Europe 2007: Aug 26 - Sep 01
Sun. 08-26-07 -- Portland, Oregon
Well now it's late the next night and I have a whole other day to recap! But first last night's concert... We got to Ground Kontrol last night at 9pm when the concert was supposed to start. The venue is actually a vintage arcade so we were able to play some games while we waited for Freezepop to start playing. It was a lot of fun being in an arcade again with my old school friends, playing games together. But after two hours had past & Freezepop still wasn't on stage, we started getting weary. We asked the doorman when they were expected to start and he said midnight which was about an hour away! We headed outside to discuss a plan of action to kill an hour. We eventually decided on McMenamin's so we walked back to the car and drove to Boar Head. After devouring a basket of fries, we headed back to Ground Kontrol.
As we were waiting in front of the stage, we noticed Liz Enthusiasm standing in the crowd so Kara & I went over to talk to her. We mentioned that we were her fans from Hawaii but she didn't seem to remember us. Shortly after, the concert started; they opened with "Boys on Film." The concert was a lot of fun, they played a bunch of cool songs and their stage presence was very playful. It'll be fun to listen to their CDs now and remember seeing them sing their songs live.
One thought I kept thinking throughout the night was "America is so great." I mean here are some regular people from Boston that made some songs, got one in a video game, and now have fans around the country! How great is it that now they get to tour around the country and play in different cities to strangers that have heard & enjoy their music? You can't even buy their CDs in stores, but they have enough fans to justify a tour! Their final song of their encore was a cover of The Final Countdown (GOB's theme song) which we were encouraged to "Duh-Duh-Duh" along with!
Today we went over to Cindy's house at noon to visit with Kara's grandparents that were in town. After a couple of hours of chatting over pizza, we headed over to Ryan & Heidi's for a BBQ. A lot of people came (the old gang) and it was fun seeing everyone again. R & H were ridiculously generous as usual and served BBQ ribs & grilled asparagus. Then we started up the fire pit and smoked cigars that Ryan provided. Kara & I were the last to leave, finally departing at 11:30pm. Now it's almost 1 am and it's time for bed!
Mon. 08-27-07 -- Portland, Oregon
Today was Kara's 30th birthday! Today was also our last day in Portland to prepare for our European adventure. We did so much today, it was absolutely exhausting! This morning we got up and started doing last minute trip planning and preparation. We booked rental cars in Normandy & Germany. We purchased emergency medical insurance, we made photocopies of all our important documents, printed our plane itinerary, picked out what stuff to pack, packed our bags, and on & on & on...
At 2pm we drove out to AAA in Clackamas so I could get an international driving permit. While we waited, we browsed their store & found the last few items on our shopping list.
This evening we had dinner with my whole family at Roadhouse. It was nice hanging out with the whole fam, but it felt too short. The waitresses sang Happy Birthday for Kara!
Once we got back to the house, Kara and I put our trip prep in high gear. We cleaned up the mess we made downstairs, and got everything finally packed and ready to go for tomorrow. It's been a little stressful trying to get everything in order (shutting off our cell phone service, pre-paying our bills, getting everything ready to go) but I think we are finally there. I'm definitely excited to be leaving tomorrow, but I'm also a little nervous. But I think all of our preparation & planning will let us really relax & enjoy our time.
Here we go!!
Tue. 08-28-07 -- Over Atlantic Ocean
Originally published on 08-31-07
Not much to report today since all we've been doing is flying on planes! Our flight left Portland around 12:45pm and arrived in Chicago around 7pm. Once we landed, we had to hurry over to a different terminal to catch our next flight. That required us to leave the security area, catch a shuttle, get new boarding passes at the ticket counter, and then go back through security. We made it to the gate in time, but we were a little worried that we might not make it.
Now we're about 1 hr into our flight to London with about 5.5 hrs to go. I just put my ear plugs in and took a sleeping pill so hopefully I can get some sleep on the plane. Next stop, London!
Wed. 08-29-07 -- London, England
Originally published on 09-01-07
Well London is EXPENSIVE!!! Things are mostly priced as you'd expect, if pounds were dollars... but pounds are TWO dollars (roughly). We're attempting to run on a $200 a day budget (that includes hotel, food, transportation, admissions to attractions, EVERYTHING) and I'm glad to say that even with high London prices, we were still just under the daily limit on our first day.
So what can you do on $200 in London? Here's what we did: Once we got through customs, we bought tickets for the tube (£3 each) to get us to Earl's Court where we are staying. The tube ride took about 50 minutes (we had the option of a 15 minute express train, but that cost £6.90 per person). Once at Earl's Court we walked to the hostel and checked in (£43/night). Well, actually we were 2 hrs too early for check in so we just filled out paperwork, paid, and left our bags in the storage area. With two hours to kill and our loads dramatically lightened, we decided to walk to the Victoria & Albert museum (admission: free). But first we needed to find some lunch, so we found a "cheap" place that sold sandwiches (£2 each).
If you hang out with a Brit in the U.S. for longer than a week, you're sure to hear them pine for their oh so much better version of bacon. I've heard the same homesick whine from both Ritchie & Maria, so of course I ordered the bacon sandwich! Bacon over here is definitely different than it is in the U.S. This bacon is mostly meat instead of our mostly fat. But, I didn't come to the conclusion that one bacon is better than the other. The difference wasn't that pronounced to me... but I could see how our bacon doesn't satisfy the craving for U.K. bacon.
ANYWAY! We bought our sandwiches and walked over to the Victoria & Albert museum. We ate them outside and then went inside for a look around. We saw some pretty cool stuff like a HUGE persian rug from like the 1500's. We also saw some pretty awesome marble statues, and these really big 'cartoons' that Raphael did for some tapestries made in the 1500s. We looked at probably only 1/5 of all the stuff they had before it was time to head back to check in. Once back we got to our room and fought the very strong temptation to just go to sleep. Neither of us slept well on the plane, and it's an 8 hr time zone difference from Portland, so we were VERY tired. But we had to stay awake so we could adjust to this time zone, so we forced ourselves to leave!
We decided to go out to Westminster to see some of the famous sites. We walked back to the Earl's Court Station and were a bit surprised/dismayed to find that one round trip ticket cost £5.10. That's roughly $10 each for a fairly short ride on the subway!! But what else were we going to do? So we paid it and got on. When we arrived, we emerged at the Westminster Pier exit and we were right on the Thames. Up some stairs and there was Big Ben right across the street. I got chills! I was surprised to see that Big Ben was kind of a sandstone color instead of gray. Also there are lots of gold accents around the clock face. It looked awesome seeing it in person! We walked halfway across the Westminster Bridge so that we could get a good view of the Houses of Parliament towering over the Thames. Then we crossed the rest of the way to see how long the line was to ride the London Eye (that giant ferris wheel).
The line wasn't bad, but it cost (gulp) £15 per person. But I figured when will be my next time to ride it? So we paid and got in line. The ride was nice, you get in a capsule with 25 people and then it slowly rotates to a 450 foot vantage point over the city. You look down on Big Ben, and down the Thames in both directions. After The Eye, we went for a walk through Westminster. We walked by Westminster Abbey, #10 Downing Street, through the horse guards field (and saw some stationary soldiers), through a bit of St. James's Park, Trafalgar Square, and finally ended up in Piccadilly Circus. We stopped by a grocery store to get food for dinner. We got: a baguette, a ball of mozzarella cheese, a container of pasta salad, and a 4 pack of Stellas for £6.05.
Back on the tube (very crowded this time) and a short ride back home. We ate dinner in the shared kitchen area (our room is crazy small! It has a bunkbed and a tiny sink, and that's it!) and then we came back to our room to read/write and go to sleep around 8pm.
Thu. 08-30-07 -- London, England
Originally published on 09-02-07
I slept alright last night in the bottom bunk. I kept waking up and checking my clock, but then I'd fall back to sleep. Not bad for my first night in a timezone 8 hours off from Portland and 11 hours off from Maui!
This morning we bought bread & jam for breakfast then ford the tube to Westminster. We claimed a spot across the street from the Houses of Parliament and ate breakfast with a close view of Big Ben! After breakfast we crossed the street and toured Westminster Abbey (£10/person... ouch!) We also sprung for one audioguide headset for another £4 which mostly I listened to. Overall I guess I was underwhelmed by the Abbey. I mean it was kind of cool to see the burial spots of so many famous people (Newton, Darwin, Edward Longshanks, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, etc) but just kind of... The building was impressive, but I guess the whole thing just didn't live up to the price of admission.
After the Abbey, we walked along the edge of St. James's Park until we reached the Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum. This place was very cool! This was the secret underground bunker where Churchill & his cabinet planned and ran their part of WWII. A few of the rooms were left exactly the same ever since the war ended (the place was mostly used for storage afterwards). There was even sugar cubes found in the desk drawer of one of the officers (a valuable commodity due to wartime rationing). There was also a new high tech museum about Winston Churchill, but we didn't spend a lot of time there. It was alright, but I wanted to spend more time in the war rooms.
After we made it through, we were ready for lunch. We started walking toward Trafalgar Square while looking for a grocery store. We ended up not finding one until we made it all the way to the Square, but that was fine because it allowed us to eat on some stairs next to a fountain.
Once we finished eating, we were very close to the National Gallery so we popped in to look at some paintings. We saw paintings by Monet, Raphael, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, Van Gogh, and plenty more. The most recognized painting we saw was Sunflowers by Van Gogh.
Back on the tube this time to the British Museum. Here we saw plenty of amazing objects from history. We even saw Cleopatra's mummy!!! There were lots of cool Egyptian things like the Rosetta Stone, giant statues, and lots of mummies and sarcophagi.
After a full day of walking around, we were really worn out. We rode the tube back to our neighborhood and bought meat and cheese (that's mature Scottish cheddar to you!) to make sandwiches for dinner. We ate dinner outside in the courtyard behind our hostel, and now we're reading and writing in an inside lounge. This hostel is really nice, the shared areas are very clean and comfortable (which is good since our room is so small!)
Fri. 08-31-07 -- London, England
Originally published on: 09-03-07
We didn't sleep well last night so we decided to sleep through our 9am alarm clock. That meant by the time we finally got up, we had to rush to make it out to Buckingham Palace by 11:30 to catch the changing of the guard. We made it JUST at 11:30, and the festivities hadn't yet started. As we were waiting in the crowd, we soon realized that we apparently weren't waiting for the guards, but were waiting to get a glimpse of the queen as she left the Palace. After a short while, her motorcade passed by and we saw her (and Kara snapped a pic)!
After that we walked back to the tube station and rode to Waterloo to buy our train tickets to Paris. We got the tickets easy enough (£200 for both of us round trip), but as we were walking away we realized that we had accidentally bought return tickets from Paris when we needed tickets from Brussels! I kind of freaked out since they had sid the tickets were non-refundable, but then I played it cool and told them that we discovered a mistake that we needed to fix. We had to wait in line again, but we got it changed with no hassle. Shew!
After finishing our travel business, we hopped the tube to Westminster Pier and bought boat tickets to Tower Hill. The next boat left in about 7 minutes, so we got in line and boarded the ship. By now it was 1:30pm and we still hadn't had enough time to eat lunch, but lucky for us, there were tables on the inside of the boat. so, as we're cruising down the Thames, we made sandwiches from supplies we bought the day before. We ate our ham & cheese sandwiches, shared a strawberry yogurt, and snacked on some pretzel & cheese Combos that we bought in Chicago. After we finished lunch, we went to the top deck and enjoyed the rest of the cruise.
Once at Tower Hill, we bought our tickets and went to the Tower of London. A tour was starting less than 10 minutes after we got there so we waited at the entrance for it to start. The tour was lead by a Yeoman Warder (a Beefeater) and it was very enjoyable. The guide was pretty funny and there was a lot of interesting history. For example, hundreds of years ago there was a prophesy made that when the local ravens left the grounds, the white tower would fall and there would no longer be a king or queen. To make sure that doesn't happen, they actually keep ravens there and clip their wings so they can't fly away!
After the tour, we walked around the tower grounds for a while, and then got back on the tube to Lambeth North. From there we walked to the Imperial War Museum which we planned to t our through for about an hour (we got there at 5pm, it closed at 6pm). The entryway of the museum is VERY impressive! There is a huge covered area chockfull of war machines (tanks, boats, planes, bombs, rockets). We wanted to see the Holocaust Exhibit, so we went to it first. It turned out that we spent the whole hour walking through the sobering two floor exhibit.
Once the museum closed, we hopped the tube back home, had dinner, took showers, and now we're writing in our journals in the shared lounge. Tomorrow we hop the train to Paris!
Sat. 09-01-07 -- London, England and Paris, France
Originally published on: 09-07-07
This morning was our last day in London until we return in October. I got up early (before Kara) and walked around a bit looking for an internet café. However it was around 7am so nothing was open. That means I'm still not able to transfer our pics to my website. So I went back to our hostel and used their computers (no USB devices allowed) and typed up a few more journal entries.
By then it was around 8:30am so I went back to our room to wake Kara up. Once she was up, we made breakfast and lunch; ate the breakfast and stored the lunch. We packed up our suitcases and checked out and caught the tube to Waterloo Station. We had a little over an hour to kill so we walked back over to the Imperial War Museum. This time we watched a film about Crimes Against Humanity, briskly walked through the espionage exhibit, got some close up time with a few of the tanks, and finally walked through an exhibit about WWII through the eyes of the children at the time. When we got to the museum, they let us check our big backpacks, so it was really an excellent (and free) usage of a bit of downtime.
At noon we walked back to the train station and checked in. We still had to wait for maybe a half hour, but then we were allowed to bored the train.
Not much to report on the train ride. The train went fast, the Chunnel was dark, and I used the time to plan our Paris activities. Using the torn out Paris sections of 3 guide books (Rick Steves', Let's Go, & Lonely Planet). I came up with a list of what we might want to do, and I shuffled them around to make them fit. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do today though since we wouldn't even get to our room until about 6pm.
Once the train arrived at Paris Gard Nord, we went to the ticket counter to buy our tickets to Normandy for the 4th. I went to the first counter: Me: "Bonjour" Her: "Bonjour" Me: "parlez-vous anglais?" Her: [shakes head no]... So we backed up and waited for the window that said ENGLISH SPOKEN. When there, we got our tickets to and from Normandy (Caen) with little difficulty. Then we asked about the night train to Irún (Basque country in Spain) for the 6th, and she said no beds... Well crap, we're supposed to meet Jeff & Jessie there on the 7th! We left the counter and talked and looked over the schedule. We thought maybe we could catch a day train on the 7th, so we got back in line and asked about that. The guy said there were availabilities on the 12pm train which would get us there by 4pm-ish. That would work, but we still need to get final confirmation from Jessie before we book it, so we said thank you and filed that info away for later use.
With tickets dealt with for a while, we got Euros out of an ATM & headed down into the Metro. It looks like Paris has a pretty sophisticated underground network, but they don't have the automated ticket dispenser thing ironed out yet (more on that later). I had to purchase two tickets to our stop from a counter, and we had issues because I was apparently butchering the French pronunciation of 'Port Royal.' After repeating it a few times, the man at the ticket counter finally said "Ahh, Porh Rah-yaleh" and printed our tickets! The ride was not long, and then we were on the street in our neighbourhood. We hoofed our big packs a few blocks down to our hotel on Rue Berthollet. A quick check-in and a ride up a tiny elevator, and we had finally made it to our room.
We hadn't yet decided what to do with the remains of the day, so I took the tour book to the bathroom. A short while later, I was a pound lighter and I had a plan! (the gross poop reference is a tribute to Micah).
We took a train to Notre-Dame and as soon as we emerged from underground, we saw the massive cathedral facade. We got up close and took a bunch of pictures. The facade has tons of detail, it was very cool to look all around it and see all the statues. We walked completely around the cathedral, then we walked to the other end of the island we were on and got in line for a night boat cruise on the Seine. We had to wait around 30 minutes, but that ended up being good because it let the sky darken and the building & bridge lights to come on. The boat ride was good, we saw a lot of buildings along the Seine, and of course the Eiffel Tower. Continuing the "things look different in person" tour, the Eiffel Tower was bigger and fatter than I thought it was. It was all lit up and it was cool to see the elevators moving up and down on the inside.
The boat tour lasted about one hour, so it was around 10pm when we were back on the street. We walked back to the metro station and discovered that the ticket window was closed for the night! We tried using the lone machine in the station, but it wouldn't take our credit card OR our coins! So basically we were screwed, no way on the Metro! I had read that you can buy Metro tickets at tobacco shops, so we walked around a bit to see if we could find one... no luck. We found a bus station, but the sign said our line was no longer running. So it was taxi or walk, and since we were about a mile from home, we decided to walk. I was a little worried since it was like 11pm by this time and we're walking the streets on our first in a foreign city. But there was still a lot of people on the street, so I figured it was safe enough. Well, it would have been a good plan had we not got lost... We ended up spiralling around our street until we finally found it. In all we probably walked an extra 1-1.5 miles. By the time we finally found our hotel, we were exhausted and hungry since we had not had dinner yet. There was a little corner store, so we went in to see what kind of food we could buy. There wasn't much selection, so we walked out with 3 small bananas, a 7up, and a beer... When we got to our room, we were so tired that we must have been delirious, because we started laughing hysterically at what the shopkeeper must have thought of us going shopping around midnight for 3 bananas & some beverages.
