It was a chilly evening in early March 2016. After putting off for a year my personal goal of going to Europe, and executing secretive, yet stressful, plans over the first part of this year, my dream had come true. I was finally going to Europe! On my own! Without anyone to consider! The first time I left North America to go somewhere besides the Philippines!
That evening, I boarded a red-eye flight from Newark Airport (EWR) for London Heathrow Airport (LHR). My trip got off to an interesting start when I sat in between two ladies at the middle aisle of the plane. These two ladies were married nurses from the New York area, and somehow, we shared an engaging conversation for about three hours of the seven-hour flight. The conversation helped make the flight pass by fairly quickly, as we covered a range of topics, ranging from our careers to relationships to notable places of interest in London. Before disembarking the plane, we took a selfie as a souvenir from the most memorable flight we had.
Upon arriving at London, I experienced a culture shock as I saw smaller cars, driving on the left side of the road outside the airport terminal. The people at the airport and train stations spoke with a posh, British accent, and were polite towards me (especially the Border Patrol Guard). I boarded the London Underground subway, known as the Tube, towards the SoHo district, where I was going to be staying at for the evening. Once I arrived at SoHo, I could not figure out which way was North, South, East, or West, as the names of the streets are posted on the corner buildings themselves. How is a newbie like myself supposed to find his way if he has trouble finding the street names?! To make matters worse, the building numbers at the street where the hostel was located at were placed unconventionally. I got lost for about forty-five minutes, in what was supposed to be a five minute walk from the subway station to the hostel.
To understand what I mean, see this Google MyMaps illustration below:
That afternoon, I walked around the heart of London, taking selfies on infamous landmarks, such as Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, River Thames, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. The traffic flow on the left-hand-side of the roads still confused me, even though the streets clearly tell pedestrians to LOOK RIGHT before crossing. I felt like I was playing Mario Kart 64’s Toad’s Turnpike in mirror mode, because traffic flowed in the opposite direction from what I have been accustomed to. I would look to my left and see cars further up ahead in the road, and then look to my right and see cars speeding towards my direction. Sorry London, but my habit of looking to my left before crossing the street took precedence. Once I somewhat got my bearings straightened out, I had an early dinner and laid low for the evening before 10pm, due to physical exhaustion from the engaging conversation in the plane, and walking around London for more than three hours.
On my second day in the United Kingdom, I visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, a well-known landmark in the city. One of the ladies whom I spoke with in the plane recommended this place, because of the journey to the top of its dome. The top of the dome is only accessible by climbing up 400 steps of stairs, through narrow hallways, which are not for those claustrophobic, afraid of heights, or with above-average width. Initially, I thought the cathedral was of a Roman Catholic denomination, because of the word “Cathedral” in its name, and I heard the Our Father prayer recited inside the church. I later learned that St. Paul’s Cathedral is of the Church of England denomination, which separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 by King Henry VIII. The visitation of places without reading and understanding the historical context beforehand would become a recurring theme in my trip to Europe, and this visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral was a foreshadow on what my trip would be.
I employed a concept known as “dynamic planning”, which meant that I prioritized places to visit for a particular day, and let any outside circumstances (weather, unexpected additional/shortage of time, meeting new people) that day dictate what places I actually visit.
Following my visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral, I took a four-hour train ride that afternoon to visit my cousin and his family in northern England. I initially planned on visiting France if my cousin was not available, but since he was available, spending time with family was a higher priority than being a hapless romantic in Paris, spitting some game to the ladies with my Pepe Le Pew French-speaking impressions. I find visiting a new place fascinating, especially where someone whom I know lives, because not only do I get to see a new place with a local, but I also get to view a snapshot of their lives.
On my third day in the United Kingdom, we drove a couple of hours further north to Scotland. We arrived at Edinburgh that afternoon, and toured the area around Edinburgh Castle after a late lunch. As a note to prospective travelers, think of Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as states making up the United Kingdon, despite being classified as countries. Also, Edinburgh is pronounced “eh-din-bruh”, not “eh-din-berg”. We ended up touring inside Edinburgh Castle the following day, because the castle was closed for the day when we had arrived. We also toured part of Stirling Castle on the way back from Edinburgh, a castle known as the setting for the movie “Braveheart”.
So far in my journey at the United Kingdom, I felt the rich history and lasting influence this nation had in their culture and in most parts of the world. I felt the rich history in certain deforested parts of the rural landscape, realizing that people have established civilizations that have come and gone for millennia. I felt the rich history in the buildings and landmarks, realizing that many people died in bloody wars centuries ago serving a monarch, because being part of a tribe was essential to their identity and survival. I felt the lasting influence the British Empire had on places around the world, such as India and Nigeria, once British-ruled colonies where many of my professional colleagues are from. Above all, I felt the lasting British influence as an American, in the Americanized English language I primarily speak.
Spending time with my cousin and his family was awesome, because I caught a glimpse of their lives. I gained insights into their family life that I would like to apply when that time comes to have my own family. The one constant I found among my older cousins and their families is love for their family, especially for their children. We cannot force others to love us back, but continuing to love others without expectation is easier.
One analogy I have about unconditional love is computer networking. Computer Science lesson time!
The two types of Internet Protocols (IP) used when sending information from one computer to another are Transmission Control Protocol, known as TCP, and User Datagram Protocol, known as UDP.
TCP is considered the more reliable internet protocol, as it requires an acknowledgement from the receiver that they received the file or message. TCP is commonly used when sending and receiving e-mails, and viewing individual web pages. UDP is not as reliable, because you do not know if the receiver received the file or message. UDP is commonly used when streaming media, such as videos and Voice over IP (VoIP).
On the surface, TCP would sound like the better Internet Protocol over UDP, because of its reliability, but the problems are that TCP carries more overhead in ensuring the file or message is received, and all the parts of the file or message must be in the correct order to be usable. When it comes to loving someone, if we keep focusing our energies as to whether our acts of love are acknowledged or reciprocated, we can end up disappointed when expectations fall short of reality. UDP, on the other hand, carries much less overhead than TCP, and can transmit more data than TCP in the same amount of time. By doing our best to be that person others want to love back, without expecting the love we give is reciprocated, loving more people becomes easier and we are happier people.
Giving unconditional love to someone, especially when it is an act of kindness without expectation, is one aspect I continue to work on. Often I get disappointed when my acts of kindness do not get acknowledged, because I expected people to at least say “thanks”. Spending time with my cousin and his family in the UK reminded me that loving your family can sometimes be a one-way street, but the reward comes in how your child becomes years down the road, because your child is a strong reflection of you. While my cousins have raised their children differently, they unconditionally love their children. This comes to show that no matter how far my cousins went and accomplished in their lives, the one constant of loving their children can be traced to our grandparents instilling strong family bonds.
On my fifth day in the United Kingdom, I returned to London and spent the afternoon visiting other landmarks. I paid a fairly over-priced ticket to visit the Shard, the tallest skyscraper in Europe. Seriously, £26 (which equates to about $36) to go up 70 floors and bask in the London fog that day?! Thank goodness I was on vacation, otherwise I would have balked against visiting that building. I walked across the London Bridge and the London Tower Bridge, still confused about the traffic flowing on the left-side of the road. After two hours of touring that part of London that afternoon, I had dinner and went to bed early, because the first part of my Europe trip was coming to a close.
My last day in the UK involved an all-day trip from London to Rome, which went something like this:
- Take the London Tube from SoHo to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) (1 hour)
- Get Oystercard refund upon arriving at the airport (20 minutes)
- Check-in at London Heathrow (LHR), and board my flight to Brussels Airport (BRU) (2.5 hours)
- Enter the Schengen Area, and board my transfer flight from Brussels Airport (BRU) to Fiumicino Airport (FCO) (3 hours)
- Arrive at Fiumicino Airport (FCO), and take the Leonardo Express train from the airport to Termini Station (1 hour)
- Take the bus from Termini Station to the place I was staying at in Rome (45 minutes)
So yeah. The next post will detail the second part of my Europe trip in Rome.