Freshly graduated and shipped off to London; Stephen Kasica is on assignment in London for the Olympics. He sent us this missive:
Dear Colorado,
One of the thrilling and rewarding benefits from travel is the moment when something you've seen on TV or read about in novels suddenly becomes real.
A picture of Tower Bridge on a website is one thing. Sitting on top of a red double-decker bus driving under it was another.
![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c913857/2147483647/strip/true/crop/612x612+0+0/resize/880x880!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkunc%2Ffiles%2F201208%2Fsk_tower-bridge_08112012.jpg)
It was also surreal to walk into the Olympic stadium, when I had watched opening ceremonies days before as an image inside a TV.
Sometimes the unreal can even become real when you travel. At St. Pancras International Station, a major train station in London, a luggage cart is half-way engulfed by a solid brick wall with a sigh that reads, "Platform 9 3/4" just overhead.
Stephen Kasica
Stephen is a Boulder resident and University of Colorado journalism grad reporting for the CU Journalism News Service. Follow his trip through the 2012 London Olympics on Twitter: @stephenkasica