Football madness in Rome

We didn't know until a few days beforehand that the Champions League Finals was happening in Rome the day after we arrive. For my American readers... think of it as the Superbowl of Europe for soccer, but it's bigger and crazier. When we exited the airport baggage claim area we saw someone holding "i need tickets" signs. Poor guy... he didn't even have a chance. 

Barca fans celebrating our arrival into Rome. This was the day before the Finals.

Manchester fans cheering at lunch. This was during the afternoon of the day of Finals.

Barca fans celebrating on the street outside of our apartment after winning the Finals. This was about 1 hour after the game had ended.

3 days in London - The Sights

It was so nice to be able to walk everywhere again! London streets felt intimate and charming. The city reminded me a lot of Boston.

  1. The Parliament House - probably one of the top two most beautiful buildings we've seen on our trip so far!
  2. Me, J and clock tower that houses Big Ben.
  3. Westminster Abbey
  4. The crowd waiting to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace (highly over-rated tourist attraction, IMO)
  5. St. James Park
  6. A duck with a puffy head who lives in St. James Park. Can someone identify it for me?
  7. Underneath the London Eye
  8. Above the London Eye
  9. The Thames River
  10. This is *the* London Bridge. I kid you not!
  11. The 4 o'clock Parade Horse Guard - even the horse's bum get inspected
  12. The Apple store on Regency Street

3 days in London - Friends

Many of our friends from the Flying Kiwi (the tour bus we took in New Zealand) are from the UK. Unfortunately, the majority of them are still tromping around Australia, but we were able to meet up with Claire and Danielle in London.

  1. Claire and her friend Chris drove 3 hours to meet us in London! We walked along the Thames and visited The London Dungeon.
  2. We had a great time chit-chatting with Danielle over a 3-hour lunch along the South Bank. The three of us lunched on the restaurant terrace with a view of the Thames while soaking in the rare London sunshine.

3 days in London - The Food

The food in London turned out to be pretty tasty and relatively affordable! Pub grub and breakfast tasted pretty similar to its equivalent in the US. After trying the Indian food in London we began to appreciate the fact that we have some pretty awesome Indian food in Seattle. The only disappointment (for me) was Wagamama, a westernized Japanese restaurant that J's been dying to try throughout our trip.

  1. Egg, bacon, sausage and chips - £3
  2. Egg, bacon, sausage and beans - £3
  3. Salmon risotto with a poached egg (1 of 2 courses)
  4. Pan-seared snapper (2 of 2 courses) - £15 for 2 courses
  5. 12 oz. Rib-eye steak with chips and a glass of house wine - £20
  6. Scottish salmon with roasted potatoes - £14
  7. Grilled tuna steak (rare) with cous cous - £15
  8. Fish and chips - £9
  9. Bangers and mash - £10
  10. Chicken pie with steamed vegetables - £8
  11. Grand chicken madras thali - £11
  12. Wagamama ramen - £8
  13. Beer art (shamrock drawn on the foam of a glass of super-chilled Guiness) - £3
  14. Pims (a British summer specialty recommended by our friend Danielle) - £4

Day 193: We've come full circle

J and I have made it back to London which means we've now officially finished our OneWorld Global Explorer RTW ticket! It's quite amazing to think that we set out from here 7 months ago with 3 pages worth of flight information detailing the 16 air segments of our RTW ticket. The itinerary seemed so daunting to us back then and we felt like it would take us forever to complete it. After making this circle around the world I can tell you that it all flew by in a flash!

Overall, J and I really liked the OneWorld Global Explorer ticket. Although the complicated fare rules made the initial planning difficult, we now look back and are very appreciative at the various restrictions that we first found frustrating. Too many options is not a good thing. The ticket really helped us prioritize our destinations and allowed us to map out a feasible route at an affordable price!

In case you are considering buying a OneWorld Global Explorer ticket here are some of our words of wisdom:
  • When it comes to baggage allowances go with the lowest common denominator - 1 bag weighing no more than 23 kgs. We learned this the hard way.
  • American Airline is a great alliance member to buy your OneWorld ticket from. They actually have a specialized division staffed with knowledgeable and competent service representatives who has all been trained to handle this OneWorld RTW ticket.
  • We booked our itinerary on the phone, but the OneWorld website recently launched an application to let you book/manage your ticket online!
  • Quality of airline: British Airways and Quantas = awesome; Cathay Pacific, American and Lan = pretty good; Iberia = awful.
  • It's a great value, especially if you are able to buy it in Canada. =)
Current Location: London, UK

Day 192: J&M 翻臉了(turns hostile)....

We arrived in Beijing 5 weeks ago as trusting, polite and honest people. Tomorrow, we leave this city guarded, suspicious and with a little less self-respect for practicing bad manners on purpose. We are so sick and tired of the dishonest and sly way of doing business here in China. Everyone and anyone who is not a friend tries to take advantage of you for even the littlest gain. 

Tonight our goal was to get back our 400 USD security deposit from our apartment manager, Mr. Huang. In the 7 months we've been traveling to countries across the world we've never had any problem getting back our security deposit, but throughout our stay in Beijing our friends have been warning us about how it's a definite possibility our apartment manager will try to swindle us out of our deposit. We are leaving early tomorrow morning and suspected that if we agreed to do the walk-through tomorrow Mr. Huang may not show up at the agreed meeting time for whatever reason hoping that we'll abandon the deposit in favor of catching our flight to London. As predicted, our meeting tonight was an epic showdown that required a lot of shouting, a bit of psychology, emergency re-enforcements on speed dial and a good cop, bad cop routine (J was the good cop; I was the bad cop.). 

The story is very interesting, but too complicated to write about here. However, I am happy to report that in the end we were victorious and got our security deposit back! As a precaution we decided not to stay in the apartment tonight in case Mr. Huang decided to hire some thugs to break into the apartment and beat us up as revenge.

If we come home with lingering ill manners picked up from Beijing, slap us straight. You'll be doing us a favor.

Current Location: Beijing, China.

Day 192: So angry....

I am so angry right now I can't keep my hands still.
 
Mr. Huang better tread carefully when he arrives at the apartment in 15 minutes. I am at the verge of erupting. I've had it with the sly and dishonest way of doing business here in China. Thank goodness we're leaving this country in 14 hours.
 
... to be continued...
 
Current Location: Beijing, China

Day 184: The end is set

 

After much discussion J and I solidified the end date of our RTW trip by purchasing our tickets home. Originally, we were planning to take a real week-long vacation at the end of our trip, perhaps an all-inclusive deal by the water. Instead, we decided to save J's vacation days for right before I start my job (if and when I get one). Destination front-runners had included Santorini (Greece), Maldives and Lake Como (Italy). You might be thinking how spoiled we are for not considering any of these places tempting enough when we would already be so close geographically and will probably have no better opportunity in the future. To be honest, our decision was more based on the growing feeling of homesickness and tiredness from 7 months of travel, including the past month spent in Beijing which completely broke us. In the end we decided there's no where else we'd rather be than home!

To our surprise a one-way ticket from Rome to Seattle is twice as expensive as a round-trip fare! So, we bought the round-trip fare with the intentions of ditching the return trip to Rome. However, since the return ticket to Rome connects through Atlanta, I may just hop onto that leg to visit my good friend Jadda and then come back to Seattle on a separate one-way fare! This way I'll be able to use 75% of the ticket. =) I guess I'll have to see how my job hunting effort goes before decided on whether or not I will make this trip.

Current Location: Beijing, China