated way high up on the cliff edge with beautiful views of the port. We ordered our food and drinks and didn’t receive our drinks until our last bite of our meal. The waiter was really rude and the service was the worst. One of the worst I’ve experienced yet, but I think my waiter in Prague still takes the gold medal for worst service.

After dinner we met up with a couple that are friends with my aunt for a couple drinks and then we headed back home to the hotel. My aunt and uncle are attending the wedding tomorrow afternoon so I’m probably going to take off to Capri for the day! I’m really looking forward to seeing Capri!

| June 4th, 2008 | 173No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/04/ptm-dublin-to-sorrento-italy/Dublin+to+Sorrento%2C+Italy%212008-06-04+17%3A01%3A30Ryan | Italy, Travel

This morning we had to wake up at 4:00AM after heading to bed around 12:30AM. I was a complete zombie this morning. The taxi arrived at 4:30AM to pick us up and bring us to the Dublin airport. Our destination: Naples, Italy!

We arrived at the airport where we grabbed a quick bite to eat, then headed down to the departure gate to wait for our flight. The flight ended up being just over 3 hours to Naples. It wasn’t too bad. I ended up getting three seats to myself so it worked out quite well. As we walked off the plane we could feel the heat. I was in paradise!

We jumped on a pre arranged coach and took a wild ride to our hotel. I thought the driving was bad in Ireland, it’s nothing compared to Italy! They drive like absolute maniacs here. Even the scooter drivers are nuts. Everyone seems to be in such a rush. More than home, believe it or not. Much more! We arrived at our hotel (Grand Hotel La Pace) just outside the center of Sorrento. The hotel was beautiful, and the rooms are pretty nice too. Much better than anything that I’ve stayed in on my trip through Europe so far. Granted, I’ve been staying in 2 or 3 star hotels for most of my trip. The Grand Hotel La Pace here in Sorrento, is a 5 Star. I can’t say I’ve ever stayed in a 5 Star hotel in my life, nevermind this trip.

After checking in my uncle, aunt and I headed down to Sorrento city center on the complimentary coach that runs from the hotel every couple of hours or so. We grabbed a beer at the Fauno Bar, a great place to chill out if you’re ever in Sorrento. It’s smack dab in the middle of the center so it’s a great place to sit back, relax and people watch if that’s what you’re into. Plus, they must have over 100 drinks on the menu. Everything you could want and more!

After the Fauno Bar we went to a pre wedding dinner at Photo, a higher end Bar/Restaurant which is located a block off of the main square. (My aunt and uncle are here in Sorrento attending a wedding). I went along and we had a few drinks and some food with another couple. We had some laughs, and headed home for the night. Just to warn you, never, EVER take a taxi home from Sorrento to your hotel. They are the most outrageous fares I have ever seen. When you step into the car, the meter reads 7.00 Euro. That’s what the rate starts at! We drove just a bit over a mile and the taxi far was 22 Euro! Unreal! You’re better off walking… seriously.

Tomorrow we’re going to lounge at the pool for the morning then figure out something to do for the afternoon… should be fun!

| June 3rd, 2008 | 170No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/06/03/ptm-3-days-of-relaxation/Three+days+of+relaxation+back+in+Dublin2008-06-03+12%3A29%3A00Ryan | Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Travel

This past Sunday I flew into Dublin from Amsterdam fresh off of a three week, ten country trip across Europe. The last three days here in Dublin have been full of nothing but rest and relaxation before I head off for another three weeks of traveling the south of Italy, and Croatia. These past few days have given me plenty of time to unpack, get all of my laundry done, and repack all of my gear for another few weeks.

Tomorrow I have an early morning flight to Naples, Italy from Dublin. I’ll be staying at a beautiful hotel in Sorrento for five nights called the Grand Hotel La Pace. After Sorrento, I head off on my own to a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea called Ischia for four nights. I’ll be staying in a hostel there called the Ring Hostel. By the looks of the website, and the reviews it seems like it should be a lot of fun!

After spending four nights in Ischia, I board the ferry back to Naples to catch a bus to Bari, a port city on the east coast of Italy. I’ll be staying in Bari with Marina a fellow CouchSurfer/Hospitality Club Member who has been planning to host me for a couple of months now. I’m excited to see yet another part of Italy that I haven’t been to yet. Bari will also most likely be the last city that I visit in Italy on my trip to Europe. At this point I will have covered the following cities in Italy: (Verona, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Amalfi, Pompei, Capri, Ischia, Bari and maybe even few more!)

From Bari I will be cruising across the Adriatic Sea on a ferry on the 17th of June. I’ll arrive in Dubrovnik, Croatia on the 18th of June where I will meet up with Liz who will be flying in from the States to hang out and vacation with me! I can’t wait! She will be the first person that has come to visit me from the States since I’ve been here and it’s going to be such a good time! We’ll be spending a week overlooking the Adriatic Sea, and the Old Town of Dubrovnik from the balcony of our apartment that lies up on the foothills of the city.

On June 25th, Liz and I will be flying back to Dublin and I’ll spend a day or two showing her around the city before we head over to Galway, Ireland to hang out with my cousin for the weekend. We’ll probably spend two nights down in Galway before heading back to Dublin and we’re thinking about flying to Spain for a few days before she heads back to the States on July 6th. What a vacation this will be for her, and me of course!

This whole trip has been absolutely amazing so far and I cannot wait to see what is in store for me next. I feel like I’m addicted to traveling now. I’ve been asked many times if I’m sick of traveling yet, and the answer is definitely not! I constantly want to be gone. It’s nice to have these couple of days off to do laundry and relax, but I feel like I can’t sit still for too long. After I get back from these next three weeks of traveling, I will have had three days off in 6 weeks of straight traveling. It’s unbelievable! I’m having the time of my life over here and I have so much more traveling ahead of me…

—

Just a few shout outs real quick…

What’s up to… Liz, Eddie, Mark, Veracka, Will, Gonatas, Kyle G, O’brien, Bruno, Juliana, Ryan D, V, Jenna, Aislyn, Anna K, Aiste, Shawna, Mel, Mom, Dad, Grams, Robyn, Kev, Mary and everyone else out there that still keeps in touch with me. You know who you are! Miss you all, and I’ll see you all soon.

If there’s anyone else that I missed just know that it’s not intentional!

| May 23rd, 2008 | 158No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/23/ptm-contiki-day-13-venice-to-hopfgarten/Contiki%3A+Day+13+-+Venice+to+Hopfgarten2008-05-23+20%3A59%3A19Ryan | Austria, Contiki, Italy, Travel

This morning we left Venice to head to Hopfgarten, Austria. Austria is a country that I’ve been really looking forward to seeing. Like Switzerland, it is supposed to be very relaxing, peaceful, and scenic.

We boarded the coach early and headed off on what we thought would be a somewhat short travel day. When I say short, I mean shorter than our normal full day traveling days. The bus rides are LONG! There are days that you are on the bus from 8:30AM til 5:00PM, just like our ride from Venice to Austria! Yes, you do make a few service stops along the way, but you still spend most of your day on the bus.

Once we got into Austria we stopped to drop off everyone that was going on the Contiki “White Water Rafting” optional. As I said in the last blog, I decided to opt out of this excursion due to finding out that it wasn’t full out white water rafting, it was supposed to be more relaxed, cruising down the river and paddling here and there. I would personally rather do white water rafting later this summer on my own and spend the extra few euro for the experience of some real hardcore rafting in Switzerland or something.

Everyone hopped off of the bus and were instructed about all of the rules and all that. They all jumped into their wetsuits, and safety equipment and headed down to the rivers edge. We all followed them down to take photos, some pointed fingers and made fun of each other due to how funny some of them looked in their suits.

Everyone that wasn’t rafting headed back to the bus for a 20 minute ride to the destination of the rafters. We arrived and there was a cafe, volleyball, and restrooms, and internet available that costs 1 Euro for 10 minutes, which I thought was pretty outrageous. Unfortunately for the people who chose not to raft, we had to sit there at this cafe and burn 2 hours of our day waiting for the rafters to get back and for everyone to eat afterwards. Another downfall of Contiki. If you choose not to do some of the optionals, you really have nothing else to do. Doesn’t sound like too much of an “optional” to me. Instead you have to sit there and do nothing when you could be out exploring the city.

After everyone was back and ready to go we headed off to the hotel in Hopfgarten, Haus Lukas. Haus Lukas is a contiki run hotel located in the heart of Hopfgarten, if there is a “heart” of Hopfgarten. You can walk across the town in 10 minutes. It’s a very small ski village with absolutely nothing to do in the summer. If you don’t want to participate in the Contiki Optionals, the only thing that I would really recommend is to rent a mountain bike on your own, like I did. Other than that, there is one bar, one small beer hall, one pizza shop, one salon, one church, one post office, 3 small supermarkets, 3 Tabac’s (convenience stores), one train station and a trout farm.

Our room was okay, very basic as usual. Not that I expect much more than what we received. We had to ask for an extra towel due to there only being one left in the room. The shower and toilet were separate like our hotel in London. Quite odd if you ask me. The room with the toilet had a door on it. The room with a shower in it did NOT! Literally, it was an open arch way with clear shower doors inside (see below). It’s not like I have a girlfriend along on the trip with me, if that was the case it would be somewhat acceptable. The fact that I have a male room mate and we both need to shower makes the situation a little weird. Anyways, we worked around it and got our showers in. Awkwardly enough…

We had an included dinner tonight that was pretty good actually. There was a free shot of Apple Schnapps before dinner. I’m not a big fan of green apple tasting things so my tour manager went behind the bar and cooked me up something different I guess you could say. He came back with this dark brown looking shot but wouldn’t tell me what it was. I took it down and yelled what in the hell was that? He replied, Devil’s Brew. It’s the type of liquor that you light on fire. 100 Proof…

We also celebrated Lucyanne’s birthday during dinner and it got pretty loud at a few different points through out the night. After dinner we headed off to one of the only bars in town called the Silver Bullet. The beers were fairly cheap at around 3.40 for a tall local beer called Fohrenburger. It was really good, surprisingly. Bruno, Vanessa, Ryan, and I shot some pool and had a great time. We went home a little after midnight and got some good sleep for tomorrows adventures, or lack of.

| May 22nd, 2008 | 157No Comments »http://www.pausethemoment.com/2008/05/22/ptm-contiki-day-12-venice-italy/Contiki%3A+Day+12+-+Venice%2C+Italy%212008-05-22+14%3A52%3A24Ryan | Contiki, Italy, Travel

This morning we woke up a little later than usual. The breakfast? I won’t even get into it. All I will say is that when you open up the packets of butter and there’s mold growing on it you’re simply no longer hungry anymore. Or maybe if you find a bug in your bread roll as your eating it like my friend Julieana did, you might understand what I mean. We’re at a little over the half way point on this trip and this is really the beginning of then end for me. As much as it’s a great “preview” trip, and the great people that I’ve met I’m just really disappointed with a lot of things. I expected a lot more from Contiki for the price.

Anyways, everyone loaded the coach so that we could spend a full day in Venice. There were a few things scheduled for us to do, and also for some people that were doing some of the two available Contiki Optionals. The water taxi picked us up at the port and took us on a 30 minute journey through the Grand Canal into Venice. It was beautfiul seeing the city that surrounded the canal. It’s amazing to think that every building and structure was basically built on stilts! The traffic in the canal was some what light because of the time of the morning.

We arrived at the docks in Venice and walked straight to St. Marks Square. As big and as amazing as the St Mark’s Basillica was, St. Marks Square wasn’t much to write home about. It was a giant square that was filled with millions of dirty pigeons eating from the hands of people that don’t realize that these pigeons carry all sorts of diseases, lice, and much more. I wasn’t five minutes in St. Marks Square before I saw some guy feed a pigeon from his own mouth. I literally almost vomited all over the place. Yuck.

In the morning there was a lace demonstration and if you didn’t want to participate you would have some free time on your hands to check out all of the back streets and alleyways of Venice. That’s exactly what I did for about 40 minutes before meeting up with the group to head to the Venetian Glass Blowing demonstration. We walked into the area where the glass blowers work and they put on a very fast 3 minute demonstration before bringing us in to the other room and showing us the real reason that they wanted to give us a demonstration of glass blowing. They wanted to sell us outrageously priced Venetian glass! I felt uncomfortable being in the room because there were all sorts of super expensive glass products everywhere on shelves and tables. I was hoping I wouldn’t knock anything over with my backpack so I stood way in the back away from everything just in case. There were Venetian chandeliers in this place worth 10, 20, even 40,000 Euros. It was crazy!

After the demonstration I headed off with Ryan and we met up with Bruno and Juliana to get some lunch. Our tour manager had told us that it would be very hard to find good food at a good price in Venice, but we had no problem finding that. We sat down at a restaurant on one of the back streets off of St. Marks Square and had a great pasta dinner. The fact that they charged us for the bread that they put down on the table was pretty aggravating, but whatever. The meal was still worth the 16 Euro we paid.

After lunch we decided to walk around deeper into Venice to see all of the little bridges, buildings, and other historic sights along the way. I got some great photos in the process, so I was psyched. We all planned to meet back up with the group at 4:40PM to do the Contiki Optional Gondola Ride! I mean, how could you go to Venice and not take a gondola ride? It’s pretty mandatory.

We met at 4:40PM and groups of six hopped on to the gondolas for a supposed 35 minute ride. The ride was great and it was really cool to be sailing through the canals of Venice but the ride was far less than 35 minutes. Our tour manager had promised us that Contiki has a deal with this company and they sign a contract stating that the ride will last at least 35 minutes. Definitely not. Another big disappointment! The ride itself lasted between 20 and 25 minutes. Yes, it was 20 Euros, but you have to realize that there are six people in the boat too. A few of us got a quote from a gondolier earlier in the day and he said he would take us around for 45 minutes for 20 Euro each, and there were only four of us. If you are visiting Venice on a Contiki trip, my tip to you is to find your own gondola ride. You might save some money, and even get a ride that lasts as long as it’s quoted for.

After the gondola ride, I wasn’t in too good of a mood. We walked around a bit more, got a gelato and that seemed to bring my mood up a bit. We ended up hanging out in St. Marks Square for most of the evening talking, laughing, and venting about the trip so far. It was pretty funny.

We met up with the group again at 8:45PM so that we could get back on the boat that would take us back to the port where the bus was, which would then take us to our hotel. Yeah, pretty disappointing. By the time we got back to the hotel, everyone was extremely tired and most went to bed.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Hopfgarten, Austria and I was originally signed up to go white water rafting, but I pulled out due to finding out that it’s not real white water rafting. It’s more like floating down a river in a boat and paddling every now and then. No thanks! If I’m going to spend money on white water rafting, I want it to be extreme and hardcore rafting.

The following day in Austria there’s also a Mt. Biking trip that I was also signed up for but I pulled out of that too after finding out it wasn’t real mountain biking. It’s simply riding a mountain bike on a paved path in Austria. Arghhh! I’m very frustrated at this point…