London Taxi in Piccadilly Circus

After a day of sightseeing, I swung through Piccadilly Circus on my way back to my friend's place for a quick shower and change. A few nights prior, I had walked through Piccadilly Circus at nighttime, but didn't have my camera on me, and figured a few day shots through London's equivalent of Times Square would be a good idea.

I found my way onto a corner of sidewalk at the intersection of two roads, protected by a guard rail. Taking in the sights and sounds, I started snapping pictures. People, buses, lights, cars - anything that caught my eye. I won't say that Piccadilly Circus was my favorite area within London, but it was certainly one of the busier ones.

I had never attempted panning shots, but for some reason thought that my location amid the chaos lent to trying a few. I lowered the shutter speed and focused on moving vehicles, panning the camera a touch to follow them as they passed me.

The result was kinda cool. This is one of my favorites - a classic black London taxi appearing to be blazing past me (it was probably traveling around 25 miles per hour).

Contradictions in London - Proper Anarchy

This is one of my favorite photos from the entire London trip. I'm not sure why, but I think I love the contradiction - prim and proper London in the background, such elegant names as King's Cross and Primrose Hill elegant on the sign in the distance, and the anarchy of the word London scrawled atop the bicycle sign in defiant red graffiti, partially obscuring the BT Tower.

I took this shot near Regent Park while waiting for my friend to finish up an appointment with her trainer. I remember wandering through the park, walking past London Business School, enjoying the brightly colored tulips and birds fluttering around, and having "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols randomly shuffle onto my iPhone.

A city of contradictions indeed.

Black Jacket in London

I picked the right week to have gone to London, and learned more about this week's G-20 protests during my time there. My friend Marygrace told me that bankers were encouraged to dress down this week, as not to draw attention to their profession.

I, on the other hand, always seem to dress down - and when on vacation...seem to wear the same thing sometimes! Here's a bunch of shots of me in my black jacket, parading through London.

London Underground vs. The MBTA

Having spent all of the past few days taking mass transit - both the London Underground and the MBTA here in Boston - a comparison of the two is fresh on my mind.

Granted, London is a huge, sprawling metropolis with a metro population over twice that of our fair Hub. But both cities have legacy public transportation systems that are integral to the lives of millions. The London Underground is the world's oldest underground railway, and the Green Line of the T features the United States' first rapid transit subway system. The two systems deserve a head-to-head.

I purchased an Oyster Card (their version of our Charlie Card), loaded it with some pounds, and hopped on the Piccadilly line from Heathrow Airport to the Hyde Park stop, meeting my friends at their hotel.

Immediately, I noticed how clean the interior of the train was. After hopping onto and off of a number of trains at many different Underground stops, I realized that this was the norm for both the train interiors and the station platforms. The relative luxury of any London Underground waiting area made the nasty Arlington St. T stop look like a scene from the movie Hostel. Major points for London.

I am told that the London Underground's trains are not air conditioned, and that packed onto a stuffed interior during rush hour amidst some Londoners who don't fully embrace deodorant isn't exactly the most desirable place to be during a hot summer day. A couple points for the T, though being crammed onto the red line this morning, even for just two stops, totally sucked and stunk.

My friend informed me that Londoners seem to enjoy order and queuing, sometimes not even knowing why they line up. Order is evident on the Underground. Walk left, stand right on every single escalator - it's a given, just like breathing. They are very good at abiding by this.

Waiting for passengers to exit before cramming onto the train is also fully expected and embraced. The one time I saw people rush onto an Underground train before passengers disembarked was when about ten non-English speaking 12-15 year olds pushed onto a train with people trying to get off, only to have the departing Londoners throw them dirty looks, yell at them, and in one case, grab a kid by the shirt, get into his face, and scream "YOU WAIT....YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO WAIT FOR US TO GET OFF." Today at Downtown Crossing, I saw a full train pull up, people waiting on the platform give no room for people to depart, and remaining passengers on the train not move further into the train to allow for new passengers to board. Another check for the Underground.

Service notifications. In London, digital readouts not only clearly and accurately mention what three trains are arriving next, but how many minutes until each arrives. Service announcements are made over their clear overhead audio system in formal British English. Here in Boston, we don't know when the next train will arrive, let alone the next three. And in many stations, we're lucky to decipher a few words, sometimes delivered by people with thick local accents, over the scratchy loud speakers. More points for the Underground.

In both cases, sometimes it just takes forever to get somewhere, but it's still wiser to take mass transit. Driving in London is simply a mistake. It's far more manageable in parts of Boston (though headed downtown or to the financial district is still better served by T). But Tube stops in London just seem much closer than they actually are, and I never quite mastered getting anywhere in London on time.

Finally, pricing. The Underground institutes different pricing for rush hour vs. off-peak rides, but also institutes a daily maximum. For example, if using a debit version of the Oyster Card, the Tube will basically stop charging someone after the third ride in a day, instituting a daily cap. I don't believe the T features this for its declining balance Charlie Card users.

I will admit, overall, the Tube experience puts the T to shame. Clean, open with information, and efficient - I wish the T could learn a bit from our friends across the pond.

(Lack of) Planning for Iceland

Geography fascinates me, as do unlikely vacation destinations and seeing to which locations I can get from various airports. For example, there's a direct flight from Boston to The Azores, so naturally I want to go there.

Whenever I find myself in major hubs - airports like Minneapolis-St. Paul and Houston - I love seeing what small communities have air service from those places. Knowing that cities like Del Rio, TX and Devil's Lake, ND are a short connection from where I'm presently sitting here in Boston is kinda cool.

I can't begin to count the amount of times I have been on Air Greenland's website, an airline which, at one point, had a direct flight to Baltimore.

I have booked mock itineraries from Anchorage to Vladivostok, Russia. There's a non-stop direct flight during the summer on Vladivostok Air.

Nunavut, Canada. I can get there on two flights. Why would I want to? Why not?

Habitually, I'm a planner. Yet at times when travel is involved, I am erratic - either notoriously diligent or terribly unready. It's bizarre, given the amount of trips I have taken for both work and pleasure, why I'm not buttoned-up 100% of the time.

Case in point - Iceland and London.

I have wanted to go to Iceland for years, probably ever since I realized that Icelandair had a direct flight from Boston. It seemed like such an exotic and random locale for a quick 5-hour flight. I booked fake itineraries on Icelandair.com many times until I actually pulled the trigger and did it for real.

So here I am, a few days from my departure, and I have finally decided to research things to do in Iceland. We're all set with hotel and rental car, and know that the Blue Lagoon will be part of our trip, but I know little else about what I'd like to do. As I'm an avid photographer, I know I'll be taking a ton of pictures. I hear the "Golden Circle" is good for sightseeing and that geothermal pools and a failed economy are part of present-day Iceland. But that's about all I know.

For my Great River Road trip a few years ago, I left the planned activities to Brian. He put together a detailed spreadsheet and sent it to me, estimating drive times and such. It was marvelous. I took care of hotels, which was simple.

But perhaps having a loosely planned itinerary isn't awful sometimes. I have been browsing some blogs and online travel guides about Iceland, and there appears to be many things to do at the spur of the moment.

Part of me, however, feels like I'll put together some frantic last-minute plans next week and have a rough sketch on my time abroad.