Day 1 of the Europe Adventure

I guess its time to actually start writing about my trip! At first I wasn't going to do this chronologically, but since I'm struggling with gaining some momentum, I figured Day 1 is a good place to begin.

After I drove down to the big city with my Oma and Opa, I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Langley. My uncle works at the Vancouver Airport as an air traffic controller, so he offered to take me up to the tower and take a look!

It was pretty cool to get a view of the whole operation, as well as a tour of the tower. He explained what he does and how the computers work, but I'm not going to lie...I glazed over after the first couple minutes! Its pretty complicated.

Thanks for letting me take your picture and embarrass you in front of all your co-workers, Uncle Bob!

I was fascinated with this button though. I was almost afraid to be around it. What if I suddenly developed a nervous twitch, or dropped my camera, or tripped and fall on it?
I used my zoom to maintain a safe distance, you know...just in case.

My flight for London left at around 1pm (uncle was already off duty by that time, so I didn't get the intercom shout-out I was hoping for :p), and it was very...very...very...veeeerrrrrryyyyy loooooonnnngggg. At least it felt really long. I'm not totally sure how long it actually was. Probably between 8-9 hours. But it felt infinitely longer. I won't get into the many annoyances and discomforts that I experienced, but I have decided I actually don't like flying as a method of travel very much. Don't get me wrong, its very fast, and I enjoy the take off and the landing, but frig is it ever uncomfortable! Maybe if I traveled first class I would feel differently.

Kings Cross Station...which is super close to St Pancras,
and always fills me with delight thanks to the Harry Potter series. 

Anyway, we actually got into London early, and my bags were one of the first out on the conveyor belt so I busted outta there pretty quick, and caught the first train to St Pancras Station. Ahhhh...I love train travel. I really do. Why doesn't Canada utilize this swift, dependable, convenient, and comfortable form of transportation more often?? The Greyhound wouldn't stand a chance.

The British Museum hadn't lost its charm

I met up with Brit at her hotel (she had just finished her nursing practicum in Lesotho, which you can read about over at her blog) and we chilled in London for while...visiting the British Museum, and catching up in a random park.

For suddenly I saw you there...and in foggy London town,
the sun was shining...everywhere!

We didn't stay in London very long. In fact we caught the Eurostar to Paris around 4pm. Another train ride! Hooray! Ahhh...I love trains :)

We arrived in Paris 4 hours later...but I've decided to save that for a separate post! I've had fun looking through the pictures again though! I'm sure I'll be updating again soon...

EDIT: that picture may or may not be the British Museum....embarrassing. That's what I get for not sorting my photos, I guess!