account wont activate

I am trying to activate my account using itunes. when i tried it told me the email was a different one than i knew (it was @icloud) and when i tried using that one, it told me i needed to use an email to confirm the activation, and i thought it would send it to my gmail (the one i use with my ipad usually) however it gave me an @me.com email. I have no idea how to access this email, and i need it to activate my ipad.