Day 23: London
As I woke up this morning I decided I would take the time to upload some videos/photos. I was told that the house cleaner was arriving arround 9 and that she would be there cleaning for 3 hours (this is very important because I need to leave before or the same time she leaves because she has a key to lock up and I obviously don’t). So, I get up around 9:30 a.m. and realize that the she’s in the house cleaning and my couchsurfing host, Lucy, has already gone to work at the BBC and I figure I have lots of time to relax and upload videos/take a shower/ or whatever. So, I turn on the computer and check e-mails and do the normal stuff and decide to upload videos and then take a shower (side note, the videos take roughly an hour each but I can upload two at a time so I do that).
After my shower I notice that it’s now 10:45 a.m. and the videos still have roughly 40 min remaining so I start getting dressed and have everything on except shoes and socks when the house keeper comes by and waves goodbye to me as she is about to walk out the door…WHOA!! I say and try to explain to her that I need to leave with her because I don’t have keys (I say TRY to explain to her because she doesn’t speak much English and I definitely don’t speak whatever her native tongue is). So she figures outwhat I’m saying and I ask her for five minutes. She goes back into the kitchen to do…whatever it is she does… and I frantically start aborting my videos, putting on shoes and socks, folding blankets, packing my bag and gathering my things to leave for the day. Whew! It was definitely a rush but EVERYTHING worked out just fine so it was kind of a fun story to laugh at throughout my walk to the metro.
I had booked a hosetel for tonight at St. Christopher’s Village and actually filmed the hostel and would upload it but pepole kept trying to ask me what I was doing while I was filming and after the third take I just gave up and found something better to do.
My second night here in London was poorly planned on my part because I just assumed I was staying with my previous couchsurfing host but I never gave her the dates and she booked a flight to Lisbon instead. So, hostel for the night, which was quite fun as it’s connected to a bar/cafe next door and tonight was Karoke night. I tried to get on stage and bust some Digital Underground or Dr. Dre (in honor of my older brother) but they didn’t have either…silly British people and their silly karoke. I was pretty tired anyway so to bed I go…OH! I forgot to mention I went to Wimbledon today. Yes, I went to Wimbledon but did not see any tennis at all, mainly because of the many reasons I don’t like London: hard to find things and with the walking it took, 100% honesty, 2 hours and 25 min to get to…let’s just say if it was my first day of the trip I would have made it work but at this point in my trip I wasn’t willing to put forth as much effort as Wimbledon required.
So, off to take a shower then to bed. Quite noisy outside but I think I’ll put some Norah Jones on and pass out soon. Cheers, from London. Barcelona tomorrow where I will be in my 8th different language city (they don’t speak Spanish in Barcelona, they speak Catalon).
Day 22: London (again)
Well I left Dublin this morning to head on over to London and the airport process was so much easier this time around. The last time I flew Ryanair I experienced the most hectic lines I’ve ever stood in (but everything was good becasue I had 5 hours til my flight when the lines opened). It took me about 2 hours to get through the lines to fly to Dublin so I got to the airport really early again for this flight to London…took about 1.5 minutes this time. I was the only one at the counter and handed the lady my flight info and passport, she turned and handed it to another lady, that lady looked it over and stamped it and handed it back to me. “That’s it?” I asked. “That’s it,” she responded.
So then I sat in the airport for a couple more hours. I just don’t get Ryanair. How it could be so hectic and then so easy?? I’m not gonna complain to them though because this last flight I took literally costs $5.99. Yup, five dollars and 99 cents…total…after tax. I don’t get it, but I love it.
Upon arriving into London, about 3:00 p.m. I had to take the 30 min tram into the city center from the airport…$33 U.S. dollars. 
traveling is so funny. $5.99 for a flight from Dublin to London but $33 from the airport to the city. I have an enormous love/hate relationship with London. Now comes the love part.
I had roughly four hours until I met up with my couchsurfing host, Lucy, so I decided to walk around London for awhile. London is gigantic. I first headed to Parliment Square where all the biggest tourist stuff is; Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Thames River and the London Eye. Always an eye-opening little square of famous “history-book”buildings.
After I left Parliment Square I tried to make my way on over to Hyde Park, without a map. Bad idea…well, bad idea if the priority was Hyde Park. My actual priority was a park to spend a couple hours in while I waited til 7:00 p.m. for my couchsurfing host, Lucy. I got way lost. London is a very cool city. So much history, so much to offer, so much to see that even my four days total here really doesn’t scratch the surface (that is another “love” part of London). But, London is a big pain for the traveler (me) who like to walk from place to place because London is gigantic!! I would love to place the London Underground (the tube) on a map of Oklahoma City and see exactly how far it spreads out on a map that I’m familiar with (there are many smart people out there reading this that could convert the scale…let’s talk).
So, after I realize just how lost I am (by the way, doing this sort of trip where you are in a new city every two days you are constantly lost, and very frustrated often) I start asking people where Hype Park is. Now, for as popular and big as Hyde Park is I figure that to be an easy question, it’s not. London is THAT difficult to walk around (rephrase, very easy and quite a great walk if you have no destination and just want to wander around) but I got many vague points to Hyde Park, some”not too sure of the streets” and a few “I’m a tourist and have no clue”‘s so I decided to settle for the closest park I was too, Regents Park.
Great park and made some friends with a very couragous squirrel and the scary pigeon that wouldn’t stop staring at me.
So, now that it was near 7:00 p.m. I decided to head to the couchsurfing host’s house. I end up getting off a stop too early (definitely my own fault) but since the price of a one-trip underground trip costs $6.75 in American (New York’s is $2.00…another one of my “hate” parts of London) I decided I would walk from. Remember how I mentioned how huge London was?? It took me 45 minutes to walk there. Now, part of that was because: 1. I didn’t really know where I was going 2. London doesn’t like to label their streets with signs very often because that would be too convenient for tourists and 3. Even if they did name the streets the name would change every two blocks because that’s a good way to label streets….geez, ok that was the hate part of London coming out in me, again, sorry.
So, I get to Lucy’s and things were great from then on. She was a lot of fun and a great person to sit and have a long conversation with. She works for the BBC too so we had a lot of good conversations about media and TV…she works in the “Event Coordination” department…we talked about soooo many cool things… how come the U.S. media never really talks about anything but the United States? The European Union has some great news going on right now; great time to be here and learn.
Well, bed time. Tomorrow, London again and maybe Wimbledon. Cheers from London.
Squirrel in Regents Park
Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!
Day 21: Dublin
I must say, my stop in Dublin was definitely a good move. Ireland is great and did you know that they drive on the left side of the road like in England??? I had no idea.
Today I got to visit the Jameson Whiskey Distillery and then headed to the Guinness Brewery. The Jameson Distillery (I am not a whiskey drinker at all) was actually a really good experience. It was fun to learn all that goes into making such an old practice such as making whiskey and (because I love “experiencing” history) it was a lot of fun to actually be in the room and see the first cast that John Jameson made his first barrel of whiskey back in the mid 1700′s. We (group of about 20) also had a tour guide take us through all the rooms and explain all the processes which helped quite a bit.
The Guinness factory was quite a different experience. It was like a brand new 6-story museum. Glass floors and escalators with a very open environment and no tour guide; a move-at-your-own-pace kind of place. The very top of the building had a 360 degree view bar of all of Dublin which doesn’t sound very high (6th floor) but was actually above most buildings across the city.
Those two actually took up about 3.5 hours combined with the walking in between but another highlight of the day was my lunch…bowl of soup, apple and a water. mmmmmmm good, however, I was unable to find a bench in the 10 minutes of walking. I didn’t want the soup to get cold I just sat down on the sidewalk and ate. I should have found a bench because while opening the soup container I spilled a little bit of soup on my shorts…yes, the shorts that I bought in Prague 5 days ago…I’ve worn them everyday since but now that there is a creamy vegetable soup stain on them I think it’s time to buy some new shorts.
Anywho, after the Guinness factory (and a free Guinness at the top of the brewery) I headed back to my hostel (last minute lodging…it was only 12.50 a night, how in the world could I say no that…..ummm with a couchsurfing host maybe?) and the first e-mail I saw was from my older brother telling me to find a TV and watch the U.S. Open. When I get something like that from Mike it means either Phil Mickelson is doing something ridiculous or Tiger is just being Tiger. Turns out, it was the first option which suited me just find because he’s my favorite.
So on the wise older brother’s advice I head to a pub (one of the most famous in London) “The Temple Bar” and start watching the Open with two people from Tennessee (hey, I would have watched it with locals if locals cared at all about golf.
Phil lost. 
But at least he showed up to play. Anywho, again, after that it was merely just a walk again down Abbey street and over to Dublin’s strange Spire after staring at it for about 90 seconds I figured it was time to head back (I am so exhausted).
So, now that it became 8:30ish p.m. (I think AP Style should apapt “ish” to their official time structure) I decided to shave. Ouch. I think I might be finished with shaving until I get back home (7 more days and my face, neck and patience would love it. I, again, had to buy a cheap dumb razor for just a one-time use because tomorrow I board a plane and they won’t let me bring on a razor (they also made me get rid of my spray deodorant, grrrr, I got a stick deodorant so I’m all set).
So, after the 45 min of shaving and tremendous razor burn I started calling people. I tried my dad again to tell him Happy Father’s Day (still haven’t gotten ahold of him) and I actually had the wrong number (I remedy that situation soon). So I call my work (no, I’m not lame, I just like my coworkers) and talked with all of them for about 45 min. Throughout my talk with them I got numerous Skype calls from my grandma (Dear) and called her back after. It was my mom, uncles Max and Mark and my grandma, Dear, too!! Very delightful video chat! I love Skype. My mom gave me my dad’s correct number and I called and talked to him afterwards. Hooray!! Ok, Father’s Day for the Cornett’s is set for the Sunday of the British Open…I’ll be there!! Another Hooray!!
Now, off to bed. I need it. Soooooo tired. Plane tomorrow to London. Til tomorrow, Cheers from Dublin.
Day 20: Dublin
The use of language has got to be the coolest and most proud aspect that humans have the ability to use. I have now traveled to countries that speak in seven different languages: Spanish, English, French, Dutch, German, Czech and Italian…but what a treat and luxory it is to speak English.
English is quickly becoming an international language. Last night, I took the late bus to the airport (for an 11 hour airport sit) as I got to the bus stop, a Turkish guy (all people in this story are in their mid-20′s) started talking to me about getting a better rate by getting our tickets together, so we did. As we get on the bus we sat near the front and continued to talk…in comes a girl from Moscow on her way to Paris and sits by us on the bus and starts speaking to us in English, in this great stereotypical Russian accent. 5 min later, a guy from Taiwan sits down next to her and says, “Is this the English conversation?”
The next 30 min we all just had a conversation in English (practice for the other three) and I just sat back and marveled at the lucky break I got from being born an American. I hear it all the time (and everytime it’s true) that I am lucky to be an American, but when I get to actually witness it, it’s an even greater realization.
I still fully intend on getting the Rosetta Stone (not the one I saw in London but the language program) and learning Spanish.
I am captivated by language. Seemingly nonsense words now turning into lasting conversations on an hour-long bus ride in Milan (We were all in Italy, none of us spoke Italian and all from different parts of the world yet shared laughter and smiles because of a common language).
Jumping down from the soapbox, Dublin is phenomenal. It is exactly like I pictured it…thousands of little pubs “McNellie’s-style” all over the place and on every corner.
I really got to experience the people in Milan and Lugano and now in Dublin. While traveling with two of my friends I tried my best to interact with locals but when it is your only chance for conversation for the day, you try even harder.
Since my friends left and went back to the U.S.A. I have had sooo many encounters with locals that I wish a photo would suffice. I even try to take photos of the situation but nothing compares. Tonight (in one pub) I had a local explain to me the rules of rugby as we watched the live match on tv. Heading to another pub, I had a local raise his glass to me and wish me safe travels, afterwards we (and a few other locals) watched Brazil beat up on Italy in the soccer game. In Milan, some locals bought me beers and asked me to sit with them while I waited for my couch surfing host, Claudio…people are great. People, in my opinion want to do the right thing, the good thing…whatever that might be. I believe OKC is another example of people opening their generosity wallets and sharing whatever they have with strangers.
Being on the road for the past 3 weeks has really showed me what it is like to be an outsider. Seven languages and four currencies later, I have learned what it’s like to try and fit in and fail miserably and depend on someone around me for help. People want to help. I have learned that I have to make myself available, swallow that pride and just talk, in the best broken (whatever native) language I’m in and open myself up.
Whether or not they speak English, people are still people.
Good night from Dublin.
Happy Father’s Day
Ok, so it’s only 3:30 p.m. here but this is the first time I’ve been able to use the internet and I just wanted to use it shortly to say HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, Dad!!
Tristan, Dad, Me and Mike at Flaming Lips Alley presentation
It has pretty much been a tradition every Father’s Day that my mom, both brothers and I crowd the livingroom with my dad to watch the final round of the U.S. Open.
Might sound corny to some of you but I’ve always enjoyed it. This year, not only am I out of the country but my dad is also on a flight…somewhere. Plus, this year’s U.S. Open is delayed because of rain so I have an idea…let’s try this whole “Father’s Day” thing during the British Open next month…ok? ok, good, I’m glad you agree.
I just called you, Dad, on skype and left a message but I’ll try again later. I did, however, just talk to Dear (my grandma on my mom’s side) on skype with video and everything! Awesome. Sometimes, I really love technology, and I love you too Dear!
Can’t forget a big Happy Father’s Day to my older brother, Mike. Lily is coming up on 2 years old and I can’t wait to get back to see her…and see you too of course.
Ok, well after an 11 hour stay in Milan’s ORIE AIRPORT (not Malpensa) I have finally left and am in Dublin and so far the walk around was great but now I’m off to watch some futbol in some Irish Pub.
Luck of the Irish is definitely on my side today.
Duomo in Milan
Day 19: Milan
After last night’s debauchle of missing my flight to Liverpool and having to frantically find a place to sleep and a new flight out of the city that hates me (Milan) I am finally on my way (again) to the airport. It is amazing how much you can plan and prepare for something and no mater what you do…something seems to wrong at somepoint. I guess it’s just a lapse of concentration but it sure messed up a couple of days that I really want to have back.
I am a giant Beatles fan. My iPod plays all their albums all the time and I had it scheduled to go to the Beatles’ hometown of Liverpool for about 35 hours (2 nights) only to see sights like “Strawberry Field” and “Penny Lane” and love every minute of it…my only downfall was that I took a bus that was 25 feet in front of the bus I needed. Ohhh the glory of hindsight. (Go to the next bus!! Not that one, the one behind it!!!) Why didn’t someone scream that to me?
Ok, well if you read yesterday’s blog you will find all the details but basically today has become a wash and I no longer got to see Liverpool (on this trip) and will trek ahead to Dublin as originally planned tomorrow at 11 a.m. Because I never successfully met up with my previous Milan couchsurfer I will not suffer the delerium of finding another hostel or hotel and will instead head to the airport on the latest bus tonight, 11:15 p.m. (15 min from now) to make sure I don’t mess THIS flight up. I had a great dinner (the absolute highlight of today) eating and drinking with some locals while watching a futbol game.
I got to watch Spain vs. South Africa and I was the only one rooting for Spain to beat South Africa. I didn’t care. Spain was winning and some little pathetic part of me felt like that was important at the time being. I rooted them on to victory at a 2-0 win.
Well, short blog because I don’t want to be late for the hour long bus awaiting me. I am still in high spirits regardless of the downpoor of bad luck in the past 24 hours and press on towards Dublin and trying my best Irish accent.
Here’s to 12 hours at the airport.. Cheers!
