European Vacation: Day 1

Friday, May 2nd, kind of crept up on me. I had so many things left to do before the big vacay and my nerves were slowly unravelling. I knew that I wouldn't be able to relax until I got on that plane to Dallas. Luckily, I made up lists for what I needed to take with me. They helped keep me sane in the days leading up to take-off. I got my lists checked off in time to make it to the airport with 2 hours to spare.

I boarded the plane to Dallas and was unfortunately seated next to a very opinionated Republican from Iowa. He was an Obama hater, I was exhausted, so I let him rave for a while without combatting anything he had to say.

Once in Dallas, I was still feeling good. Not too tired, nerves in check and very excited about the upcoming flight. I met up with Maria and we chatted a bit before boarding. We weren't sitting together but the man who was sitting next to her was nice enough to give up his seat so that we could sit together. Little did we know what was a head of us.

The guys sitting behind us were pretty happy before take-off. They were chatting up the flight attendant which led me to believe they were already tipsy. They proceeded to order two or three vodkas at a time. The attendant kept brining them their drinks with no questions asked. They were loud and shouting. It seems like we had the trifecta of terrible passengers seated all around us. Next to me was a very sick woman who kept coughing, I assumed it was the swine flu. Next to her was her cranky toddler who kept crying. And then there were the drunks. To top it off the audio system for the plane's entertainment system did not work so we had no audio for the movies that were played.

The attendants eventually cut off the guys sitting behind us which upset one of them. He started banging his drink tray up against the back of Maria's seat and then started patting her head. I went and told the attendants and they led us straight into first class! So awesome, we were actually able to sleep a good four hours in comfort.

We arrived in London at around noon. Walking through the airport we passed by a currency exchange place and noticed that the exchange rate was 1.49:1. Yikes! We were kind of freaked out about how hard it was going to be to stretch our dollars on this vacation. After picking up our bags we made our way onto the tube. There were lots of stairs and escalators to deal with. Not so easy with two bags a piece. But we made it and Anthony picked us up at the Angel Metro station. We walked quite a ways back to his apartment and were exhausted. But we didn't want to waste any time so we headed to lunch. We went to a really cute Mediterranean place, had some wine and food and Gianluca met up with us. It was nice catching up with those two. I feel like Anthony and I can just swing back into our friendship so easily! Anthony has nicknamed Maria, Prima, because he says that in all my e-mails to him I never mentioned her name.

After lunch, we headed out for some sight-seeing. First stop, Buckingham Palace! What a sight. The gardens surrounding the palace were gorgeous and beautifully manicured. It's so strange to think that the idea of royalty still exists in this world. And that someone gets to live in such a place of grandeur. We didn't get to take a tour, though, they only do those in the summer. On the bus ride back, I fell asleep. The jet lag had really hit me and my exhaustion felt like a ton of bricks on my chest.

The jet lag only got worse. Anthony made a booking at a nice bar and hurried us out the door but I was nauseous the whole way over there. And despite my best attempts at perking up via sparkling water, I had to take a cab back home. I spent the night taking naps and waking up to Londoners in other flats partying to cumbia music (surprising here in London), "Welcome to the Jungle," Lady Gaga and "Ice Ice Baby". The group didn't come home til after 2 in the am and I was feeling better at that point so I got up to hear stories from their night out.