London Bridge is Falling Down.... Falling Down...

The one thing people always ask me about my travels is the planning aspect. And then are surprised by the lack of or the spontaneity or randomness of it. Well, the trip started with South Africa in June... that was in the works of planning for almost a year (World Cup!). Once I decided I wanted to incorporate traveling and then international medical volunteering, I thought India would be a good place. I applied through this organization (HVOUSA) and once I was accepted, and this was earlier in the year, they asked me for dates. Dates? Hmmm.... I briefly looked at my calender and literally was from the top of my head was like, "ehh.... welll.... I guess the last 3 weeks in November? I can probably entertain myself in between with other travels." And then everything in between South Africa and India would gradually fall into place... which it did. It was funny because I ONLY decided to come to London before India to get my visa for India. I thought it would be fairly easy here and would take 3-4 ish days, so hence, planned 4 days here. Well, what happened was I ended up getting my visa in Serbia AND by chance, one of my best friends happened to be in London just the days before me and was awesome enough to change her itinerary so that we could overlap for a few days! It was soooo sooooo nice! It means sooooo much to see a familiar face after traveling for so long! Although we only had a day and a half together, we had a ton of fun!

We both loooooove shows, musicals, and theater, and with some research by Allison, and her also knowing that unfortunately, I have not seen too many musicals, we got tickets to see Lion King!!! Okay okay, I know it came out more than 15 years ago BUT... again, I still had not seen it and had always missed it when it came through Chicago. This would be Allison's 3rd time, but hey, she loves musicals. It was sooo much fun! LOVED the costumes and choreography... singing was good but I have to admit it was kinda funny hearing it with English accents, a little different than what I remember from the movie!!!

We the next day walked around a bit, treated ourselves to a massage (very well needed!), followed by some afternoon tea,

and then some late afternoon wine (hard life, huh? :-)

We then hung out some more and went to St. George's Inn in Southwark...

The tavern was established way back in the medieval time periods and we opted to go there because it was a typical English pub AND my brother's name is George! Allison and our other friend got traditional sausage and mash potatoes,

but my stomach was not itself so I got risotto... not exactly English, but it was still yummy!

After Allison left, sniff sniff, I decided to do some pow-wow touristy sightseeing and do cheesy things like ride the double decker bus, see the changing of the guards, etc. Here are some random snaps I took of things like Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Big Ben and the Parliament, Horseman's Guard, London Bridge, Trifalger's Sqaure, etc:

AND, not only that, but made an effort and planned to see changing of the guards! I forgot what an affair that is! I actually really enjoyed it! England has such an interesting history and this ceremony, which they have done for centuries, is truly a unique experience...

I have transited many times through London and every time I come I am literally in and out... the last time I spent quality time here was early 2000's when my sister graduated from her MBA school and the whole fam came out... and when ran the London marathon. So fast forward 7-8 years, and here I am again! The city has a such a good feel to it! I looooove the diversity (just people watching I did a self study in that 1/5 people were speaking a different language) and also the cultural awareness.... there is soooooo much going on here! I can't even count how many musicals, shows, theater.. and the best part is that it is relatively affordable! I also noticed is that people are very polite.... I saw men offer woman a seat, people getting up for elders, no shoving or pushing in the trains and people neatly stand to the right so other people can walk past them, even when we were out to dinner and some people sat near us but then moved because they saw we were non-smokers and they were (this is outside). So nice!!!! Ahh... those little things that mean so much! And I just loved people watching and most especially noticed the men in nice suits and/or stylish attire, which I hardly saw in Serbia (sorry!).

AND, in traveling I meet most especially a lot of English peeps as well as Aussies, so it was nice because I met up with a few friends that I had met during other travels. Nice! Had some good 'ol fish and chips my last day...

So back to reflecting on travel life... besides some things being planned but most not, I also take each trip I take as a section... I haven't looked at it like "wow! I will be gone for 6+ months." It's more like "I will be in Serbia for one month..." or "I will be in London for 4 days." So now... I will be in India for the next couple of months... this is definitely going to be a "new" journey and adventure. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories, so stay tuned!!!