Opatija and London!!!!

Well, this is long long overdue. But here is the end of the two weeks prior to London.

Day two in Rijeka began with us checking out of the hostel and incurring another hidden charge, 5 kune to store our bags. As you can tell, I was the least bit impressed with this hostel. But like Troy said, at least there was a hostel to stay at (and the included breakfast was pretty tasty).

After checkout we made our way back to Rijeka and boarded a bus for Opatija. With high recommendations I really did not know what to expect. Luckily, Opatija was every bit as beautiful as it was described. Had we known better it would have been fun to stay our last night in a nice hotel overlooking the Adriatic - maybe next time. Opatija is everything you would envision a cheesy (albeit very nice) European destination spot. There were multiple cafes along the beach, a boardwalk of sorts, many locals pitching boat rides on their glass bottom boats, street vendors selling "authentic" sunglasses and hand bags. Beyond the sights and people watching opportunities there was little of historical value to see in Opatija. That was ok though, after two weeks of sightseeing, it was a nice change.

Below is a photograph of Opatija (once again from Flickr, I will get some pictures that we took later).

We did wander into a fresh food market (it was a Saturday morning after all) and encountered some of the locals. It has been interesting throughout our travels to compare the prices and offerings of local markets and supermarkets. I don't think I blogged about it but we went inside the most amazing gourmet grocery store in Vienna that I had ever seen. Every item was labeled with a flag of its country of origin. They, like most European grocers, pride themselves on the presentation of the food, both prepared and boxed, unlike anything I have seen in the United States.

After a morning in Opatija and a quick lunch we headed back to the hostel to grab our belongings and made it back in town a few hours before our bus to the airport to spend some time updating our friends and families through email about our travels. We then made our way via bus to the airport. The airport in Rijeka is located thirty minutes from town on an island. The best way to describe it would be imagining yourself on a bus ride to a nature preserve on a deserted island and poof there appeared an airport. After flying through Frankfurt, Vienna, Split, etc... the airport at Rijeka was a little bit of a surprise with limited flights daily. The same person who checked us in also took our tickets to board the plane.

Two hours later we landed in London at Luton airport. Finally arriving into London I was somewhat relieved and a little bit anxious. Having not planned nearly as well as Matt and Monica had, I was not quite sure where we were to go. I did know my flat was near Victoria station and I had confirmed our late arrival. We got a bus from Luton to Victoria station for 8 pounds (about $16 USD). I complained when I had to pay $7 USD to get from the airport to town in Vienna, welcome to London and the poor value of the dollar I guess. I will touch some more on this topic later as I have begin to believe the theory that you pay the same price everything is just double is not necessarily true.

Getting off the bus at Victoria I pretended like I knew exactly where we were going, after all this was "my" city... Luckily Monica and Matt both quickly talked some sense into me and I swallowed my pride and asked for a map and directions to the flat (I had an address!) from a nearby hotel. The friendly staff gave me a map and pointed me in the right direction and a few minutes later we were in front of Wigram hall. After checking in we made the way to my room on the ground floor. I was a little disappointed to not be higher, but such is life. My room is tiny and it has purple walls (the purple palace I have so affectionately named it) and gets NO sunlight since I am on the bottom floor of an eight story building facing into the "courtyard." But at this point, we didn't care. It was late, we were hungry and in LONDON!

Without much knowledge of the area or a hostel receptionist to ask, we begin to walk towards the crowds anticipating to find something for dinner. Within literally twenty minutes we had walked by Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, and Trafalgar Square. I quickly realized my location was very central to many of London's attractions (well some, London is a huge sprawling city). We managed to find some food and made our way back to my flat to turn in for the evening. After a full day of sightseeing and travel we were exhausted.

That concludes the two weeks of European "vacation" I had prior to making it to London. More on London soon.... In the meantime, enjoy the picture below of fireworks over the river Thames on my second night in London. This picture is mine. :)