So arriving in London late on my birthday, I dumped my bags
at the airport walked out with the backpack I dragged around Swaziland. I was sitting on the train (or tube as they
call it) when a friendly British guy asked me if I had been traveling, he said
I looked like I had (not sure how physically tired I looked but I was in shorts
which was out of place in the beginning of fall in London, which started a
conversation about what I have been doing for the last two years, in that
moment I realized I have to speak about my PC experience in past tense. And will have to figure out which of the
stories most entertain and are short sense in most cases I doubt I will have
long conversations.
And so in that moment I truly felt like my Peace Corps
service was over. The timing of
traveling on my birthday was all by my own design (or God’s timing working
through me). So it being my birthday
also helped to emphasize the point.
By the time I arrived at my hostel, by the way Clink 87 is
an awesome huge hostel, checked in sorted myself out it was 11:30. I had missed the chance to hang out with my
friend PC Gena on my birthday. But we
had plans for the morning. She just a
few days before had arrived from Nigeria where she got food poisoning from a 5
star hotel. So after much debate I
decided what I think is a PC tradition when arriving back in the 1st
world was to eat McDonald’s. And it was
tasty.
So the hostel is near the King’s Cross station so it was
centrally located and easy to get around and safe. This was my first time in London, of course
it is post Olympics but the Paraolympics was just starting, so the town is
still covered in Olympic advertising and signage.
The first day was non-super famous site seeing. Gena took me around a lot of cool areas and
ate lots of good food & gelato. I
have so missed being in big city where there is a night life.
Over the next couple days, I saw Big Ben, Parliament (Hey’s
kids look Parliament), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, spent lots of
hours at the Tate Modern Museum, a super excellent designed museum that was
formally a power generation plant, so the interior design is extremely unique
for a museum. Went to the Damian Hirsh
exhibit with the cut in half cow.
Each night Gena, still suffering from the food poisoning
left me to wander in the evening. So since
London is very safe city with extremely great lighting no street seemed dark
and on most corners there was some form of business open. I had numerous one drink stops in lots of
pubs, I ate fish & chips from this little side shop at 1am, Gambled in casinos
and walked a lot just marveling at how great big cities are and the benefits
and opportunities that can be had. It
was nice to not be walking on dirt streets and be out at night with something
to do, both of those were rare in Swaziland.
Although, the hostel had hot showers they were on timers, a smart idea
to save water, so about every 30 secs, you had to hit the button, but I figured
out if just held the button in between start & finish the water would just
run. My hostel had tons of people moving
around in wheel chairs. So I still very much felt like I was traveling.
And my final night in London was spent doing what I like
doing the most seeing movies. It was cold
& rainy just miserable outside kind of weather, so I found a theater
playing a double feature. The Terminator
& Terminator 2: Judgment Day. By the
way earlier in the day I spent it at The British Museum, which has the actual
Rosetta Stone and tons old stuff from Greek & Roman times. Now I may have seen the first Terminator in
the theater & definitely saw the second numerous times but back to back was
just a great evening of movies. And for me one of the things, I want to claim
in my obituary is how many different countries I have seen a movie in. Not its Canada, Spain, Swaziland, South
Africa & England including the US its now 6 (missed chances in Mozambique
& Mexico) . I hope in my future
travels I can make this a habit.
Fantastic to see them & with super movie fans who are super
knowledgeable much like the fans at the New Beverly Cinema in LA. My kind of people.
So as I type this I am on the plane having just left Iceland
which was is a stop over to final final night of my adventure home and will be
the final conclusion to my 2 years & 2 months trip to Africa with the Peace
Corps. And it will be in New York City
of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
By the way just from
flying over it and spending 2 hours in the airport Iceland is now my bucket
list of places to visit. From the air I
saw one of the smoking vents of the volcano the island is. It looks like super cool, amazingly beautiful
place to explore and the advertisements on the plain so some insanely beautiful
rugged terrain. I want to come back
& visit.
I will be in New York City for just the overnight til my am
flight. It was much by several hundred
dollars less to fly from London to NYC & then stay overnight flying in the
morning to LA. So I have one more night
left of my adventure to & from Africa.
Then I am back home and can tell the stories that this blog has
contained to everyone in person.
Time in airplane:
45min Swaziland to Joberg, 8 hours Joberg to Dubai, 7 Dubai to London, 2 hours
London to Iceland, 5 Iceland to NYC
Time in Airport: 3 hours Swaziland, 4 ½ Joberg. 7 hours in
Dubai, 6 hours in Heathrow, 2 hours in Iceland.
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