The first leg of my trip was a long overnight flight from San Francisco to London. I had bought a travel pack of a size that just might qualify as carry on as I did not trust baggged handlers. I discover my mistake at the airport - I was randomly chosen for full carry-on luggage search and as all the other pasengers were boarding I had to watch them unpack everything (they wouldn't let me do it) on a small table near the boarding gate. The security agent did find a small plastic trowel I carried for digging a latrine hole and was going to confiscate it until I told him what I used it for. He did find my small Swiss army knife with its inch-long blade, toothpick and mini-scissors and he confiscated it. I gues us public high school teachers fit the profile.

And then he tried to pack it. It had taken me a full half hour to pack (cram) all my gear the fourth and final time I did it before I left the house. While I helplessly watched him attempt it, I was thinking that I might miss my first flight. I tried to talk him into letting me do it but no dice. Half the gear was still on the table when he had it as filled as he could, and they were announcing last call for boarding. Finally, he relented and let me do it. I had to unpack all of his effort and repack and just did make it onto the plane.

On the plane, no matter how I tried to get comfortable, I was not able to get any sleep. After a 10 hour flight I arrived at the London airport at 1:30 in the afternoon and found my way to the main city using the metro. After finding the hostel in the Hyde park area and then finding my room, I was off to explore the city. Even with the lack of sleep, I was so excited by the sights I was seeing that I was wide awake (and stayed that way until 11:30 pm).

The first order of business was to take my Karrimor pack to one of the London stores where they were holding a pack of a different color to exchange. I purchased the pack on sale in the only color available, black, but later contacted the manufacturer in the UK to see if I could exchange it for a different color. I wanted a lighter color to reflect heat and also one that I could put down off trail in the middle of an above-treeline mountainside in the Himalayas which would be somewhat hard to see (when and if I chose to do some off-trail exploring).

Unfortunately, when I got to the London store, I saw that the green one I wanted was a little too kaki (military looking). I knew that there was a problem in Nepal with the Maoist rebels and did not want to be mistaken for government troops or aforeign adviser. Luckily though, they had a grey pack that was also the newer version AND all three of the minor limitations of the pack I had been concerned with were fixed with the new version (see GEAR page).

After exchanging packs and returning to the hostel to drop the new one off, I spent the remainder of the evening walking around town…which was amazing - old buildings/history everywhere. In San Francisco, I live in an 1898 victorian house and there are many other old houses and buildings in that city - but not centuries old.

The next day I moved to another hostel room because the one roommate in the first room was also a loud snorer. This problem was to be the most nagging problem throughout the entire 6 month trip (when I stayed in hostels).

I spent the next three days sightseeing: Westminster Abbey , Big Ben , St. Paul's cathedral, Hyde park, the Tower of London,the British Museum (small collection but signs that said PLEASE touch statues created centuries B.C. !!!!!!).

This was my first foreign city and I intentionally started my around-the-world trip in the UK because I knew they spoke english there and thought the culture shock would not be so great. Even still, I was a bit overwhelmed and intimidated. It took me a couple days and having to finally ask someone where the street signs were, before I finally started to be able to find my way around with some ease (they are on the corners of buildings). I also spent (wasted) much of my time going up and down very long and deep stairs and escalators to get to the metro trains…when I could have more easily walked the couple blocks between destinations. I remember on my last day in London coming upon a 400 foot long escalator that was broken (at the height of a hot and humid evening rush hour) and having to walk all the way down. What was even more surprising was to see the line of several hundred people at the bottom waiting to walk up the escalator AND nobody seemed to mind. Either the British are as polite and reserved as we have all been led to believe or this phenomena must be so common that it was acceptable to them.

After 4 days in London I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland on one of Europe's bargain airlines, Easyjet. The round trip from London to Edinburgh would only cost me about $60 dollars but I would have to take a train both ways to the small outer airport an hour from London. After clearing customs and x-ray screening I found my way to the flight waiting area and realized I had left my daypack at the x-ray machine and panicked - running all the way back to retrieve it with relief. This was my greatest fear throughout the trip - leaving something behind.

Unfortunately, the flight to Edinburgh was a little rain delayed and I missed the train from Edinburgh to Inverness by minutes and had to spend the night in a lousy hostel in a 17th century massive stone building. The next day I traveled by train through the scenic highlands to a Kyle of Lochalsh on northwest coast. I crossed the bridge to the town of Kealekin on the Isle of Skye and, while waiting for the local bus that would take me to a small village on the northwest coast of the island, I used the internet in this small town, to communicate with a Nepalese guide about my trek - way cool.

Just before the bus arrived, I was standing at the old dock of this old harbor reading a poem inscribed on a plaque that had to do with days gone by. This poem was very beautiful and would haunt the rest to my trip as I wandered through the remnants of centuries of history and wonder about those earlier days.

The hostel I took the bus to was perched on a hill in a sheep pasture overlooking the very small fishing village of Uig on the northwest coast of the Isle of Sky - beautiful . I spent the next day hiking the bluffs around the village, a much needed break from big city life . Then I traveled back to Edinburgh and found a much better hostel in a quieter part of town - a beautiful old building. Spent the next day walking around the beautiful fairytale-like Edinburgh taking in the castle, the Museum of Childhood (toys) and walks through the many cobbelstone streets between massive 17th and 18th century stone buildings.