1 September 2008 -- 3 September 2008: London, England

So how did my trip REALLY begin?

Well, I woke up on Monday at 7:00 in the morning to pack. That's right, I was leaving for the airport five hours later and theoretically might not have been coming back to America for a year. Whatever I put in my pack would be all I had for a year. And, conversely, whatever I left behind I would be without for a year.

Obviously I was really concerned.

I had my A-team clothes and my B-team clothes sprawled out downstairs, so I simply went down and picked. Not a whole lot to it. Throw in the books I wanted to take and charge up my ipod, and I was ready to go.

One other important thing to note, though, is that before leaving Princeton I got a digital watch. This is, I believe, the first watch I've worn since going to summer camp in 7th grade, but I wasn't bringing a phone to Europe, and if two weeks in Spain back in May taught me anything it's that when you don't have an alarm you oversleep and miss your bus. Over and over again. So now I'm bling-blingin' with a Casio Illuminator. Five different alarms and a ten-year battery, bitches.

My seat on the flight to Washington was in the last row, and the only thing that made it bearable was the obviously-drunk man sitting across the aisle from me. He was passed out with his headphones on nearly from the minute he sat down, and right before take-off the flight attendant walked by, woke him up, and asked him to turn his music off. They had the following conversation.

Flight Attendant: You're going to have to turn your music off.
Drunk Guy: What, are we landing already?
FA: No, sir.
DG: Then why do I have to turn this off?
FA: Because that happens during take-off and landing.
DG: We're landing now?
FA: No, sir, we haven't taken off yet.

The second leg was a bit more enjoyable, as there were movies and food, but a bit less humorous, as the movies were "Kung Fu Panda" and "Sex and the City." Yes, I watched both. Do I look like I'm ashamed of that?

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On Tuesday morning we arrived at 6:00am local time, either after a 6-hour flight with a 6-hour time change or a 7-hour flight with a 5-hour time change. Or, I suppose, a 5-hour flight with a 7-hour time change. I honestly have no idea.

I took out £40, which I figured would be more than enough for two days, and we went to the hostel.

The very first thing Megan and I did in London was get some breakfast. For obvious reasons, I thought it was only appropriate to get an English Breakfast, and we found a place that had 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 pieces of bacon, 3 pieces of ham, baked beans, mushrooms, toast, chips, and tea. It cost £5.50, which is about a pound more than I can reasonably spend on food in any one given day, and I felt kinda terrible 0afterwards, but it was an English breakfast in London! How could I resist!

To save a little money, and because Megan was going to be in London for a second night and I would be leaving after the first, we only booked one bed at the hostel. I wasn't really sure how that would work out, and was pretty sure it was very much against regulations, but figured it was worth a shot. And boy did we nail it.

Megan went in first to check in, and I walked in about five minutes later. I gave her the whole "hey, it's great to see you!" deal, asked her when she had gotten into London, and said that I had hoped she'd be there by that point. Megan in turn asked me where I was staying that night, and I said Picadilly Hostel. I asked the guy at the desk how to get there, and he said it was a ways away. I told him I felt like walking, and we were lucky that it was raining because it made walking totally unfeasible at that time. So I asked Megan if I could just hang out with her for a while before going-- and this was said loudly-- to Picadilly Hostel later to check in. Megan was a compassionate friend and said that would be fine, and I went upstairs with her and put my pack down. When we went down ten minutes later the guy was gone, some other girl was there instead, and the rest was history.

Megan and I tried to be ambitious and stay awake until that night, and so we set out to see what there was to see. We got as far as the River Thames across from Big Ben, and then walked over the bridge and saw the Houses of Parliament, but the weather was gross and we were completely exhausted, so we went back to the hostel and took a nap for about four hours. Much needed.

After waking up we got dinner at a supermarket-- I was trying to make up for the £5.50 of the English Breakfast and got a baguette and package of ham for £1.50. Just like it was back in Spain.

Then it was a celebratory "welcome to England" pint of Guinness, and then it was early to bed. Give me a break. We were exhausted.

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We meant to wake up at 8:30 on Wednesday morning for the last day in London. Instead, we woke up at 4:00 in the afternoon after nearly 17 hours of sleep. I didn't even know that was physically possible. I probably could have made it 20, though, if you want to know the truth.

As I walked out of the hostel that afternoon for the final time-- Megan was coming back that night-- I noted that we had successfully duped the manager. A very good omen for what is bound to be a year of duping and cutting costs and corners.

Because this was the last day, and there was a lot that Megan and I wanted to see, we decided to get the full-day passes. Not that this should have even been a question, but when a one-ride is £4=$8 and an all-day is £5.45=$10.90, it's pretty hard to suck it up and spend the extra three bucks. Damn pound.

The point, though, is that when you're in a cool foreign city for only one or two days you should never ever not get the all-day pass. Never. There's no reason not to have the ability to go everywhere and see everything, especially when you don't wake up until the second half of the afternoon.

And see everything we did. Or, at least, as much as we could. After lunch at an Indian place in Piccadilly-- after all, why eat English?-- we rode the Tube and saw the London Bridge (not the impressive one), the Tower Bridge (VERY impressive), the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and Hyde Park. It was a long day in a short period of time, but infinitely more enjoyable than the previous day because of the weather and the train pass.

Also during the day, we had our first Michigan-sighting: an Indian dude wearing a big-time, heavy-duty Michigan sweater. We gave him a hearty "Go Blue!" and he looked at us like he had no idea what we were talking about. We explained that we had just graduated from the University of Michigan, and when he still looked confused we pointed at his sweater. He said "I like their football team." I'd say that he was more excited to see us than we were to see him. Go figure, we were real, live Michigan people!

Incidentally, I didn't know that Michigan was any good at soccer.

(That's a "football" joke.)

After a bagel melt for dinner-- yes, an interesting choice-- we took the Tube back to the hostel and we had a celebratory "the journey begins" Guinness. I said good-bye to Megan at 12:15 and took the Tube to Victoria Station for a 2:30 bus to Luton airport because the trains stopped running at 12:30.

And thus began my adventures.

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I call my two days in London the Prelude to my adventures because, in all honesty, that's what they were. I had an incredible time with Megan in London, but two days in a booked hostel with anyone you already know is like playing Vanderbilt the first week of the season. You're pumped as hell when the game begins, because the season's just begun, and you get out to a huge lead. But then you pull your starters before the fourth quarter, the energy in the stadium goes down, and everyone starts thinking about next week's game.

The rest of this adventure is going to be like Michigan-OSU, or at least like Michigan-Notre Dame since I'm too good for it to end up being like playing Ohio State. You gotta bring your A-game for all four quarters because you might fumble the ball at the goal-line with four minutes left and give the game away. Or, to be more specific, you might get robbed by a gypsie child on your way to the airport.

Of course, the flip side is that I really did have a wonderful time in London. I had been to London with my family when I was younger and spent a few days there four summers ago, so it wasn't exactly the newest thing for me. But it was Megan's first time in London-- first time overseas, for that matter-- and I really have to say that the most fun thing for a seasoned traveler is seeing someone else's first time in a new place. I've been awed by a few places around the world and dozens of places around America and seeing Megan be awed by these places was exciting enough in and of itself. And to top it off, it's still freakin' London!

(And yes, I had to go back two years to find a season-opener that Michigan won. How sad is that?)

One final thing about the Prelude is that, when my mom dropped me off, the last thing she said to me was "Be careful." Of course any mother would tell her children to be careful when going abroad for any length of time, but something about this made me think: You know, I could really end up dying on this trip. Really. It's not like I'll be going to the Middle East or anything, but there are certainly some rough and tumble parts of Europe. Add that to my penchant for getting into trouble and tricky-to-say-the-least situations while on the road, and I really have to say that my mom's "be careful" might have had something more to it. And maybe she knows that.

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Now my journey begins.