Exploring London – finale

Having been unsuccessful in our previous attempts to meet the Queen, we decided to take matters in our own hands! We went to Madame Tussauds, a wax museum.

heeelllpppp!!!!

There’s a certain creepiness to wax museums that somehow attracts me. I know they’re cheesy tourist traps, but we promised ourselves not to leave London without meeting the Queen and visiting this place provided us the last chance to honor that promise

If you’re like us and love odd attractions with a certain aura of spookiness, Madame Tussauds is one place you shouldn’t miss. The place is full of life-sized wax images of all popular icons in show business, politics, religion, sports and academia.

I’m not sure if they still have this booth there now, but when we were there, they have this Big Brother booth. We went inside and somehow foolishly did what Big Brother asked us to do. We answered all his questions in the most funny way.  We even sang and danced. I know it was silly but nobody knew us there anyway so we threw all our inhibitions out of the window and enjoyed the whole experience. When we went to see the recording of what we did, it didn’t look pretty so we didn’t buy it…haha!

with the Queen

They also have this very dark haunted lane full of scary images of murdered people. Joan didn’t get inside as she was afraid she’ll gonna have nightmares after. I went in. It wasn’t as scary as advertised, well for me anyway. Probably because at the back of my mind, I knew that all of those images and effects weren’t real. The only thing that got me was when one of the actors, in Halloween costume, came out of nowhere and screamed right next to my ear. That scared the shit out of me! 

After almost draining the batteries of our cameras from taking photos of ourselves with almost all the celebrities’ wax images, we decided it was time to leave and do some last minute shopping before going home the next morning.

And yes, we’ve met the Queen and David Beckham. Well, their wax images anyway but still. The Prime Minister doesn’t have a wax image that time.

 

Exploring London – part 5

You have to take a day trip to England’s countryside when you’re in London. You could easily find a tour company doing this kind of trip as they are all over the place. Usual options would include a trip to Bath, Windsor Castle, Oxford, Stonehenge, Brighton, etc.

Windsor Caste, England

Since we were unsuccessful in our attempt to meet the Queen in the past few days, we decided to visit Windsor Castle, one of her official residences, hoping she might be there. We also paid Stonehenge a visit, to find out if there are alien remains left in the site. And lastly, we did a short trip to Oxford, to check if Harry Potter left some magical wand we could to use to magically appear in front of the Queen.

First stop – Windsor Castle. The largest and oldest occupied castle in the world, Windsor Castle is one of the principal residences of the Queen and covers nearly thirteen acres. The first castle on the site was set up by William the Conqueror in about 1070. Although much of the castle isn’t open to the public and you’re not allowed to take photo inside, we still had fun roaming around the various rooms in the castle. The rooms were lavishly decorated with priceless furniture, paintings and what have you. They are all massive. I can’t imagine myself living there, it would be horrible. I probably would need a GPS to find the kitchen or my bedroom.

Outside the Windsor Castle

The Queen wasn’t there that day so we didn’t get the chance to have a tea with her. We went to the nearby cafe and ordered a lemon tea instead. Well, that is after visiting the lower ward of the castle where St George’s Chapel is located.

Second stop – Stonehenge. If you’re into UFOs and aliens, you probably must have heard of Stonehenge. Researchers in the past, found relationships between the locations of various stone monuments to the movements of the sun, moon and stars, which is very odd considering that this structure was built some 5,000 years ago, supposedly by primitive people. For that reason, the alien story came up. The story is that when the aliens visited the earth and needed to tract the movement of heavenly bodies, they set up this structure using the materials they could find around, in this case stones.  I, however, favors the idea that the place was built for worship. The ancient people must have built this place to worship the heavenly bodies and since they don’t have TV or internet to destruct them before, they have all the time to observe the movements of the sun, moon and the stars and must have collated all those facts when building this structure.

Stonehenge, England

There were not so many people when we arrived, probably because it was raining! We were given an audio guide to listen to whilst roaming around. I didn’t use mine. With all the mystery surrounding Stonehenge, I bet the audio guide’s isn’t really accurate with everything it says. So I chose to approach Stonehenge my way. I must say, I felt like walking on hallowed ground. I’m an atheist so I have no intention of doing any worship ritual there. Yet I couldn’t help feeling that the site was a spiritual space for people at some point. I can’t imagine the amount of labour it must have taken them to put those massive stones in their exact locations. The symmetry and design of it is beautiful. It is not just a prehistoric monument; it is an art, right there in the middle of Salisbury Plain.

At the Stonehenge

Last stop – Oxford. On our way to Oxford, our tour guide was talking about the rivalry between Oxford University and Cambridge University, two of the world’s topmost universities. I didn’t pay attention to him and slept instead.

The first thing I noticed when we got off the coach was that there were so many bicycles chained at the side of the road. I was told that those were of the students.

I was actually expecting that the Oxford University would just be in one massive campus. It turned out to be divided in several colleges and are located in several locations. We visited one college and their library. I secretly envied those students. I wondered if I could have been admitted to Oxford University had I been given the chance… hmmm

One of the colleges in Oxford

As we walked down the street, the tour guide pointed out some of the very old houses. The doors were so short as people were really small back then. (That there is one proof of evolution!) Then he talked about some Harry Potter things, which I wasn’t really interested. My friend Joan though was really into it.

I was knackered at the end of that day. It was worth our while though, I must say. After buying some souvenirs, we headed back to London.

Still unsuccessful in meeting the Queen.

 

My Craziest Holiday So Far – Ibiza

So I’m back from the craziest holiday of my life so far and quite possibly ever. This holiday made me realized that pulling all the stops once in a while is never a bad idea.

partying with Paris Hilton

We were still about to board the plane when I started seeing signs of how crazy this holiday could be. A group of women with their skimpy outfits with matching tiaras were flirting loudly with the group of rugby players (I just assumed they were because of their body built, or they could just be bouncers) at the other end of the gate. On their shirts were big prints saying “will you f*** me?”

In between those two groups of people were us and few other passengers, the “normal” holiday makers, who don’t want to get crazy too early on a trip.

We arrived in Ibiza around 1 AM and shared a cab with the two other guys we met at the taxi rank as they were heading to San Antonio as well. We checked in at the hotel and headed straight to the West End’s strip. Based on the stories I’ve heard about the place, I expected a war zone and that was pretty much what it was. The West End is an absolute assault on the senses. But it was all worthwhile experience. The place is a bit trashy and full of drunk teenagers, mostly British. But I didn’t mind it at all as I was wasted myself.

I was still a bit drunk when we left the hotel the next morning to visit the famous landmark and mysterious little island called Es Vedra just in the west coast of San Antonio.  We were told that due to extremely high concentrations of metals and minerals, the rock creates a highly magnetic field and is the  3rd most magnetic spot on earth. It may disturb compasses in the surrounding area and may influence more sensitive people. We didn’t put these to the test as nobody on the cruise brought a compass. However,  I felt a bit light-headed that time but then again, it could just be because of the free champagne I’ve had and a lot of dancing whilst heading towards the island. I must say though that the island really looks mystical. Maybe it really is the tip of the sunken civilization of Atlantis.

the island of sirens in Homer's epic

After that trip, we headed to Café del Mar to witness the world’s famous sunset. Perhaps I should pay a visit to Manila Bay when I come home next time so I could compare which sunset really is more beautiful. Anyway, the place was full when we got there but we managed to get a table at the very front after committing to spend more than a hundred euros. It was all worth it. The sunset was genuinely spectacular. I have not seen anything like that in my whole life. Words cannot express how dramatic and magical that scene was. As soon as the sun disappeared in the horizon, everyone including ourselves, was shouting and clapping, cheering mother nature for yet another spectacular show. And then the party started. Every bar in the sunset strip was trying to out-sound each other playing all sorts of music that will set your soul souring so high and your feet thumping so hard.

sunset in Ibiza

Around 1 AM we went to the world’s largest nightclub called Privilege Ibiza. It’s between San Antonio and Ibiza Town. We were lucky (or not, depending on how you see it) that Paris Hilton was there that night. The ticket price skyrocketed to €70 and a small bottle of San Miguel beer (nah not the same one that we have in the Philippines) would cost you €25. I didn’t find her that beautiful probably because I already expected her to be that way anyway so she kinda just turned out to be just as I expected her to be, nothing exceptional. The place on the other hand is amazing and massive. It has a swimming pool in the middle of the dance floor which looked amazing every time they changed the colors of the lights. I remember getting on top of one of the platforms dancing like there’s no tomorrow There were so many people in the club that if you leave your spot to go to the toilet you wouldn’t be able to get back on the same spot again. So you have to be in control of your bladder more than yourself.

The next morning, with my head still hurting,  we headed to Ibiza Town and explored Dalt Vila or the Old Town. Probably because I still had a hangover, I didn’t quite enjoy the whole thing. For me, walking along those narrow, winding and steep cobbled streets under the scorching heat of the sun wasn’t exactly fun. But one of my friends is really into history and wanted to explore the place, so we politely accompanied him although I was a bit cranky that day. But to be fair, the view on top was breathtaking.

view from the summit of Dalt Vila

We dropped by at one of the shops and grabbed some things for swimming  and headed to Las Salinas Beach. The place is very beautiful. You know those beaches that you would normally see on postcards, Las Salinas Beach looks exactly like that. There were quite few people there when we arrived. Some were wearing bikinis or swim trunks, others were not (seriously!). If I wasn’t in Ibiza, they would have gotten my full attention. But when you’re in Ibiza, you can’t give your full attention to a single person. Yes, there are those that deserve a second look but that’s about it. Everyone I’ve seen in Ibiza is beautiful and fit and you would hardly see any fat and ugly people. So whether someone is wearing something or not is no longer a big deal. You look at them then move on. The place is like a paradise full of beautiful people.

I went for a swim and then slept in the beach for about an hour or so. A loud music woke me up. Turned out, the Australians gathering next to us were having a beach party. We made friends with them and then agreed to meet up in Space Bar later on. Space Bar is not as  big as Privilege but it’s one of the best clubs in Ibiza and in the world, one might add. The music that night was ridiculously good and the laser lights were unbelievable. At around 6 AM, we moved to Bora Bora Beach Club. This is for me is the best beach club in the world. Based on what I remember, the music was spot on and the half-naked people were so party friendly. Everyone was having a good time. I felt like all those parties I missed in the past were now fully compensated. And then I passed out.

bora bora

The next thing I remember was I was lying in one of those white beach benches without my tops. Besides me were my mates who were still sleeping. I’ve got sunburn all over my back and my legs and it was killing me. It was 6 PM when we left Bora Bora and went back to San Antonio. The party was still on when we left.

I felt like my head was in another place the whole time that day. It was like having a hangover within a hangover. Anyway, we decided to have a decent meal before living Ibiza at 2 AM the following day. I forgot the name of the restaurant but it’s in San Antonio near the big fountain. We’ve met few Filipinos working there and a bunch of Belgian women.

Before we went to the airport to catch our flight, we went to Amnesia first, (one of Ibiza’s superclubs) and unleashed whatever energy left of us until 1 AM, leaving us just enough time to catch our flight back to the UK.

Looking back now, it was the longest time I’ve ever been drunk in my whole life and the longest partying I’ve ever done. It was mental!

Going to Ibiza is like stepping in to another world where everyone is born and live to party. You can check me on this (as I was hammered most of the time), but as far as I remember, I didn’t see any billboards in Ibiza endorsing any products apart from the parties that all the superclubs (namely Pacha, Amnesia, Privilege, Space, Paradis and Eden) are having. It’s really weird. Also, at about 6 PM, all the clubs send out all their best looking employees to the streets wearing almost nothing, luring everyone to come to their bars with free drinks and what have you. The place totally deserves the title “party capital of the world”.

Ibiza is everything they tell you it is and so much more… You have to experience it at least once in your life.