And We're Off!

I start my first blog today, given my second trip to Europe is less than a week away. So, the following blogs, I don't know how many, will cover the two-week span of my life where I travelled to Southern England and Northern France. The following blogs will cover the activities I do and the impression I have there about these places. And they are an experiment, since I will depend on finding internet cafes on my trip to create new ones.

So before I begin, I first thank my Uncles for helping me organize my trip -- their countless times in Europe illuminated how attractive this area is and how limited I am by time to see it. Second, I thank my Dad for inviting me on so many of his business trips that I could purchase a ticket with my frequent flyers. Finally, I thank any reader that follows this blog. I have no friend to directly share this experience with, so the idea that someone is sharing it greatly increases my happiness.

With less than week left, I am surprised of how much  writing and planning this trip has already taken. Usually, I have winged most trips with little effort. After all, I have visited every state in the U.S and believed by this I was skilled in setting up this excursion. Yet, most of my domestic trips were centralized, or I went from point A to B. At other times, professionals in offices booked everything. This trip, in contrast, I have planned: setting up hotels, trains, bike rentals, plane-tickets, buses, checked maps and museum web-sites, and I feel exhausted: point A to point Z-364.

So with my plans half-baked, what do I expect England to be like? An interesting experience--perhaps strangely foreign, somewhat wacky, but deeply historic and worthwhile. I am fascinated by a place that invented the English language, fought the colonies for their independence, and created Newton, King Henry the VIII, and notoriously bad British food. I am also torn between the robustness of London and the gentleness of the English countryside, something I also identify here by having lived in the North-East corridor of the United States and the open, endless expanses of the West. So, I plan to roam a few days also. In this way, I am eager to meet with English and possibly Scottish people, which I understand, I have some common heritage, and also with other young, naive travelers like me! And with less time in France, who do I expect France to be like? ---beautiful, cultured, and relaxed. When I visited Lyon in 2009, I felt that way.

Finally, what do I expect Paris, the city of lights, to be like? -Hm.... I hope pretty damn romantic: "The Paris" Las Vegas Hotel certainly wasn't!