Last Stop, London!

We just rolled into London a few hours ago and they set us loose after doing a quick tour past Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. You know, the places to see if you've never been here before. Now, it's time to go to the places that you only find out about once you're here...

It's a strange thing to delve into the psychology of how your living arrangments affect the way that you live and your general disposition. Take, for instance, some observations I've noted about how continuous tenting has affected our group, myself included. We now have no problem whatsoever with sitting down anywhere, anytime as long as there isn't shit there. Even the most prissy girls have had to loosen up on their public presentation because showers are usually days apart instead of daily. You get used to having no private space, eating meals with your plate on your lap, sleeping with the constant threat of rain making life miserable and countless other inconveniences that you would never think of in "normal" life.

The thing that made all of this so obvious was when we pulled into one of our rare non-tenting sites. The Winchester Vineyard graciously hosts the SSU trip every two years and their recent renovations made it a pleasant place to stay. Their lobby area was set up like a living room, with couches, coffee tables and cafe-style round tables abounding. Right next to it was a massive kitchen which puts the ghetto double propane burner we've been cooking on for the last two months to shame. Seriously, everyone was way too happy about this, myself included.

And then the perks of marriage came in. The singles all had to sleep in a big common room, but the married couples each got their own private room! It was a thing of real beauty. They also had a lovely youth room complete with a snooker table, foosball, PS2 and just loads of space for hanging out. This last bit is something we've also been missing. What do you do when it's dark at your campground, but there's nowhere to hang out other than your tent? You go to bed early every night, that's what. Well, here we were actually able to hand out together in comfortable space and it made everyone way too happy again...

Anyhow, enough behavioural psychology. I just found that bit of life on the go interesting to note. It'll also be interesting to see how we adjust to life back at our last campground tonight.

This is it. It's our last stop on our Euro-adventure. I can't believe it's been nearly 8 weeks already. I can't believe I'll be in Canada soon. It'll be bittersweet, that's for sure. Look out London, I have three days of Euro-adventure to fill, and here I am!