I'm back! Did you miss me? After a one week hiatus from writing, I'm ready to report the latest and greatest adventures yet! Are you ready? Here...we....go!
My girlfriend Halley arrived on the 20th of February. She's here until the 8th of March and we are having a blast. This past week we made a 6 day, exhausting trip to London and Dublin, Ireland. Because our trip was so jam packed with goodies, it'll be another 2-part blog extravaganza!!!
We departed on a train from Liverpool to London on Tuesday. We made it in at around 1 PM and immediately headed to our hostel ( the same hostel I stayed at in November.) Once settled in, we began traveling around London and hitting all the tourist sites. We stopped at House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. One spot that we visited that I didn't go to last time was St. James Park. Located between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, the park is a beautiful oasis of all things nature. There were even flowers (yes in February) blooming in the park because it's springtime in the UK. There were a couple of London locals feeding the birds in the park so we got some great pictures of swans, geese, gulls, pigeons and pelicans! The weather was nice, the sun was setting it was a beautiful afternoon walking around London.
That night, we quickly grabbed dinner at Bill's and went to see Lion King-the musical. I have seen the show before back in 2006 when it came through Cleveland, but Halley had not seen it yet and it is definitely a show worth seeing even more than once. The show was wonderful and a great spectacle to see from the nosebleed seats. The night in the hostel was a bit rough for me. Still not feeling well, I was up half the night as a result. Oh and I had another annoying hostel mate. This time it was an older guy who showed up drunk. He kept leaving the room to use the restroom/smoke and would knock on the door because he couldn't remember the passcode. Halley and I were the only other people in the room. Halley being the sound sleeper she is, a trait that I envy, I would get out of bed and open the door for him each time hearing his excuse " I can't remember passcode." This happened at least 3 times during the night. Not a happy camper in the morning.
My girlfriend Halley arrived on the 20th of February. She's here until the 8th of March and we are having a blast. This past week we made a 6 day, exhausting trip to London and Dublin, Ireland. Because our trip was so jam packed with goodies, it'll be another 2-part blog extravaganza!!!
We departed on a train from Liverpool to London on Tuesday. We made it in at around 1 PM and immediately headed to our hostel ( the same hostel I stayed at in November.) Once settled in, we began traveling around London and hitting all the tourist sites. We stopped at House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. One spot that we visited that I didn't go to last time was St. James Park. Located between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, the park is a beautiful oasis of all things nature. There were even flowers (yes in February) blooming in the park because it's springtime in the UK. There were a couple of London locals feeding the birds in the park so we got some great pictures of swans, geese, gulls, pigeons and pelicans! The weather was nice, the sun was setting it was a beautiful afternoon walking around London.
That night, we quickly grabbed dinner at Bill's and went to see Lion King-the musical. I have seen the show before back in 2006 when it came through Cleveland, but Halley had not seen it yet and it is definitely a show worth seeing even more than once. The show was wonderful and a great spectacle to see from the nosebleed seats. The night in the hostel was a bit rough for me. Still not feeling well, I was up half the night as a result. Oh and I had another annoying hostel mate. This time it was an older guy who showed up drunk. He kept leaving the room to use the restroom/smoke and would knock on the door because he couldn't remember the passcode. Halley and I were the only other people in the room. Halley being the sound sleeper she is, a trait that I envy, I would get out of bed and open the door for him each time hearing his excuse " I can't remember passcode." This happened at least 3 times during the night. Not a happy camper in the morning.
But the morning got much better as we began our first full day in London. We headed to the Victoria and Albert museum via the London Tube. The Tube was very nice to ride because it was very warm compared to the cold outside. The Victoria and Albert museum is a huge museum that contains about everything you can imagine a museum would have. Clothing, musical instruments, furniture, art, sculptures, Roman columns the size of small buildings...you name it. We spent a couple of hours walking around a few of the galleries before moving on to the Natural History Museum next door. Both of these museums are places one could spend an entire day in and not see anything. They are big.
The Natural History museum was really cool and had a great design to it. I was even in awe at the structure of the exhibits. We went through several of them before we had to leave. My favorite, and I'm bummed we didn't get to see all of it, was the dinosaur exhibit. It was in one of the older wings of the museum and contained many different dinosaur skeletons. The end of the exhibit featured a "live" T-Rex that moved, roared and interacted with those passing by. Really cool to see.
As I said, we only saw a couple of the exhibits because we had to catch our train for the big event of the day. Both of us are Harry Potter fans, so we headed outside of downtown London to see The Making of Harry Potter Tour at Warner Bros. Studios. I was really excited to see this. They had two whole studios dedicated to exhibiting the props, sets, costumes and behind the scenes information of all the Harry Potter films. We were able to walk through the Great Hall, Dumbledore's office, and the set used for Snape's Potions class. As an added treat, they had some of the animal actors there for us to see including Hedwig, Scabbers the rat, and Hagrid's dog Fang. At the cafe they served authentic Butterbeer so we bought a cup. It is only one of three places that sells authentic Butterbeer ( I Know Harry Potter world at Universal Studios does). It was.....interesting. A blend of cream soda and a butterscotch, marshmallowy whipped cream on top. I think the coolest part of the exhibit, for the both of us, was seeing the entire model they used for Hogwarts Castle. This model was massive and beautiful. It took my breath away when I first saw it. It was used for all the outdoor, and exterior shots of the castle of all the films. I could have looked at it all day. If I had a room big enough, I'd build a replica.
After about 3 hours we headed back to central London. The Harry Potter is definitely a must see for fans. The price is quite steep I will be honest. But I'd consider going once and that's it. Back in London, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to an extra surprise. I convinced Halley, who has not seen Wicked, to go see Wicked at the student ticket price. We ended up getting front row seats for 90 dollars combined. Not bad considering they were about 130 individually? Another great performance and a real treat to see it again.
We had more roommates this night. The drunk guy still couldn't remember his passcode. Our another roommates were very loud snorers so I didn't get much sleep again. Sleeping at hostels is just not my thing.
After about 3 hours we headed back to central London. The Harry Potter is definitely a must see for fans. The price is quite steep I will be honest. But I'd consider going once and that's it. Back in London, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed to an extra surprise. I convinced Halley, who has not seen Wicked, to go see Wicked at the student ticket price. We ended up getting front row seats for 90 dollars combined. Not bad considering they were about 130 individually? Another great performance and a real treat to see it again.
We had more roommates this night. The drunk guy still couldn't remember his passcode. Our another roommates were very loud snorers so I didn't get much sleep again. Sleeping at hostels is just not my thing.
On to our final day for this blog: Thursday. Because of ticket prices we were flying to Dublin on Thursday and coming back to London on Saturday. It would have cost more to fly out of Liverpool even though it's only a 20 minute plane ride compared to over an hour from London. We had breakfast at our hostel and headed out to see Hyde Park. We stopped by Buckingham Palace when we realized something important was going on. We don't know what, but people were being driven into the palace by horse drawn carriages and others by car. We made it to Hyde Park but then it really began to rain. Then it started to downpour. So instead of walking around a park in the rain we headed back to the Natural History museum to see another exhibit or two. After that we caught our train to London Gatwick Airport and we were sky high to Dublin, Ireland!
I was really excited to go to Dublin as I have not been to another country in Europe. The flight, through Ryanair, was fine. We didn't have any problems. We made it to Dublin and caught a bus to the city centre where our hostel was. The hostel was nice and much more cozy. It felt more like a hostel. Once settled, we headed around town to take in the atmosphere. Our hostel was located right around the corner from Trinity College. This a college built by the first Queen Elizabeth and included some famous alumni such as Oscar Wilde and King Joffrey from Game of Thrones. We walked around for a bit and then headed around the city to find a place to eat.
Finding a place to eat proved much harder than I thought. To start most places offered dinners that were "2 courses" and it was very expensive. We struggled to find a place that offered only one course and was reasonably priced. We finally found a place and entered the restaurant.
The restaurant was called the Dakota and it was very weird. It was busy, but there was no one there to greet you at the door. We sat down and there were no menus and no waiter came up to us. We waited and waited and even moved to another table when we finally were approached by a waiter. Then it took forever for them to come back and take our food order. Then it took even longer to get our food ( which was delicious). And finally, we even waited for them to give us our bill. Honestly, we probably could have left without paying and no one would have noticed. But I'm not a criminal so we stuck around and paid.
I was really excited to go to Dublin as I have not been to another country in Europe. The flight, through Ryanair, was fine. We didn't have any problems. We made it to Dublin and caught a bus to the city centre where our hostel was. The hostel was nice and much more cozy. It felt more like a hostel. Once settled, we headed around town to take in the atmosphere. Our hostel was located right around the corner from Trinity College. This a college built by the first Queen Elizabeth and included some famous alumni such as Oscar Wilde and King Joffrey from Game of Thrones. We walked around for a bit and then headed around the city to find a place to eat.
Finding a place to eat proved much harder than I thought. To start most places offered dinners that were "2 courses" and it was very expensive. We struggled to find a place that offered only one course and was reasonably priced. We finally found a place and entered the restaurant.
The restaurant was called the Dakota and it was very weird. It was busy, but there was no one there to greet you at the door. We sat down and there were no menus and no waiter came up to us. We waited and waited and even moved to another table when we finally were approached by a waiter. Then it took forever for them to come back and take our food order. Then it took even longer to get our food ( which was delicious). And finally, we even waited for them to give us our bill. Honestly, we probably could have left without paying and no one would have noticed. But I'm not a criminal so we stuck around and paid.
Trivia! 3 people voted and 2 got it right. Survey says....Honey Nut Cheerios! The best selling cereal and it's super expensive in the UK. This week's trivia is in honor of Mr. Spock....
As I said above, next week's blog will conclude our 6 day trip. Until then...
Peace & Love,
Mark
Peace & Love,
Mark