London Chocolate Week

(Sunday, October 20)

While it has been fun to re-live our travel memories by writing this blog for the last month, I'm really excited to be just about caught up and ready to start posting the things we're doing here in London in real time. We have been here for nearly 7 weeks already and it's only now that I'm starting to feel like I have a grip on things.

London is a huge city and there are thousands of activities, fairs, festivals, events, and experiences to participate in every week. In order to make the most of this year, Joe and I have to know at least some of what's going on before it happens, which is a project enough on its own. I "liked" Time Out London, the Telegraph, BBC, several museums, and a bunch of other pages on Facebook so that updates and information would pop up on my newsfeed and I wouldn't always have to go searching it out. When we do take the tube (which is far more rare than the bus for us), I try to pay attention to the advertisements for what is happening in the city. It would be nearly impossible to know everything happening in this city that we'd be interested in at any given time. (For example, we missed the Harry Potter IMAX movie marathon at the British Film Institute that happened the first weekend after we moved in to our apartment. Lesson learned.)

Pouring rain during my walk to the overground train (replacement service for the tube)

I found out that October 14-20 were Chocolate Week in the UK just as the events were getting started and I knew I wanted to do something to participate. Since participants spanned the kingdom, I first had to find a deal nearby. I had nearly given it up due to expense and travel confusion when I found out about Salon du Chocolat's show at Olympia National Hall featuring dozens of delicious chocolatiers from all over the United Kingdom. Plus there was a fashion show of couture looks created entirely in chocolate! This I had to see!

I am not good at taking selfies...

chocolate sculpture!

my favorite of the chocolate fashions - those "feathers" are made from chocolate!

samples!

This goofball wanted to video chat with me while
I was wandering the event to show me her newly
missing tooth!

The event was kind of expensive and I did end up going alone, but I'm glad I didn't skip it. I am looking forward to more events I find on Time Out coming up soon!

Flat Hunt

This move is exactly the opposite of spontaneous. Before Joe and I got engaged I spent nearly a year reading American-expat-in-London blogs and researching what it might mean for us to make this leap. I tried to prepare. (I realize now that was nearly impossible.) Joe, on the other hand, just asks me when our flight is and when he needs to show up. For him, everything just seems to work itself out somehow. 

One of the best preparations I made was hiring London Relocation to help us find a home. Real Estate in London (I don't know about the rest of the UK), is different from the US in that real estate agents can only show homes that they are responsible for selling. Flats are in high demand, so they often are off the market by the time you even know there's availability. Finding a place on our own would involve a web of details including location, price, letting agents, foreign contracts, public transportation, and a lot of stress. I found London Relocation back in 2011 and began reading their blog because it included a lot of interesting and helpful details about moving here. Despite the expense of the service, I booked an appointment because they claim to place 90% of clients in just one day.

While we were in Prague, Joe and I had a phone interview with Anthony, the American expat owner of London Relocation. He asked about our interests and preferences, what we would be doing in London, our budget (extremely low for these parts) and our deal breakers (no studios - our sleeping schedules are too different). He settled on two or three areas that he thought we'd like and we scheduled our viewing day. 

We arrived in London on Wednesday, September 18 in the afternoon. On Friday and Saturday I was due at the International Students Orientation for school. We had Thursday, and Thursday only, to find a place that could make us feel at home when we're homesick, a base for our travel, a location that would be good for work, school, and play.

At about 9 am we met Anthony and our driver at the Notting Hill tube station. They promptly drove us to an appointment after appointment, each with a different letting agent. If Joe and I had tried to organize this day on our own, not only would the transportation have been a complete nightmare, but we would have had to sign up with at least half a dozen different agencies to see the same places. That's a lot of fees and stress we avoided.

Here are some highlights of the places we did not choose:

Most places we looked were Victorian conversions, meaning a single family home has been split up into individual flats. These usually included extremely narrow staircases and some odd floorplans.

Most London flats are furnished or semi-furnished when you rent them. This was incredibly convenient for us since all we brought with us was clothes and a few personal items. This bare set up was pretty traditional. "Furnished" tends to mean that it includes a bed, couch, and perhaps a few side tables or a wardrobe.

The tiniest kitchen we saw. The mini-fridge you see is actually 
the size of most refrigerators in London flats.

Some places were more decorated than others. This one was elaborate and old-fashioned and we would not have been allowed to change it. Yikes! (But look at that amazing ceiling!)

Some interesting facts about London flats (as far as we saw)
- Washing machines are small and usually found in the kitchen.
- Most people hang dry their clothes, but if you're lucky enough to have an electric dryer it will most likely be in combination with the washer; one load of laundry will take 3-5 hours to wash and dry.
- Dishwashers are basically non-existent.
- There are no outlets in the bathrooms. It's illegal in the UK.
- There's a tv tax for just hooking your television to basic cable. For this reason we did not plan to have television.
- Bed sizes are different here (read: smaller). It is much more common to see an American full size bed for a couple than a Queen or King. Kings are a luxury to be experienced in hotels.
- Most refrigerators we saw were of the dorm room mini variety, but occasionally we saw something that I'd like to call the "junior fridge" which is about half way between a mini fridge and a regular apartment fridge at home. Full-sized refrigerators like we'd find in houses at home are simply out of the question.

Our flat was the fourth we saw out of about a dozen. We had more on our list for the day but we cancelled the rest of our appointments once we'd heard that our offer had been accepted. Instead we headed to the leasing agent's office to spend over 2 hours signing paperwork and transferring money. One thing that people who are considering moving here should know is that if you are not being sponsored by an employer, you will most likely be asked to pay 6 months of rent up front. I'm sponsored by UCL but Joe's visa is technically sponsored by me, so we fell into this category. While it was scary to see so much of our money leave the account at once, it is nice not to have to worry about rent until April.

Now our flat.

The benefits we noticed when we viewed the place:
        - it has a dishwasher!
        - the washing machine is a washer-dryer!
        - location in Highgate near Hampstead Heath
        - fully furnished PLUS a new television that the landlady agreed to throw in
        - one of the largest refrigerators we'd seen
        - only half a flight of stairs up in a building that was built for flats, not a conversion

The detractors that made us a little nervous:
        - extremely tiny bedroom that would force us to crawl over each other to get into bed as it is lodged between 3 of the four walls.

Our neighborhood includes 3 streets of buildings identical to ours. 
They were built in the 1920s as apartments for young working women, 
or so we were told.

Welcome! Make yourself comfortable!

On the left: bathroom door. On the right: bedroom door.

Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you: that's a double bed that takes 
up more than half of the room and is touching three of the four walls!

The Living Space: the couch is a fold-out and the table can be 
expanded to accommodate 6. Plus the chandelier is amazing!

Our junior fridge has mirrored doors! The TV cabinet is nearly the only extra storage we have.

Our kitchen. All of the essentials accounted for plus quite a few fun extras we didn't expect: dishwasher, wine rack (can you see it?), dishes, cookware, bakeware, blender, immersion blender, food processor, toaster, fancy coffee maker, and much more. We have bought a few odds and ends and added a couple accessories from home (julienne peeler, food scale), but we were more than set up to cook full meals when we arrived on move-in day. One thing to remember when we're grocery shopping, though, is that the cabinet above the coffee maker is the only storage we have for dry goods and food.

Limited storage means these are all of our dishes, silverware, and cooking tools. 
Yes, they're out like that all the time.

our little balcony has a view into a shared green space

This is our entire closet space for both of us. Seriously.

Bathroom with the weird half door on the shower.

The view down our street toward the City. You can see the London Eye!

Our bus stop is right at the end of our street - so convenient.

The benefits of our flat now that we know better:

- Our amazing landlady, P, who has been more accommodating and helpful than I can possibly describe. She let us take over her utilities and cable/wifi/phone so that there were no gaps in our service. She also dealt with the companies for us so that we didn't have to figure out any unusual foreign practices. When she found that we didn't have any house-stuff with us, she left EVERYTHING we could possibly need. This is just a short list:

        * towels and bedclothes, including pillows

        * shoe racks, coat racks, hamper

        * surge protectors, dvd player, wii

        * trash cans, soaps and cleaners

        * coffee maker, electric kettle, tons of fun extras in the kitchen

- Our neighborhood is quiet and surrounded by parks and trees. Living in a city as big as London, we never expected that.
- It's cozy and comfortable and modern.

The detractors we totally didn't notice and now just have to figure out:
- We don't have a garbage disposal. Apparently they're extremely rare here but it didn't even occur to me to look for one.
- We don't have a microwave. Our fridge is too small to hold a lot of leftovers anyway, but any we keep have to be able to be re-heated in the oven or on the stove. That includes night-time coffee for me.

We have now been living in our flat for a month and we love it. We've also been lucky enough to find that a lot of the people we meet also live in the Borough of Camden or near Highgate.

On one side of our neighborhood is Hampstead Heath, on the other is Highgate Cemetery. After we moved in I remembered that I'd read a book before my Scotland trip that was set in a cemetery in London (Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of The Time-Traveler's Wife); sure enough, the whole thing took place on the edge of Highgate Cemetery, basically in what is now my backyard. Strange how the things we read come back into our lives.

A Month of Travel in Numbers

Days 

30
(August 22 to September 20)

Countries

10

United States, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Germany, Czech Republic, England

Passport Stamps

5 

and TWO of those are from Russia (in and out). Ugh. So disappointing to only get Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Prague, and London (which is actually ON our visas and not a regular entrance stamp). 

Languages

9 

(English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Estonian, Russian, Finnish, German, Czech)

Currencies

8

All of these are more colorful and varied than the American money we're used to. This is interesting and confusing at the same time. Also, changing money 4 different times into some version of something called "krone" that all have slightly (or dramatically) different conversion rates is mind-boggling.

(USD, Norwegian krone, Swedish krona, Danish krone, Euros, Russian rubles, Czech koruna, Great British pounds)

  

 

Types of Transportation

9 

that we remember

(plane, bus, train, ferry/boat, cruise ship, trolley, funicular, car/taxi, bike)

Hotels
12
Many of these were for 1 night only. The longest one was near Heathrow airport for a week once we arrived in London. From there we did exactly zero site-seeing.

Cell Phone charges

about $400 

(stupid Chase fraud alert that we kept having to call off!)

Distance traveled

Approximately 10,000 miles

International Harry Potters purchased

3

Chamber of Secrets in Swedish, Prisoner of Azkaban in Danish, and Order of the Phoenix in German

Photos Taken
approximately 3,830

including both Sarah's and Alicia's cameras plus some iphone pics along the way (now aren't you glad you only had to see what was on this blog?)

Of course the experience and our memories can't be measured quantitatively. Nor can the impact on our friendships or on us as a couple. This month was so much more than the sum of its parts; we can't un-see the sights or erase the effect of what we've learned about the different ways people live. And this is just the beginning....

Stay tuned for our London flat hunt that happened less than 24 hours after we landed at Heathrow!

Let Me Give You Whatever You Want. (Our experience in Prague.)

(September 14 - 18, 2013)

We had been dreading our travel day from Berlin to Prague via train since we had to buy an extra bag at the airport before even leaving San Diego (and in zebra print of all horrors!). 

Yup, we have enough luggage for a family of 4.

Waiting for the inevitable moment when we have to
get about 200 lbs of luggage through a skinny train
door in about 2 minutes (and get it out of the way
of other passengers). 

It was a bit embarrassing to be such obvious American tourists with our excessive possessions. We found ourselves constantly justifying our luggage to strangers even. "We're traveling for a month!" We'd say. Or "We're moving here!" It was true but it still felt pathetic. (Luckily this was the last time.)

The train ride between Berlin and Prague was about 5 hours of green German and Czech countryside. We arrived in Prague in the evening, ate dinner near the hotel and wandered out from there. The first thing that happened was that someone outside the theatre about a hundred feet away handed us a brochure for a concert. It included: Antonín Dvořák (Czech Republic), Jean Sibelius (Finland), Antonio Vivaldi (Italy), W. A. Mozart (Austria), and Edvard Grieg (Norway). It was like a list of our European Adventure, particularly our honeymoon. It was happening tomorrow. Sold! We bought tickets and continued walking. (That was easy!)

Then we saw a sign for Blue, a glassworks shop I had flagged in our guide book that I wanted to see. (That was easy!)

We stumbled, somewhat by accident, on this:

Hello, Old Town Square, it's nice to meet you!

You see that steam? That's from food vendors including two women making fresh CREPES with Nutella!
I. am. done.

Okay, so we get it, Praha. You're easy. You hand us what we want without us even having to ask for it out loud. You want to wrap us in your charm and make us fall in love with you. We could resist, but why?

After more than 3 weeks of travel, we were more relaxed about our plans. We had three full days in the city and the first, a Sunday, we picked a few activities close to home. 

A view of Old Town Square from the bell tower at Old Town Hall, the building in the first pic of the square from our first night. We love a view from a high place!

a lookout on one of the corners, with the Church of Our Lady of Tyn in the background

That evening was our concert, an event we were sure would be a highlight of Prague. We more than a little surprised that the performers never numbered more than 10 or 12, but it was still a fun concert, especially because of the pieces that were performed. Follow the links below to hear some of the pieces. (Manicia - definitely check out the Grieg. Birgitte did play him for us on the bus - we just didn't realize how incredibly popular and recognizable the score of "Peer Gynt" is.)

Listen to other performances: Vivaldi, Mozart, Smetana, Sibelius, Dvořák, Grieg (particularly the beginning and he part that starts at 12:30)

Monday morning our first task was far from glamorous: we needed to do laundry. We had already paid the exorbitant rates charged by Royal Caribbean TWICE to get some clean clothes, so we were not interested in paying the hotel the equivalent of $5 for a clean shirt. Instead I found Čistírna oděvů, the best place with which we did business in Prague, in my opinion. We dropped off a huge sack of washing at about noon. For the cost of four shirts at the hotel, our clothes were washed, dried, ironed, folded, and neatly prepared to be carried back to the hotel. Same day service! Fresh laundry scent included! Delightful proprietor who totally did not speak English but helped us call a cab also included!

easily over $100 of hotel laundry for less than $20!

Then we crossed the Most Legii, a bridge which looks like "Most Legit!" on our map, and headed towards Prague castle.

a view of the Charles Bridge, or Most Karlův, with castle hill in the
background on a very cloudy, rainy, windy, grey day

Our lunch stop was also on our to do list for the city, since it had three interesting features: 

a) an entrance passage so narrow that it has it's own traffic light for pedestrians

b) it is said that the Czech president once brought Pink Floyd here for a drink

This stroganoff had sweet gherkins in it! And OMG we were so excited
to see broccoli on the menu! Miss fresh, green vegetables
more than we could possibly explain right now...

c) it is located directly on the Vltava River with a view of the Charles Bridge

looking back at the restaurant, Parlor Čertovka, the next day

The castle complex in Prague is the largest in the world, but the castle itself is more like a fortress than a palace, so there wasn't that much to look at. The cathedral on the campus, St. Vitas's, was more interesting for us. 

On the way down the steep hill we had to walk to get to the castle, we ducked out of the rain to try trdelník, a local pastry we had seen all over that resembles a pretzel-cinnamon roll hybrid, and some warm mulled wine.

Dinner was at Pasta Fresca between our hotel and Old Town Square. It was yummy! Don't be turned off by the 4-K price demarkation - Prague is CHEAP compared to so many of the places that we'd been. For the price of one entree in Norway, Joe and I had 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and a dessert. 

Our last day in Prague was mostly devoted to the attractions on and around Petřín Hill. On our way back from the castle on Monday we walked by a restaurant that smelled so good we instantly regretted anything else we'd bothered to eat all day. When we headed back the same direction for the Petrin Hill funicular, we got a table at Ristorante Carmelita without bothering to look at the menu or prices - the smell alone was enough to make the decision for us. 

shrimp and zucchini risotto "Before"

Risotta "After" - the second best risotto I've had in a restaurant ever. SO delicious!

Many of Petřín Hill's attractions have entrance fees, so we opted for a two-in-one pass that included the ones we wanted to see most: the observation tower and the mirror labrynth. 

awesome (and accurate!) sun dial outside Štefánik´s Observatory

Petřín Tower seems to have an elevator going up the center, but it is unavailable to tourists as far as we saw. The double helix construction of the staircases mean that you will never run into someone trying to go the other way, which is nice if not a bit unnerving. 

Eiffelovka observation tower, clearly modeled after the Eiffel Tower,
is one of the highest points in the city. We love views from high places,
so this was not optional during our visit to Prague.

The so-called Mirror Labrynth has suffered some flak for being small and not really disorienting enough to actually get lost (even for a moment). Still, we thought it was fun and didn't worry about the ticket worth.

Joes in the Mirror Labrynth

part of the game is trying to hide the photographer's reflection 

Our last stop before heading back down towards home was the Strahov Monastic Brewery, a popular beer bar and restaurant. Being that Joe is used to Stone's ever-changing menu of dozens of craft brews, it was a bit humorous to see that the menu here included just three varieties: dark, light, and amber. It seems that the traditional method of ordering had been "I'll have a beer" (because there was only one type available), and this novel brewery introduced people to CHOICE. Joe declared his I.P.A. "really good, especially for a European hoppy beer."

Honeymooners on the Charles Bridge

Prague was our last honeymoon stop and our final destination as tourists for a while. From here it would be just a short flight to London and a different adventure. Prague, a bit unexpectedly, captured us. It was beautiful, quaint but not too small, relatively inexpensive, easy to get around, and offered a relaxing environment for us to explore at our own pace. We loved it. We don't need to return any time soon, but I won't be surprised if we do go back eventually. For now, Farewell, dear Praha, and thank you for welcoming us so lovingly!