London Trip, Thursday 9/29 -- Hello London!!

• Does it really pay to be prepared? When it comes to packing, I've always been more of a happy-go-lucky, throw it all together at the last minute kind of a girl. This time I was highly organized and was almost all packed, 4 days in advance. I'd like to say that it made things much more relaxed and stress-free, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Every night, I'd compare the same list and contents of my bags all over again. I was constantly wondering if I forgot something until the night before I left.
• I think I know what it feels like to be a baby. Either a baby or a pig in a pen, that is... It's been a long time since I've flown a flight that isn't domestic or within the N. American continent. I'm so used to having just the small bag of pretzels, somewhere in the middle of the flight. I took an overnight flight into Gatwick so I tried to spend as much of the nine hours sleeping. But with the two meals, a snack and several beverages services, it was just a constant cycle of sleeping and eating. In London, we tried to stay up for the rest of the day, but eventually succumbed to taking a nap from lunch until dinner. Oink, oink.

A good cab driver is the best tour guide. You get a sense of the real life behind the tourist scene. Cabs in London are so cute (see picture below) and most of the drivers we saw were retired men.

• London living is not for the super claustrophobic. Our hotel (above) was clean and accomadating, but very, very small. It's not in the most posh area, but it is next to Hoxton Square, a hip and funky area where lots of young people congregate in the newly refurbished pubs and restaurants.

• British Terminology:

Toilets = Restrooms

Lifts = Elevators

Having visited the UK before and having read all those British novels, I thought I knew a lot of the terminology, but every day, I still learned more...