13
August
2008
I’m feeling so lethargic, but I thought I should jot some things down about the last few days of our trip before I forget.
We overslept big time on our last day in Paris. I think I slept in until about noon or so. We didn’t manage to leave until about 1. We must have been exhausted. We grabbed (yet another) croissant and headed to the Musee d’Orsay. This museum begins where the Louvre ends. There were lots of realist, pre-impressionist, impressionist and art nouveau paintings! All my favs! Wee!!! Kyle actually enjoyed the Louvre more than the Musee d’Orsay, and I felt the opposite. What can I say, I’m a sap for impressionism. The thing that pissed me off was that everyone was obsessed with taking pictures of the paintings. I don’t understand what the point of that is… there are plenty of pictures of those paintings. The whole point of going to museums is to enjoy the paintings in real life. What bothered me about it was that I really wanted to look at the paintings up close, but people were so obsessed with taking pictures so I felt I had to back off. Anyhoo, it was a blast despite all that.
Next we decided to walk along the Seine and take in all of Paris. The sun was setting so we decided to spend our last night in Paris on a boat that went from the Eiffel Tower to the tip of the Ile Saint Louis. It was gorgeous, but what made the trip great was the tour guide. Her English was terrible and she sounded like a robot. Kyle and I had great fun imitating her.
After the cruise we continued walking around the city and we came upon a gelato stand! I had coffee gelato and Kyle had chocolate (big surprise!). It was delicious! It was getting pretty late, so we decided to turn in for the night, as we had to leave relatively early the next day.
The next day we pretty much went straight to the train station to go back to London. It was a good thing we did that, because getting through customs was pretty traumatizing. There were people everywhere and the British customs guy was pretty mean. He was drilling Kyle pretty hard with questions. Poor Boo. When we got back in London we went straight to the nearest pub. This was quite an interesting experience. Kyle had a hard time communicating with the girls at the counter. He ordered me a hard cider, but they gave us an orange juice with sparkling water in it. I seriously just chuckled out loud as I typed that. Why on earth did she give us that? I don’t understand! Especially because they had hard cider there! Kyle ordered a porter for himself, and she looked at him like he was crazy. She said, “we don’t have anything like that.” Kyle replied, “well… it’s on the menu…” She had a confused look on her face so Kyle just said, “whatever,” and he ordered something else. It was a very odd experience.
Next we went to the British Library. This was one of my favorite things we did. We saw some of Shakespeare’s original folios, as well as some of Wordsworth, Austen, Bronte, and Milton’s original writing. This was so neat- it was great to see that my heroes were actual real people that wrote down their stories with ink and paper. We also saw some of the Beatles’ songs scribbled on napkins and the back of birthday cards. It was so so so awesome. We also saw the original Magna Carta, and one of the original Gutenberg bibles. I know, I’m a nerd, but I thought all of this was so cool!
At this point, we decided we ought to check out the train schedule and get to our hotel near Gatwick airport. I was pretty sad leaving. I was realizing that our wonderful vacation was coming to an end. The train ride to Gatwick airport was nice. We got to see some of the English countryside. We got off at the Gatwick airport stop, and decided we would walk to our hotel, as it was less than a mile away. I can’t even explain how wrong we were when we thought this was possible. We asked about 4 or 5 airport employees how to get to the road and they each gave us different directions. We simply couldn’t figure out how to leave the damn airport!!! After about an hour, we still made absolutely no progress. We had no will power left at this point, so we decided to take an 11 pound cab ride to our hotel that was a mile away. Wah! We were pissed but we also didn’t care. We were just so glad to be in our hotel. We watched an episode of BBC’s the Dragon’s Den (fabulous show!), and then went downstairs to the restaurant for a couple of drinks. They were playing music videos from the 80’s, and Kyle and I had great fun making fun of them. I’m sure others weren’t amused by us. Oh well.
The hotel had a shuttle that goes straight to the airport for only 3 pounds, so we were stoked about that. We were out of cash, so we went to the ATM outside of the hotel to get money for the shuttle, but for some reason, our ATM cards wouldn’t work! Since we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, there was no way we could get cash. MEH! So the next morning, we had to pay another 11 pounds for a taxi to take us a mile away. We were so irritated, but there was nothing else we could do. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We went through security and found out that our flight was delayed. This was a bit of a bummer, but it gave me time to shop!
The flight was pretty bad. It’s pretty hard to sit and do nothing for over 9 hours. I watched Made of Honor (horrible beyond words), Kung Fu Panda (cute!) and the Cosby Show (hilarious!). Since our flight was delayed, we were worried that we wouldn’t make our connecting flight in Texas. We were pretty nervous when we were in the line for Customs. I thought the U.S guys would be mean to us and drill us with questions, but they weren’t bad at all.
We didn’t see one Mexican restaurant in all of London or Paris (Kyle was going through withdrawals), so during our layover in Texas we got some veggie burritos for dinner, which ended up being completely disgusting. For some reason Kyle and I didn’t have seats together on our ride home, which made the flight horrible for both of us. I do have to give Kyle credit for dealing with a much worse flight than me though… Mine was bad because I was freezing and incredibly tired (but couldn’t sleep), but Kyle had to sit for 3 and half hours and listen to some guy blab his ears off. This guy talked about everything from geology to aerodynamics. Poor Kyle! Haha!
It was truly nice to get back home. It was even more nice to see my baby! I could tell she missed me as much as I missed her. It was great to sleep in our own bed.
To be honest, I’m having a pretty hard time adjusting to normal life. I feel like I’ve been in a fairyland for 10 days, and now I’m back to reality, which is pretty hard. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get over it.
I slept A LOT yesterday. And I watched a lot of Project Runway. A LOT. Oh god, I love that show.
Anyway, the trip was a dream. It was even better than I could have ever expected it to be. And yes, I do want to go back. Anyone want to contribute to the Take Kyle and Tara Back to Europe Fund? 
Posted: London, Paris, Vacation
6
August
2008
We’re waiting for our train for Paris so I thought I’d give an update.
Yesterday was pretty wet. It didn’t pour rain by any means, but it sprinkled on us pretty much the whole day. We went to Buckingham, which was pretty cool, and then we walked from Green Park to Hyde Park. We were pretty hungry so we walked uptown, which soon proved to be disastrous. This part of London was very upscale. We felt so incredibly out of place. We couldn’t afford any of the food either, so we hopped the Tube back over to Hyde Park. This area was even more upscale! D’oh! So we just walked around Hyde Park a little, and took the Tube back to Victoria where we belong. We ended up eating at the Shakespeare. I had a delicious falafel burger, which up until now I had never heard of. Then we decided to go to Piccadilly Circus and watch The Dark Knight. That movie was shockingly awesome! It was so dark and creepy! I loved it. It’s kind of weird that we watched two Heath Ledger movies while we’ve been in London. He carried both films too…
We came home to our last night in our god awful hotel. I’m so glad to be out of that hell hole!
Today we took the Tube to St. Pancras, where we stored our “baggage” and then headed over to the British Museum. That place is so amazing, yet extremely overwhelming. There was far too much to see in one day. We did the best we could though. It was great.
Now we’re chilling at St. Pancras, waiting for our train for Paris! Wish us luck!
Posted: London, Vacation
5
August
2008
Did I mention that we love the Tube? The subway system they have here is so awesome. It makes the whole city so seamlessly accessible.
Yesterday was another wonderful day. We took the Tube straight to Wesminster. Wow, that place is gorgeous. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures inside (although that didn’t stop some people!). We did the little audio tour, which was pretty cool. Poet’s corner was really neat. It’s really weird to think of all of the dead people that are in there. It’s quite macabre when you think about it. Churches are pretty creepy in general though. When we were done exploring, I lit a candle and we left. We walked around that area for awhile, and then we took the Tube to the Tower of London.
We stopped at a street cafe before we went to the Tower. We shared a delicious piece of coconut flan and we both had some coffee. The Tower is freaking huge. I had no idea it was that big. We wandered around for awhile and then we went to see the crown jewels. Kyle wasn’t to excited about this, but for some reason I was. Man those monarchs like their bling! We also went to the Bloody Tower, where prisoners were tortured. They had some replicas of various torture devices. That was really cool (although, not for the prisoners, I’m sure…).
From their we hauled ass to Dr. Johnson’s house. It was closing soon and I really wanted to see it. We went in 20 minutes before they closed and the woman behind the counter didn’t understand why we would want to pay to go in for only 20 minutes. She couldn’t understand anything we said! I said that I would rather go in for 20 minutes, than not go in at all. She kept insisting that there was a lot to see. We went in anyway- it was hilarious because there really wasn’t anything to see! I mean, it was cool because it was his house, and it was neat to imagine him living there, but there wasn’t much to it. I asked Kyle what on earth that woman thought would take up so much time? Ha! Oh well. After we left we went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, the old stomping ground of Johnson, Dickens, and others. This place was awesome. I wish we had pubs like this in Davis! I had some hard cider (my new favorite drink! It’s like having beerless beer! Delish!) and Kyle of course had a few pints, and we split some “chips.”
We walked around outside of St. Paul’s cathedral, but we didn’t have time to go in. Since we’re going to Notre Dame and Ste Chappelle, I thought we could skip touring St. Paul’s. It was magnificent from the outside though. I’m sure it’s gorgeous inside. Oh well, we can’t go everywhere!
We pretty exhausted at this point, but we didn’t want to go to our coffin of a hotel room. So we decided to take the tube back into Westminster. We crossed one of the bridges, and watched the sunset behind the House of Parliament and Big Ben. What a beautiful site!
Side anecdote- after drinking at the pub, Kyle had to pee (again) when we got into Westminster. But the side of the Thames we were on isn’t very touristy, so there was no where for him to go. While I claimed a bench for us, he tried to find a bathroom, but to no avail. He was faced with a decision- either pee outside in the park, or go into the Children’s Hospital that was right there and use their toilet. In an attempt to avoid being arrested for being lewd in public, he went into the Children’s Hospital! A security guard asked him if he was a visitor, and Kyle said “no, I just really have to go to the bathroom! Can I please use your toilet!” The guard took pity on him and said, “okay, but you really need to ask. You can’t just come in like that.” Kyle was humiliated.
It was getting pretty late, and my feet hurt really bad, so we went the Waterloo station to go home for the night. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then came home. It’s really weird, our first night at this hotel was freezing, but the past two nights have been so freaking hot. Let me tell you, it is not fun to be in such a small, windowless space when it’s that hot. Oh well, at least our hotel in Paris will be a real hotel. I can stand this place for one more night.
I’m so sad that we have to leave London tomorrow. I’m pretty nervous about going to Paris. It’s hard enough communicating with people in London!
Posted: London, Vacation
3
August
2008
What a lovely day in London.
Kyle and I are totally in love with London. Yesterday, it was just a crush, today it’s true love.
We left a bit too late to make it to King Lear on time. We had to skip breakfast and we were still 20 minutes late. I had to buy groundling tickets (standing tickets… only 5 pounds) because all of the seats were sold out. About 20 minutes into the play I started feeling light headed and queazy and I broke out into a cold sweat. A combination of my horrid condition, seeing the painful look on Kyle’s face (since we were late he had absolutely no clue what was going on), and also knowing that we were going to have to stand for the next 3 hours, convinced me that I had to get out of there (oh yeah, and it was sprinkling on us too!). We went inside the Globe center, got some water and chilled out for a few minutes. At that point I realized that I hadn’t had enough food or water, and that’s probably why I was feeling so bad. I decided that it would be best to skip the play and go find something to eat. We went to a nearby restaurant, and as soon as I had some water and nutrients I felt 100% better. I was bummed we had to miss the play, but I knew that it was better that we did. The Globe theater is awesome though. And the few minutes we did see the play were great.
After we ate we decided to walk along the South Bank. There were lots of shops and street performers. This is a really cool part of London. We saw the Tower Bridge so we decided we should cross it and then go to the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge is awesome- very weird and gaudy, true to Victorian form. We got there when a large ship passed by, so they actually drew up the bridge (is that how you say it?). What a treat!
The Tower of London is amazing. Why don’t we make prisons like that anymore? There was only an hour until closing, so we decided we would wait until tomorrow to go inside. The City (the area we were in), is very odd. There’s quite a contrast between old and new. There’s the Tower on one side, and then the financial district with large glass buildings on the other. We walked around a little more and started to feel peckish, so we took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus. We found an authentic British pub, and Kyle had a couple of pints. I nursed on one, and still couldn’t drink the whole thing. It was very… British tasting. The bartender actually warned Kyle that Americans typically don’t like that kind of beer. He assured her that he liked it. I felt stupid that I couldn’t even drink half of mine. The kitchen had already closed so we had to go elsewhere for food. We decided to take the Tube back home and eat at Victoria station. After we ate (I had some killer baked macaroni and cheese) we stopped at a little convenient store and got some water, tea and British candy. Chocolate covered honey comb is to die for!
Even though we didn’t really do anything, it was such a wonderful day. This city has a certain charm to it that just sucks you in. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. The best think to do in London is to walk around- there’s always something wonderful around the corner.
We’ve gotten quite used to the Tube system. We’re practically pros! It’s actually very simple once you get the hang of it. It’s so easy to go anywhere once you understand how it works. Thank god, because those cab rides were getting to be expensive!
It’s really funny that I can’t understand anything the locals say. It’s pretty embarrassing and frustrating. It’s really fun to pay attention to all of things that are different here. To name a few- their keyboards (for computers) are weird, the keys are in different places (not the letters, of course)- they don’t automatically give you water when you go restaurants- the speaker at the Tube station says “mind the doors” as they close- their coffee is actually a freshly pulled shot of espresso with water, it is SO incredibly delicious. There are weird things like that everywhere, I just can’t remember them all now. Oh yeah, they put beans on everything. They have “jacket potatoes,” which are actually just baked potatoes with some sort of filling on top (usually beans).
Tomorrow we are going to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham, the Tower (we’ll actually go inside), and St. Paul’s. It’ll be a busy day, but it will be great.
Time is going by so fast. We actually don’t want to go to Paris at this point, because we love London so much. I’m sure we’ll love Paris just as much. It’s so nice to see that Kyle loves it here. He was being so cranky before we left, that I was afraid that he wasn’t even going to have fun. His favorite thing to day was actually the Globe theater. He thought it was amazing.
That’s it for now. More to come.
Cheers! (Yes, they actually do say that here.)
Posted: London, Vacation
3
August
2008
Greetings from London!
I’m writing this on day two of our trip. Oddly enough it seems like it’s day three. Yesterday (our first day) seemed like two day. We landed in Heathrow at about 9:30 a.m. We awkwardly made it through customs and found our way to the tube station quite seamlessly. Two words sum up the way the rest of the day felt: jet lagathore. Okay, I guess that is only one real word, and one word that made up, but saying “jet lag” really doesn’t express how awful we felt. We didn’t get a wink of sleep the entire time on the plane, which basically meant that we missed an entire night of sleep. I did, however, watch “What Happens in Vegas” on the plane, and I’d like to take a moment right now to thank Jenn for giving me adequate warning of how horrible that movie was. Oh god, it was just so bad. Not only was it not funny at all, but it also had a horrible message. But now is not the time do give reviews on crappy movies. The flight actually wasn’t that bad. Perhaps it was because I was so excited about getting to London, but I really didn’t feel like the flight was that long. My main complaint about the flight was that I was just so uncomfortable the whole time.
So like I said, we made our way into the city via the Tube. I felt like death. We found our hotel quite easily, only to find that it was the wrong hotel. I was using my travel book as a reference to find the hotel, but I forgot that there is more than one easy hotel in London. Oops… Since we were so exhausted we took a cab to our actual hotel. It turned out pretty well actually, because this easy hotel is in a better location than the other. It’s not even a mile to Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.
Check-in wasn’t until 3, so we dropped our luggage off (for 5 quid, of course), and went exploring. My excitement was able to ease the jet lag for awhile, but it eventually came back. Kyle was hungry, so we found a little cafe that served very British-y breakfasts. He has a fried egg, beans, hash browns, grilled tomatoes and toast. Sounds pretty weird but it was actually quite tasty. I ordered the same thing as him, but the guy didn’t understand me, so he just brought me coffee. Haha! I’ve found that it’s kind of hard to understand the Brits, and likewise, they often don’t understand us. I’m constantly having to repeat myself when speaking to them. Oh god, what am I going to do in France?
After breakfast we decided we wanted to walk around and explore the area around our hotel. I could see the Houses of Parliament jutting out behind the trees, and the London eye as well. I knew that the Thames must be close if I could see those landmarks, so I told Kyle that it would be nice to find a bench and relax next to it. One might think that would be easy, as we would just have to go in the direction of the London Eye… well, it wasn’t. The streets of London do not form a grid, so you can easily go in the wrong direction. Our feet started to hurt (I was still wearing the sandals I was wearing on the plane) and the jet lag was coming back with a vengeance. I was becoming quite cranky. Kyle wanted to go check into the hotel, but I wanted to find the damn river. My frustration caused me to give up, so we walked back to the hotel.
I knew going in that our hotel was going to be teeny tiny, but that didn’t take away from the shock of seeing it how teeny it was in person. It’s literally the size of a double size bed. There is a tiny area where the door opens as well. That’s where we keep all of our luggage. The bathroom is also a shower. But whatever, all we wanted to do was take a quick nap so we could go back out and explore. We set the alarm on Kyle’s 770 to go off in an hour (there is no alarm clock in this room). We both passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow. It was heaven. When I got up I took a hot shower, which felt so nice… that is, until I was done. When I turned off the water, I was like… okay, now what do I do? I dried off the best I could and awkwardly got dressed. Waking Kyle posed a problem. He was reluctant (as usual). I told him that he had to get up, and try to adjust to London time. I wanted to dry my hair, so I got our handy UK power adapter, plugged it in, and asked Kyle if he was sure this would work. He sleepily said, “yeah… I’m pretty sure.” I should have known better… I plugged it and it a huge bright blue spark lit up the electrical socket. I thought that either I was going to die, or the hotel was going to light on fire and we were all going to die. I let out a yelp and moved my hand as fast as possible, and just waited for the pain to sink in. Luckily, I felt nothing. My hand was black because the capacitor exploder in my hair dryer and left a back power residue. Thanks Kyle! I guess my hair dryer wasn’t built to take on that kind of electricity. It’s okay though, all of our other stuff works just fine.
We decided to go out again (wet hair and all) and make our wait to the Somerset House to watch Brokeback Mountain on the outdoor screen. The Tube line we needed to take wasn’t working, so we (reluctantly) walked. It ended up being a pleasure to walk all of the way there (probably about 3 or so miles). We finally found the Thames (squee!) and walked along side it most of the time. We found a nice bench and decided to rest our feet. That was probably the most enjoyable thing we did all day. It was so beautiful. We walked by the Houses of Parliament and through Trafagar Square. London is truly an amazing city. It’s like none other I’ve ever seen. It’s a huge city, but it feels so tiny and personal.
When we found the Somerset House our feet thanked us. Unfortunately, or backs did not. The Somerset House is a beautiful museum, but outside, the ground is made of bricks (I was picturing grass for some reason). Kyle got some chili, a jaffar pudding, a beer and a strawberry-pear hard cider. Delish! This was our first time watching Brokeback Mountain. Man, what a a beautiful movie. Had I not been in public, I would have been bawling. The presence of others certainly did not stop the girl behind us from giggling for the first part of the movie, and bawling throughout the second half. She also verbally expressed every emotion she felt throughout the whole damn movie… like we care.
After the movie, we walked to the center of Waterloo bridge. Everything was lit up. It was like a fairy tale. It was pushing midnight by then, so instead of walking or trying to navigate the public transportation system, we took a cab back to our hotel. We hit the mattress and passed out for 10 hours. I’m feeling relaxed and refreshed.
Today we are seeing King Lear at the Globe. That’s all I have planned. I’m just going to let the city take us where it wants us to go.
P.S.- It only took us 10 minutes to get from Terminal C to Terminal E at George Bush International… plus, our plane was 15 minute early landing in Houston… all of that worrying for nothing!
Posted: London, Vacation