50.7950° N, 1.1175° W Gosport

Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore
~ L Frank Baum

 I must warn you readers before I go any further that this is my first real trip to the UK, so I'm likely to sound like a gawky tourist. 

 My travels started in Goa yesterday 21st at 11am with the flight to Bombay being delayed by 30 minutes. Not so bad since it gave us a few extra minutes to drop by and wish Aniket a happy 21st. Thankfully the trip to Mum's place and dinner with the sisters was a quiet affair, highlighted with a video call to Shayann so we could cut a cake for him, long distance.


 The sisters dropped me to the airport at 4am 22nd. The flight was uneventful but for my being surrounded by holiness - I had the middle seat in an area stuffed with swamis traveling to bless the British NRIs. So far so good.
The UK Border (yup that's what they call their Immigration counter) proved a tough cookie though. Took me the better part of an hour to cross over. So I was ravenous by the time I got to the National Express airport stop 

 It was a good thing I feasted on the most delicious salmon and cream cheese sandwich as my bus ride to Portsmouth turned out to be a 6 hour marathon. That was followed by a quick ferry ride to Gosport and a brisk 15 minute walk to Spring Garden Guesthouse and I'm finally here! 

 And this is what Portsmouth looks like from the ferry, 
and Spring Garden Lane at 8pm! 

 10pm now and finally the street lights have started up. Good night all.



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