London

Today marks my 8^th night in London and this is actually the 2^nd hour I have of “just sit” time since I’ve been here. I hate sitting in an empty hotel room so I have been on the go pretty much all the time, getting only about 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I am finally living the “normal” 25 year old lifestyle and I am EXHAUSTED. But I am happy to be making the most of my time in London. Most of that activity has been thanks to my wonderful friend Valerie who has let me join in on all her various activities. She and I used to work together at Deloitte, along with the other Hilton co-worker I have traveled here with (Brian) which is just kind of funny.

Thursday I arrived at the airport at 6:35am (1:35am ET) after leaving Austin around 11am ET the day before. I only slept about 2 hours on the plane which did not bode well for the day ahead. After making it through customs, I headed to the office for a full day of work. When I got back to the hotel around 7, I had just enough energy to find some food at a grab and go place in Trafalgar square and then proceeded to collapse into bed. Unfortunately, I think the time change & the IV of coffee I consumed completely messed with my system & I woke up at 12:30am and didn’t fall back asleep til around 4:30am. I even did a workout at 2:30am in the hotel gym (I know, I know, crazy). Luckily after that I adjusted to the time change pretty well.

Friday was another day at work then Brian and I met up with Valerie for dinner at a fancy French steak and frites place. The place is a set menu and does two plates of steak and fries. It was delicious and great to catch up.

Saturday Val and I met up with her friend Susan and Susan’s 2 year old son Alex for a run. Val took me past all the big sights near my hotel including Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye, and the river. It was a great route. Afterwards, Val ran home while I grabbed lunch, checked out the Monet exhibit in the National Art Gallery, and then stumbled onto a Dutch pride festival in Trafalgar Square. Then it was my only hour of “down time” before heading off to meet Val and her work friends for a pub crawl. At the first pub, we ran into other Deloitte people from the Mclean office doing a global assignment, AK, Bill, and Steve. It was really great to see them. I worked with Bill for 3 weeks of my Deloitte career but they were three of the best weeks. They were talking about all the traveling they have been doing and it definitely made me a bit jealous.

The pub crawl lasted the rest of the evening. I headed home a little after 11 because I was joining Val and some more of her friends for a day trip to the Isle of Wight, an island off the Southern Coast of London. Here are some pictures from that trip. It was BEAUTIFUL. We rented bikes and then proceeded to get really lost, biking up a mountain rather than taking the easy route. It would have been fine except Susan’s husband Scott was hauling Alex in a trailer. Our “peaceful” 12 mile ride turned into a panicky sprint to get back to the bike shop before it closed almost 6 hours after we picked up the bike. All in all, it was a fun, but incredibly long day. We left at around 7:30am and got back at 10:30pm.

 On the ferry to the Isle

 Val discovering a bird just pooped on her face and Susan coming to the rescue with a wet wipe - notice the laughter in the background

 Alex after his dad biked through a puddle

 beautiful scenery

random Buckingham palace shot

 

This week I have gone out to two really nice dinners after work, gone to pub trivia with Val and her co-workers (don’t ask how our team did…), and then last night I went to see Wicked. I had never seen it before but I loved it. I have also fit in a couple of early morning runs around Buckingham palace and Hyde park. The weather has been pretty awful and ever changing - rain, drizzle, rain, peak of sunshine, rain, rain, hail, drizzle, sun, downpour, hail, drizzle, sun and a solid 45-55 degrees.

This weekend I think I am doing dinner tonight, the marathon race expo tomorrow morning, a tea in the afternoon, and then will be cheering on Val as she does the London Marathon Sunday morning. I am also hoping to fit in the Tower of London but we will see.

I am definitely enjoying my time here, but I am looking forward to reuniting with my couch, DVR, and family next weekend for a short 2 weeks. Like Dorothy said, there is no place like home.

Note: my training has not fit into my London lifestyle very well, the hotel gym is AWFUL. I have kept up on running but that's about it...oops.