Wednesday, February 21, 2007

London with Tummy Troubles

Well, I did it. I went on a lonnnnnnnnnnnng plane trip and stayed in a foreign country-took the lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggerrrrrrrrrr trip home and survived...with crohn's. I even drank the water a couple of times.

Here is the update on London toilets: not bad. Hard to find in places, sometimes key places. But, I survived with no mishaps. (better than my trip last year to PA where there was one)

Places and foods to eat that are relatively safe also easy to find. (one unfortunate meal in Oxford set off an afternoon of bathroom trips-of the run and wish for really good toilet paper sort and also the sort where you wonder whether it is worth it to actually leave the bathroom.) shrug...so not really bad.

The rest of the trip was my normal good and bad mix. I did ok for the most part by being really careful about food choices but overtiredness and such caused problems (ok such=my period which is never tummy friendly)

Plane wasn't bad even though I had tummy troubles on the way home. I swear they let you use the toilets sooner and later on the long distance flight.

Now that I am home though...ugh. I think my body decided that it can fall apart. We had to stop several times on the way from the airport to the house and I am becoming intimately reacquainted with the bathrooms at work and home. sigh.

Only other tummy trouble comment is FOOD SMELLS and PEOPLE SMELLS. If your tummy troubles are aggravated by such things-prepare ahead. One museum smelled like a crockpot starting at about 10:30. Perfumes, colognes, cigarette smoke and people sweat/wet smells are omnipresent at the museums and on transportation as well as at any shop or restaurant. (speaking of the more lung aggravating of the smells-note that you can't get a primatene or similar inhaler from a drugstore there, so don't leave yours at home.)

2 comments:

TW said...

Really, the food in England wasn't a problem. Of course, I didn't see a single fish and chips place that wasn't super fussy....so I didn't even get any fish and chips.
The one meal wasn't English food-it was ummm I forget what they called it but was a nice falafal and potato thing. Falafal is a chancey food at home because of the sesame factor. It apparently is chancey there for the same reason. All and all, English food no problem-plenty of choices in most places. English food smells:problematic-but then again-there are places I avoid at all costs in town because of food smells.

Umm yeah on the Thai food...I have enough issues with Thai food here. I can't imagine what real thai food would do. (which is really too bad because I seriously love thai food)

And really, if I had not had the time change/busy day factor + my period I could have done fab I think.

Anonymous said...

Ahh - TW - you will have to return! Fish and Chips in English Pubs! If you find the right pub its *almost* worth the pain. Re. food smells, public loos etc. - there can be no doubt, London is a big, smelly, over-crowded city. God help the tummy troubled searching for a loo in a stinky rush-hour tube station. Blech. The rest of England is much nicer.