London / BST Hyde Park

Just on my way back from my latest time in London. It feels so homey here, I can't stop coming back. Once someone asked me how many times I'd been here, and I had no idea... And that was 5 or 6 visits ago.

I'm sitting in the lounge at Heathrow now, feeling awful with the cold that just keeps getting worse, but also in a fantastic mood, still buzzing from last night. I had originally planned to be in London until Saturday, but when I realised my main man Robbie Williams was closing a festival Sunday night, I updated my plans, got over my hatred of festivals, and bought a ticket.

The gig was BST Hyde Park, and yesterday was its last day of a few weekend concerts. Other acts on the main stage yesterday were Feeder, Texas, Keane, and The Black Eyed Peas. I've enjoyed both Texas and Keane in past, but given the aforementioned cold virus, wasn't sure how much time I could handle in a mega crowd. I left my hotel about 4 hours before Rob was set to hit the stage, which put me arriving just as Keane got started. From my seat in the VIP Garden, they sounded pretty good. Then I attempted to enjoy The Black Eyed Peas (meh), still in the Garden area, before making my way into the crowd in front of the stage for Mr Williams.

 

As always, the show was off the charts, and Rob seemed to be enjoying himself more than ever as the crowd of 65,000 sang his songs back to him... So much so that I also found myself grinning like an idiot for half the gig. Unfortunately with my cough, I didn't just lose my voice jokingly like I always say... I literally lost it completely after singing and cheering all night. By the end of the show, I opened my mouth, and no sound came out. As of today it's back up to a low croak, but I still sound pretty pathetic. Regardless, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Call me the Little Mermaid, because I will happily give up my voice for this man.

Before the big show, I had a day and a half in my favourite city, which I spent doing lots of shopping -- my luggage is SO heavy today -- visiting the Saatchi Gallery, and soaking as much out of my V&A membership as possible.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is always the first stop for me in London, so last time I was here, I became a member. Well worth it. This time I saw all the current exhibitions, plus wandering the general area, and got a rare non-crowded second viewing of the Dior exhibit. Love it so much.

So I'm happy and sad about going back to America-land today. Miss my cat, but will miss London too...

Ljubljana

I very much liked Ljubljana. It's a charming small city, with beautiful surroundings, and their environmental focus doesn't hurt either (it won European Green Capital in 2016). 

Unfortunately, I woke up with a cold on my only full day here, and didn't have the energy to do as much as I otherwise could have. But I did rally enough to go out and wander for a few hours in the sunshine. 

 

My hotel was nice enough to provide me with access to a free guided tour and a phone set up to be a virtual tour guide around town, including maps and recommendations. Which is a fantastic thing for your usual traveler, but my response was, "ew, why would I want that?" Instead, I did my standard: look at a guide and map in the morning to come up with a general plan and orient myself geographically. Then leave them behind and see where I end up. Most times I still do what I planned to, but even if I get lost, there's always something to see. 

As usual, when I saw there was gallery focused on Slovenian modern art, I started my day with a walk through it. Nearby was the huge Tivoli park, so I went for a walk there next. 

The park was refreshingly unkempt, with flowers growing in the grass, all around the people lounging in the shade of big trees. It was a huge place, so I only walked part of it, but I still came across a couple statues and a pond with a few ducks paddling around the lily pads. 

Next I took a stroll through the ultra touristy old town, stopping for a few photos along the way. I had recently seen the episode of Travel Man where Richard and Eddie Izzard spent 48 hours in Slovenia, so I knew the trek up to the castle was far inferior to the funicular. There wasn't a lot to see in the castle grounds, but the view was unbeatable. 

After the castle, I could feel a sunburn coming on, despite my SPF-As-High-As-Possible, so I headed back to get something to eat, then to the hotel to crash and watch football. 

This morning I felt much worse with my cold and mostly wanted to stay in bed all day. But I had a flight at 5pm (now delayed) and a hotel without an ability for late checkout, so I had to vacate at noon. Given that I felt too crap to go back out wandering town in the heat, here I sit at the airport, waiting for someone to fly me off to London. 

If I felt better, I would definitely not be in such a hurry to leave. 

Zagreb

Now that I no longer have to spend all my time and money going to Scotland every few weeks, I've been diverting it back to seeing more new places.* My original idea was to spend around 10 days going all across a few countries in Eastern Europe, most of which were once part of Yugoslavia. When I do these kinds of trips, I usually like to fly into one major city and out of a different one, while taking trains around to points in between. Once I started looking into logistics, though, I found that my usual methods will not apply here. Flights are limited and connect somewhere out of the way, and trains are either extremely long or don't go at all, due to terrain or lack of demand.

So I settled on two major cities, with a train of just a couple hours running between them. First stop: Zagreb, Croatia.

When most people think of Croatia these days, they think of everyone's pretty pictures of the coastline and Dubrovnik, or the countryside. I'm definitely more of a city girl, and have seen stories that poor Dubrovnik's getting way overrun with more tourists than they can handle... plus, it's really hard to find flights there. So Zagreb, here we go!

As per my routine, I spent 2 nights here, giving myself one full day to see the city. My hotel is right on the main square, which makes it perfectly situated for me to just head out and see what I found. Just about everything listed in my guide book was within walking distance, so I headed out yesterday morning, figuring I'd pick my attractions by what I came across in my ramblings. I first wandered through about 3 blocks of parks (Park Zrinjevac and Park Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, per the map), which were busy getting set up for an 'open air festival' apparently coming soon.

At the end of the 3rd green space was the central train station, where I stopped to sort my ticket to Ljubljana for today. I'd tried to buy it online a couple of times, but the website told me I couldn't purchase it there. I had multiple online sources assuring me that the train does run, and tickets can only be bought in person, but I'm not the type who's okay with just rocking up on the day and assuming everything will be fine. Lucky that, since I discovered at the station that there are no longer any trains between the two cities. Oh boy, an adventure!

On the walk back toward my hotel, I popped into the National Modern Gallery, which features roughly 200 years of Croatian artists. It was great, definitely worth the price of admission... which isn't much anyway. I love seeing art in my travels, especially places like this where they focus on locals -- it's something I couldn't find anywhere else.

After a brief stop back in the hotel to handle my transportation concerns, I walked out to spend a good chunk of time at the Zagreb Cathedral (love me a fancy house of worship) and Tržnica Dolac (the farmers' market), then did some shopping around the main square. 

In general, Zagreb is familiar. As the capital of a country that found its way out of a communist past, it shares traits with similar cities I've visited. But flying over from the UK I was surprised to only have to change the time by an hour, and realised Zagreb is further west than Vienna and Stockholm. Geographically, it's pretty central, so I found it odd that it would be considered Eastern.... until I arrived and took a stroll through town. Now that I've been here, I get it; it's very much Eastern Europe in spirit.

I've eaten well here, but the interwebs couldn't agree on whether the water here was okay to drink or not. I've been pretty cavalier downing tap water in most of my travels, but still always do a quick search on arrival so as not to be totally stupid. In the end, I drank bottled sparkling water during the day (my preference anyway) and used the taps for my coffee and oatmeal in the morning. While I've had no issues from consuming it, my travel electric kettle did end up with thick sludge inside from a white powdery sediment in the water. I know the water is very hard here, so it's most likely just a mineral that's harmless... but fair warning, it's pretty unappetizing to see that crud floating around. Zagreb's tap water is not for the faint of heart.

In a couple of hours I will check out of my hotel and get on a bus (a BUS!) to Slovenia. When I found no trains available, my options were to fly (expensive at the last minute, nothing direct), rent a car and drive (more money and hassle than I'd like for one trip of less than 100 miles), or a cheap direct bus. Fine. Sold. It's only 2.5 hours, so I can suck it up... this once.


*To an extent. I am bookending this trip with Edinburgh and London, but that's a different subject for another day.
 

Shanghai Noon

OK, in reality, it's just after 10am as I get ready to post this, but Shanghai Ten doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I'm in my hotel room on my last morning in Shanghai, after a few days here for work. Before I arrived, several of my colleagues who'd been here before gave me advice and warnings from their own time in China. It was all over the spectrum, including one guy who loves Shanghai so much that he's trying to move here, and one at the opposite end who said I'd definitely get sick from the food and probably also get scammed. Most of the stories were somewhere in between, though, from lost luggage and no Chinese clothes fitting, to being afraid to wear sandals in the dirty streets, to getting fat from all the great meals. Seems everyone has a different time here, including me.

After all the fun advice, I was much more apprehensive than I usually am while travelling, but when I arrived, it was... fine. I landed Monday afternoon to a beautiful day. Hot, sunny, few clouds, but low humidity and decent air quality. I checked into the hotel, looked at the gorgeous view, and decided this place was going to be just like any other travel of mine. I showered off the residue of the long flight, sat down to look at my guide book, and... became incredibly tired. Given that I had to train people all week for work, I needed a good night's sleep, and put off the sightseeing.


Unfortunately, for the next 3 days it rained and rained... evidently this is the rainy season. Add that to this being a very busy work trip, and my sightseeing wasn't so much delayed as cancelled. With long days of work and crosstown commutes between flying in and out of town, my view of Shanghai has mostly been from the windows of the office, the hotel, and taxis. But I did see a fair bit that way.

The day before I came here, I finished the book How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic. In one of her essays she talks about laundry, how in every Eastern European country she'd visited in the Communist days and shortly after, people still washed things by hand and hung them out to dry. But in all these places, when people moved into the flats in tall buildings of cities, they had no balconies for hanging the clothes. So the solution was to mount bars outside the windows and have their clothes dangling many stories above the sidewalk, dripping on the heads of passers by. As we zig-zagged through Shanghai in various taxis, I saw the same here, in so many buildings, all across town. A true Communist universal!

Speaking of the taxis... the traffic here is crazy, and every cab ride ranged from a bit jerky to mildly terrifying. Cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, mopeds, bikes, and pedestrians are everywhere in the streets, going every which way, all of the time. The traffic lights and standards of driving seem to be general guidelines, more than hard and fast rules. But I was here working with a guy from India who said compared to his hometown, the Shanghai roads are well organised. I guess that means if I ever take a taxi in India, I should spend my time covering my eyes and praying to Elvis.

Anyway. So mostly I've spent my time here working, or being tired and going to bed early before another work day. But the local team here was very hospitable, and fed me well on Chinese food. The first day we went to a Shanghainese restaurant for a big family style lunch, and they asked if I was okay with chopsticks. When I said could manage, but wished I was better at using them, the team all cheered me on for managing to eat 99% of my food without dropping anything, and said I was a chopstick master. So they were clearly liars, but very nice people. They also took me out last night, to feed me coffee, pizza, and cocktails after a tour of the big Starbucks Roastery.

That was the extent of my tourism until this morning, when I was determined to do some exploring before heading to the airport. I got up early, had my breakfast, and headed out  for a wander. People's Park, People's Square, and a couple of museums are right near my hotel, so they were all on my agenda. But even leaving at 7:45am, it was already 28 degrees C and 77% humidity, with smog visible in the sky. As one of the locals told me yesterday, "Shanghai in summer is like a big steaming pot." So I got as far as strolling in the park for about 45 minutes -- amidst the groups doing Tai Chi or taking photos of the lotus flowers -- before I was sweaty, getting a sore throat, and wanting AC back. So I went to one of the museums, which didn't open for another half an hour. I gave up and came back, and am waiting for my ride to the airport indoors.
 
My biggest worry was that my generally cranky respiratory system would act up here, but until this morning it's been okay. My sinuses have been slightly problematic, but that's just typical travel allergies. I can't say I'm sad to be leaving before the air gets to me, but I do wish I'd seen more while I was here. Maybe another time...

Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas, the Sequel: Once More, With Feeling!

Last time I wrote, I had just gotten home from seeing Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas, and said maybe I should come back again... take advantage of the shorter flight and small theatre while I can.

And here I am 3 months later, for the second leg of the residency.

I was looking forward to the show even more than usual, since I've had rough times in life of late, and knew a couple hours of Rob's "showing off" would be just the thing for it. I landed in Las Vegas Thursday afternoon, checked into my hotel room, and went straight back out for a Starbucks visit and a wander around. But after getting blown in the face with a hot wind (it was 39 degrees C and windy, WTF is that about?!), I went back to the Wynn in search of more swag featuring my friendly neighbourhood pop star, and air conditioning.

On the way over to the gift shop for said swag, I walked past 4 of the guys from the Robbie Williams band, and started to feel a little bit more amped about the gig. Then when I bought stuff, the woman working at the store was all aglow telling me about her interactions with Rob and that "He's SO NICE!!" which made me feel even more excited about the upcoming show, as I headed back to my room. And then who should be riding up the elevator with me? None other than Poppa Pete Conway himself! We didn't talk... because I don't normally speak to strangers in elevators, and couldn't think of anything clever to say to Pete anyway. The only things I could come up with were Hey, I follow you on Twitter  and Your son's a good fella, which didn't really seem worthy of bothering the man. But after 26 floors standing next to him, I was beyond impatient for the show to get here, and I still had 24 hours to wait!

When the hour finally arrived, I got all dressed up -- making sure I wore heels I could stand in for the entire 2 hour show -- and headed downstairs to the theatre. Some of the other superfans were meeting up in a bar at the Wynn beforehand, and I was planning to head over and maybe make some new friendly friends... but when the time arrived I was stricken with anxiety and skipped it.

By the way, I could write a whole other piece about the annoying return of social anxiety that I thought I'd beaten over 20 years ago, and maybe I will. Later. For now just know that I'm irritated that it keeps getting in my way and we'll leave it at that.

Where was I? Oh yeah, showtime! This time I got a much better seat: orchestra left, 5 rows from the stage. Of course I knew it was way closer, but I still had that WOAH moment when our boy came out and it really hit me. The gig, as always, was beyond description. Rob changed up the set and the banter a bit this round, and put on his usual incredible show. I danced around. I lost my voice from singing and cheering. I put one hand in the air, two hands in the air, bounced, bounced, bounced bounced bounced bounced. I took way too many pictures, but I also remembered to put the phone down and enjoy it for real most of the time too.

I'm beyond glad I came back.

I also happen to be in London just in time for the Hyde Park show next month, which will make it a record 3 Robbie shows in a year. If I'm super lucky, maybe I'll even get to go to a fourth...

I realised a while back that I bought my first Robbie Williams CD in 1999, so this is my 20 year anniversary with the man. I think I'm definitely spending it the right way so far.

View this post on Instagram

Another incredible night with @robbiewilliams. Greatest show you'll ever see.

A post shared by Sarah Anderson (@wheresgirl2) on Jun 21, 2019 at 10:58pm PDT

Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas!

There was a time in my life when I went to Las Vegas a lot. For any occasion that needed a serious party, Vegas was a relatively short / cheap flight away, and provided plenty of debauchery. So my friends and I spent many a long weekend dressed up as our Woo Girl and Douche Dude alter-egos, drinking copiously, wearing sunglasses indoors, dancing at the club until all hours... just generally being awful human beings, but having so much fun. Luckily for my liver, that phase didn't last long, and for the past several years I thought the next time I'd be in Vegas would be 40 years from now, when I'm a crotchety old biddy looking to play penny slots in a climate warm and dry enough to ease my aching joints.

But then Robbie Williams announced a residency at the Wynn. Just six nights in March.

I bought my ticket at the earliest moment my presale code would allow, booked a flight a few minutes
later. The shows sold out, so more were added in June and July, which also mostly sold out. I normally wouldn't do more than one show per tour, but after the experience on Friday, I'm now considering going back for one of those as well.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After flying home from London and taking a day to adjust to my old time zone, I got back on a plane and arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon. That gave me over 24 hours to fill until the show, and given my lack of interest in all my previous Sin City activities, I didn't know what to do with myself. I stayed at the Encore, putting the theatre that provided the whole point of my visit less than 5 minutes walk away, without even going outdoors. So it's not like I needed to do a lot of exploring to find my way around. I (no exaggeration) went to bed at 10pm Thursday night, and filled my free time Friday before the gig shopping, and enjoying the slot machines at the Wynn. No big wins, but I did get 2 hours of entertainment and left the casino with $3 more than I brought in... which is a good deal, considering the Fashion Show mall got plenty of my money, as did the gift shop selling exorbitantly priced Robbie Williams Live in Las Vegas merchandise.

After gambling successfully and exchanging much cash for goods, as I was walking back through to the Encore, I thought I walked past someone familar... was that Rob's mother-in-law (Instagram star) Gwen? Nah, couldn't be. But it was, which I confirmed at the concert when she came out the VIP door to find her seat not far from me with Ayda Field (her daughter and fabulous woman, who happens to be married to Mr Williams). And their daughter. And Robbie's mom. I am a total Williams family dork, I think they're all fun and entertaining on social media, but I'd never bug them for photos like some others did. I don't remember where I read this line the other day: In the future, everyone will want to be anonymous for 15 minutes. So yeah. I'd rather enjoy the public postings and give them some of that of anonymity when they walk past me. But I'm just Gen X like that, I guess.

As for the show itself... Awesome. No words to describe how good he always is live. It was my 6th time at the Robbie Williams experience, and the Encore Theater was 1/10th the size of the smallest previous venue. The official website says the Encore's capacity is 1,845; the other arenas ranged from 18,000 to over 50,000 seats. Given that Rob could easily fill those giant stadiums with his showmanship, I was almost afraid it would be too small for such a big personality -- the opposite of the way some bands can't grow their performance to fill larger spaces -- but it was perfect. It was just as much Robbie without going over the top. I still got totally into it and put my hands in the air when instructed to -- as did all the people around me.

Rob mentioned online that 70% of the tickets were sold to people coming from the US, and the set list seemed to assume people didn't really know the music, because of that. He only played a few of the big hits -- which everyone did know -- mixed in with lots of covers and standards from the swing albums. If I had my way, the show would have included more of the originals, but the song selection didn't make me enjoy it any less. It was a great time, and I'm still buzzing two days later.

At the end of the gig, Robbie said he might do "a pointless tour of the US," not promoting anything, not even sure if an audience would turn up in any given city. It has been a topic he's brought up a few times lately, half joking, but I really hope he gives it a try. I've taken many long haul flights to see him in massive venues, and will happily continue to do so; he's the best excuse for a trip out of town that I have, and the shows are always incredible. But that being said, spending just two hours in the air to go to a small theatre gig is pretty damn good. So if the Robbie Williams Pointless Tour of North America doesn't get announced in the next couple of months, I just might be back in the desert again this summer, taking this rare opportunity once more before it's gone.

A Tourist in Edinburgh

Finished my latest trip to Edinburgh today. In my few days there, I did the usual stuff: rugby, shopping in the usual stores, eating food from the usual restaurants. 

The only new place I went was to Edinburgh Gin, for their Gin Connoisseur tour, which I highly recommend. For £25, and the foresight to book months in advance (they're always full), I got a history of gin, details on what goes into their particular formula, a close-up view of distillation, a tasting of 6 different gins, and a small bottle to take home. What a deal!

But what was really new was the way I was visiting Edinburgh. It was my first time in almost 6 years staying there like a tourist, instead of like I live there -- spending leisure time, staying in a hotel, eating out. Rather than shopping to fill a kitchen and make my own food, being domestic, and working 8 hours a day. But I still felt like I lived there. It will always be some kind of home to me, and it's going to be difficult to adjust to not spending 1/4 of my life being there. 

Recently there was a British Isles dialect quiz going around, and since I pick up words and pronunciation everywhere I go, I took it just for fun. The result was that clearly I'm not from here, but my dialect was similar to people from the areas highlighted in the map... a map with red blobs not in Edinburgh where I spend all my time, but in the areas where my ex-fiancé has lived, and where his family comes from. It was a pretty big reminder that my experiences here since 2013 have been inextricably linked to him, and so the place has been as well.

But my connection to Scotland started long before I met him. My interest in the country started when I was a tiny child, called out as a true McCorkindale by my grandmother's visiting relatives. My relationship with Edinburgh was born a decade ago on my first visit. I've been supporting Scotland rugby since the 90's, going to Highland Games since the 2000s, followed Aberdeen FC for 7 years... and the list goes on. 

So I will continue to love all things Scottish, and miss Edinburgh when I am away from it. I will continue to include it in travels as much as I can, and probably still feel like I'm coming home when I see the Forth bridges from my airplane window. Maybe I will still end up living there one day. 

But for now, I'm working on separating Scotland from the Scotsman, and getting back to knowing Edinburgh on my own terms. I just might need a few more visits...