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I got really lazy and never finished last November's trip. I'll get to that eventually along with Chicago/Minneapolis and Sacramento, but for now I'm going to blog about my most recent trip: a few days in London and Dublin followed by some vacation in Cardiff and Edinburgh.

London Day 1:
I can usually get some sleep on long flights, but sadly this was not the case this time. I landed groggy and tired in London at 7AM, and then had a bit of a nightmare trying to clear customs. I got in a line that then got folded and put at the back of a longer line that wasn't there when I first got off the plane. It took 2 hours to shuffle through and get into the UK.
I had made arrangements to stay with a family friend, and it was very simple to get to her place from the airport. London sure knows how to do public transportation! A quick 20 min. trip on the express train to Paddington, and then a few tube stops to Ladbroke Grove and I was good to go. It was great to see Freya and her roommate is very nice. I ended up crashing from jetlag for most of the morning and afternoon, but remembered to set an alarm so I wouldn't miss the London Symphony Orchestra.
The LSO was great. I grabbed a quick hummus and bread platter before the show.
The guest pianist was a famous Spanish lady, and she played some wonderful Mozart. After the Mozart piece, the Robinsons showed up fresh from their trip to Bath.
After the symphony I tagged along for a late dinner at a place called The Modern Pantry. It was a very interesting place. I ended up having 2 orders of the scotch quail egg appetizers for my meal, and they were pretty tasty.
Afterwards I took the tube back to Freya's and crashed on the sofabed.