Claire and Taylor's European Odyssey

So leaving Portugal....we were up early and took the first boat back to the mainland, then a taxi to the bus station (not repeating that walk again with the packs!) in the hopes of catching the ten o'clock bus to Seville, then another one to Granada....BUT upon arriving at the bus depot at 845 we discovered that the bus to Seville was full...end of story. So how the hell do we get out of Portugal? WELL, the overly helpful lady at the counter (sigh) told us that we could take a city bus to the Portugese border, take a boat across the river to Spain and after that she had no idea. Begin adventure number 3,000,001....we took the city bus, then the little boat across the river with the other immigrants, and man were we glad to be back in Spain...the people were SO helpful! We walked a few km to the bus station, where we found that scedules mean nothing...this is a second world country, a local guy reminded us! Our only option, apparently, was to take the next bus that headed east, getting us an hour further down the road to Huelva (yet still a mighty long way from Granada). Upon arriving we discovered that we had just missed a bus to Seville, so missioned to the train station to attempt train travel...the next train to Seville was at 630pm (it was about 2pm at this point), but we couldn't get to Granada. We had to make it to Granada cuz we had to pay for the night either way!
SO, back to the bus station we went, with our lead weights on our backs, and caught the next bus to Seville. Two hours later, arrival in Seville. From there we thought we were on the home stretch and went to get a bus to Granada only to discover that busses to Granada leave from the other bus station...on the other side of town. Fabulous.
We took a city bus this time, arrived and had to wait two and half hours for the next bus to Granada at 8pm. Hello home stretch. The bus took three hours, then we had to take a city bus to the hostel, and arrived about midnight. Let's just say if all had gone according to plan, we would have arrived in the early afternoon, and saved a lot of money. We slept WELL.

After such a long day, we were happy to wake up in a cute little apartment with sunbeams flooding in through the open blinds. Sigh. Unfortunately we had to change rooms our second night, but the place was still awesome. You can't go wrong with a name like Funky Hostel. Rooftop patio, free breakfast, sunset views, free internet...

Our first day we spent walking around the Alhambra, an ancient muslim fortress. In 35 degree weather, we did an audio tour of the whole place, which took us about 4 hours, including plenty of water stops, and pauses to pet the kittens in the gardens...It was a beautiful place...a day very well spent.

View of Granada from the palace:

Now we are banking on you reading our previous blogs...now remember Claire and Steph from Montreal that we met in San Sebastien....??? No, didn't think so. Anyways, we ran into them again at our hostel in Granada and they were staying in the same room as us along with Claire's twin brother, Louis, who was visiting for a week. They invited us to join them on a tour of the Sierra Nevada mountains the next day for €10 each. Sweet deal, we couldn't pass that up!
So the next day, the three of them, the two of us, and another couple from Montreal (Steph 2 and JP) all headed off with Pepe (our Spanish host for the day) in his trusty van up into the mountains. The roads were super windy, and most of us were feeling pretty ill by the end, but the views were FABULOUS!!! We arrived in a small mountain village about 2 hours later, had a little stroll and a bite to eat, then headed back to Granada for our bathing suits. He then took us to these Roman Baths situated on the edge of a seemingly random desert lake. The views were stunning and we had a great time. The whole trip took about 10 hours. Thanks Pepe.

We had a great time in Granada, it was one of our favourite places thus far. Next stop Ronda. Will update again soon. Thanks for your comments!

The night train.....ok, so we boarded the train in San Sebastian at 1030pm, luckily with a couple other Canadians and Americans, onto an unmarked train with no carriage numbers. We walked around and finally found our seats in a sort of room within a carriage that has about 8 seats in it. There was one other Spanish guy in there for a bit, but otherwise we had the place to ourselves. The seats were super uncomfortable and there were people smoking in the hallways....we got woken up at 12 by a guy gettting on, apparently on crack and really wacked, but friendly, then at 3 by a couple of drunk Portugese guys. Let´s just say it was quite the night.

We arrived in Lisbon at 11 the next morning where we had lunch (Lisbon was nice, but we decided not to stay long), then caught a train to Faro (in the Algarve, south Portugal - see the map), then another little train to Tavira. Tavira is a small town, but it still took forever to walk out to this little dock where we caught a little boat over to Tavira Island, which is essentially a campground and a beach. It would have been an island paradise if it weren´t for the poor welcome we recieved from the other (mostly Portugese) campers. Let´s just say no one said hi, and we totally felt like we were invading a private party. But the beaches were gorgeous, complete with palm umbrellas

We camped and spent the next day on the beach, then left the next morning because we felt a little uncomfortable. Getting out of Portugal the next day was a freaking mission....let´s just say the Portugese and the Spanish don´t communicate much and travelling between the two is not easy!

Spain!!! Yay. A place that Claire has always wanted to go, and I think has fallen in love with...should Taylor worry....??
We left Biarritz on a Sunday - bad mistake! Busses do not run on Sundays so our plan to take a coach to San Sebastian for €5 (1 1/2 hours), we had to take a city bus, then a train, then another train and the whole thing ended up taking 5 hours and costing us three times as much! Lesson learned, from now on we will not attempt to travel on Sundays!

But then we arrived in San Sebastian...OMG, I think we found paradise!!! It is a relatively decently sized town that is situation between several mountains and has two long white (like chalk) sandy beaches with turquoise blue water...sigh....One of the beaches (the big one where we spent most of our time) was practically in the town centre and was a five minute walk from our pension (guesthouse) in the old town. The old town is awesome. It is a maze of narrow streets packed with bars and small shops and there are no cars (except for deliveries). Tapas are everywhere, though they are what San Sebastian is known for, so are a little pricy, but the booze are dirt cheap

The first night we got there we walked to the pension with a few Montreal girls we met on the train (Claire and Steff - who you will hear about again later...) and got settled in our little pension. We had a room to ourselves with a private bathroom, fridge, kettle, toaster, free laundry and awesome hospitality for €36 per night, quite the steal, trust me. We were very pleased with it. Plus the location was perfect. We stayed for five nights....

Here was the routine: each morning one of us would walk round the block to the bakery and get fresh (usually warm) croissants for breakfast, and we would enjoy tea and croissants in bed - sheer luxury! Then we´d do something for the morning - shopping or hiking or trip planning or internetting. We would buy baguettes, cheese and meat, all fresh from the bakery and deli, then make sandwiches, put our suits on and head to the beach where we would bake in the sun for a few hours. We swam in the warm (Taylor´s first) ocean water and tanned and munched our baguettes and daydreamed....and it was the perfect temperature. 27C from 11am til 8pm, then ¨cooling¨to 20C at night. Heaven. Next we would go back to the pension and shower and buy more baguettes, cheese, etc plus txakoli (local fizzy wine) and the occasional candies...then head back to the beach to watch the sunset around 930. We would have a picnic and do some more daydreaming - including plans of owning a house here with Sherri and Anders :0 We smoked our celebratory graduation cigars one night. Everynight there was a different sunset and they were all absolutely gorgeous! There would be a few couples with blankets down the beach, but essentially at night we had the place to ourselves....Ok so now do you get the idea why this place is paradise, ok then take a look at the pics.....

We spent five nights and five days in San Sebastian, then sadly left on the night train to Lisbon, Portugal....and that was a whole new adventure.....

Country number 8 for Taylor! We woke up groggy and sleep deprived from a seriously uncomfortable sleep on the boat to France. We have never felt like such second class citizens... We were put in a windowless room full of approximately 100 uncomfortable seats. People were sprawled over the floor and we had no access to showers.

Anyway, we happily arrived in Cherbourg (in sunshine!) where we walked through town to get to the train station. Here we found that phones in France don't take change so you have to buy phone cards. We booked a room in Hotel Tiquetonne in Paris from our Travel Book, not knowing what to expect. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by our small but very cute room. It was quite the steel for Paris at €30/night! However, they catch you by charging €6/shower, so it worked out to be €42/night which is still quite good for Paris!

We had only one full day in Paris so we wanted to make it good! After a fantastic sleep, first stop Le Louvre! This place is gigantic. Could be here all day. We made a B-line to the major sights, and looked at everything along the way. Crepes for breakfast and then we walked along the Seine to Notre Dame. Very impressive. Managed to stay out of the rain for the most part inside Notre Dame. We then walked along Champs-Elysée to L'Arc de Triumph. Champs-Elysée has everything from designer clothes to designer cars! We didn't stay long because it was windy and rainy. No wonder Paris is the city of love when you have stautes like these everywhere!

We then took the metro back to the hotel and picked up some wine (€2 for fantastic wine), a beggette from the local boulangerie and some cheese from the local fromagerie! Taylor sat for about 15 minutes in the fromagerie drooling... We took our food and wine and picnicked on a boat tour of the Seine. It rained half the time but we had good company and food! Finally we went to the Eiffel Tower! Amazing view of course, however, the attendant wouldn't allow us to bring a bottle of wine up to the top. We thought that was manditory?

The next morning we blew out of town and headed south for some nice weather... so we thought. We took the TGV from Paris to Biarritz in a few hours. Very Fast! When we arrived in Biarritz it was raining yet again. We took the bus close to the campground we were staying but didn't realize how far out of town it was. We set up camp and then walked into this surfing city. It turns out there are two buses that run in the town and they are very irregular and do not run past 8pm. Needless to say, we ended up walking home in the rain...

The next morning we outslept the rain and walked into town again. This time we got all the way to the large beach, where all the surfers are in the centre of town. We even caught a few rays on the beach and got bit burned! The next few days we just got lost in the maze of windy, poorly sign-posted streets and layed on the beach when the sun was out.

We did learn never to travel on a Sunday! Even though the scheduel says the busses go... nothing works on Sundays. Long story short, we spent most of the day cursing the busses. As what as a simple plan turned into a complicated route to San Sebastian. But it was all worth it...!

Ireland was a bit of a whirlwind trip. On our way from Stranraer, we took the Stena Lines fast ferry to Belfast. This was exciting for Taylor because it was the largest fast ferry in the world! We arrived in Belfast, where we took the bus the same day to Dublin. While we were in Fort William we decided that big cities were not for us, so if we were going to do one in Ireland, it better be Dublin! ... Taylor was not influenced by the beer... Because Irish Ferries sail on an irregular schedule, we had to be ready for the 28th of May. So we stayed for two nights in Dublin. This was also our first experience in a hostel room with 12 beds per room. Lets just say we learned the beauty of ear plugs.

The first night we went to a local bar with live music with a few people from our dorm. Three fellow Canadians, and a German.

The next day we got up early to do all the touristy things, however, that was a big mistake. Because we were on tourist time, we didn't realize it was Sunday. With Dublin being a majorly Catholic city, all the shops were closed until late in the afternoon for church. Do not go to Dublin on Sunday. later that day we toured the Guinness Brewery! Book ahead online! Not only do you get a minor discount but you get to bypass a huge line. The tour was huge! I think Guinness makes more money on merchandise than they do beer. But for 9,50 we got a tour and a 'free' Guinness at the top of this 7 story brewery (pint of Guinness 4,50). The finest Guinness you can ever taste. It was a circular room with the bar in the middle where the walls are all glass. The view overlooked all of Dublin, and for once the sun was shinning. We enjoyed our precious drink in the sun and then headed back to the hostel which was in the main area of city.

Later that night, we did another touristy activity, we went to Temple Bar with our Canadian friends and a Kiwi. Lets just say, standing room only. This area of Dublin is packed with bars and clubs the most famous being the 'Temple Bar.' We had lots of fun, the only mistake is Taylor ordered what appeared to be a local beer, which turned out to be a cider. Other than that we went to a 4 story, club/bar/lounge/etc.. and headed back to bed. Our train to Rosslare was at 7:40am and we had very little sleep.

And that was the end of Ireland. Did what we came to do... drink the beer!

Well it has been a while, it feels weird to be in France and writing about Scotland still....let me just say that internet access is not all that easy to come by and we have had other important things to do...like travelling!! But I know, we should keep you guys posted, so here goes...this was Scotland....

So believe it or not we did manage to get ourselves out of the mountains in Wales despite the painful absence of public transport....our first bus came, then we waited for the next....for half an hour past when it was supposed to come....then the hostel warden drove up and offered us a ride to Bangor, which we graciously took. Who knows if the bus would have come! In Bangor we took the train to Chester, then another to Crewe, then another to Carlisle, and we finally got to Edinbourgh nine hours after we left Idwall! Ouch. We managed to track down a pretty nice hostel called Budget Backpackers, which we didn't really realise was that nice until later when we had visited other hostels. It had really nice facilities and we shared a room with 3 guys from Colorado, who were really nice. We went out for a beer that night at The Last Drop, which we later learned was so named because it was the place that people could have their last drink before being hung in the square outside! Nice.

The next day we took part in the free walking tour of Edinbourgh that was offered by the hostel. We lots of cool buildings and monuments (like Greyfriars Bobby - a dog that sat on his master's grave for 14 years, or so the story goes....) and learned that Edinbourgh has a very very dark past. Almost every place that we went to was known for public executions or witch burnings or heeps of dead bodies....its really sort of eerie. It's a beautiful place today, but it is hard to imagine what it was like back in the day when people were dying left right and center and the streets were full of sewage. I guess we picked out timing well

After the tour we met up with Claire, the daughter of Chris and Laura (remember, the people we stayed with in London), who is studying medicine in Edinbourgh. We had an awesome lunch in a little restaurant that is run by volunteers! Claire and Claire have known each other since they were about 8, so it was cool to meet up again and talk about travels (she just did a trip around South America) and med school, etc. Next we went to the Scottish National Museum and saw Dolly (the first cloned sheep!), and gorgeous views of Edinbourgh from the top (you will have to imagine for now....) Next we went to Edinbourgh Castle, which was a total ripoff for what it was. It was big and impressive, with lots of war memorial stuff, but definitely not worth £11 ($25Can). We have seen better for free!! At least one of us got in for free because the tour guide gave us one free pass! After that we pretty much just wondered around for the rest of the day, had a cheap dinner and got ready to leave.

The next day, we took the train to Fort William, which is a gorgeous ride through the Scottish Highlands, which looked quite similar to BC in parts. Fort William was cold - it's quite far north - but still beautiful. It is situated at the foot of Ben Nevis, which, at 1325m, is the highest mountain in the UK. We stayed at the Achantee Farm House Hostel, which is at the start of the Ben Nevis trail and was totally awesome. The guy who ran it was so friendly and reminded us of Robin Williams. We had a cute little room and a kitchen, living room and bathroom essentially to ourselves.

The next day we had planned to tackle Ben Nevis, but when we woke up to 30-50mph winds, rain and thick fog, we thought twice....we waited a few hours to see if it would clear up, but at 10:30 we regretfully gave up on the idea, since the hike takes around 8 hours, we couldn't wait all day. We walked to town instead and looked around and planned the next part of our trip, which we needed to do anyway.

The following day when we left for Stranraer was, of course, beautiful and warm - Sods Law. Oh well. We hope to come again some day. We took the train to Stranraer that day, which is on the southwestern side of Scottland, where we camped for the night before taking the boat to Belfast, Northern Ireland the next day.

That's it for now....again, thanks for reading!!