London - BREXIT Time for Our Vacation

Considering I had been to London 3x prior to this trip, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Would I be an expert and really enjoy it? Would I be a bit bored since I've spent (relatively) so much time there? This dynamic was complicated by the fact that Rachel had never visited London so we would need to spend time seeing all of the touristy sites. As it turns out, and it pains me to say this because London was the first place I ever traveled, I was a bit bored during our time there.

We only had 2 days in London and our time there went fast. After spending 2 hours getting from City Airport to our flat because the DLR was shutdown, we went for a stroll in the neighborhood (our flat was right near Hyde Park and a 5 minute walk from Paddington station). It's mostly residential and there wasn't too much to do so we took the Tube down to the south bank of the Thames so we could tour the Globe Theater. The whole area down there has been built up significantly since my first trip in 2007 and is populated mostly by young professionals, so it was no surprise to me when I ran across PwC's office right in the middle of things. The Globe tour was pretty cool, especially since I didn't realize it's an outdoor venue. Not sure that's the greatest idea given London's weather, but that's how things happened during Shakespeare's time. The most memorable (and disgusting) part of the tour was witnessing a father and son who easily could have been mistaken for lovers with all the creepy touching that was going on. I initially thought they were a couple until Rachel pointed out that they were in fact, a family, and the mother and other son weren't much better with their touching habits. It brought to mind the famous line uttered by Mr. Rooney in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' after he sees Sloan kissing her "father" - "so that's how it is in their family." Totally creepy, and I still haven't been able to get away from the icky feeling almost 2 weeks later.

 

The next day we criss-crossed London hitting up all of the touristy sites the city had to offer - Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, 10 Downing, Piccadilly Circus, Abbey Road, etc. To get to all these places, we spent a lot of time in the Tube and I noticed that the Tube station smell (you know it if you've traveled on it) was significantly less pungent than my last few times in London. It's not a particularly bad smell, and I actually grew a bit nostalgic wondering what had changed in the 5 years since my last trip. We also managed to spend some of the afternoon at a proper tea time (Rachel's request) which can be a very expensive experience. Tea time (which usually occurs between 3-5 PM), not only includes tea but also scones, small sandwiches, and bite sized pastries and desserts as well. Everything comes out on a fancy tray that makes the "meal" seem way more grandiose than it actually is. When all was said and done, we paid $60 for an unfulfilling late lunch, but it could have been worse as some tea times cost £60 (about $80) per head! The food was good and it was a cool experience, but don't expect to leave satisfied after you're done.

 

On our last day, we visited the Imperial War Museum of London which is dedicated to, you guessed it, war. I'm a history nerd at heart and wars tend to define history so I was right at home in this museum. The museum occupies all 5 stories of a large building on the south bank of the Thames near Elephant & Castle. There are sections dedicated to WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, modern warfare, and some traveling exhibits. Admission is free, but they do ask for a completely voluntary £5 donation. We spent 1.5 hours at the museum because we had to catch our flight home, and we didn't even make it through all of the WWI exhibit. The WWI exhibit was extremely interactive, did a great job of telling the story of WWI from a British perspective, and even contained a full 50 foot long replica of a WWI trench which was an awesome site to see. It was definitely a disappointment that we had to miss the rest of the museum, because it was one of the finest ones I've visited. 

After the Imperial War Museum, we stopped for a quick bite at Nando's chicken (can't miss it while in London), hopped on the Piccadilly Line and headed to Heathrow to conclude our trip. Heathrow is still just as much of a clusterfuck as I remembered with people everywhere. Thankfully we didn't have to spend too much time there as our flight was on time. I was able to sit back, relax, and watch Room (really good), Money Monster (mediocre at best), and London Has Fallen. If you really want to see it, stop reading now because I'm going to give away spoilers that show how ridiculous this movie is. 

British PM dies in office (we later find out he was poisoned). When all of the world leaders come for the funeral, they are all assassinated (Canada, Germany, France, Italy, others) by HUNDREDS of terrorists disguised as British police officers and Queen's Guards members. Luckily, the US President has a badass secret service agent protecting him (Gerard Butler) who is indestructible and knows how to kill dozens of men by himself. At the end, Gerry is able to save President from being assassinated live on YouTube by killing all the terrorists. In the epilogue, the terrorist leader gets killed by a drone strike organized by VP, Morgan Freeman. America wins. The end.

After arriving home, we utilized our Global Entry privileges to bypass all of the immigration lines and were on our way home within 30 minutes of touching down. Seriously, sign up for Global Entry if you're going to travel abroad. It also gives you TSA Pre-Check on domestic flights.

And that's all folks. Thanks for reading.

Jeff

Ireland - Is That Going to Fit?

One of my favorite parts about traveling the world has been learning about different countries, cultures, and understanding more about the world. Of all the places we traveled, I learned the most about the Philippines and Ireland.

Ireland is a beautiful country with a magical type of charm to it. We first touched down in Dublin and stayed in an Airbnb on a quaint, pretty street that is about a 10 minute walk to the city center. 

That evening, I wanted to give Rachel the authentic Dublin experience so we ate at a pub and I ordered a pint of Guinness. Much to my surprise, Rachel really enjoyed the beer. In our entire relationship, I think Rachel had consumed a total of 2 beers. By the time we left Ireland, I think she had polished off about a dozen Guinnesses. Later that night, we visited Temple Bar, the party area of the city, with the hope of seeing some good live music. The first bar we went to was solid, but the real jewel of the night was a singer named Jake Hallam performing at the Auld Dubliner. This dude has a great voice and played mostly popular songs from the 90s in mashup format. Since Rachel and I had a few Guinnesses in our bellies by that point, we sang our faces off and had a great night.

The next day we toured Dublin and saw all the most popular tourist sites - Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green, and of course, the Guinness factory. I thought Rachel would be bored and we'd last maybe an hour, but to my surprise, we spent over 4 hours at the factory drinking Guinness, learning about beer, and watching Irish folk music and dancing. After the Guinness factory, we were lucky enough to catch a performance of Once, the musical adaptation of the movie of the same name. Once is a very simple love story, about both people and the city of Dublin. The music in the movie/musical is incredibly powerful. In addition, the performance we saw included the entire cast playing traditional Irish music for 30 minutes before the show with an on-stage bar where viewers could grab a drink and mix with the cast. A truly awesome experience.

 

 

The next day we packed up our stuff, went back to the airport, and picked up our rental car - a super small silver Peugeot. I was a bit terrified to pick up the car for three reasons: the last time I drove in Europe (in Barcelona) was the scariest hour of my life, Ireland is a left side of the road country, and I had heard the roads were extremely narrow. Nevertheless, we soldiered on and made a pretty uneventful drive from Dublin to Galway. With a boost of confidence from the drive (which was all highway), I decided the worst was behind me and driving in Ireland wasn't a big deal. That was a mistake.

The next day we decided to drive on the Wild Atlantic Way, which is a series of roads on the west coast of Ireland that overlook the Atlantic Ocean. It's basically Ireland's answer to the Pacific Coast Highway, if the PCH was half the size and contained even more hairpin turns. There are sections of the road that look like they will only fit one car (total, not each way), but 2 cars somehow manage to fit through. There are bridges that really only fit one car, and you have to cross them blind and pray that another car won't be coming in the opposite direction. And then there are sections of road where you and another car get to play a game of chicken to determine who is going to back up into the field and let the other car pass. Why would anyone put up with this nonsense?

This.

 

This.

 

This.

 

And this.

 

Driving around Ireland unlocks its true beauty. From the Cliffs of Moher to the Burren to the Dingle Peninsula (yes, that's its name and yes, the name is hilarious), all of Ireland is just a beautiful, green, raw, picturesque postcard. I was truly jealous of Rachel because while I was navigating hairpin turns and snapping twigs avoiding other cars, she had the best view of Ireland's tremendous beauty. During the 6 days we spent driving around the country, we pulled over to the side of the road multiple times a day to just stop and take in what we were seeing.

Back to the beginning about learning about a people and a place - as we explored Dublin, especially on the hop on, hop off bus tour, we would hear snippets about the country's history. After a few days, I knew there was a rebellion in 1916, the country officially became a Republic in 1921, and that there was a civil war immediately after the formation of the Republic. I was trying to piece this all together with my limited understanding of the politics here - which was basically that Ireland (Catholic) and Northern Ireland (Protestant) were 2 different countries and that they really didn't like each other. That's where Cyril and the Irish Folk Storytelling come into play. Cyril was our bed and breakfast proprietor in Cork. He's about 60 years old and knows everything about Ireland. I used our 3 breakfasts together to pick his brain about Irish politics and gain a better understanding of why things are the way they are there. I won't bore you with the details about the Irish fight for independence and how Ireland and Northern Ireland came to be split, but the learning is already paying off. Last night, I was driving home from the Phillies game when 'Zombie' by the Cranberries came on the radio. I've heard this song 1000 times over the past 20+ years and never gave a second thought to what it's about. When I heard, "it's the same old theme, since 1916," I figured I was onto something. As it turns out, 'Zombie' is about an Irish Republican Army (IRÁ) bombing that killed 2 kids in 1993, and served as a plea for peace between Ireland and Northern Ireland/Britain. Shortly after the song was released, the IRÁ ended 25 years of hostilities towards Northern Ireland and the British. It's moments like these that make learning fun.

The learning continued our last night in Ireland when we returned to Dublin to experience Irish Folk Storytelling which is way more interesting than it sounds. Our storyteller, Mike, was about 60 years old and had a fantastic Irish accent. During the show, I was transported back to my childhood when I would sit on my grandfather's lap and he would tell me and my brother stories from his childhood. We would hang on every word and couldn't wait to hear what he had to say. Mike had the same effect on me, but luckily I didn't have to sit on his lap. During the course of his stories, I learned that Ireland's population is less than 6 million, but its diaspora (people of Irish descent) is about 100 million strong worldwide. Those are crazy numbers and become even wilder when you realize that the population of Ireland was at 8 million before the potato famine in the 1840s and still hasn't come close to recovering to pre-famine levels nearly 200 years later.

We were very sad to leave Ireland as it was one of our favorite stops on the trip. If I had to pick one city we visited to live in, I would pick Dublin. The intangible charm of the city is incredible and you will never meet a more friendly group of people. Sure, I'd have to buy some thick sweaters as the temperature didn't reach above 65 in the middle of August, but that can all be worked around - there's plenty of Guinness to keep me warm.

 

Jeff

Barcelona - Chasing Gaudi

Barcelona was a whirlwind 4 days that seemed to go faster than any other part of the trip. With the finish line in range (we have 10 days to go), I imagine this will continue until we land in Philly next Sunday. 

For the first time on this trip, we spent time in a city I had previously visited. It had been 5 years since Barcelona captured my imagination with its perfect weather, vibrant nightlife, and breathtaking architecture. Architecture is far and away my favorite form of artwork and expression, and I've spent many hours this trip with my head in the sky staring at magnificent structures. If you've ever been to Barcelona, you know that the architecture scene starts and ends with Antoni Gaudi. The best way I can describe Gaudi's architecture is that it's a cross between Salvador Dali's surrealist painting and a Tim Burton fantasy world. Gaudi created his most famous works in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and even though most of them are over 100 years old, they still look and feel very modern.

Since Rachel had never been to Barcelona, I planned most of the itinerary here, which was heavily slanted towards finding and admiring Gaudi's most famous structures. This involved lots of walking (over 40 miles in 4 days) but was a great way to explore the city. In the end, we visited almost 10 Gaudi structures and explored the inside of 3. Rachel was a trooper and didn't complain about the crazy demands placed on her feet.

The first on the list was Gaudi's home of 20 years in Guell Park, a large park he designed in the far northern section of the city. His home was only mildly impressive, but we would find out later this was a mere appetizer on the larger Gaudi menu. The best part of Guell Park was the Flamenco/Spanish band (Tablao Sur) we found playing live music. These 4 guys were amazing and drew a sizable crowd. They threw in a few Beatles covers with a Spanish twist and were a blast to watch. We even spent the 10€ and bought a CD - well worth it. If you ever spend a dinner at our home, expect to hear the sweet sounds of Tablao Sur playing in the background.

After Guell Park, we took a cab down to the waterfront and experienced the sights and sounds at the end of La Rambla, Barcelona's most famous pedestrian street/park. It's extremely crowded and touristy, so we ducked out quickly to the Gothic Quarter, which houses Barcelona's Old City. We found a little place, La Fabrica, selling Argentinian empanadas, which are by far the best type of empanadas. Spain's empanada game up to this point was extremely weak and disappointing, but La Fabrica more than made up for it. When all was said and done, we visited La Fabrica 3 times in 4 days and tried about 8 different types of empanadas. Surprisingly, the best one was not with beef or chicken, but an eggplant and provolone masterpiece. 

After walking through the Gothic Quarter, we walked up the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona's 5th Ave, and visited the Casa Batllo, an apartment building Gaudi created around the turn of the century. I'll let the pictures do most of the explaining, but visiting this structure and learning about it really helped my appreciation for the man's work. There are almost no straight lines in the entire building, every piece of the building has a specific function (including the door handles), and Gaudi took all of his inspiration from nature. It's not surprising then, that Casa Batllo has an ocean like feel to it. Pretty incredible structure, but just a warmup for what was to come next.

 

The next night, we decided to check out the Sagrada Familia, the church that Gaudi designed and has been under construction for 133 years and counting - and no, that's not a typo. When I heard about Sagrada Familia, I was skeptical - how could a building take almost 150 years to complete? After we took a look inside, I was a believer. Let's start with the outside, which is all we saw on the first night.  You immediately notice two things when looking at the church, the amount of detail adorning the facade and the brightly colored crosses and fruit bowls (yes, fruit bowls) topping the towers of the church. You could stare at the church for hours and you wouldn't come close to picking up all of the detail. Each side has a different theme, focusing on the birth, life, and death of Christ. After taking in the church (it's actually a basilica now, as Pope Benedict consecrated it as such in 2010) for about an hour, we walked home in amazement. We only had 1 more day in Barcelona, and with a tour of Montserrat planned, we weren't sure if a tour of the inside of the Sagrada Familia would fit into the schedule. I asked Rachel to look at some pictures on Google of the inside to see if it was as impressive as the outside. She told me that it looked "pretty amazing" and we should try to go. When she told me she'd be willing to miss a beach day to go, I knew we were in for something incredible.

 

We walked through the doors and took our first look at what I can only describe as the most impressive structure I've ever laid eyes on. The inside of the church climbs to about 250 feet and is adorned with pristine artwork and bright stained glass. It doesn't look like most churches - dark, gloomy, depressing, and instead gives a welcoming and cheerful feeling. The columns which support most of the weight of the structure look like giant trees reaching up to the sky. Each "tree" has "branches" that provide additional support. The stained glass is green and blue on one side of the church and red and yellow on the other. The doors state the Lord's Prayer in 50 different languages. The stairs look...unique. I could go on and on, but I'll let the pictures tell some of the story. Seriously though, they don't do it justice. Go see the Sagrada Familia. By the way, it's expected completion date is 2026...and the tallest tower isn't even raised yet. I can't wait to see what it looks like when completed.

 

 

With all this talk about Gaudi, I almost forgot about our adventure to Montserrat, a mountain range about 25 miles northwest of Barcelona. Rachel and I wanted to visit Montserrat mostly for its "Stairway to Heaven," a sculpture of 8 rotating steps on the edge of a cliff that overlook the villages below. We were planning to take our Barcelona YOLO picture from the top of the structure...but it wasn't meant to be. First, we thought Montserrat was in Barcelona, not far outside the city so that pushed us back a day. Then, the night before we planned to go up there, we found out the workers who operate the funicular and the train (the only 2 ways up besides driving) would be striking the next 3 days. Then we called a tour company to take us up, but they were sold out of group tours for the day we wanted to go up, our last day in Barcelona. With renting a car completely out of the question after my last driving fiasco in Barcelona, we resorted to plan Z, a private tour up to Montserrat. Sure, it was expensive and more than we wanted to pay, but we were going to get the BEST YOLO picture ever. Our driver, Armando, an extremely knowledgeable and borderline nationalistic Catalonian picked us up at 8:30AM for our journey up to Montserrat. After an hour of back and forth with me asking Armando why Catalonia wanted to secede from Spain and Armando asking me questions about America to understand my level of American ignorance (I felt like I was a contestant on a bizarre game show at times), we arrived at Montserrat. 

Armando insisted that we see the church at Montserrat before doing anything else. We waited in line, touched the Lady of Montserrat's hand (it's supposed to be good luck) and moved on to the Stairway to Heaven. We got there and found a giant moose with a sign that said "Wally World Closed 2 Weeks to Repair America's Favorite Family Fun Park." Then I punched the moose in the face and picked up a BB gun from a sporting goods store and forced my way up the stairs. Ok, so it wasn't exactly like Vacation, but the structure was closed. Apparently, some kid fell off the stairs a few months ago, had to be rescued by a helicopter, and the authorities decided to no longer allow tourists to climb the structure. No wonder Armando was quizzing me during the ride out to Montserrat, it was probably an American who ruined the party for everyone. So much for our YOLO picture.

 

 

In all seriousness though, the views from Montserrat were amazing and the mountain range is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Apparently, the entire range was underwater millions of years ago and rose up from the ocean when the plates shifted, creating the Montserrat of today. Despite the disappointment of not being able to climb the Stairway to Heaven, we still had a great time.

 

Barcelona was amazing and still ranks as one of my favorite cities in the world. It's a bit touristy, but it's understandable why the region gets so many tourists. We definitely enjoyed ourselves.

Now, onward to Dublin! 

Jeff

PS - Vueling was 75 minutes delayed on the way out today. That puts them at a grand total of 5+ hours of delays for 4 hours of flying (2 flights). The rest of the trip we've flown about 40 hours and experienced maybe 2 hours of delays (6 flights). They suck.

TravelHacks

Below are some of the most valuable lessons I've learned over the past 40 days of traveling. Enjoy!

Let Google Know Your Deepest, Darkest Secrets - One of the most useful tools I've had access to during our trip has been Google Maps. When you stay signed in during your searches and also have a Gmail account, Google consolidates all of the relevant information and displays it to you in a useful format. For instance, when I look at a map of Barcelona, I know my what date and time my flight takes off. I also know where I'm staying and the dates of my stay. This feature holds extra value when you're working offline (we don't have a data plan here) and regularly navigating a new city. Because of Google, we always know where home is. 

 

The other extremely useful feature of Google Maps is the little direction arrow that displays where you are. This feature displays even when you're offline and also lets you know which direction you're moving. I can't tell you how many hours this has saved me over the past month. 

 

Since privacy is a relic of the past anyway, you may as well give Google all the access it wants so it can at least provide some utility while you travel. 

Travel on Sundays

Most of Europe is dead on Sundays, which makes it the perfect day to travel. We've been in transit 3 of the last 4 Sundays and it's worked out really well. There's nothing to do, most shops and many restaurants aren't open, and you can't fully experience the city. Better to spend a large chunk of the day on a plane/train so you can take full advantage of the city the other 6 days of the week.

Bank Tips

Some credit/debit cards in Europe will give you the option to pay in the local currency or USD. This seems like a really nice service for their customers until you calculate the exchange rates they charge to pay in USD. You will pay at least 10% more in USD than by choosing the local currency. In one eye opening experience, I was asked if I wanted to take out cash from an ATM in Euros or USD. I was pulling out 200€ and selected to pull my money out in local currency. The ATM informed me that the only way to "lock in" my exchange rate would be to charge in USD instead of Euros, where the exchange rate could be anything my bank wanted to charge. I knew better so I pulled out in Euros, but the language was ominous enough that I imagine most people would choose USD. I checked my statement when I got back to our apartment: the final tally - my Euros cost me $221. If I would have pulled out in USD to "lock in" my exchange rate, they would have cost me $255. I can only imagine how many millions of dollars the banks are scamming off of unsuspecting customers on vacation. Now it makes sense why most banks don't charge foreign transaction fees on credit cards anymore, they figured out a way to make more money and be "customer friendly" at the same time. Be alert for this deceptive practice when traveling abroad.

One post note, of all the cards I've used while abroad, American Express seems to be the only company that is not participating in this deceptive practice. Unfortunately, most European merchants don't accept AMEX. Kudos to AMEX for staying true to great customer service. The same cannot be said for Chase (with Visa) or CapitalOne (with MasterCard).

Use Airbnb

One of the other great finds from our trip has been Airbnb. I was a little skeptical of using Airbnb before this trip as I've been spoiled with dozens of free hotel rooms from all the traveling I've done for work over the years. I would have continued to stay in hotels for the duration of this trip but after about 11 free nights, I was fresh out of points. Hotels, especially in Europe's biggest cities, can be expensive, so Rachel and I decided to give Airbnb a shot. So far, we have had an overwhelmingly positive experience and have loved most of the places we've stayed. You feel more like a local and it's easier to assimilate into the culture of a new country as most owners provide local recommendations which are far superior to anything you'll get from a concierge at a hotel. We've discovered great neighborhoods, met interesting people, and most importantly, had access to washing machines! And we did all this at a fraction of the cost of a hotel (about $100/night all in). And if you really want to do Europe on the cheap, Airbnb gives you the option to stay in a private room in someone's apartment who lives there. Rachel and I chose this option in Switzerland and had a fantastic experience. Sure, you could land a creeper or a pain in the ass, but it just adds to the intrigue and could provide a great story down the road. 

The only real downside to Airbnb is that the check in/check out process requires a little more coordination. You need to figure out when you're going to pick up the keys which usually requires an in-person meet up. We haven't had any problems with this and our hosts have been more than accommodating, but I'm sure there have been people stranded outside for long periods of time with luggage who just want to get inside and relax. 

 

It amazes me how powerful of a market Airbnb unlocked. The "sharing economy" is certainly alive and well. 

Create Your Own WiFi Network

Rachel and I decided we didn't want to be connected that much during our trip, and that the WiFi in the hotel/Airbnb would suffice. However, there are times when we've needed WiFi in the middle of the day to find out where a restaurant is, look up train times, or get directions. This is where leveraging past WiFi networks becomes valuable. Multiple times on this trip, we simply walked past a restaurant or bar we connected to previously and used the WiFi again. It's great when you just need a quick connection. Also, if you're really desperate, go to a department store. They almost always have free WiFi and you don't have to buy anything. 

Anything I missed? Anything you would recommend? Feel free to comment.

Jeff