Misc pictures throughout London

Typical British Food at the Bag O' Nails. Sounds appetizing right...

Recyling really does pay off.

Unique palette. Probably an acquired taste.

East Berlin??? Nope, just the security around Buckingham Palace.

Street Food in Little Venice.

Greenlake's sister park, Regence.

Outdoors the Euro way...awkward.  I watched these guys go aroud in circles for 10 minutes.  No teamwork. 

Taking "me" time to reflect on the past week in London

New appreciation of London

The first couple days I wasn’t a big fan of London.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s great culture and history but in my opinion it’s so commercialized to the point where it has lost its luster.  I’ve seen Big Ben, Parliament, and so forth in all sorts of media from advertisements to movies so that when I finally saw those sites in person I thought to myself, “no big deal”.  I have to admit part of my lack of enthusiasm for the city was due to the weather, horrible, wouldn’t stop raining.  Now I realize I’m not a big fan of all the touristy attractions. But in the last couple of days I’ve gained a new appreciation of the city.  There’s so much more than just those tourist sites.  A trip to the Globe Theater of Shakespeare and a performance of the Merry Wives of Windsor was much more entertaining than I expected.  Didn’t know Shakespeare could be so funny and at £5 for standing room it was a bargain.  One regret, I would’ve gladly paid more to sit during the 2 hour and 40 minute performance.  My feet never hurt so much, can’t help that I have bad arches, and they still hurt. Was able to go to a football game too, Tottenham Hotspurs versus the Wigan Athletic, definitely a must go event.  Awesome atmosphere with all the chants and cheers. Wouldn’t recommend bringing the youngins though, the fans aren’t shy with their words.  And today I went to the Notting Hill Carnival which is twenty miles of music and Caribbean food vendors in the streets of London.  Had the most amazing jerk chicken, thinking about the marinating sauce is making me drool.  Ooooh...making myself hungry.

Random thought:  Why are toilets here so strong? Feels like I'm going to get splashed every time I flush.
Note to self:  Put the toilet seat down.

View from Greenwich - 0 degree Longitude

Night in Trafalgar Square

Tottingham Hotspurs - Come On You Spurs

Carnival in Notting Hill

Jerk Chicken...drooool

St Christopher’s Greenwich hostel

The hostel is actually better than I expected. It was one of a few that had 4 consecutive days open and at £10 a night it’s extremely cheap, around half of others. Its a little ways from downtown London so that’s probably why. Took me 2 hours to get there from Heathrow using the Underground and multiple transfers. I later found out that I could’ve taken the Overground and cut my trip by more than half. The location isn’t bad in my opinion, it’s just across the River Thames. The hostel is also right above a bar so a drink is just a walk down the stairs. And it’s just a 15 minute train ride from downtown, a very crowded train. We were literally packed like sardines. Super uncomfortable. Don’t like the feeling of another person’s breath directly in my face, let alone multiple people. Gives me shudders just thinking about it…Ughhhh.


Surprisingly there aren’t that many tourists staying at the hostel. In my room of 8 beds, 6 are filled. 4 of the beds are occupied by locals. One just got a job in the area as a real estate developer trainee and is staying until his flat is ready. Two are from Ireland and just transferred for local teaching jobs and are in the process of finding a place. The fourth is a real local. He actually lives (lived) near the hostel but got evicted from his residence for 6 months by a judge. He mentioned something about assaulting a neighbor or other. He eased our concerns by saying he only gets rowdy when he drinks, then he immediately downed a tall boy. I slept with one eye open. The only other traveler in the room besides me is Thomak from Poland. He’s a history teacher and bookstore owner. The first night I met him he tried to give me a Polish History lesson. Pretty interesting conversation as he doesn’t speak English and I don’t know a single word of Polish except piroshky, which by the way are delicious. He was basically speaking in Polish with a few broken English words. It was a lot of gestures on his part and many guesses on mine. We ended up “talking” for several hours. Basically a game of charades, Polish edition with an extended expansion pack. I’m pretty sure if we had a transcript of our conversation, it would’ve looked like two different conversations smashed together. But it was very entertaining.

St Christopher’s Greenwich hostel

Parliament

Me in front of the Big Eye - need to be more selective in who I ask

Sausage and Mash - I'm pretty sure they used boxed mash

Random thoughts on my way to London

Virgin Atlantic is great. The flight attendants are so considerate plus I totally dig the accent and can't help but smile when they talk. Their in-flight food was delicious too and I had more than enough legroom thanks to an emergency exit row seat. I could sit in those seats all day watching movies and listening to music. Well I basically did, sat there for 7 hours without getting up once. Is that strong will power, stupidity, or just plain laziness? I know my answer, but I’ll let you ponder.

Customs into London wasn’t as bad as I expected. Wait was 10 minutes and after two questions I was through. I was expecting much worse from the horror stories I was told. They must only call out scrubs, don’t want to mention any names....ahem Shim/Hong.

Well I brought the rain with me yet again. I got drenched, mainly due to my own curiousness and lack of direction. I got off at Piccadilly Circus and wandered the streets with no direction. Took me 2 hours until I found another subway entrance but it was a lot of fun getting lost. Got to see a lot of London in a short period of time. For the next several days I’ll narrow my focus. Here are a couple pictures of what I saw.  And in future entries I'll try and take some more interesting pictures and include myself as well.  BTW can’t wait until I development my lomography pictures. Not sure I’m using the camera right, but I know I took some really good pictures with it. Hope they come out well. Oh and big thanks to Rose for the camera!

Pictures of New York

Grimaldis in Brooklyn. The whole pizza I ate by myself. Sorry kluv, tried to bring you back a slice but it was just too good to resist.

Brookyln Bridge.  Long walk and much needed exercise.

Manhattan

MTA subway.  Didn't know pay phones still existed.

Sushi Yasua

Back in action

After a few minor setbacks I'm back on my feet. Spent my last day in NY listening to automated messages hoping to speak to a real person. After hours on hold and many transfers I got through and conquered my obstacle. Yes!!! (with empathic fist pump) After all that hoopla I’m finally preparing for my real trip, 3 hours away from my departure to London. Just booked my hostel in Greenwich which is southeast of downtown London. My plans after that are looking a little more apparent too, just need to be finalized. Scotland and a visit to St. Andrews. Wish my pops could go with. Would be an awesome experience to whack (yes whack…if you’ve seen me play you’d understand) a round and appreciate how the pros make it look so easy. After that a flight to Ireland and some Guinness. Mmm…tastes like chocolate milk. Followed by a flight to Amsterdam to relax. Got to do what the locals do. So now it’s finally starting to hit me. I’m actually doing this! And I’m so unprepared! (with tentative fist pump) But that’s how I originally wanted this trip to play out, on my toes so that I can take advantage of the opportunities in front of me. And as I become a more experienced traveler I’ll better define my plans in advance. So wish me luck!

NYC

Waking up early and packing....................................2 hour loss of sleep

Taxi cab to the wrong airport.....................................$32.00

Finding out it’s the wrong airport...............................frustration

CTA from Midway to the right airport, O’Hare............$2.25

Continuing residual effects of the oysters.................major discomfort

Standby to La Guardi................................................$25.00

Knowing that this is only the beginning.....................priceless

Chitown

I forgot how much I missed walking through downtown CHI with my headphones on. Feels like I'm in a movie walking to my own soundtrack. Millennium Park, Lake Shore, Navy Pier... I'm starting to feel nostalgic. Not much has changed in the year I was gone. Still unbearably hot. With all the humidity I feel like I'm in a Turkish steam bath (never been but I should probably go to truly understand the reference). And the weather is sporadic, one hour it’s 90 degrees and sunny, the next it’s pouring rain with lightening storms. Always keeps you on your toes, like the other night in Ravinia Park with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, an unexpectedly entertaining concert with contributions from several bottles of wine, an assortment of potluck cuisine, and new and familiar faces. The rain just added another factor that lightened the mood and was a refreshing change of pace. I guess I brought some of Seattle with me.


As always the people are as friendly as ever. Thanks to Tony for letting me crash at his place. And it was great to see my former coworkers and share some laughs again. I hope to see more familiar faces in the next couple of days.

As always the food is awesome. Per requests, some pictures for your viewing pleasure. 

My travel tips

1. Do your travel screening at a travel clinic, not your primary physician who isn’t able to prescribe all the necessary immunizations. Plus the travel clinic will better prepare you as they have much more experience and training to what you may encounter.


2. Be prepared for sore arms. I had to get 7 shots (and more still to come) and that doesn’t include the countless other pills and medication I was prescribed.

3. Borrow don’t buy (thanks Julia, Jane and Noona). Saves money plus it’s good to recycle.

4. Pack light as you can always buy things on the way. Plus you’ll save your back and hopefully avoid the sweat.

5. Start your preparations early. There’s a lot to take care of besides the actual trip planning and it never hurts to double check.

6. Go with the flow. A set itinerary doesn’t necessarily produce the best experience.

7. Be prepared for the plethora of advice people are willing to offer you. If you’re diligent, take notes, or just ask them to respond to your blog with tips.

8. Do not eat oysters before or during your trip...I'll just leave it at that.

So it finally begins!

After a month and a half of being unemployed I begin my journey, to spend the next 6 months traveling the world and to experience more of life. How did I get to this point? That’s a tough question and something that I’m not sure I can fully answer now. I can describe the actions that led me here but the full intent behind them is difficult to explain. My action: I put in my notice to quit after 3 ½ years of corporate America. My intent: a culmination of many things. Some may say that I’m following a dream, others that I’m having a quarter life crisis, and they’re both probably right in some way. It’s also my love and longing to travel and experience different people and cultures. Not wanting to be complacent with life but rather to challenge myself and go outside my comfort zone. To find out who I really am and the extent of what I can and cannot do. To take a chance and an opportunity that I will never have. I guess these are all typical answers, but the difference is I’m willing to follow through.