i find it more fun chasing down globular clusters and open clusters, and getting familiar with the sky. galaxies are faint smudges (like globs) but least with higher powers you can resolve things in a globular.
I've tried for Neptune on countless occasions and have missed it (or seen it without knowing)... work constraints me, and my days off are usually cloudy
I think if you can nail the helix nebulae some brighter galixies might be visable, but if you can't nail the neb, you may be disappointed with what a galaxy may look like (until you can get to darker skies)
matt