Lydy Nickerson, World Traveler
May. 26th, 2017 07:11 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydyTo be clear, "World Traveler" is British Airways polite term for coach.
Last Worldcon, for reasons that totes made sense (you'll have to trust me on this), Ctein persuaded Patrick to take me to London. I have wanted to go to London for longer than I can remember. If I had a bucket list, which I don't, London would be at the top. (And suddenly, it seems odd to me that a bucket would have a top, but well, I do not understand the ways of buckets.)
We went for eight days, leaving Friday 5 May at 10:00 p.m. from New York, arriving 10:00 a.m. at Gatwick, and left again at 4:30 p.m. on 14 May, arriving at 8:00 p.m., which totally felt like 1:00 a.m. And then there were customs...I am getting ahead of myself.
I am going to do a series of posts about the trip, mostly so that I will remember it in years to come. If you find other people's travels boring, do please skip. I will not be including many pictures. Patrick was totally in charge of pictures because I don't particularly do visual stuff, and trying to fuss with a camera or cell phone camera would have significantly interfered with my enjoyment. Nor do my memories tie to visual media all that well.
London. There is...a lot of London. Lots and lots of London. Way more than we could have seen in 8 days. We had an A, B, and C list, and got to most of the things on the A list, a couple of things on the B list, and nothing on the C list. Which is as it should be. It was amazing and wonderful and I regret nothing. Ok, I regret that Hyde Park tried to kill me. Other than that, I regret nothing. I would love to go back again, and try to get to the other bits. And then again, and again. Did I mention that there is a lot of London?
London is exciting, beautiful, engaging, fascinating, old, and odd. I did not find it overwhelming, frightening, or strange. It was not familiar, either. It was like...ok, really bad analogy. It was like putting on a brand new pair of shoes that fit perfectly. They aren't familiar, but they do feel utterly right, and they tempt you to walk way more than you really should. (According to the world's worst pedometer, Pokemon Go, we were clocking about 10 kilometers a day. Oh, my poor feet.)
So, London. It's lovely.
Last Worldcon, for reasons that totes made sense (you'll have to trust me on this), Ctein persuaded Patrick to take me to London. I have wanted to go to London for longer than I can remember. If I had a bucket list, which I don't, London would be at the top. (And suddenly, it seems odd to me that a bucket would have a top, but well, I do not understand the ways of buckets.)
We went for eight days, leaving Friday 5 May at 10:00 p.m. from New York, arriving 10:00 a.m. at Gatwick, and left again at 4:30 p.m. on 14 May, arriving at 8:00 p.m., which totally felt like 1:00 a.m. And then there were customs...I am getting ahead of myself.
I am going to do a series of posts about the trip, mostly so that I will remember it in years to come. If you find other people's travels boring, do please skip. I will not be including many pictures. Patrick was totally in charge of pictures because I don't particularly do visual stuff, and trying to fuss with a camera or cell phone camera would have significantly interfered with my enjoyment. Nor do my memories tie to visual media all that well.
London. There is...a lot of London. Lots and lots of London. Way more than we could have seen in 8 days. We had an A, B, and C list, and got to most of the things on the A list, a couple of things on the B list, and nothing on the C list. Which is as it should be. It was amazing and wonderful and I regret nothing. Ok, I regret that Hyde Park tried to kill me. Other than that, I regret nothing. I would love to go back again, and try to get to the other bits. And then again, and again. Did I mention that there is a lot of London?
London is exciting, beautiful, engaging, fascinating, old, and odd. I did not find it overwhelming, frightening, or strange. It was not familiar, either. It was like...ok, really bad analogy. It was like putting on a brand new pair of shoes that fit perfectly. They aren't familiar, but they do feel utterly right, and they tempt you to walk way more than you really should. (According to the world's worst pedometer, Pokemon Go, we were clocking about 10 kilometers a day. Oh, my poor feet.)
So, London. It's lovely.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-26 01:13 pm (UTC)I like that multiple-lists approach. I went to Paris with a list of things I wanted to do (a long time ago, now), and then allowed a bit of chance to come into things. That did mean that on my way back to the airport I realized I'd forgotten all about one museum, but I don't regret the second trip to the excellent ice cream parlor.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-26 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-26 07:33 pm (UTC)Looking forward to hearing your experience in Hyde Park. Amber and I got thoroughly, surrealistically lost in that place on our first afternoon in London. I think there are portals to Secret Lands scattered strategically around in there. It's just impossible for there to be that much featureless, uncharted land plonk in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-26 07:45 pm (UTC)We didn't stay long enough to get lost in Hyde Park because it was trying to kill us. I do not know what happened. We walked into the park, and suddenly, I started to cough and sneeze, and my eyes started to sting. My lungs and throat were burning. Patrick was having a similar reaction. It got worse as we ventured further into the park. It did not feel like an allergic reaction, and I smelled something vaguely smoke-like. After a few minutes, we agreed to leave the park post haste. I suspect some sort of toxic substance was burning somewhere, but I don't know what or why or where. It's too bad, Hyde Park looked lovely.
London is just full of parks, little pocket parks, parks about a block in size, lovely grand parks like Regent's Park and Hyde park, parks and trees and green spaces. It's one of the things that makes it feel so human and accessible. I love that aspect a lot.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-27 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-30 04:34 pm (UTC)