Adubs European "vacation" | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Adubs European "vacation"

August_West said:
She and her new husband went to Skye ( most remote part of Scotland) first thing Monday morning for a mini honeymoon or it may have already happened. Lucky for her, because Edinburgh right now is littered with the US portion of the wedding who all are stuck there in expensive hotels with Covid and cancelled flights home.


Turns out that she is in bed in skye with Covid and a bad fever. Usually you would have sympathy for that happening to a newlywed, but I don’t think much sympathy is being garnered from the rest of us right now. I’ll say that.
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Skye is marvelous. Love it. As for the rest, holy crap. I hope you and the finance recover fully and soon. It's a positive sign that you have maintained a sense of humor. I haven't seen "American tourist goes on a rampage in Stirling" on the new yet. Enjoying the entertainment at the expense of your misery, which seems physical, mental and financial all at once.
 
notthestuff said:
I
Have
Less than 0
Sympathy for a ruined honeymoon

Educated guess, but living this was probably even worse than it is reading it. I hear 5 guys is great in Edinburgh.
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Its therapeutic to get it off your chest. ;-)
 
Chin Diesel said:
I have to travel to Europe for work a couple of times in the Fall and will most likely be landing or connecting through Heathrow or Amsterdam. I had been hearing horror stories about Amsterdam over the past few months and was leaning towards using Heathrow. Now, I'm not so sure. I'll probably end up leaving a day earlier just to get one extra day of padding for all these situaitons. Regardless I'll make sure any connection in Europe has 3-4 hours and I'm not connecting on to the last flight of the day.

Bummer about BA and Terminal 5. I've enjoyed that lounge a few times and was never disappointed. BTW, that Terminal 5 Hilton hotel is fantastic if you need a place to crash. Terminal 4 Hilton isn't bad but Terminal 5 is another level of goodness.
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Reading this I'm inclined to think that going to Plymouth and stealing the Mayflower II may be the most reliable transport to Europe.
 
Sounds like you are in a sticky wicket. Try clicking your heels together three times and say "Scary Spice" or "Britney Griner" and see what happens.

ps Pharmacy should have a good supply of over the counter codeine products.
 
Returned a week ago from Rome on what was not a pleasure trip so I feel for anyone who has to endure the travel and weather in Europe right now.

Of greatest importance is the health of the soon to be newest member of your family, followed closely by the health of your bride to be. I'm not overly concerned about you as, considering the reckless (likely drug addled) lifestyle that you assuredly lived in the 1990's I imagine that your body will survive COVID in the same manner that cockroaches will survive a nuclear disaster.
 
.-.
husky429 said:
Someone needs to print this thread i


That's how to do it. Anyone who wants me in a suit between May and September can thoroughly f right off.

I don't like venues that make me feel like an outcast if I belch.

I don't like the weird garter thing.

I don't like old men that I knew when I was in high school trying to talk to me like we're friends. No thanks Mr. Smith, you caught me smoking pot when I was 16. This is weird.

It's even worse if people invite HS teachers to weddings.

And give me a break with the pinterest BS. None of you are original.

Every one of my friends were uber stressed out and hated wedding planning. Half of them are broke from it now. Meanwhile I saved the thousands they spent, still got wedding gifts for some reason.

Can you tell I'm sick of weddings? It has felt NON-STOP from ages 27-31. Been to 10, declined at least a dozen more. It's horrendous. Half these people I barely know. I got guilted for not going to a wedding while I was on a freaking vacation last summer. I literally had a wedding EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND that I wasn't in Greece between June and November.

My wedding had 4 people: me, my wife, the officiant, and her 9 year old daughter for a witness.
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I just started skipping them years ago and my friends are guys so they don't care. It amazes me they expect people to spend all this money to go to your wedding. They're usually hellish affairs that involve sitting in a way too hot church and talking to a bunch of people you don't want to talk to. Oh cool, our old English teacher is here and wants to close talk to me for an hour.

One that stuck out was a fancy wedding years ago for my cousin in Soho. She married an absolute dooshbag who always wanted to tell people how much money he makes. At the end of their fancy wedding which he let everyone know how much it costs and that he got JLO's makeup person to do my cousin's makeup all the wedding envelopes went missing and I was accused of stealing from my own cousin's wedding.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
Returned a week ago from Rome on what was not a pleasure trip so I feel for anyone who has to endure the travel and weather in Europe right now.

Of greatest importance is the health of the soon to be newest member of your family, followed closely by the health of your bride to be. I'm not overly concerned about you as, considering the reckless (likely drug addled) lifestyle that you assuredly lived in the 1990's I imagine that your body will survive COVID in the same manner that cockroaches will survive a nuclear disaster.
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I suspect @August_West is the Keith Richards of his generation. Health of mother and child are paramount.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Skye is marvelous. Love it. As for the rest, holy crap. I hope you and the finance recover fully and soon. It's a positive sign that you have maintained a sense of humor. I haven't seen "American tourist goes on a rampage in Stirling" on the new yet. Enjoying the entertainment at the expense of your misery, which seems physical, mental and financial all at once.
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So you may appreciate this. I haven’t had a drink since wedding Sunday, just got back from Tesco an hour ago ( UK Walmart/target ) and figured it was time for MY medicine! 17 pounds ( about 19 bucks). I don’t think it is great but the price was right after the money we’ve burned through this week and it’s going down nice! Getting ready for part 2 of this mess!

905AF0DE-D14C-48ED-9CE6-C2A7E73CF1A2.jpeg
 
August_West said:
So you may appreciate this. I haven’t had a drink since wedding Sunday, just got back from Tesco an hour ago ( UK Walmart/target ) and figured it was time for MY medicine! 17 pounds ( about 19 bucks). I don’t think it is great but the price was right after the money we’ve burned through this week and it’s going down nice! Getting ready for part 2 of this mess!

View attachment 77692
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Nice! There is good Scotch cheap even in the petrol stations there. Hope your sense of taste and smell are working.
 
.-.
NEforceUConn said:
Sounds like you are in a sticky wicket. Try clicking your heels together three times and say "Scary Spice" or "Britney Griner" and see what happens.

ps Pharmacy should have a good supply of over the counter codeine products.
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What makes you think I don’t know that? :)

Jeez you’d think people on this site would know me by now.

E54205C5-8AF2-4DA3-93BF-ADE322C7BAF3.jpeg
 
TerryBoyz said:
great intel from the janitor!
On a positive note, the dollar is at a near high v pound makes that coffee at caffe nero only 9 dollars
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Other than cabs and hotels and gas, you have no idea how cheap things are here now. I ate at some killer places in Edinburgh that were 1/2 the price of US right now. Groceries too. Ridiculously inexpensive.
 
Chin Diesel said:
1. Love the use of queue. A word best described as the letter "Q" followed by four useless letters. Very British to say "queue" instead of line.
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And queueing is the only word in the english language with 5 consecutive vowels.
Chin Diesel said:
4. When, where, how do you think you got the 'rona? Back in US? At airport? While on the plane?
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How could you fail to list Arby's as a possibility?
 
August_West said:
So you may appreciate this. I haven’t had a drink since wedding Sunday, just got back from Tesco an hour ago ( UK Walmart/target ) and figured it was time for MY medicine! 17 pounds ( about 19 bucks). I don’t think it is great but the price was right after the money we’ve burned through this week and it’s going down nice! Getting ready for part 2 of this mess!

View attachment 77692
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Love the cloth face mask hanging off the clothes line.
 
RichZ said:
And queueing is the only word in the english language with 5 consecutive vowels.

How could you fail to list Arby's as a possibility?
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I left the entire US as a possibility.
 
.-.
And I thought our Tampa sojourn last month was fraught with problems. We are but amateurs in the game of travel #$%! ups.
We went there for a birthday party at "the Don", which is a place I would never go to on my own. Party cost 40 grand to put on. There were 56 guests, and I believe only 4 of us did not come down with Covid within 10 days following the event.
Get well, and get home before the season starts.
 
8893 said:
Stanley Tucci has "Searching for Italy"

August has "Searching for Tylenol, Codeine and Cheap Booze in Scotland"
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You’re only allowed to buy one box a day, ( 32 pills) and I’ve had to skip last few days but I was stocking up, Boots ( the ubiquitous pharmacy) is my jam. Selling them here is at pharmacists discretion. So they interview my symptoms, I lift up my pants leg and show them my left knee, and then they throw the box at me and say “ you should see a Dr.” Lol
 
August_West said:
You’re only allowed to buy one box a day, ( 32 pills) and I’ve had to skip last few days but I was stocking up, Boots ( the ubiquitous pharmacy) is my jam. Selling them here is at pharmacists discretion. So they interview my symptoms, I lift up my pants leg and show them my left knee, and then they throw the box at me and say “ you should see a Dr.” Lol
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You don't even need the mobility scooter this time.
 
OK We are going to finish this part 1 leg now. Just keep in mind we aren't at our first destination even yet in this story (Edinburgh), that will be part 2. And man oh man there is a ton to unpack including the wedding.


so after learning our bags were gone** we head out to Taxi stand , FREEDOM! Things are now in our control! Overall I love the UK and think they get a ton of things more right than the US. I'm here to tell you a Taxi stand at a major airport is NOT one of them.

Its after midnight on a weekday at Heathrow, shouldn't be THAT crazy but ok its an international hub, sure, but the cancellations have sent the curb at that hour into another frenzy. I see that they have a taxi queue. Great. There is some order to this madness, we get into the queue, maybe 75 people long. In NYC that queue is empty in 4 minutes. In Heathrow it took 75? Why?!!!! I quickly learned why. They have a "checker" seating people in the cabs. They only have one checker. And he must set the people in the cab, get their destination address, and then with a handheld scanner like my shipping department uses at work, he has to scan the barcode of the taxi drivers ID. Meanwhile there are literally 40 taxis lined up behind waiting to pickup fares. The process was so asinine it literally hurt my head after all I had been through that day. And people started yelling and guess what? The more they yelled the slower the checker would go intentionally as response. Incredible.

So while we are in line we are searching for last minute hotels. Its close to 1AM my GF STILL hasn't eaten, and we know that we need to get out of London in just a few hours and find a train to Edinburgh. So we didn't want to spend much money on a 6 hour hotel. So we booked the Ramada in Hounslow supposedly just a few miles from Heathrow. And it probably was, but it took 35 minutes and cost 6o pounds.

We got there, and I will start part 2 with that.


** you've seen me asterisk mention of my bags a couple times. Obviously we still don't have them. We gave them 3 forwarding addresses, the hotel in Edinburgh (never got there), the Air bnb in Alva (never got here) and my GF house in Dunoon (where we are going tomorrow for remainder of trip) . We have called them every other day since when we have worked up the gumption to try and find out the status. Last time was this morning they give us the same answer they have every other time we've called them in the last week + " we are sorry but we haven't located them yet, do we have your address on file?" The funny (or sad thing) is that in preparation for this we put apple air tags (if you don't know what these are find out and get them if you're a traveler!) in all of our bags and we tell them " the bleeping bag is in the same bleeping place it was on the same bleeping night you bleeped us, its in a warehouse off of heathrow, you want the bleepin' GPS location?" I don't think it will ever get us our bag back but I'm starting to enjoy my every other day BA baggage swear routine. Because they are dumbfounded when I finally break it to them.
 
Chin Diesel said:
Love the cloth face mask hanging off the clothes line.
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We’ve done a lot of laundry here the last couple days laid up, and without half of OUR BLEEPING CLOTHES!
 
.-.
Fishy said:
Heading to Europe in October.

Generally would fly BA, but our TA said that the absolute most reliable way to get to Europe these days is to take one of the cheaper carriers and connect via Iceland.
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Good opportunity to spend a few days there? Never been but I’ve heard good things
 
Fishy said:
Heading to Europe in October.

Generally would fly BA, but our TA said that the absolute most reliable way to get to Europe these days is to take one of the cheaper carriers and connect via Iceland.
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Your TA understands
 
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August_West said:
You know how long it takes to type this out while conveying details? Try it.
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Try speaking it into your phone with voice commands and then editing.
 
8893 said:
Just keep in mind that it has taken us (your readers) longer to get out of London than it took you.
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This is a live blahg not a finished novel. I can’t just copy and paste the whole trip ( so far) here. I’m writing step by step
 
.-.
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