Arriving in London!
May 23, 2008 – Friday : London
- Big Ben
London is amazing! After we landed at Heathrow Airport at about 3:00pm local time, we got our packs from baggage, went through customs and headed to our hotel. We bought a 7-day subway card and followed the signs for Victoria Station. Our hotel, Elizabeth House, in in Westminster and is a very quaint rickety old building. The staff have been wonderful and helpful. Our room is a tiny 9×8 room with 2 twin beds which we have pushed together. The walls are a dirty white on the top half and a very strange shade of lavender along the bottom. There’s a small sink in the corner with a mirror and a perfect little window overlooking the backs of a bunch of row houses. It’s fun to peak in the windows and see people in their daily lives.
After checking in, we went for a walk to stretch our legs from the long flight. We meandered through charming streets passing cute cafes and pubs full of business people. We stopped for some dinner and then headed back to our room for some much needed sleep.
Today has been a busy day packed as full as we could get it. We bought tickets for a hop-on-hop-off bus tour and rode the entire bus route. In the 2 1/2 hours it took us to everywhere we wanted to see and we learned a ton about London. (As cheesy as touristy activities are, you can learn so much from them.) I got a really good layout for the city and can now navigate fairly well. Once the bus tour was over, we hopped onto a boat tour which was included in the price of the bus tour. We took a 1 1/2 hour boat ride down the Thames… from “Big Ben” to Greenwich. It was a wonderful trip and the guide was really entertaining. Once in Greenwich, we hiked up to the Conservatory and where the median of the world is longitude 0. We went through the free museum and learned about charting and stars and navigating the oceans. We also learned about time and how they make clocks. This is where people always feel obligated to take the “I’m standing on both sides of the world” picture.
We took the boat tour back to Big Ben and set off to see if we could get tickets to “Phantom of the Opera”. It’s one of Nate’s favorite plays and I have never seen it so we thought that seeing it in London would be the greatest way to see it. Unfortunately, it was sold out for the next week so we decided to get tickets to the 7:30 show of “Les Miserables”. A very good runner up to “Phantom”. After grabbing a dinner of fish and chips at the Silver Fox in Trafalgar Square we headed to the theatre. What an experience! It was so much fun to be at a theatre in London and to be part of the crowd. Some people were dressed casually and others were glamorously attired with evening gowns and tuxedos. Nate and I felt slightly out of place in our hooded sweatshirts and sneakers but once the lights went down it didn’t matter what people looked like. We sat about 15 rows back from the stage and it was a perfect. The play was great and the actors were amazing. Nate had to buy two cups of coffee during the breaks to stay awake but I was riveted by the energy and excitement of it all.
Nate’s asleep as I write this… it’s been a long day. I”m trying to just take it all in and appreciate every moment– even the ones where we’re sleeping.
Back to the beginning
I’ve been flipping through the journal that I kept while we were in Europe and I thought that maybe I should post some of the entries here. I know we didn’t do as many posts as we had intended but I still have a desire for you to hear about our adventures. It was such an amazing adventure and I’d love for you to share in our stories.
A little background if you’re just joining us: Nate and I decided to move to Europe in 2005. We both love to travel and instead of trying to do a whirlwind tour of Europe crammed into a few weeks, we decided it would be great to rent a flat for a year and use it as a home-base while we traveled. We could go back home to do laundry, catch up on sleep and Nate could work for another week or so (on the internet) and then head back out to continue exploring Europe. It took us a lot of planning and dreaming and saving to finally make it happen. We decided to move to the south of France since the climate is so similar to San Diego and would be a relaxing place to return to after our traveling. We moved to France on May 21, 2008 with the plan of returning in a year. But plans don’t always work out how we intend as you’ll soon see.
Journal Entry: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 2:30pm LAX
Nate and I are at LAX waiting for our flight to London. We have been in a packing frenzy for the past 5 days. Even though Nate and I aren’t pack-rats, we somehow managed to accumulate a lot of stuff while living in San Diego. But all that is now behind us as we eagerly await our flight.
Nate is creating a “Europe” distribution email list right now so we can send everyone a goodbye email with our contact and blog information. I’ve been chatting on the phone with friends and family and just taking it all in. I can’t believe that the day is finally here. That we’re actually sitting here with a boarding pass in-hand that will get us on a plane headed to Europe! This adventure is going to be amazing!
Our plane that will take us to Europe
9:05pm
We’re sitting on the plan right now and we’re at about 20,000 feet and somewhere over the California desert. I can’t believe that we’re here! That we are actually sitting on a plane headed for London. It’s surreal and so crazy! Nate prayed right before we took off and dedicated this trip, our year and our adventures to God. It’s going to be a life changing experience and this is only the very tiniest beginning. I’m moved to tears every time I think about what we’re doing. I’m not sure if they are tears of sadness for the chapter we just closed or tears of joy for the great adventure ahead. Maybe a bit of both. One thing that is probably the best thing about all of this… Nate’s coming with me and we’ll go through this all together.
Catching up with Friends in Kauai
Nate & I on our Honeymoon in Kauai
Next week Nate and I are heading to Hawaii. We rented a house with some of Nate’s college roommates and their wives/fiances on the island of Kauai. It’s going to be eight days of sunshine, beaches, hiking, boating, luaus and pure bliss. Now some of you might be wondering why Hawaii would be so great when I live in San Diego with the beach at my doorstep and 75-80 degree weather in November. My answer would have to be… it’s the people we’ll be going with (okay! and a smidge of the tropical heaven away from home).
Chris, Aaron, Johnny, Steve, Nate
When Nate and I started dating waaaay back in 2001, he was in college and he was living with this great group of guys: Aaron, Chris, Johnny and Steve (and Levi the downstairs neighbor). There was always something going on at their apartment and it was the place to be. People were always coming and going and there was always something to do or someone to talk with. I spent many, many hours there and became great friends with all the roommates. They’ve all been a part of mine and Nate’s relationship… they’ve seen the best and worst of us. I count them as dear friends. Over the past seven years they have all gotten married (minus one but he’s engaged) and even though I’ve spent time with all the girls, I don’t feel like I actually know them all that well. Hopefully by the end of this trip we’ll have created memories and a bond that will last a lifetime. Lifetime friends are the best kind
And maybe us girls will have to plan an annual trip like the boys’ annual snowboarding trip. Hmmm… a girls’ spa weekend has a great ring to it.
Houston, Friends, and Heroes
Houston Skyline (by telwink via Flickr)
This week we took a flight to Houston, Texas, a city neither Tilly nor I had been to yet. The purpose was two-fold.
First, our friends Lach and Kari invited us to come early to have an opportunity to teach the Public Information Officers in the Houston/Galveston area about social media (all those sites like FaceBook, Flickr, BrightKite, and Twitter. Of course, I also promoted CrisisWire, our current project of choice.
Lach and Kari were kind enough to drive us around and let us stay at their place. They are fantastic and awesome people to hang out with. I can’t say enough good things about them.
We were also in town for HeroCamp, which was a fantastic event. It was very challenging and I think we learned a ton during this whole process. We did actually get a great product idea rolling and the next steps mapped out. We’ll be using Akoha (with their permission of course) to create a hero deck, hopefully inspiring the kids to do heroic things and thinking about making them a habit.
During our time here, we’ve had some amazing food. Tapas, tacos, and more. Great stuff. I recommend Houston highly, especially with a cell phone that can check Yelp out while you’re here.
Tilly’s New Adventure: tillyritter.com
In Nate’s last post he mentioned that I’m starting my own business. I’m pretty sure all of you have probably been waiting with bated breath for me to reveal my brilliant plan. Well, no need to wait any longer…. I’m opening the proverbial doors! I’ve been working the past few weeks on solidifying my business plan and working out the kinks and I’m really excited to move forward.
Here’s a brief summary of what my business is all about:
I offer an alternative to submitting press releases. Instead of writing about the 5 W’s of a company and hoping that a newspaper or journalist will pick up the story, I am giving companies a more effective way to reach their target demographic. By writing a tailored story about the company I can bring to light facts that would normally have been forgotten and make a lasting impression on the readers. In addition to writing this story, I will research which publications and websites would be best to get published in and will reach their target demographic.
Please check out my website at tillyritter.com and watch my company unfold.
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I would love any advice, ideas or support you may have for me. Also, if you’re interested in me writing a story for your company, please email me at tilly@tillyritter.com
Perhaps We Should Change The Name
Image via Wikipedia
So, after that long and almost depressing last post about having to move back to San Diego from France, we have finally started settling into a new location. We’re in downtown San Diego!
The past month and a half we were living with Nate’s business partner and his wife in Pacific Beach. It was a nice place to rest our heads and a good time of gearing up for the next move. It was also a good time to get the new business rolling.
A few days ago, we decided to rent a place in the Gaslamp District. It’s a nice 1 bedroom place in the heart of the city. We have not bothered getting a car, but we did buy a 2-person scooter (thanks for the inspiration, France). It was a great purchase for us because we got it for a steal and don’t have a parking space in our new place anyway. So, we park on the sidewalk, definitely out of the way so we don’t get a ticket or block old ladies from walking the streets.
Image via Wikipedia
Although our place is empty right now, we’re happy and healthy. Tilly has even decided to go into business for herself with a brilliant new service. We’ll tell you more about that in future posts.
But, one thing’s for sure… even though we’re back in the states, we’re not done traveling. Think of this next few months as a travel blog for San Diego – a place you could come and visit.
Lessons Learned in France : Priceless
I have been dreading writing this post. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to say for the past 8 days and I’m still no closer to knowing how to put my thoughts into words. So I’m just going to come out and say it: Nate and I have decided to move back to San Diego.
There have been several things leading up to this decision but the two main reasons are things we never could have foreseen before moving to France. The first is the absolute nightmare of getting internet access. It took us six weeks of research online, talking with internet/phone companies, banks and everyone we could find that spoke English and it was always the same answer… Impossible! I know it sounds crazy especially when in the States you can get anything and everything you want if you just flash shiny plastic but it definitely does not work that way in Europe. In those six weeks of failing to get a connection, Nate lost all of his contracts so we had no way to fund the traveling that we wanted to do. Traveling was basically the whole point of us wanting to live in France; we’d be closer to everything and be able to spend extended lengths of time in different areas in Europe.
The other main reason that we decided to move back was our community in the States; friends and family. To be totally honest with you, I didn’t think this would bother me that much. I have such an adventuresome spirit and I love, love, love to travel and explore different cultures. I’ve lived abroad before this trip and I think I’ve been to 16 different countries before I met Nate. So I honestly didn’t think I would miss my little community of friends and family during the 6-12 months we planned on being there. But I did. So did Nate. And we came to the conclusion that we missed having a place to belong to. A place where people knew us and cared about us. We need encouragement and inspiration and love more than we ever thought.
Our time in France has been absolutely wonderful and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s been exciting and scary and frustrating but we’ve met wonderful people and have so many memories now. In part I feel like we failed in out attempt to live abroad because we’re coming back so soon. However, the lessons we learned about ourselves and the path for our future is priceless. We know what we want now and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
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We are now currently in San Diego. We don’t have a cell phone yet but please email or comment on this blog. We’d love to hang out with each of you because all of you are so important in our lives.
Travel Photos, Finally
Finally. We’ve had enough time to do a few updates and, as you can tell, we’re finally getting a few things updated on the site. First thing: the photos. It’s about time.
Also, I (Nate) finally got off my butt and fixed the map on the right too. Fixing that not only makes it look better (and show our location accurately), it also makes this entire site load faster.
The photo chosen for this post is actually kinda cool. The back-story is that these guys had a concert with their 4-piece drum and string band the other night. They played right behind and above our home. They coordinated their music with the old silent (German) movie Aladdin (with French subtitles so that we couldn’t understand a damn thing). They started at dusk, and by the time they were finished, the moon had risen directly behind them. A great evening.
The Fine Cuisine of Aurignac
Although Nate and I are trying to save money we decided to splurge a little last week and go out for a relaxing dinner. We went to a local pub and took a seat. They didn’t have a very large menu but they did have about 7 items on a Plat de Jour list (entree’s of the day) for only 5.80 Euros each. The owner didn’t speak any English but he recommended the penne pasta with chicken and mushrooms. Nate and I both ordered that.
About 5 minutes later our dinner was served. And that’s when we discovered that we had just spent 11:60 Euros on two frozen TV dinners!! We started laughing so hard that I’m sure the owner was offended but he should be! I hope the French government finds out and shuts down his pub. What a waste of French cuisine.
Needless to say, it was awful.
The Parana Café: Our home away from home
These pictures are from our café in Theoule. We went to this cafe everyday and became close to the owner, Bridgette (in the middle) and the two waiters, Humberto (on the left) and Franck (on the right). They helped us with our French and were so patient with our terrible pronunciations. They had great food and pizza, desserts, cafe au laits and of course the staple of life on the Mediterranean, chilled rosé wine. In the second photo, just across the street, is the beach and the Sea. Theoule is in a bay and it looks directly across to Cannes. From the café you have a perfect view of the fireworks that they often have at the Cannes Hotel or of one of the many raging storms that the Mediterranean is so famous for.
Recent travels
- Skydiving in San Diego Again
- Free French Lessons in San Diego
- Busabout Europe – Traveling Europe
- Reuniting with High School
- Catching our breath
