My Favorite European Travel Agents

Notre Dame Cathedral

People are often surprised that Dave and I can afford to travel as much as we do. Trips overseas are expensive. Airfare, hotels, and food add up. The last two big trips we have taken to Europe were both booked through the same travel agency, European Destinations. No, they aren't paying me anything to write about them. I just think they offer a good deal for independent travelers. By combining airfare and hotel costs, the packages offered by European Destinations are cheaper than airfare alone from other websites.

Plus, it was easy. I didn't have to wade through tons of websites to find a good deal. European Destinations specializes in multiple city trips. For example, in 2010 Dave and I visited London and Rome. In 2011, we visited London, Paris, and Berlin. It was great that European Destinations booked our flights and train within Europe as well as our flight from the United States.

When Lily is older, we will probably use European Destinations again to visit Europe. I would love to spend more time in Paris. Three days was not enough time to see everything that we wanted to see. Readers, do you have suggestions of places we should visit the next time we go to Europe?

London...The Third Time's the Charm

On Friday, the 2012 Summer Olympics opened in London. I enjoyed watching the opening ceremony since I recognized many famous sights having visited there in both 2010 and 2011. 

Trafalgar Square

One of the shots of London showed Trafalgar Square and the monument to Lord Nelson. Excited fans were sitting on the giant lions at the base of the monument. This made me very jealous. I had tried to climb on top of the lions when I visited in 2010, but I couldn't. I could climb on the platform in front of the lions but I could not climb up the back to sit on top of one. I harassed Dave to help me and he tried. I'm sure we looked ridiculous with him attempting to push me up the lion's back. Even with his help I was unable to climb the lion's back. 

Standing with one of the lions in Trafalgar Square

Thus, I was very happy to see the lions at Camden Lock Market. Since these lions were slightly smaller and not elevated on a platform, I could actually climb on one. I was super excited! (My friends from high school remember my obsession with sitting on animal statues such as the burro in front of Puerto's in Bowling Green.)

Conquering the lion at Camden Lock Market

Last year, I still could not climb on the lions in Trafalgar Square. Kids had overtaken Trafalgar Square waiting for the last Harry Potter movie.  Next time, I go to London I will try again. Maybe the third time's the charm!

Big Trouble in Little Chinatown: Sydney Edition

So, yesterday was my wife's last day of freedom from her school system--or better known as her last day of Summer Break.  Since we work opposite schedules, we get hardly any time off together greater than a stretch of 24 hours unless (1) I use vacation time from work OR (2) my wife is on Summer Break.  Over the course of four years of marriage and five Summer Breaks, we would traditionally go out to lunch on the last day of school (which is a half day) and on the last day of Summer Break.

With Lily at almost 8 months old, she's given us a lot more liberty than before.  So, we drove all the way into Nashville to eat Korean.  The place primarily offers chopsticks with the option for guests to ask for silverware if they can't handle their chopsticks.  While we were waiting on our food, we separated our chopsticks and we proceeded to rub the eating ends of them against each other, getting the splinters out.  Heather stopped and asked, "Who taught you how to do that?"  (The obvious answer was her as she spent a year teaching in China.)

Our food arrived and I was eating like a chopsticking pro.  However, it hasn't always been this way.  Flashback to mid-June 2009, where my wife and I were in the fourth and final destination in Australia:  Sydney!  We stayed in the center of downtown, merely as a matter of convenience, at the Mercure Downtown Sydney for about $55/night.  Mercure happens to be an Accor Hotel.  Back when my wife asked me to make reservations and when I found out it was an Accor Hotel, I immediately thought of Motel 6 and was wondering what we were getting ourselves into.  Internationally, however, Accor is actually on par with the best of the mid-grade hotel chains.  But I digress...

The view from our room at the Mercure Sydney, about 6 floors up...

Oh, chopsticks!  We stayed about 2-3 blocks away from Sydney's Chinatown, which we would walk through each day and night.  One of the things that I observed was the varying degrees of aggressive selling by the immigrant merchants.  It was time for dinner, so all the restaurants had their signs, people, and fliers out in full force on the sidewalks--all of them touting themselves as the best and most economical!  We'd browse each flier or menu we passed until we picked the right one.




The Best Part, Part 1 of 2:


Around the same time that we were seated, a Chinese immigrant family of four (my wife could tell because they spoke Mandarin Chinese) were seated at the table next to us.  While waiting for our food, I decided to get out my chopsticks and practice because I was determined not to use the silverware, in spite of my poor chopsticking ability at the time.  So, I started practicing and apparently, I didn't realize it was comedy hour because the family of four was laughing hysterically at me!  Thankfully, my self-consciousness went away somewhere around or before my 30th birthday.  So, at 33, I didn't care and I continued to play along...  By the end of the meal, I was getting better with picking up food with the chopsticks.  The food and the service was so good that I left behind a tip, which wasn't customary in Australia...




The Best Part, Part 2 of 2:


After dinner we went out shopping for various souvenirs for the remaining people we hadn't found anything for.  We found a place offering T-shirts for relatively cheap prices for Australia.  So, we walk into the shop, about to make a purchase when some crazy lady shouting in bad, broken English from the street, "They charge too much!  They rip you off!  Come to our shop!"  (Seriously, this did happen!)


As a capitalist, myself, I chose not to allow her to interrupt the flow of capitalism and ignored her.  While I am a person that likes to get the best deal, when I say to the merchant, "I'd like these," and the price rings up what I thought it was, breaking off a transaction is like a man backing out on his word, in my opinion.  So, I bought the shirts.  Crazy lady was still in the street, this time, getting in my way, sounding very desperate this time around.  "You waste your money!  Come to our shop!  Give you good deal!"


By this point, I wasn't about to reward her outrageous behavior.  So, I politely said, "Ma'am, we are done shopping for the night.  We will stop by your shop another night."  In all honesty, I felt kind of bad by saying this because I had no intention (at the time) of doing so.  We proceeded to walk towards the Sydney harbor, getting this awesome shot of my wife in the process...

A day or two later, we're walking through Chinatown and in the same spot where we found Crazy Lady, we found someone from Crazy Lady's store that was a lot more calm and respectful.  We still had a couple of people left on our shopping list, so, "Sure!  We'll take a look in your store!"


Sane Lady says, "Okay, follow me.  It's not that far."


She was right, but it wasn't easy to get there.  We walked into what appeared to be an old apartment building off the main street in Chinatown that had been repurposed after some time, but it had no signage of any kind.  Then, we walked up the stairs to the second floor.  So, I'm thinking to myself at this point, "No sign.  Old building off the main drag.  Walking indoors to what appears to be a former apartment.  Is this really legit?"


Turned out it was.


Behind the door to an old apartment was a wide selection of souvenirs.  We found ourselves some T-shirts at 3 for AU$9 (or about US$10.80 at the time; since then, the exchange rate between the Australian and American dollars has returned to almost a 1-to-1 ratio).  So, the reason why they were cheap was because of the cheap rent on the place in a not-so-prime location.  There weren't many people there, which made me curious about the financial viability and sustainability of the shop.  I'm guessing that is all they could afford at the time.  Anyway, I hope they're doing much better now and that Crazy Lady has developed some soft skills in the process...


So, the moral of the story?  Not sure if there is one, but I do have a couple of pointers.  Have fun with your chopsticks--even if you're terrible with them like I was.  After all, you'll never know who's watching and they may find it entertaining.  Also, if a Chinese lady approaches you in Sydney's Chinatown politely asking you to check out her shop, go for it!  They may be in a poor foot traffic location, but their lower operating costs could definitely more than make up for your trouble!  However, if Crazy Lady approaches you, just look the other way and keep walking...

Stop in the Name of Corn

Earlier today I hung out in the airport with my college roommate, Suzi, who had a three hour layover in Nashville. She met Lily and we ate lunch in the ticketing area. It was great chatting and reminiscing about college. As a belated birthday present, Suzi gave me a mix CD commemorating our study abroad semester in Mexico.

In honor of this, I thought I'd share a memory of a trip Suzi and I took to Palenque, Mexico. After seeing the beautiful Mayan ruins in the Chiapas jungle, we needed to return to Merida where our study abroad program was based. Since we were struggling college students, we chose to take the cheap bus back to Merida and thus started our adventure with the Corn Police.

First of all, the bus arrived late. That was sign that maybe we had made an "interesting" decision on buying bus tickets. Then, we stopped at a sketchy restaurant in the middle of nowhere for a restroom break.  In addition to the lack of tp in the smelly outhouse style bathroom, I remember the large rocks that were spray painted bright orange outside.

My favorite part of the trip, however, was when we crossed state lines and went through an agricultural inspection. The ancient man in the seat ahead of us had his large wheel of cheese confiscated by the agriculture agents. The agents had corn on the center of their badges hence the nickname, Corn Police. The old man was quite upset at the loss of his cheese and said that the agents were going to eat his cheese. At this remark, the Corn Police laughed and said, "Maybe if it had been marijuana or cocaine, we would use it. However, your cheese will go in the trash with the other food."

After the drama of the confiscation, the bus driver walked by and asked in Spanish if we understood what had gone on. When I said yes, he seemed relieved and went to the other foreigners on the bus to make sure that they had understood as well. While I feel sorry about the poor man losing his cheese, it was one of the most interesting bus rides I took in Mexico.

Space Shuttles & Space Monkeys

On our way home from New Jersey, we stopped by the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Adjacent to Dulles Airport, the museum is home to thousands of artifacts that won't fit in the Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington D.C. Like the other Smithsonian museums, admission is free. However, there is a $15 parking fee if you visit before four in the afternoon.

We spent about three hours wandering through the museum looking at the various airplanes and spacecraft. For me, seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery was the highlight of the museum. It was neat to see something that had actually flown in space. Since she was in the stroller of instant sleepiness, Lily slept through most of the museum and awoke for lunch at McDonald's and the gift shop. After careful deliberation in the gift shop, Lily took home her very own space monkey.

Long Beach Island...The Other Jersey Shore

Although most people think of Snooki when you mention the Jersey Shore, I think of Beach Haven on Long Beach Island. Unlike the TV show, Beach Haven is small family friendly vacation spot. Since my aunt owns a house there, I've visited several times since I was a child. The beach is always beautiful and not too crowded. It was great to sit and read my Kindle while listening to the ocean.

One morning before heading out to the beach, we visited the Long Beach Island Museum. Although it is small, the museum had some interesting exhibits. As a teacher, I particularly loved reading the rules for Beach Haven teachers in 1915. I also learned that shark attacks in 1916 in Beach Haven were the inspiration for the book Jaws.

In addition to the Long Beach Island Museum, we also visited Barnegat Light State Park on the tip of the island. Since we went in the late afternoon, we couldn't climb the lighthouse. However, there were beautiful ocean views from the walkway on the jetty.

 In the next post, read about the other attractions Long Beach Island offers.