Her name really isn't Sally

J So after our first day in London we were pros, we knew when to cross the street, how to use the tubes, everything was going smashingly well. Then it started raining, we got quite wet, not owning an Umbrella and all. Sure you can buy them at every street corner from every merchant, but there was no way we were spending £5 or $10 on an umbrella. So we wore our jackets and saved enough money to buy tube passes for another day! Yay.
Besides, we don't have room for any more stuff in our packs!

We decided to hit Big Ben first, the parliment buildings (which Ben is attached to actually), Westminister Abbey, and finally Buckingham Palace where we witnessed the changing of the guard. We found ourselves a bit dissapointed however, it was a long affair, crowded, and we couldn't see much since everyone in front of us had umbrellas in use. After purchasing a t-shirt at The Hard Rock Cafe (yes I'm collecting them) we decided it was time to hit a museum, so we headed to the British museum. We were stopped suddenly but a sudden rumbling noise which seemed to be coming from the Tube station behind us, then we realised in horror it was my stomach. Lunch time! So we stopped at a local pub and experienced the authentic fish and chips of England.

M A tip for anyone going to a pub in England and ordering food.. there are no waitresses you simply go to the bartender to order, we sat at our table for quite some time before realising noone was coming.

The British museum was huge, and better yet it was free! We were there a short time before jet lag caught up with Jes, he literally fell asleep while looking at a piece of artwork. At first I thought this was cute until we attracted a security guard that seemed to be staring and talking on his radio. We decided to head back to the hostel which I too was grateful for. Back at the hostel we had a short 3 hour nap then forced ourselves to get up and out. We were cooking dinner in the tiny kitchen of our hostel when we met this sweet Tiwanese girl Jody, and after talking for a short time we agreed to spend the next day taking in sights together.

J The next day our happy trio left for the great Tower of London. It's looked upon by most as an old prison but in reality it's a palace, where for many many years kings and queens lived. Sure they had prisoners, sure they executed some of them, but only a tiny percentage, like 10%. The Yeomen Guard tour was hilarious and after learning so much about the grounds we saw the crown Jewels! Also in the White Tower was the arsenal or armery. It was very, very cool.

M My favorite part of the Tower of London was discovering that the legend of my ancestor Captain Thomas Blood, was true! He really was the only person to ever steal the crown jewels. This was confirmed by some of the Yeomen guards. I also loved watching Jesse get so excited at the Tower, he took so many pictures! lol

Afterwards we saw the Tower Bridge and London Bridge (which after waiting for some time, never did fall down). We took a trip on the London Eye and then spent the evening watching a hilarous play called Sir-Spam-A-Lot which was a Monty Python play. Although it was hilarious our jet-lag was still interfering and we often found ourselves nodding off whenever the theatres lights were dim. :)

J The next day we said goodbye to Journey's Padding and our new friend Jody, we dragged our big bags and took the tube to Michelle's great Aunt Sally's home in Chigwell (about 30 min out of the city). We were immediately welcomed into her beautiful home and had tea! Yay!
She made us a wonderful chicken currey meal for dinner and then we spent some time sharing stories but our evening wasn't over. We met her nephew Bin-der, his wife and two children who were really neat and an absolute hoot to talk to. We chatted about our travels so far and shared a few laughs at Cherin's Borat impression. Bin-der then invited us for dinner the next night and offered to take us to Greenwich was is pronounced "Grenich", where the G.M.T. line goes through! He also mentioned a few other very interesting sites we should see before leaving the London area on Wednesday to head off to Hull.

M It was so great to see my Aunt again and finally meet Bin-der and his family, they are some of the nicest people I've met and we can't wait to spend more time with them. I also learned this evening that my Aunt Sally is going by a false NAME!!! Her real name is actually Kathleen, her middle name is Sara, but because her mothers name was also Kathleen, she was always called Sally at home. The more you know! lol Goodnight from Chigwell, England

Hello from London England!

M Well boys and girls we're here in backwards world or Bizzaro world, where the busses all have a second floor, they all drive on the left (certainly not the right) side of the road. Oh and we're the ones with the funny accent! lol

J Our plane arrived on schedule, even with a spare seat between us we didn't sleep very much on the flight. I read two CPU magazines and watched half of Shrek 3, the food on the plane was very good, but man it's tough doing those long flights.

Here are the stats; the trip over was just under 8.5 hrs, we flew at an altitude of 40k ft going about 850 km/hr and the trip was just under 8,000 km in total. We've been in a few lines today, starting at the Gatwick Airport (probably an hour to get through customs), and the tube lines going to our hostel are down for maintenance so we got to use the city BUS system, which with our heavy bags SUCKED, but we made it here safe and sound!

Our hostel is newly renovated in the upstairs of a pub, which was great because I had my first pint of beer right after chucking that heavy pack in our room. We both found out that we couldn't get our day packs attached to the main ones because we overpacked, so before we leave Journey's Paddington (that's our hostel) we're gonna have to loose some gear. The beds look clean but the kitchen upstairs is tiny, our co-ed room is pretty full despite the time of year. So far I give the place 3.5 /5 Jesse stars. haha

We spent the day at Madame Tussaud's wax museum, buying food at a local grocery (12 pounds for a 3 course meal!) and a trip to Piccadily Circus. Oh, and what a shi**y circus. I have pictures but can't post yet.

So ya we made it here safe and sound and we're loving it!
Signing out from Jolly Old England, bloody L it's expensive here.

9 .. 8.. 7.. 6.. hours till takeoff!

J Well the time is upon us, we're leaving for London in a few hours. It's a warm sunny day out, our packs are full and ready to go, and our home is clean, empty, and ready for it's new owner. (even if just temporary)

We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to one last time before we left, but it has been a busy week getting things in order. We did get to spent some quality time with family members which was great. This will be our longest adventure away from home, and for me the first one overseas. I'm very excited, a little nervous, but pretty relaxed, Michelle however is a little more stressed than I, so I may have to give her a back/foot-rub on the plane.

By the way, our phone line will be disconnected so we'll probably have a new # once we get home, our cell phone numbers won't change but they're not activated at the moment so don't bother calling, EMAIL US! The address is at the bottom of the blog, so scroll down.

One last thing, please feel free to leave us comments, after every post you can click on the little icon (I believe it's a pencil or a letter), I don't think you need to sign up or anything. It'll let us know that people are reading and give us encouragement to keep this thing updated at least weekly. Thanks for the support, and see you on the other side! (of the Atlantic Ocean that is)

M We're leaving on a Jet plane, don't know when we'll be back again. lol Bye!

9 days, nervous, excited, busy

J So we've got a week and two days before we leave, still have some planning to do, a flight to book, and a house to clean. We've got a pretty packed week between seeing friends and family one last time and packing up stuff so our main floor is ready to be rented out. We also have a list of about fifty little things that need to get done, despite that hanging over our heads we're quite enjoying our time away from work, especially the sleeping in. lol

M It's our first day of our excellent adventure, and I can't believe I'm not at work on a Monday! It finally feels like we're doing this trip. My crazy husband thinks we should rent Bill and Teds excellent adventure, so we can make references to it throughout our trip. We seriously don't have time to watch movies at this point, but we'll see if we have free time toward the end of the week.

On Saturday we met with Peter Mrazik, he runs an organization in Romania with orphans called Father's House, that I worked at back in 2000. We're very excited that one of the girls that was in the orphanage while I was there is now grown up and getting married to a Canadian. We're delighted and honored to be invited to her wedding! We'll be arriving in Romania on November 9th, the day before the wedding, and then staying for 1-2 weeks afterward to help out in whatever way we can, such as maintenance and child-care.

J So, we're going to start a new poll on the blog, as some of our plans have changed. I think at this point we're definitely going to China, as we're almost sure that we're taking the trans-Siberian train from Europe to China. So, our options for after South East Asia have changed. Make sure to vote! ttyl

13 days, just got Eurail passes

J Well last night we finally decided upon a Eurail pass that suited us. We bought through RailEurope.ca and went with the Eurail Global Pass Saver Flexi.
Saver because there's two of us traveling together, flexi because we get to choose 15 days within a 2 month period. Global means the pass can be used in any of the participating countries. It's been a stressful week for both of us at work and I'm really glad that we have a week + 2 days before we leave to tie up loose ends and prepare mentally for this trip, this adventure, this experience. We've only planned our first few weeks, basically our time in the UK, beyond that we'll have to plan as we go. I'm not that stressed about things YET, but Michelle is doing a lot of stressing, enough for the both of us. lol

17 Days, last week of work

M So as we wrap up our last week of work, I am filled with excitement as well as feelings of sadness as I say good-bye to people. I have come to grips with the fact that I will never get my "to do" list done at work as I had hoped to but I'm confident Kasia (who is taking over my position) can pick up where I left off and continue on. She is truly a blessing, I know my clients are in good hands.

As far as planing goes we have been picking up lots of drugs such as imodium, decongestants, and some motion sickness drugs. I feel like a bit of a walking pharmacy. lol

We're looking forward to meeting with Peter who is the president of Father's House, an orphanage type organization in Romania which I volunteered with back in 2000. We will meet with him on the 15th to discuss the possibility of volunteering there again and what role we could fill for them.

J We just recently made a decision to purchase new packs, we decided that because of the length of our stay and the various countries we'll be visiting (some being dangerous) that it was important that our packs be lockable, among other things.

Michelle's pack is the Asolo Elle Navigator, it's a 60 liter pack, and is designed specifically for a woman. We decided on the pack at campers village but found that the travel shop for hosteling international carried it and we got a better deal there. If you go to them for travel talks (which occur every second Wednesday, during the summer) you can get a coupon for discount on merch. plus if your a HI member you get 10% off as well.

I was offered my brother-in-law's pack, which is a very nice M.E.C. expedition style pack, but the top loading drawstring that didn't allow for a lock (well the zippers are lockable but not so that someone could pull out or put something in my pack.. if they wanted) made me uncomfortable, and in the end after a few weeks we decided to put up the coin and get a new pack for me as well. I got the Deuter Traveller 70, although originally I wanted the mens version of Michelle's pack, I found that it didn't fit me properly and opted for the Deuter. For some strange reason I like it when we match. lol

One more week of work, and then we have to pack up this house! eep!

One more thing off the checklist

J So in the wee hours of the morning I purchased Travel/Medical insurance. This in itself is unusual as most insurance companies either annoy the hell out of you making you go to their offices in person, fill out pages of forms, or worse yet have you do a physical checkup proving your in the best of health pre-trip. The company we went with is called World Nomads, I was able to peruse their comprehensive travel insurance at my leisure online, and was able to purchase the policy at about 1 a.m. in the morning while in my pajamas. It's comes recommended by the well known Lonely Planet, which is a world travel resource, they have guide books and a website. The policy cost well under $600 for 6 months, and the best part is it's easy to extend coverage while on the road. Also the policy covered both Michelle and I, and if we had children it would cover them as well. For the ease of use, the cost, and the fact it has got good reviews online, I'm confident we made a good choice. Well I made the choice I guess, Michelle was sleeping soundly in the other room. lol