Backpacking: London

I’ve been bad about keeping this up. I’ve started writing things and never actually finished them or posted them, but the most updated thing comes from here.

And thus starts the European Backpacking Adventure. Oh yes, I said it. And here goes another check mark on the list of things that I have to do before I die.

Jill’s list of things to do before she dies:

Work on a production in a professional NYC house before age 25 [check]

Go backpacking in Europe [check]

Be successful (emotionally and financially)

Have a high position on a film or broadcast before 25 [check]

With that last point being said, a little shameless self-promotion that I will be billed as Associate Producer (so they tell me) and was the stage manager to “filmed” version of “Voices in Conflict,” which is set to air Nov. 10 on CPTV.

And back to other stuff. So the vacation list more or less looks like this:

London, Salzburg, Munich, Paris, Nice, Geneva, some area of Germany and then back to Berlin

I’m doing the whole spiel. I’ve got the backpack, the hostels, the Ryanair flights, and the trains. The only thing that’s missing is a real sense of money, but I figured that could always be worked out later…well, we’ll see.

So here I am in London staying with some friends in the NYU Abroad program. Thus far I’ve seen Buckingham Palace and seen other things from afar. Yeah, it was at night. It was cold. I was tired, hungry, lazy. I’ve got another day so I’ll shove it onto tomorrow. I’m happy to say that my list of things to do in London is nearly complete as well.  You can see it below. 

Surprisingly, crumpets are not as easy to come by as one might think.  You can get this enormous breakfast though. Looks more like a cowboy meal than a “full English breakfast.”

London is grey. That’s a given, but so is Berlin. But the transportation system here is okay. It’s spread out for me and I suppose I’m almost disenchanted by the fact that the city is rich and established. It almost lacks personality. I don’t even know if I’m forcing comparison to Berlin or New York, but London definitely has a different feel to it. As much as I had held high hopes of England, I couldn’t help but immediately feel the “Oh…you’re an American” pompous attitude. It started the moment we came in through Stansted.

“Oh, they're Americans it makes sense now,” muttered the guy checking our passports as we came up to the counter in confusion.

“And this one’s from Texas. That makes even more sense,” he commented on my friend’s passport.

Upon hearing that we’re studying in Germany, he immediately perked up to another one of us with a, “Bleiben sie hier?” to which I responded that most of us didn’t speak German. “Typical American,” he continued. So for the rest of the time I spoke German to him, wishing him a sarcastic “Schönes Wochenende,” before moving along.

Remember to make sure you know exactly what you’re getting or the restaurants will keep adding to your bill.  It’s under the assumption you’re visiting. Refuse additional foods or services and the list goes on.

But the experience of being in London I think is a nice one. I do get to see friends and experience something that I may never be able to do again.  For that I’ll take it for what it is.

The next destination: Salzburg, Austria.