Trip to London - chaotic security rules

I left Minneapolis on Friday,January 5th to find myself in London's Gatwick airport the next day. I didn't know my way around London, though I did check out the whereabouts of the airport which is south of London. I needed to get to the Heathrow airport for my transfer to Nairobi.

Now why was I going to Nairobi? I wanted to meet Phanice and see Africa for the first time. So it was for personal reasons - vacation and relational. Though the fact that the World Social Forum was going to start before I left was icing on the cake.

Second, I have many friends who are from East Africa. Some who had lived in Nairobi before coming to Minnesota as refugees and others who had never touched foot in Kenya. But even those who had never been there sometimes had relatives living there. So, when they heard I was going gave me gifts to bring their relatives or in one case husband. Which ended up going well, except the Oromo husband was bit mean( and the fact he had a female driver and two women in the backseat makes me think he also has 3 additional wives).

I enjoyed who I sat next to on the way to London. It was a gal from South Carolina who turned out to be a Democrat. We had a fun discussion about politics, the Iraq War, and the Presidential Race. She was all for Edwards, too bad he is a hypocrite living fully in Rich America rather than Working Class America. Nonetheless, she is reading Obama's book The Audacity of Hope and will consider him in the primary. So far I like Obama and Kucinich.

I also enjoyed a movie on my way to London - Lage Raho Munnabhai. It was hilarious! It's about this guy who works for a mafia type thug who falls in love with a very nice woman who is a famous radio personality. He has to learn about Gandhi to enter a contest and ends up seeing him! It just gets crazier from there - but the movie is amazing! A must see for any fan of comedies or independent films!

Getting to Gatwick I tried finding a way to get to Heathrow. There were the subways. So I tried that. It cost me £10, or $20 to ride. I ended up going to King's Cross and then walking with all my bags to another linkup that would take me to Heathrow. It would have been okay, except I had a LOT of luggage - max capacity from the US - and was sick. I had a bad cold, and it wasn't getting any better. Not to mention how confusing the map for the transit system was compared to Minneapolis - click on the image to see it clearer!

London was still Green. I wished my layover had been longer for I wished to see more of London. Yet, it would have been very expensive and cost me a day with Phanice - so in retrospect glad it went as it did.

Anywho, it seems that traveling to London one can bring 2 carry ons and 2 luggage. When leaving England, you can only have 2 luggage and ONE CARRY ON. Which leaves Americans struggling to consolidate 2 carry ons into one - not easy. In fact, there were garbage bins FULL of "extra" carry ons. Somehow, we were flying safer from England than the US due to this rule. Whatever, the terrorists are beginning to win is all these rules mean.
.

The flight to Nairobi was packed with British students who would be studying at in Nairobi. One thing I noticed about British women - they don't care about their looks or their hair like American girls do. They just wear it however - not even trying to look nice. The guys have long hair too, reminding me of a cross between 80s and 70s styles in America. I actually looked more normal among them than I do in the states! :D