
I’m going to be there on Saturday! If someone had told me last Wednesday that I would be in London the weekend after next, I would have laughed and laughed. I have no plans to go abroad! I would have said. But oh, how fast things can change when your roommate is a lawyer-to-be and you’re unemployed, and you haven’t been on an airplane in four years… oh, boy.
So, my travel plans are that I am leaving New York late Friday evening, and arriving in Paris around lunchtime the next day. I have a tiny little 2-hour layover, which is about as perfect a layover can be, and not only have I been to Paris before, I’ve also flown out of Charles de Gaulle on two round-trips, so it’s not at all disappointing to be in France and not leave the airport. What would have been too tantalizing would have been flying IcelandAir, which has a stopover in Reykjavik (if you do not want to be teased by amazing images of Iceland, I do not recommend you Google Image it). But if I don’t get the job I’m hoping for that’s where I’m headed next! ha-HA! Anyway, then I’ll be in London before mid-afternoon on Saturday! This is so nuts! Someone please pinch me!
I’ve decided not to do research for this. I ruined my trip to Prague in 2006 when rain messed with my itinerary. So gone are the times of mapping out the sights. Big Ben and Buckingham Palace are the only obvious requisites to hit, and I’m not one of these spends-a-whole-day-at-the-MoMA-and-still-doesn’t-see-everything kind of gals. I’m really the whips-through-any-museum-in-30-minutes-and-drags-her-feet-while-her-companions-act-like-old-people type. So in London terms, it’s like, hop on the tube, *snapsnapsnap* photos of Big Ben, wave to the Queen, ooh, shopping! Also, other than photography, I really hate looking, acting like, or otherwise being a tourist, so I try to avoid the traps whenever possible.
But one thing I do love to research is travel times to other cities. I learned from Seat 61 that it costs only £30.50 and about 8 hours each way to take a train and then a ferry from London to Dublin. Sometime next week I think I’ll head over there and stay in a hostel for the night, then go on to Belfast, then to Edinburgh, and then back down to London. Nothing is more fun to me than taking ferries (and trains) in Europe. But don’t be surprised if I don’t do this!

Now, I know 95% of people who find themselves in London would spend the entire week just in London. But I’m not like that. In 2005, I went on a 23-day backpacking trip that took me through Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Rimini and back to Paris. I would have liked more time in Scandinavia, especially outside of the big cities in Sweden (can spend a week touring Benita‘s house, please?), but we spent far too long on the beach in Rimini, which was only for 5 days (and while we were there we took day trips to Florence and San Marino, both extremely worth it). I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants. Besides, cities are all quite similar, it’s the culture of the different countries that I care most about. I could care less about museums and parks, what I want to do is walk the streets, talk to the people, shop, and eat the food. That’s all I could ask for.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that with any luck, I’ll be meeting up with my friend Rosie who lives in Cambridge. Hi, Rosie! We met in Florence in 2006 when we were studying at a language school there. We lived in the same apartment for a week (also with another girl from Mexico City, who I really ought to have kept in touch with).
Between now and Friday, I’ll be posting Flickr finds of the UK and decor-related places I might visit, and also a wish list of things I need to buy or do while I’m there! And I’ll be bringing my laptop with me, so I’ll be blogging as often as I can, and with any luck I’ll be posting pictures of this trip for the next year! he-he.
If you have any recommendations of where to do anywhere in the UK, please leave comments! I will absolutely look into everything that’s recommended.