Finally! We're back! And this time we're going to be better bloggers (hopefully). We have some catching up to do, so we're going to start back in LAST May/June with our month long trip through Europe.
Joe and I had been talking about taking a trip to Europe since before we started dating. Then, right around the time we were planning our wedding, we found some A-MAZING plane tickets and were fortunate enough to have some awesome friends scattered across four different countries in Europe who let us crash with them. We only had to book hotel rooms for 10 nights out of the 32 days we were traveling - which really made the whole trip possible (thank you to the Bybees, Laws, Marco, Eugenio & Robin!)
Joe had been to Europe a few times before, but I had never been across the pond. So we planned all of the usual tourist stops and sight seeing.
We began our trip in London, England where we arrived jet-lagged but excited! We found our hotel (a super ritzy one that Joe had scored for a great deal on Priceline's "Name Your Own Price") and tried to check in. Then the pretty lady with the accent I'm pretending not be jealous of informed us that our reservation was for the following night. Crap. And so began the two hour long ordeal. Joe used his phone (for $1/minute) to make a lengthy call to Priceline's customer service to try and change our reservation. I tried speaking to the hotel to somehow help us out but "their hands were tied". And no, I'm not still bitter about them refusing to help us. So I sat on the lobby couch and tried and failed not to cry, while a lady waiting there offered me chocolate truffles and some very nice words. In the end, we were able to work it out with Priceline that if we found and booked another hotel using their "Name Your Own Price" service, that they would refund the incorrect night's stay. The problem was that everything in the area was between $300-$500 per night! But we finally found a little hotel in a quaint little borough of London to stay at. And it came complete with two twin beds :)
We got there just in time to do a quick change and rush back to central London to watch Les Miserables (thanks Brad & Jen!). The production was indescribable. The singing was outstanding, the acting incredible and they had a rotating stage that was so amazing! We laughed and cried - and if you know Les Mis, you know it's one of the best plays ever written. It was one of the best experiences I've had, and one of the top two best plays I've ever seen. If you're in London it's a must-see.
The next day we set out for Hampton Court Palace - where King Henry VIII reigned. It was a pretty cool castle! Complete with King Henry himself roaming the halls and a fun little garden maze.
Afterward we grabbed some pizza (it was the only restaurant nearby that sounded good) and it turned out to be the best pizza we had ever eaten. Funny thing was, when we mentioned that to our friends living in Cambridge they BURST out in laughter. The restaurant was called "Pizza Express" so I can't say I blame them. To them it sounded like we had just tried Domino's and were raving about it being the best. But that was all before we had true authentic pizza made by Marco's mother - which was to DIE for. (But more on that later).
That night we headed out to Cambridge to visit my favorite brother/sister duo in the entire world. Rachel & Brian Bybee!
They showed us around Cambridge and we met Brian's beautiful girlfriend (seriously - go Bri!). We even caused quite a ruckus by laying on some grass and got kicked out of the area - not joking. It was SOO great to see them, I have really missed them dearly!! But here's more of the story in pictures:
Joe and I had been talking about taking a trip to Europe since before we started dating. Then, right around the time we were planning our wedding, we found some A-MAZING plane tickets and were fortunate enough to have some awesome friends scattered across four different countries in Europe who let us crash with them. We only had to book hotel rooms for 10 nights out of the 32 days we were traveling - which really made the whole trip possible (thank you to the Bybees, Laws, Marco, Eugenio & Robin!)
Joe had been to Europe a few times before, but I had never been across the pond. So we planned all of the usual tourist stops and sight seeing.
We began our trip in London, England where we arrived jet-lagged but excited! We found our hotel (a super ritzy one that Joe had scored for a great deal on Priceline's "Name Your Own Price") and tried to check in. Then the pretty lady with the accent I'm pretending not be jealous of informed us that our reservation was for the following night. Crap. And so began the two hour long ordeal. Joe used his phone (for $1/minute) to make a lengthy call to Priceline's customer service to try and change our reservation. I tried speaking to the hotel to somehow help us out but "their hands were tied". And no, I'm not still bitter about them refusing to help us. So I sat on the lobby couch and tried and failed not to cry, while a lady waiting there offered me chocolate truffles and some very nice words. In the end, we were able to work it out with Priceline that if we found and booked another hotel using their "Name Your Own Price" service, that they would refund the incorrect night's stay. The problem was that everything in the area was between $300-$500 per night! But we finally found a little hotel in a quaint little borough of London to stay at. And it came complete with two twin beds :)
We got there just in time to do a quick change and rush back to central London to watch Les Miserables (thanks Brad & Jen!). The production was indescribable. The singing was outstanding, the acting incredible and they had a rotating stage that was so amazing! We laughed and cried - and if you know Les Mis, you know it's one of the best plays ever written. It was one of the best experiences I've had, and one of the top two best plays I've ever seen. If you're in London it's a must-see.
The next day we set out for Hampton Court Palace - where King Henry VIII reigned. It was a pretty cool castle! Complete with King Henry himself roaming the halls and a fun little garden maze.
Afterward we grabbed some pizza (it was the only restaurant nearby that sounded good) and it turned out to be the best pizza we had ever eaten. Funny thing was, when we mentioned that to our friends living in Cambridge they BURST out in laughter. The restaurant was called "Pizza Express" so I can't say I blame them. To them it sounded like we had just tried Domino's and were raving about it being the best. But that was all before we had true authentic pizza made by Marco's mother - which was to DIE for. (But more on that later).
We made our way to the London Eye and were a bit disappointed in the experience. It was cool, but not worth the ticket prices.
That night we headed out to Cambridge to visit my favorite brother/sister duo in the entire world. Rachel & Brian Bybee!
They showed us around Cambridge and we met Brian's beautiful girlfriend (seriously - go Bri!). We even caused quite a ruckus by laying on some grass and got kicked out of the area - not joking. It was SOO great to see them, I have really missed them dearly!! But here's more of the story in pictures:
So.....it turns out that in Cambridge a box of "Bandages" is really not the same as a box of Band-Aids. I had a little blister from my ballet flats and had to wrap this around my entire foot. Everyone got in a laugh....which wouldn't be the last time of the day....
.....because it turns out a 2 pound tip is a bit much for a 1 pound drink in Cambridge. I had done the math in dollars and forgot about the conversion. Joe took away my money for the rest of the trip.
Joe and I being proper.
This may look like a backdrop and not the real deal - but, my friends, it is all too real. They are CRAZY obsessed with their grass and have little signs everywhere that say "Do Not Walk On Grass."
This is the aforementioned grass we caused quite a ruckus over. We found this little patch where other students were lounging about, and there weren't any signs so we thought we'd all lay down for a bit. About ten minutes later, this little old English man came storming towards us demanding that we "get off the boy's bowling green immediately!" We were so perplexed as to why he was mad at us and not the others on the grass and so as we were leaving we apologized and explained that we thought it was okay because there were others there and we didn't see any signs. He was pretty put out by this explanation and exclaimed, "The other students are on the EDGE of the grass, isn't it quite obvious?!" It was so absurd that it quickly became the joke of the day.
We then headed out on a "quick ten minute walk" (according to Rachel) to this little cafe/restaurant that Shakespeare and a bunch of other famous people used to have tea at. The walk was more like 60 minutes but we had a great time, so it wasn't bad at all.
Along the way we saw some cows. Joe's reaction to them was to get as close as possible for a picture.
My reaction was fear. I am oddly scared of cows and these guys were BIG. Okay they were the normal cow size, but to me they are normally wayyyy too big to be around comfortably.
Which of course led to Brian's reaction to be trying to anger the cows. Boys.
Rachel just laughed through the whole ordeal :)
When we finally made it to aforementioned cafe/restaurant, it had just closed! So we took a taxi home and went and saw Robin Hood. We thought it was pretty cool that we were watching the movie around the same area that it took place.
Then the next morning we ate some breakfast in a Harry Potter-esque dining hall. And I had to convince Joe not to wear Brian's uniform there.....
....it just wasn't a good look for him :)
The next morning we said a sad goodbye to the Bybees and headed back to London to go to church and then later catch our flight out to Paris. We found the church building where the singles ward met and they had changed the church time, so we had just missed it! But instead, we ran into one of Joe's friends, Dave, who was there with his sister & brother to pick up their other brother from his mission. We had the whole day to spare so we hung out with them and had an awesome time.
Joe and I finally got our picture with Big Ben.
And then we went on a search to find a good place for lunch. We passed by this guy who was handing out flyers for a new restaurant and we thought we would give it a go. We were all pretty shocked to walk downstairs and find that the entire restaurant (kitchen, dining area, entry) was about 20 feet by 10 feet big. The kitchen where the cook made all the food was smaller than our kitchen in our apartment - and that's saying a lot! But we were all hungry and the waitress was really nice so we decided to chance our luck. I got the veggie burger - which is usually a fake burger made of soy and other ground up veggies but this is what I got:
It was like a hash brown patty with carrots, peas and corn thrown in and cheese on top. Really weird - but not that bad!
Then we wandered around London a bit more and decided to go back to their hotel and do a little swimming. The boys took full advantage of our waterproof camera and had a blast taking a bunch of pictures underwater. I even got in on the action - but I have no idea how they made their pictures look so cool - it looks more like I'm drowning.
The next morning we said a sad goodbye to the Bybees and headed back to London to go to church and then later catch our flight out to Paris. We found the church building where the singles ward met and they had changed the church time, so we had just missed it! But instead, we ran into one of Joe's friends, Dave, who was there with his sister & brother to pick up their other brother from his mission. We had the whole day to spare so we hung out with them and had an awesome time.
Joe and I finally got our picture with Big Ben.
And then we went on a search to find a good place for lunch. We passed by this guy who was handing out flyers for a new restaurant and we thought we would give it a go. We were all pretty shocked to walk downstairs and find that the entire restaurant (kitchen, dining area, entry) was about 20 feet by 10 feet big. The kitchen where the cook made all the food was smaller than our kitchen in our apartment - and that's saying a lot! But we were all hungry and the waitress was really nice so we decided to chance our luck. I got the veggie burger - which is usually a fake burger made of soy and other ground up veggies but this is what I got:
It was like a hash brown patty with carrots, peas and corn thrown in and cheese on top. Really weird - but not that bad!
Then we wandered around London a bit more and decided to go back to their hotel and do a little swimming. The boys took full advantage of our waterproof camera and had a blast taking a bunch of pictures underwater. I even got in on the action - but I have no idea how they made their pictures look so cool - it looks more like I'm drowning.
Then we made the two hour bus ride out to the airport we were supposed to be departing from the next morning for Paris. We had a really early flight, so we decided to sleep at the airport. Terrible decision. The floor was concrete and the airport was FREEZING - I put on multiple layers but couldn't get warm or comfortable. Joe got some zzzs, but I gave up trying around 4am and got some hot chocolate instead and went to find a slightly warmer area in the airport.
And then began one of the longest days in my life. It's hard to accurately explain how terrible it was, so I'll sum it up: Our flight was cancelled (due to the volcano that had erupted about a month previous), no one was able to get flights out until the next night, and even then they weren't sure if they would get canceled. So we took another 2-hour bus ride into London and soon found out that every bus, train and plane were solidly booked for the next couple days because everyone was in the same situation that we were in. We had only planned on two short days in Paris and already had purchased our hotels and didn't have anywhere to stay in London, and hotel rooms were rapidly getting sold out. To top it all off - we were running on no sleep and had no way of using internet or our phones to figure out this whole ordeal. We finally (& luckily) found our way to an internet cafe Joe had remembered passing on our way to the London Eye and we decided to try our luck at booking a flight for the next day to London. We also found a reasonably priced hotel with a itsy-bitsy elevator in London that we could go get some sleep at and drop off our bags.
We actually had a great time the rest of the day in London and the next day before our flight (which fortunately wasn't cancelled). We stopped by Notting Hill to shop at the cutest little street fair and we think we even happened to pass the famous door which Hugh Grant "lived" at in the movie.
We went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone along with some other cool exhibits, then popped over to a cute cafe for some "tea and crumpets". Strangely, they were confused at our request for tea and the closest they had for a crumpet was a butter croissant. When I ordered the "butter croissant" they actually brought me the croissant slathered in butter. I'm sure they were thinking how weird Americans we were, but we had a great time.
We stopped by Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards, which wasn't as grand or spectacular as what I imagined in my head, but it was still cool to see the Palace.
We actually had a great time the rest of the day in London and the next day before our flight (which fortunately wasn't cancelled). We stopped by Notting Hill to shop at the cutest little street fair and we think we even happened to pass the famous door which Hugh Grant "lived" at in the movie.
We went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone along with some other cool exhibits, then popped over to a cute cafe for some "tea and crumpets". Strangely, they were confused at our request for tea and the closest they had for a crumpet was a butter croissant. When I ordered the "butter croissant" they actually brought me the croissant slathered in butter. I'm sure they were thinking how weird Americans we were, but we had a great time.
We stopped by Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards, which wasn't as grand or spectacular as what I imagined in my head, but it was still cool to see the Palace.
And that was London! Despite all of the crazy traveling problems we faced, England turned out to be my favorite country we visited in Europe. And most importantly, we managed to get the cliche kissing-in-the-red-phone-booth shot. Love :)
We finally made it to Paris around midnight and made our way to our hotel. They had over booked and upgraded us to another hotel a few blocks away. I'm pretty happy they upgraded us, because even the hotel we stayed in was a bit of an adventure. The shower was one of those hand held ones that you held the entire time AND there wasn't a shower curtain!! The bathroom tended to get a bit soaked whenever either of us would take a shower.
The next day we set off to explore Paris! Joe had been there before and had loved going on these 4-hour long free walking tours and honestly, its the best thing you can do to see the city. They guides only make money from tips at the end, so they're pretty good and explaining the history and importance of the landmarks and also some of the less well-known trivia. It was a GREAT time. Here are a few favorite pictures from the day:
We started the day off right with a fresh Nutella crepe. MMmmmm, SO good!
We went across on this cute little bridge that people put locks on to symbolize their love lasting forever. We didn't have a lock, but we swore to go back and do this one day.
The famous Louvre! Joe and I decided to each pose like one of the statues on the building and compete to see who did it better. I'm pretty sure I won.
We then passed through this weird art exhibition and thought it would be another great photo op:
Then after the tour we frantically rushed to the Eiffel Tower and rode to the top for a great view of Paris.
We had less than 24 hours in Pairs, but made the most of it and had a great time!
Then we were off to Switzerland! Since my roomie in LA/BFF/co-moh (D) was half Swiss I had heard so many great things and was so excited to check it out. We stayed with Joe's rad friends Bryan and Taylor Law. They are what Joe and I hope to be one day when it comes to traveling. Although Taylor is WAY more adventurous than me, so I'm not sure how it'll all work. But anyway, they let us stay at their house and another couple plus Joe's friend Dan joined us for a week of fun-filled adventures. Joe's going to cover most of them, but I get to talk about my all-time favorite thing that we did in our entire trip in Europe, maybe even of my life.
Going to the Gruyere Castle and Cailler Chocolate Factory!
BEST.
DAY.
EVER.
I'll let the pictures do the talking - don't mind my ridiculously ecstatic expression in most of them. :)
Thanks again Bryan and Taylor for showing us such an amazing time in Switzerland!!!
We finally made it to Paris around midnight and made our way to our hotel. They had over booked and upgraded us to another hotel a few blocks away. I'm pretty happy they upgraded us, because even the hotel we stayed in was a bit of an adventure. The shower was one of those hand held ones that you held the entire time AND there wasn't a shower curtain!! The bathroom tended to get a bit soaked whenever either of us would take a shower.
The next day we set off to explore Paris! Joe had been there before and had loved going on these 4-hour long free walking tours and honestly, its the best thing you can do to see the city. They guides only make money from tips at the end, so they're pretty good and explaining the history and importance of the landmarks and also some of the less well-known trivia. It was a GREAT time. Here are a few favorite pictures from the day:
We went across on this cute little bridge that people put locks on to symbolize their love lasting forever. We didn't have a lock, but we swore to go back and do this one day.
We then passed through this weird art exhibition and thought it would be another great photo op:
Then after the tour we frantically rushed to the Eiffel Tower and rode to the top for a great view of Paris.
We had less than 24 hours in Pairs, but made the most of it and had a great time!
Then we were off to Switzerland! Since my roomie in LA/BFF/co-moh (D) was half Swiss I had heard so many great things and was so excited to check it out. We stayed with Joe's rad friends Bryan and Taylor Law. They are what Joe and I hope to be one day when it comes to traveling. Although Taylor is WAY more adventurous than me, so I'm not sure how it'll all work. But anyway, they let us stay at their house and another couple plus Joe's friend Dan joined us for a week of fun-filled adventures. Joe's going to cover most of them, but I get to talk about my all-time favorite thing that we did in our entire trip in Europe, maybe even of my life.
Going to the Gruyere Castle and Cailler Chocolate Factory!
BEST.
DAY.
EVER.
I'll let the pictures do the talking - don't mind my ridiculously ecstatic expression in most of them. :)
Thanks again Bryan and Taylor for showing us such an amazing time in Switzerland!!!
