This time next week, The Wayne and I will be in London. I am beyond excited to be (1) traveling again; (2) returning to one of my favorite places; and (3) getting a change of scenery. I’m also feeling a bit of trepidation at the prospect - all those germs and viruses floating around, plus… what if I don’t remember how to travel? How not to be a terrible visitor to another country. How to navigate unfamiliar things without being uncomfortable all the time. How to balance seeing and doing with relaxing and absorbing. I am aiming for more of the latter than the former. It’s part of the reason we decided to make London our destination for our first overseas trip since the Before Times. We figured we’d ease back into things in a place both familiar and not lacking in things to do.
The Wayne and I are not big planners when it comes to vacations (or much of anything, really). I like to have a vague outline with a few things I’d like to see or do and he is almost a total fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants guy. I say almost because he is insisting on a day trip to Portsmouth to see old ships, and that requires a smidgen of planning. But other than that, and tickets to a cabaret show at an old music hall, and one “nice” dinner for our anniversary, we have nothing firmly planned for the 8 days we’ll be there. Maybe dinner with friends one evening, if the timing works. I’d like to stop by my favorite spot - the South Bank Book Market, an open-air book lover’s dream beneath Waterloo Bridge, but if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay. It will be because we are doing something else great.
My first trip to London (and my first ever overseas trip) was in 2002. I was 24, and my best friend, Eileen, found a great airfare and hotel package for a long weekend in November. I didn’t even have a passport at the time; I had to do the expedited process, and I spent a couple of lunch breaks making the trek from work to the passport office on M Street in Washington, DC. We had a great time, despite some hiccups. I got hangry one night and snapped at my bestie (bad Katie); we somehow managed to pick-up two dodgy lads from Birmingham who wanted to sleep on the floor of our hotel room and whom we ran away from after a late-night meal at a KFC (the first and only time I have been to KFC…); I lost Eileen at the V&A and had terrible thoughts about never seeing her again and never getting home - I think I was crying at one point. Let’s blame it on jet lag. Eileen will tell you the low point was me stealing her bag of airline pretzels while she slept on the flight home, but she can write her own damn Substack if she wants to re-hash that ;-)
Coincidentally, The Wayne’s first overseas trip was also to London (and Paris because he’s spoiled), and it was way back in 2019. It’s a long story as to why he’d never been out of the country before, and I’ll spare you. In June of 2019, I had a work trip scheduled to Paris, and TW decided to come along. Afterwards, we took the train to London and spent a great 5 days there. It turned him into as big a fan of the city as I am, though I think it was mostly the pubs that did it. Whatever the reason, we had one of our best holidays there, and I am hoping for some of the same magic this time around.
As I said, there is not much planning involved, but I can predict with certainty that we will be making many “unplanned” pub stops, and if I happen to be passing by a bookshop, I’ll probably throw caution to the wind and have a little look-see… I don’t need much to have a great vacation - just The Wayne’s hand in mine as we wander and discover and talk and laugh. I’ve traveled a lot since that first trip in 2002, both on my own and with friends and colleagues. I wandered the Old City in Baku, watched the boat traffic go by in Bangkok, felt chills in the haunted and haunting dungeon of Cape Coast Castle in Ghana… But there truly is nothing like wandering the streets of a city I love, with the person I love, and stopping whenever I feel like it to eat the fish goujons I love.
Cheers to London!
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It sounds great. I hope you have wonderful weather, avoid germs, find some wonderful adventures.
Katie - wonderful post, I simply want to head to London and enjoy a pint (or three)!!