So we did a bit of traveling recently. First, we went to London to visit the queen. Okay, fine, we went there for the World Ultimate and Guts Championships. Carpet Head played for the Philippine Mixed Team and I was there for support. Yayyy.
To make a long story short, the Mixed Team retained their #7 seed out of 30+ teams. Not too bad really. I think the best thing about it was that Pilipinas Mixed did really well against Team USA, which was unquestionably the strongest team there – they basically owned all their matches and ended up champions. Anyhoo, I’m mighty proud of Carpet Head and the rest of Team Pilipinas. They were all awesome.
I don’t want to turn this into a really long post, so I’m going to try to keep the descriptions short and just barrage you with a few photos, yeah? I didn’t take a lot of good photos though so bear with me. Hah. I know, I suck. ;)
First stop: London, UK
We arrived a couple of days before the start of WUGC so we had about a day to do a few touristy things. We were only able to visit the Tower of London, take a few shots with Big Ben and the London Eye and check out a few exhibits at the British Museum. The tournament was a week long and we didn’t really get to do anything or go anywhere else during that week.
The London weather was unpredictable as expected. It rained on a couple of days but on some days the sun was out most of the time. It was always too cold for me though, tropical child that I am. LOL. One time, I wore five layers of tops and it was still too cold. Hah.
Anyhoo, despite my lack of love for the weather, I would still love to go back someday and check out more places. I would love to go back to the British Museum and visit other places like the Natural History Museum, Royal Observatory, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, the Roman Baths, etc. I would also love to hop on a Harry Potter tour and maybe watch a show at West End or something.
Scroll over the images for captions! :)
Second stop: Rome, Italy
The morning after the last day of the tournament, Carpet Head and I flew out to Rome with two of our ultimate teammates who also competed at WUGC. We stayed at a really nice Airbnb apartment and got to visit the must-see places in Rome: the Vatican Museum, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum. We also got to see Piazza Navona and the Trevi fountain.
Rome was pretty hot – like shorts and summer dress weather hot. I didn’t bring shorts to this trip but I did get to wear a tank top and ditch the jackets, thank the gods and goddesses (hah!).
Rome has some pretty gorgeous places. I mean, lots of nice old buildings, old streets and fascinating ruins. They have some great architecture and an interesting – and terrible – history. The food wasn’t bad either. The pizza and pasta were really good. The gelato was something else. Nothing like the real thing, right? I wouldn’t mind going back to this city some day.
Third stop: Paris, France
After a few days in Rome, Carpet Head and I flew out to France while our two friends flew out to Switzerland (we would meet up again in London for our flight back to Manila). In Paris, the room we rented was just a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower so, of course, we checked it out after we got settled in. We didn’t go up the tower anymore and just took a few pictures. We also visited Champs-Elysées and saw the Arc de Triomphe. For me, the highlight of the Paris leg of our trip was the visit to the Louvre Museum. We only had a couple of hours but it was still worth it. I would love to visit it again if I could.
We also met up with some of our friends who were with us at WUGC. We had a great dinner and went on a river cruise and managed to get a few great photos of the Eiffel at night. France hosted the Euro cup so the Eiffel Tower was lit with the flag colors of the countries playing at that time. That night Portugal won over Poland and the tower was lit up in red and green.
In terms of the weather, Paris was somewhere between London and Rome. It was sunny most of the time, but the breeze was cool enough to warrant a light jacket during the day. Summer child me didn’t mind at all.
And then we headed for home
After a couple of days in Paris we headed back to London for one last day in Europe before our flight home. We didn’t do any sightseeing anymore – we just bought a few souvenirs and stuff. Given that we spent a whole week just being at WUGC, we didn’t get to spend too many days just being tourists, but by the time we got back to London from our side trips, I think we were all ready to go home.
Overall, it was a pretty awesome vacation. I wouldn’t mind visiting those cities again if I had the chance.