Across the Pond

National Jennygraphic – London Oct 30, 2014

Another adventure.

Since my first plane trip to Vancouver by myself in the early 2000s, I have relished being a solo traveller.

My parents never really travelled – partially because we couldn’t afford it and my dad was more of a homebody than anything else. Capricorn.

Our only family trip was in 1988 to Buffalo when we still had the Ford Club Wagon aka “the pedophile-style van.”

But that JetsGo flight (remember them?) to B.C. changed my life. Even though it was a domestic trip, it sparked my thirst for travel and the adventure that comes with it.

I am incredibly lucky. I have been to many countries and seen many things. I have lived an exciting, challenging life up until now, and love the person I am because of it.

There’s something about arriving at an airport with bags packed that makes my heart skip a beat.

But things feel different this time around.

My photographer friend Ernest once said something to me that I finally understand. “I love travelling by myself, but now wherever I go, I want (my wife) Milena with me.”

Has finding “the one” changed me?

It was really difficult leaving Mike at security check this morning. I was not expecting tears to come flowing out as he hugged me tightly and then we parted ways.

Still, I continued on, knowing that he’d be joining me in three weeks.

This time, I’m travelling with a different purpose.

Many people have been asking, “Why are you going to London?”

I have mainly answered, “To write a book.”

But maybe the more honest answer is “Because I’m young and can do so now. So, why not? I may not have the means to do so in a few years.”

And part of me wonders if you even need a reason to go somewhere. Travel is a luxury, I understand, but the more I do it, the smaller this vast planet seems.

Because seems like a reasonable answer to me.

One day, I want to step on an airplane sans luggage. Just like in Johnny Depp drug smuggling movies. Holding only a passport, a non-Costanza wallet in my back pocket.

I have never lived anywhere else other than Ontario.
It’s time.

I know it’s only a month, but it’s important to me in my mind to be somewhere else, at least for a little while. It’s not an escape from my life, it’s an addition to it.

I don’t need to be a tourist here. I just need to be.

As I was boarding the plane, I met an older couple who struck up a conversation with me.

I didn’t catch his name, but Susan was hers.

She asked me what I was doing in London and I gave her the “book” answer.

I told her part of it would be about my family’s routes – immigrants from China and Hong Kong end up in Northern Ontario and marrying in Timmins through a matchmaker.

I said I was from Englehart.

“Do you know where that is?” I asked.
“Of course,” she replied. “I’m from New Liskeard.”

And instantly, we bonded.

I described the small town of 1,000-ish and she told me she remembered our family restaurant we ran in Englehart, the Englehart Bar and Grill.

And with that five-minute connection, I remembered in a rush why I love solo travel.

The bonds – no matter how brief – you can create with strangers.

“I find people from the North more resilient than people from Toronto,” Susan said. “We are more self-reliant.”

And with that, she took her seat in the back cabin, while I found seat 20H – “keeping my powder dry” for more adventures as soon as we touch down at Heathrow.

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