I don’t think I can make generalizations about what I see here. All I’ve got is my specific story, so I’ll stick to that.
I’ve kind been a shut in the last couple days; I’ve gone out for food once and once for a walk. I think it’s just exhaustion; most of the rest of my time has been spent on sleep. In the days leading up to transit I was averaging 4 hours of sleep a night, and I got something like 3 hours in 30 getting here. So I’ve been bone-weary and hurting. Feeling better now though, I got a real meal for the first time since Houston, and that helps.
You know, I said I wouldn’t make any generalizations, but here’s one: This city is gorgeous. Not in a pure clean way, but in a lovely organic way. And the sheer scale of it keeps taking me by surprise. There are lots of small spaces created by twisty alleys and the like, but then you take a turn onto a throughfare and there are panoramas like that first photo. There’s a lot of dirt on everything here; it never rains to wash buildings away, and nobody has though of pressure washing, thank god, so buildings here are covered in dust and dirt.
(Aside: The 5AM call to prayer just rang out.) Earlier today, I was upstairs getting some tea (which felt great on my sore throat) and over loudspeakers from a nearby masque, a dude was leading prayers. And in what sounded like the middle of a sentence, he would just break into song for a measure or two, and then go back to talking. Completely acapella and spontaneous. He wasn’t much of a singer, but there was something beautiful about it, anyway. I was told once, by one of my professors in college, that the words of the Koran were so beautiful that there were often on the spot converts on hearing them. Which leads me to believe that that’s what the singing was. I could be wrong, though.
Then I went for a walk, just to get around and see the neighborhood a little bit. The architecture here is an odd mishmash of time periods when the country was flush and rubble. Seriously, there’s a lot of rubble from buildings torn down or fallen down. And again, there’s the scale of the place; it’s something I wasn’t struck by in any of the other big cities I’ve been to, but here the whole city is telling you it’s a big place. Tons of history. Lots of people.
There are lots of little struggles that fill up the day of someone like me, traveling in a country where I don’t speak the language. Getting food, for example. I have to just kind of point and hope for the best. Tea is easy; coffee also, plenty of that here. My money is holding up pretty well, although that may change as I eat more meals in the coming days. I think tomorrow may be a coding day; that way I can not have to worry about money so much. Although today was a coding day of sorts; I managed to get OAuth working for twitter on my blog, so the updates go to twitter and facebook again. Go me.
Heathrow is a fucking orwellian labyrinth, complete with lots of fences and bored gaurds and weirdness so that it’s right in the uncanny valley. The kind of shit that freaks you out a little after 18-24 hours of no sleep and flying. Seriously, I was turned the fuck around just figuring out which terminal I was supposed to get to. You had to go down a long hallway, don stairs, around several bends, onto a bus, up two floors, down another hallway, descend one floor, go through security again, and then you’re there. But the departures board there doesn’t show a gate until right before time to board. So you have to wait in this packed shopping mall area (high end stuff, sure, but do I really need a Luis Vuitton or a Rolex while in the middle of an airport?).
About that: Flying kinda sucks. It should be the miracle of flight, wow, soaring, but instead we’re packed like sardines inside a stuffy, hot tin can. This might have something to do with the broken back last year making sitting for 8+ hours pretty uncomfortable (bordering on painful). I almost lost my watch and flashlight on the flight between Houston and london too. Actually, first I lost the cloth I put in my laptop to keep keyboard marks off the screen, and then I liost my watch reaching for it, and then I lost the flashlight looking for the watch. And a packet of cookies. I spent 2/3rds of the flight watchless and flashlightless, a little nervous that they were gone for good. And My knees were aching, I had a sinus headache from sonome’s perfume, and my back was acting up for the first time in months and months. In other words, a pretty typical trans-atlantic flight. edit to add: I’m drafting this again on my last flight, and this one I got a row all to myself. Instant Karma.
What else? I’m smelly, sweaty, and very tired. edit: now just smelly and tired. This flight is much cooler, and I got a reasonable nap in. Now all I have to do is clear customs, hop a city bus to the main train station, and walk five minutes. Then I can rest. After I post this though.
update to the edits: took me four hours to get to my hostel, walking a lot, being lost, etc, etc. That’ll get written up later though. sleep now.
So, after compiling the list the other day, I realized there were a few things I left off, and some details I left out. First of all, the towel. A Towel is very important. Normally, I would take a backpacker’s towel, which are made out of this microfiber super absorbent material, is smaller than a regular towel, and dries faster. For this trip, I’m using a shamwow, which is the same material as the more expensive backpacker’s towels, but cheaper and available everywhere.
The laptop: it kills me to say this, but packing light isn’t everything. I’m taking the big one.
Not pictured, but packed: A water filter, which was strongly recommended to me. We’ll see if I really need it.
And two more things, especially for travel anywhere with mosquitos: A sawyer extractor, and a bottle of 100% DEET. The extractor is for use on any kind of bug bite, sting, or even snake bite. The do wonders for itching bites, anyway. The DEET is to keep from getting bitten when I’m in an area with a lot of bugs. It works.
