Day 2 in London: British Museum and Avenue Q

One of the things that Ashley and I knew that we for sure wanted to do in London was to see a play on West End. We discussed it a LOT before leaving, and knew we wanted to see a musical, and we didn't want to break our banks, even though we were saving with this in mind. So, after a little online research, we decided to wait to purchase our tickets and try our luck with the TKTS booth in Leicester Square on the day of, since we weren't married to the idea of seeing one particular musical.

We left HPR Hotel and took the tube to Leicester Square, which was being set up for a big premiere the next day. On our way in towards the square from the street we noticed a TON of booths all claiming to be the best "Half-Priced Tickets" in town. I knew, however, that the ORIGINAL half-priced tickets could be found in the TKTS Booth, the only stand alone building within the actual square. So, we approached the booth and waited in a short (about 10 minutes) line to get our tickets. I remember a few of the musicals that were playing -- the biggies, of course: Wicked, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera. These were all a little out of our price range, even at half-price, and I had actually seen all three of those musicals professionally performed...Phantom and Les Mis more than once! I'm pretty sure Ashley had, too, so we ruled them out right away.

Legally Blonde the Musical was one of my top choices, Grease was playing as well, Billy Elliot, Sister Act the Musical, etc. etc. all were available. However, we made a choice that neither of us really expected, but both of use ended up enjoying immensely: Avenue Q the Musical. A racy puppet show with staple songs like, "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet is for Porn" had been on my radar for a while, but I'd never seen it, or even really listened to the soundtrack, much to the dismay of most of my drama class cohorts in high school and in college. I believe the tickets ended up being about 36 GBP. So we grabbed our tickets and headed back to the tube to take in some culture at the British Museum before returning for the play that night. On the way to our culture we stopped for lunch at Marks & Spencer (I had some really great tomato soup) and shopping (got some cute stuff from H&M, discovered that Gap in London is just like Gap in Bakersfield, etc.)

The British Museum was not something that Ashley was necessarily looking forward to, but me being the nerd I am had insisted that we simply HAD to go. Overall, it was...AMAZING! I love history and mummies and art, and was enthralled by the whole museum. I could have easily spent hours and hours going through this place. We hit the highlights, of course: the mummy room, the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and wandered around for two or so hours looking at the exhibits. One of my favorites (aside from the Elgin Marbles) was the exhibit about monies of the world. I looooved that they had Harry Potter money (galleons, sickles and knuts) in the exhibit as well!

Me in front of a panel from the Elgin Marbles

MUMMIES!

You're a Wizard, Harry...

So, I enjoyed myself at the British Museum, and then Ashley and I headed back to HPR hotel to change and get ready for the evening. I wore one of my new dresses from H&M with some tights (which were much trendier in the UK than they were in California during the summer, for some reason). We then headed back to Leicester Square for our night out!

Avenue Q was SOOOOO good! I loved loved loved it! The theater was small, so it was a pretty intimate setting for a big stage musical, and the acting was phenomenal. We had great seats for a bargain, and found ourselves quoting some parts of the play ("It's the bad idea beeeeaaars!") for the rest of our trip. I'm so glad we had the advance knowledge - thank you, TA and Rick Steves - to get our tickets at the official TKTS booth. After the show we went to a cafe across the street to get some food (what I jokingly, or not-so-jokingly, refer to as my best meal in London - a bagel with cream cheese and cucumbers) and ice cream, before returning for a semi-early night to the HPR Hotel.

Overall it was an AMAZING night following up a GREAT day in London.

My next post: Day 3 in London - Changing of the Guard, Tower of London, London Eye and the Ceremony of the Keys (what? it was a busy day!!)

Review: Day 1 in London and Hyde Park Rooms Hotel

Since Ashley and I decided to do this summer's trip ourselves, rather than get on one of those all-inclusive, on-and-off-the-bus tours, we had to rely a lot on internet travel sites (like TripAdvisor) and guide books (like Rick Steves) to be able to make our determinations on where we would visit and stay.

Overall, I think we were really pleased with our choices. We didn't stay anywhere that was dirty or felt unsafe, and we had a very enjoyable, adventurous (but not crazy-eventful) time on our three week whirlwind tour of Western Europe.

Upon our arrival (at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am) in London at Gatwick, we got our bags and our train tickets and made our way to the platform to catch the train to London proper. It's definitely a good thing that we started in another English speaking country, because the combination of jet-lag, the gross "I just got off of an airplane and all of my clothes are now stretched out" feeling, the new public transport system, and the unwieldy bags -- we thought we did suuuch a good job of limiting our packing...we were WRONG -- would have proved too much to handle had we been forced to translate, too.

Once we got to Victoria station, we switched to the Tube and took it to the Paddington station, walked about three blocks, and found our (rather sweet looking) hotel. We'd elected to stay at the Hyde Park Rooms Hotel in Sussex Gardens because of a multitude of factors: first and foremost, the price was right at 56 GBP per night for two twins, there was constant free wi-fi, it was in a GREAT location (very close to LOTS of things), breakfast was included, and it got really good reviews on TA. When we checked in it was around 9 am, far too early to actually check in and get our room, but I had arranged ahead of time to leave our bags in the office with Carol, the proprietor, while we went and explored until 2pm, check-in time.

After a bit of a delay (there was no one actually in the office), we were let in, greeted, payed for our room in cash, and dropped off our bags. Then we got some coffee at a nearby shop (reminiscent of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, but not as good, sadly) and picked up a day pass for the tube. We headed to Notting Hill and Portobello Road to take in some sights, get some food, and maybe do a little shopping. This reeeeeeally crazy guy came in to the kind of weird restaurant we stopped at - it reminded me of a restaurant you would see in Berkeley or something - and offered to do an aura reading for me. I paid for his smoothie, but really that was more in an effort to get him to leave than anything else.

(At the restaurant...pre-aura reading)

Unfortunately, the amount of Dramamine Ashley consumed on the plane partnered with a lack of sleep and far more grease on the food than we were used to caused Ashley to feel pretty darn sick after about two hours, so we hustled back to the hotel, where thankfully our room was ready a little early and we were able to settle in. Ashley, poor thing, slept for the rest of the day/night. I took a nap and then walked to a nearby store and got her some saltines and water. I also picked up some fish and chips for myself. Sadly, I was disappointed. The texture wasn't that great (Mossmans in Bakersfield was better, IMHO), and they just wrapped the fries/chips and fish in the same newspaper, causing the fries to get soggy and taste fishy.

Oh, well...at least I can say I tried it.

Throughout our stay in London we found the HPR hotel to be very nice, especially for the price. The breakfast was good, the wi-fi access was great, and the location couldn't be beat! We had a sink in our room but did have to walk down a short flight of stairs to get to the bathroom (no biggie), and there was only one working outlet in our room, so we couldn't both charge our phones at once.

The room was a LOT smaller than hotel rooms here, but I had read about that online and wasn't too worried...this turned out to be not just a "London" thing, but a "Europe" thing, apparently. Our room faced a lovely, tree-lined street, which was wonderful during the day, but unfortunately not so wonderful at night, when it tended to get a little noisy, what with the traffic and all.

A twin room at Hyde Park Rooms Hotel

Overall, I was really impressed with our first cheap European hotel experience. No bed bugs (which I had become paranoid about after reading all of the horror stories on TA), no thieves, no moldy carpets or falling ceiling -- just really nice people and a very elegantly appointed (if a little threadbare) bed and breakfast.

Next post: DAY 2 - Leicester Square, British Museum, Shopping, Mark & Spencer, and Avenue Q.

Monet's Water Lilies at l'Orangerie

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The Venus de Milo

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Le Tour Eiffel

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Cloudy day in Paris!

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Sistine Chapel

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The Trevi Fountain!!

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The Colosseum (outside)

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The Colosseum in Roma (inside)

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At the accademia in Florence - Michaelangelo's David

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At the Hofbrauhaus! Yummy Radler!

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More Bavaria!

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Another view of Nueschwanstein

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Neuschwanstein Castle

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Bavaria

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View from the London Eye!

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London

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Barnes and Nobles is my heroin...

As much as I still am carrying a torch for tripadvisor, there's nothing quite like turning the pages of an actual book and seeing pictures, maps, tips and tricks, etc. Everything is being graded on the same scale in a travel book, because the same writer (theoretically) has visited all of these places, looking for the same things and grading them against each other.

This is not always the case with tripadvisor. Some people (I've learned) are way more demanding on a hotel than others, and reviews of the same place can vary wildly.

I have spent countless hours over the last few months looking at an entire smorgasbord (or smörgåsbord, whatevs, spell-check) of travel books. Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Fodor's, Let's Go...I saw them all, I flipped through them all, and ultimately I put them all down in favor of (drumroll, please) Rick Steves' series.

Rick Steves' does Europe through the "back door," and his witty writing style and pithy reviews are great for forming a general "plan of attack" for an area that you may have never visited. I like the way he organizes "sights to see" based on area as well as ranks them, making it easy to find something close to where you are that would be worth taking another half hour detour for.

He also writes with the budget-conscious in mind, which I appreciate.

Considering that I'm broke. Or will be after this trip.

The only bummer about the Rick Steves' books are that they are so big! Well, not big compared to other travel books. They're actually pretty compact, comparatively speaking. It's just that with the limited amount of luggage space and a very strict packing list (Rick Steves is HUGE on packing only the essentials and packing very very light) I don't really have the room to lug around 6 RS books.

Some people have advocated slicing out the pages I need with a razor blade. While that would be easier and lighter, I suppose, I am so anti-book destruction (they're so pretty) that I just can't bring myself to do that. Plus, they're not exactly cheap. Plus, what if I want to use them again, and the whole section on Rome just happens to be missing?

So, what I have done is photocopied only the pages I need out of all six books and had it spiral bound at Kinkos. It only cost me about $5 to put a cover and back on it and have it bound, and while it is still a pretty good size, it's only one book. And I'll have no compunction about tearing some pages out of this particular book, should the need arise, to lighten the load or make it more portable.

Just a few thoughts. Counting down to Europe!

This ain't no one night stand!

I have a confession to make....

I have recently entered in to a torrid affair. I'm addicted. Morning, noon, and night, I can't stay away. And it shows no signs of slowing down.

Well, that's not entirely true. It will probably slow down about a week or so after my return from Europe.

No, my affair is not with a hunky Italian Stallion named Paolo, or Giacomo, or something equally as Italian. It's with tripadvisor.com. Tripadvisor has been my saving grace in this quest to plan the perfect adventure for Ashley and myself. It's helped guide me through the perils of pickpockets, unreliable trains, and bed-bug infested hostels.

I love that you can get all sorts of unbiased reviews on the site about where to eat, stay, and play. I like that they have user-uploaded pictures on the site, so you can see what the bathroom really looks like (a weird closet with a short toilet) and not what the hotel wants you to see (a tiled wonder that would be more at home in a palace than in an albergo). I love that they rank things. Lists are very important to me.

And please believe that I will be reviewing each place I stay for other people who are having as much fun hanging out with tripadvisor as I have been to read, process, and learn from.

For now, here are the links to where we'll be staying.

This is our hotel in London.

This is our hotel in Munich (I talked Ashley into ONE hostel, but we got a private room. COMPROMISE).

This is our hotel in Salzburg (It looks so cute!).

This is our hotel in Venice (I was willing to take a risk because we're only there for one night).

This is our hotel in Florence.

We're staying in furnished apartments in both Rome and Paris (see the previous posts). We found the Rome apartment on VRBO (it had great reviews) and the Paris apartment on...well, eBay (my affair with that website will NEVER die), but it was corroborated by another rental website catering specifically to Parisian apartments.

Check back for my reviews and pictures!

Apartments vs. Hotels

I have to say that I love to cook. I've always loved to cook. I've made some pretty stellar meals in a microwave. Once I was even able to make a yummy pasta primavera thing on a Bunsen burner.

So when I go on vacations, I get a little bummed out. Hotel = no kitchen. Now don't get me wrong, I love to eat out, especially in new and exotic places. I like to get a flavor for the culture, and the best way to do that is to liberally sample the local cuisine.

But my hips definitely DON'T like me when I get back from vacations where I do nothing but eat in restaurants. I've never been able to order just grilled chicken and steamed veggies when there are so many other delicious things on the menu for me to try.

Which is why, when you're staying in a new place for a week or more, maybe even five days, you might consider renting a furnished apartment for your trip.

There are a lot of perks that come along with having your own place while traveling. You get full access to a kitchen, of course, and a place where you don't have to worry about somebody coming in and looking through your things. Often times these apartments are a little set back from the main tourist areas, so you get a good feel for the local flavor of your destination. You get more sitting area room and more amenities (phone, internet, tv, etc) than you would at a hostel or a budget hotel, and often for only a few more euros/pounds/dollars/pesos/quetzales (what, you don't travel to Guatemala that often?) per night, depending on the length of your stay.

Sure, you might not get maid service every day, but wouldn't it be worth it to have some privacy and room to spread out in? (For me, this answer is yes. I have a lot of stuff to spread).

And it's really NOT that expensive (would I lie to you?). For example, a hostel in Rome would cost (on average) 22 euros per person per night, to sleep in a dorm style room with at least 10 other people on a bed that's been turning over once every few days for years. For a four night trip for two people, the cost of a lowwwww budget hostel would be 176 euros, not including any taxes or booking fees or linen rentals, etc. etc. For the same period a budget hotel in Rome would cost between 230 and 275 euros.

In contrast, a furnished studio apartment in Rome costs 250 euros, all inclusive!

You can get great deals on apartments all over the world by looking on sites like VRBO.com. Next time you're planning a week-long getaway, try seeing if an apartment wouldn't fit better into your budget. I'm willing to bet you'll find something that gives you a bigger and calmer home away from home that still won't break the bank!

Staging Area

So....I'M GOING TO EUROPE. For you, this might not be such a big deal. But for me...wowza. Not so much that I'm traveling somewhere, because I go places all the time. It's the whole I'm going to a totally different continent without parental (or psuedo-parental) supervision for the first time.

Now, most people get over the handholding stages in their teens.

My mom, however, is a little more paranoid than most.

I mean, I grew up literally thinking that a rapist or kidnapper or child slaver was going to burst through my window some night when I was sound asleep and steal me away. I survey the exits to pretty much any room before I enter...because my mom told me that some day I might get trapped in a room and need to know an alternate way out.

So here I am, 23 years old and I've always had some sort of supervisor to report to on a trip. Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, teachers...the only places I've gone entirely alone are places like Disneyland and Las Vegas (because really, who wants to take their mom to Vegas?That's just a BAD idea).

And I'm over it.

So right after Thanksgiving my friend, Ashley, and I decided we were going to assert our independence in a cultural experience -- three weeks of a European summer adventure.

At first we thought about maybe going on one of those you-don't-need-to-think-about-anything tours. We hop on a bus, hop of where they tell us, take a few pictures, and move on to the next place. I've had friends who have gone on and loved these tours. But then I realized, "What kind of independence is that? That's not a post-college adventure! We should be backpacking and staying in hostels and meeting cool people! Let's do this RIGHT."

Turns out Ashley is not the "hostel" kind of girl.

(It's okay, I'm fine not getting on a first-name basis with any bedbugs, personally)

So rather than follow some guide with a smile superglued to their face through the European "wilderness," we decided to do this on our own.

Now, I'm a planner. I've always been a planner. I like having things sewn up nice and neat know where I"m going and what time I'll get there, and have at least three emergency contact numbers in the area (well, I am my mother's daughter). And it turns out that a trip to Europe makes me even MORE intense.

So that's what this blog is about. It's about research I'll be doing, places I'll be staying, sights I'll be seeing, and the new experience I'll be having. I'll update from the road (once I get out there, I mean, it's still two months away), and I'll make sure to take LOTS pictures!