At Long Last...London

dear erik,

i apologize in advance for this post, because my brain has pretty much left the building.  it's just after 5pm, and both megan and i are happily tucked into bed.  another raucous friday night for mer...

my travels went well.  my friend jason got me to the airport in plenty of time, the flight took off on time and even landed a bit early.  seriously - i don't know who 'economy class cabins' are designed for, but it's certainly not for anyone over five feet tall.  lordy. 

anyway - i haven't been sleeping great for the past few days because i've been so hyped up and excited and nervous about the trip, so i was kind of worried i would fall asleep on the plane and snore loudly and everyone would be too polite to wake me up and would just quietly resent me while they tried to sleep.  however, british air is one of those awesome airlines where you get your own little tv with lots of tv and movies to choose from, so after a few victorious rounds of sudoku (with minimal cheating) i just turned that baby on and tuned out.

watched wanderlust (silly but pleasant), hysteria (enjoyable), rewatched the dark knight, which is still too long but really good, and then watched john carter.  the flight was landing so i missed the last 15 minutes or so, and it's an indication of how impressive the movie was that i wasn't upset that i didn't get to see the end.

anyway - when i landed i told the lady at customs that i was meeting a friend who was flying in on a different airline from a different city.  apparently that's the first time anyone's ever done that here in london, but she told me to ask the people at the information desk when i picked up my bag.  trouble was, there was no one at the information desk...

long story slightly shorter, turns out heathrow airport is about the size of long island.  after i took a ten minute bus ride i got to megan's terminal and we dealt with the driver (who we had reserved ahead of time to take us to the hotel) who was very upset that he had to pay more for parking than expected, since i took so long to get to terminal 4 from terminal 5.

i have to say, as soon as i stepped out into that chilly, gray air, i had a rush of exhiliration.  i don't know why i love it here so much, but i do.  something in the air just makes me happy.  maybe it's all that history dust floating around.

we are in a very swanky hotel, in a beautiful room with a disappointing view of a back street.  i will try to figure out how to post pictures tomorrow.  as expected, today was fairly uneventful, with the two of us spending most of our energy just trying to stay awake long enough that we can just go to sleep and wake up tomorrow, rather than falling asleep at noon and waking up at 4am.

i am so excited about being here.  at the moment i am also very excited about going to sleep.  i just had a bath in our gloriously clean tub, and now my plan is to lie here in my pajamas, try to read for about five minutes, and then go to sleep for about fifteen hours.  we'll see how it all falls out.