As a treat to myself after graduation and one last big travel adventure before starting working full-time, I decided to take a whirlwind tour to Europe. With the help of Contiki holidays and a whole lot of my hard-earned cash, I departed on January 7th from Detroit Metro Airport on a jet plane (with two GE-09 engines in tow) en route to London Heathrow Airport. In true Michigan form, our flight was delayed (but not canceled) due to about 6" worth of snow that fell during the afternoon. It was hilarious seeing the little plows following all the planes like baby ducks following their moms. The worst part about the flight was waiting for 3 hours on the runway without being able to access the little TV's and waiting impatiently for the de-icing to commence. After what seemed like ages, we finally got on with it and were able to cross the Northern Atlantic to LHR and arrive a few hours late. The best parts of the whole flight adventure were running into a friend at Metro and being able to greet them as they returned to the US along with talking nerdy with to my row-mate on the plane. He's an astronomy professor in England so we discussed our love of "The Big Bang Theory" along with other uber nerdy subjects. One thing I didn't realize during the flight was that one of my new friends with the tour was actually on the plane. If I had known, I totally would have swapped seats and bothered him for 7 hours. Small world! Upon entering London, my biggest worry was trying to figure out the Underground. Luckily, all I had to do was hop on the Picadilly and it was about an hour ride across town to Russell Square. There were even some other girls from the States on the train to chat to.
My first night in London was pretty calm. After a lunch of fish and chips with a little reading and a nice nap to recover from jet lag, I met my roommate (from Melbourne, Australia), went to our tour group meeting at the Contiki basement, and enjoyed some classic London pub food.
And there began our adventure!
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