Little Londontown

After a year-and-a-bit-long hiatus, I'm back :)
I kind of figured that I couldn't get away with going on a semi-solo Eurotrip without writing about it somewhere.  Neither certain family members - nor I, for that matter - would forgive me.
It's funny to be here.  On the one hand, there's this sense of urgency to do something, to stick to a schedule, to find my way back without glitches and before sunset.  On the other hand, there is this overwhelmingly liberating sense that none of that is necessary.  There is no plan.  I can see what I see and get lost when I need to; there's no schedule to keep.  Only the darkness detail is somewhat more than minorly important, but even that is just a rule that I am creating for myself.  I could break it if I wanted to (my nerves and sense of self-preservation would probably less than allow it, but still - it's the principle, I say, it's the principle!).
Today I walked around Camden Town.  It took me a while to get there - figuring out the correct bus stop; figuring out which side of the street to look down first before crossing; figuring out if it was safe at all for a right-side-of-the-road-oriented American to be crossing the street here under any circumstances - but in the end I did it.  I did it!
It was funny, but now that I'm in a country that speaks my "mother tongue" (with strange accents, mind...), I kept wishing that someone on the bus would just speak some Hebrew - just a little bit of Hebrew!  Then I could ask them for directions so much more easily...
Wait, what?
Yes, my friends, you heard it here: Ariel feels more comfortable sitting on a bus full of Hebrew speakers than on one of those buses' very red, very tall, English speaking doppelgangers.
I should get over that, you say?
No I should not!  I retort.
I like Hebrew.  Fin.
Tomorrow, off to do the "Alternative London Walking Tour."  Then, seeing a dear, dear Brandeis buddy!
Cheerio :)