so it begins...

I am now three days (I think) into my trip. I can't really tell because the traveling over was lost in a haze of take off and landings, airports, and foreign lands all on very little sleep. I will try and recount my adventures as best I can and maybe in the future post some pictures for you all.

It started with takeoff from BWI after waiting around all day. That is what I hate most about traveling. I thinking the security procedures exemplify this the most of their philosophy of hurry up and wait. No problems at all flying into either Heathrow or Cairo nor with customs or security, thankfully.

While in London, I did the tourist thing but at speedy gonzales tempo. I had an eight hour layover which sounds like a lot of time except when you get in and through immigration and get ready to explore the city (1 hour), ride the tube both ways (2 hours), allow three hours for security (3 hours) ((ironically i went through security in about 10 minutes)). That is six hours right there so I had two to explore london.

First off, the tube or the underground. Very differen than the dc metro. I was surprised at how small the cars were and it never got old hearing the recordings saying "mind the gap." What I enjoyed most about London though was that everyone spoke with a british accent which in my mind made the men 10 times cooler and the women 10 times more attractive. I asked a young woman the time on the tube, and when she responded, I almost asked her out on a date.

London is exhorbitantly expensive. I almost keeled over at the exchange rate as well. Forty dollars got me 15 pounds. In my whirlwind tour of the city powered by a handful of trail mix and no sleep I saw many sights including Picadilly circus (and what a fine one at that but I much preferred cirque de solei, jk) and big ben and westminster abbey, the thames river, the big ferris wheel, st. james park, and buckingham palace. Sadly, because of my limited time and my utter lack of knowlege of london whenever I found a sight of the above mentioned, I stopped to take a few pictures and moved on. I relied on my wits and the touristy maps the government has conviently placed along the way (though somewhat sporadically). It was however, totally awesome to be able to stand and see big ben and all these other famous sights. I may never get to london again aside from heathrow when I return home but it was worth it to rush around and see where everything was and to know that I am privileged enough to see everything that I have read about or seen on tv. I liked the city a lot. It was very clean and the two things I was most surprised about was that I did not see any homeless people (like in baltimore, new york, or boston) and at each subway stop, there was a government employee announcing the trains.

After rushing back to heathrow, I found that I got through security in 10 minutes and then that my flight would be an hour late. Woop de doo...