After a short one hour flight from Istanbul, we arrived in Athens, Greece this evening.   At the moment, there are no budget airlines flying to Athens, so we took a flight with Aegean, a regular carrier.  Although it was a bit more expensive (€180 for two one-way tickets to Athens), I have to say it was nice not to fly with a budget airline for a change!

Unlike when we arrived in Istanbul, today we flew from Atatürk International Airport, Istanbul’s primary airport.  We had initially planned to take the tram there, but every time we rode the tram this week it’s been completely full and getting on with luggage would be difficult.  We decided it would be worth it to pay for a shuttle, but our hotel wanted a ridiculous €30 to hire a ride to the airport!  Luckily, the travel agency (Mysia) across the street had a shuttle at 12:35 pm for just 11 lira per person.  Our flight was not till 5 pm, but the extra time turned out to be necessary because the shuttle driver was late picking us up and there was heavy traffic.  I’m not sure what was scarier, the bus rides yesterday or our shuttle driver’s erratic impatient driving today… If you’re considering using a shuttle in Istanbul to get to the airport, give yourself plenty of time and prepare for a rough ride!

When we got to Atatürk Airport, we were surprised to find we had to go through security to enter the airport.  Since you have to go through another security check before you board (there’s a scanner and metal detector thingy at every gate!), they don’t worry about things like liquids at the first security check, but you still have to take out your laptop, empty your pockets, take off your coat, etc.  I understand why you’d want to check people as they go into the airport, but it’s quite a hassle to have to go through security twice! 

Unlike budget airlines, regular carriers like Aegean, Air Canada, Delta, etc. allow up to two pieces of carry-on luggage (one small and one regular size).  From our experience, as long as your carry-on looks like standard carry-on size, the check-in staff don’t hassle you to weigh or size-check it (they also allow you to check one piece of luggage weighing up to 30kg without an extra charge).  When you’re living off the contents of two 35-litre backpacks, everything is necessary and important so we never check our bags.  But, fully packed, our bags weigh about 12kg each so when we fly budget airlines we have to wear extra layers and put heavy things like laptop chargers and liquid toiletries into our pockets to be within the 10kg carry-on weight limit.  Not having to do this today was such a relief!

After a painfully slow (but hassle free) check in, we went through a customs and immigration checkpoint to exit Turkey.  There was a separate line for Turkish citizens and we noticed that all the men in that line were wrapped in towels the way we were when we finished at the Turkish baths!  They were coming from a room next to the bathroom and the signs were all in Turkish, but I’m guessing there’s a bath in there!  There were women as well, but they were wearing pale yellow long-sleeve dress-type garments, not towels.  I asked Ilyas about it when I got online later and he thinks they were going to somewhere called “Umre (Kudüs)” which is a holy place for Muslims…

When we landed in Greece we had no problems getting through customs and we found our way by metro to our hotel, the Best Western Hotel Pythagorion.  We were originally planning to stay at a hostel that was rated pretty high on hostels.com, but when I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor I found a bunch of bad stuff.  I’ve learned my lesson from our past stays – always double check reviews against Tripadvisor because the hostel can delete bad reviews off hostels.com or hostelbookers.com.  And right now, during the low season, most hotels have cut prices but many hostels haven’t so it only cost us 7 euro more per night to have a hotel room instead of sleep in a 4 bed mixed dorm.  The Best Western isn’t in a great location (20 min walk from the Acropolis & archaeology sites) but our room is big, we have a mini fridge to use, the Wi-Fi works great, and there’s a full breakfast included.  I’ll take that over a mediocre hostel any day!

I’m taking a break from writing about what we’ve been doing/seeing/eating today to write about a topic which has been bugging me as of late – the question of “where are you from?”  We are asked this all the time – when we go eat, when we buy something at a store, when we meet other people at the hotel/hostel/B&B – and when we reply Canada, we frequently get the response “No, originally where are you from?”  This has been bugging me because I’m really truly originally from Canada – just because I’m Chinese doesn’t mean I can’t be from Canada!!!

When we talk to people from Canada or the U.S. and we say we’re from Canada, they never say “really???” For those of us who live in North America, different ethnicities of people who identify themselves as American or Canadian is normal – both of these countries are multicultural nations with large-scale immigration from all over the world.  My experience is that when you immigrate, you identify yourself with that nationality, and most North Americans don’t question that.  My parents immigrated to Canada 30 years ago and consider themselves Canadian, and I was born in Canada so I see no reason to identify myself as anything but Canadian! 

Most European countries, however, are not that multi-cultural (England being an exception) and I find that most Europeans don’t believe I’m from Canada because I’m not Caucasian.  Some countries have been worse than others (i.e. Italy where they were like “no, no, no… You’re not from Canada… Japan? China?” but, that’s a whole other blog article when I get around to writing about Italy…)  Even when people do believe I’m from Canada, they ask where I or my parents are originally from.  This irks me because technically, unless you are of Native American descent, anyone from Canada or the U.S. originally came from somewhere else, so if you’re going to ask this type of question, don’t just ask non-Caucasian people!  Sure, some ethnicities (e.g. British and Irish) have been in North America for more generations than others, but nowadays it’s common to see first, second, or third generation Canadian/American born Asians, Indians, South Americans, etc. 

My point is, in today’s globalized world, migration is a common thing and you shouldn’t question the fact that someone is from somewhere because of their ethnicity.  If you’re trying to figure out what ethnicity someone is, you shouldn’t ask “where are you from” and expect that answer to tell you what race they are.  I get the fact that you can’t tell if I’m Chinese or  Japanese or whatever, but asking where I’m from isn’t the way to figure it out.  And if you’re ignorant enough to insist I can’t be from Canada because I’m not white, you need to hop on a plane and get out of your little bubble world…

When we got back to Stuttgart after the Sindelfingen Plant tour yesterday, we did some shopping on Königstrasse, Stuttgart’s main shopping street, but by 2:30 we were bored.  We headed to the airport, thinking we could hang out and use their Wi-Fi until our flight at 10:25 pm, but the Wi-Fi at the airport was broken!  Once again, I’m not a fan of airports or flying…

Stuttgart Airport turned out to be surprisingly small and crappy (we didn’t notice when we first landed here on Tuesday).  After you go through security, there’s only one place to get cooked food and they closed at 7, just as we were about to go eat there!  There were 3 places open to buy sandwiches, but the sandwiches looked like they had been sitting out all day and weren’t appetizing at all.  We ended up eating Burger King, which Paul had to go back out of the secured area to get, and drinking an insanely overpriced €5 bottle of water from the sandwich store.  I really hate the fact that they don’t let you take bottled water through security!

Thankfully, our second Germanwings flight was much more pleasant than the first.  The check-in staff didn’t harass us to weigh or size-check our carry-on bags, so we were wearing multiple layers of clothing and carrying ludicrous amounts of stuff in our pockets for no reason.  Also, the flight attendants were very pleasant, unlike on our flight to Stuttgart where they seemed sick of their jobs.  The best part of the flight, though, was meeting the person sitting next to me, a half-Turkish half-Greek guy named Ilyas.  He struck up conversation by asking where we’re from, and for almost the entire flight we had a very pleasant chat getting to know one another.  Once again, we’ve met someone we’ll really keep in touch with after the trip!

To enter Turkey as a tourist, Canadians must to purchase a “90 Days multiple entry sticker type tourist visa” upon arrival for €45.  Our flight landed at 3 am Istanbul time so the visa booth was closed, but a security guy helped us find someone to re-open it.  Interestingly enough, we were the only people on the flight who needed to buy a visa!  By the time we got this sorted out and passed through customs and immigration, it was almost 4 am.  Since it would take another hour by shuttle bus to get to city center, it wasn’t worthwhile to pay for a hotel for the night so we found a comfortable bench in the airport and waited for the morning shuttle today.  Although the Sabiha Gökçen Airport is smaller than Stuttgart Airport, spending 6 hours here was far better than 6 hours at Stuttgart Airport.  Food and drinks are reasonably priced (a bottle of water cost 2 Turkish lira, which is about $1.40 CAD) and places were actually open at 4 am!  More importantly, the Wi-Fi actually worked, but there’s a small charge. 

At 10 am this morning, we caught the HAVAS shuttle bus to Taksim square, a major shopping, tourist and leisure district in the center of Istanbul (bus costs 12 lira per person and actually drops you off about a block from Taksim square).  Outside of the metro station, we picked up Akbil transit passes, which are small stainless steel “buttons” on a plastic holder (similar to a key fob).  You pay a refundable 6 lira deposit for the Akbil and then load whatever amount you want on it (just like London’s Oyster cards).  Contrary to what we read on the Internet, the Akbil doesn’t give you free transfers for 45 minutes, but it does reduce the transfer fare by 50% (e.g. we had to change from the funicular to the tram and instead of paying 1.50 lira per ride, the Akbil deducted 1.50 lira for the first ride and another 0.75 lira when we went through the gates to the tram). 

The last 24 hours have been excruciatingly long with far too much time spent at the airport, but I’m looking forward to exploring Istanbul!  First, though, we are taking a nap at the hotel

Part of the reason we are flying to Istanbul via Stuttgart (other than the fact that it saves us money) is because Paul actually wanted to go to Stuttgart because it’s where the automobile was invented and Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, and Porsche are all still produced in Stuttgart or nearby towns, and each has a museum you can visit.  Since we woke up late, we decided to just go to the Porsche museum today, and save the larger Mercedes-Benz Museum for tomorrow, when we will force ourselves to get up on time…

In addition to heading out the door late, we ran into some difficulty when trying to buy a public transit pass.  Paul had read online that there is a €13.90 three day tourist card, which allows you unlimited travel in all zones for three consecutive days, but we couldn’t find this ticket on the self-serve machines at the S-Bahn station.  We went to ask at the ticket office and had to wait 20 minutes for the only rep that spoke English to finish with the girl she was helping, only to find out that they don’t sell this type of ticket, you can only buy it at the tourist information office at the main train station or at the airport!  Since it was such a big savings (€13.90 for three days vs. €15 for one day), we walked to the tourist information office, which was about 1.5km away, and bought transit passes there before heading to the Porsche museum.

The current Porsche museum is a beautiful modern facility that was just opened in January of this year, at the Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.  It was a bit smaller than I had expected (5600 square meters of exhibition space spread over 2 floors), but they’ve created a nice looking display and the info in the exhibits was interesting and well written.  My only complaint is that it was a bit confusing since the escalator takes you to the middle and you’re not sure whether you should go forwards, backwards, left, or right.  It took me a couple turns to get oriented, but I discovered that going forwards is best if you want to go through the exhibit in chronological order, starting with how Ferdinand Porsche began as an electrical engineer, became technical director at Austro-Daimler, and then founded his own design office and designed the Volkswagen Beetle, the first “German People’s Car.” 

The rest of the floor features about 80 “icon” cars (in chronological order going counter-clockwise), small exhibits related to the technical achievements of Ferdinand Porsche, and a bit about his son, Ferry Porsche.  Going up the ramp to the smaller second floor, you arrive at a larger exhibit dedicated to “100 years of Ferry Porsche”  and learn how Ferry Porsche transformed the company his father founded into the car manufacturer we know today.  As I put together information to write this blog, I find it interesting that, apart from a mention that Ferry Porsche assumed responsibility for the company when his father was taken into custody by the French in 1946, there is no acknowledgement of the ugly part of the company’s past – their involvement with the Nazis.  It was with the Nazi party’s help that the Volkswagen Beetle went into production, and Ferdinand Porsche’s arrest was actually for his involvment in war crimes, but there is no mention of this anywhere in the museum.  Although he was found not guilty, it would still be nice if they acknowledged the company’s involvement, because they definately were tied with the Nazi party in some way.

At the end of the day, my Porsche museum experience has enlightened me about the brand and the men behind its name.  Nothing they produce will ever be my dream car, but knowing the history of the company, I can see why they are some people’s dream car.  Racing legacy just isn’t my thing 

Our flight today was not until 5 pm, but since we had to check out of the hotel at noon, we decided to just head to the airport and kill a few hours there instead of wandering around with our backpacks.  Had I known how small the Budapest Ferihegy International Airport is, though, I would have opted to eat lunch somewhere around the hotel before going to the airport because the options there were pathetic and overpriced.  If you’re ever flying in or out of Hungary, be forewarned that the Ferihegy is the largest of the country’s five airports, but it’s the smallest airport I’ve been to and there’s only a handful of places to eat, with only one place serving hot food (although there is a second terminal about 2 km away that we didn’t go to).  Terminal 1 is so small, in fact, that there aren’t even check-in counters for each airline – they share counters so you can only check in 3 hours before your flight when your appropriate airline has taken over a section of counters.

This was our first time flying with German Wings, a low-cost airline similar to Ryan Air.  Everyone harps about how Ryan Air is so strict about carry-on luggage, but today’s experience with German Wings was ten times worse than anytime we’ve taken Ryan Air!  At the check-in counter, they made everyone place their bag (even if it’s just a purse!) on the conveyor belt scale (the one you put your checked luggage on normally) and if you’re under the 8kg limit, they tag your bag as carry-on approved.  With our backpacks, the lady at the check-in counter also asked us to put them in the size checker.  My backpack, the Osprey Aura 35, is fairly small as far as backpacks go, but it has a curved backpanel for ventilation which makes it fit awkwardly into the size checker.  Because I couldn’t slide it in and out of the size checker easily, the check-in lady said it was too big for cabin baggage at first.  But, after a bit of rough shoving and yanking by Paul (accompanied by us snapping at each other) showing that the bag does fit in the checker, she said “ok, it’s too big but it’s ok” and finished checking us in, letting me keep my bag with me but not giving me an approved tag.

Paranoid that we’d get checked again at boarding and maybe have to go back and check my bag (which costs an extra 20 euro and would be a huge hassle), I pulled almost everything out of my bag and tried to re-pack it better once we went through security.  We managed to transfer a bit more stuff to Paul’s bag, but the shape of my bag just doesn’t make it possible to slide it in and out of the size checker easily!  Between the hassle of worrying about the weight and size of your carry-on baggage and the hassle of going through airport security, flying as a method of transport is, for me, the worst possible option.  I’d rather take a bus, train or boat any day, but unfortunately the train ride to Istanbul would have been ridiculously long (over 30 hours) and bus and boat aren’t even an option.  Thankfully, they didn’t check our bags when we boarded and we got through this flight without any further hic-ups.

We fly again on Friday to get from Stuttgart to Istanbul, and I’m not looking forward to the fight that will surely accompany our next packing blitz.  We fight every time we pack about how much stuff we have because I’m a hoarder and Paul doesn’t get the fact that living off a 35-litre backpack with about 11kg of stuff for 9 months is as small as it’s gonna get!  To get down to the 8kg weight limit we already put a lot of stuff in our pockets (it’s hilarious because we look pregnant in a lumpy sort of way) and I don’t know what else I can take out of my bag so we don’t run into problems on Friday.  I guess that Thursday night I’ll have to get creative…

Our three hour train ride to Budapest from Bratislava yesterday got us to our hotel (another Ibis) just in time for Paul to start working so we didn’t do much apart from check out the area we’re in and buy stuff at the grocery store to make sandwiches for dinner so we wouldn’t have to eat fast food, which is the only type of food near the hotel.  Today we began our sightseeing at the Holocaust Memorial Center, which was sad but very informative…

On our way to the Memorial Center, we decided to eat lunch at a small self-serve restaurant which we noticed while walking along Üllői Avenue to get from the tram stop to the Memorial Center.  We picked it because it was busy and looked like a local eatery (there wasn’t even a sign outside with it’s name!) and it turned out to be a truly authentic Hungarian fast food place.  Problem was, the menu (posted on a blackboard behind the cashier where you order, pay for and pick up your food) was only in Hungarian, and the girl working there didn’t really speak English.  Paul asked her to pick two dishes for us, and she described something with spinach, bean, and egg and we nodded and said sure!  Then we noticed chicken legs in a buffet-style case near the cash register and asked her to add an order of that as well.  The chicken turned out to be a very good idea because she ordered us two dishes of really thick creamed spinach and bean soup with a fried egg on top which I thought tasted ok, but Paul took one bite and left the rest to me!  Next time, I think we’re better off just blindly pointing at two different menu items

After eating, we found the nearby Holocaust Memorial Center on Páva St.  After a quick security check (just a metal detector), we headed down a set of stairs in the courtyard and paid an entrance fee (1300 HUF – about $7.50 CAD – or 100 HUF for students) before beginning our visit in a room which depicted the lives of Jews and Hungarian Roma in Hungary before the Holocaust.  Being a much faster reader than me, Paul ditched me after about 10 minutes and left me to go through the exhibit at my own pace while he went ahead, which was fine by me because I hate being rushed!

A long corridor full of pictures and the ominous sound of soldiers marching led me to the rest of the exhibit, which is divided into sections relating to different phases of persecution: deprivation of civil rights, property, freedom, human dignity, and existence.  Personally, I liked this better than a chronological presentation because it shows you how it got to the point where Jews were murdered in mass numbers instead of focusing on the period of time when the Nazis killed over a million people just because of their race.  I, for one, did not know that Hungary had its own government party that began taking away the rights of Jews before the Nazi occupation in 1944 and reading about this in the first section helped me understand how they were able to get to the next step, taking property away from Jews and Roma and deporting them to camps.  When you realize how long discriminatory practices went on for before progressing to the mass murders, you really have to wonder why the rest of world didn’t put an end to it sooner…

The exhibit took me over 2 hours to complete, and I had to skip some of the reading because we were running out of time and Paul had finished long before me and was getting tired of waiting.  I probably could have spent the whole day here if I read everything thoroughly!  Before heading back to the hotel, we had a quick look around at the nearby Central Market Hall, which is one of the biggest indoor markets we’ve seen on this trip.  Upstairs you can buy all kinds of souvenirs and trinkets, and downstairs there is an incredible selection of meat, produce, and fruit.  I power shopped through all the fruit stands, picking up pears, plums, oranges, and bananas.  The stuff we got was ripe and fresh, but I’m still not used to the way fruit stands work here and got scolded by one lady for trying to pick my own fruit (here you tell them how much you want and they just grab it at random for you).  It made me buy a lot less than I would have if I was picking my own, but at least it wasn’t like the markets in Italy where we were deliberately sold the bad fruit by vendors because we were tourists!

While planning this leg of the trip, we weren’t sure if we should bother going to Bratislava, capital of the Slovak Republic.  Most people don’t have much to say about it, other than the fact that it’s really cheap.  If you remember the movie Euro Trip (which totally doesn’t depict Europe correctly at all but was humorous nonetheless), Bratislava is the run down, dump city where they ended up with only $1.83 while trying to hitchhike to Berlin, but managed to live like kings thanks to the conversion rate.  Since it’s only an hour by train from Vienna, we decided to come spend 2 nights and see for ourselves what it’s really like…

So first things first, Bratislava looks nothing like what they show in Euro Trip (granted, that movie was made in 2004, but still…)  The buildings outside of city center are a bit drab (just large square stone structures without any elaborate carving or decoration), but it’s not really run down like in Euro Trip and city center is actually quite pleasant with a medieval feel.  According to Rick Steves, who included a section in his Rick Steves Vienna book about Bratislava since it’s so close by, the City of Bratislava has put painstaking amounts of effort in recent years to restore the buildings of city center back to their pre-communism splendor.  While I can’t say it’s the nicest city center we’ve been to, you can tell that they’ve done some restoration and there are some nice things to see.

Today we followed Rick’s walking guide (I copied the path down from his book before returning it to the hostel in Vienna), and went from St. Michael’s Gate, the last surviving tower of the city wall, to Venturska street to try a restaurant called Flowers he recommended in his book.  Although it was a really pricey for Bratislava (about 20 euros per main course), it was the best food we’ve had in a while, reminiscent of what we would get back home if we went out for a nice meal (I had the Rib Eye steak and Paul got the lamb shank).  Combine this with the yummy meal we had last night at 1 Slovak Pub (authenic Slovak food made with products from the pub’s own farm), where main courses were only 5-10 euros, and we’re glad we stopped in Bratislava just for the food!  Except we’re not a fan of the signature Slovak dish, Bryndzové halušky, small spaetzle-like dumplings made with goat cheese, because we don’t like the taste of the goat cheese…

I won’t bore you by reciting Rick’s walking guide, but I will mention that the highlight for me was seeing the various statues of different characters they have around town.  Each one represents something and I’m glad I read about them all in Rick’s book before I saw them so I knew why they were there.  To walk around all of city center and see the sights Rick highlighted took us about two hours, without going into any museums, churches, or castles.  Considering the fact that Prague castle didn’t really impress us, Bratislava castle didn’t really appeal to us.  The only thing I wish we had a chance to do but couldn’t is see the renowned Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra play. 

Although we enjoyed our time here, I have to agree with Rick that Bratislava is better done as a daytrip from nearby Vienna because our hostel, the Hostel Possonium, wasn’t the greatest.  It was significantly more expensive than the hostel in Vienna (although we got a private room so that’s part of the reason), city center was almost 2 km away and we didn’t understand their tram system so we got lost walking, the walls are quite thin and we heard the guys in the dorm next to us talking all night last night, the Wi-Fi crawled because the guy at reception (who wasn’t very helpful) was streaming video on YouTube all the time, and I was really choked by the fact that I didn’t have hot water when I showered this afternoon!  If you’re thinking about visiting Bratislava, do what Rick says and daytrip from Vienna…

While going to ask a question at the hostel’s reception last night, I noticed a huge pile of guidebooks available for guests to borrow, so I picked up Rick Steves’ Vienna and planned today according to his itinerary and recommendations.  We had recently used his book Rick Steves’ 2009 Italy throughout our 4 weeks in Italy since the friends we were travelling with had brought it along, and it felt familiar and comfortable to follow his book again today.  Having a route to follow and a list of places that are “must-sees” just makes sightseeing so much easier!

As far as guidebooks go, I’m partial to Rick Steves’ because I find him easy to follow and full of little bits of fun and helpful info.  Rick has been writing about travel in Europe since 1978 and has published a countless number of books (usually there’s a separate book for each country, with revised editions every year).  In all his books he breaks sights down into must sees, things that a quite important, and things of interest.  He also provides a mapped-route and description for a self-guided walking tour of most cities, as well as a list of restaurant and accommodation recommendations.  Having all this info at your disposal in one book makes it much easier to plan what to do and where to go!  If we weren’t travelling backpacker style carrying as little luggage as possible, I would definitely take a guidebook wherever I went. 

Yesterday, without Rick’s book, we wandered around Vienna’s city center aimlessly, checking out a few sights like St. Stephen’s Cathedral and one of the main streets called Der Graben.  Our roommates had mentioned a good cafe they previously went to with their Contiki tour group that was supposed to be the oldest coffee shop in Vienna, but they didn’t know the name.  While wandering around, we Googled “oldest cafe in Vienna,” and our search came up with a place called Cafe Frauenhuber.  It took us an hour to find it (even though the map showed it as just a block away from where we were! ) and when we got our coffee, apple strudel, and sacher torte (chocolate cake), we quickly concluded (and confirmed with our roommates in the evening) that this couldn’t be the right place – the stuff we got tasted awful!  I don’t know how this place stays in business, but it claims to be the oldest cafe in Vienna…

Today, with Rick Steves in hand, we set out with much more of a plan and started our day shopping and eating at Nasch Market, a large open air market.  After buying an assortment of fruit, we walked to the Opera House and then to Albertinaplatz and the Hofburg Imperial Palace to check out the gardens, the Augustinian Church, and the famous Spanish Riding School (we didn’t see them perform, but the stables and horses looked nice).   We stopped by the Dorotheum, one of the oldest auction houses in the world, but didn’t stay long since there wasn’t anything really interesting to us (it’s mainly jewelry for sale).   We then visited the Museum of Applied Art (MAK),  since I had read in Rick’s book that it’s free on Saturday.  It was an ok museum (great if you’re into architecture), but I would have felt ripped off if I’d paid the regular 9 euro entrance fee!

We finished our day by doing Rick’s “Ringstrasse Tram tour,” which involves riding trams #1 and 2 around the Ringstrasse, a circular road surrounding Vienna’s city center where the old city walls used to be.  By taking tram # 2 from the MAK (in Rick’s guide you actually start at the Opera House) and then switching to tram # 1 at Schwedenplatz, you can ride a tram around the entire Ringstrasse and get a glimpse of all the important sights of  Vienna.  It would be better to do the tram tour at the beginning of your visit, but it was relaxing for us to finish today with it!

For dinner we cooked Nissim instant noodles which I had picked up at a small Asian supermarket at Nasch Market.  I’ve been craving these particular instant noodles for a while (I guess you can say it’s my comfort food), and was super excited when I found them and bok choy at the market (I haven’t seen bok choy in ages!).  The hostel, unfortunately, has the worst kitchen facility out of all the hostels we’ve been to (mess everywhere and 3 electrical hot burners for 260 guests, wtf!), but I managed since instant noodles doesn’t take a lot of effort.

At the end of the day, I feel like today was much more productive and interesting than most of our days when we rely on info we gather from the Internet.  It’s so nice to look at a building and know what it is and some of the history behind it!  It’s also easier for me to refer to a book instead of searching the Internet to find out what time a museum is open to or how much it costs.  I just wish there was a way we could carry all of Rick’s books with us!

When planning the UK segment of our trip, we used Rick Steves’ website to compile a list of places to visit based on his recommended itinerary.  Visiting a town in the Cotswolds, a range of hills in west-central England, was fairly high on his priority list, so we decided to spend two nights in Moreton-In-Marsh, the only town in the Cotswolds which has a train station. I’m happy to report that, although it’s small, Moreton-In-Marsh may turn out to be one of my favorite places in England…

Part of the reason I’ve enjoyed our time here so much is because we’re staying at a B&B called Old Farm, which is actually a working farm that breeds sheep, cattle and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs.  When planning our trip, I was hoping to stay at a farm B&B because I love animals, but it hasn’t been possible since most farms are quite far from town and we’re not driving.  Luckily, in the Cotswolds farms are all over the place, and Old Farm is only a 2 km walk from the Moreton-In-Marsh train station so it was reachable for us! 

Our first walk to the farm yesterday was quite the adventure in and of itself – we followed the directions the owners had emailed us and walked from the train station to a set of kissing gates, which led to a large field full of sheep!  I’ve only seen sheep in small gated pens in petting zoos, and it felt totally different (and amusing) to walk through a field full of them and have them run away in all different directions baahing as you get near them.  Since we couldn’t agree on what the directions “head for the top left corner of the first field” meant, we ended up making a big L-shaped loop, causing sheep run all over the place as we looked for the proper gate.  It took us a while, but eventually we found our way to the farm

Although the décor is a bit dated (think 70s style traditional country home full of flower prints and pink wallpaper), our room at the B&B is quite comfortable and the bed is huge and soft.  The best part of staying on Old Farm, though, is the breakfast – fresh free range eggs from their own chickens, bacon and sausages made from their own pigs, yogurt, milk, butter, juice and jams from other local farms, and fresh bread from a local bakery.  I kid you not, this was the best breakfast I’ve ever had in my entire life!  The breakfast (and the cute animals all over the place) makes me wish I could live on a farm, but growing up a city girl, I know I just couldn’t hack it!

Apart from exploring the farm (with the help of Sam and Meg, the owner’s children) and wandering around the town, there hasn’t been much for us to do here, but I feel like it’s been a really peaceful, down to earth couple of days and I would have spent more time here in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, the B&B was already booked up when I was making my booking so two nights was all we could manage.  If we ever come back to the UK, spending more time in the Cotswolds visiting different towns and coming back to Old Farm would definitely be at the top of my priority list!  Until then, I’ll always think of this breakfast when I eat bacon and eggs at home…

In an effort to catch up on my blog articles, I’m condensing the remaining three of our four days in Bath into one blog entry because, frankly, our time in Bath wasn’t all that interesting!  It’s a nice little town and, after our first day of crappy food, we managed to find a few decent places to eat, but two days here would have been enough, and four days was total overkill.  Bath might be a good spot to holiday if I lived nearby and needed a relaxing getaway, but as a backpacker, it’s just overpriced without much to see or do…

Part of the reason Bath is so pricey is because it’s the oldest of England’s principal tourist destinations.  Talk to any British person and you’ll find that they’ve been to Bath at least once.  Talk to any American who has been to the UK and if they were in London, it is likely they also visited Bath.  The first sign that Bath isn’t a backpackers type of vacation is the fact that every third house you see is a B&B guesthome (since there are so many tourists), but there are only four hostels.  Of these, two have terrible ratings and two have a number of bad reviews so we decided to book at a B&B and pay the premium.

Unfortunately, the B&B we booked at (Austen guesthouse) suddenly had to shut down due to severe plumbing problems, so they rearranged for us to stay at another place called The Firs.  Although our room was very comfortable and the owner was nice, the location was terrible – 2 km away from city center in a residential area with just one small supermarket and 2 restaurant options.  Since buses in Bath aren’t cheap (₤1.85 one way), we should have just paid more to stay in the center!

For our first day in Bath, Paul decided to stay in because he felt like he was getting the flu, so I made the trek to town by myself to go shopping.  Much to Paul’s dismay, I’ve decided to continue reading a set of children’s books called A Series Of Unfortunate Events (I read book one back in University while doing a children’s literature course), which only come in hardcover.  For some unknown reason, Bath has an abundance of thrift and used book stores, and I couldn’t resist when I found 4 of the A Series Of Unfortunate Events books for just ₤1 each (I paid over $10 for the first book!).  Let’s just say Paul was not amused when I returned with 4 hardcover books, but I promised I’d be the one carrying them around until we could send them home with him in 3 weeks on his scheduled flight back for business!

The next day we walked to city center together to check out the Bath Abbey, the Roman Baths, Bath Market, and a large circular space surrounded by townhouses called The Circus.  None of the sightseeing wowed me, but they all have historical significance and were quite pretty.  Because we couldn’t agree on anywhere to eat on our way home, we ended up going back to the pizza/pasta takeout place near the B&B again, but this time we ordered a pizza, which tasted ok.  I guess that’s how they stay in business!

On our last night in Bath, we did the Bizzare Bath comedy walk, which is rated the second most popular attraction in Bath on TripAdvisor.  While I found it humorous, I don’t think I’d rant and rave about it the way people on TripAdvisor do.  It was nice to do a tour that wasn’t focused on the history like most tours are, but I think a little bit of history would have been good because without it, a walking tour loses its purpose – you don’t really need to walk all over the place to see a comedian do his act!  Some of the jokes pertained to all these different places we walked to, but there were a lot of stretches where it seemed like we were walking for no reason. 
  
So there you have it, four days in Bath summed up in 2 blog articles.  Not our most thrilling stop, but Bath is a hotspot for hen and stag parties (we passed like 5 of them on our last night), and a good spot to go for a spa vacation.  Personally I doubt I’ll ever come back, but never say never!