Overall Barcelona was pretty great, not much that we could really complain about. Unlike England, we really didn’t have to worry about being hit by cars because not only are the cars on the right side of the road but most of the streets are one way. We didn’t have to worry about not having enough money for food or booze because it was so cheap. For example, Chris was paying 0.37€ for one can or 1.26€ for a 6pack of beer – can’t really get much cheaper than that.
0 Comments
Before we arrived in London, we thought it would be worth our while to get a London Pass not only to save us money but also to save us the hassle of having to buy a ticket everywhere we went. The London Pass is a card that you pay for that allows you into many of the tourist attractions and other places of interest (50+ attractions) and you can buy it for as many days as you would like. We thought we would jam pack as much as we could into simply 3 days costing us 90GBP each (including an unlimited travel card for buses and the tube system – the transport cost for 3 days by itself would have worked out to 21GPB each so purchasing a travel card with your pass is a good deal). To find out more information about the London Pass you can visit our tours page and click on Golden Tours for a great price. Covent Gardens is one of London’s most well-known area for locals and also tourists. Being 3 square miles large in central London, it is known as the entertainment district having everything from theater, musicals, various different street performers, shops, restaurants, clubs/bars – making it a place to visit. Our most enjoyable part of being in Covent Garden was watching the many street performers show their stuff. There were acts involving juggling, miming, balancing acts and many more. As we are backpackers on a budget we don’t have the cash to spend shopping but we did show our appreciation for the street performers by giving them a few pounds each. Chrisy even got to participate as a helper for one of the acts by holding a very tall unicycle so that the performer can mount it properly without it tumbling over. He said it was not a pretty sight (and I have to agree) as the performer was wearing nothing but a pair of tight underwear stuffed with balls. Spitalfields Market, Borough Market and Jubilee Market are just 3 of London’s dozens of markets and they are all known each for very different things. Spitalfields market is a fairly large market with numerous second-hand and vintage clothes stalls containing a large variety ranging from dresses to handmade leather bags to wooden phone cases. Majority of the items are fairly cheap – especially the clothes. Spitalfields is surrounded by café’s and restaurants – some are quite inexpensive with good food but most are expensive and posh. The city of Cambridge is amongst five districts within Cambridgeshire county and is located about 50 miles (80 km) north-by-east of London. Many of the buildings in Cambridge – including the colleges and university – hold many histories dating back before the 10th century. The modern city of Cambridge was founded in 875 when Danes conquered Eastern England – they had then created a town called ‘burgh’. Without that town, Cambridge would have been surrounded by a ditch. Today, there are a lot of very old and historic buildings surrounded by many new stores & restaurants. The university and colleges, having over 30 000 students, and being a well-known tourist city bring forth many chain stores and restaurants, such as McDonalds and H&M, but Cambridge still maintains true to its heritage by having many local-owned shops & traditional pubs. One of the historic buildings in Cambridge is Great St. Mary’s – the University Church. For 3 Pounds you can climb stairs all the way to the top of the church – a great look-out point to see most of Cambridge. With two very different markets combined into one big area there’s really something for everyone. Whether it be vintage clothing, knick-knack shops, food stalls, antique stores or millions of souvenir shops; you can’t go wrong spending half a day to just wander and find something that peeks your interest.
I had been living in Edinburgh, Scotland, for nearly two months. It was my first time spending considerable time outside of my own country, and I was loving it. I had a full-time job working as a sales assistant at a souvenir shop – an experience I hesitate to recommend, especially in tourist hubs like Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a winding cobblestone street that turns into a pedestrian walkway half way up, and is famous for having, at the foot of it, Holyrood Palace, where royals stay during their visits to Scotland, and at the top, Edinburgh Castle. During the summertime, the Royal Mile turns into a churning parade of tourists in search of the most authentic whiskey, the woolliest kilts, and the greasiest deep-fried delicacies. It was hectic to say the least, but I loved my daily encounters of customers in my shop who were, like me, from around the world.
|
Archives
November 2013
Jexter |