Returning to Great Britain

Tower Bridge London (photo: Håkan Dahlström)

In less than five weeks, my travels will take me back to Great Britain for the first time in 14 years.

It feels like yesterday that I first approached the white Cliffs of Dover on a hovercraft from Calais, France.

(I may have been a clueless backpacker back then, but at least I knew you don't get to ride a hovercraft very often.)

The next day I took the train to London, where something possessed me to try and see as many musicals as possible in a 4-day span.

Buying restricted view seats, I saved a ton of money and doubled up with matinee showings of Rent and Oklahoma, and evening shows of Les Miserable and Chicago. In between, I hung out in Leicester Square.

On the way back from Ireland, I also took the time to visit Canterbury, which no doubt would've made one of my college English Literature professors quite happy.

Five years earlier, I'd visited Britain for the first time.

It was a two-week family trip that led me there, and along with visits to Bath, Oxford, and Stonehenge, we'd done the touristy things in London. Maybe that's why I felt no pressure to sightsee my second time around.

Returning to London for my third time, I once again have a new set of goals.

On the business end, I will be attending the annual World Travel Market, hosted in London, the first week of November.

On the personal end, I'm excited to catch up with some of my favorite British and Colombian friends I've met traveling the last five years.

And with a little luck, I'll manage to squeeze in another musical for old time's sake.

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This article was brought to you by Visit Britain.

Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio. He’s been to 66 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.