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
1
August
2008
We weren’t able to get on the earlier flight today, so we’re going to have to haul ass from Terminal C to Terminal E at George Bush International.
We got to the airport almost 3 hours before we actually leave. Today we’ll be doing a lot of sitting.
I’m pretty nervous for some reason. I’m definitely feeling some chest tightage. Maybe I can get a drink in a little bit…
Hopefully next time I blog, I’ll be in London! But, more likely, it will be from Houston as we wait for the next plane (yes, I’m assuming that we are going to miss our flight).
In other news, I might not have a job when I get back. Maybe we should just stay in Europe!!!
Posted: Vacation
7
July
2008
I just went to book my King Lear tickets and I found out that the only time it will be showing when we’re in London is at 1:30 in the afternoon. I was really hoping we could see it at night. Lear is just one of the those plays you want to see in the dark! Oh well, better Lear during the day than no Lear at all. However, I still wasn’t able to book our tickets. Something is wrong with the website. I’ll have to try again tomorrow. Damn, I really wanted to check that off of my list…
I do, however, have some things to add:
17.) Make British Invasion soundtrack.
18.) Notify the bank of trip out of the country so they don’t freak out if I buy a cup of coffee in London.
In other news (if you can call it that), I made a delicious Asian “Ficken” salad tonight:
I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com, but I made some slight alterations to suit my fancy. Instead of bok choy I used cabbage and I added red bell pepper and cilantro, and subtracted the water chestnuts (gag!). And of course I replaced the chicken with “ficken” (just as good, and cruelty free). We didn’t have any soy sauce for the dressing either so I just put in some Asian sesame marinade goop that we had in the fridge. It turned out pretty well. It was nice and fresh and crunchy- plus, there are leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch!
Posted: Recipes, Vacation
4
July
2008
I’m sad to say that I haven’t posted since February. I suppose it was around that time in which I became completely swallowed up by my graduate work. It was a rough semester… I’m certainly glad it’s over. While I could go on and on about the intricacies of the semester, I would rather talk about something that is much more interesting: our upcoming trip to EUROPE!
It’s official, Kyle and I are leaving for Europe in exactly four weeks! While this is insanely exciting, I’m starting to freak out a bit. I have a lot of planning to do. While I was very proud of myself for getting our plane tickets and booking (most of) our hotels, I still have a lot of work to do. Although I don’t plan on following a strict itinerary, there are some things I would like to prepare for.
If there is one thing I have learned in college, it is this: when stressed, make a list.
Things I need to do in preparation of our trip:
- Figure out transportation:
- What the hell is the difference between an Oyster card and a travel/paper card? Which one should we get? (Looks like the Oyster card is our best bet- At this point- I really don’t care if it is or isn’t, I’m just sick of doing the research.)
- How do we get from Heathrow to our hotel?
- Become somewhat familiar with the tube stations and their proximity to the places we’d like to go.
- Figure out transportation to/from the Lake District (see below).
- Get Eurostar tickets to Paris. Find out how to get to the Eurostar station from our hotel.
- Find out how to get from Eurostar in Paris to our hotel.
- Become somewhat familiar with the Metro stations and their proximity to the places we’d like to go.
- Find out how to get from the Eurostar station in Paris to our hotel in London (it will be a different hotel- near Gatewick).
- Figure out how to get from our hotel to Gatwick.
- Find someone who is kind enough to take us to/from the airport, or see if taking Yolobus is plausable. Kyle’s Ma is taking us, and my Ma is picking us up.
- Research day trip to the Lake District. I really want to go, but I’m not sure it’s practical. But is a trip to London and Paris practical to begin with? Nope. So why not indulge? Per the experienced travelers on the Fodors forum, save Lake District for another trip. 5 days is barely enough time to explore London itself.
- Come up with flexible itineraries for each day. Okay, I’m not a psycho who has to follow an itinerary down to the very minute, but I don’t want to spend all this money getting over there, and then waste time by not being organized. Plus, I will schedule in time for spontaneity ;)
- Buy an electrical converter (or whatever) so Kyle can charge his laptop and I can use my hair dryer.
- Buy a laptop charger for the plane. I’m not sure we’ll be able to use it, but if we can, it’ll be nice that we have it. Decided not to, as the chargers for Kyle’s MacBookPro are $50.
- Take a looksy at my Mom’s luggage, see if we can use it. It’s pretty hideous, but it will work!
- Make sure my mom can watch Piddy while we’re gone. Piddy’s going to her grandparents’ house while we’re gone! They had better not spoil her too much!
- Make a list of things to pack. Make sure I have said things.
- Make copies of pertinent documents (passport, credit cards, etc.).
- Make sure I have fun things to do on the plane. Bring a book (or two?), some magazines, iPod, etc. Have Kyle put Spaced and other shiz on his computer. What great fun it would be to watch Spaced on our way to London!
- Buy tickets to see King Lear at the Globe Theater. That’s right, mother fucking King Lear at the mother fucking Globe Theater.
- Look into buying tickets online for cruise on the Seine. If you purchase them online they take 4 euros off (making it 7 euros each, not bad!). But I want to make sure the dates/times are flexible if you buy them online.
- Look into trip to Versailles. How much will it cost? Is it worth it? What am I talking about, it’s Versailles! Of course it will be worth it! We’ll probably hold off to see Versailles until next time…
- Make sure my camera has enough memory for the entire trip. If not, buy another memory card. (Kyle assured me that we don’t need another one.)
- Make sure rent/bills are paid before we leave.
Wow. Lots to do. And I’m sure I’ll come up with even more. I had better get busy!
Ooh! I already remember one more thing!
16. Book hotel near Gatwick on last night.
Posted: Summer Stuff, Vacation
