A normal day
Posted by Gypsy on May 22, 2007
Finally, nine days into my trip, I finally had a relatively normal day. My morning was spent recovering from Venice an relaxing. Realizing that I needed a new bag to fit all the stuff I’d bought while in Europe, I went and did a little shopping and got one. Unfortunately, this is the day London decides to have some crap weather and by the time I’d bought the bag, the rain was starting, leaving me to hightail it back to my hotel.
Around 12:30, I finally set out once again to tackle the tube on my own and meet up with Andrew, his sister Gina and her boyfriend Christian. I’d been wanting to meet Gina and put a face to the person Andrew was always telling me about. From what he had told me, we were pretty similar and that became blatantly obvious as we were both doing everything possible to keep even the slightest drop of rain from hitting our hair as it drizzled than poured on us the entire hour we were in line for the London Dungeons.
The London Dungeons is really just a historical haunted house disguised as a tourist trap, but it was fun nonetheless. I worried that I would be terrified the whole time as I scare easily, but there were only a couple spots that were really scary for me. What I kept thinking would happen was actually far scarier than what did. But it was still a fun way to kill a few hours before we set out to watch Spiderman 3 and by the time we left the rain had quit.
Heading over to Leicester Square, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before the movie, which was definitely nothing worth writing about. And thanks to England’s love of 30 minutes worth of previews and advertisements (and I’m not even exaggerating), the whole thing came in at just under 3 hours of torture. With this out of the way, it was definitely time to grab a drink and this is where I finally got to meet Jilly, another member of the VA board. It was so awesome finally meeting her and we all had a great time hanging out before finally calling it a night, since everyone else had to work in the morning and I had a flight to Scotland to catch.
Back to London
Posted by Gypsy on May 18, 2007
Leaving Venice was just as frustrating as arriving and Venice airport sucks. Since the water bus took nearly 2 hours on Thursday, we’d planned on it taking as long to return us to the airport. It didn’t and we arrived at the airport in about an hour, leaving us with nearly three hours to kill. Even worse, instead of just having a ticketing counter for each airline and being able to check in early like at a normal airport, each flight had it’s own ticketing counter and they would just tell you which one on a screen anytime within two hours of the flight. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, an hour before our flight, we were able to check in and head back to London. The flight was slightly turbulent and had the worst food ever, but we survived and hopped the train back to London, where I would catch the tube to my hotel and Andrew would head to his office to get my larger bag.
Of course nothing ever goes according to plan and what should’ve been an easy journey to my hotel ended up hell because the tube station that I needed to go to was closed, leaving me to get off a couple stations early. Because I had no clue where I was, I needed my map of London, buried deep in my bag since I didn’t think I would need it. There I am, in the middle of an unfamiliar tube station in a city I barely know, practically unpacking my bag trying to find my damn map so I could find my hotel. What should’ve been a 10 minute walk to my hotel turned into a 30 minute trek with luggage.
The tube made just as big a mess of Andrew’s trip as well, stopping in the middle of the tunnels for over an hour while someone decided to take a walk on the tracks, and hours later he finally made it to the hotel with my bag. To top it all off, the weather was shit and looking to be shit on the next day as well. Of course, this gave me the perfect excuse to relax the rest of the night, though I didn’t really need one as I’m on vacation and am here to relax anyway.
Finally some sightseeing
Posted by Gypsy on May 16, 2007
Waking up at a decent hour, I look out the window to see the rain has finally stopped. So I decide to get out of bed and actually enjoy the day. Since Andrew had slept later than I, I run off to the Internet cafe before hitting up some sights. Since the Internet cafe was closed when I got there, I move on to Saint Mark’s Square again for more photos. Of course, as soon as I get there, the sky goes dark and a light rain starts. Not wanted to let it get me down, I continue to take photos before heading back to hop online. Of course, less than halfway there, the sky decides to completely open up and, since I didn’t bring an umbrella, I run to the nearest street vendor to get one.
Dry again, I decide waiting out the rain by going on the Internet is the best plan and by the time my 30 minutes were up, it was beautiful out and would remain so the rest of the day.
Once I finally got nice photos of the main sights I wanted to see, Andrew and I set out to wander. It’s pretty hard to get lost in Venice as there are signs everywhere to lead you where you want to go. Otherwise, it would be a labyrinth of random streets that you would never get out of. There are so many beautiful buildings to take photos of throughout the city, and I did just that. The architecture is just so old and classic that you can’t help but fall in love with it. Amazing me more were all the little shops tucked away in corners and down the alleyways.
After window shopping for three days, I finally decided to do some real shopping, hitting up various little shops for some clothes that I wouldn’t find in the US. Shockingly enough, I ended up spending half what I had budgeted for clothes and ended up with some really nice stuff.
Once I was done shopping, it was clear to me that I was exhausted and in need of a break. I also had a migraine starting to take root from being in the sun most of the afternoon, so it was time to relax and get some sleep before my flight the next morning. All in all, Venice was wonderful and my third time here far more memorable than the first two. Mainly because I wasn’t a toddler this time around, though. There were some things I wish I’d done, like a gondola ride, but at least now I have an excuse to come back again.
I’m going home
Posted by Gypsy on May 14, 2007
Ok, I’m going to interrupt my Euroblogs for a quick update. I’ve decided to move home to Western NY for a little while. I found out right before my trip to Europe that I can’t stay where I’ve been living past June 1. Since I still haven’t found a job or really had any leads and I’m running low on monday, I figured the best thing to do is just move home for a little while.
Since the decision has been made, the goal is to get it done with as quickly as possibly. In that vein, my dad is set to fly here on Monday so that we can set off first thing Tuesday morning. the drive should take about 40 hours, so I’ll be home by the weekend. I was a little upset about all this at first, but the reality is I was only planning on living in Los Angeles for a few years before heading back east anyway. This is jut bumping up the schedule a little bit. At least this way I can live rent free while working on finding a real job and getting ready to move to New York City, which I will hopefully do by fall. Does it suck to be 25 and moving back in with my parents? Totally. But it’s only temporary and I’m not the first person who’s needed a little help and I definitely won’t be the last.
So if anyone knows of any PR or PR assistant jobs in NYC that are open, please let me know. I can use all the help I can get.
