What they don't tell you about Europe and the UK

I think that when you take a trip anywhere and you post on social media or write about it, you want to paint a pretty picture. Oh it's all so wonderful! Better than I ever expected! Just like in the movies! 

I mean who wants to see or hear about the not so nice parts of somebody's vacation.  So I've kept that whole vibe going for the most part. It's about to get real folks. I've seen some things, had some experiences that you wouldn't see on a travel poster. 

Let's start with accommodation (what a nice word for it). Our first place was decent in London. There was that fox fight outside the first night that sounded like something out of a horror movie. We got used to hearing and SEEING our new fox friends. 

Next fun accommodation was in Lyon with the fruit fly problem. The place that required five keys, five doors to get to the apartment. It was like going into a dungeon. Then the narrow, death defying staircase to get up to the bedrooms. You went through the first bedroom to walk across a bizarre glass walkway to the second "bedroom". We really tried to tough it out, but the fruit flies were too much and we left early.

Unfortunately there were no hotels in Lyon for 3 days so we had to divert to Macon, France where we stayed in another old building with a stone staircase that let to a weird inner courtyard where the apartments were. We came back after dark one night: absolutely no lights in staircase or courtyard. That was the place where there was no hot water 2 out of the 3 nights. "Quaint" old building ain't always what they are cracked up to be.

Then Valencia, a very nice Spanish city with a very bad sewer smell problem. The place we stayed in, the bathroom smelled like a sewer all the time. When I asked the airbnb "host", I was told "there is nothing that came be done about it". 

Out of the 10 airbnbs we stayed in, there were two I would consider staying in again if I were to stay in an air bnb again, which I never will. 

The UK and Europe are old and the neighborhoods reflect that. If you aren't in a bougey or tourist area, they are gritty and dirty a lot of the time.  That is just the way it is. There are homeless everywhere, shaking their cups for money, sleeping on the street. We have seen them take their daily constitutional on the street.

Yes, they are interesting cities with beautiful areas, stunning landmarks, but the neighborhoods are like New York City. It always has struck me how you have these big glamorous cities, with people walking around in these fancy clothes down a dirty sidewalk with garbage bags piled up. 

This, along with the stunning Eiffel tower, beautiful Alps of Lausanne, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, wonderful parks of Valencia and Madrid, beautiful beaches and landscape of  Spain, Ireland, Scotland is the reality of the UK and Europe. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done and an education.

My advice: Stay in the tourist areas. Visit the neighborhoods.