The Solo Traveler

Staying in hostels give you the chance to meet many other travelers. Many of them travel in pairs but I met many who travel alone. What surprises me most is meeting a lot of Asian women traveling alone, especially those from South Korea. I also met many from Australia traveling alone and sometimes they travel for months, as long as 6 months.
I asked the Australians how they are able to do it.  They said they are encouraged to do it by companies and their parents.  Some of them just quit their job, travel for 6 months, and go back and find another job.  It helps when unemployment is only 5%.
One Korean traveler we met is Soyou, shown in the first picture below. We met her on the way to Nice, just past the Italian border, It was late in the evening at a train stop and she was alone with a rolling suitcase and a backpack. She is barely 5 foot tall and 22 years old.  We asked her if she has a place to stay in Nice and she said no.  This was 10 pm at night.  How is she going to find a place to stay, we asked.  She said she has the address of a hostel.  We told her that she should come with us and see if there is room at the hostel where we are staying.  Fortunately, the hostel did have room for her.
Then we met her again in Barcelona.  While there someone scammed her of 50 euros.  She reported to the police but next morning she went to look for the person who scammed her.  With the help of some local retailers, she found him and grabbed him by his shirt and demanded her money back. Surprisingly, the scam artist gave her her money back.
I am really amazed by how some of these young women dare to travel alone knowing that a lot of people in most of these European cities are waiting to prey on them.  The Korean travelers, from what I understand, have their own network of information on hostels, where to go and what to avoid.  I also heard that they have their own Korean hostels in Europe, serving Korean breakfast and dinner.

Solo Traveler

Her journal

Barcelona

Barcelona is an amazing city. I've never seen so many monuments or buildings in one city. You hear Gaudi's name everywhere. He is the famous Spanish architect from Catalan, the region where Barcelona is located. His most famous work is the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which is shown in the first picture below. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most popular tourist attraction in Spain. I went to the Sagrada Familiar Cathedral relatively early but there was already a very long line. I think it'd have taken me about 2 hours to get into the cathedral to see the inside. Even though he died in 1926, they are still adding onto the cathedral. It's hard to say when it will finish. There are also several of his masterpieces in other parts of the city.
We took 3 trains to get from Nice to Barcelona:  Nice to Montpelier, Montpelier to Figueres and Figueres to Barcelona.  We didn't have to wait long in-between stops but it still took us about 8-9 hours.
I had a lot of trouble finding space in one of the hostels so we had to stay in a hotel a few miles away from town the first night.  After that we moved into the Downtown Paraiso Hostel, which is only 5 minutes away from La Rambla.  It is in a working-class neighborhood, where you find a lot of local restaurants and bars catering to the residents.  Here again I find a lot of immigrants.  Along one street there were many businesses own by Indians.  It is strange to hear Indians and Chinese speaking fluent Spanish.  But, where there is money to be made, they are always there.
La Rambla is a very busy street full of tourists and anything associated with tourism.  Tourists attract pick-pockets and scam artists and everyone warned us to be extra careful in Barcelona.  I heard that many of them are Romanians and gypsies.  I also heard that a lot of them have been driven out of Italy and are now preying on tourists in Spain.
The bad news about the tourist attractions in Barcelona is that they are spread out over a big area of the city.  So, I bought a 2-day ticket for a hop-on, hop-off tourist bus.  Trying to find these places on the metro would've taken a lot of time.  This is the most efficient way to see a city if you don't have a lot of time.  I've done them in London and Paris and I think they are definitely worth it.  Here is the URL of the one in Barcelona in case you are interested in finding out more about the tour:  http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/web/guest/home
Around La Rambla are many tourist attractions; one of which is Merkat la Boquieria.  This is a lively, colorful market selling all kinds of foodstuffs.  In the morning you find butchers and fishmongers selling meat and fish.  You also find fruit stands, vendors selling sausages and ham, which Spaniards claim are better than the Italians'.  I love this market because it is a lively and colorful place and sells all kinds of foodstuffs.

Sagrada Familia Cathedral by Gaudi

MNAC - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Olympic Stadium that hosted the 1991 Olympics

Barri Gothic Cathedral

Vendor selling ham at Merkat la Boqueiria

Fruits of all varieties and color

Nuts and Candies

Barcelona port with cruise ships and containers

Nice is Nice

I am a little behind updating my blog because I have not been able to get a fast network to upload my pictures. I finally found a cafe with fast enough internet to upload some pictures and update my travels.
We had to take 3 trains to get to Nice:  first we took a train from Monterosso to Genova, then Genova to Vertimiglia, which is at the Italian/French border, then from Vertimiglia to Nice.  We arrived at Nice at 11 pm and walked about 10 minutes to the Villa St. Exupery hostel.  This is similar to the hostel we stayed in Athens.  It is very busy with a lot of young people but it's very well efficiently run.  It even has a bar and kitchen that serves a nice dinner for 7 euros.  In the morning it provides free breakfast with 6 different kinds of cereal.  Coffee and tea are available all day.
The staff is mostly British and they know the area well.  They have a lot of suggestions on where to go and what to do.  Monte Carlo is only 30 minutes away by train;  so is Cannes.  There are also a lot of interesting places to go within an hour of Nice.
Nice itself is certainly a very nice French city.  It's a multi-racial city.  You see a lot of Africans, including those from Tunisia and Algeria, Asians, and others.  It has a nice beach where a lot of tourists were sunbathing and swimming.   Along the waterfront, there are also some very nice, big hotels.  In the residential area, there are some very nice old houses as well.  It is a great place to explore the French  Riviera area.  

Nice Waterfront

Pastry Shop in Old Town

Spices for sale in the Fruit and Flower Market

Store specializing in soap products

One of the big hotels along the Nice waterfront

Matisse Museum in Nice

Money talks in Monte Carlo

Cannes

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre means "five lands." It is made up of five villages perched on the side of a stretch of cliffs on the top left of Italy's "boot." The five villages are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Maranola, and Riomaggiore. This could be one of the most beautiful areas in Italy, if not Europe. It is flooded with tourists in the summer and even at this time of the year (October), there are still a lot of tourists. It is especially popular with American tourists; everywhere I went, I hear American accents. At this time of the year, it's mostly older tourists. These have been fishing villages for centuries but tourism is now a big part of the economy. You see a lot of private rooms and apartments for rent. There are also many small hotels and restaurants.  There are also a ton of souvenir shops as well.
We had planned to stay there for only an afternoon, just passing by on the way to Nice.  But when we stopped in Monterosso, I just said this is too beautiful a place to spend just a few hours.  We ended up getting an apartment for the night and spent the night in Monterosso.  I should have planned better and spend maybe 2-3 days there at least.  There is so much to do:  swimming, hiking, just strolling around the towns, boat cruises, going to neighboring villages, etc.  The nice thing is there are five equally beautiful towns and they are all different.   The local trains stop at all the towns so you go from one to another by taking the train.  Or, if you prefer, you can do it the old-fashion way - walk the trails between the towns.  They are not easy hikes though.  As you can see from the pictures below, the towns are high up on the mountains.  I hiked part of the way on one of the trails and the view is just gorgeous.  The first picture below was taken from one of the trails and there were a few photographers waiting for the sun to take a sunset shot of the town of Maranola.

Sunset view of Maranola

Beach at Monterosso

Five Senior Citizens

One of the many cafes

Steps up to the town of Corniglia

A typical street

A bird-eye's view of Vernazza

Coastline

Sea-level view of Vernazza

Tuscany

It was a long train ride from Bari to Bologna. But it was nice seeing the Italian east coast.  We pretty much went from southern to northern Italy.  Bologna is located in the Tuscany region and is well-known for its university, which is the oldest in Europe.  The town has a lot of old buildings and churches.  I walked around the Old Town area most of the day. There were many narrow streets and interesting shops.  This region is known for its ham and cheese and beautiful landscape.  It includes famous towns like Florence, Siena, Parma and Pisa.  I've met many people who rent an apartment or villa and stay in the area for 1 or 2 weeks.
We took the 4 pm train from Bologna to Pisa, which is not too far away.  However, we had to change train a few times.  We checked into a hostel about 1 km from the train station. It's quite a nice hostel and we stayed in a 6-bed room. Ralph and I walked to the Leaning Tower in the morning. It took about 30 minutes but we walked across town and saw different parts of Pisa.  We walked past the University of Pisa, which has several buildings scattered across the city.  It was impressive seeing the the Leaning Tower of Pisa finally. Besides the tower, there is a big church and surrounding them is a wall. At one time this was within a fort. We got there early enough that there were very few tourists. I paid 15 euros to climb all the way up to the tower. Now I can say that I was up in the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  By 9 am the tourists were arriving by the busload.
Our next step is the Cinque Terre area.  This is one of the most beautiful areas in Italy or even the world.  I've heard a lot about it and thought it's worth spending some time there.  This will be in my next post.

Ferry that goes between Italy and Greece

Bar and Lounge on ferry

Fort in Bari

A shrine in a street corner in Bari

Inside the Basilica in Bologna

A Bologna shop selling local ham and other foodstuff

Store selling cheese in Bologna

One of the streets in Bologna

Guess what this is called

Church buildings around the Leaning Tower of Pisa

University of Pisa buildings

Buongiorno!

We finally got into Bologna, Italy, after two days of travel.  We left our hostel in Athens on Saturday morning, took a 3-hour bus to Patras and then waited for a few hours for the ferry to take off at 6 pm.  The ferry finally left Patras after a little delay and travelled all night across the Adriatic Sea and arrived in Bari, Italy at about 9:30 am Sunday morning.  Then we waited about 3 hours for a train to go north to Bologna, which took about 6 hours.  Wow...that was a long stretch of travel.
I was expecting a small ferry but this one is huge.  It took in several tour buses and huge trucks and has room for more.  There were a few hundred people on board.  It's almost like a cruise ship, with restaurants, bar, a small casino, small shop, etc.  Our Eurail Pass gave us free travel on the ferry, although we had to pay Port and Fuel surcharges (about 12 euros each).  If we wanted to sleep on a bed, we'd have to pay another 50 euros or so.  We were given airplane-type seats, which are not the most comfortable for sleeping.  Luckily, the ferry was not full and we were able to stretch across 2 or more seats to sleep.  Surprisingly, I was able to sleep well in spite of the uneven surface and being crunched up.
The food on board was quite good although it's slightly more expensive than what you get in regular restaurants.  Most people just hung around in the lounge or bar areas because there's really nothing to do.  Internet service was available for 3 euros for 120 minutes.
After we arrived in Bari, we had to wait about 3 hours for our train.  We walked around town and had lunch there.  The Italian trains are a lot faster than the Eastern European trains that we've been used to the last 3 weeks.  They are also newer and the seats more comfortable.
We'll stay in Bologna for 1 night and walked around the old town for part of the day on Monday.  Later in the day, we'll take a train to Pisa.

Athens, Greece

Our train finally left Thessaloniki at 12:30 am. The scheduled departure time was supposed to be 11 pm. I think it was a 24-hour strike so they don't actually get back to work until midnight. There was mayhem at the station when we got there a little after 10 pm. We found out later that many people were at the stations to send young men friends or relatives off to the service. We were lucky to find rooms at a hostel when we arrived in Athens in the morning. This is one of the best-run hostels that we've stayed in. Not only that, it's located near a Metro station, a lot of restaurants, a street market, a pedestrian mall, and a flea market. It's also within walking distance from most of the tourist attractions.
As soon as we were ready, we headed towards the famous Acropolis.  Not surprisingly, there were a ton of tourists there and we had to slowly make our way up to the top, where the Parthenon is.  It's hard to believe that after seeing so many pictures of the Parthenon, that I am finally here standing next to it.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I took a lot of pictures of all the tourist attractions.  The hostel has a recommended "City Walk" on its map and I was able to visit most of them, including other historic sites and museums.
The amazing thing is a lot of these archaeological stuff in Greece are dated BC (i.e. Before Christ).  The Greeks have done a very good job of restoring some of these pieces or buildings and some of these artifacts are very good considering that they are at least 2,000 years old.
I am sure most of you have heard of the financial crisis in Europe and Greece is in the middle of it.  Now that we are here, it's not surprising that they have a financial problem.  A lot of Greeks just sit around drinking coffee all day.  The retirement age here is 60 and many people here don't seen to do much.  At the hostel where we are staying, none of the employees are Greek.  On top of that, they are going on strike and demonstrating for whatever causes.
Tomorrow we are taking the bus to Patras, where we'll take a 14-hour ferry ride to Bari, Italy.  From Bari, we'll take the train north to Bologna.

The Parthenon

The Parthenon Theatre where many concerts are held

Temple of Zeuss

Parliament House

Pedestrian Mall (Ermou Street) next to our hostel

Old Church on Ermou Street

Sunset over Agora and the Temple of Hephaestus

Night view of Acropolis from rooftop bar of hostel

Statue of Soldier

Statue of Socrates

Demonstration on the street

Financial PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain) - one is missing