Thursday Traveling Escapades

Part I
London, England - May 2014

Bloody Hell, I'm in Great Britain. The United friggin' Kingdom. The place where tea is had and high brow conversations take place. While all the lovely stereotypes amused my mind on my flight from Houston to Heathrow Airport, I couldn't help but realize that this was my first overseas trip. And I was all alone. And I couldn't be more ecstatic!

The rhythm of living fresh off the cusp of my 21st birthday in the land of the Queen and pubs came off the drums like a live beat in a concert. I landed at Heathrow and sought out adventure with my fellow interns from our 'Uni' (as the Brits would call Universities) back home.

With tremendous excitement at what the city life held in store for our summer escapades, we boarded the train from Heathrow straight to London. I remember how once we entered sleepy London town, we were still underground. From one train station to the next, we found ourselves immersed with the massive crowds of people standing by on each new train we hopped on. The Londoners graced the trains with their presence and carried newspapers and Kindles and books alike for long train ride reading purposes.

I could recall our loud speech, wandering eyes and overall trepidations regarding our host families and internships. We were young and filled with zeal and had an endless itch to fulfill our wanderlust. With our restless eyes waiting to emerge from the tube, we were met with signs pointing in all sorts of directions and massive advertisements all along the tube walls. "Mind the Gap" was the first of many British sayings we (fellow Texans from this foreign America) would acquiescence ourselves to. We followed our lovely program coordinator, Eric Clausen up the stairs and on an escalator towards the light.

As I slowly waited for the escalator to reach the top, I could hear the faintest sound in the distance. A guitar in perfect tune playing a song I knew all too well. It was George Harrison's Here Comes The Sun. I smiled and turned to the others and they both recognized something warm within that moment. We had arrived. And oh what perfect timing to be walking London's overcast streets filled with all of her gray skies and narrow roads.

It was the beginning of the fresh aroma of a pint of beer gracing my lips after a hard day's night, meeting a man from the Himalayan Mountains and putting a hat on me, eating chips (french fries) on top of my pasta with my Irish father Petey, and of course being in the presence of a Queen at the Royal Ascot. All of this and more were to be surprises yet to enfold.

No surprises were better than when we all first stepped off that train and minded the gap for the first time and heard that Beatles record gently strummed across the busker's guitar. And like most great records you hear on vinyl to the very end, I must say let's flip the record for the B-Side next week shall we? Until next time...Cheers mate.