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Travelling Again (Text Message Updates for 2008-11-06)

6 Nov 2008
  • Ungodly early, about un catch train to airport then plane to munich! #
  • Gross weather on both end, just landed about an hour late. #
  • Officially in germany! With gretchen on the train heading to munich city centre. #
  • Oh my gosh munich is beautiful! About to have some traditional done go a beer garden. #
  • Mmm… German chocolate. Now outside the royal residence. #
  • Lovely walk around the city but it just got COLD. Time to find some warm food 🙂 #
  • Mmm delicious beef goulash and a waiter who congratulated up on being americans! #

AH Busy

5 Nov 2008

The last week has been unspeakably crazy, in a really good way. I don’t have a prayer of saying everything I want to, so again I’m stuck with just doing a bullet point recap of some really amazing experiences. Hopefully I can elaborate more over the next week…

– Friday, Halloween, I went to a Jive Nation Halloween party. I know Sarah took some pictures, I’ll have to see if I can track them down.

– Saturday, Sarah, Steve and I went to Stuff Live, a gadget and tech exhibition where we had super convenient press passes. Glad we didn’t pay for tickets, though. Very cool stuff to look at but it was mostly a sales pitch.

– Sunday, caught up with the entire third season of Heroes.  *whew* Is it just me or is that show gotten completely ridiculous? Still great, but super ridiculous.

– Monday, had press tickets to see La Cage Aux Folles which was absolutely hilarious and such a feel good musical. You can read my review of the performance (which just opened at a new theatre in the west end) of La Cage Aux Folles on Spoonfed.

– Tuesday, went with Alex to Planet Hollywood after work to watch the election results, ended up staying until half past one in the morning amidst the cheering Obama fans.  I felt so proud of America and really thrilled to be from the USA last night and although I’m jumping on the Obama bandwagon a little late, the international response to his victory has really impressed me.

– Today, made a hectic post-work run to the pharmacy, and the bureau de change to get Euros, then ran home to start/finish packing as I leave SUPER early tomorrow for Munich.

Wow, I’m exhausted just thinking back on it.  Sleep was pretty much the one thing I haven’t managed in the last few days so I’m going to try to have an early night before my 5am wakeup call.  I’ll be updating although the way so you’ll probably hear more from me while I’m in Germany and later Austria this weekend than you have these last few days.  Cheers!

UK Trips

28 Oct 2008

I know I’m off to Munich in a few days (very exciting!) but I really wish I could do a bit more travelling in the UK before the year is over. My plan for the last few weekends has been to head up to Kings Cross, walk up to the ticket counter, hand them 20 quid and ask for an open return ticket to somewhere. But between all of the things I’ve had to do, it’s been difficult to plan a last minute trip anywhere. There are a couple of sites that I’ve discovered that allow you to plan last minute breaks but often the bigger problem is where to go.

There are two places I feel I really need to travel to, and hopefully soon – they’re also the sorts of places where I can do a last minute trip and still feel as I haven’t missed out on anything I could have accomplished with advanced planning.

Firstly, Bath. The home of Jane Austen, setting of many of her novels, only a few miles away from Stonehenge and with, of course, the ancient Roman baths. I’ve already (sadly!) missed the Jane Austen Festival earlier this year but there’s so much there in terms of history, places to see and shopping that I’m certain I could spend a day, a weekend or even longer. It’s also incredibly accessible from London which makes it pretty high on my list of last minute destination choices.

The other place I’d love to visit is Cornwall to see the Eden Project. Mimi went earlier this year and her pictures were amazing – basically the Eden Project is a series of ecodomes and is kind of a cross between a museum, a garden, an amusement park and a concert venue. It’s a bit longer trip from London but will be absolutely worth it. As soon as I have a nice weekend I think it would be worth looking at how much a trip to Cornwall would be.

There are so many other places I need to visit in the UK – Canterbury, Haworth, Isle of Skye, Dover, Durham (as my dad keeps telling me)… I haven’t even seen the Windsor Castle yet!

I may have some international trips coming up, but there’s is clearly plenty to keep me busy right here :).

Back to Wales?

18 Oct 2008

This was the weekend I was meant to go to Amsterdam and although I am very very glad I didn’t end up going, I really do want to sort out some more traveling in the very near future and I keep thinking I’d like to go back to Wales.

It’s getting a little late in the season to hike Mount Snowdon, which I had really been looking forward to (that will have to wait until next summer) but there’s still a ton of hiking throughout the country and that just sounds so much nicer now that I’ve been in a city for so long. I’d also really like to get to Cardiff which is supposed to be a fun city.

Wales also has a ridiculous amount of choirs and vocal groups that are renowned for their talent so when I do go back I’ll have to get some concert tickets in Cardiff.

I also decided that I’d love to go back to Hay-on-Wye, the town of books. When I was there on my Wales trip, I only got about half an hour of open bookshops.

If I could find a group of people, I’d love to go to something like Tenby Self Catering Cottage because it would be much easier to stay in a cottage rather than staying in a hotel or hostel (especially if I’m doing as much hiking as I’d like to!). Anyone up for a visit and a trip to Wales?

But with upcoming trips to Germany to see Gretchen, Austria to see Shelley, and New York to see the department of homeland security and visas, I’d better get my Wales trip in soon!

Amsterdamn

14 Oct 2008

So… I’m not going to Amsterdam this weekend. I’m still not feeling 100% healthy, I don’t have a plan for transport from Einhoven to and back from Amsterdam, and I don’t have a place to stay. The biggest problem is that I don’t think I can manage getting up at 3am to get to the airport in time for my flight, going through two days of running around the city, get back to my flat at 10pm on Sunday night and make it into work the next day. I also don’t have any time to sort out the transport and where I’m staying. So, I’ll lose the 30 quid for the plane ticket (not a huge deal and for how much my stress levels have gone down since deciding I wasn’t going, I think it’s worth it).

I thought that by getting the plane ticket, I’d force myself to sort out the details and go on another trip but really it just ended up being quite stressful on top of being sick. So I’ll do something fun this weekend in the UK (any suggestions?).

Whew – it feels amazing not to have to worry about this trip. I’m going to plan this properly, travel with a friend, and have a great time in Amsterdam… in the future.