My UK Encounter

We should have known better. After several travels within and outside Europe, it's the first time that we went home half delighted.

First regret, our roundtrip tickets were marked 'Non Echangeable, Non Remboursable'. I was so gaga to find a promotional ticket for half a price that we even extended our planned vacation for a day more just to fit in with the dates.

Arriving in London, I was hit by a terrible headache, and nuls as we were, we didn't even know what kind of medicine I could take. Our last resort was to call back home. 'Allo Maman.' Lesson learned: Paracetamols are still ok for pregnant women.

Well, we're economic voyagers, ehem, with European attitude? In most of our vacations, we always have our tents attached to our backpacks. Here's our 'where to stay' list according to priority (and of course, weather condition):

1. Camping Sites - tents are always useful, especially for us, itinerant tourists.
2. Youth Hostels - during off-peak season, they could accommodate 'older' tourists. Just pay several euros in additional for non-members. In the UK, it was £3 per person per night. The only time we didn't try this option was in Amsterdam, hmmm, I guess ya know what I mean.
3. Gîtes (equivalent to Bed and Breakfast in the UK) - in France you could ask for démi-pension (including breakfast) or pension complete (including breakfast and dinner). Ideal for randonneurs (hikers). And you will not regret it, frenchies are known to be great in cuisines, and it's not a hearsay!
4. Hotels (no stars please) - that is, if we don't have any other choice.

In the UK, of course we opted to option #3, the B&B. Goodness gracious, would you believe that we paid higher or equal to what we paid in London than outside the capital? Ok, equality is good, but isn't it logical that the more we go out of the city center, the less we pay? Honestly, Cambridge, Oxford and Bath are not equivalent to London, right? And you just cannot ask me to visit only one place, much so, stay in the capital. It's like you asked me to visit the Philippines and get around Manila alone.

As we progressed in our itinerary, we found out that Wales is practicing the same price ranges. Haha, they were even surprised to learn that they're charging higher than London, whew! And that didn't motivate them to negociate the price. Nice try anyway.

Ok ok, as one of their souvenir shirts says, if you cannot get my joke, get the fucking out of my house. We tried, but our tickets say no! Lesson learned: if you've got vacations longer than 3 days, never take 'Non Echangeable, Non Remboursable' tickets. Take a normal one, at least you have an easy passport to get out of the dilemma and not be obliged to stay or pay another ticket.

The food. After I paid £42 for an ordinary meal, I told frenchguy to calm down. I never paid such amount for such kind of food even in Paris. Actually, that decision was revised when our choices were limited to jacked potatoes and jacked potatoes hehe.

The narrow roads, driving on the other side of the road, the parking fee...

Hmp, puro ako reklamo. There are nice things about our visits naman. It opened our eyes to another face of Europe. I finally saw where my Mr. Sentimental did his masters. Undergrounds are cheaper on weekends. No congestion tax on weekends. English breakfast is HEAVY breakfast, good for us. Chocolate Fudge was uhmmm sumptuous! Funny things like Tony Blair won the election but asked him to back out the next day. We generally had potable weather during the visit, only had the typical English weather in Wales, which was sad of course.

And finally, we appreciated more the fact that we live in France. Uhm, maybe next time, we have to forget about France when visiting another country, wad ya tenk?