We prepared for the hop
across the pond to visit Ian and Sarah
the same way that we get ready for every
trip.
Nug made sure that all the important arrangements were sorted and
I
started to think about what we needed to pack 12 hours before the flight.
As I
frantically tried to think of every necessity the night before
Nug would tell
me that she had thought of it weeks ago…
including setting up her phone with an
overseas data plan
so we could use the maps to navigate the city like a couple
of pros.
After the overnight flight where Aer Lingus refused to
turn off the
lights in the cabin, we landed in Blighty and took a train
into central London
where we planned to use the nifty maps feature on
Nug’s phone to find Ian and
Sarah’s flat.
We got off the train a bit groggy from the lack of sleep
and
apparently her phone was in the same boat as the data refused to work.
Of course
Nug had a back-up solution which was a printed set of
directions with a map. We
immediately got lost and spent the
next 20 minutes chasing our tails and
offering each other differing opinions
on which direction we should be headed
at each intersection.
The roller bag that I was toting took offense at the
comfort
of my left heel and began incessantly bashing it with every step.
At
this point, we scrapped the plan and went with the old fashioned
approach of
relying on the kindness of strangers.
Every limey we asked was helpful
and we
stopped every block or two to get confirmation
that we were headed in the right
direction.
Still with the lack of a grid system in the area of town we were in,
it made it tough to find their place.
We were walking down yet another road
that seemed like a misstep
and were on the verge of turning around when about a
block down
the road a familiar face popped out of a second story window
like a
groundhog poking out of a burrow.
It was Sarah and she gave an enthusiastic
wave.
We shot our hands to the sky in relief and my left heel let out a little
cheer.
Then I got kind of nervous…it was like a blind date…
we hadn’t seen Ian
and Sarah for almost a year.
What if they didn’t like us anymore?
I soon
realized that my fears were unfounded as we picked up
as if we had seen each
other earlier that week.
The apartment was bigger than I had expected for
central London,
had an extra room for us, a beautiful garden out back,
was
right next to a bus stop and the tube and
was close enough to the main tourist
attractions to be convenient
but not so close that the neighborhood was overrun
by people
with cameras around their necks.
One of the benefits of visiting
friends in an unfamiliar city
is that the lack of a map (or in our case a data
plan) is no longer a detriment.
For much of our time in London we were able to
turn off our brains
and follow Ian and Sarah like obedient puppies whether we
were headed to
Big Ben, a rooftop wine bar, the food truck rally,
a “Broadway”
show, Chinatown, a microbrewery
or a hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant.
As
with all great trips the time disappeared
but at least we had a few days in
Ireland together
before parting ways…until the next time we hop the pond to
crash their pad.
Thanks for the awesome blog post!
We miss you both dearly and can't wait for the next visit.
xx
the mcgees
