Dropping Coffee LGW

Disclaimer: Between jet lag, pints, walking tours, vodka and false warnings about bars closing at midnight my brain power is functioning at only a fraction of it's regular horsepower and this is going to be a quickie post.

We arrived safely in London yesterday morning their time - I'm still not sure what my time is. Although I didn't get off to the best start after I cleaned off my spilt coffee and rearranged the onerous backpack I am pleased to say that I officially mastered the London train and subway system. (FYI if anyone is ever looking for an Amazing Race navigator you should totally shortlist me - it's a gift).

Anywho, we made it over to Chad's flat which including us is currently housing 8 flatmates and much to my chagrin contains no visual references to Mary Poppins.

We met up with Cam and Emily pretty quickly and toured around Notting Hill and Hyde Park in an effort to avoid the mass insanity of the London City Marathon. It was a fantastic day with occassional brilliances of weather.

Chad met up with us and we sauntered down Oxford Street into Soho for dinner before we engaged in the time-honoured British tradition of getting laquered and being flirty. We dumped off our stuff and finished the night in Vauxhall where we met up with former Calgarian and newly-minted Londoner Matt.

With Chad and Cam working today we're putting on our finest fanny packs and getting our inner-tourist worked out. Better pics today (I swear).

New word of choice: rubbish

The Last Mile

Oh boy. Tomorrow we finally leave for our European adventure. Needless to say there's about a million and five things flying around my head and my five different lists are becoming so arduous to manage I think I need to create a list list.

For those of you who are strangers to some or all of us, this blog is an effort to detail the travels of Josh, Mitch and Andrew. We're three boys who currently hail from Calgary who's myriad paths somehow brought them together to become great friends and agree to this undertaking.

The road to "the day before" hasn't necessarily been smooth and despite the best efforts of Icelandic volcanoes, RBC Insurance and the first rainy day in Calgary in 6 months for Andrew to move during we are actually, unbelievably ready to go.

Perhaps as a final trial, I received some distressing news yesterday: my grandmother of 92 passed away after a long battle with dementia. It had been years since I saw my grandmother with a hint of recognition of who I was in her face so this passing is truly a release. And as she has embarked on her final journey, I am preparing to embark on what is hopefully the first of many.

I know I will think often of my grandmother over the coming weeks and months and reflect on the kind of amazing experiences she must of had over the last 92 years - as well as those experiences that she had the joy of knowing just unto herself. Living through the Depression, World War II, giving birth to seven amazing children and the joy of watching her family grow exponentially as those children begot their own; there is no question that Mary Partington lived a full, rich life that above all was filled with love.

I have been lucky enough to share some traveling experiences with my grandmother to PEI when I was young and we shared the common bond of living and loving the city of Montreal in some of our formative years. It is in that spirit of experiencing something amazing during what precious time we all have that I want to dedicate this trip to my grandmother's loving memory and the hope that she has arrived at a more peaceful place after an extraordinary life.