Kicking the 'Can!(emilykathrynhall@gmail.com - jeremy.mickle@gmail.com)tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-03-24:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan2009-01-06T05:26:02Zjezemsimg/travel-blog-feed.pngCarbisdale Castletag:travellerspoint.com,2009-01-05:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=53&entryid=1442882009-01-06T05:26:02Z2009-01-06T05:26:02ZThe next days bus ride took us along the full length of mysterious Loch Ness, past ruined Urquhart Castle on the shoreline, which was once a prime location for warring clans keeping an eye out for enemy boats travelling the lock. We visited what was probably the biggest souvenir shop in Scotland and had a close encounter with Nessy. We even attempted a "summoning" but the non believers among us apparently sabotaged the attempt :) Although we didn't have a ...Fort Augustus - Loch Nesstag:travellerspoint.com,2009-01-05:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=52&entryid=1442862009-01-06T05:15:46Z2009-01-06T05:15:46ZOur small tour group was lead by Debs, a Scottish lass with a great sense of humour, thick accent and kilt. She had spent some time working in Australia, making it as far as Kalgoorlie of all places! The first day we headed from the lowlands into the highlands with the first stop the bottom of Lock Ness (well not literally). Along the way we were struck by the greenery. We stopped for a break by a ruined cathedral next ...Edinburgh- Scotlandtag:travellerspoint.com,2009-01-05:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=51&entryid=1442812009-01-06T05:24:26Z2009-01-06T05:11:15ZI was really excited about getting to Scotland, as one side of my family emigrated to Australia from here and we could be assured of some hearty food! (Cheese and baguettes were not doing it for us anymore) We had booked our accommodation early as were arriving during the fringe festival. A huge festival of live shows and a mecca for up and coming well established performers alike. The atmosphere here was quite electric and you could get through a ...Paristag:travellerspoint.com,2009-01-05:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=50&entryid=1442802009-01-06T05:05:41Z2009-01-06T05:05:41ZAs you have now read in an earlier entry we got engaged in Paris, so not wanting to repeat ourselves in this entry we'll only cover the sites and other events that took place. For our stay in Paris we had decided to book in to a hotel, we where a little over the hostels! We found the hotel easily and set about exploring the city. From our hotel we walked to Saint Michael's square to catch a free tour ...Tourstag:travellerspoint.com,2009-01-05:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=49&entryid=1442792009-01-06T05:00:39Z2009-01-06T05:00:39ZEmily - Tours was a great small town with beautiful buildings and in close proximity to some extravagant chateaux. We stayed in a local youth hostel and for a couple of days we enjoyed France the way it was meant to be enjoyed - great food which included some exquisite french crepes and absorbed the tranquil landscape (in between the tourist bus runs). It rained most of the time we were there but that didn't stop us from having a ...Stay tunedtag:travellerspoint.com,2008-12-07:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=48&entryid=1404872008-12-08T01:20:11Z2008-12-08T01:20:11ZHi all, as you may have guessed we are a little behind in the blog entries but will be working on getting it up to date soon from notes we have taken. We have just seen so much! To give you an idea of where we are and have been the following is a list of the cities we have stayed in. We will arrive in Miami tommorrow night and then be spending some time ...Bordeaux - Expensive Wine and a 10 day growthtag:travellerspoint.com,2008-11-20:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=46&entryid=1383492008-11-28T02:09:57Z2008-11-21T04:41:22ZWell, our time in Bordeaux started off poorly as we checked into the Youth Hostel from Hell! Our dorm room was full of mould, stuffy and our mattresses were completely covered in plastic. The icing on the cake? The used bandaid left on the shower ceiling for us as a welcome gift. To escape our awful hostel we decided to splurge on a day tour to the Bordeaux wine region, it turned out to be one of the best tours ...San Sebastiantag:travellerspoint.com,2008-11-04:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=45&entryid=1360142008-11-05T00:06:54Z2008-11-05T00:06:54ZJeremy - We arrived at San Sebastian bus depot from Madrid about 2 hours later than scheduled and jumped on a bus towards our hostel and the beach. The beach is a crescent moon shape and at the top is a small area that forms the old town. The old town is where all the action is, with tapas, pubs, cafes and our hostel.
The hostel was in average shape and named something like "Aussie Pension". We can't remember why we ...Madridtag:travellerspoint.com,2008-10-25:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=44&entryid=1346392008-10-26T02:11:03Z2008-10-26T02:06:33ZWe arrived in Madrid to find it hotter than hot, a great city that didn't have the old world elegance of Paris and Rome but had its own edginess and vibe. We booked into a great little hotel that had a fantastic air conditioner - with 40 degree days, trust me we needed it. Upon arrival we signed up for a free city tour and got a taste for what the city had on offer. We decided to hit the ...Granadatag:travellerspoint.com,2008-10-09:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=43&entryid=1324512008-10-09T15:02:08Z2008-10-09T14:46:53ZJeremy - The train ride from Seville passed through similarly dry country to the road to Seville but fortunately the temperature was not the same! We found our guesthouse, again at the top of a hill, after a couple of wrong turns and some directions from a local. This small guest house was a real find, it was in the old town and run by a family. We basically shared the house with the family which made ...Lisbon to Sevilletag:travellerspoint.com,2008-09-28:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=38&entryid=1308412008-10-09T15:03:48Z2008-09-28T16:19:21ZLisbon
Jeremy - We arrived to a beautiful sunny Lisbon on a Saturday afternoon. It was a little busier here but still had that laid back feeling, like a large town rather than a city.
In the days before we arrived there had been a huge music festival held in Lisbon and our hostel seemed to be bursting with fans with musical talent. On each of the nights we stayed there, the common room was filled with great singing and ...Coimbra - University Citytag:travellerspoint.com,2008-09-08:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=37&entryid=1277742008-10-09T15:05:14Z2008-09-08T20:56:29ZCoimbra was a pretty quiet and laid back university town with a great vibe. Jez and I walked around the old town a few times and discovered a local restaurant that cooked the perfect grilled sardines and bbq chicken. We loved it so much we went back again the following night. The following day we were advised by the local tourist office that a fado concert would be held in the old town as a part of the cultural festival ...Porto - the Home of Porttag:travellerspoint.com,2008-09-08:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=36&entryid=1277722008-10-09T15:06:04Z2008-09-08T20:41:14ZPorto is Portugal's second city and the only reason we started our Portuguese adventure here was because it was a RyanAir hub. The main highlight for any tourist here was the many port houses that can be found along the river Duoro. Jez and I did the obligatory port tasting and tour, where we learnt about the history of port and sampled the various concoctions. We loved it so much we bought ourselves a bottle and had it as an ...Marseille - Planes and Alarm Clockstag:travellerspoint.com,2008-09-03:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=35&entryid=1269782008-10-09T15:07:01Z2008-09-03T21:35:06ZWe made a quick side trip to Marseilles in order to catch a Ryan Air flight to Porto as our time in Europe was ticking away and we had still not covered Portugal, Spain and France. We caught a train to Marseilles from Nice and then caught another bus to the airport where we were staying at a Formula One hotel near the airport. We were booked onto an early morning flight so decided to prebook a taxi with the ...Nice- Is that urine I smell?tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-09-03:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=34&entryid=1269752008-10-09T15:07:51Z2008-09-03T21:11:55ZJeremy - From Italy we headed straight for Nice, a location we had looked forward to as our first stop in France and we were staying in a hostel that had been recommended to us by numerous people throughout our trip. As you may have guessed from that introduction we were a little disappointed with our experience here, mainly due to the hostel but also thanks to the overpowering smell of urine and sometimes excrement that got hold of our ...Maranola - Cinque Teretag:travellerspoint.com,2008-08-21:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=33&entryid=1251002008-08-24T09:09:47Z2008-08-21T22:06:38ZEmily - Or as I like to call it to hell and back..............partly due to the mammoth hike that Jez and I undertook. Cinque Terre is made up of five remote villages on the Italian Riviera and the area around these villages has been made a national park, enabling you to hike from one village to another. The entire seven mile hike covers easy to very steep terrain and (foolishly) as we started late in the day we were forced ...Salerno - Amalfi Coasttag:travellerspoint.com,2008-08-21:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=32&entryid=2008-08-24T09:14:01Z2008-08-21T21:56:59ZJeremy- Back on mainland Italy we headed for The Amalfi Coast. To save some money we decided to stay in the less touristy town of Salerno. The guide books were very brief about this place but this is mainly because there aren't really any tourist attractions here. However, it was a really great place, with a vibrant little old town and restaurants everywhere. It was a short bus ride to the main amalfi attractions, a bus ride that took us ...Taorminatag:travellerspoint.com,2008-08-21:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=31&entryid=1250962008-08-24T09:15:18Z2008-08-21T21:46:26ZProbably one of my all time favourite spots on this trip, Taromina is simply gorgeous and my only regret is that we couldn't stay there any longer. Upon our arrival at the Taromina train station we saw a sign stating it was a 3km to the hostel but this didn't mention it was a steep mountain 3 km hike on a road with no pedestrian pavement and
crazy Italian drivers. Somewhat confused I walked into a local hotel asking for directions, ...Eiffel Towertag:travellerspoint.com,2008-08-21:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=30&entryid=1250942008-08-21T22:14:25Z2008-08-21T21:31:43ZOk so we are a little behind in the blog but we are getting there :) However, I think it's worth while fast forwarding a little to Paris, well specifically the Eiffel Tower, before going on with the other places on the way there. On our fourth day in Paris we decided to ascend the stairs to the viewing platform of the tower. We arrived just before sunset and managed to get through the line and up the stairs before ...Palermo- Mafia Capitaltag:travellerspoint.com,2008-08-12:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=29&entryid=1238942008-08-12T16:31:43Z2008-08-12T16:31:43ZEmily - Four days in Palermo was probably too much, as it seems like this town is mostly known for its Mafia reputation. However, I have to admit the city surprised me, it was actually a pretty city with lots of great food and the people were quite friendly.
Jeremy - The Mafia seemed to have influence right down to the pavement. We had heard that they had a knack off getting the local municipal contracts, but as we walked ...Capritag:travellerspoint.com,2008-07-30:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=28&entryid=1220042008-07-30T18:16:43Z2008-07-30T18:16:43ZIt was a bit of a drama getting to Capri but I think in the end it was worth it, as some of the pictures will attest too. The waters were crystal blue, the scenery dotted with hills and beautiful beaches; the only negative was that the island was filled with hordes of fellow tourists. Heaps of tourists means the prices of everything goes up and Capri as we discovered was an expensive town. Just getting there and back cost ...Pompeiitag:travellerspoint.com,2008-07-30:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=27&entryid=1220032008-07-30T18:11:45Z2008-07-30T18:11:45ZPompeii was a resort town for the wealthy and in 79 AD a nearby volcano (Mt Vesuvius) erupted covering the town in 6m of volcanic ash. As this was heading into the period of Roman decline not much action was taken by the Emperor to restore the town to its former glory and the ash was allowed to settle, thereby (inadvertently) preserving the ruins for future generations.
As Jez and I had by now seen heaps of "ancient ruins" I were ...Naples (aka the Garbage Tip?)tag:travellerspoint.com,2008-07-28:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=26&entryid=1216822008-07-28T20:05:57Z2008-07-28T19:45:57ZHeading to Naples, I have to say I wasn't sure what to expect. Some say the South represents the true Italian lifestyle, "la dolce vita - the sweet life" while others label Naples the Garbage Capital of the South, so who is right?
The truth is somewhere in the middle - the south is a lot poorer than the north and it shows. On our arrival Alfredo, the hostel owner, gave us a quick lesson in the art of pick pocketing ...Rometag:travellerspoint.com,2008-07-28:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=25&entryid=1216802008-07-28T20:17:21Z2008-07-28T19:36:20ZEmily - Rome is as intense as ever and with summer approaching Jez and I set our alarm clocks to beat the crowds early to see they city's sites in three days. In our eagerness to get to Rome we mixed up our arrival dates and got to our hostel one day earlier than originally booked. The hostel was fully booked and had no room for us, as it was 3pm we knew we would need to get cracking if ...Florence - Pisa - Sienatag:travellerspoint.com,2008-07-22:/blog/?domain=kickingtheCan&thisblog_entryid=24&entryid=1207062008-07-23T14:35:44Z2008-07-22T22:26:42ZEmily - Florence was beautiful and scenic with elaborate museums and churches. We bought a guide book and re-discovered Renaissance Florence - we toured the famed Duomo, checked out the jewellery stores on the Ponte Vecchio, visited the Ufitizi Museum and ate same fantastic geltati! Tuscany provided the perfect backdrop for scenic photos so we took the opportunity to visit a couple of lookouts to take in the architectural beauty that is Florence.
We also managed to do a couple of ...