If a young woman leaves her parents' home in Cape Eilzabeth, Maine at approximately 3:00 PM to arrive at the Boston airport for a 5.5 hour flight to London that leaves 7:45 PM and arrives at 7 AM British time where she waits for about 14 hours then catches a 1 hour bus ride to the Gatwick Airport for a 1.5 hour flight to Madrid that is delayed by 1.5 hours then slowed to about 2 hours because of turbulence and thus arrives at her final destination (Madrid) at approximately half past midnight Spanish time, how long has she been traveling?
I honestly have no idea how long it took to get to Madrid. It felt like weeks, but it was probably only about a day or so.
Easily, the highlight of my trip was the 14 hour layover in London. I spent a semester abroad in London during my Junior year of college, and it's the only place I've ever lived that isn't rural New England.
Regent's Park was where my college campus was when I lived in London. It's right off Baker Street, around the corner from Madame Tussauds and one of the most gorgeous places ever. I accidentally fell asleep right on a sunny spot in the grass for a couple hours. When I woke up I caught a couple of funny looks from the passers-by; a combination of horror and amusement.
Regent's Park entrance gate
After that I took a walk down Marylebone High Street, which is far and away my favorite place in all of London. It's a cute little street full of small cafes, quiet pubs and one absolutely amazing book store called Daunt Books where I could (and in fact, have) spend hours and never get bored.
The last place I went is called the Wellcome Collection, which is a funky old museum of Euston square that I accidentally discovered on a random walk around the city when I lived there. It's full of old medical artifacts, funny sculptures and masks and an assortment of odd objects collected by a man named Henry Wellcome. It also has exhibits on some medically inspired artwork including a section on obesity, malaria and the human genome project.
The Wellcome Collection
From there I took a found and navigated the bus to Gatwick Airport and caught a flight to Madrid that arrived a bit after midnight. After one VERY expensive cab ride and one nightmarish hostel check-in I climbed eight flights of stairs and crashed. It was an extremely long day, but things could have gone a lot worse and I'm happy to finally(!) be here.
I'm still getting used to this whole blogging thing, so sorry these first few entries are going to be a bit dry; at least until I start getting more comfortable writing about myself everyday. Bear with me until then. Hope everything and everyone is going well stateside. I'll update again soon.
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