All posts by ~j

England, Europe, France, Italy, United Kingdom

The order of things…

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First, I’m sure you all suspect that I’ve lost all hand function in a tragic typing accident, not true. I’m just overwhelmed at where to start with the whole travel recap. It would have been much easier to have kept an accurate journal, or have used the internet each day. Moola doesn’t grow on trees and internet access was 2£ for 15 minutes in places.

I’ve given up trying to repost the stories that come to mind, in the order that the countries were traveled. My mind isn’t that organized.   So now you get a random hodgepodge of travels. LUCKY!

Here’s the travel route, you put your own sequence together!

Vancouver, London, Paris, Milan, Venice, Orvieto, Civita di Bagnoregio, Rome, Vatican City, Pompeii, Naples, Rome, Frankfurt, Toronto, Vancouver.

Update

Photo Phrustration

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Jon has already posted several hundred photos on Facebook. I’m not keen on Facebook photos–it takes too long and always screws up the posting order. So, I looked into Flickr, but I’m not keen on having to have a yahoo ID to use it. (ps: Thanks blog for not making me get another e-mail account!) So you all have to wait patiently while I sort photos to post. And by you all I mean the half-dozen of people who will ever find me here.

**Update – Flickr was definitely not the way to go!  It was way to frustrating for me in several different ways.  You’ll have to settle for photos here, or Facebook if I ever get around to it!
England, Europe, United Kingdom

No one speaks English…

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No one speaks English, but everyone speaks Coca-Cola!

Apparently in England NO ONE speaks English. I’d say about 80% of the people are tourists and the other 20% are non-English or broken-English speaking. And that isn’t only at typical touristy destinations!

Coke logoTo make things even more bizarre, we’ve noticed that Coke has become more multi-cultural as well. Jon had a can with a logo in what we’re guessing is Hebrew (we couldn’t read it to find out the actual country), a can from Poland, and one from England. And, I had 2 from Canada (in the UK of all places) and one from Northern Ireland. The highest price we saw for a Coke was 4€ , so about $6 for a 500ml bottle..not even 600ml. At that price we were not buying!

Peach Iced TeaIn France, where our cola addiction was cheapest to feed, Diet Coke became Coca-Cola Light. I sure wasn’t drinking coke the whole while because EVERYWHERE had Lipton Peach Iced Tea as the Iced Tea of choice–vending machines, fast food places, street vendors. It was an Iced Tea drinker’s paradise! That 1.5L bottle was my last little souvenir from Paris. Delicious.  Peach=my favourite!

While we’re on the topic of beverages…water, normal, non-fizzy water was SUPER cheap at the grocery stores. We got a 1.5L bottle for 0.58€. That is barely over a dollar. Here it would have been easily $3. Ridiculous!

ps: I was brave and drank tap water in almost every city.

England, Europe, United Kingdom

Who needs sleep?

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We weren’t going to sleep day the day we arrived in London even if we had made the original flight. Rumour has it that if you just push through being tired for the first while until a suitable bed time then you won’t be as affected by jet lag. (That’s Jon’s theory anyway!) Pretty sure we were awake for 36 hours before sleeping.

We figured out the Tube right from Heathrow to our hotel, so we didn’t have to spend a fortune getting there. Of all the transit systems we used, London was easiest and cleanest for sure.

London Tube Map

So, we went sight seeing. We walked from our hotel all the way to Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus. In the process we saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey (which was already closed). And, we took loads of photos. (Yes, photos are on the way…we took almost 4000, so they’re taking a while to go through!)

Europe, Italy

When in Rome…

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So I have not been able to update as often as I would have liked, but we have been busy sight seeing. It is BEAUTIFUL here in Rome. The weather is warm enough most of the time to wander around in a tshirt or just long sleeves.

The other day we were in the little town of Orvieto for the night and we made a day trip to Civita di Bagnoregio (google it now…so beautiful!). Well let’s just say the bus ride there…we got our dollar’s worth. The dude was driving on crazy small town Italy streets windy as all get up and he was in a full size bus. The speed limit was 50, and the one electronic meter we went by said your speed 60, and that is what he slowed down to. He was hitting the branches on the trees on the side of the road, and I seriously thought he was going to drive us into a bridge abutment. And, stop signs…all optional. He didn’t stop for a single one.

I nearly puked. Jon thought it was awesome, and that the guy must have been a Tuk Tuk driver in another life.

ps: Be on the lookout for loads of post cards. They’ve been in the mail since London.

 

England, Europe, France, United Kingdom

Tube & Metro Scams

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Who knew it was easy to figure out the Tube or even the Metro?!? (It was easier than this fricken keyboard!)

Every book has about a trillion beware of pickpocket warnings; nothing can prepare a person for the amount of scams on the metro. In London there were warnings, but everything seemed kosher. The police/bobby presence was pretty crazy. At most stations there were sniffer dogs and officers or transit police–not to mention closed circuit cameras everywhere.

Paris is a whole other ball game! First day some dudes tried to offer an “African tradition” by which they occupy both of your hands in some ridiculous friendship bracelet making crap with coloured thread. All the while one of the other ones pats you down and takes your shit. Obviously we did not fall for it. Then there are the pathetic looking gypsy girls who approach with a “do you speak eenglish?” and then they hand you a printed card with a sob story on it asking for money. These chicks are EVERYWHERE!

And you also have the metro beggars who put printed cards on the empty seats asking for money because they are out of work and raising a family etc etc. Then you have your run of the mill pick pockets. I busted one who was trying to get into a woman’s purse. He was none too impressed. True story.

The Paris metro is the dirtiest grossest transit system ever. Read on my friends…
Europe, France

Bonjour!

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I have a ton more to update for London, but this computer is not the usual qwerty keyboard. It is the azerty keyboard and it is making me angry trying to hunt and peck for the keys.

Anyway, we have made it to Paris! The Chunnell ride was uneventful and much less exciting than we thought, but cool none the less. Navigating the city has been pretty smooth. We have seen TONS of stuff and taken over 1500 photos. Jon is outpacing me 2 to 1 for photos.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Milan on the way to Venice. I’m really looking forward to the 13 hour train ride just so I can relax for a while. We are averaging about 400 stairs a day. Pretty sure 1/2 of the people who visit Paris need knee surgery when they get home!

Happy Travels
~j
England, Europe

Crotchety Much???

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The seat to my left had been empty, and then this ancient South African mofo moved to sit by his travel partner.

He complained about EVERYTHING! He yelled at the 2 stewards that his reading light wouldn’t work.

Here’s a recap:
Old Mofo: YOU need to maintain these planes! I paid a fair price!
Steward: I do? (like me personally?!?!)
OLD: The lights aren’t working and I’m trying to read here.
Steward: Oh, I’ll reset your seat for you sir.
OLD: I can’t fly in the dark, I’m trying to read, and if it is dark I get nervous.

–And scene.

This is the same fucker that was wearing a sleep mask a few hours later.