My European Adventure Summary
Notice it's called an adventure instead of a trip / vacation because it wasn't simply a relaxation. We experienced everything from getting stuck at the airport overnight to eating at fancy restaurants and visiting some of the world's most famous attractions. Here are the places we visited:
1) Holland – Amsterdam (We went pass security scan and went outside of Schiphol airport for a drink while waiting for transfer)
2) Switzerland – Geneva, Fribourg, Gruyeres, Bern, Interlaken (Bernese Oberland) and Jungfrau (Bernese Alps).
3) Spain – Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo
4) France – Paris, Versailles
5) Germany – Berlin, Potsdam
6) Italy – Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Vatican city, Naples
7) Greece – Athens, Delphi
7 countries (technically 8 because the Vatican is a separate country and a city), 21 cities in 29 days. This required intensive planning and endurance to participate.
Here are my rankings and summary based on my experience:
1. Best/worst experience:
Best experience is probably in Berlin, Germany. Food is cheap, people are nice, free tour, pub crawl, everything seems to be great there. Worst experience: dealing with EasyJet and its greedy staff. I wrote a long rant and sent it to them and published it on several forums online. Nowadays, it’s pretty easy to destroy your name with the internet. I don’t travel to Europe all the times, so if I don’t have a pleasant experience, I’m going to make sure other people know and don’t fall for it. If I’m a terrorist, you know what airline is my target. Yeah, you heard me!
2. Most unexpected
Madrid, Spain. This could easily be listed in the worst experience but I saved that for EasyJet. May 22nd, 2010 Champions League final in Madrid. The street was flooded with Inter Milan and Bayern Munich fans, people picked pocket in metro, pilots decided to go on strike to watch the game, we slept at the airport, hundreds of people were stranded. For more details, see here. I feel sorry for those who rely on public services in Spain during the world cup, especially the championship game. I bet everything was shut down.
3. Most/least expensive
Most expensive is probably Paris and Spain in general. Least expensive is Switzerland. Okay, that’s misleading because I have family in Switzerland so I didn’t have to spend as much money as I did in other places. If you don’t have family, Switzerland can easily be the most expensive place to visit. Greece is very inexpensive also, probably cheaper than some things in America.
4. Most romantic
Forget Paris or Rome, the most romantic city is Venice. The floating city with ferries, the gondola rides, the bridges and small shops, restaurants. I’d put Interlaken and Jungfrau region second and honorable mention goes to Paris.
5. Best museum
Take a guess: Louvre? Vatican Museum? Nope. It’s Borghese Museum in the Borghese Villa. It’s a small museum compared to the others but its quality is the best. The Sistine Chapel inside Vatican Museum is no match for Borghese’s art. The hundreds sculptures inside Louvre can’t be compared to “the Rape of Proserpena” or “Apollo and Daphne” or “the David” – a self portrait by Bernini. Each statue here has pictures and paintings from the wall and the ceiling to describe it. The bad thing is that you have to check in your camera. I had a sneak shot but forgot to turn my flash off and immediately was surrounded by museum staff. They seem to take their job very seriously.
6. Best Sculpture
It’s hard to choose because I’ve seen so many paintings and sculptures throughout my trip. But I’d say the Pieta by Michelangelo inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The incredible details and expressions he put into this master piece is unbelievable.
7. Best attractions
This is the hardest because each place has its own attractions. It’s very hard to rank them from top to bottom. Here is a list of some great attractions: Gruyeres village and castle (Switzerland), Versailles garden (France), free tour in Berlin (Germany), the Vatican, Ancient Rome (Italy), the Acropolis in Athens and Delphi (Greece).
8. Best scenery
Hands down it’s Switzerland, especially Interlaken and Jungfrau region. The waterfall, the mini cable car, the ferry across the turquoise lake with houses on the side of the mountain, the temperature drop and seasonal change within minutes from summer to winter going up the elevation.
9. Best food
Each place has its own style but overall I like tapas in Spain, then ice cream and pastas in Italy, Berlin sausage was awesome too.
10. Best/worst castle
The best castle is probably castle of Gruyeres in Switzerland base on its look. For the inside, the castle of Versailles and/or the Palacio Real in Madrid probably top the list. There are several bad ones worth avoiding: Castle of St Angelo is one of them. The other one is Palazzo Vecchio near the beautiful Vecchio Ponte (bridge). The small castle in Potsdam outside of Berlin.
The best castle garden is definitely the garden of Versailles. It’s beautiful, open space, there’s a lake, bike rental, music inside the bush is very romantic, fountain of Neptune, sculptures, ice cream shops, water dancing at night and so on.
11. Most/least favorite place
Most favorite is probably Berlin just because of the reasons listed above. Least favorite place is definitely Madrid as there’s nothing to see besides the King’s Palace.
These could easily change the next day you ask me. So there you have it, my big, fat, European adventure.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Delphi, Greece
The next morning we got up early to go to Delphi. Delphi is an ancient city northwest of Athens, around 3 hours bus ride. They said Delphi was the center of the universe. We took the bus there. It was 13 euros / person each way. If you want to visit Delphi, you can visit it for couples of hours as there is not much to see. We were there for only 4,5 hours and we saw everything outside. However, we didn't visit the museum there because we saw so many museums already. The view is beautiful. The ancient site was okay, not what I expected. I got the map of the entire site so we knew what to expect. We climbed all the way up to the theater and they stopped us there, didn't allow us to go up the steps. From what I heard, you have to climb all the way up to the top of the theater to have a much better view. In the afternoon, we went back to Athens and prepared to leave. 3 days in Athens was great. I wish we went here earlier because it was our last destination, we were exhausted and couldn't do much. I wish I could go to some of the islands.
In the morning, we said goodbye to Athens and took our flight back to Milan. I was surprise how easyjet didn't check for bag size. I guess it depends on the airport and the staff. We arrived at Milan and bought tickets to go back to Fribourg, Swizerland. I still had about 50 euros left in my wallet so we used them all for our luxurious meal on the train (including some sushi). As the sun started to come down, we were leaving the country side of Northern Italy heading into the mountainous Alps of Switzerland. We passed by the small town of Sion as I saw 2 policemen getting on the train checking for passports. Far away on the mountain sides, there were couples of houses with lights on here and there. The sun disappeared as the night felt. I closed my eyes and rested a little bit realizing that my Europe adventure has come to an end.
In the morning, we said goodbye to Athens and took our flight back to Milan. I was surprise how easyjet didn't check for bag size. I guess it depends on the airport and the staff. We arrived at Milan and bought tickets to go back to Fribourg, Swizerland. I still had about 50 euros left in my wallet so we used them all for our luxurious meal on the train (including some sushi). As the sun started to come down, we were leaving the country side of Northern Italy heading into the mountainous Alps of Switzerland. We passed by the small town of Sion as I saw 2 policemen getting on the train checking for passports. Far away on the mountain sides, there were couples of houses with lights on here and there. The sun disappeared as the night felt. I closed my eyes and rested a little bit realizing that my Europe adventure has come to an end.
My big, fat Greek adventure
Okay, not really. I was there for 3 days. Athens is a vibrant city. It's very crowded, 1/3 of Greece's population is in Athens. It reminds me of some of the cities in Asia. The instant we got here, there were signs and banners everywhere at the metro and public places protesting the government. There were lots of polices blocking streets and protests. We arrived at our hotel, Chic Hotel. It was a4 star hotel but seems like a 3 star. The staff was nice, though. By the time we got here, we were exhausted, we could barely walk. I was thinking of sleeping in the hotel for awhile but I didn't want to waste precious travel time. Plus the street of Athens was live with actions everywhere, I didn't wanna miss it. We bought the 3-day public transportation pass to go on the metro for free. Well, Athens was like Berlin. Their metro and bus are base on an integrity system. You don't have to buy tickets but if you get caught, it's 60 times the price of the ticket. If you're going to the airport I think the fine was 300 times the ticket. We ate lunch at a local restaurant. I had chicken gyros it was very good and costs only 2 euros.
The first place we visited was the Acropolis. I was tired and we had to walk uphill to the top to see the Parthenon and the temple of Athena up there. But it was worth the effort. They are still rebuilding a lot of stuff around here. What strange is that everywhere we go in Athens, there are stray dogs. These are unwanted dogs being left by their owners on the street. They are not dangerous because the only thing they do is sleep all day. It's kind of sad. I heard during the Olympics in 2004, they killed all these stray dogs in couples day. That's horrible. Anyway, the Acropolis was nice. Next stop was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This shouldn't be an attraction because the only thing left are the columns and you had to buy tickets to go in and see them. Luckily we didn't have to buy tickets for any of the attractions we went to in Athens because it was a holiday I think (or maybe they encourage tourists to come around this time). The Panathinaiko Olympic stadium was nice, but we didn't go inside. This was the stadium that hosts the first Olympic in 1896. Next we went to the National Garden which is right across from the Olympic stadium. It's the weekend and there's not much to do here so we left. That's pretty much it for Athens. You can go see all the main attractions in a day or two.
Athens metro is very easy to use. Our hotel was near Omonia station but we mostly went to Syntagma to eat as it was a big stop. There are a lot of archaeological artifacts found here when they dug up the ground to create the metro system in Athens. So, the entire metro is like a museum with lots of things to see. I think the metro here is still under construction because there are only 2 lines. At night, the city is alive with lots of restaurants, bars, and people walking around. It was fun.
The next day we visited the Athens flea market. Here you can find pretty much everything from dirt cheap to expensive stuff. We didn't buy any. Everything here is cheaper compared to all the other countries we went to in Europe (maybe cheaper than America too). In the afternoon, we went to Lycattabus Hill. This is definitely a must-go if you want to see the view of Athens. We took the metro to the hill, then walked up for about 20 minutes. There are lots of houses around here with orange and cherry trees. I would recommend to walk up the hill around 7pm and then take the cable car down at night after you've seen the sunset (around 9pm). You can see everything from top of the Lycattabus Hill. You can see the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Olympic stadium, the garden... everything. As the sun goes down, your view also changes and it's very different every half hour until the city lights are on.
The first place we visited was the Acropolis. I was tired and we had to walk uphill to the top to see the Parthenon and the temple of Athena up there. But it was worth the effort. They are still rebuilding a lot of stuff around here. What strange is that everywhere we go in Athens, there are stray dogs. These are unwanted dogs being left by their owners on the street. They are not dangerous because the only thing they do is sleep all day. It's kind of sad. I heard during the Olympics in 2004, they killed all these stray dogs in couples day. That's horrible. Anyway, the Acropolis was nice. Next stop was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This shouldn't be an attraction because the only thing left are the columns and you had to buy tickets to go in and see them. Luckily we didn't have to buy tickets for any of the attractions we went to in Athens because it was a holiday I think (or maybe they encourage tourists to come around this time). The Panathinaiko Olympic stadium was nice, but we didn't go inside. This was the stadium that hosts the first Olympic in 1896. Next we went to the National Garden which is right across from the Olympic stadium. It's the weekend and there's not much to do here so we left. That's pretty much it for Athens. You can go see all the main attractions in a day or two.
Athens metro is very easy to use. Our hotel was near Omonia station but we mostly went to Syntagma to eat as it was a big stop. There are a lot of archaeological artifacts found here when they dug up the ground to create the metro system in Athens. So, the entire metro is like a museum with lots of things to see. I think the metro here is still under construction because there are only 2 lines. At night, the city is alive with lots of restaurants, bars, and people walking around. It was fun.
The next day we visited the Athens flea market. Here you can find pretty much everything from dirt cheap to expensive stuff. We didn't buy any. Everything here is cheaper compared to all the other countries we went to in Europe (maybe cheaper than America too). In the afternoon, we went to Lycattabus Hill. This is definitely a must-go if you want to see the view of Athens. We took the metro to the hill, then walked up for about 20 minutes. There are lots of houses around here with orange and cherry trees. I would recommend to walk up the hill around 7pm and then take the cable car down at night after you've seen the sunset (around 9pm). You can see everything from top of the Lycattabus Hill. You can see the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Olympic stadium, the garden... everything. As the sun goes down, your view also changes and it's very different every half hour until the city lights are on.
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