Strawberryk's travel blogs:
|
|
 | |  |
All alone what am I going to do!!
Entry 1 of 31 | show all | print this entry |
A bit of backstory...
I was 23, just graduated college, working at Disneyland,with no real plan for the future. The idea of traveling had never really crossed my mind. None of my family or friends had been anywhere, it was just something I never thought about. One day I was working in Frontierland and a co-worker, Jackie came into my shop for a chat. And it went something like this---
Jackie- "I'd like to take a trip somewhere"
Me- "Me too"
Jackie-"I have some money saved up."
Me-"Me too"
Jackie- "We should go to Europe" '
Me- "ok!"
The plan was born.
Jackie and were not best friends or anything, sure we work together, we talk, hung out a couple of times. But we really didn't know each other very well. BIG mistake. Over the next several months, I was planning the trip on my own, emailing her with suggestions and ideas but most of the time not getting a response. The day before we were to leave I called her and asked "Your still going right?". For the whole 10 hour plane ride to London, I don't even remember if we spoke at all.
When we arrived in London we did get along for a few hours, both of us being very excited to be there. We checked into our hotel in Piccadilly Circus which if i recall had a lovely view, of a brick wall. That didn't matter though! Over the next 2 days we did some of the touristy stuff. Rode the double decker red bus around the city, took pictures in front of Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, toured the London Tower. The entire time there was just an awkwardness between us and we discovered how much of a challenge it was going to be to get along and how we really had nothing in common. She wanted to go to Tate Modern, and i have zero interest in art. I want to see history, architecture and archeology. I was an Anthropology major and I couldn't wait to get to the British Museum to see the things I had read about in textbooks for years.
The months before the trip I met a couple of guys who I corresponded with regularly online. One of which named John who lived near London. So I at least had a friend already here. He met up with us at a Pub our first night , the Glass House i think it was called. We all had a good night, but it just went downhill from there. Jackie and I were walking along the street going somewhere the next day, and she was literally a block ahead of me, walking SO fast. I couldn't walk that freakin fast and I'm on vacation damnit and I don't want to walk fast. That really pissed me off. She was a right bitch and I'm sure the feeling was mutual.
On the 3rd morning I woke up and she was gone! After the initial shock, a couple of tears, and a few minutes of fear , I began to feel a bit of ... relief. The first thing I did was run to a pay phone to call my mom to relay the horror story. My family were already freaking out about me going all the way to Europe and now they were double freaking out because i was alone!!
I just decided to take things step by step. Next thing I did was buy a cell phone. I needed the security of knowing I could call someone whenever I needed to. Just to have that feeling of connectedness. There was no way I was going home. I had looked forward to this trip for too long. I was going to go along with my plan, so I packed up my stuff and figured out my next move. I was on my way to Liverpool, alone.
For anyone who knew me, "independent" was not a word I'd describe myself with. Nor was "outgoing" (unless drunk) and I have no sense of direction. I didn't know it at the time.. but all of these things were about to change.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by strawberryk, from United Kingdom or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
