Jolly Good!

Since we've been stationed here, Eric has only been able to go on one trip out of Belgium. Seriously. That was last May when we went to Bavaria for Mothers Day weekend. In the mean time, he's been busy with work or he wants to re-coop on the weekends. It kinda sucks for him cause of his work schedule, but hey, tis' the life of the Air Force, right?

Let's rewind back to April last year. Eric LOVES...and I mean LOVES TNA Wrestling. No, not "Tits N Ass" although that's what it should be called. It's "Total Nonstop Action" ....to me, it's so incredibly cheesy, but he loves watching it. 

While we were watching a match, an advertisement came up and was talking about a TNA Wrestling tour that'd be coming to Europe. In fact, they'd be in London in January 2011. Eric's face looked like a kid that saw the newest most awesome toy on the planet advertised on TV and got extremely excited. I mean, EXTREMELY excited. He looked up the tour dates and instantly got sad because the event will be happening during some work related things and odds are, he can't get out of it. Being the wifey that I am, I was willing to risk getting him a ticket because, hey, things might pan out for him for once, right? After doing my bit of research and site hopping, I managed to land him a ticket almost ringside so he'd be able to see his favorite wrestlers walk down the ramp and get into the ring! Who is his favorite wrestler, you ask? That'd be Rob Van Dam, also known as "RVD":

Now, back to current time... January 2011. Eric finally got his Leave approved for the weekend of the event, with only a week to spare. So, I started scrambling to find decent train tickets through EuroStar in addition to a hotel that's near the arena where the event is happening. I gotta say, we're SO lucky to live where we are! We just take a train from a nearby town to Brussels, then from Brussels we can take a two hour train ride to London. How cool is that?? After doing some hunting, I managed to land some decently priced train tickets, and the hotel I found is having a sale AND it's literally right around the corner from the arena! YAY! Hopefully everything will run smoothly from the time we leave the house till the time we get to the hotel :) Once we get to the hotel, Eric can scamper "next door" for the wrestling event and I'll be back at the hotel looking up stuff for London. Yes, he'll be solo at the event since I would have whiplash from rolling my eyes the entire time due to the fakeness of everything, plus, I don't wanna ruin it for him! As long as he has a great time, that's all that matters to me!

I'm excited for Sunday since we'll be venturing around London and I'll show Eric some of the cool places to check out. Since I've been there a few times now, I've learned my lesson when it comes to picking up an Oyster Card ahead of time so I don't have to wait in line forever in the Tube to buy one (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Eric's card shows up in time!). If you don't know what they are, they're amazing cards that you pre-load with whatever amount of £ on it so you can hop on and off the trains and buses in London, swipe them over a sensor on your way in or out of the subway and you're good to go! I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who is going to run around there :

Another thing I recommend for someone who is visiting London and happens to have an iPhone or Itouch is an application called "London Tube". 

 That program has seriously made my life SO easy when jumping around from train to train in the Tube to get across town. Best $0.99 you will EVER spend (aside from Angry Birds)! You put in which station you're currently at and which one you want to go to.. it'll give you a nice little map and tell you where you have to get off the tube and which train you need to hop on, how long your journey will take you and offer either the quickest route, or the route with the least amount of stops. I LOVE it! 

Hopefully we'll be able to check out the London Eye and ride it. The last time I was there, we ended up not going on it and attempted to do the Duck Tours instead, which was a huge disaster. So, I'll look into making a reservation for the big 'ol Ferris Wheel since it gets a very nice view of the city...plus it takes something like thirty minutes to make a complete rotation! From there, I'm sure we'll check out Parliament and Big Ben in addition to other major attractions:

Of course, we definitely need to get some fish 'n chips!! Ahhhh!!! Although I'm a major fan of the fish 'n chip joint in Aldeburgh, I'll settle for some in London. Once you've had fish n chips in England, you'll never go back...and that says alot coming from me since I loved fish n chips back in Monterey! 

And...we definitely need to ride around on the red double decker buses! They're awesome, especially if you're able to sit on the top deck and in the very front. Kinda feels like you're flying through the busy streets :) I love 'em because you can hop and and they take you all over the place and past famous sites. SO easy!

So, here's to hoping for a lovely weekend for myself and my husband. He NEEDS to have a good time! Who knows when he'll be able to get out and about again!