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Where in the World is... |
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Colin Schmolin... |
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Menu |
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My 35 day European Contiki Tour... CP 573 |
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May 2, 2002 came rolling and 39 strangers were thrown together onto a bus bound for 35 days of total mayhem. Our first port of call was Paris and we were greeted by the site reps with escargo and French champagne...not as bad as you might think! Paris wasn't meant to be a highlight of my tour but as the second night came, situations certainly changed my perspectives. At the 'La Nouvelle Eve' caberet show, I was asked to come up on stage with Cassim, and 2 other guys to do a dance routine...anyway, I got lucky and won the friggin thing entitling me to a free t-shirt and a baby...5 seconds after the wedding! Had to have been there. |
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Intrepid Travel |
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Lonely Planet |
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STA Travel |
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Rough Guides |
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My Photo page! |
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My Ireland |
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My Austria |
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My Eastern Europe |
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My Scotland |
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My Contiki Europe |
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Above left is a picture of the Louvre...If you spent 1 second at every piece of art there, you'd be there for 9 months! But that's where they keep the Mona Lisa, so that's all you really need to see there. Another interesting but useless fact is that on the Arc de Triomphe (a big friggin round about), all cars on it must give way to cars coming onto it (from all 12 roads leading onto it), and no insurance company covers damage to vehicles that go on the Arc de Triomphe! Crazy Frenchmen! On the left we have 'lovers bridge' looking down towards the 'Egliss du Dome', with its 28 carat gold dome and a circumference of 94m! Isn't this all just amazing! I'm excited! |
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Handy Web Sites |
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My Travel Tips |
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We then headed off to Ax les thermes in the south of France for a wine appreciation night at the campsite. As you can see on the right, we weren't short for variety. But I think some of us got more than our 3-4 share of the booty! From there it was off through Andorra for Duty free shopping (where driver Azza got caught for shoplifting), to Barcelona. |
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Barcelona was a total washout, but at least we scored free cabins out of it (after nearly ending up sleeping in the male shower block). We saw things like Gaudi's Segrada Familia (above, far left), the olympic stadium, and Viv (our supercook) standing in the middle of the road after a night out in town, trying to wave down (or more correctly...tackle) a taxi for all of us. From Barcelona to Antibes and the unreal views of the Riviera really showed. We drank Pina Coladas at the Monte Carlo Grand Casino, visited Cannes a week prior to the Film festival, and again got washed out of our tents...and it was off to Florence via Pisa, where the mandatory pose was made (left). |
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The Space Electronic nightclub in Florence was a blur for some reason, but I'm sure we had fun as usual. All I remember is Mik dancing topless on one of the podiums and almost getting into a fight with a bunch of 13yo Italians. From Florence to Rome. And probably one of the craziest underground metros in Europe. |
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Rome ended up being one of the highlights of the tour without a doubt, with everything I'd heard about in books and movies coming to life. Although the Colosseum wasn't as big as I'd expected, I wasn't too disappointed as I made a new best friend...gelati. The second night in Rome was spent back at camp with a 'P-party' so everyone dressed up in things starting in the letter P, and I came as a pot-bellied piss-wreck. Later on though, you would have seen that I didn't need to dress up as I took on the character of a piss-wreck anyway! Thanks for making me chug down that cup of god-knows what Azza! Everything after that drink was a bit of a blur...and the morning after wasn't so great either. |
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Next...> |
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