A London memory

Today as I sat down for lunch (reheated Indian food an leftover fish and chips) I was taken back to a day in London in 2005. Back in 2005 I was blogging, but hadn't quite started yet. Plus, I was kind of a lousy blogger when it came to trips (I have one tiny Italy post! What?! Italy was AMAZING and I only wrote ten words and posted five pictures. Shame shame).

Anyway, back to my lunch. The flavors of Indian food in one bite and fish and chips in the next speaks one thing to me: an English Pub. Someone might be surprised to find Indian food in an English Pub, but actually on most pub menus you can find one or two Indian things.

As I sat there eating, looking out at the gray windy day, a flood of memories came rushing forward.

It was maybe our third day in London, on our first international trip ever. If you've know me for awhile, or knew me when I was young, you'll remember that my heart was in one place: travel.

I could not wait for the day that I could explore international destinations. It was and is a life long dream to travel many foreign lands.

Boy, this post is long winded. Sorry about that.

Anyway, back to that day in London. It was cold. And windy. It was early spring and E and I had taken the tube to St. Paul's cathedral in the middle of downtown. St. Paul is easily London's most grand cathedral.

We exited the tube, oriented ourselves, and set off towards our first destination of the day. Once there we decided to take a tour. All I remember of the tour was it was so boring. Long and boring with a million details of dead priests.

Finally, after two hours, I convinced E to sneak away from the tour with me. Thinking back this makes me giggle, as if our tour guide didn't notice when two people left, the entire tour was six people large.

Instead we decided to walk, or climb, to the top of the tower. Up up up up. Oh my gosh. I was exhausted, but it was well worth the climb.

When we were done with our decent we found a pub across the street. Inside we decided to sit upstairs. I remember we were the only ones, and it felt so good to be inside, out of the freezing spring London weather.

We ordered the most delicious fish and chips of my life (and peas, too, because the English love peas with fish and chips).

All of these memories came in almost a flashback today, as I wiped faces, spooned yogurt, and cut up grapes. A life of traveling before kids makes my heart aflutter.

Cheers!