Reality seems to set in most harshly when you're thousands of feet in the air, or so was my experience. The thought of not being side by side with my boo anymore was more than I could bear. Sure we have our reasons for a break, but the tears just kept coming and coming.
I have the tendency to do away with/bury sad feelings in my head in such a way that I don't even remember them, and sometimes even forget things that happened within close proximity to the sad event (your typical defense mechanism). I'd absolutely hate the sadness that I feel now to do away with the brilliant memories of the past few months with my best friend.
So I made a list of my favorite moments, sights, and feelings in Sydney and Fiji. A lot of them you may not understand; but I guess this is mostly a moment for Matt and I to reminisce.
( Read more... )
I apologize to those in Chicago for having kept her away so long, but we've had some amazing times and only a few regrets. I'll be staying in Sydney another month or two, so I guess the tables are turned and it's my turn to be thousands of miles away missing her for a while.
I notice there are very few pictures from Sydney here, despite the fact we've been here more than a month now and Carrie's been snapping them constantly. Time to rectify that - enjoy.
( Read more... )
"...hmmm this 'chicken' tastes funny..."
I went to Melbourne to see an old family with whom I stayed in Melbourne when I was 12 to play Aussie Rules Football. I tracked them down using Facebook (yes, that ridiculous site can actually serve a purpose), and have had the most brilliant time with them tooling around Melbourne and its surrounds. Click below if you want to see the pictures...
( clicky clicky )
With the next place, fortunately, they redeemed themselves. 17th floor of a very modern high-rise, washer and dryer and satellite and full kitchen and a balcony with views of the ocean and skyline, a gym and outdoor pool onsite, and a location near my friends, the Kings Cross station, and in the middle of a great neighborhood; there's at least 30 restaurants within a block or two, and plenty of shops and nightlife.
The catch: we can't move in until February 11th. That may have been a deal-breaker, if they didn't happen to have another place going empty for the 18-day interim. So, we are staying in a place just about as nice but meant for a much larger group. There's three bedrooms and we each have our own bathroom and shower. Both places are at the same rate - $100AUD/night ($89USD). That may seem a bit expensive, but it's actually very reasonable for a short-term rental. It's also much cheaper than Europe - we paid three times as much in London.
No complaints really, life is going well at the moment. It's nice to settle in somewhere and get some work (read: play) done and not have to worry about where we'll be staying tomorrow.
The weather is beautiful. It's been mostly in the 80s during the day and about 70 overnight with a nice breeze. The last few days have been hotter than that, and it's been a bit sticky in here with only a couple fans to cool us. We didn't even think to ask where the thermostat was when we looked at the place. Honestly, who's ever heard of a place constructed after 2000 with electronic key fobs for the front door and elevators, but no central heating and cooling?
Last Saturday we celebrated Australia Day with a bunch of non-Australians.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
terrencechan threw a party where we grilled up several species of meat including crocodile, emu, kangaroo, and venison, and enjoyed Australian beer and wine. It turns out several of my (North) American friends are spending time here in Sydney. Guess what inevitably happens when a bunch of poker players get together for a barbeque or similar party?
We were taught a new card game, Big Two, and proceeded to play a friendly $10/point game. I went home $470 poorer. Carrie played too, in the non-money game. The host's recap of events.
In less happy news, Carrie has been under the weather all week, alternating between pounding headaches and stomach troubles. It seems like she's feeling better, hopefully that's passed.
Damn, it's hard to find a decent place around Sydney that doesn't cost several legs and 2.7 arms.
On the bright side, it has finally stopped raining! *fingers crossed, toes crossed*
Oh, and in other news, I'm homesick. Blah.
But happy times: I have a cell phone now! If anyone wants to talk to a homesick puppy, let me know. Ha!
Ok, it's late and we've been apartment hunting via the internet all night...sleepy bear...
Just wanted say "G'day love" to all of you, and I miss you. (duh)
Ciao!
Yay.
The good news? A bird pooping on your head is supposed to bring good luck (yippee!!). Well, does good luck entail no more big ass spiders hopping skipping and jumping on the hotel walls? GOD I HOPE SO.
I'm leaving a piece of me behind here in Fiji. AKA a piece of flesh.....I have about 20+ mosquito bites (mostly concentrated on my feet) and Matt has none. WTF. Damn me and my sweet blood.
It's absolutely beautiful here. We're sweating like pigs. The people are super nice. We're having fun, and now trying to plan the next few days so we can get to Sydney.....
Just wanted to post right quick so Matt could stop stealing every clap of thunder known to man....
Miss you guys heaps already.....see you soon!
Outside our room on the way to dinner, this guy hopped in front of us and then tried to hide in the corner:
We were talking to a doorman waiting for a bus, when I caught a glimpse of a flash falling from the ceiling, and then a plop onto the ground by my feet:
The doorman waved his foot to scare it away, but it decided climbing my leg would provide the best shelter.
As we arrived at the restaurant, a tap-dancing flash scurried sideways across our feet, causing Carrie to jump:
Back in the room just before bed, a giant spider sprinted across a wall and into a corner. Carrie screamed, stared at the corner for the next hour waiting for any sign of it, and then wanted to sleep with the lights on. In fairness, it scared me pretty good too.
Finally, at breakfast just now, a bird timed its dropping perfectly to coincide with Carrie's head. I wanted to take a picture. She wasn't amused.
Oh, yeah, two reasons: It's a private beach, and we arrived at five in the morning.
We just spent the afternoon at a resort on a small island, half an hour on a ferry from the Fiji mainland. We had planned to try snorkeling, but there was too much else to do there. We took a fish-feeding tour; a boat with windows in the floor took us out into the coral, where the driver hand-fed huge schools of fish of every imaginable color and stripe. We got back, hung out with a bunch of Aussies on the beach, drank some Fijian beer and wine, fed some turtles, and then watched the sunset over the ocean from the boat on the way back in.
Unfortunately, we weren't sure how wet we'd get or what kind of storage would be available, so we left the camera in the room; no pictures.
Breakfast was beautiful; an open-air veranda on the beach with a full buffet. The veggies and especially the fruit here are incredible, but fresh, quality meats are harder to come by for logistics reasons.
Mimosas included! New skills include differentiating between mango and papaya, and identifying the passion fruit.
Sixteen degrees in Chicago, yikes.
I'm hoping to convince Carrie to give scuba-diving a shot tomorrow, but it appears she'll need her arm twisted. Wish me luck. Dinner time!
The trip went extremely well, except for the middle part at LAX. What an awful, awful place. It's amazing how such an important international airport can be so poorly run. I've always lived minutes from O'Hare, and apparently that's spoiled me: Chicago is the only American airport in a 2002 top-ten list.
Making the local airport as pleasant as possible to travel through should be a no-brainer for any urban center. Happy, relaxed visitors spend more, and return. Businessmen try to avoid nightmare airports, and if the businessmen do, eventually businesses do too, when it comes time to relocate or open a new office. A long and stressful experience at the airport leaves a terrible parting impression of your city for any visitor.
Fortunately, our experiences elsewhere so far have been wonderful, and Sydney promises to be even better, according to those rankings.
Our first leg from Chicago to LAX was a breeze. The flight was full and we couldn't sit together, but we both got decent seats. Carrie slept all the way through. Tip: Always try to get an exit row. Most people know this by now, but the extra leg room makes a big difference.
We got to LAX, picked up our bags, and headed to check in for our next flight. We bought our tickets online through an aggregator, with the two legs on different airlines, and at check-in in Chicago the machine didn't ask whether we were continuing past LA. I failed to realize it was relevant, but we could have had our bags checked all the way through even on different airlines, which would have saved a lot of hassle.
At the check-in counter in LA the problems started. Carrie's ticket was apparently coded to the wrong fare in their system, and the counter girl spent the next 30 minutes trying to fix it. She printed boarding passes, but then looked at them, tore them up, and started over, several times. She tagged our bags but then we had to wait in line to drop them off - a line all the way down the corridor and out the door, that took a half hour to get through. Why this is necessary, I haven't a clue. Next was the security line, but since it had taken well over an hour already, the airline sent an escort for us and the other nine passengers on our flight who had foolishly arrived only two hours before their flight. It seemed there were lots of these escorts, whose sole job function was to help people skip through the security line because their airlines' check-in processes took far too long.
Anyway, LA to Fiji was another breeze. The flight was full again but we lucked out and got seats A and C with an empty between us. We both slept most of the way, and arrived rested, relaxed, and smiling.
Fiji is beautiful. The resort is the type of postcard getaway you dream about. Everyone says "Bula!" with a smile so big it almost seems fake. We just checked in and got to our room, so we're off to breakfast. Not much else to write about yet anyway.
We still have some posting to do - pictures from Germany, and hopefully, later, some reflections on our trip. That's the plan at least.
( More from Berlin... )
No time for a full post; we're about to head out for a day of shopping and a haircut, maybe massages too?
Here's some pics from London in the meantime.
The London Eye
( See more... )
UPDATE: Or not. After paying £25 pounds for a cab to the bus station and £24 for the airport bus, we arrived at the check-in counter at exactly 6am, to be told that check-in was closed at - yes, you guessed it - 6am. The helpful guy at the counter had closed it literally five seconds before, and there was nothing he could do. So, we are at Luton Airport waiting for the next flight, seven hours after the original one.
We paid £35 each to reschedule to the later flight. The original one-way tickets were £60 each. For the privilege of using the BT wireless on our laptops in the meantime, we paid £10 each.
For those who haven't been following its free fall, a dollar buys less than half a pound these days.
I blame Lonely Planet, which has had consistently horrid coverage of both Ireland and England. It said our bus would take 35 minutes, while it arrived right on schedule in an hour ten. It seems their transit times were well under for all the London airports.
Several times it's led us to "hot spots" that were little more than dive bars on the opposite side of town. Most of the hotels we've stayed in, which have usually been among the biggest in town, aren't even listed at all. The maps that point out things to do and see in town often show nothing for blocks at a time, even in areas full of pubs, restaurants, shopping, theaters, etc., etc. The hours listed for a lot of attractions are only for the summer months, which isn't always mentioned...
I thought Lonely Planet had a reputation for reliability and helpfulness? Maybe that reputation was earned for their coverage of the more "lonely" parts of the planet?
Okay, enough ranting, we're having fun, honest!
On the plus side, I learned how to type the "£" symbol for this post.
When we came to England, we left a suitcase at our hotel in Cork, in a storage closet. We had assumed we would be returning there shortly, but now we'd rather go see somewhere new instead of going back to Ireland before Christmas.
We wouldn't have been able to bring it anyway - not without major charges. The airline has a 20kg (44lb) limit per customer on checked baggage, and that seems typical on inter-European flights (the limits are much higher trans-Atlantic).
How do we get it?
The bag weighs probably 75 pounds. Clothes plus a few books plus some electronic crap (battery/charger/etc).
One option would be to stop in Cork on our way home to Chicago for Christmas and pick it up, but there are no Cork->Chicago flights.
One of us was considering flying to Cork tomorrow, getting the bag, and coming right back here. The problem is that, besides the time and money that costs, the bag would be too heavy to bring back - or, if it was allowed, it would be something like $150 extra above the cost of the flight because of the extra weight.
We found a shipping company that will pick it up and deliver it to us in London for about $150. We would happily pay that, except that it takes 2-3 weeks, and we won't be here by then.
Ideally, we'd find a company that would pick it up and ship it back to Chicago, and we could stop worrying about it. UPS, at least, doesn't do unattended luggage. Passenger airlines won't ship an unattended bag, will they? We haven't been able to find anyone who will do it (trans-Atlantic, that is - there are domestic companies), even though this seems like a fairly common problem.
Unless we come up with a better solution, we'll probably be back in Ireland soon. Oh well, things could be much worse than that. :)
One thing I hadn't appreciated was the difference in population between the two countries. England is less than double the size of Ireland by land area, but has a population of 50 million. Ireland's is barely four. It struck me when I noticed that the cities we were researching to decide where to visit - Manchester, Leeds, Leicester, Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Liverpool, London, etc. - all had populations over 100,000. England has 57 cities with six-figure populations(!), while Ireland has Dublin and Cork.
Famine, emigration, and imperialism have decimated a historically agrarian population, but things are changing. Thanks in large part to the Celtic Tiger, Ireland has recently seen lots of immigration, especially from Eastern Europe.
Might we be the next two? That's still possible, but less likely than a month ago. After dealing with the weather and price levels here in Europe, somewhere closer to the equator is sounding better and better, for the winter at least.
But for now, on to England. ( Read more... )
Long time no see!
By now maybe a lot of you have given up on checking this journal to see if there have been any updates. Many sorries about that one. It's just that, well, we couldn't get internet access while we were in jail. But we're out on bail now, so, we post away!
(Just jokes)
Seriously though, we've been really busy. "Really busy" entailing taking a few days off from working to enjoy traveling, making friends with sheople (sheep + people = sheople) (as Matt likes to call them), climbing mountains, and taking our own lives into our hands (aka driving). It's been "grand," but let me just say that, holy crap does traveling require hours and hours of planning. The amount of time we've spent researching hotels, flights, rental cars, cities, towns, tourist attractions....*sigh*...Lonely Planet or no Lonely Planet, traveling is HARD WORK.
We're learning a lot though. Not to get all after school special on you or anything, but I think we've learned a lot about ourselves, each other, and tolerance in the past month. We're both still alive, though we've come close to homicide several times. I'm not sure how into the "psyche" of Matt's and my relationship you all are: we love each other a lot. It's scary because the longer we're here, the more I realize the danger of travel forcing people apart. It's stressful - the unknown of a foreign place, in particular, and there can be a lot of frustration involved in planning and execution. We really haven't left each others' sides for a straight month, with the exception of using the restroom. And hey - we're Venus and Mars - we have a lot of disagreements! Keeping all of this in mind, I think it's pretty remarkable that we're still in love and still alive. (Though some nights I do sneak a knife under Matt's pillow, just to keep him on his toes). (Jokes!)
We (I) have been doing my best to remind myself that we're a team, and when combine our resources (our brains) we get a lot of mushiness and some pretty good ideas/solutions.
So anyway....mushy mushy love blah junk....enough of that.....
So Matt spilled the beans already....but I'll spill them again, just because I want to.....
WE'RE IN ENGLAND!
[Yay!]
From one ridiculously expensive country to another!
[Yay!]
Okay, I'm allowing myself to complain once about the expensiveness of England, then I'm off the subject permanently. /end rant/
Yesterday we were in Sheffield. We saw 2 concerts: Christy Moore (*sigh*) and Patrick Wolf (*sigh*). Something very strange happened at these shows. Well. Quite a few strange things happened at Patrick's show, at least, because he's just a super eccentric kind of guy....but ANYWAY....the one strange thing in particular was that they BOTH played one of my favorite songs: "Black is the Colour (of My True Love's Hair)." I knew that Christy performed this song, and it's my favorite song of his, but I had no idea that Patrick knew it also. Very very moving, moved to tears, actually, by Christy Moore. It was just a really amazing, really inspiring and touching moment.
Today we got in the car to go to Leicester. Well, when we got in the car, we honestly had no idea where we were going. We changed the GPS destination from Cambridge, to London, to Peterborough, to Leicester (pronounced Lester) (I'm noting the pronunciation only because I had not a clue that it would be pronounced that way, and I'm guessing maybe others wouldn't either?).
So here we are, in Leicester, a quite diverse town, a lot bigger than Cork. It's full of Indian and Asian restaurants (yay!) and there's a Christmas fair going on right now. There is PLENTY of shopping everywhere, Mrs. G, and I'm obsessed with European fashion, but I am doing my best to restrain myself a bit. It's a good test of my self-control (hehe).
A few days ago, while we were in Sheffield, we visited the Peak District National Park. Now, mind you, the good old US has plenty of state parks. Has either of us ever visited one? NO! But for whatever reason (maybe it was all the winding roads we had driven the night before), we became very curious about nature and decided to visit. And it was AMAZING. I mean, when people joke about the Midwest being flat, they are not kidding! The Midwest is as flat as a pancake run over by a steamroller compared to this stuff! Hills EVERYWHERE shaping and molding our thighs of steel. We have some absolutely fantastic pictures of the scenery that I will probably put in a separate post.
We're thinking London for the weekend, and then probably Bath, Manchester, and finally Liverpool.
In other news, Matt's been working hard to not drive our car off of mountains and to avoid oncoming buses. Let's just say that the first time in the car on the left side of the road should have been preceded by some serious Dramamine. I was praying to keep my lunch in my stomach the whole way there. Just the thought of it still makes me nauseous.
ICK!
Anyway, it's late here, and I think we're going to be ready for sleep soon. We just finished watching a special called "Superhuman Giants" about giantism....(look it up if you're curious...and you should be curious....) while working. Definitely the best tv we've seen since we've been here. ;0)
I hope all's well at home. And that everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. And that everyone put 2 slices of pumpkin pie and some stuffing in the freezer for us to snarf when we get back! Hehe....miss you guys.....More soon!!
- Mood:
thankful
Now, we have to check out of our hotel here in Sheffield and start driving south through the English countryside, with an eye toward a home for the night. Where will our heroes end up: Oxford? Nottingham? London? Stay tuned!
(Note to self: Stay on the LEFT SIDE today.)
BUT, I felt it important to note one thing before I forget (again):
For those of you who don't think I'm making progress with Mr. Matt, let it be known that yesterday we went to an ALL VEGETARIAN restaurant for dinner (Cafe Paradiso). Seriously, NO MEAT on the menu.
AND,
He liked it!!!!!
*gasp*
(pumpkin gnocchi in lemon cream with sautéed leeks, pinenuts & Cratloe Hills sheep’s cheese; watercress & roasted baby beetroot salad with glazed pecans, Cashel blue cheese and a balsamic blackcurrant dressing; and feta, pistachio & couscous cake on citrus black kale with sweet & hot pepper relish, coriander yoghurt & spiced chickpeas)
(mmm mmm good).
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