London Calling

Now the work begins, I just said goodbye to my travel buddies and friends Amy and Dearsley. They'll hop a flight home and I'll catch a cab to meet up with my co-workers about an hour away in London. No more playing around and drinking during the day with no real schedule of what to do or where to be. I'm really excited but a little nervous. We had a perfect end to our vacation yesterday. We left Northern Ireland super early and drove to Dublin to catch our flight to London-Gatwick. Our plan was to drop out bags at the hotel and head to London to paint the town red. We didn't realize that shops in London are only open 10-4 on Sundays and we didn't get in until about 2:30. We weren't going to let that stop us from having a fun afternoon. So we made the 15 minute walk from our hotel to the small town of Lingfield to see what we could find. We found a couple hundred year old traditional English pub called The Cage. The weather was beautiful, and much warmer than what we were used to in Ireland, and this pub had an awesome outside seating area. We set up camp for at least a few hours and ate and drank and reminisced. It was a fantastic end to a fantastic trip. I feel so lucky to have good friends that would willingly shell out money and take time off to follow me across the pond for an adventure. My friends are experienced travelers and they've helped me to feel more confident in foreign travel, since this was my first trip. We have made unbelievable memories and I can't wait to look at all of our pics and tell trip stories when I get back in 3 weeks. It doesn't seem real that the Olympics are actually here. I'm sitting here watching the the British morning news and a Today type show, BBC Breakfast. The major excitement here is a Brit winning the Tour de France and the torch relay through all the London Burroughs leading up to the opening ceremonies on Friday. I can't wait to see all the scenes I've only seen on tv in person! I can't wait to see what the next 3 weeks has in store for me. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated as to what venues I'm at each day and who I'm interviewing. The dream is about to begin!