Europe:
Well, long ago, I had a chance to go to Europe. While in college, I ended up working on the MAST (Monterey Area Ship Track experiment) and got to go to England/London for a meeting. So, being about 7 days before my funding from college expired, I decided to stay. Oh boy. So, what do I do? Get the Europass and the Britpass. Plan an itinerary that the friggin Iditarod people cringed at and hauled ass. From London To Salisbury/Stonehedge To London to Leeds to… {Check notebook} To Oxford to London to Dover to Calais to Bolunge to Paris to a wrong stop at, to Brussels to Paris to Bonn/Cologne(Koln) to Berlin to Munich(Munchen) to - to Madrid To Paris to London to Leeds to London to America. Phew, what a trek.
Part 1: From America to England
Background: Worked in college as a Meteorology student/research assistant. Got to go to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, twice, for two weeks for skiing and more realistically hard labor at 10,500 feet above sea level at a place called Storm Peak Lab. This will be covered elsewhere, hopefully, if not, ask away some day. Well At one point, when I was taking 8 credits during the summer (school from 8am till 11pm, with about 8-9 hr's of work between, except Fridays, gee, am I anal? Ah well, back to the story. I had the job of storing data for a project, called MAST (Monterey Area Ship Track experiment - ignore the E, it screws up the acronym :P) which basically consisted of a whole group of people trying to find what causes ship trails/those wisps of clouds that form high up from the plumes of ships. Conditions? Fuel burnt? A combination? The will of god? Who knows, well, we have clues now. I was archiving data for this.. Well, a year later, the person (Theresa Najita) who was working on this project was getting ready to move, just as a conference comes up, so guess who gets asked to go to London? Ta da! Ed gets a free trip to London, for 5 days. So, as I sit there pondering things, I realize, when I come back, I'll have like 4 days to work before I have to stop working at school cause my grant ends August 1. Well, a plan is formed, and the plan is, stay.
Now, I really never had the strong desire to see Europe in life, I didn't save for 4 years for it, didn't care, at that point, to be honest. Let's put it this way, my last 3 years in college involved mostly Physics, Calculus at an Engineer/Physicist level, Meteorology classes & 20 hours per week working that drove me out of my mind. I was burnt. I didn't care, while studying for my finals if I passed or failed at points. My grandma had just died a few days before Easter, so in mid May, I was pretty much numb about things. Was it fair that I got this opportunity, while people who desire it so much will never do it? No? Can I care? No. However, now, I am planing the trip from hell. I was planing on seeing like 1 city a day, sleeping only on trains, for the most part. Yea, clueless one that I was. I work, I graduate, I work, and I get ready for the conference, where I think I'll be giving a paper! That got canceled quickly though, cause, get a group of research scientists in the same room and you are going to have a LONG winded 3 days. It was LONG even knowing this, going in. I drank enough tea (normal, but I did try Earl Grey- I sugared and milked it so tasteless I could not tell the difference) to make my stomach hurt and was still passing out. Egos abound, money at stake, I did not regret my decision to try to avoid research science and not go to graduate school, at present, for Meteorology at least. When the people you propose your project for the grant money to are competing for the same money, you KNOW you are in trouble. Enough about the problems of research science, my problems will be contained somewhere on this page.
Well, to get ready for Europe, I run around like a madman. Decide to go with the Europass and Britpass. Cut the citys in half, at least, that I wanted to see. Got the backpack, tried to not overpack (I did and I didn't, you shall see what I mean) and assuaged my family's fears about being gutted overnight on a train in Italy by some gypsies… My friends all laughed at me 'You are going alone? Oh, I'd go if I didn't have *Lame excuse here, most of em COULD have come if they really wanted to and had saved money up*' Well, I put up with it, and the fact I'd be alone for about 6 weeks (I knew two people I was meeting there, so I knew that would not be so bad) in countries that did not seem to be very open to non native speakers. I found that to be total bollox, but that will be revealed too. Have a problem with graduation, they screwed up my transcript for the 3rd time, and bam, now I graduate in September, not May, though I take no additional classes in the summer. Whine whine whine. City College gets a piece of my mind soon enough, or has already? Depends on how you read this. BTW, when I watch Word 97 correct my horrid typing skills, I gotta admit that it was worth the money spent. Oh, that was one of many tangents I will embark upon in this tome. Do the research, plan my trip, yeah, yeah, here I go, time comes around, I board a plane, with 2 suit cases and a backpack from hell, yes, with the proper air port tickets, NIF for Niflheim with a connecting flight through JIG, Jigoku. So me and my professor, Ward Hindman, Ph.D. Geared up, took separate flights and headed to London by plane. Another tangent coming, I'll stop mentioning them unless there is reason cause there will be so many. After my sister smoked her 8th cigarette while mom fretted, I boarded an overnight flight to London. Dinner, for what would be one of 4 times in like 6 years, I am on a plane (Well maybe 8, if I do the math right) and I get offered Jerk Chicken. What is it? I have my theories. It's called Jerk chicken cause I get JERKED when I order it. They come back to me, last, usually, and say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, we are out of chicken, would you like fish instead?". Now, not only being an avid 'Airplane' fan, but hating the taste, I politely say, "No thank you, I'm allergic to fish, I'll just have some bread and the salad, I guess *puppy dog eyes kick in*". Well, for once, Pharaoh's heart was not hardened, and somehow I snagged, wordlessly, mind you, a first class beef dish. The stewardess just walked by, put it on my plate and walked off without a word. All I know is some guy sitting next to me was giving me the voodoo eye cause I got some cool food, with tea (& Chocolate! Try having milk chocolate with your tea some time, dip it, of course, it rocks!) and some Ice Cream thingee. I was so smug, grinning like an idiot for about an hour, then I read, caught up on notes, looked at the stars, and tried to sleep. Oh, I had some guy who had to weight 285 lbs. in front of me, SLAMMING into my knees. I swear I gave him the heimlik, after the 8th time I asked him to relax with the seat adjustment free fall's he caused. I rammed so hard into his back that he basically would have had any foreign objects in his throat evacuated. He knew better then to turn around, mind you, because I did warn him. Well, with a few hours sleep, I arrive!

London
So I land in England, OOOF! Err, wait, I was in a plane and it went smoothly. So I get there on a Monday, at like 8am their time. So, I drag my stuff onto a train in rush hour, get some looks and find my stop. Now, finding this dumb hotel took like a half-hour, in sweltering heat. Cops' giving me looks, people shaking their heads. I finally found it, after fighting off a few cab drivers, and drenched in fatigue (oh, thought I was going to say something else, ha!)