Bienvenue! Willkommen! Benvenuti!

Welcome! To Bam's European Extravaganza, or the Summer 2009 BEE. I have 2 weeks in the European Union, and I plan to do as much as I can with them...then share the stories here! Feel free to check back for my random updates.

First, an introduction. The majority of this trip will be spent in Paris with Maureen, my roommate, who has been abroad for all of BC's spring 2009 semester. She's almost done, finishing her final on the day before I fly back to the States, so there is no better time for me to share her experience. We will be traveling together to various other countries and visiting various other friends, so this trip should not only be ridiculously fun, but also very spread out.

Today, the first day of the journey, started off quite well with a cell phone mishap. My phone had died last night, and I plugged it in to charge before I went to sleep, but failed to turn the mobile network back on when the charge was sufficient. So at 6:40, I was starting to freak out because my ride hadn't yet called. My ride was, however, outside waiting for me, and HE was freaking out because my phone kept going straight to voicemail. We figured it out, I got in the car with my bags, and we headed off to Logan.

The good news is that I flew out of the country using United Airlines, so the process was 90% the same as every other flight I've ever taken. I couldn't check in online though, so I had to wait in a massive line to get to a kiosk and print my boarding pass. It said that I could check a bag for free on an international flight ($15 for domestic flights), and since it had been discussed that my bag could potentially cruise through my connection and await me at my final destination, I thought I'd save money and just check my duffel bag. More on this lie later.

Security took forever, simply because every American Airlines pilot flying out this morning got to cut in front of two women holding infants and myself. I finally got through, and they didn't steal my shower razor or any of my shampoo, so I would consider it a success.

I didn't have to wait long at the terminal, and was soon on board the largest, emptiest plane I've ever been on. From my window seat, 38A, the closest people to me were completely on the other side of the plane, with no one in the entire center group between my two seats and theirs. No one was behind me, no one was in front of me, and most importantly, no one was next to me. Another success.

My flight itinerary had mentioned breakfast, but it had not prepared me for a cheese omelet with potatoes, fresh fruit, a croissant with jam and butter, a cup of orange juice in addition to the complimentary cran-apple juice I always get, AND a pack of cheese and crackers to save as a snack. I love breakfast, and that was a damn good breakfast.

I slept on and off, sketched some website designs, watched a bit of 30 Rock (the episode where Liz Lemon goes to her high school reunion; on a side note, I had a ridiculously difficult time remembering Tina Fey's name Thursday morning on my way to my internship, but no problem knowing that her character is Liz Lemon), sat through an hour long special on Nike marketing and the swoosh, received a h-and-cheese sandwich for lunch (which quickly became a small-slice-of-cheese sandwich only, due to my vegetarian habits) finished that cheese and crackers kit to subsidize my mini lunch, slept some more, and then found myself looking out the window and realizing the plane was in a cloud as we descended. Pretty fun. The cumulonimbuses looked comfortable, and barring the high possibility of falling straight through to my death, I wished I could sit on them.

The landing was uneventful, and after confirming that I could leave the airport if I wanted to before my flight at 9:00 tomorrow, I wandered through customs. I had a great time explaining to the official that I was not staying anywhere in London tonight, and that I only wanted to go see some sites before coming back and spending the night in Heathrow, but finally my passport was stamped and I could go through to baggage claim. I didn't think I had to pick up my bag, but I asked someone just in case, and they looked at my receipt only to find that my bag was only checked through LHR. Thanks, American Airlines, I checked my bag for no apparent reason.

I had the great idea to go to Terminal 5, where I'm flying out of in the morning, to check in, get my boarding pass, and check my bag AGAIN so I wouldn't have to pay for bag storage, but unfortunately they only accept checked bags 3 hours prior to your flight. Since it was about 11 hours before my flight, I was not in luck. Even better, when I went to ask where luggage storage was, two ladies tried to tell me that I shouldn't go into the city, and instead I should sit in this cafe all night, ordering coffee every few hours and just waiting until I could go through security. After convincing them that I REALLY did want to see Big Ben, and I'd be fine, they told me where Left Luggage was and I headed in that direction.

Free of one bag and £8, I wandered back to the London Underground to figure out how to get a ticket into the city. The kiosk wouldn't take my debit because it lacks a chip, so I went to the window and bought a 1-day pass for zones 1-6. I didn't think I needed that much, but it cost less than the bag storage did, so I went with it.

Forty-five minutes later, I was fumbling around Green Park station on the Piccadilly line, trying to figure out how to put my ticket back into the stand to get out of the station. I wandered in about 3 different directions, in the rain (of course), before I finally realized that Buckingham Palace was on the other side of the large park in front of me, and that I could in fact walk through this park. So I did. I took some poorly lit photos, had fun with the Twilight setting on my camera, and went back to the station.

While it had taken me about an hour and a half to figure out where the Palace was, I still had an hour left, so I figured I could manage to find Big Ben if I really tried. My research notes from 2:00 Friday morning told me that Westminster station was where to get off for Big Ben and the Eye and other fun things, so I took the Jubilee line one stop over and wandered back out. There were 3 possible exits, and as luck would have it, the first one I tried led me right out to the Eye, around the corner from Big Ben. I took some better photos this time (still poorly lit), and headed right back inside to get back to the airport.

I had no problem getting back from Westminster to Green Park via the Jubilee line, but the Green Park stop on the Piccadilly had different times for last trains that I had seen in the center of the station. I freaked out for about 10 minutes before the first train came, and luckily it was for Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3 & 5. After another 45 minute ride, I was the only one on the train, so I took a few pictures and headed into the Terminal. I am now sitting in a ridiculously huge lobby, with a cafe to my left, British Airways in front of me, and about 7 other airlines to my right. I can't tell if the sections end at J and I can see the reflection of the others in a window at the end of this gigantic hangar, or if it really does go on farther than I can see.

I have 2.5 hours before I can go pick up my bag, since Left Luggage opens at 5:30. I have decided that I will buy 30 minutes of Internet to create this blog, post my pictures and change my Twitter status, nap until 5:30, and go take a goofy picture of myself (or two) with London-y things around the airport before I pick up my bag. Then I'll go through security around 6:00 and hang out in the apparently awesome LHR Terminal 5, before I depart at 9:05. Since my "wander London and take pictures" plan worked so well when I was sure it wouldn't, I think this plan will also be great.

I'll have limited email access, but nonexistent phone access, so if you need me, email sam.lipscomb@gmail.com. I'll post more adventures in the next few days!

Love,
Sam(bam)