And Off to England!

England is one of the destinations I am most excited about visiting for a host of reasons.

1) It has been #2 on my countries to visit since I made that list (#1 being Italy, #3 Japan). Just visiting there will finish off #2, while #1 already got taken down at the start of my travels.

2) A great deal of my ancestors are English. My Mom's family (The Springs) were a wealthily family in a small town called Lavenham from 1200-1800 roughly. I wanted to visit this village where the church is covered in our family crest. On the stone, in stain glass windows and the rich patron, Thomas Spring, is buried inside the church. Any of our family that has visited England has been to Lavenham, so it feels like a right of passage.

3) Stonehenge and the Rosseta Stone are both in England. Growing up I was obsessed with Stonehenge and the mysteries it creates. This is a dream in its self just visiting. Rosseta Stone is a smaller victory, but it is one of the artifacts I have most wanted to see in my life. I have always said I will see it before I die.

4) One of my good friends from high school, Chris Stewart, is living in England right now and it will be great to visit another friend.

I left around 3pm and flew into Brussels and took the EuroStar train from Brussels to London (2 hours or so). Now I did this to save money, but def. failed because of a lack of planning ahead. A flight to Brussels was $60. A flight to London was $160. That is a no brainer. But I didn't realize the train was going to be so family expensive. ($110). So I ended up spending more and taking longer to get there. Bummer, but that is okay. Life is a journey and more often than not, when my plans go wrong or I fail to plan, that is when the best things happen. So I am okay with these kind of travel mistakes.

It was rather exciting to get on the train too. I forgot that the UK is not under the same travel agreement that most of Europe is. You have to go through customs and get your Visa stamped. While I am about to customs I am reading a sign that says you can't bring in guns, mace, explosives and knives to the UK....wait...knives.....like the one in my back pack that has a 6 inch double-sided blade that I carry for worst case scenarios........whelp that bag is about to go through the scanner. I am thinking "do I tell them and just ask them to throw it away or play it cool and say I forgot?" My bag goes through, they hand it back to me and say have a nice day. That is right, they did not catch a decently large knife. Given it is just a train, but still. Think about it, I am officially a weapon smuggler. Already illegally smuggled a knife into the UK! (And then threw that sucker away when I got in the country because I have no desire to get caught with it!)

I had a great train ride talking to a variety of other passengers. Some from England who loved America and hate the French. A great quote is, "I hate the chunnel, I wish we could build one with America and blow this one up, who needs the French!" I played Gin with some New Zealanders who are living and working in England for a year or two. All and all it was a great time.

I got off the train at King's Cross. I then promptly looked for my train to Hogwarts (it is the station they take in Harry Potter to go to Hogwarts).

I head off for my hostel, which luckily for me is two blocks over. I check in (it is around 9pm), settle into my room and read a poster that says "halloween party on patio." I think okay, kind of lame I am sure, but than I read the part that says, "free food," and think this might be an awesome party.

I go to the patio for my free food and there are about 15 people there. You can carve pumpkins for free, eat food and drink mulled wine. I see a group of 5 girls so naturally I introduce myself and sit down. I had a good conversation with them. Each is living and working in London, but from a different area. 1 from Germany, 1 from Spain, 1 from Italy and 2 from Australia.

After some good chatting I decide to call it a night and hit the hay excited for my first day in London!