Postcard 025 - Light Fixtures
Travel starts again next week.
I'll be in London for almost a week, shortly followed by New York City, and then three separate trips to San Francisco in October. While I'm looking forward to all of it for different reasons, I'm particularly excited to be back in London for a few days, especially without much of an agenda.
London is a city I love for many reasons, one of which being that when I used to travel there regularly, I often had the joy of walking to work. During my time at Facebook, I'd stay at the W Hotel in Leicester Square and walk through Soho in the mornings as it woke up. I'd see restaurants loading in produce, shop owners unlocking the stores, and long lines outside of coffee windows. My trips often landed in spring and fall, so the air was cold enough that you dressed in layers, but not so cold you wanted the walk to be over quickly. On the contrary, I really loved those walks and getting "lost" in the general direction of the office.
Layers seem to be key for this upcoming trip, as it looks like the forecast is full of rain (as a Seattleite and Acronym fan, thankfully my closet has enough Gore-Tex I could outfit a fashion show).
When I travel, at least alone, I'm often going back to the same hotels — it makes it feel a little more like home. Every time I come back, it's the little things that I remember which make it feel cozy — the nightstand or the pattern on the carpet or - in the case of the hotel in Paris - this overhead light fixture, which I would stare at before I dozing off for an afternoon nap. Granted, it was my first time there, but that cloud-like curve of the light has been living rent free in my head ever since.
Given how much the world has changed since my last trip to London in 2018 (or honestly, how much I've changed), I'll be interested to see what feels foreign and what feels familiar.