One man somehow finds his way through bits of Europe.
Taking a hnt from Tim Fox I have decided to set up a blog rather than spam all my friends. I will probably update this every day until May the 18th and every other day thereafter. What happens when I get back from Europe is anyone's guess.
It has been thirty two hours since I slept for any length of time. My eyes burn, my tyoing is slow, I still can't spell. It's good to be back. I got off to a smoothe start leaving Waterloo from the Student Life Centre. After bidding goodbye to Silvia nad Daphne I picked up ny bags at the Turnkey Desk. Dmitri, you know him as Dan, let me know that the airpoter might be a little late. All things consideredteh airporter was a good deal. Only $38.00 and you're good to go. The main topic of conversation amoung the passengers was how on earth anyone could take the full 64kg luggage limit.
Pearson was quiet and I arrived at the lounge with four hours to spare. I weakened and had a nacho grande. $6.99 was not bad but the pop was $2 a glass. The food was not bad. I scratched a few notes in my little journal whiel I ate. I wrote a diatribe about how I saw a Bell Internet station and figured I would have a chance to surf and use up some spare change. I was half right. There was no internet service and the keyboard had all the spring and life of a wad of well-chewed gum. I resisted the urge to buy more gifts in the airport shops. I will be seeing two of my nieces in the final leg of this journey and the temptation to buy them more things was high.
The trip was quite easy, I brought an extra 1.5v litres of water with me and I used it all. I am beginning to believe that jet lag is mostlyt dehydration. As I watched the city dissapear below I realised that I had almost never flown durng the day. Everything looks so different when you can make out homes and cars. Still, the beauty of a city at night is something to behold. Contrary to popular belief Air Canada still serves plenty of food and free drinks. I passed on the drinks in keeping with my jet lag theory. Besides, I am going to England. There will be more good beer there than anywhere else away from Canada 
The flight passed uneventfully. The man beside me was flying to India with a two day stop over in G.B..
Hmm, speaking of luggage limits, I think that I am the only person who even knows there's a carry on limit. At the check in there's a little frame that measures the maximum size of carry on. A typical passenger is carrying a bag or two and I saw one woman with a pack so heavy that she had to prop it up on a chair, wriggle into the straps and then stand up. Maybe I had more room than I realised. I also noticed that flying in style is out. T-shirts, golf shirts and jeans are the rule. Standing in the airport waring a black blazer, slacks, decnt shoes and a tie made me feel like people were going to start asking me for directions.
My experience in Heathrow can be summed up in one word, fast. A simply staggering number of people move through Heathrow at a brisk pace, slowing for passport chscks, which are surprisingly fast as well. If you have nothing to declare, I always check this carefuly, then you just walk through. There's even a dedicated train to Paddington station. For £13 you get on a clean, modern looking train fro a shrt trip wher the british counrtyside flies by. Once inside Paddington station things slow down. Like most train stations Ihave seen Paddington is huge, it's easily the size of LPB terminal one, except that LBP des not have pigeons living inside.
I hope this blog site lets you go back and correct errors because I am making enough right now. There's nothing like a train to catch and limited time to make you type too fast.
Paddington offers everything the weary traveller could want, from beer to a shower. There are police in yellow coats everywhere and it costs £5.50 per bag to stow your luggage, after they x-ray it. Ithought that this was a good deal because I imagined myself trying to fight my way through thick crowds with my heavy bags and I was not going to stay put in the station. In retrospect I must be addled with lack of sleep and fluids. At 9:30 a.m. even London england is taking a nap. I should have just carried my bags.
Lookng out and about I found that the same postcards I saw in 1983 are still being sold here. I suppose they are traditional now. Some of you will be getting a few in the mail. Londoners are slim and fit because they spend all their money on clothes and can't afford to eat. Besides, a sandwich costs £3.00 here. At least interenet access is cheap, only £20 for 100 minutes.
Well, I am off for now. If I find a way to put pictures onthis site you'll see them soon.
-Jason