SAMANTHA SMITH: Where's Sam?

For those who don't know, I just got back from being in London for a week. Don't be alarmed as if you should have know, because I didn't tell anyone. I had 'use or lose' tickets, so I booked the flight the week before I left, and just took off without telling people... you know how I thrive off the element of surprise. What's more surprising then calling me and "...what? Sam's in the UK?!?!?" I left a clever little voice mail about being out of the country, and I wrote and illustrated a little book for my roommates entitled "Where's Sam?" and left it for them to find so they wouldn't freak out when I didn't come home for a week. SO... you might ask "what does/should one do by themselves in London for a week at the beginning of February?"... well since you asked...

A. I don't recommend going by yourself and staying in a hostel if you are a small woman because they are super sketchy. Here was my bed for the first two nights, I slept with my back pack at my feet because there were 14 other beds in the room, and my company was... 'lacking' to put it nicely.

B. I do recommend walking through parks... these geese are HUGE!

C. I walked a lot because all transportation was down due to 'heavy' snowfall (maybe 10-15 inches)... in their defense it hadn't snowed there in 20 years...but really...no transportation? Anyhow, all the snow on the bikes had accumulated for no more then a couple of hours.

D. Do take a picture next to cool, old school telephone booths... it just seemed like the right thing to do.

E. Do wander about London so you are pleasantly surprised when you stumble across famous buildings... such as Big Ben.

F. DON'T go in February... it's very cold... also don't choose the one week it snows because this is the sign you will encounter at most every building of interest:

Apparently when it snows in London the whole town goes on vacation... which doesn't work so well because you can't go see anything because those people are on vacation too...

G. Do go visit John Wesley's chapel and home... AMAZING!

(Don't fall down the stairs in his house and take out the chinese woman in front of you... the bruise on your bum will last for weeks... and really hurts when you sit... 10 hour flight home really sucks even more...)

H. DO take the tube, and read the signs while you walk to, or wait for the train... they are super funny. Here are two of my absolute favorites:

(the line of interest is the forth one down, but if you can't read more then the top two, the next two lines say: "Certain is the sun rising. Not so certain is that it will shine. For all of life's certainties there are still plenty of uncertainties. We won't even talk about the state of the economy or whether Obama is really up to the job." ... so... people in England do have brains enough to know the man is incompetent... I smiled a little brighter after seeing that one!)