Arrival

The title of this blog did not allow room for the subtitle I had imagined; I wanted something like "and other adventures in Europe." Because I'm doing much more than dogsitting. In fact, the dogsitting hasn't even begun yet. But it is very difficult to come up with a title for a blog.

Be forewarned: After just a few days, I'm finding myself enunciating my t's and thinking phrases up that contain words like 'quite' and 'lovely' and 'brilliant.' I hope that this phase goes away before I return home to NY. I feel like a Texan over here, my American dialect is so pronounced.

There were just two minor mishaps on the transit over. First, the gypsy cap that delivered me to the airport--it's back left tire blew out about two miles from the airport. To my surprise, he slowly and shakily continued for the rest of the way to the airport, probably doing quite a bit of damage to his car. Then the flight was delayed by more than two hours; there was some explaination of the flight being overbooked, and those that gave up their seats had luggage on the plane that needed to be removed (they had to pull all the luggage from the plane in order to locate one remaining suitcase; I'm still having trouble believing this). I sat next to a nice but fussy Belgian woman who wasn't particularly patient about the whole thing.

And arriving here has otherwise been just excellent. I really like the Underground--cushioned seats! It runs as silently as a ceiling fan! IPods at a resonable volume level!--and I seem to be having little trouble finding my way around. Yesterday I tried to get familiar with the neighborhood where I'm staying, Islington, and then explored Soho and the West End on foot. My hosts Dilys and Tass took me out to a proper pub for dinner and I found the food to be surprisingly good. And today I went to the British Gallery--the Reading Room, I have pictures of it, it's totally breathtaking--and the British Library, which holds both the Magna Carta and scraps of paper on which the Beatles had scribbled preliminary notes for a few of thier most well-known songs. They also had an audio recording of Virgina Woolf on the BBC radio discussing what it means to write in English; I don't think I'd heard her voice before. I like Bloomsbury very much. I kept imagining what it would be like to see VW roll by on a bicycle, or to find her rolling a cigarette on a park bench in Russell Square. Then tonight I saw Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, which was absolutely exhilirating. If you ever have the opportunity, see it.

Here's a picture of the street on which I'm living.

And as for future plans, I expect to take off for Edinburgh on Friday, from there go to Dublin, return to London on Tuesday or so, and then somehow get to Spain for Barcelona and Madrid, and then return to London by the 26th, which is when I'll begin my 10-day dogsitting stint. And from there I go to Paris, where I'm staying put for 25 days. I will not complain.

I do like London very much. I've been lucky with the weather--today the sky was even blue for a large part of the day, and it hasn't yet been too cold. (Though Katie, I'll be prepared; I decided at the last minute to pack my vaccuum-sealed marshmellow parka.)

Once I figure out how, I'll put up a few photos. And I'll post another entry in a few days or so.......