Italy!

Dear visitor,


as you know I went to Italy for one week. I took the ferry from Croatia to Italy. It was my first time in this kind of boat; you know it is like a building floating on the sea….but how? Can someone explain that to me, I mean how such a boat can float? This boat was carrying at least 10 buses, 60 cars and so many people…incredible. In this huge boat I got lost and I ended up in a cabin reserved for the crew!!! I then spent my evening with the technicians!!! It was quite funny; they talked to me about their job, which is very tough. They work for 2 month in a row then have 2 months off. But they sail everywhere, they went to so many different places, countries, continents! How cool is that?!
After a short night on the ferry where I met an American girl we decided to travel together to Rome or the Eternal City.
Roma the Capital of Italy, it has been the seat of the ancient Rome and the Papal States.
It is a city of history; Rome was the city of the Roman Catholic Church.
I spent two days there, I saw the international symbol of Rome: the Colosseum which is an amphitheatre built in the 70s AD (Roman Empire), it was mainly used for gladiatorial combat.
As I was very close from the Roman Forum I went up the Palatine hill and admired the beautiful view of the ancient central area of Rome. The Roman Forum used to be a place where commerce, business and the administration of justice took place. Now it is just some ruins but you can just imagine all these different places, temples, arches, basilicas. It was huge ……I felt one more time sooo tiny!!!
After that I went to another city no….. to another State in the center of Rome…do you get it? Do you know where I have been to? I went to the Vatican City State…. I did not get any stamp on my passport I was so so sad about it…..but I can understand it was too crowded! This place is very crowded of tourists! This state is even called the microstate of the EU. Do you know who is the “president” of the state? It is the Pope! He lives there with his friends the clergymen!
The Vatican is the capital of the Catholic Church.
I stayed on the Piazza san Pietro a few minutes looking at the basilica….was beautiful and HUGE! I entered the basilica, I was so glad I did not wear a tin top this day and a skirt, my friend Angie from America was refused because of her naked shoulders! Such a pity for her, I felt so sad. Then I decided to go alone, to climb the Capitol more than 550 stairs! ouahhh I made it! I was so glad… I am getting good now with walking climbing sledging…. You know I turned 4 months yesterday… and I am still fresh as a daisy!
After the Basilica I went to the Sistine Chapel where I admired Michel Angelo, Botticeli and Bernini’s wonderful paintings. It is said it is the most beautiful art in the world. I went also to the Vatican museum then I walked back to the Hotel walking by the Trevi Fountains, the Pantheon and so many different places. I then had a wonderful dinner with 2 Italians guys, really nice guys, I had some delicious appetizers and a yummy delicious pizza and of course I finished my meal with a awesome gelateria! An ice cream!!! Bouah I felt to full after that….I could even walked….then the nice Italians guys drove me back home!! So cute hein?
After this hard and very hot day I had a wonderful night! The next morning I woke up and took a train to Grosseto in Toscana. Miki was waiting for me at the station with one of her friend. We then drove to a little village in the mountains where I chilled for the week end. I spent my week end in this wine and olive oil cellar…..was so interesting! I learnt how to make wine and some oil. If you want to know just let me know I will tell you!
I also went to the terms you know to the thermal baths…was awesome!
I had such a great time there with my new Italians friends!
On Sunday we drove North to Lecco where I enjoyed the magic lake “laco di como”, was just gorgeous, I saw a beautiful sunset from there too. The lake is the 3rd biggest one in Italy so petty!
I also went to Milano the asphalt city!! Some buildings are very very beautiful like the Galeria, the basilica called the factory because it is all the time under construction, the Scala, the Castle and of course the many many shops! I had a wonderful time shopping in Milano….I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty woman!!
I went to Mozarella bar for lunch it was so good so healthy and so beautiful! I loved it! Thanks for the good tip Miki!!
People in Milano are very trendy it was amazing….I got a new outfit too…I will show you quite soon! You will see…It is the “must have” for these summer 2006!

This is my week in Italy…. oups I forgot I had a lot of delicious pasta in Italy….PASTA TIME!!!! So good!! I fell in love with the Italian food!

Yesterday I took a plane to Paris and a train to the West part on France in a region called Bretagne. I will travel around there too, chill and play on the beach with the kids. I will give you some news quite soon!

Enjoy the wonderful weather!

Take care

Ciao

Sofie

And these are the guys at Robinson bay. They have a restaurant there, and serve the best fish in the world! Plus the atmosphere is incredibly relaxed! 

Alright as an illustration...this was the boat I rented to get around the islands of Hvar. With that boat we got to Robinson's bay! 

The ancient city of Dubrovnik in Croatia 

Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia 

So Zagreb....

Dear visitor,

as promised an update, where was I? So much happend in between.
Zagreb, I arrived pretty late at the train station after an interesting trip with some Americans, Croatians and a Japanese guy. The dad of one of the Croatians was waiting for us at the station and offered to help us out with the hostel I booked. Well I managed myself in the end. Btw, I can really recommend the Buzz Hostel in Zagreb. It is actually the only one, and much better than the youth hostel there. But anyways. The Croatian guy, Luciano also offered to show us around the next day in Zagreb. So we met at 10 a.m. to have a quick walk through the city. The strikes the most is the incredible amount of bars, pubs, restaurants, and outside seatings in Zagreb. It seems that nobody is working but just having a drink with friends on a terras! Really nice to see that Croatians like to spend their time outside.
Other than the amount of pubs, the city itself is very nice too. It is not as big as Budapest or Prague, but has some interesting views and buildings. Up the hill is a very nice church and the parlamentary building. Actually you can come really close there and for a sec I thought I could spot some hot-shot politician..but in the end it was just a security guard.

Well I walked around for a bit, had some coffee and lunch and decided to stay another day in the hostel. The next day I wanted to leave early to take a bus to Plitvice National Park, a few hours south of Zagreb. The entire site is listed as a UNESCO Natural Heritage and well protected. The park consists of a trillion lakes, waterfalls and exotic flora and fauna! A lot of fishes, the most clear blue water I have ever seen and idyllic pathways throughout the entire park. I walked around there for about 6 hours and took some wonderful photos. I will upload those later since I don't have my cable at the moment, sorry for that.

Anyways, in the afternoon I managed to catch a bus to Zadar, which is a town near the coast, a 3 hours busride again from Plitvice. I was tired of all the walking anyways, so I couldn't care about yet another busride. When I got to Zadar I experienced the first private accommodation, a common way of providing and renting accommodation in Croatia. I walked around for a short while there and ate my first Croatian fish. They are really good at grilling them: the fish is always fresh, cheap and well prepared, I loved it!

The day after I took another bus, this time to Split, because from Split are many ferries to a lot of islands near the coast. I walked around in Split for a few hours waiting for my boat and have to say that Split looks nice too! Just like all the Croatian places I been to, the city had an old town and, small narrow streets. All in all really nice. Still I cannot say much about it, since I had only a few hours. I got to the harbour again to catch my ferry to Hvar. As said in the book, the island promised to be the island with the most sunhours in Croatia or even Europe! Wow, I would love that! And it was, on the boat I met two funny English guys with whom I stuck around for 4 days in the end. We rented two rooms in a private house again, pretty close to the 'centre'. The village is very small, but lively and trendy. Some clubs, bars and pubs and and a lot of young people enjoying party. But also an idyllic harbour where we rented a small boat to go around the island and small islands along the coastline.

And that is when I got to Robinson's bay... geezzz....the bay was only to be reached by boat, there was no road to it. And some laidback dude opened a restaurant there. Imagine the blue lagoon, white beach, clear blue water, some small boats, the best fish ever, relax atmosphere, sunshine, and silence...got that? Well that is what it was!! Amazing! I will show a picture of the dude soon! Well anyways, we floated around in our little boat and finally headed back to the main island.

Btw, sorry for the long story, but I just saw so much, it is hard to tell everything in short!

From Hvar I took another ferry to the next island, Korcula. The English guys joined me again to Korcula, and again we found some accommodation for all of us together. Right in town, a beautiful house, big and with our own kitchen, BBQ and living room. Really nice. Also the lady told us some interesting stories about her life. She was from Kosovo and experienced some hard times there during wartime. But now she was all happy, married and had a young child.
We decided to stay there for two nights, just to chill out and watch some football matches... World Cup fever, it's truely universal!

Korcula itself was less interesting or exciting, but a good place to chill out and relax. Beach, rocks, sun etc. holiday feeling all the way. From Korcula I took a bus to Dubrovnik, and the English guys went to Split to catch a flight home. Lots of people told me Dubrovnik is beautiful and I have to admit right away, it is! The tourist kind of spoil the views and authentic sights of the city, but still, the beauty of so much history and old buildings is astonishing.
The old town was ruined twice, once by an earthquake in 1667 and once by the Yugoslavian army in 1991. Luckily the old city is repaired with help of UNESCO (since the entire old town is listed as a UNESCO world heritage). The city looks just as it was meant to look like when it was originally built! Really amazing. The fortified walls around it, the views at the town, with the sea in the background, islands. You have to see that for yourself. Still I will give you a photo impression soon.

Well I only spent a day in Dubrovnik, in the evening I took a ferry to Bari, Italy. And Italy is where I still am. I will give you an update from there soon!

Chao,

Sofie

Budapest (2)

My very own Crown Jewels, I wish...but I guess they would look good on me!

Budapest

Look, here I am watching the parliament from the Buda part of the city. Awesome view again!

Check out the view in Bratislava!

Second episode of Eastern Europe trip

Dear visitor,

as promised another update, this time from Zagreb in Croatia...but wait, there has happend a lot in between...
So I went from Chemnitz in Germany to Prague again, actually nothing special was going on, except fro waiting fro another connection to Bratislava. I arrived in Bratislava late in the evening, which is always the best thing to do if you did not book accomodation yet...NOT. So I had a nice walk to all the three hostels in town and none of them had a spare bed for me. I was really sad but luckily the last guy in the hostel hooked me up with a very Soviet-hotel somewhere way out of the city centre. Well it would be for one night only so I could not care much for it.
I woke up quite early to visit the town, but actually the capital of Slovakia is not that big. I went up to the castle which is one of the most important sight seeing spots in Bratislava. From the 1st to the 5th centuries the castle was a frontier post of the Roman Empire and has been rebuilt several times since the 9th century. It was the seat of the Hungarian royalty until it burnt down in 1811.
After that I had a nice walk along the Danube.
In the evening I took a train to Budapest in Hungary where I spent 2 wonderful days, It was just awesome, the people were very friendly....the buildings sooooo Huge and pretty, the hostel where I stayed was also very nice. If you ever want to go to Budapest go to Catherina Hostel.
In budapest I walked quite a lot, I went to the Parliament the 3rd biggest Parliament in the world. It is a gothic style, check out the pictures. I also went inside.....you should have seen that ..it was full of gold every where....red carpet...I felt like a little princess....my crown was also waiting for me!!! there are 60kg of gold used in the construction of the parliament.....the gold was reflecting in my little pot...soooo pretty!!!
After the parliament I went up the hill to the royal palace and the castle, one more time it was gorgeous.......I loved it. Even if the hill was quite hard to climb for my little pot when I got there...the view was juste amazing... As I was so excited about this city I wanted to see as much I could, then after the hill I went to Szent Istvan Bazilika with its huge chapel where I saw the mummified right hand of St Stephen, then I went to the synagogue, I admired the twins towers built in the middle of the 19th century. At the synagogue I also went to the museum where they exhibit on the Holocaust.
After such a tiring day I chilled in the city park where the beautiful and relaxing the Szechenyi Furdo baths stand.

I bought a ticket to Zagreb in Croatia, at the moment I am chatting in the train with some people from 3 differents continents, we created our own united nations.
I will keep updated soon.

ciao

Sofie

Me in Dresden

Here I am checking out the Frauenkirche and the Royal art academy of Dresden

What a beautiful panorama of Prague!

Grand summer trip through Europe

Hello,

Last Monday I flew from Alkmaar to Prague with Arjan. At the airport I met Aurore, a girl who studied last semester in Estonia with Arjan and Bjorn, she flew from Paris to Prague.

The three of us will travel through Europe for 2 weeks, that sounds so cool! I am so excited about it.

We will stay two days in Prague then go to Chemnitz where Caro, Martin and Mirko live and then go to Slovakia then to Budapest then I will finish my trip in Croatia.

Ok, right now I am in Chemnitz in Germany where I am enjoying the first football game of the world football championship.

Lets tell you what I have done for the last few days. In Prague I have seen and done quite a lot things, I crossed Charles Bridge, the oldest bridge of Prague, it has been destroyed in 1342 in a flood and rebuilt by Charles IV four years after. The bridge is one of the most famous sight seing in Prague therefore it was crowded with tourists. After that I went up the hill to the castle, from there I had a wonderful view above Prague's roofs. I also saw St Nicholas Cathedral, it was huge! You know I have seen so many churches during my different trips but this gothic style Cathedral was massive, I felt so tiny next to it.

I went then to the National Museum, the hall was quite nice, red carpet, chandeliers; the museum in itself was so that cool, it was poor stuffed animals and rocks.

After this tiring afternoon I decided to have a little snack in a Czech Bakery, Arjan and Aurore were so busy talking about the trip then I decided to have a little chat with the local people in the bakery, you learn so much more when you are talking to local people. But as I was so busy talking and the guys a little bit tired they forgot me in the bakery! I spent the night in the bakery!!It was very interesting there I learnt how to make patistries and cakes I had so much fun. I ate a lot of stuff too... it was soooooo yummy!! The ladies there took care of me, they even gave me a little spring haircut!! How cute!

I stayed in a hostel where I met so many people from so many countries, I met a Canadian guy who is going to travel through Europe and Egypt this summer, he proposed me to join him but as my schedule is very tight for the next coming few weeks I could not join but next year he told me that he will travel in Asia maybe I will go with him and discover a culture that I do not know yet as I missed my plane to Japan in April.

Wednesday I took the train to Chemnitz where I scared Caro and Martin to death.... they did not know that I was coming to pay them a visit!! I loved it was so funny!

As Chemnitz is only 45 min away from Dresden we drove there. I have seen quite of lot of this city which has been destroyed during the WW2. The buildings where massive too, the opera, the theatre, the park, the Cathedral, the art building , All the buldings are from different periods then the styles are different, Renaissance period, gothic, it is quite a beautiful mix.

Tomorrow I will take a bus to Prague then one to Brastilava.

I will try to update my blog quite soon to let you know where I am.

Have fun!

Chao

Sofie

In Alkmaar with my good friend Tobias! 

the last estonian chapter

Ok as you red flew Björn to Estonia to rescue me, but he didn’t come just to pick me up. He came to visit his (lazy, unorganized…. ) friends and to see Estonia in spring, after he and all his friends survived the really strong and long Estonian winter.

On his 2^nd day he went with a friend of us to the university library to check some stuff, actually it was quite boring there, because every body was working and it was so silent there !!AWFUL!!

One day later Aldo, Björn, Chechu, Dato, Leo, and I went to Pärnu. (Pärnu is the summer capital of Estonia and it is situated in the west, in the bay of Riga) Because “Ferry Corsten”, a really famous Dutch DJ, played in club sunset and it was very funny there, but sadly we couldn’t make any pics in club, because the “nice” Falk guy advised us to leave this undone, otherwise he will take the camera and break our knees. Ok never mind it were a really great party and I was so smashed when we came back to our beds (by the way, thanks a lot to Riin and Pirjo for the nice accommodation and the maintenance, which we all got. I’m pretty sure we will meet us some day again J). The day after was really calm, because I had a little hangover and so we went only to the beach and in the evening we watched the “Eurovision Song Contest”, actually I liked the song from Lithuania best, but I couldn’t vote, because I don’t have a phone L . At the next day we went back to Tartu and Marge and Björn brought me to the post office from where I flew to the NL, finally!!!! I won’t say anything bad about Estonia. Seriously I like this little, cute country really much, but now it’s enough. I want to travel, I want to see as much as possible in my “life” and I don’t want to settle on one place such a long time again.

Right now I’m staying in Alkmaar (NL), waiting for Arjan and our plane to the next adventure!!!!

Ok guys I have to leave, but I hope you liked this little story and I promise I will upload the next story soon…………… just check the page!!!!!

Ciao

Finally chilling at Parnu Beach! 

Studying in the University Library in Tartu 

I met some friends in Italy too! 

I'm still alive and I start to travel again, after a long break ;)

Well, long time ago Me, Aldo and Leo left Tartu on the 6th of April. Our destination was London. Actually we've been one day in Riga but we couldn't take pictures...battery low and we took unfortunately just 2 pictures in London, because my friends were every time to wasted for making pics!! But anyway we had a really good time there and I enjoyed it a lot….

Finally, on the 9th, Aldo and Me ...after that we lost a plane :) ... arrived in Sardinia. Where Aldo had a pit-stop at the airport, someone should tell him that he cannot fly with all kinds of plants he wants…not everybody could be so beautiful like ME (eheheheheh)…Anyway it was all right ...9 days in Sardinia, and we went back to Tartu.

And then I remained (more then 1 month) in Mongol's flat until my saviour Björn on the 20th of May liberated me, because the guys in Raatuse 22 (I wont say any names) aren’t able to bring me to the post office, from where I wanted to go back to the NL…………. so I missed a lot of really nice trips and experiences, but I don’t blame somebody for this. The guys in Estonia are just really unorganized, lazy and wasted and they didn’t understand the passion which I have………….

Chilling in beautiful Italy 

Me and one of those lazy Italians in London.....