First Night in London - Success!

I made it! From flying into Dublin, then flying into London - I am in love with this country already. It's not that hard, you know. It's so different, and new, and exciting - what isn't to love?

My first flight was fine, with some bonus free time at the airport. It was delayed almost 4 hours, and with me getting to the airport 4 hours early (just to get through security in about 20 minutes), I had a lot of time to chill. Lucky for me, Jeremy streamed Star Trek IV in honor of Nichelle Nichol's passing (recommendation - watch #3 first. Or just enjoy all the unexplained antics of the crew and take some guesses while watching, as we did. SAVE THE WHALES! Oh, creepy Shatner, you are a thing, aren't you?) Thanks Jeremy! Otherwise, airport and flight were both fine. Got my own row on the 10 hour flight - 2-seater row- which made sleeping much more doable.

Since my initial flight was delayed, my exciting welcome-to-dublin-have-a-pint-during-your-4-hour-layover plan was switched up to run-through-the-dublin-airport-to-make-your-next-flight-carrying-40lbs-good-luck. Knew I shouldn't have stopped my running training plan. Welp. That ended exactly as you are thinking it did: me, upholding the classic American stereotype of overweight-and-very-unfit traveler, soaked with sweat and probably not smelling my best - but making it to my gate. To find out it had been delayed by 30 minutes. My mad dash through the airport and dripping shirt was suddenly very, very unnecessary. Lovely.

Americans - what can I say?

Yup - so I made it to London! Almost got lost right out of the gate - but asked a couple of gents where the bus was and was promptly told it was a train and to just go across the street, make a left, and I can't miss it. (They didn't know who they were talking to. I did miss it and had to ask another gent.) But I did find the train, and successfully made it to my Airbnb located in a very hipster part of London called Shoreditch. Reminds me of Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn- art graffiti covering every reachable surface and pubs/restaurants everywhere.

My Airbnb is very, very cool - like a dorm house, definitely not what you'd think of as a typical Airbnb. More like a hostel/hotel mix. My room is small, the bed is huge, and if I was traveling with 2 more people, we would comfortably fit in here, making this a great steal. It is hot in London. I have no idea what the temperature is - but it is currently 6am and I am already sweating. Though that could have more to do with my overweight-absolutely-haven't-worked-out-in-months-physique rather than the weather. Well. Anyway.

Spent last night grabbing a burger and a flight of beer at a restaurant and feeling proper buzzed from lack of food, 10% ABV beer, and flatout travel exhaustion. Poor Scotty- trying to have a conversation with me but I was already about to dive off the deep end from that flight. (OOOH a pun! Both the flight of beer, and the airflight - HA! I didn't get it til I re-read this 3 times, but there it is! Amber and Rob - are you proud of me? I'm proud of me.)

Went back to my room and was asleep by 9:30pm local time. (Glad all those cravings for afternoon naps paid off.) My internal time clock is expectedly off - it's an 8 hour difference between Cali and here. I slept well, but intermittently, and kept having to convince myself to fall back asleep cause it wasn't time to get up yet. Finally I got up around 5:30am local time - close enough to 6am. And decided to write my first blog post about my adventures coming into London - after all, what else am I gonna do at 6am on a Tuesday?

I also *may* have been hit on my the server at the pub, and I have to say, that felt great. Been a minute since I've been out and about, let alone served a glass of water with a wink and a 'hey-gurl' smile.

Hey-oh London - I feel you. We are gonna get along juuuuuuuust fine.

It's about time for me to sign off - if anything, cause I keep looking at my laptop clock and it is telling me it is currently 10:24pm. I need to change that. And I'm hungry again - surprise! There is a coffee shop just around the corner that I will probably be working from on Thursday, so I think I'll go check it out and have my first breakfast here. I have some good plans for the day - gotta get prepped for those!

See y'all soon! Hope you are having a good day too! And don't forget to drink some water - *wink, hey-gurl-heeeeey*.