Toronto

I am not a good traveler. I hate it and never do it effortlessly. I think flying for any distance and especially for more than 3 hours is only for the very rich.  Obama should hurry up with those super trains promised during the first election campaign.  If there were more transportation possibilities, the airlines would do more to make the flight more comfortable. 

I did priceline and thought that my flight from London to Toronto was after a 7 hour layover and the flight would take off at 12am on the 26th but it was 20 hours and I was forced to leave the airport. Of course a place to stay was not budgeted or planned so it took some real networking. First, wi-fi should be free in all airports.  Boingo should not exist.  Flights are so expensive; there is rarely time to revel in free internet. Make it free.  If water cost 4 dollars, then internet should be free.  My Nivea soft cream was confiscated.  It would have been ok but some airports let it slide and others didn't.  That cream is really expensive.

Through Skype on my ipad, I ended up in contact with a friend 3 times removed in order to stay in London for the night.  I write ipad only because my Bulgarian phone was supposed to work in London and in Toronto.  I would have had to pay roaming but it should have worked.  It did not, so I needed the internet to make the phone calls on the computer. I contacted everyone I knew who may have had a friend/relative in London.  I had time to call everyone because I was in a 2 and 1/2 hour line to go through customs after my flight.  It was insane! I cannot see London getting it together in time for the Olympics.  2 hour + cue! They were passing out water and nuts. What was odd however was no one was belligerent. Either we were tired or we were afraid that outburst are no longer tolerated in international airports.  Sure the staff could kick your ass but it is just as likely that some citizen wanting to be a hero could punch you in the face and claim he was rescuing someone from verbal confrontation.  So we silently seethed and drank our free warm water. 

I like London. I missed diversity and I didn't even know that until I was at the airport and in underground and saw all kinds of people. It was so nice! No one even looked at me. I was not special and it felt good. But that city is super expensive and also only for the very rich.

Toronto was good.  My parents came and I got rid of two suitcases.  They brought me makeup ( I spent 2 days looking all over Sofia for makeup for my complexion in vain). It's a capital European city. They have Clinique and MAC stores but they don't order all the shades.  And the 2 shirts I ordered from Doug Love Movies! I am wearing the shirts all the time now.  If there is someone in Sofia or at the excavation sites this summer who knows/likes the shirt and the show, I am never going back to the States.   

All-in-all it was an ok trip.  But all I thought about was coming back home.