Solo Travel

I've mentioned the benefits of solo travel before and this trip was no exception. I met some really neat people starting with the gal that sat beside me on the way to LHR.

She is a student at Boston College and was on her way to Oxford to attend a 4 week dramatic arts course specializing in Shakespeare. I don't think she has flown transatlantic many times before and it struck me just how exciting it was for her. I remember my first flight to Europe. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

Being a huge Shakespearean fan myself, we talked about the sonnet she had memorized for this course and her part as Helena in The Midsummer Night's Dream she just completed at the local theatre in Vermont.

The other times I've flown to LHR was with British Airways and you landed in nice terminals. My Delta flight landed me in terminal 4 and it wasn't very nice. The line up for passport control was ridiculous. It took well over an hour to get through.

The gregarious fellow behind me started chatting everyone up and was he ever interesting. I think he is an engineer by trade but he is a diver who manages teams all over the world and will fly to places post earthquake to rebuild damaged undersea break walls. He was in Korea doing just that not too long ago.

The 2 sets of people ahead of me were great. One was a mother daughter combo who were looking forward to their 10 days in London. The daughter is a nurse hoping to get into medical school to eventually do 3rd country community medicine. She just came back from working in Malawi.

The couple ahead of them were on their way to pick up their daughter who had just finished school and they were going to vacation in Paris and Rome afterwards. He is a part time travel medicine doctor and commented on how many more people he is seeing nowadays who are heading to Africa.

Once everyone got up to the front of the line, we all got separated without opportunity to say goodbye. Those glimpses into peoples' lives are such gems.