Ok, so the first couple of weeks are more or less planned. I'll arrive in London the 22nd, spend the day in London and fly from London to Pisa, Italy the 23rd. I will take a couple of photos of the leaning tower and then head to Florence where I'll meet up with a friend. From Florence, I will visit the Cinque Terre area, highly recommended by Rick Steves and just about every other travel writer. May 1st will be spent in Milan, then I'll fly to Athens on May 2nd. From there, I don't know for sure.
So that's it for now. I started a To Do list last night and it's growing by the second. Better get started!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Update:
My next trip is coming soon. April 21-June 24. I know I've already traveled a lot this year, but there is still so much out there in the world (so much to see so little time).
I am going to need to buy a guidebook or two and figure out when I'm going to go where and for how long in what order stage. I have a good idea of my general route, but am having some trouble with the beginning and end of the trip. I'm planning on doing a bit more research tonight (flight options/rail options/ferry options/etc.) and try to decide my first stop. I'm flying in and out of London, but haven't decided exactly where I will go from there... at this point I have 3 options: Greece, Italy, or Malta. I'm going to turn it over in my head for awhile and see what I can come up with.
Until then...
I am going to need to buy a guidebook or two and figure out when I'm going to go where and for how long in what order stage. I have a good idea of my general route, but am having some trouble with the beginning and end of the trip. I'm planning on doing a bit more research tonight (flight options/rail options/ferry options/etc.) and try to decide my first stop. I'm flying in and out of London, but haven't decided exactly where I will go from there... at this point I have 3 options: Greece, Italy, or Malta. I'm going to turn it over in my head for awhile and see what I can come up with.
Until then...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Waterfalls
Friday, March 6, 2009. The day we went to the waterfall was the best day of the trip. I will probably still be telling the story and cackling when I'm old and senile.
The day was amazing. We ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove towards Tepic to a tiny town where we stopped for directions (the bartender at the hotel had given us directions up until that point). We were told to take a right, then a left, and then turn left at the cemetery. After what seemed like an hour (it was probably closer to 20 minutes), we arrived at the "parking lot." The road between the cemetery and the parking lot was... insanely awful. I can never complain about roads again. Or at least not for awhile. The narrow dirt road was pocked and hard to walk on much less drive on. And the parking lot was little more than rocks and a few patches of brown grass.
After parking, we walked another couple of kilometers along the "road" and then down a bunch of poorly kept steps. At some point, someone cared enough to build the path to the waterfall and create different designs on each step. We finally arrived at the waterfall only to find two other groups. We had seen a couple of other cars in the parking lot, but for some reason I guess I thought the waterfall would be ours.
The four of us jumped in and swam for a bit. I got very cold very quickly, and it didn't help that I swallowed about a gallon of water. Needless to say, I didn't stay in long.
Greg wanted to explore, so I joined. Lem and Jenny stayed at the waterfall. We tried climbing up a dry waterfall bed, but that didn't work for very long. So we reversed direction, climbed back down and then climbed the rocks past the waterfall pool and through brush along the stream. We followed the stream until we found a second waterfall. At one point, I was actually standing on top of this second waterfall. How many people can say they have stood on top of a waterfall? Trust me when I say the view was amazing. I know I've used that word a couple of times now, but really words fail me. I'm not sure that there are words that describe the view or how I felt on top of that waterfall.
I couldn't get enough of the view- I didn't want to leave our even more secluded waterfall. I couldn't stop thinking about how we two were the only people on the planet seeing those particular mountains and that particular waterfall. There were no other people anywhere around and it was a... great feeling.
The two of us climbed back through the brush from rock to rock to join Lem and Jenny. The other groups had gone and the four of us were alone. We finally had the waterfall to ourselves, but we were all tired and hungry. We slowly ambled across the rocks, up the stairs, down the sad excuse for a road, and into the car. The boys had promised us a waterfall and a sunset. They had delivered superbly on the waterfall and only had to deliver a sunset. Unfortunately, we left a little too late to make it to the beach to watch the sunset. Instead, we stopped at the side of the road on the top of a mountain. We could see the sun reflecting on the ocean in the distance. It was the perfect way to end the perfect day.
The day was amazing. We ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove towards Tepic to a tiny town where we stopped for directions (the bartender at the hotel had given us directions up until that point). We were told to take a right, then a left, and then turn left at the cemetery. After what seemed like an hour (it was probably closer to 20 minutes), we arrived at the "parking lot." The road between the cemetery and the parking lot was... insanely awful. I can never complain about roads again. Or at least not for awhile. The narrow dirt road was pocked and hard to walk on much less drive on. And the parking lot was little more than rocks and a few patches of brown grass.
After parking, we walked another couple of kilometers along the "road" and then down a bunch of poorly kept steps. At some point, someone cared enough to build the path to the waterfall and create different designs on each step. We finally arrived at the waterfall only to find two other groups. We had seen a couple of other cars in the parking lot, but for some reason I guess I thought the waterfall would be ours.
The four of us jumped in and swam for a bit. I got very cold very quickly, and it didn't help that I swallowed about a gallon of water. Needless to say, I didn't stay in long.
Greg wanted to explore, so I joined. Lem and Jenny stayed at the waterfall. We tried climbing up a dry waterfall bed, but that didn't work for very long. So we reversed direction, climbed back down and then climbed the rocks past the waterfall pool and through brush along the stream. We followed the stream until we found a second waterfall. At one point, I was actually standing on top of this second waterfall. How many people can say they have stood on top of a waterfall? Trust me when I say the view was amazing. I know I've used that word a couple of times now, but really words fail me. I'm not sure that there are words that describe the view or how I felt on top of that waterfall.
I couldn't get enough of the view- I didn't want to leave our even more secluded waterfall. I couldn't stop thinking about how we two were the only people on the planet seeing those particular mountains and that particular waterfall. There were no other people anywhere around and it was a... great feeling.
The two of us climbed back through the brush from rock to rock to join Lem and Jenny. The other groups had gone and the four of us were alone. We finally had the waterfall to ourselves, but we were all tired and hungry. We slowly ambled across the rocks, up the stairs, down the sad excuse for a road, and into the car. The boys had promised us a waterfall and a sunset. They had delivered superbly on the waterfall and only had to deliver a sunset. Unfortunately, we left a little too late to make it to the beach to watch the sunset. Instead, we stopped at the side of the road on the top of a mountain. We could see the sun reflecting on the ocean in the distance. It was the perfect way to end the perfect day.
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