As some of you probably know I came back from Wien (vienna) yesterday after having gone on a four day trip with the intent of seeing Wien a little since I was going to the Amanda Palmer concert there anyway. But it all turned out a little less pleasurable than intented and came with a slightly bigger toll than anticipated.
It turns out that not having bought tickets in advance we were left high and dry by the sold out Amanda Palmer, which invariably cast a dark shadow over the whole trip making it seem somewhat redundant and like a waste of time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that I spent four full days with my girlfriend and we did have fun and did see some very beautiful things. I am just so disappointed by the concert fiasco that I can’t at all appreciate the rest of the trip and can only think of how I wasted time and money for both myself and the girlfriend … I mean she didn’t even want to go, I practically bent her arm and forced her to go.
The problem is that if it was just about the trip we could’ve taken it at any other time. We could’ve gone when she had more time in regards to school, we could’ve gone when she had more money to spend and, hell, we could’ve gone when I was having less of a fuss at work and what’s more, we could’ve gone for a longer time period and thrown other cities into the mix for an even better trip. Right now it just feels like we’ve taken an impromptu half-arsed vacation that was a waste of effort.
Perhaps my feelings about the trip would’ve been better if Wien was more impressive, as I’m sure they’d be awesomely high spirited if we got into the concert. Wien, as a whole, is pretty much like Ljubljana. The architecture is the same, the basic layout is the same and even the vehicles on the road are the same. Let’s not even get into the chavs who are exactly the same as home, same language, same style of clothing, same nauseating behaviour and the same kind of cars.
The only hint at being in a different country was that streets and such were in German, but even that didn’t dispell the feeling of only being on a trip to a different city in the same country. London was a much much better experience last year, in fact I was probably making my girlfriend sick by constantly comparing our trip to the trip I’d taken last year.
So all in all, I don’t regret traveling with my girlfriend per se, I just regret the poor timing.
Today my girlfriend held a monster by the boobs and I got to see a very nice looking castle aptly named Schoenbrun and we went to see an art gallery inside Belvedere where there were pretty pictures.
And now since I’m a tad knackered from all the walking, here’s a bunch of photos you probably won’t want to look at since you’re all bastards.
Tags: travel
Today the girlfriend and yours truly arrived at Wien for a four day trip the climax of which is to be Amanda Palmer’s concert at Szene … hopefully we’ll get tickets to go in as well! For some strange reason I don’t really feel like talking all that much at the moment, not exactly certain why, but I’d just like to mention that mobile google maps in combination with the GPS on my blackberry are fucking fantastic!
Seriously, this thing shows you where you are and how to get where you want to be, it gives to the minute accurate public transit times, what public transit to take and so on. Quite marvelous really, don’t even want to think about the outstandingly absurd GPRS charge I’m going to get next month.
Anyway, here’s some pictures of some places we’ve been to today, better report to come on Tuesday … pictures daily.
Tags: travel
Tomorrow I am leaving London and going home. It will be a sad moment as I have come to quite like London and all its little quirks and strangenesses. To be perfectly honest it feels more home than home does and I must come live here some day because I quite simply love everything.
The thing I love most, or let's say one of the things I love most, is the efficiency of public transport. At home streets are filled with cars and sidewalks are full of parked cars, most streets are also lined with them. Around here it's very rare to spot a regular car, which is probably also due to my not leaving the centre of London. However, there are next to no parking spaces anywhere and still the pavement is nicely walkable.
From my observatoin the only people who use their own cars around here are the very rich because you can see quite some expensive cars around, but hey, why would somebody own a Porsche if they don't intend on showing it off a bit? The reason why people can do this is because public transport actually works and is quick and painless.
The underground is simply marvelous and feels almost like teleportation. You pop out of street level and very soon you pop up somewhere else. It can get a bit crowded and annoying at times, especially around the peaks, but otherwise it's very nice. Haven't tried riding a bus, but there doesn't seem to be a lack of those either. And of course the oyster card is simply a magnificent system.
If only public transport at home would be this useful and I believe much of our trouble would go away.
Tags: travel
On Wednesday, that was yesterday I believe, I went to see Macbeth at a theatre. But not just any Macbeth, oh no. The lead role was played by the one and only Patrick Stewart, I mean Jean-Luc Picard. It was quite gorgeously awesome to be honest. Sure it was a bit boring and dragged on like a skinned cat as Shakespeare is wont to do, but all in all it was quite enjoyable – if only for the fact I saw Jean-Luc Picard.
The thing I really love about English theatre is the way it's done rather than perhaps the actual plays and performances. There are many theatres here and they each just have one show at a time, very rarely do they have more than that. So because of this when you want to see a play you can do so every evening at a set time and do not have need for an elaborate schedule and be much inclined to missing plays due to not being in London on the right dates.
This also makes the tickets cheaper I believe as the theatre can go through more viewers. For example to see cabaret I paid merely 20 quid for front front row. Macbeth was a bit pricier, but not too much. And on top of it all this system also allows for more elaborate scenery as it does not have to be changed every night.
I can only wish there were more days left in which to see plays and such.
Tags: travel
Oh but I have been neglecting you my lovelies haven't I? It's all for a good reason and I should be able to apologize, but you know, I don't do that. So let's just get on with it as if I did post on each day of the last three.
Yesterday I went to see Cabaret with the loveliest of things last night. I'm not quite certain because of which the evening was the best I've ever had, but let's, for my own safety, say it was because of the play. The young thing is taken after all and I'm a man of honour.
Cabaret was probably the best live performance I've ever seen in my life. It was just marvelously magnificent and I suggest everyone to go and watch it. You must! There's a lot of singing and dancing and even quite some nudity, both male and female, but us theatre goers find that rather normal by now. Nudity everywhere. I laughed almost the whole evening away and I will most assuredly go see the slovene version when I come home.
The lovely young thing I mentioned was Peaches, my long time chatslave person from england and I have to admit meeting her would be more awkward, but it all went as if we'd been long time real life buddies who just so happened not to have seen each other in two days. Really, there's more awkwardnes meeting my buddies after a week or two.
Should've taken a photo …
Tags: travel
Haven't posted in a few days due to a minor case of writer's block. It happens, can't predict it, can't prevent it and it might've had something to do with yesterday's equinox.
So about what I'm going to post tonight, it's a bit scary and perhaps a bit daunting, maybe with a flare of sparkling funny and almost certainly without any great merit. It is to be about food. So far I've only had a few brushes with english cuisine and they were all quite marvelous.
Pub food is probably the cheapest per amount of food you can get around here. The meals are bloody huge and whatever you order you have to remember that you'll get a bunch of chips to go along with it. Similar to how you get a huge fucking bowl of rice with anything chinese you order anywhere. Another brush with destiny was fish and chips, which I find to be too glorified. We've been eating such stuff at home since I can remember and it isn't anything too english.
The service, however, anywhere in London, save for the priciest of locations of course, is rather interestingly spun to what I'm used to. Everywhere they make you go up to the bar, order, pay and get your stuff; with food you sometimes wait for a bit and get it served to your table. But in general they make you take your own stuff to the table, much like fast food places and clubs. It's somewhat disapointing, but oh so London.
I am appaled, however, that there is no bloody cafe in this town, that I could find, that can serve tea as tea is supposed to be served. And this is supposed to be a bloody tea country.
Tags: travel
yesterday I found out two very important things and one not so important thing. Pubs in London don't seem to serve tea or coffee, just fun-time drinks like beer and such. Another very important thing to know about staying here is that these crazy bastards use some odd three hole power outlets like Americans. How was I supposed to know I won't be able to feed my phone here? The unimportant thing was that it's not wise to travel without a nail clipper because you then have to buy one and it costs you money you could've spent otherwise.
Other than that yesterday wasn't too eventful, sure it left my feet in quite some pain … never teach your feet how to wear boots again by being on them all day straight off … but I only got to see like three tourist traps. The London Tower, which is quite an amazing piece of medieval fortress thingies and does in fact contain the crown jewels. These are pretty and quite shiny, but they feel a bit tacky.
the Tower Bridge was amazing, although the walkways high above the Thames were a bit anticlimatic as I'd hoped I could hang on the fence and stare doom in the face, but rather than that it was all covered up and even bloody carpeted. Not that much fun. However, all was made-up when I reached the engine rooms that gave me quite a nice view on steam engineering. Awesome for steampunk inspiration.
Oh I almost forgot, went into the HMS Belfast and … wow … must've spent a good two hours in there to see everything it had to offer. Bloody nice. Did make me wonder however how come all the manniquins have heads that are too large for their bodies.
Tags: travel
Today started off with a bang as I got my first internet fix in a while and made the previous blog post. It continued with a whole new way of eating breakfast, at least for me, since I don't usually eat anything in the morning. Guess traveling changes that.
I pranced around the streets having no clear direction or current location in mind when I was looking for a cash machine. Suddenly I found myself next to a sign saying "Camden Town Hall" … luckily there was a cash machine right next to it and, as was hoped and expected, my Slovene plastic money works in London as well (later we found out it works for direct purchases as well). Walking around London is great.
When I managed to navigate the tubes to what I'd deem the dead center of London I did my best to see as many sights as possible. There was Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and so on. The best of them all was, without a doubt, Westminster Abbey. The 7 quid admissoin fee feels awful at first, but it's utterly worth it when you realise just how big the place actually is, and it's bloody huge. What I thought would be more of a church turned out to be more of a burial site for the rich and important. There were early kings, Richard the Lionheart and such, very old graves too, some were about 700 years old even. Best was the Poet's corner with Chaucer's tomb and many other an important writer.
Tower bridge and Tower of London were a bit of a let down because I got there too late to get in and the Eye of London was a complete ripoff at 15 quid, sure the view was pretty, but damn not for that price eh.
It's also impressively difficult to find a place of tea buying and drinking when you don't know what to look for and just randomely blunder around trying to look like you know what you're doing. It also makes your legs very very sore in the evening … damn walking.
Tags: travel
Welcome to the first post in my London travel blog. I'll try posting at least daily, but might post more than once a day if I deem so fittable. You are welcomed to create lots of traffic on this website and pet my lovely ego in that way. The little bugger will appreciate it greatly.
yesterday I left Ljubljana in the midst of the largest rainfall I've ever seen in my life and was later informed that it resulted in flooding, which kind of sucks, but hey, who gives a shit, I'm several thousand kilometers away aren't I? The aeroplane and ports of air were pretty fun to deal with and weren't at all confusing as I'd feared what with being a first time flier and all. There was just quite some waiting to do, which I never like.
The flight was very fun, especially in the first part of it when we were climbing through the storm over Ljubljana; the freefalls were something extroadinary … freefall is bloody awesome.
Upon my arrival to London I of course promptly got lost because I took a coach from Stansted that mirraculously (pure luck, didn't know where I was supposed to go) dropped me off quite near my hostel. But I made a newbie mistake and walked the wrong way to it and actually ended up going away from it. So when it finally felt like a bit of a long walk I went to the tube, bought an oyster card and reached the hostel pretty quickly.
Then after a bit of finding around the hostel was found, stuff was paid and I went to bed quite soon after. Those backpacks are heavy when combined with walking. Had a calm night and now I'm here, posting this blog for the world to see.
Tags: travel
