twenty-five

Already 25 but yet to get on his first ever plane ride, I almost feel mortified with this admission. So just imagine my delight when my flight has been confirmed and the ticket handed over to me.

It's not just the plane ride I'm in raptures about but also the prospect of finally being able to hang around some unfamiliar places, even possibly experiencing cooler climes. I'm certain that I share with many this dream to be able to travel around. Finding some sort of a dawn to that dream is really fortunate, and I can't imagine of a more amazing start than a trip to the biggest European capital - London!

I'm almost feeling like I'm off to a wonderful holiday when the real deal is I'm about to embark upon a five-week official work assignment. But don't get me wrong, because I'm as thrilled to see Big Ben and Thames River as I am eagerly anticipating rubbing shoulders with British blokes and ladies.

At the Heathrow Airport in London, I'm totally flabbergasted as I twitch my head to the right, left and wherever. Why, our own Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Terminal 1, has seemingly become like a well-preserved museum to me. Though not as immense as the Hong Kong International Airport, which has been the first and only stop in our roughly 13-hour flight, the Heathrow Airport isn't any less impressive and astounding. Now I blame myself for wishing at one point that the opening of NAIA Terminal 3 be delayed for a few more months lest I miss seeing the interiors of Terminal 1 forever!

Don't worry, I've since promised never to make a wish of that sort again.

If I misled you into thinking that I'm going to spend my 5-week "retreat" in London, my apologies then. I'm actually lodging two-hour bus ride away from bustling London, to the north that is, right over in lovely Cambridge. So that neck-breaking episode at the airport is the most intimate I can get with London... for now, because I have to wait three full weeks before I officially jot London in my been-there-list.

Discovering

Cambridge, like I am told by the Lonely Planet travel book, is the most beautiful university town in England. Despite its laid-back and serene air, it sure is cosmopolitan.

Cambridge is also renowned as England's biking capital. A bike lane in every major road with hundreds of bikes plying on the street day in and out perhaps does it. But at first take on the bike to the supermarket I'm not certain if I enjoy it a great deal, what with the cold gust of winter wind which renders my face numb that I can barely move my lips, and fingers rigid that I almost can't snatch the brakes.

Just about everything here, foremost the weather, is different from what I'm used to back home. The roads and cars (right-hand drive/keep left is insane!), houses and buildings (which largely attest how they value history), the people and their language (though they speak English, it isn't like everyone back home speaks English at all times, with British accents at that), food (sorry not so fantastic), shopping center, supermarket (blimey, I bag my own groceries while the cashier looks on til I stuff them all in?), tv (satellite tv rocks!), workplace, sunrise/sunset (it's already bloody dark at 3 pm!), plants, animals and even lowly pests (a squirrel frolicking on the sidewalk is a common thing whereas a single ant is utterly non-existent in our apartment), and I can go on and on. Discovering that mix of trivial and grand things around is indeed what makes traveling most exciting for me.

Good thing I'm with colleagues who've been here before, at least I don't need to struggle through everything thus avoid looking so ignorant... I hope. Which reminds me, I'm the lone first-timer here while they've seen it all - London included. Huh, so what if I hang out in London by myself and no one to take my pictures? Oh no!

Surprise

Alas, I barely need to talk them into joining me in my first trip to London since the bus fare is a paltry one quid (British pound) only!

As we spend the weekend in London I've finally come to see its most enduring attractions - the Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Millenium Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower Bridge - all these have been glorified by millions of tourists time and again.

They're all magnificent all right.

I don't know but it's not those grandiose structures that fascinated me most. Maybe because I've seen them all in books and tv, only to find out the actual thing is really nothing different. London, luckily, doesn't seem to run out of surprises.

St. James Park, with its vast green lawn replete with daffodills amid towering trees, and the almost natural-looking lake filled with swans, pelicans and other species of bird, provides a much much prettier sight. Like the Rizal Park in Manila, it is situated in the heart of London, providing spectacular views of the Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.

Now, if by chance you get to hear "tube" from Londoners, it's likely they're not talking about a piece of women's apparel or that box at home we get glued to. It could simply just be the Underground - or the 14 criss-crossing lines of super-fast trains underneath the whole city! Geez, all the while I thought the MRT Ayala station was the coolest!

Since there's a subway station nearby in almost every major spot, going around the city is unbelievably a breeze, not to mention enjoyable. What's more, the footpaths are wide and clear, I can practically walk my way to anywhere!

Thames River, which cuts across London, is the entrancing counterpart of our Pasig River. Its either banks are the site of the Tower Bridge, London Eye and the majestic Houses of Parliament. It beats me though how the British could keep theirs clean while we are oblivious to all the rubbish adrift in ours, when both rivers play host to the respective nation's seat of government.

Bloody mess

While I'm into it, I must say that the British have easily won my admiration, owing it to their palpable cordiality and courtesy towards others -- which are most evident on the road. At the right traffic signal, you could step on the "zebra" line without fear of being rammed down by a speeding vehicle. It's because the rules here are respected, unlike in Manila where drivers and pedestrians crassly ignore them altogether.

While comparing Manila with London, or the British with the Filipino for that matter, may not quite suit anyone's taste, I'll brave to utter the obvious -- that our capital, where even simple pleasures such as walking could be arduous, is sooo dysfunctional.

Well, I'm just a single dot in this world that pants for better things.