thoughts and randomness

So I'm sitting here in a coffee shop next to Gate 403 at the  Dublin airport vainly searching for a wifi connection and waiting for my long flight back to New York.  This by the way will be my 8th flight in near as many days, only 2 more remain, and it also marks the end of my grand adventure coming to an end (temporarily!) of actually getting off the North American continent.......My mood at the moment? A bit glum and slightly melancholy because while the main focus of my trip was to run the Malta 1/2 Marathon I did manage to carve out a couple of days to explore just a bit of London and I kinda fell in love with the city.  Oh ok, the first day was nearly a complete bust because of approximately 24 hours spent in security lines, milling about in sterile airport waiting areas, and  subjected to entirely too many pressure changes whilst being flown about in giant, cylindrical chunks of metal.......and the 2nd day wasn't much better as far as how I felt but I did get myself out to explore thanks to the very detailed advice of a couple of twitter friends.

 I didn't get around to setting up any meetups because of wanting  to not be tied to having to be a certain place at a specific time any more than absolutely necessary.  Hopefully next time I will feel more like having a more structured trip and will get to meet some of the absolutely wonderful people I call friends, mentors, and advisors.

Random thoughts.......

Charlotte, NC airport is gorgeous and the people watching was fantastic.

JFK is the best for hearing a myriad of accents.

Most everybody I dealt with was extremely friendly.

London is.......well it's London.  Can't be described, has to be experienced firsthand.

Malta wasn't exactly what I expected........beautiful, but......I'll have to elaborate on this later in a separate post

Hotels.........I stayed in 2 different types, one a boutique style smaller one, the other a resort style....prefer the former even if it doesn't have near as many amenities. The latter was just sterile.

Jet lag is a right bitch

Some of the running community can be entirely too full of themselves.

Low flow toilets are not any fun to deal with

No more of this multiple flight business.......all future trips will be as direct as possible.

ALL my luggage from here on is going to be the roller style

Some people just think they are immune to the travel rules that the rest of us have to follow

The AA lines flight to Dallas has the best flight attendant out of all of them so far. He's funny, personable, quick with the quips.

I think I'm getting this security thing figured out

Sleeping next to a total stranger in a seated position isn't near as difficult as I thought it would be.

My claustrophobia didn't kick in like I thought it would (Yay!!!!!)

Am I the only one who doesn't mind sitting next to the wing area?

My stomach hates me though :-/

Bacon in the UK is not really bacon.......it's what we call ham :P

It was interesting being in a country (Malta) while it's being featured in the news due to the unrest of a nearby country.  Almost like being part of history unfolding

Free wifi rocks!!!!!!

I need to win the lottery so I can travel anywhere I want running half marathons