Day One - London

We land. We tube. We walk. We find the hotel. This in and of itself is already a huge accomplishment after 9 hours on a plane. The London House Hotel is our refuge in the lovely and quiet area of Bayswater (Paddington), West London. We arrive too early to check in to our room so we gladly relinquish our backpacks and head out to take care of business, finding a proper pint. We head to an old favorite, The Churchill Arms. We settle into a cozy corner by a fireplace, sip a London Pride and come to terms with the fact that we are, indeed, in London. We eventually check into the hotel and belly flop on the bed. Jet lag is taking hold. I put together a plan: Dinner at The Prince Edward then off to a bar called the Shacklewell Arms for a Factory Records tribute party. Sausage roll and fish

& chips in our bellies. We arrive at the venue after a bit of a journey, a girl is crying and fighting with the door man as we walk up. We open the doors to a tightly packed dive bar washed in red light and filled to the brim with London's hipsters, cool kids and well just plain kids. We order a drink and shimmy outside. We find ourselves in a brick wall enclosed patio surrounded by smoke and man buns. I promptly spill my drink, we head back inside. We make our way to the dance area in the back of the club. We stand around on the outskirts of the crowd, I am waiting for a familiar song. New Order Bizarre Love Triangle comes on, I frenetically weave my way up to the stage with a mission to dance. After we have our fill of long bathroom lines and squeezing through crowds we decide to call it a night. The tube has long since stopped running so bus transportation is our only option, and it's a lousy one. We will need nourishment for this trek so we (along with most of London's late night revelers) stop at McDonald's. It's packed with loud groups leaving piles of trash in their wake. After many wrong bus stops, wrong buses, transfers and waiting at cold, shady bus stops - we make it back to the hotel. Sleep. Swift and sweet.