Homesick

I'm feeling a little homesick for London today. No, I'm not from London nor am I English, but I went on study abroad in London a couple of years ago and it was, without a doubt, the best experience of my life so far. Ever since then, every once in awhile I get a little twinge of homesickness for it. There's usually a trigger of some kind, the echoing sound of birds singing in an alley, an overcast rainy day, the clip clop of horses on payment...

Almost every morning soldiers in red uniforms would come down Kensington Road right in front of my flat riding horses, usually there would a few horses without riders, just saddles, being lead along with the group. I never knew where they were going but I figured the horses without riders were being conditioned to deal with traffic. The clip clop of their hooves was a nice way to wake up in the morning.

I'd sit at the window long after they were gone and watch people commuting to work, riding their bikes in their suits and ties, watching the fog lift off of Hyde Park. The saturated green of damp leaves and grass is still burned into my memory. Green, real true green, isn't something we see here in the desert of the Rocky Mountains.

The light was different there, it was softer, more filtered through the atmosphere, leaving a kind of soft haze around everything. Again, I think my noticing this has something to do with where I live, high in the mountains where the sun has a clear shot to the Earth. The light is brighter here, it's cuts though things. In London the light politely settles likes a heavy translucent cotton ball.

And then there was the smell. London had a distinct scent. I'm not talking about the smell of a large city, I'm talking about a scent that was uniquely London, kind of like people, we each have a particular scent that is just "us". London had a scent that I would wear like perfume if anyone could bottle it. It smelled like age to me, not rotting age or I've seen better days kind of age, it smelled like "I've been there, I've done that", it smelled like wisdom.

You're probably thinking I'm totally nuts right about now, but really, if a place has ever touched you; really burrowed its way into your heart, I think you'll understand where I'm coming from.

One day London, you and I will see each other again, and if I have it my way I won't be leaving.

If you're interested, here is my London Board on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/julia_allen3/london-england/

And here is the link to the blog I kept while I was in London http://londonsummer2011.blogspot.com/