The Collective Blog Art, British, Literature, Travel

Nerd Travels, Part I: Pre-flight Jitters

I’m going on an adventure.

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yes, I’ve used this before. Bite me. I will always post Martin Freeman.

Tomorrow, I leave for London. By the time this is posted, I will already be in one of the world’s greatest cities, absorbing every bit of knowledge and history that I can. Like a sponge. You may call me Sponge-Nerd.

I’ve travelled extensively throughout my almost-three decades of life, but no matter what, about 48 hours before I board a plane, my entire body begins to hum in anxiety and nervous excitement. You’ve probably felt that hum before. Maybe not for travelling, but for that cute guy or gal sitting next to you on the bus, or for that small-venue concert of your favorite band, or standing in line for 8 hours for the midnight showing of The Hobbit. (This post is entirely Martinized. Get over it.) Anyway, that hum, the singing electricity pulsing throughout your nervous system, that’s why I travel.

I feel alive.

“I’m going to London!” my brain screams, “I’m going to fucking London!”

London. England. Great Britain. The United Kingdom. The heart of fandoms on Earth. Here resides the creative heartbeat of the worldwide nerd-brain. Here is where Pottermania began. Here gave us the legend of Merlin and King Arthur. Here birthed Doctor Who. Here spawned Sherlock. Here brought the Narnians. Here created Middle-earth. Shakespeare. Dickens. Austen. Gaiman. Here. 

APTOPIX London Olympics Closing Ceremony
This is how my heart feels when I think of what the British have done for the collective creative mind.

I don’t have a plan. I don’t have an itinerary. I’m going to go into the city, get lost, and see where I end up. Why don’t I need an itinerary? Why don’t I have a plan? Simple. I don’t need one. There is too much culture and literature and history and awesome to be contained into an itinerary. London, much like a fandom, is an experience.

I will walk and I will experience. The singing electricity in my veins will perform arias. And as I walk the streets where literary and creative giants have lived and stood and breathed and wrote, and I will know that so many of us have done the same things, seen the same sights, and appreciated them more because of our fandoms. I will think of us, the nerds and geeks and eccentrics, and I will think, “Isn’t it beautiful, what we share?”

Isn’t it, though?

To be continued…

-The Collectress

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