Welcome to the UK!

After an 8-hour overnight stay in Paris, I headed off to my next destination - the United Kingdom. I flew to London Heathrow in order to meet my friend Monique, whose flight from Los Angeles would arrive shortly after mine. Boy, that sounds so easy now that I write it. It wasn't quite that way.

I walked to customs with the thought I'd sail through and wait for Monique's flight to arrive. After all, this is England. They had barely blinked at me in Paris and Vienna. In fact, I walked into Austria without anyone even checking my passport. Plus, I just came from the Middle East. If I can get in their countries, why should the UK be different? Oh, the arrogance of America rears its ugly head.

The British gentleman at the counter took my passport and began asking a series of questions. "Where are you staying? How much cash do you have in your wallet? Why are you carrying Euro when the UK uses British Pounds? Have you EVER traveled outside the US? What if your friend's plane gets re-routed? Why did you write "unemployed" on the declaration card instead of sabbatical? What the _____ are you doing in my country (well, he didn't say that with words, but it certainly was implied)?" Do you have a clear picture in your minds?

The main issue was I didn't know where I was staying or have necessary phone numbers to prove my stay in the UK was not a threat to the country. I don't remember the last time I felt like such an idiot. He certainly was convinced of his American stereotype and I'm sad to say I didn't do anything to help it. In the end, he let me through, but the damage was done. I journaled for about a half hour to get over that one!

Thankfully, meeting up with Monique after that was a breeze. She shared my experience with customs and so we drown our sorrow with my comfort food - NACHOS.

They look a bit different, don't they? Hey, I was just thankful to be in the country. Later that day we enjoyed a proper English meal of fish, chips and tea.Our next challenge was driving on the other side of the road. We rented an automatic to make our transition a little easier. Monique was the brave one and went first.

It was like being 16 again when you first learn how to drive. Look at Monique doing drivers ed checkpoints. She was a champ!

Here's a glimpse of our first moments on the road.

I did drive toward the end of our first day in England. I made my leg of the trip a quick one by pulling into the first B & B we could find - a total of maybe 15 minutes.