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    April 06

    Time Zones

    Here is a general listing of the time differences for Seattle:
     
    Italy--9 hours ahead
    Greece--10 hours ahead
    Switzerland--9 hours ahead
    France--9 hours ahead
    Spain--9 hours ahead
    Portugal--8 hours ahead
     
    I didn't look to see how the entire countries fared with the difference but at least where I am going in those places, that is the difference.  Seattle is 5 hours ahead of Greenwhich time.  Here's what the time difference means for friendly phone calls I'll be making. . .
    8am in Italy is 5pm Seattle
    1pm in Italy is 10pm Seattle
    10pm in Italy is 7am Seattle
    3:31 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | General Trip Info
    February 28

    My Trip Itinerary

    Here is a day by day account of my trip as planned so far.  I'm sure there will be small changes as I go (especially when I'm there) but this will give all of you who are really curious a good preview. . .
     
    General outline:  11 week trip starting in Italy, go to Greece, then to France, hop to Switzerland for a few days, back to the southern part of France then to Spain finishing off with the last week in Portugal.
     
    • Wed 4/11/2007--fly out of Seattle at 6:50p, layover in Copenhagen, Denmark, land in Milan, Italy 6:55p on Thu Apr 12 (9hour time difference, about 13 hours of flight time)
    • Th 4/12-Sat 4/15 Milan, Italy (3 nights)
    • Sun 4/15 am train to Verona for 1/2 a day, train to Padua 1/2 day (1 night)
    • Mon 4/16-Wed 4/19 bus to Venice and explore Venice (3 nights)
    • Thu 4/19-Mon 4/24 train to Cinque Terre, the Italian Riviera, visit Bologna on the way, explore 5 towns of Cinque Terra, day trips to La Spezia, Carrara and/or Portovenere, staying in Monterosso (5 nights)
    • Tue 4/24-Sun 4/29 train to Pisa then to Florence, meet friend Elizabeth in Florence (5 nights)
    • Sun 4/29 drive car through hill towns of Italy to spend night in Siena (1 night)
    • Mon 4/30 explore more hill towns by car and spend night in Assisi (1 night)
    • Tue 5/1-Sun 5/6 drive to Rome, visit Vatican City, day trip to Pompeii outside of Naples (5 nights)
    • Sun 5/6-Tue 5/8 I fly to Athens, Greece in am, Elizabeth goes to England, (2 nights)
    • Tue 5/8-Thu 5/10 drive to Napflion, day trip to Mycenae and Epidavros (2 nights)
    • Thu 5/10-Sun 5/13 fly to Mykonos Island, party, party, relax, party (3 nights)
    • Sun 5/13-Wed 5/16 fly or ferry to Santorini Island (3 nights)
    • Wed 5/16-Mon 5/21 fly to Paris, France, day trip to Versailles (5 nights)
    • Mon 5/21-Wed 5/23 train to Chamonix, gondola up Mont Blanc (2 nights)
    • Wed 5/23-Thu 5/24 train to Geneva, Switzerland (1 night)
    • Thu 5/24-Sat 5/26 train to Gimmelwald, stay in mountain hut hostel, hike alps (2 nights)
    • Sat 5/26-Thu 5/31 train through Italy to Nice, France in the French Riviera, visit Cannes on last day of film festival, Antibes, Villefranche Sur Mer and Monaco (5 nights)
    • Thu 5/31-Sun 6/3 train to Marseille, explore, rent and drive car to Arles, trips to Avignon, winery route, Pont du Gard, Orange, Nimes
    • Sun 6/3-Mon 6/4 drive to Coullioure (1 night)
    • Mon 6/4-Thu 6/7 drive to Barcelona, Spain (3 nights)
    • Thu 6/7-Sun 6/10 fly to Ibiza, party, party, relax, party (3 nights)
    • Sun 6/10-Fri 6/15 fly to Barcelona, take overnight train to Madrid, day trips to Segovia and Toledo
    • Fri 6/15-Mon 6/18 highspeed train to Sevilla (3 nights)
    • Mon 6/18-Tue 6/20 bus to White Hill Towns/Andalucia (Ronda) then to Granada, visit Alhambra (2 nights)
    • Wed 6/20-Fri 6/22 long day of train/bus travel to Lagos, Portugal, the Portuguese Riviera (2 nights)
    • Fri 6/22-Sat 6/23 bus to Salema (1 night )
    • Sat 6/23-Tue 6/26 train to Lisbon, day trip to Sintra
    • Tue 6/26 early flight home 7a with layover in Frankfurt, Germany and then Chicago to arrive home in Seattle Wed 6/27 at 7:00p
    Doesn't this sound so cool?????  I'm not going into all of the specifics here for you because I'll try to update at least weekly with what I did each day at each place in a new blog.  Not going to give too much detail but enough that you can know where I've been and what I've been up to.  Will also update with pics of areas as I go too.  Just don't want to spend all of my time in internet cafes--there's a giant continent for me to explore!
    As of today I have hotel/hostel reservations secured up through May 31st with 2 days of Greece still up in the air (hopefully worked out later today!).  In case you are curious, and because I would be. . . I'm trying to do the trip on $100 a day plus travel costs.  That ends up at approx 78 euros a day as the current exchange rate is 1 euro = $1.28 USD.  My hotel/hostel accomodations are averaging $40/night with 2/3 of my trip figured out.  Tickets roundtrip from Seattle were $1262 and I'm at about $400 more in airline tickets to get me from Rome to Athens, Athens to Mykonos, Mykonos to Santorini, Athens to Paris and roundtrip from Barcelona to Ibiza. 
    Everyone asks me about the Eurail Pass and I'm probably just going to get a France-Spain pass as all of the other train trips I'm taking do not cost enough (since my distances between places are so reasonable) to justify the cost.  Might even do a rail/rental combo.  Still working that part out.
    3:58 PM | Add a comment | Read comments (5) | Permalink | Blog it | General Trip Info