I still have a few more blogs coming after this one.
LONDON:
I flew into London the day after they had a snowstorm, and by snow storm I mean they had 4 inches of snow... However, for London this meant that most of the city was shut down. Luckily by the time I flew the flights were back on schedule and a few of the trains we up and running. However, I must also note.. when I say I flew into London I actually mean I flew into an airport almost 2 hours outside London. It is said that London has 5 international airports, but most of them, like the one I flew into, are way outside the city.
My couch surfing host in London was great, he even gave me a cellphone to use while I was in the city. He took me out to a somewhat hidden pub and I got to eat some traditional British food. He also took me to a couchsurfing meeting where a bunch of couchsurfers in London met up at a pub for a few drinks.
On my own I did a walking tour of the city where I took my time to stroll past all of the major sights. Unfortunately I forgot my camera this day and I actually only ended up taking one picture while in London. Many people have a ton of pictures of all the major sights anyway. I skipped out on all of the museums and such. I had seen enough art and cathedrals by this point in my trip. London reminded me a bit of New York City, except they have funny looking police officers who sometimes talk with funny accents.
To make a long story short, due to some stupid and silly airline rules, I had to spend over 24 hours on airplanes or in airports. I had to fly to Dublin, sleep overnight in the airport, fly back to London, and then catch a flight to NY. By the time I got back I was tired and jetlagged, I was probably even a bit smelly, but I was greeted wonderfully to my family which put a huge smile on my face. As great as my whole trip was, I was reminded how truly lucky I am to come home to the wonderful feeling of being surrounded by loved ones.
My trip is now over, however, it is only made more more enthusiastic about traveling. My trip to Israel and Jordan gave me my first taste to backpacking, although I was quite terrible at it. My teaser trip to Central America made me realize that I really do love to travel and made me ready to commit to a long and unplanned trip. This trip was my first experience of traveling alone for an extended period of time without any concrete plans. I loved it. The good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly, it didn't matter it was all great.
