I know it has been a while since I have posted a new blog. Consumer Behavior just ended and we had a final project and essay last week. The time seems to fly by when I am here and I feel like free time escapes me. Posting a blog for a week of travel is also very daunting....so sorry if it is really long. Feel free to skim:-)
We were supposed to have our final essay last week, before we left for our week long break, but David was in South Africa and could not get us the prompt in time due to his bad Internet connection. We ended up having the evening off and a few of us celebrating by going to Karaoke at a local bar in Lugano.
The next morning we had to prepare and pack for the whole week before we had to be on the train to the Bergamo Airport in Milan. It was a little hectic to try to make sure we had all of the information we would need for our travels the next week, and the lack of decent internet in the Montarina posed a small problem.
We hopped on the train at about 3 and arrived in Bergamo at 5. I was surprised to see the scenery as we left our little resort-town bubble of Lugano and passed by the graffiti covered lower income areas of Italy. It was too early to eat dinner at any of the local restaurants because they were all closed and the only place open to spend our 2 hour lay over was McDonald's. I think the woman behind the counter was a little overwhelmed with the onslaught of 11 hungry Americans and was blatantly flustered at our paying with the large bills we get from the ATMs.
Katie and I each got a “Piccoli Piacere” (a small spicy/herby chicken sandwich) and split a medium curly fries (yes curly fries from McDonald's!) We hung out on the top floor of the three story McDonald's until it was time for us to board the city bus to the Airport. We arrived 2 hours early and proceeded to the check in desk for Ryanair.
Ryanair is one of the cheapest airlines you can ride in Europe, but there are reasons for it which would become obvious throughout the rest of our travels. They are extremely strict about their checked/carry-on baggage size/weight and you can get screwed paying a bunch of money to check a bag that you thought you would be able to carry on if you don't indicate it prior to arriving at the airport. Their terminal is always the furthest possible from the check in desk and there are no assigned seats. You board the plane in a first come first served fashion so as soon as they announce boarding everyone mobs the door so they will have prime choice of seats when they get on the plane. Our group did pretty well and we were among the first people to board the flight.
A thick fog had rolled into Bergamo and our flight was delayed by 30 mins and then an hour. We were nervous that we would get to London Stanstead to late to catch the last (1AM) bus into the city. When we landed we ran to the luggage claim, grabbed our bags and booked it to the Terravision bus. Luckily they had advance warning of our late flight and were running a later bus. Katie, Alexis, Cheryl and I were dropped off in the city center where we split from Brittany, Amanda and Sarah who were staying in a separate hostel. We grabbed a cab to what we thought would be a close location to the other girls...but oh were we wrong.
We arrived at Journey's Smoking Barrels hostel, whose only claim to fame is that it was a location for the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. We laughed as we turned down the street at 3 in the morning. It was in the middle of nowhere and the neighborhood did not look very friendly We asked the cab driver if we were in a good part of town. He laughed and said we “weren't in the worst part of town”....oh goody.
We were greeted by a moldy stench and a receptionist who obviously didn't enjoy his job at a run-down hostel with 24 hour reception. We were informed that our booking had been changed and that 2 of us would be staying in a 8 bed mixed dorm room and the other 2 would be staying in an 6 bed mixed dorm room, both of which were full of other guests who would not be excited about our 3am arrival time.
Cheryl and I tiredly lugged our things upstairs where we found a girl sleeping in one of the beds assigned to us. We didn't think it was a problem until we realized that she had also been sleeping in the bed assigned to her. After informing her of her mistake and getting new sheets for the bed we climbed into bed without changing or washing up...we just wanted to attempt to get some sleep...which did not happen.
The group of Aussies we were sharing a room with had just returned from a wild night and the girl who had been passed out in Cheryl's bed woke up several times to throw up. Her friends would start asking how she was doing and then start complaining about the heat (and the smell) in the room. After getting 3 hours of sleep in 30 minute intervals, I got up and met Cheryl, Katie and Alexis to figure out what we were going to do about our situation. The guys who were passed out in their beds had no idea that new roommates had joined them late night and started to stare and ask us confusing questions about the night before.
Luckily the hostel had an Internet connection. We did some research and decided that for slightly more than we were going to pay for another 3 nights at Journey's, we could move somewhere more appealing. We gathered our things and had to argue with the receptionist to give us the proper rate for our one night, we ended up losing money on the deposit we had put down for the night (but Alexis argued with the credit card company and things are worked out now)
We had to catch the Underground to meet up with the other girls at their hostel according to our plan the night before. We were running late due to the confusion and feared we would miss them entirely, but we ran into them on their return from grabbing breakfast. We found out that the hostel they were staying at had two sister hostels in two blocks walking distance. St. Christopher's had availability for the last two nights we would be spending in London (which would turn out to be a life saver) and after finding a place to stay that night we were ready to start our first day of sightseeing in London.
The Borough St. Market was right across from St. Christoper's Orient Espresso so we started our day walking through the maze of vendors and tasting free samples of everything from chocolate covered almonds, to jellies to bread and pesto. It was even better than “eating dinner” at Costco.
After filling our tummies with enough free samples, we made our way across the London Bridge to the Tower of London. It was a clear day but the wind was biting and we were cold to the core. We took a few pictures along the way, but hurried to get inside the Tower walls where we could at least get away from the wind. We jumped on a tour with a witty Beefeater who mixed the gruesome history of the Tower of London with a very English sense of humor. We walked through the museum of the Crown Jewels and the bloody tower before deciding to make our way across the Tower Bridge.
We took pictures as we walked across the Tower Bridge when we found it bearable enough to remove our hands from our warm pockets. We all were getting tired due to the lack of sleep and decided to wake up and warm up with some tea at a modern cafe. We stopped in at the Orient Espresso, where we decided to leave our big suitcases and pack overnight bags for the hostel we had booked in Kensington.
Katie's “Europe on a Shoestring” book suggested a famous true London pub and we decided to head that way for dinner and relaxation after the crazy ordeal we had faced the night before. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub is located near Fleet Street and near St. Paul's Cathedral so we passed by the barbershop where Sweeney Todd took place, snapped some pictures of St. Paul's and the Christopher Wren church at night, and found our way off the beaten path to the famous pub. I ordered a pint of beer and a Steak and Ale pie. We talked with some people who were on a Bachelor Night Pub Crawl and decided to call it a night in order to make it to Globetrotter's Inn in Kensington to catch some much needed ZZZs. The four of us were split into 2 rooms again, but we had decent roommates and the beds had curtains that blocked some light and noise from the room...it was kind of cool to have our own little cubby to sleep in.
We woke up the next morning and had a breakfast of underdone toast and Museli at the Hostel before jumping on the Underground to meet up with the rest of the group at the British Museum. We were running a little late for our If-we-don't-get-there-by-this-time-leave-us-behind time so we had to book it from the station to the front of the Museum, but luckily they were in a similar boat and had arrived only a few minutes earlier. We split up to conquer the museum at our own pace.
The British Museum had so many items from art and archeology that I have heard about in my studies so it was really cool to be there and see them up close. We walked through a huge exhibit about Egypt where we saw the Rosetta stone and a bunch of Mummies. We also saw sculptures that were gathered from the Parthenon in Athens by British Archaeologists...the same artifacts and sculptures my tour guide in Athens this summer spoke about trying to get back from the Brits.
My favorite exhibit detailed the celebration of life and death from various cultures around the room. It displayed modern and ancient ceremonial decoration in addition to describing funeral practices of the many cultures. I was especially moved by a modern art piece by a textile artist who wove the lives of a man and a woman in the number of pills they took over their lifetime. It was crazy to see how much medicine went into their bodies over a 70 year period and made me think twice about popping the Sudafed every time I get the sniffles.
Although we felt like we could spend the entire day in the British Museum, we knew we had other things to accomplish that day, so we decided to grab soup at the Cafe Pret right outside the Museum and move on. The Photographer's Museum was recommended to us by a very nice Londoner when we were in line for Ryanair. We hopped on the Underground (minding the gap!) and made our way to the Chinatown stop where we thought the gallery was located. Little did we know...it was the middle of Chinese New Year and we were headed right to the middle of the hubbub. The streets were lined with red lanterns and a dragon was parading through the packed streets. We found out the gallery had recently moved a couple of blocks from it's original location and walking through Chinatown was the only way to get there. We jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the festivities for a while, blocked our bags from potential pickpockets and made our way through the streets, passing by vendors of yummy Chinese foods and colorful toys.
The Photographer's Museum was only four floors, and contained some interesting and also some disturbing pieces, but it was nice to get out of the crowds and cold for a while. We spent some time admiring art that wasn't in the form of sculpture or a painting. It started to snow while we were in the museum and we passed it off as normal mid-winter flurries as we made our way to check in to our third hostel in London...oh were we wrong.
We checked into the main hostel of the three St. Christopher's in London where we met our roommate Sam Banks who was doing an internship in London. He was from two hours south of the city and didn't really know anyone so we invited him to join us in our plans for the evening.
We changed into nicer clothes and left to meet Cheryl (who had spent the day with her mom's cousin in Hampstead) at Big Ben. It was still flurrying and very cold, so we quickly took pictures of Parliament at night and moved on to find the Masala House Indian restaurant. We had trouble finding our way through the snow that was now providing a slippery layer on the sidewalks. We finally found it and the “Homestyle” Indian food warmed my tummy. I have never really eaten a lot of traditional Indian food, so it was fun to try something new in a city that is well known for their Indian population.
We made our way back along the snowy streets to the Absolut Icebar. Little did we know there would be snow in London when we made our reservations a week prior, but it was a fun concept anyway. The entire bar was made of blocks of Ice and the drinks were served in Ice Goblets. We were provided with very stylish Eskimo ponchos to keep us warm and were only allowed to be in the Icebar for 45 mins in case we got too cold. We didn't stzy long anyway because we wanted to get back to our hostel to watch the Superbowl in the bar downstairs.
American football is not very well known in Europe, and is actually a difficult thing to explain to someone who is used to watching soccer and rugby, but there were still some locals who had spent time in the states and a bunch of Americans (like us) who were excited to find a place to watch the Superbowl and munch on “Traditional American Bar Food” of Nachos and Buffalo wings. I stayed downstairs through halftime before I was tired and decided to get some sleep for more touring the next day.
Alas, the snowstorm hit hard overnight and London became a mess the next day. Alexis, Brittany and I woke up around 9 to hear about the effects of the snow on the city—busses weren't running and most of the Undergrounds were delayed or canceled. The other girls were going to tea at the Ritz, but we had a less expensive low key day planned. We hoped to go to St. Paul's Cathedral to see the view of snow covered London from the top of the basilica. We got to the Underground and jumped on the wrong train...the worst part is that it sat in the station for several minutes after we realized we were mistaken, but the car was so packed we couldn't make our way out. We turned around at the next station and eventually made it to the Cathedral. The terraces were closed but we still got to see the gorgeous golden mosaics and intricate designs of the alter. There were some people making a snowman on the steps.
We were hungry and decided to eat at a sushi restaurant nearby called Itsu Sushi. I ate spicy crab rolls and miso soup to warm me up. We drudged through the snow to Oxford Circus, a famous shopping area and the location of the famous London Top Shop. We did some window shopping, but didn't really have the money or the room in our luggage to get anything serious. I bought a wallet to carry all the cash in various currencies I was carrying around (it broke 3 days later unfortunately)
Our plans of riding the London Eye and seeing a London Theater show were squashed in the snowstorm as most of the tourist attractions, shops and restaurants were closing early. We went back to the hostel where we warmed up, waited in a 45 minute line at the grocery store across the way and spent the night singing Karaoke and dancing in the bar downstairs.
Luckily we woke up the next morning to sunlight peeking through our curtains. Our flight was scheduled to leaved on time so we packed our things and ate a “Traditional English Breakfast” of ham, beans, eggs and baked beans at a cafe next door. We hopped on a train to Luten airport and were off to Ireland!
