I was in London three times so far. 2009 alone and often lost in the streets, 2013 with my boyfriend of that time, which was a totally different experience itself, and in 2017, one of my darkest years emotionally. Traveling with partner can be a nice thing, but in retrospect, these travels were never so interesting or influenced me as much as my solo-travels, so I’ll skip that trip (most of the time we’re enjoyed me being a employee of a huge entertainment corporation, which allowed us to go into the attractions for free, so really nothing interesting happened then). Let’s jump directly into 2017!
The good thing when you return to old destinations is that you already know the main area, you probably saw already the most important sights and know what you missed and what you need to see this time. In 2017 I was dealing with mental stress in general, but some days before I went to London the guy I dated for some months broke-up with me and I hated the job I was doing at that time. So I was happy to get out of my normal life and in need of rethink some stuff.
This time I was in a hostel and I wasn’t aware of it while booking but it was in the same area as the accommodation I was with my ex-boyfriend four years before. When I got out of the train station and walked down the street to find the New Cross Inn I finally realized it. I was happy to be in an area I already know because quickly I remembered where I find supplies and which buses I can take to get where I wanted to go.
In the hostel I booked a female room for four. When I arrived, two beds were occupied but I was lucky and could take one of the bottom ones. I went out and came back later to find out, that another woman moved in. Or better, she was still moving in and sorting her stuff and for that it seems like she put all her belongings out of her suitcases and on every empty spot in that room. The girl sleeping on the upper bed of mine was also there, sitting on the bed and we three introduced ourselves to each other and talked while the sorting. Maria* told me and Inez* told us, that she comes from Poland actually but her life there didn’t support her dream to sing, so she decided to leave the security of it and came to London instead. She just finished a song project and was in two bands. During my stay the song was released (and it is still my ring tone) and I went to a concert of hers. I love her voice and charisma on stage, but what I love most about her is her spirit and engagement in following her dream. She is a little bit older than me and she made the decision to change her life around the age I had at that time. I admired her a lot in the first days to be that brave and resolut. She had back sets but they didn’t stopped her for trying and I wished, I would be like her. And then one day in the bus, and I still remember that I sat in the upper deck at the front, looking outside when realization hit me: I AM like her. But different. I also changed my life completely after the London/Marseille trip 8 years ago. I went back to school, made my graduation and went to university. I worked part-time in a theatre during my studies and just because I wasn’t able to find a full-time job in culture industry at that moment, doesn’t mean I’ll never find it.** I felt rock bottom during that time but in that moment I felt hope, because I realized life is a rollercoaster and a setback is not the end of the world.
It still took a while till the wounds of that time healed and I finally felt better but on that trip I found back a little bit of my spirit and I am still grateful that I met this amazing women back then and we spent time together.
What else happened in London? I went to Camden Town, ate one of the famous Baigel from there. It was different than I thought it would be but I liked it. I took a trip outside of London to Stratford-upon-Avon, which is a lovely small town and famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. It is also the crime scene in one of my favorite books so I liked to go there even more. (It is always cool to visit a place you know from books or movies etc. Mostly it is totally different than imagined but sometimes it make the story more real and gives you a nice connection with that place. Some of the spots of my travels I only visited because for that connection and I wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much as I did without it.) It rained a lot that day so I spent most of the time sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee and relaxing. This is actually another of my favorite vacation activity: sitting in a comfy place, drinking coffee, read and watch people and surroundings. There is nothing more relaxing in the world, then being with myself at peace, hanging around somewhere nice and comfy, to read and be in the moment. Sometimes I write postcards or in a journal instead of reading, but I think you get the idea. I only can recommend that instead of running from one sight to the other. Get in contact with the place you are. And also with the people. I will talk about that in upcoming posts more, because with that travel I started to do so myself and it made a huge change.
Also, I searched and found the T.A.R.D.I.S. (yes, I am nerdy), tried to get a ticket for the Globe (because of a mistake I ended up in a meeting for the new volunteers but they were really nice when they found out and just bring me back to the entrance. At that point there were so many people standing in line for the tickets that I decided to do something else), tried Pimm’s bought in front of a restaurant (which somehow was very exciting for me, don’t know why but sometimes there is an adventure in the small things) and also had a flirt with someone in the Hostel. We also had some drama in the Hostel and maybe you remember, in spring of 2017 there were some terror attacks in Great Britain. But about that I like to write another time. So keep coming back, that trip was quite an adventure.
*You probably guessed it already but of course I don’t use the real names of people I met traveling, due of respect for privacy. And I have to admit, some names I don’t remember. Especially when I didn’t stayed in contact with the persons after that travel. I do will sent the ones I still have contact with the link to the post, so they can read it, since they’re part of my story.
**Soon after that I started a job in a NGO and my masters in Education, both changed my focus a lot.
PS: Yes, finally I have more and better digital pictures from my traveling than from the ones before. Also I remember more, which is the reason why I split up the stories more and give you more details.
Travel, learn, share, repeat... 