One of the great things about Europe is that everything is so close, so a trip to London can be planned in a day. For instance, Kim, my co-worker, and I found out on Wednesday that we needed to be in London that Thursday and Friday. I quickly called my buddy Greg in London to see if he was around Friday night. The answer was yes, so the flight was booked returning on Saturday morning. I was informed though, that Friday night we were going to roller disco as part of Katie’s (Greg’s New Zealand roommate) going away party. I packed accordingly.
After work on Friday I hopped on the DLR and some how made my way from Canary Wharf to Greg’s house in North London all by myself. I was so impressed! I found Greg in the kitchen cooking fajitas and I knew the night would be good…I hadn’t had good Mexican food in four months! After dinner, Katie, Caroline and I decided to get ready, with the help of Susie’s (another roommate) closet. I chose leggings, leg warmers and chunky red jewelry to go with my mini skirt and off-shoulder sweater. Yes, you read that correctly, I was wearing not only legging but LEG WARMERS!! My friends at home would disown me.
All decked out in our outfits we headed to the bar. Roller disco turned out to be an old warehouse by Kings Cross with three roller rinks; in three different rooms with different music and you wear roller skates the entire time. Good in theory until you put on your first pair of roller skates since you were 12 and add in a few alcoholic beverages. My first few laps around the place were unimpressive to say the least. Two double vodkas later, I was on my way. Unfortunately, no matter how competent and comfortable you may feel, there is always some schmuck behind you who is less coordinated and more drunk…at some point you are going to get taking out. I somehow avoided all collisions, but the rest weren’t as fortunate. Helen was taken down twice by the same guy. After three hours and countless laps, I became a believer in roller skating and would definitely recommend it to anyone who happens to be in London on a Friday night.
On a side note: while the trip from Canary Wharf to Greg’s house was flawless, the return trip to London City Airport was a complete disaster. I ended up missing my flight due to maintenance on the DLR (my flight also happened to be the last flight out of LCY for the entire day). Thankfully I was rebooked onto another flight later that afternoon out of Heathrow. Not so thankfully, was the price I had to pay for the car service to get me there. As much as I travel and think I am competent at getting around, this trip and Italy would beg to differ.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Dublin (round two)
Just like Oktoberfest in Munich confirmed my German roots, the pubs in Dublin and the sweet taste of Guinness was more convincing of my Irish heritage than my stubborn red hair. The trip to Dublin marked my second trip to Ireland and my second time to my favorite pubs in the world…two words…Temple Bar.
Being my second trip to Dublin, I felt a sense of obligation to show my fellow travelers (the Blocks, Jason, Esther and Erin) a good time. So as soon as we landed and figured out a hotel we headed directly to Temple Bar for dinner at Quays Bar (pronounced Keys); which was of course followed up by a pub crawl through Temple Bar. This would not be my first pub crawl in the area. My brother Cody and I tackled these bars four years earlier, with similar results. To digress for a moment, in 2003 Cody and I (and parents in tow) spent our last day of our country-wide pub crawl in Ireland touring the Guinness factory followed up by drinks at the oldest Irish pub. We left the parents after pints at Auld Dubliners and Cody and I slowly made our way down the Temple Bar area stopping off at Quays Bar, Temple Bar, some other bar and ending in Fitzpatricks listening to two guys play any and all requests on acoustic guitars. We made it back to the hotel by 4 am, in time to pack and make our 8 am flight.
Ah, good times…But yet, that was 4 years ago (when I was still in my prime). This time around, our Friday night pub crawl took us from Quays Bar to Temple Bar to Fitzpatricks. Mellow considering our group, but apparently our minds were still relishing on the amazing Guinness and meat stew we had eaten for dinner.
With a full nights sleep, the crew was able to get up in time for breakfast and buy tickets for the big red bus tours. Half way through the tour, we got off at Grafton Street so the girls could shop and the guys could…well I am not sure what they did…there was talk about seeing Trinity College and the book of Kells. Shopping for the girls turned into Irish Coffees at O’Donohughes. We met back up with the guys, hopped back on the bus and were off to the Guinness factory for the highlight of the city.
Again, the girls went tearing through the exhibits in search of our free beer while the guys lagged behind to take in the facts and sights that the tour provides. (Talk about role reversals, I thought the women are normally into the touristy things and guys just want to find the bar or maybe that is just my family) While in the bar, enjoying our free drinks, I happened to meet (aka interrupt a conversation) a group of Canadians who were hockey players in Denmark. Random! Erin exchanged numbers and we made plans to meet up later.
In the meantime, it was about 6pm, we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. So we hurried home to get changed and find a place to eat. Unfortunately the process to find a place to eat turned into a two hour ordeal, with tempers and patience failing due to lack of food…apparently Guinness DOESN’T constitute a meal. After struggling to find a place that 1) was Irish, 2) could serve us within the hour and 3) had the right atmosphere, I got impatient and mentioned a great Irish brewpub called Messrs MacGuire, where I had been four years earlier with my family. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently a lot can change in four years, such as the menu and quality of food. Let’s just say we left the place two hours later still hungry (four of the seven dishes were sent back after waiting an hour to get them) and more sober (yes, a brew pub managed to run out of stout beer on a Saturday night).
Half of the crew wanted to head back to Quays Pub for food since we knew it was good. While they went upstairs to eat, Erin, Esther and I headed to the bar. A few drinks later, we were back in the game and the dinner crew headed downstairs. From Quays Bar we headed to Club M to meet up with Hockey Players. The dinner crew decided they didn’t want to go to a club and left to find a more traditional Irish Pub, I got Erin and Esther in for free. From there, the night got really interesting. The evening can be summarized by a montage of pink hot shorts with matching bathing suit tops, leopard print spandex dresses and some of the most impressive Irish accents I had ever heard… we are talking back country authentic Irish. To round out the experience, there was what appeared to be a Russian trani who was very aggressive in showing an interest in the Hockey guys we were hanging out with. The look of terror on their faces was priceless.
Overall the experience was completely different than my first trip to Ireland, but still 100% Irish. Ready and willing for round three!!
Being my second trip to Dublin, I felt a sense of obligation to show my fellow travelers (the Blocks, Jason, Esther and Erin) a good time. So as soon as we landed and figured out a hotel we headed directly to Temple Bar for dinner at Quays Bar (pronounced Keys); which was of course followed up by a pub crawl through Temple Bar. This would not be my first pub crawl in the area. My brother Cody and I tackled these bars four years earlier, with similar results. To digress for a moment, in 2003 Cody and I (and parents in tow) spent our last day of our country-wide pub crawl in Ireland touring the Guinness factory followed up by drinks at the oldest Irish pub. We left the parents after pints at Auld Dubliners and Cody and I slowly made our way down the Temple Bar area stopping off at Quays Bar, Temple Bar, some other bar and ending in Fitzpatricks listening to two guys play any and all requests on acoustic guitars. We made it back to the hotel by 4 am, in time to pack and make our 8 am flight.
Ah, good times…But yet, that was 4 years ago (when I was still in my prime). This time around, our Friday night pub crawl took us from Quays Bar to Temple Bar to Fitzpatricks. Mellow considering our group, but apparently our minds were still relishing on the amazing Guinness and meat stew we had eaten for dinner.
With a full nights sleep, the crew was able to get up in time for breakfast and buy tickets for the big red bus tours. Half way through the tour, we got off at Grafton Street so the girls could shop and the guys could…well I am not sure what they did…there was talk about seeing Trinity College and the book of Kells. Shopping for the girls turned into Irish Coffees at O’Donohughes. We met back up with the guys, hopped back on the bus and were off to the Guinness factory for the highlight of the city.
Again, the girls went tearing through the exhibits in search of our free beer while the guys lagged behind to take in the facts and sights that the tour provides. (Talk about role reversals, I thought the women are normally into the touristy things and guys just want to find the bar or maybe that is just my family) While in the bar, enjoying our free drinks, I happened to meet (aka interrupt a conversation) a group of Canadians who were hockey players in Denmark. Random! Erin exchanged numbers and we made plans to meet up later.
In the meantime, it was about 6pm, we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. So we hurried home to get changed and find a place to eat. Unfortunately the process to find a place to eat turned into a two hour ordeal, with tempers and patience failing due to lack of food…apparently Guinness DOESN’T constitute a meal. After struggling to find a place that 1) was Irish, 2) could serve us within the hour and 3) had the right atmosphere, I got impatient and mentioned a great Irish brewpub called Messrs MacGuire, where I had been four years earlier with my family. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently a lot can change in four years, such as the menu and quality of food. Let’s just say we left the place two hours later still hungry (four of the seven dishes were sent back after waiting an hour to get them) and more sober (yes, a brew pub managed to run out of stout beer on a Saturday night).
Half of the crew wanted to head back to Quays Pub for food since we knew it was good. While they went upstairs to eat, Erin, Esther and I headed to the bar. A few drinks later, we were back in the game and the dinner crew headed downstairs. From Quays Bar we headed to Club M to meet up with Hockey Players. The dinner crew decided they didn’t want to go to a club and left to find a more traditional Irish Pub, I got Erin and Esther in for free. From there, the night got really interesting. The evening can be summarized by a montage of pink hot shorts with matching bathing suit tops, leopard print spandex dresses and some of the most impressive Irish accents I had ever heard… we are talking back country authentic Irish. To round out the experience, there was what appeared to be a Russian trani who was very aggressive in showing an interest in the Hockey guys we were hanging out with. The look of terror on their faces was priceless.
Overall the experience was completely different than my first trip to Ireland, but still 100% Irish. Ready and willing for round three!!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Lunch in Liechtenstein
Ever since moving abroad, I set the goal to visit every European country by the end of my two year rotation. With 8 already visited prior to the rotation, it seemed like a challenging, but accomplishable goal.
So given that everything shuts down in Zurich on Sundays and with nothing better to do, I proposed a lunch date to Vaduz, Lichtenstein with my friend Luke. And much to my delight he thought the idea was even more fantastic than I did. We agreed on Friday to go the following Sunday.
Luke has a car so we decided to drive instead of taking the train to the Lichtenstein bus (we should have had some idea about the size of the country given there is no train station in the entire country). 30 minutes and 5 wrong turns after being picked up we found our way to the highway and were on our way there.
“There” turned out to be a one town country with a small pedestrian street, three restaurants and a museum; plus a castle on the hill and alleged wine tasting (although we didn’t find out about the wine tasting until a week after the voyage). The town/capital/country was approximately the size of Dunsmuir, CA. For those who don’t know where that is…that summarizes how small Liechtenstein is. After approximately 15 minutes (the amount of time it took to walk through town) we had officially seen everything. Therefore to complete the trip, we sat down to a beautiful traditional lunch of pizza and hamburgers. We left shortly after lunch, mission accomplished.
So given that everything shuts down in Zurich on Sundays and with nothing better to do, I proposed a lunch date to Vaduz, Lichtenstein with my friend Luke. And much to my delight he thought the idea was even more fantastic than I did. We agreed on Friday to go the following Sunday.
Luke has a car so we decided to drive instead of taking the train to the Lichtenstein bus (we should have had some idea about the size of the country given there is no train station in the entire country). 30 minutes and 5 wrong turns after being picked up we found our way to the highway and were on our way there.
“There” turned out to be a one town country with a small pedestrian street, three restaurants and a museum; plus a castle on the hill and alleged wine tasting (although we didn’t find out about the wine tasting until a week after the voyage). The town/capital/country was approximately the size of Dunsmuir, CA. For those who don’t know where that is…that summarizes how small Liechtenstein is. After approximately 15 minutes (the amount of time it took to walk through town) we had officially seen everything. Therefore to complete the trip, we sat down to a beautiful traditional lunch of pizza and hamburgers. We left shortly after lunch, mission accomplished.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Czech Please
This past weekend I went to Prague for Saturday night…that is correct I went to the Czech Republic for one night. I considered it my “One Night Only” weekend. The rest of the crew (Braden and Anna Mark, Shannon and Andy Block and Josh) were able to take Monday off, prompting the trip and I decided not to miss the opportunity. So at 9am Saturday morning we landed in Prague, with Czech Crowns, no hotel reservation and a vague idea where to go. This is my idea of traveling (well sort of).
We hopped in a cab and got dropped off just outside the city center. Please don’t mistake that with we asked to get dropped off outside the city center. No, no, the cab driver pulled over, told us what direction to head and took off. Yup, we were off to a great start. We spent the first hour wandering around the city looking for the perfect hotel. And surprisingly we found it (finally my bad luck with traveling is wearing off – read the Naples entries to get an idea). After dropping off our bags we hit the city on foot checking out the basic sites such as the Charles Bridge and Castle, while stopping for refreshments every 100m.
Our afternoon drinks turned into happy hour which turned into dinner and then finally a desire to go out. Based on recommendations from two friends (via text message during dinner when they found out I was in Prague for the night) and Andy’s vague recollection of a big club by the river we set off. But not without roadies….four red bulls and a fifth of vodka for the girls and we were set. Unfortunately the liquor store didn’t have cups or straws so we made do and mixed the drinks in the can. It sounded great at the time, until some local Czechs gave us the sigh of disapproval.
The club was amazing; four floors of music ranging from Top 40, Disco, Rap and House. We danced the night away on the top floor to Britney, Timbaland and all of our favorites (literally all of our favorites, the DJ was all too willing to play anything we requested). Needing a break we decided to check out the first floor but ended up stopping on the third and dancing to the 80s. Shocking, me in a different country rocking out to Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer and singing at the top of my lungs. At this point though the normal 80s lover than I am took things to a whole new level, what with 4 red bull vodkas down. I just wanted to dance. And that is what I did. (Think Tommy Boy and “Maniac”) I was that random American girl dancing like an arse, running in place to the song. To round things out nicely, Braden performed his best air guitar to La Bamba for some older women.
After the club and on our way home we decided to check out Goldfinger, a gentleman’s club across the street from our hotel. The entrance fee was 450crowns (or about CHF30) per person but given the late hour (and our state of mind) it seemed too high. We eventually talked the bouncer down to 500 total plus 450 for a bottle of champagne (about CHF60 in total for everyone). Apparently we thought this was still too high and walked away. It was probably for the best, but looking back I don’t think we will ever get a deal like that again.
Instead we went back to the room and crashed for the night. Well, at least most people did. I spent most of the night with the Red Bull shakes, swearing off the juice for ever. And unfortunately it didn’t get better the rest of the night or following day. But thankfully, everyone else was just as wrecked. Yes, misery loves company.
We finally got out of the room Sunday in time for a late lunch in the main square. Accidentally we sat in front of the famous astrological clock and had ideal seats to watch “death” ring the bell for 3 o’clock. Like I said we were all wrecked and moving a little slow. After lunch the girls attempted shopping but ended it quickly in favor of a quick nap. I left the group sleeping, hopped in cab to the airport and I was home in time for dinner.
We hopped in a cab and got dropped off just outside the city center. Please don’t mistake that with we asked to get dropped off outside the city center. No, no, the cab driver pulled over, told us what direction to head and took off. Yup, we were off to a great start. We spent the first hour wandering around the city looking for the perfect hotel. And surprisingly we found it (finally my bad luck with traveling is wearing off – read the Naples entries to get an idea). After dropping off our bags we hit the city on foot checking out the basic sites such as the Charles Bridge and Castle, while stopping for refreshments every 100m.
Our afternoon drinks turned into happy hour which turned into dinner and then finally a desire to go out. Based on recommendations from two friends (via text message during dinner when they found out I was in Prague for the night) and Andy’s vague recollection of a big club by the river we set off. But not without roadies….four red bulls and a fifth of vodka for the girls and we were set. Unfortunately the liquor store didn’t have cups or straws so we made do and mixed the drinks in the can. It sounded great at the time, until some local Czechs gave us the sigh of disapproval.
The club was amazing; four floors of music ranging from Top 40, Disco, Rap and House. We danced the night away on the top floor to Britney, Timbaland and all of our favorites (literally all of our favorites, the DJ was all too willing to play anything we requested). Needing a break we decided to check out the first floor but ended up stopping on the third and dancing to the 80s. Shocking, me in a different country rocking out to Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer and singing at the top of my lungs. At this point though the normal 80s lover than I am took things to a whole new level, what with 4 red bull vodkas down. I just wanted to dance. And that is what I did. (Think Tommy Boy and “Maniac”) I was that random American girl dancing like an arse, running in place to the song. To round things out nicely, Braden performed his best air guitar to La Bamba for some older women.
After the club and on our way home we decided to check out Goldfinger, a gentleman’s club across the street from our hotel. The entrance fee was 450crowns (or about CHF30) per person but given the late hour (and our state of mind) it seemed too high. We eventually talked the bouncer down to 500 total plus 450 for a bottle of champagne (about CHF60 in total for everyone). Apparently we thought this was still too high and walked away. It was probably for the best, but looking back I don’t think we will ever get a deal like that again.
Instead we went back to the room and crashed for the night. Well, at least most people did. I spent most of the night with the Red Bull shakes, swearing off the juice for ever. And unfortunately it didn’t get better the rest of the night or following day. But thankfully, everyone else was just as wrecked. Yes, misery loves company.
We finally got out of the room Sunday in time for a late lunch in the main square. Accidentally we sat in front of the famous astrological clock and had ideal seats to watch “death” ring the bell for 3 o’clock. Like I said we were all wrecked and moving a little slow. After lunch the girls attempted shopping but ended it quickly in favor of a quick nap. I left the group sleeping, hopped in cab to the airport and I was home in time for dinner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)