On the plane to Reus, Spain

19.7 On the plane to Reus, Spain



Destiny. It's a pretty interesting thing. We realized last night with Edwina, that if I hadn't met Tom, I wouldn't have been in Nottingham to meet my dear Aussie girl, because I was just so against the idea of wasting my interrail time in England. It's crazy to realize how many combinations of coincidences can affect a matter. The three Belgians are a big key in the story. Basically, these things had to happen in order for me to get to Nottingham: If Tom hadn't left on monday, I wouldn't have had a day to kill before my flight, so I wouldn't have gone to see Edwina. I wouldn't even had come to England, If I hadn't met Tom. I wouldn't have met Tom, if I hadn't stayed at the same hostel as him. I wouldn't have gone to the hostel we stayed in, If I hadn't met the three Belgian guys, who asked me to come there. And I wouldn't have met the Belgians on the train, If they had taken the right train (they were really supposed to go to Copenhagen but unfortunately - or should I say luckily - they got on the wrong train to Poznan). I wouldn't also be in Poznan if I hadn't been there to see Natalia, whom I met in Australia, and Barbara, whom I met in Mexico. So yeah. Chain of events. Butterfly effect. I don't think we would've gotten along so easily with Tom if I hadn't gone to Oz. Because I went backpacking there, we had something in common, we clicked, liked spending time with each other, and he asked me to come to London.



I'm currently on the plane to Reus, Barcelona. Honestly, I'm pretty happy getting away form England. I just hate it how much they patronise and monitor everything. I mean, they have cameras everywhere, monitoring everything. "To prevent crime." England really has an atmosphere  like in that book 1984.. Also the fact that they have all these fucking signs and announcements guiding you with everything, is doing my head in. "Mind the gap", "Please wait for your bag to move before place another one here", "Watch out for pickpockets", "Look left and right before crossing" and so forth. It really gives this feeling of the English government treating the citizens like a bunch of dumb twats that have to be guided with everything. Like a herd of blind sheep.



I might've had a bit of a wtf am I supposed to do -moment at the airport when I tried calling Mia. Her Finnish phone was turned off. Fuuuuuck. She gave me like no instructions at all how to get to their Villa in Salou. The only thing she said that there is a bus from the airport and get of at plaza Europa... err. So I just had to pay a horrible £5 on my credit card to use the Internet so I could check my facebook for Mike's/George's numbers. See, Mia's family (Mike=her big bro, my ex-classmate) and our mate George are in Salou too. Thankfully George had been a doll and had posted me the address of the place they were staying at :) Got Mike's number from a mutual friend and called him on my Finnish phone... gaaah wonder how much that will cost me :S So. It'll be interesting to see, if I do find this place :D I just know, that because this stupid flight was 20 minutes late, i'm gonna arrive at the airport at 23:20 and checking out and getting my bags will probs take another 30 minutes... So fuck, I really hope Mia and her boyfriend Dan or her parents will be home when I rock up at 1 AM. Somehow I doubt it..  Guess i'll just get some grub and sit on the steps with my backpack waiting for these two drunksters to come home.

PS. Edwina took me to Primark today so I could buy PJ shorts... and I went completely spastic.. £1 for undies ?!? fuck yes. Love that store.
PPS. WTF WE ARE LANDING ??? I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE ANOTHER 2 HOURS. L-O-L, ok, so, seems like i'll be in Spain already at ten ! wheeeee :):):):) STOKED MONSTER.

Good Mornings and Goodbyes

18.7 On the train to Nottingham

Sitting on the train and waiting for it to leave. I have a day to kill before my flight tomorrow to Reus, Barcelona, so I thought I'd go see Edwina. She's the cool aussie chick I met in Poland in my hostel, the one I danced in Deadmau5 half naked with. But it's good to be on the move again. Tom and the boys left today. Farewells... not my favourite thing in the world. A dreadful sound of the alarm waking us up, marking the last half an hour we shared before their departure. Some tears may have been exchanged on my part. But.. we'll meet.

L-Town

14.-17.7 London



I didn’t really keep a track of th things that happened in London, since the whole time I spent there felt like a mini holiday from backpacking, cause it was just the maximum of chill. I didn’t really see any of the touristy stuff which didn’t bother me, since I’ve seen it already - although that was 8 years ago and I have no photos left of that class trip... The five days and nights I spent there were just about relaxing and delicious dinners with good wine and conversation. Tom’s uncle, Michael and his wife, Karen were so welcoming and I was just so grateful for their hospitality... It really felt like they were running a hostel with all the Aussies (+ dutchie Rob and me) they had hanging around at the house. We would always wake up pretty early but end up wasting the whole morning in bed anyways. Tom would make me breakfast, which was cool since I had no clue what Karen & Michael had in their kitchen and where to find it. Every night Tom also would cook dinner for all of us and come up with these random recepies on the spot that would always taste fantastic.



How ever, we did go to Camden market with Tom on Thursday and I just fell in love with the place. It was not an average market. They actually sold quality stuff for low price. I was actually a bit dissapointed that I couldn’t find fake black converse anywhere, which is a must thing in every market. I had noticed that my fake Connies had creased from the solum on the night of the rave.. Man, four euro shoes from Poland, should’ve guessed... But on the other hand, the previous fake Cons I purchased in Estonia for 10 euros lasted me FOUR years. Shoes well served. That night we also had dinner with Karen and Michael plus Tom’s mate back from home whom he was traveling with, Kabil, who had joined us to stay at the house. We had quite a bit of wine and left to go out with Tom. We had a glass of wine/beer at Blues Bar before admitting we were pretty nackered and left back home to East Finchley. We stopped at one pub for a beer before heading to the house. That night we had a pretty intense convo with Tom about ”us”. You know how you’re backpacking everything just happens very sped up? Such as relationships. Everything just happens on fast forward and this was no exception.. :) Although we were pretty ridiculous and rushing into things way too fast way too soon, at the time it felt right and I don’t regret what we talked about, although we both admitted later on skype that we were acting a bit retarded :) I blame the wine haha. JK ;)
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On Friday we left to town with Tom and Kabil. Can’t really remember our purpose but at least we went to Liverpool Street to the business section and walked around. I took a photo of that ridiculous ”egg” that is supposedly a business building !!! What the fuck. Design to the max. When we left back to the house, Kabil took the tube straight home but me and Tom took the path throught the park and got a bit lost but eventually found our way back pretty easily. Harry, Tom’s other mate, he was traveling with, had finally decided to come and stay with Tom’s uncle too and I was happy ro see him cause I had been talking with him about photography and video cameras at the party on Wednesday. Also Rob, the dutch guy who had been the dj at the party came over. All the guys knew Rob from back home – his big brother worked at Botanical - the bar with Tom and Rob had also visited them in Adelaide and stayed for a month. So they were talking about Adelaide to the extent that I was getting bored. But then Tom cooked everyone dinner and all of us backpackers ate with Tom’s family again and had a lot of wine so it was very pleasant. After dinner we went to look for Tony, another mate of the guys from back home who had been traveling e.g in South America (jealous!). We went to this hostel bar to wait for him and man was that bar horrible. There was this one super lame black guy that was using this same lame tie technique to all the blond chicks. Me and Harry were observing him work his magic and finally when Harry went to the bathroom and the others were out for a smoke, the guy approached me looking very innocent and wanting me to tie his tie. ”Hell no, I know what you’re trying to do.” :D He was just so incredibly lame but thank god left. Tony finally arrived and we bounced. We were pretty poor so we decided to just buy beer from the shop. IT was past midnight but the Indians running th seven eleven didn’t care we just bought it form under the counter..!



Saturday was very chill. All the guys had stayed over so we just spent the whole day in. The boys left to buy beer but I didn’t mind just drinking water. Later on I did though have some drinks as Michael told we could use his bar since he never drunk that stuff anyways. There was a nice collection of everything and almost anything and Tom was loving it. He was really on fire doing all kinds of random drinks and frying banana on a pan in absinthe and such. He was in his element – he is a bartender after all. It was pretty cool watching him experimenting with all these fluids like a chemist. He did miss a couple of times though, and one druink stunk so bad I decided it was better not to drink that stuff :D



So Sunday came. Last day for the boys. Sucked to know it was all coming to an end tomorrow. I would’ve wanted to just spend the day with Tom, just the two of us, but instead we went to Camden with the boys. I did how ever eventually get my will :) And I finally bought AUTHENTIC Converse cause I just couldn’t give a fuck anymore. Cost me a fortune compared to my four euro cheapies but at least I didn’t get any more water in my shoes from all those paddles through those hge cracks in my shoes. We also went to this coooool shop with Tom, Rebel Clothing I think it’s called. I was in a I-don’t-give-a-fuck –mood (and also because they had AMAZINGLY RAD prints)I bought two sick tops that cost me 1,5 days budget ! SIIIIICK. That is NOT the way to backpack ! But i figured, I don’t shop home anyways ever, since i’m constantly saving for my next trip (as I will once again when I get back), so why not buy this fucking sweet top or two that I know i’ll LOVE until the end of time ?



After we got some food from th market and ate it at the park, Harry and Kabil left home and Rob went to visit some oher friends. Me, Tom and Tony left to this cool café/lounge place that seemed more like someone’s living room by the atmosphere of it. We met Darren, Tom’s/Tony’s mate and some four more Aussies from Adelaide/Melbourne and some English people. Someone ordered everyone a jäggermaister shot cause it was someone’s birthday, but other than that it was very relaxed. I was just sipping my beer and wondering why we never had chill Sunday session like this back home, where you would meet our friends all fresh at some cool hang out spot and have a couple drinks without the idea of planning to get fucked up? Just then one of the guys leaned over and asked me, Tom and Tony whether we wanted to chip in for a gram of coke. Okaaaay, so that’s how they roll in England... Sunday and doing coke, aight. (We didn’t though, don’t worry mom !) Tony left to chuck his luggage at Darren’s house and we parted ways. Tom wanted to show me Sunday roast cause I’ve never had that so we went to this pub and split a meal since neither of us was feeling that hungry. It was a nice relaxing evening and like I said, finally got to spend some alone time with Tom :)



But over all, I had a good time. It’s all about the people.

 

London and UG Rave

First day in london UG RAVE 13.7

The past five days in London... I've totally been violating my blogging, but I guess it's just a sign that i've had too much of a good time to be sitting on the computer. But, I'll try to write as vividly as I recall.



Wednesday - The day I left Amsterdam, I woke up to the sound of my alarm, feeling as if I had been on stand by the whole time, not sleeping. I was still feeling a bit under the weather and sleeping only four hours didn't help the matter at all. I had decided two days prior that I would definetly go to London to see Tom and cause the under water train would’ve cost me _90 euros_ on top of my Interrail ticket, I decided to fly as it was the same price and sooo much more efficient. I made it to the airport and swore to myself that this was the last time i'd rock up the airport with only 45 minutes before they closed the check-in. I had under estimated the que, but thank god I made it, with only 2 minutes left for the check-in to be open. The whole time though, that I was on the plane, I just kept saying to myself ”wtf am I really going to London.. what the hell I must be fucking crazy, wtf sandra”. But i’m glad I did. :)



I arrived to London Stansted airport at 9:30 and proceeded to get my bags and headed out to the arriving hall. By that time it was only thirty minutes that Tom's flight would land, but I knew it would still take him another thirty minutes to get through the customs or what ever. Time passed quickly and when it was 10:40 I started to get a sensation of fluttering butterflies in my tummy. It was nerve wrecking to see the automatic doors open just a couple of seconds before you would actually see who came out carrying his bags. Finally I saw Tom :) He said he didn't think I would actually come to London, and he was happily suprised I did though. I told him, that if anyone of my mates would've seen me now, they would not be suprised cause i'm just crazy like that and I love a bit of an adventure 8)



I was laughing at Tom and calling him a flashpacker the whole way to his uncle's house, cause he was dressed in a fucking _suit_. Such a little confussed backpacker hey.. He told me he only did this that he would get through the customs faster. He hadn't actually brought the suit from his home from Australia but tailor made one in Poland.



When we arrived to Tom's uncle's house his uncle's wife, Karen, was there to greet us. She seemed like a lovely English lady and she was very welcoming. They lived in East Finchley, on the Nothern tube line, and had this amazing, big and modern house with a big yard. I was in total awe.  After a quick nap and some grub, around four o'clock we left to Tom's mates TJ's b-day party. Tj was this Canadian guy Tom had met with his mates in Vang Vieng, Laos a couple of months ago. They were predrinking in a park and it full of people from England and around the world who TJ had met in Vang Vieng and on other trips. It was pretty amazing how many people were there to meet him. I counted some 25 people..... Only from his travels. Pretty sick. There were a few Canadians, some English people, one weird Sweed, a dutchie and so on. I thought of having to arrange something like this too.



I quickly made friend's after shot gunning (a skill everyone should learn) and especially cause I bet Tom time-wise in it ;) haha. People were getting pretty drunk and such and so at 8 everyone packed in cabs and proceeded in the underground venue they had managed to sort out for this rave. First there was a band playing but soon the dutchie, Robbie, started DJ'ing. Everyone was having a good time dancing and doing shots and shit. It would've been a good night unless Tom was so fucking out of it. I was pretty fucking mad at him and there was a lot of drama and so forth and only at 11:30 pm we grabbed a black cab (yeah probs not the best idea especially when you are drunk) back home (although going home was the best idea). It was pretty awkward to wake up Micheal, Tom's uncle, but because he is so laid back he was just laughing when he opened the door to let us in. Thankfully:D

Hookers and Chiropractics in Amsterdam

Arriving to Amsterdam 9.7



Caught my train from Berlin to Amsterdam which was a 6 hour ride. Met this cool New Yorker, Jake, and sat the half of the trip with him. He caught my eye cause of his skatebaord (:D) and we got into talking when I asked where the restaurant wagon was. Had a couple of beers with him and listened to pete & bjorn john’s classic album. Jake was pretty cool ! He had studied art and was a furniture carpenter. He had been in Berlin for a couple of days but really he had come to Amsterdam for this interview for an Art school, which PAID for you to study at their school.They also apparently pay for your ACCOMMODATION???????. He told me he had been pretty confussed with my origin, since my accent is a mixture of everything. Apparently I have a strong American accent but you can also tell that I’ve been traveling in Australia for a long time by the way I say my A’s :D (I think hanging out with Tom for the two days straight might’ve also had an impact.) Mission complete ! I’ve always wanted an aussie accent :D haha.



As we approached Amsterdam I got this flutering feeling in my stomach – I was so happy to see Melanie. When I finally saw her on the platform I ran up to her and we hugged for a long while. I cried a bit because I was so happy. I wear my heart on my sleeve hey.



We went to Marty’s, Melanie’s Australian boyfriend, whom with Melanie is currently living with. He had a nice pad in De Pijp – the hip part of town, which has no tourist what so ever. The house was almost like an hostel – Marty lived with another couple from Adelaide and they had some Aussie mates over. So yeah, it was me, Mel, Marty + this Canadian Jonas and eight other Australians. We got some beers from the local 24/7 and I saw my FIRST EVER LIVE PROSTITUTE (i’ma s excited about this as I was when I saw real live Jews... Not being discriminating or anyting but I had just never seen them in real life.. hope no one gets offended...). She was this slim, dark skinned woman and she wasn’t even that bad looking. She was wearing heals and a white top as a dress. It barely covered her ass and we were pretty sure that if you would look at the shiny floor, you could’ve seen her cuca ! That’s how short her top was. Anyway, she was with this fat nerdy looking guy with glasses and it was just so obvious what was going on. They were buying beers (I would need a fucking bottle of ABSINTHE if I were in her shoes) and I was just a bit shocked but also a bit fascinated about the situation. I’ve  read a couple autobiographies on call girls and women that sell them selves to fulfill their heroine addiction so it was just a bit intriguing to see it happen in real life. Anyway, enough of hookers.



We went back to Marty’s flat and don’t think I even finished my first beer cause I was just so sick of drinking. I was talking with Jonas and he too is a chiropractic just like Marty and when I told him I had never been to one, he asked if I wanted him working on me. Of course I said yes, I mean fucking hell, my body was violated by all that Deadmau5 raving, partying in Berlin and carrying 20 kilos of shit in my backpacks. And my god, did he fix my body. I was just laughing the whole time cause I had had a couple of beers and I just found the whole operation so funny. He probably worked an hour on me (normally take like 15 minutes..) cause every freaking muscle in my body was just so fucked. When he finally asked me whether I still had some muscles that were hurting, I thought for a second. I was sure I ad been complaining about some pain somewhere.... OH YES, my cheeks hurt cause I’ve been smiling too much :D :D: D:D:D:D  So he fixed that too 8D oh  god. But so worth it, lying on that chiropractic chair for an hour would’ve really cost me 200 fucking euros, so yeah, it’s good knowing people and getting that sort of expensive treatment for free.



And yes, I felt like a total newborn child the day after.