Vacation in London
By charlotte_von_e
- 574 reads
Two years ago a friend of mine and I went to London without much
money at all.
We felt quite brave doing this but we didn?t think we had anything to
lose. We
would not have had more money if we had gone to another European city
since the
journey to London was cheap. If we added the travel cost with our
pocket money
it didn?t matter where we went. Our reason to choose London was simply
that
London is the best city for party animals like us because there is
never a dead
minute in it. But it was also because my friend Anna had met somebody
on her
vacation in Tunisia one year ago who lived in London and was working
in
theatre. She had in mind to find him.
Our plane hit the ground at Heathrow on a clear morning in July. From
the
airport we took the train to Paddington. We travelled light, with only
a
backpacker each. We got off the train at Paddington and found our way
to our
little B&;B thanks to a friendly soul on the street.
The boarding house was run by a blind woman who had her guide dog with
her at
all times. The dog was pretty forward and sniffed on us in a way that I
had
only seen dope dogs do before. The dog did not get satisfied either but
kept
sniffing on us every time we passed the reception to go to our room on
the
second floor. We began to wonder if it was something hormonal about us
that we
had not yet discovered ourselves.
First time we opened the door and saw our room we just screamed out in
the air.
Hallelujah! Our room was a dirty and mouldy nightmare. But what do you
do when
you discover that the room is mouldy? You act as if everything is ok
because
the woman could not do anything about it anyway and because you don?t
plan to
stay longer than a week. Anna got sick after two nights due to the
mould and I
had to force her to go to a doctor. Anna didn?t want to at first since
she
would have to use a great amount of our small travelling funds, but I
would not
be able to face her mum and dad again if she did not go to a
doctor.
The doctor prescribed medicine for the wind pipes, fresh air and a new
boarding
room. The latter was impossible of course. The house was full and we
couldn?t
afford to move anywhere. Poor Anna. I don?t know how she survived the
nights
but I suspected that she was spending several hours on one of the
hotels
balconies. I myself slept as heavy as ever although the mattress was
lumpy and
smelled of old fag ends.
We had bread, jam and coffee for breakfast. We ate as much as we could
and took
some with us to eat later during the day. The few pounds we had we used
for
clubbing. The nightlife had been the main cause for this trip and
neither mould
nor poverty would stop us. We had purchased our club cloths at home
because
that kind of clothing is not as expensive at home and can be found on
markets.
Anna whore white plastic shorts and a pink rubber linen. I was dressed
in a
white, plastic dress, because that was trendy then and still is, I
think. Since
we went to different clubs every night we thought we could use the same
clothes
every night too. Of course we washed them every day so that we wouldn?t
be
called the stinky ones.
Our vacation went on like this until it was two days before departure.
Then
suddenly we realised that we didn?t want to survive on white bread any
longer.
We had to choose between to buy food for our last pounds or to go
clubbing. The
choice was easy. We were going for both. Anna had still not looked up
Marc but
decided to do so now. Not to ask Marc for money but to perhaps get some
ideas.
Marc had told her he worked extra as a biker in Covent Garden during
the
daytime and was dancing in Lion King at night. We decided to go and
look for
him among the bikers. If we didn?t find him there we planned to go and
stand by
the stage entrance at the theatre.
I asked Anna to describe him so I too could look for him while we were
waiting.
And listen to this: Anna was standing in front of me, describing how
Marcs?
hair was sort of standing upwards in a funny way, in exactly the same
moment as
a smiling young man with his hair sort of standing upwards is walking
towards
us from the side. 'Anna, is that really you' he said. It was almost too
good to
be true. It felt like a dream or something. I was probably standing
with my
mouth wide open while I watched Marc and Anna kissing each others
cheeks. 'Here
he is' I said and felt stupid and laughed because Anna was actually
blushing.
Marc had quit working as a biker but still passed the area where they
were
picking up tourists every day, on his way to his dance training. Marc
was late
and had to go and asked if we would like to come with him. Perhaps
could the
dance and music inspire us to do something smart, I whispered to Anna
who
nodded to show she agreed.
The dance training had already begun. Marc warmed up for a few minutes
before
jumping into the practices with the other dancers, which were led by a
woman
with a stick. Every now and then she hit the floor with the stick to
get the
dancers attention. An exciting pattern of movements took place right in
front
of us. The dancers were either high up in the air or crawling on the
floor. It
was obvious that they were representing animals, I thought. Whatever
they were
doing, they were totally concentrated on being animals of some
kind.
Marc had said they were going to rehearse for three hours with a one
hour
brake. That meant that they would be done by three o?clock. During
those hours
nobody would need the lion costumes I had seen in a basket to the left
of the
door. I got up slowly from the floor and beckoned Anna to follow me.
The
dancers and the woman were totally absorbed by what they were doing and
didn?t
see how two Swedes and two sets of lion costumes disappeared from the
room and
the building. Out on the street we started to run.
We stopped in a small alley to gasp for breath. We got dressed as lions
while
tittering hysterically. There wasn?t a lot to talk about. We had seen
what the
dancers had done and we aimed to try to do the same.
We where heading for Leicester Square where we were going to dance for
the
tourists. But we needed a tambourine each first. And yes, I do feel
ashamed
saying it, but since we didn?t have much time we made a quick visit in
a music
instrument store to lend one tambourine and two maraca.
How shall I describe it? It was a fantastic, totally wonderful
experience and
at the same time totally wild. Anna and I danced, sang and roared as
lions for
one and a half hour. We made about eighty pounds and had a couple of
great last
days in London. And Marc? Well, when we arrived to return the costumes,
the
dancers where already gone and the door locked. We hanged the costumes
on the
door because there was nothing else to do.
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