back.

after a lovely holiday in the states, i found myself back in london town around 12 o' clock this morning. flying over england at night is cool...the lights on the ground are snaking and scattered, total opposite of the grids patterns you see flying over the states. that said, a few tips for all y'all thinking about traveling to london:

- don't fly two separate airlines on the same journey, unless you fancy going through security in the states twice

- to that end, don't buy more liquids than you can fit into your plastic baggie until you get through security the SECOND time

- for those of you considering a connecting flight on American Airlines through ORD (Chicago), you fly out of terminal 3...even if every sign on the train indicates differently AND your flight isn't listed on any board in the terminal 3 ticketing area

- the tube closes at 12 am. you have two options if this happens: 1) suck it up and get in a licensed cab. expect to pay mega £££. 2) if you're a total cheapskate and aren't afraid of the night bus, the N9 and N76 will get you back to east central london for about £5...in just under two hours!

seriously, thank God for the TFL web site. the nice lady at the central bus station in heathrow punched in my post code and printed out the buses and stops i needed to take to get back to EC1. the central bus station itself was dodgy and smelled like a skating rink + garlic. nevertheless, i got to see trafalgar square and picadilly circus on my unexpected journey. no matter that it was at 2 am.

i woke up sad today, but the sun was shining so i dragged myself to 12:15 mass, did my turn at cleaning rota, and went on a beautiful 40-minute run. i forced myself to go somewhere new, which was cool because i saw:

- st. paul's cathedral
- the london eye
- the gherkin
- the thames, complete with duckies
- big ben
- parliament

beats running around friggin' clerkenwell AND i did a negative split on accident. time to go get some food at tesco!