The London trip 2006 (day 1)

If you asked me a few months ago that I will have to go to the UK I would not be so cheerful as the security checks at the airports would probably be as pleasant as sticking your hand in a meat grinder. Luckily the EU recently imposed new regulations that make air travel a bit easier, just as long as you stick all your aftershaves and deodorants in the check-in luggage.

Even if the the new security system was not imposed I would still have to go anyway. Needles to say, the airport security guards at Brnik airports was probably more intimate with me than many of the girls I have been on a date with :-( Just as it took me two hours to clear that unpleasant image from my head I ended in Stansted airport to be meticulously searched again. “Thankfully” this time my person was not the victim but my luggage which got just about the same hands-on experience as I did a couple of hours earlier.

I have always heard of scary stories of people renting a perfectly decent car and ending up with an equivalent to a Yugo. However my luck has held so far and this time was no different, well, sort of. The gentlemen at the rental counter was very persistent to upgrade my perfectly reasonable VW Jetta to a Merck or even a Grand Cherokee. Luckily I was not persuaded as the Jetta ended up to be just OK except for its lack of foot pedals and with a unusual gear stick. I intentionally say “unusual” as I have never driven an automatic in my life and now I was in a country where the roads are strange, they drive on the wrong (right) side of the road, it is dark, wet and I have a car I don’t know how to drive! But it was certainly nice to see that the friendly rental company assistant was on hand to explain what the little letters by the gear stick meant which didn’t help me move from the parking area as the gear stick was completely stuck. As all men, I have an ego, the same ego that does not allow me to ask for directions if I get lost, so I had a look through the car’s manual and found I just had to use the brake pedal :-)