August 29th, 2008 by Nina
Well, I made it back to Seattle. I am working through the jet lag. Tom keeps asking me why I am awake at 5am. I think he needs to go to Europe…
My last day in London turned out to be quite exciting. First, my mother falls down the stairs and I am not allowed to tell my father. Second, we went through some locks on a boat ride from Hampton to Richmond. Third, someone threw a beer bottle at me while we were sitting on the bus. Fourth, British Airways AT THE AIRPORT, can not book you a seat on the day before your flight (you can only do it online!). Fifth, the internet access at the hotel sucked big time. Sixth, attacking swans.
As for the beer bottle, some punks on the bus pissed off a big Indian dude. The guys all decided they were going to get off at the next stop but the Indian dude refused to get off the bus. The punks decided he was a sissy and took their belts off. The Indian dude then took his belt off also. Then the punks threw the bottle which was within a couple feet of me. The Indian dude got pissed and ran ofter them. The bus driver left them and started driving off. Then the Indian dude get the bus driver to stop since the Indian dude left his stuff on the bus. It was all caught on CCTV (everything is on CCTV!) so the Indian dude was trying to get the bus driver to not submit it because he thought he was going to get in trouble too. It was exciting.
Here are the last few pictures you will be forced to look at - Swans, Rabies sign, Locks, The Design Museum, War Ship and Parkour (very weird!) :
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August 24th, 2008 by Nina
Bloody Brilliant!
August 23rd, 2008 by Nina
We went to the airport the other day to meet a friend of my mothers for dinner. The airport is about an hour by bus away from Hampton and it was about 930PM. Anyway, this completely drunk man gets on. I would say he’s around 70 years old. He tries to tap in but it fails with no money on the card. It takes him a couple stops to find the 2 pound fare. During this time, my mother grabbed my backpack to put it on the seat next to us because we didn’t want him sitting there. He of course sat in the seat across from us instead. He heard our accent and asked if we were from America. My parents quietly said yes but I yelled “We are from Canada!” He said “Oh Canadians, are you on holiday?” I said, “No, we live here”. He argued with himself that Canadians don’t live in England.
The drunk man kept trying to engage us in conversation but we ignored him. He was about to get off the bus and he said “You Canadians are boring! At least the Americans are interesting geez!”
So to the Canadians out there… We are sorry that we gave the drunk man a bad impression of you. 
In other news, we went to Tate Modern yesterday and it was hella cool as usual. Today we hit up the local shopping areas and I got a couple gifts for Tom’s kids and one for him. Tomorrow I am going to go The Museum of Design. On Monday, I am going to go for a boat ride on the Thames. Only a few more days left…. then it’s back to reality and the cat.
August 19th, 2008 by Nina
Yesterday while I was chilling on the Spanish steps, I saw someone with a Seahawk’s Jersey. It was enough to get off my butt and go speak with him. I asked if he was from Seattle but no, of course not. He’s from Scotland! Full accent and all. He downloads the games and watches them at home. Pretty cool.
Today I booked a tour for the Vatican because I knew I wouldn’t go alone. I was completely unaware of the amount of art they have collected. It’s nuts. I only spent three hours there but I have no doubt you could have spent a couple days. We did skip past the modern art which I would have liked to look at but as the guide said, you didn’t come to Rome to see modern art (but I would have rather seen that than some of the other crap). But anyway… Some of the rooms are insane. Here are a couple pictures of the rooms:
We did go to the Sistine Chapel but you are not allowed to take photos from in there. It seems Kodak purchased the rights to all photographs until 2030 because they paid for it to be restored. I thought that was in really bad taste but oh well. I am not exactly a fan of the Catholic church so maybe they like it. We also saw St Peter’s Basilica which was insane I must say. It is beautiful. Even for the non-religious, I highly recommend taking the time to visit it. The Vatican is also earth friendly by being completely solar powered. Here are a couple pictures:
August 18th, 2008 by Nina
I decided that I should at least visit the Vatican while I am here so I booked a tour tomorrow. I don’t have the energy to figure it out myself. I just need to show up at some Bar. Sounds good to me! Anyway, today I went “shopping” since most of the stores were closed over the weekend. The reason I put shopping in quotes is because the shopping sucks. I would have thought Rome would be a better location in terms of shopping but I was mistaken. None the less, I did get two purses from Furla which are a little cheaper here. I did walk 7 miles today but didn’t really do much. I did go through their snazzy park which was a nice diversion. I got to see an Indian family have a huge yelling fight while riding bikes. I think they had a body guard with them too. Todays photo theme was: take pictures of people taking pictures and people doing annoying or weird things.
This lady sat on me today. I guess she thought her rear end was smaller than it was. (Sadly, the picture didn’t turn out too badly…)
This woman appeared to have a rash on her legs/feet and was applying some cream to them. I would probably have a rash if I was wearing her shoes too.
Oh hey, he’s taking a picture.
August 17th, 2008 by Nina
All I gotta say is… I hope Tom doesn’t want to come here because I don’t think I want to come back. First, this city is dirty. Trash, graffiti, dirt… everywhere. Yesterday at lunch I watched a guy glue Prada labels on purses. Today I had to take Metro Line B to Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini and the train cars were covered inside and out in graffiti. The people in the car I was in, were all selling purses and sunglasses. I know because they can be found running around the city with these huge bags and setting up shopping many times a day. The buildings there looked like they were ready to fall down. It did NOT look safe at all. I made it there fine but still, I was very concerned having to talk back. I would like to go to MARCO but I am concerned about the location since it’s just one metro stop before the other museum.
Anyway, after my experience outside the tourists spots, I went to the Colesseum and used my Roma Pass. I got to walk by a huge line! I highly recommend getting one if you are stupid enough to come here… but anyway. I am going to go walk around now that it has cooled down a bit.
Oh and speaking of the Colesseum…. there were thousands of people and two lines. Two… one for those with tickets and one for those without tickets. The line for those with tickets was empty. The other line was packed for about 1/8 a mile? Anyway, there is no organization. There is no instructions on how to use the Roma pass when you get to the ticket gates. There are tons of tour groups, tons of languages, and highly annoyed employees of the Colesseum. I don’t blame them… unorganized mess makes for annoyed employees but don’t yell at me. It’s your fault there are no signs or information on what the hell we are suppose to do.
Oh, and don’t come running after me when I don’t eat the 8 pieces of toast you bought me this morning. You didn’t ask me how many I wanted and I didn’t freakin want 8 pieces. And no, just because you made me toast, doesn’t mean I am going to eat it all. Next time, don’t let the Italian guests take the full basket of toast to their table so we can’t just take what we want. OR ask me how much toast I want!
Here are a few pictures from today… the only ones I had the patients to let upload.
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August 16th, 2008 by Nina
Well, Rome appears to be very old. It is kind of dirty too. It’s not bad just not sure it’s my kind of place. There are tons of people everywhere. LIKE EVERYWHERE. I don’t think I care enough about any of the sites to fight the people so I am going to find stuff outside of the tourist sites. I purchased a Roma Pass which gives me access for free to 40 sites/museums around the area. Anyway, I only have one picture because the internet here is insanely slow. It took 9 hours to upload 28 pictures. 
The other pictures are located here. Anyway, the picture below is from the Trevi Fountain and it’s about half a block from my hotel. Nutty.
August 15th, 2008 by Nina
I am here but insanely tired. Expect more pictures tomorrow….
As for London, yesterday we saw Billy Elliot, The Musical. The musical was good but we did have some problems understanding the accents. :) We also went on the London Eye. I will only force you all to look at one picture because I am tired. (look, there is some blue sky…)
August 13th, 2008 by Nina
I am becoming an old lady. Instead of going to Tate Modern, I went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Gardens. It was pretty cool and expensive. 22 pounds per person (about 44 USD)! It is HUGE. You would need a couple full days to see everything so we had to pick a few things to see. They have a tree walkway which is 125 steps up and about 1/8 or so of a mile around the trees. It’s pretty cool but the winds were at least 40mph and it was MOVING!
Tomorrow, we are going to the London Eye and Billy Elliot, The Musical. One more day until I leave for Rome…
Here are a few pictures:
August 12th, 2008 by Nina
Today I went to Hayward Gallery and it was pretty cool. I was on top of the thingy there. You can see some people hanging out. It was pretty cool. It was like that one scene in Revenge of the Nerds. I highly recommend going if you are in the area. It’s over very soon so hurry. Sadly, you are not allowed to take pictures inside but outside you can. Here are a few:
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