Back three weeks...still sorting through photos

So regular blogging did not exactly gel with my travel style and lack of laptop, it turned out.  Suffice it to say, the trip was amazing, and I have a ton of photos I would like to share with people.  Rather than posting a chronicle of the trip, however, I've chosen to group them into thematic areas.  Look for more posts in the coming days, but for now, here are some cheesy tourist shots of me in front of or on top of famous things.

Horse Guards in London

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben.  I actually sat in on a session of parliament when I visited. What were they debating? Military involvement in Syria.  There were only like 18 MPs there too (all on iPads).  Was a far different case yesterday.

Royal Crescent - a beautiful row of 18th century homes in Bath.

Amazing Roman ruins in Bath.

Some pretty sweet rocks.

Selfies are hard when on a tiny terrace of a Gothic cathedral!

That's better - atop Salisbury Cathedral.

Plymouth Hoe (one of my favorite vistas of the whole trip)

Mayflower Stairs, Plymouth

At the jumper-proof roof of York Minster

Atop York Tower, a castle with a dark and bloody history.

From my nosebleeds at Croke Park, Dublin, for All-Ireland Football Quarterfinals

Had to take one of these...

In front of the Louvre, the most exhausting museum of all time.

In front of Notre Dame on a bright and sunny Parisian day.

Versailles was the most ridiculous place I went to, and I have LOADS of photos of it (and more amazing places) to share still!

Excellent weather...not so excellent WiFi

Well, I'm already on my third city and fifth full day of the trip!  Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have not been staying at places with working WiFi, unfortunately, so have been having a bit of difficulty getting online regularly.  So far I've spent three days in London, one in Bath, and am now finishing off some fish and chips at a free-WiFi restaurant in lovely Salisbury.  Starting tomorrow comes the "research" portion of the trip, and a long solo stretch to Plymouth, Bradford, Birmingham, and Stratford-upon-Avon. 

I was lucky to have had a few friends to meet up with in London (Sarah D and Rob E) as well as a travel companion from Bath to Salisbury, with a most excellent trip to Stonehenge (April H).  In this first stretch I've seen two breath-taking cathedrals, prehistoric monuments, Roman architecture, iconic works of art, a session of the House of Commons, the Changing of the Guards, and at least a million red telephone call boxes.

The weather here has been sunny everyday, incredibly pleasant (even HOT at times), and apparently completely strange for England.  As a result, I've been walking everywhere - easily 8-10 miles on some days.  I've already taken over 700 pictures, the first two days of which are only just now backing up to the cloud.

Here are some of the highlights!

This entry was backed up with slow connection.  Wrote it last night in Salisbury.  Will have pics and updates from Plymouth once I walk around a bit and eat.

Made it

Checked into my lodging in Camden a while ago and bought a hilariously British batch of goodies for breakfast (photo to come soon).  All in all it was a pleasant flight with a full and surprisingly adequate meal (way to go, British Airways!).  I'm in a bit of a time-warp after staying up all night so as not to miss my 4:30am car then snoozing a bit here and there on the plane. 

I had a window seat and love looking out the window and one very noticeable thing I saw right off the bat, after having flown on many domestic flights, was the absence of baseball diamonds.  Most people probably don't think about it much, but those weird clover-shaped clusters of dirt squares really stick out when seen from up in the air, and when they're gone, you notice!  What I did see, however, while landing in Heathrow was freaking Windsor Castle.  That was pretty awesome.  The American landscape is sorely lacking in the castle department.

Hope to get an early start tomorrow to walk around Regents Park, finally get some British cash (whoops, forgot to do that), and hit up some museums.

Gearing up

Welcome to my travel blog.  This space will document my first trip across the Atlantic, complete with photographs, funny stories, and (mostly) boring details.  I've wanted to go to Europe for years and have finally (and not without some help) made it happen.

Here's a breakdown:

Stated objective: conduct research for dissertation on the BBC Big Screens program (primarily July 16-25)

Motivation for going: vacation, cultural exchange, personal enrichment, blah blah...[insert Eat Pray Love nonsense here], obsession with British television, love of pubs, irritation at constantly being asked "how are you an art historian who hasn't been to Europe?!?!"

Cultural exchange wish list: explain baseball to non-Americans, play pick-up cricket, sing a country song at a karaoke bar (I only know three), see a live rugby/cricket/hurling/football match

Modes of transportation: plane (NY-London, Dublin-NY), train (BritRail-England 8-day pass and Eurostar London and Paris), automobile (taxi to JFK), bus (to outskirts and tourist sites), boat (Holyhead-Dublin)

Accouterments: limited to what fits inside a carry-on suitcase, backpack, and small purse

Itinerary:

July 10-14: London, England
July 14-15: Bath, England
July 15-16: Salisbury, England
July 16-19: Plymouth, England
July 19-22: Bradford/Leeds, England
July 22-25: Birmingham, England
July 25-26: Stratford-Upon-Avon, England
July 26-30: Paris, France
July 30-August 1: ?????
August 1-2: Holyhead, Wales
August 2-5: Dublin, Ireland

Most of the accommodations are bed-and-breakfasts, though there are a few private rooms in hostels, one chain hotel, and one graciously-offered spare room.  Almost everything's set, except I am still debating what to do for two days on the itinerary.  I'm leaning towards either Liverpool or something nature-oriented...or I might just wing it.

Tonight I'm going to re-pack my suitcase, as it is an exercise in Tetris-style maneuvering I need to master, clean up my apartment, download some movies and audiobooks, and finally answer the question I've been debating all week: do I stay up all night or set 900 alarms to wake up in time to catch a 4:45am car to JFK?