The London adventure begins. Here is a short list of things I have learned thus far on my journey, some of them you will find quite comical, and those are certainly the ones we can file in the “only Bailey would get herself into…” folder, others you just might find quite useful for your future journeys. From the top!
1. Hard luggage = not as durable as you’d think. At least not when you fill it to the max. As you will see in the picture below, within the first 10 minutes of the journey from my now ex-Boston apartment to my future London flat, my 50 pound/$60 dollar overweight surcharge of a bag hit the cement and exploded. However, this turned into quite possibly the best turn of events of the evening. Upon hitting the pavement my tears immediately dried and I snapped into action mode. I was off to the races, and thanks to my mom for suggesting I go early to the airport, before we knew it the underwear and bras that inhabited the container were securely taped in and hidden via the work of a lovely ticketing agent’s masterful and ingenious handiwork consisting of bag tags and “Checked Baggage” tape. Side note, I later saw this woman again at the gate where she shuttled me by name into a separate line for boarding – I think she thought I would just look at someone else’s luggage and it would pop open.
2. Wearing clothes you don’t care about on a plane is a good idea. Luckily it was white wine and not red, but it ended up all down my leg. Surprisingly enough, it was not my own!! Contain your gasps. Sitting in wet yoga pants for the entirety of an international flight was not all that glamorous, but it could have been worse, i.e. wet jeans. Yuck.
3. You should always travel with a roll of toilet paper, or at least a few Kleenex. Why, you ask? Well, after the 30 minute sojourn from the airport to pick-up the keys to my new flat, this kid needed to go. After figuring out the correct Harry Potter keys that would open my 3 locks to get in, I was eager to try out my new toilet only to find I was unprepared for that type of mission. So I quickly dropped my things and I was off again in search of the nearest convenience store. After popping in and out of a rather sketchy place (no pun intended) that I will probably not revisit in the near future, unless something as dire as this once again arises, I was back to my place, safe and sound. Note to self, leave a roll of TP in the bathroom for my future tenant, that’s good karma for you.
4. Heed the caution of the very descript street instructions which remind you at every street crossing to “<- Look Left“ or “Look Right ->” I like to think these signs were put in place specifically for the bobble-head Americans who can’t seem to break their old habits.
5. Off to find internet. So far, journey is not as successful as the TP run. One cappuccino and two ciders later, bar number three is failing to provide viable internet results. I must confess, by the end of this quest for internet I will be quite pissed. (see what I did there?) Off to spot number four. I will find skype by the end of this day, mark my words.
English word of the day: Wheel Clamping = a boot in America. That one's for you Jon!
Cheers!
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