The Goodenough Blog

We made it!  But just barely. . . .

We packed and brought with us 4 suitcases of 70lbs each because that’s what the airline said we could bring.  We brought our computer monitors, almost ever piece of clothing I own, and 10 pairs of shoes.  And of course my sizable MAC collection.  I thought it was great how much stuff I was able to bring, until I met up with the English train/subway system.  People in Europe don’t pack giant 30″ bags, they pack these minuscule little roller bags that I swear can’t hold more that a pair of socks and a toothbrush.  And so because of our enormous bags not only are we instantly labeled “Americans” but we are also forced to navigate the underground with no elevators.

So at the beginning of our trip we decided to put 2 of the 4 bags into a storage facility at the train station so that we only had to lug around 2 huge bags while we toured the countryside.  It was still miserable with our huge bags, every time the train approached I got a little pit in my stomach as I tried to figure out where the luggage rack was and how not to block all the travelers looking pissed and in a hurry.  Every hotel room we stayed in was on the second or third floor and none had elevators, so again we lugged our bags up the stairs.  So yesterday we went to get the other bags out of storage and £96 later we were headed to the Tube and back to our hotel.  The Tube is soooo anti-luggage and anti-handicap for that matter there are absolutely NO elevators.  So as we dragged them down the stairs at one station, we had to lug them up 4 flights of stairs at the next stop.  I am never-ever doing that again.  Never.  Next time we are going to shell out the £50 and get a taxi.

Ugh, but needless to say us and all 4 of our bags arrived in Brighton tonight to a mad house and more stairs.  The couple who are renting out their house to us were here packing up their house to leave in the morning and their 3 kids were running around plus the other 2 women we will be living with for the next several months.  Our rooms are on the 4th? floor and so we carried our bags up yet another 3 flights of stairs.  We have 2 attached rooms with 2 beds, the one room is huge and perfect for our workspace.  Can’t wait to get settled in.