Last Saturday night I boarded a plane and flew to London, landing early Sunday morning. After a snafu with the shuttle bus and a very circuitous car ride to the hotel, I dropped my luggage, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and walked through Regent’s Park on my way to see my friend, Tracy.

Tracy and I met at Queens University of Charlotte, where we both received our MFAs – her’s in Creative Nonfiction, mine in Poetry. She’s an expat who’s lived in London for a couple of years and so of course I had to see her when I had a whole day free, before meetings took over my life.

We started with a walk, she had to show me something. We turned a corner and she pointed to the blue sign:

The blue plagues can be found throughout London, apparently there’s over 900, each commemorating where a famous person lived or worked. It was pretty cool to see these signs and what they highlighted. It also made me realize how many famous people have spent time in London.

After snapping pics we headed off to brunch, as I absolutely needed food. After eating our fill we started walking again, this time in the rain. It’s London, it always rains!

Finally, we arrived at our destination, a place I’ve been wanting to check out since I discovered them on social media: The Vagina Museum! The museum wasn’t fully open when we were there, in fact, it was little more than a gift shop. But the exhibits and displays open soon (16 November) and the space is great. In fact, I’m hoping to coordinate a poetry reading there next summer!

After wandering around Camden Market for a bit, where the museum is located, we headed back to Tracy’s fabulous flat. I then Ubered back to my hotel and proceeded to sleep for 12 hours.

The next day was filled with meetings and then in the evening I took the train to Paris. My next post will chronicle that portion of my trip!