When I originally booked my flight to Europe, I hadn’t mapped out my route yet. I was just trying to find the cheapest way into the continent.

After I decided that I was going to spend the majority of my time in the southern parts of Europe, I wish that I had booked my entry into Barcelona or Athens. Then after I realized that there were multiple international airports in the London area, I really wished I had booked into a different city! I was flying into Heathrow Airport, out of Luton Airport, and I had just enough time to enjoy a layover in the city.

On the connecting flights from Cincinnati to Boston, and Boston to Heathrow, I made a Cincinnati friend was also about to start a European backpacking trip. We decided to have breakfast in London together near Paddington station. We were both very jet-lagged. The morning time felt like the middle of the night, but we had fun visiting and chatting about life and travels.

After we parted, I headed to the post office. I love post offices and stamps, so, of course, I had to buy some stamps. They only had King Charles coronation stamps, so I got a sheet. But the real reason I was there was to mail some tax paperwork. In the flurry of packing and heading to the airport, I assumed that I would be able to mail my papers before I left the US, but apparently most airports don’t have post offices.

Speaking of mail, I would love to send YOU a postcard during my travels! Fill out your mailing info here and I will definitely send you one! 💕

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Little Venice

During my travels, sometimes I wander around, and sometimes I get lost. I happened upon this beautiful area near the Paddington Station, called Little Venice. It is unbelievably cute with house boats, restaurants, floating businesses, and boat rentals.

I learned a new word reading the plaques along the riverwalk: “Gongoozling” – boat watching.

Let’s gongoozle together! Here are some pictures of the variety of boats.

Keeping the canals clean! – I donated a little bit of money to official looking people fundraising for the Canal & River Trust, which protects the canals and keeps everything safe and clean. Apparently the government’s funding is disappearing for canal assistance. Ugh. If you want to learn more about the Canal & River Trust, they have a lot of cool info about the canals and the projects they are doing here.

Heading to Luton Airport

Getting to Luton was a bit of a journey. First, I couldn’t figure out how to get a ticket for it, so I waited in line for assistance. There are railway strikes going on. Luckily for me the strikes were yesterday, tomorrow, and the next day, but not today!

It could have been the jet lag, but overall I felt that my experiences in London were not very intuitive. For instance, there were always paid employees nearby to help with anybody’s issues regarding travel logistics, ticket scanning issues, whatever it may be. It appeared that the majority of the people had to get assistance from the employees… A user experience designer’s nightmare, or paradise?

I took 3 different rail journeys to get from Paddington to Luton Airport. No I am off to Pristina, Kosovo!