I guess if I told you this much I should go on..
The stars aligned, an opportunity arose. I had my sights set on Europe and so did a friend of mine. only he had the experience I lacked. we decided on going together, bought a pair of plane tickets borrowed a couple of back packs and set off. I was only able to work off a months salary but according to my partner that was enough. the infamous age of "twenty one" crept up on me and a few days later i was flying overseas without adult supervision. up until then, never had I ever been on a plane. my first flight and my first delay, yay for me. like sex, it can be a little intimidating at first. starting with a rough take off its hard to imagine the bliss that comes after leveling and letting the imagery burn into your head. endless ocean of floating beauty, clouds as far as your eyes can take you. Or, as many may know, flying over a light polluted city at sundown can be equally breathe taking. it was sixteen hours of bag check ins and flight transfers before we arrived at heath row airport London. we picked up our bags and passed through strict immigration, stamped and set free. I'm actually here, in England! Fuck, I don't speak quid, time to change currency. its not a happy moment giving 20 US dollars and getting 10 UK lbs in return. I did this about three times. with no more income, the piggy bank set aside for this trip was now broken and beginning to drain with each and every transaction. we got on the tube beneath the airport and headed mindlessly into the city. jet lagged, we emerged from the Westminster stop around eleven o'clock with nowhere to stay and nowhere to go. I remembered a hostel from random research I did beforehand, so we walked the night streets looking for free wi fi to guide us there. we found our way to the entrance of smart russel square and bumped into a group of pretty blonde backpackers. Swedish? we exchanged emails and agreed to meetup. only, I lost their contact info and absolute knew nothing about Sweden yet. the young cashier rang us up, thirteen pounds with a ten pound deposit, fine. the journey had just begun, I wasn't ripe enough to know better. a youth hostel is exactly what you would expect it to be. sort of like a day care for high schoolers on an international field trip. I was amazed at the maze of underground bunker tunnels that led you to your room. the next morning we had complimentary toast with jam and tea. the rates had already doubled so we fled before thinking twice. a quick beat-box at buckingham palace and a few snapshots of the eye made us official tourists.
we rode in red double decker buses, admired the classic automobiles, looked right before crossing streets and even went to look at pint prices in a pub. London was too expensive for us kids, we had to move on. in a failed attempt for a highway, we spent the next eight hours getting lost and spending all our money on the tube. the locals advised us to take a bus to a nearby town for hitch hiking, instead we took an over night bus directly to Paris (which we thought would double as shelter for the night). leaving the united kingdom that evening, the bus was loaded onto a ferry and shipped across the chilly English channel. we hit land two hours later, greeted in the wee hours of the night by french customs agents. Stamp! oui oui . i still hadn't any rest. my new bus mate kept our conversation going anyway, until arriving at dawn. barely the third day of travel and already the city of Paris first hand.CLICK NEWER POST.......
Airline travel is hours of boredom interrupted by moments of stark terror.
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