Drift Reality > London, England > Arrival in London - March 2004

When I got off the plane at Heathrow airport this past Thursday, I realized it had been over five years since I last stepped foot in London. That first trip to London eventually became the inspiration, which has filled me with the compulsive urge to travel every chance I get.

I remember the first time I arrived, it was at Gatwick. I had two over-sized duffel bags which I couldn't carry for more than about one hundred feet before I had to stop and rest. To make matters worse, I had arrived on a Monday morning during rush hour and the only way to get to my dorm was to take the ridiculously crowded above-ground train.

Standing amidst a swarm of men and women in business suits, I stared dumbfounded out the window as waves of British neighborhoods streaked before my eyes. Although they shared all the intrinsic characteristics of any neighborhood you would expect at home: windows, roofs, chimneys, gardens, etc. - there was something inexplicably (in my simple mind) different about them that made me smile in wonderment.

Five years later, that initial sense of wonder at how the difference and similarity of the world can blare into you simultaneously, once again hit me as I was visiting my old digs in Southwark, near the London Bridge tube stop.

Click here to read about my trip to Southwark.