| Summertime is in full swing. Tons of people, especially students, are traveling all over the world during summer break. I've had travel nostalgia (a more innocent cover-up term for "travel-envy") during the last week because of all the traveling going on around me. You're probably thinking - Leonard, don't you travel ALL THE TIME? Yes, I do. In fact, I was in LA/SF for 72 hours this week and just got back to NY late last night. But business travel is different. Right now, my baby sister Joanna is in Berlin, meeting up with Eileen (my sister-in-law; liz's youngest sister) and my parents-in-law. She arrived in London just a few days ago for her summer program at Cambridge and is taking the opportunity to travel to the Continent on the weekends. Liz's parents and Eileen happen to be in Berlin right now, which afforded this opportunity for Joanna. This is Joanna's first time to the UK and Europe. I am going to paste a clip from her email to some of her friends and family, without her consent and permission of course: So I arrived yesterday about 45 minutes late, at 4:15 PM in London.
The baggage took about 45 minutes. Then I took about an hour and a
half or two to get to Caleb's place. It was easy enough to figure out
the Tube, and there were many nice friendly Brits who helped me with
my luggage. In fact, one person even went up the stairs, realized no
one helped me when he looked back, and came back down to help me carry
it. Another offered without my asking; a girl gave me directions on
how to switch lines; and another guy helped push the Tube door open
when it was closing in on me while I was getting out. All in all, the
British have been very friendly. As someone who is generally sick of airplanes and disillusioned with travel in general, it was really refreshing to view this travel experience through the eyes of someone landing in a great new land for the first time, full of anticipation and expectation, not to mention some trepidation. It reminded me of my own first adventure to Europe about a decade ago. I was less academic, of course, and was only there to play. I remember being so overwhelmingly excited about crossing the Atlantic for the first time. As the plane descended onto Gatwick (I was flying US Airways, not Virgin or BA), my forehead was pasted to the airplane window, filled with wonderment at the land below. Another few sentences from my sister's email... This morning I took quite a bit to plan my travels. First I stopped by
a sandwich place for a cheap to go sandwich. Then I took the Tube to
Victoria and Albert's Museum, which had a wonderful collection of
photography prints and scuptures and European and Asian art and
stained glass and etc It was also really awesome because the main
front picture of the photography exhibit was a photograph from my
class on Death and Dying, where the photographer came to give a
lecture on the collection before it was even published! My first day in London, on my first trip there, was a bit different. I almost got run over by a truck because I was looking the wrong way (I still do that, even though it is clearly written, "Look RIGHT"), and was called a "F**ing daft prick." I turned around and gave the truck driver an American hand gesture. The rest of the trip turned out to be awesome. Anyway, I have no real conclusion here. I am super-excited for Joanna, Eileen, and all my friends who are traveling all over the globe this summer...and I am nostalgic for this kind of travel experience. |
