For Rob's spring break this year we decided to finally do something we'd been putting off for far too long. His break is only ten days long and every year we stay home rather than trying to fit in a trip. Not this year. This year, we went to England!
Due to the time change, long travel hours, and the studio schedule, we made the trip - there and back again - in six days. It was exhausting, but totally worth it. We had no e-mails, no cell phones, no junk mail, just us and London, us and the train, us and the Lake District, us and 500 other people on a plane. :-)
We really needed to go because we have this burning desire to return to our roots. I say return, even though neither one of us has lived there, because ultimately we are both from that part of the world. Generations removed, to be sure, but we have heard the siren song of "home" for a long time. For me, the desire to be in or near Ireland has always been present; the melodic intonations of an Irish accent are like a lullaby. For Rob, who knows that members of his family sailed from Manchester in the 17th century, England is where it's at.
How to get there, though? It isn't easy for Americans to emigrate...even to what is perhaps the most US-friendly country in the world. We can't claim political asylum (though lately we find that we'd often like to - lol), nor religious persecution (though sometimes it doesn't feel far off). We have no living relatives there. Our only way there is through work, and that option will be thoroughly explored. Anyway, this is for another blog posting...for now let it serve as background for why we needed to go to Britain - to see if our idea of it was a romantic notion, or if it could really offer us the kind of life for which we long. Our trip served as a scouting mission, and provided just enough exposure and time for us to see that a longer trip would be in order.
We arrived in London after a point-to-point flight from Seattle (yay for direct flights!) on Easter Sunday and took the train from Heathrow into town. We were able to get off a mere 1/2 mile from our hotel, so we walked. We'd been able to sleep a bit on the flight, so we weren't zombies, but we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves quite yet. In-country for about three hours, and already we were struck by many things:
- Everything smelled so differently! Since they use different soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, cleaning products, you name it, every-thing and -one smelled interesting...in a good way...to my sensitive nose. It reminded me of my years living in Spain, which has a smell of its own.
- Everything was tiny! Of course, we'd noticed it looking at the cars zoom by as we pulled our luggage down the street. Upon checking in to the hotel we were directed to the lift, which was smaller than a shower stall. Rob almost had to turn sideways to get his broad shoulders through the door, and we feared for a moment that our one large bag wouldn't make it!
- Water pressure is a matter of perspective. Um, yeah. What we think is a nice, long, hot shower is...well...overkill, I suppose, to Brits. The trickle of the shower pretty much ensured that we were expeditious in our self-care. Ha ha ha ha!
Anyway, we decided to look for a pub so that we could experience "real" fish-n-chips for dinner. It wasn't hard to find a suitable establishment, and we got there just before they stopped serving lunch (thank goodness, because we were famished). I had vegetarian chili, which was delicious, and Rob had proper fish and chips with a beer. The food was delicious, and we felt hopeful that what we'd heard about the lameness of British food would prove false. The pub patrons and staff were friendly, but the exchange rate was not. >:( Lunch, after conversion, was an almost $50 affair. We decided that if we were going to enjoy the trip, we had to stop figuring out how many dollars each transaction was costing, and just go with the flow.
Bellies full, we headed back to our funny little hotel room. On the way we stopped at a corner store and bought some water and a chocolate bar. Everything tastes better in Europe, let me tell you, even the Cadbury's chocolate (which I avoid like the plague here in corn syrup land). Anyway, we bought a two-liter bottle of Evian, and it cost (here we go, still figuring out the conversion) under $1.50. Anybody bought an Evian in the U.S. for that much? You're lucky if it's a 12-oz bottle! We were amazed, and perplexed, and interested that basic things like water were so much cheaper...even with the wretched exchange rate...in England than in the U.S.
We settled in for the night, drinking lots of water and leaving the chocolate handy for the inevitable 2am wake-up of our disoriented bodies. By 7pm we were asleep...and sure enough I awoke at 2ish to the rustle of the chocolate wrapper. We weren't so much hungry - as in rumbling tummy - as we just had low blood sugar, so we drank a bunch of water and shared the chocolate in the dark. We happily fell back asleep until a proper wake-up time.
We awoke on Monday to a cold, blustery day, and headed down to the restaurant for our English breakfast. I'll tell you all about it, and the great day that we had in London, next time I write.
Cheerio!
:-) - couldn't remember what time I was meant to be at yoga this morning and am thankful for your online schedule! As an English-girl-in-Seattle, I love your descriptions of Brit-land. All I can say is that when I first came to the US, I repeatedly whacked the curb (is this an American word??) as I drove because the cars here feel so WIDE and I felt, when I showered, that I was being blasted by turbo-strength water. And Hershey's isn't really chocolate, I don't think....
Posted by: Sarah K | April 20, 2008 at 08:06 AM