Great Adventures of a Green Goddess

Summer of 09

So at the hostel I have previously mentioned that the boys have nicer bathroom bathing facilities. They even have the luxury of stalls with doors for their showers while we have lame shower curtains that don’t quite manage to cover the whole opening and do as clingy shower curtains tend to do and try to stick to your body.

But there is the advantage of having a radio playing in the girls’ bathroom. The boys have to enjoy their lavish private showers in silence.

I have actually seen chick’s hanging out in the bathroom as it’s a nice semi private place to have a chat with good music in the background.

But I have been feeling that the radio has been trying to tell me something, I think it is speaking to me in song. It keeps playing the same song whenever I am in there, Bryan Adams Summer of 69. Which I have come to believe is taunting me with the line about the best days of my life. It’s like it’s sending me a message asking if this is what it is supposed to be, if this is what it’s all about.

I mean these should be the best days of my life right? But am I that happy? I mean sure there is always the whole incel thing to bring me down (no 69 with my baby for me). But I should be happy about the travel aspect of my life, instead I feel stressed about finding a job (I didn’t plan on a recession when I finally attempted to live my dream!) and how much I want to see and how can I afford to do it all?

Chuck seems to find joy in constantly nagging me to go travelling. Giselle is considering going travelling and then back to NZ if her boyfriend who was made redundant can’t get a job so she suggested that I should travel too.

So I was definitely considering it.

Then I got the latest rejection from a job I interviewed for, they left me a message on my phone to call them. And I was all oh this is different from the usual email or ignoring. But it turned out they just wanted me to waste my phone credit to call them and be told it was a no go. Thanks for nothing guys, next time just tell me in the message you left…

So anyway with the no go on the job I decided I had to go with the travelling.

Being a beginner budget backpacker I simply went online and just looked for the cheapest airfare I could get to anywhere in Europe.

I booked a flight on a Tuesday for a Sunday morning flight to Alicante Spain with Thomson Airways. Nothing like the last minute to make your travel plans all the more exciting.

My little gherkin friend decided to accompany me. Yay it was a scary thought to go alone, of course I would have done it if he wasn’t there. But strength in numbers and all. I was very glad to have a friend to share the journey with.

So the trip began with a bus ride late Saturday night to Gatwick airport. I used the internet again to book us a bus all the way to the airport, then during the ride I found out that I could have taken the tube some of the way which would have been quicker and easier (especially since we didn’t know exactly where to catch the bus). Ah first lesson learnt.  

At the airport after exploring the terminal area I tried to sleep but wasn’t too successful despite the luxury of a carpeted floor. All the seats were taken by other sleepy travelers who had gotten in early enough for prime placement. Perhaps they read the budget travelers guide to sleeping in airports and know all the tricks a newbie like me is yet to discover. Checked in for the flight around 4am and went airside. A female security guard patted me down. Most action I had gotten in awhile (unless you count the room service I provided at Chuck’s hotel on Thursday, yes I wore the boy out and then went on my merry way).

I didn’t get the full rubber glove treatment, I am sure The Gherkin was disappointed that he was ignored. But he did get a lot of attention on the way into the UK. They detained him and searched all his belongings. No full body cavity search was done thou and I know he is deeply disappointed he missed out on this intimate experience. I am sure he would have enjoyed it.

But with our body cavities remaining virgin (well for at least one of us…). We celebrated making it airside by having some brekkie and checking out the duty-free shops.

Finally we boarded the plane and which I guess is officially the beginning my European Odyssey

Screw stranger danger!

So the secret society of vegans  is not that secret anymore. They have a market stall in Camden. I went there with a guy from the hostel I had freshly made friends with. I shall call him my little gherkin because he calls me Onion. This came about when we were in a market and I saw some huge onions and pointed them out, they were seriously big globes of tear producing vegetables. Anyway since then he has called me Onion and I just say yeah I have layers, like an ogre.

Anyway we were at the stall and I was shopping (got a vegan passport, and some sugary goodness snacks) told him that I would take him for some vegan food after and a couple of girls also at the stall invited us to go and get vegan ice-cream. How could we resist this invitation?  Who worries about stranger danger when there is vegan ice cream on offer? So we said ok lets follow some random strangers and got on a bus to Hackney.

It took awhile to get there, about an hour. So we had plenty of time to get to know the girls. They were both vegan and one had many tattoos declaring her beliefs. The other was too young for tats as she was only 16, but she had a necklace with a tattoo gun on it to make up for it. I’m betting she will have vegan tattooed on her wrist within moments of being legally allowed.

In Hackney we headed to the Pogo Café. It was full of many people who were happy to show their views on their skin. I felt quite bare with no tattoos on my body.

I had the burger that came with wedges and salad and then the reason for our journey, a vegan knickerbockers glory ice-cream. It was a suitably glorious a spectacular confection of layers of cream, custard, ice cream, syrup, chocolate, quite possibly the most fabulous thing ever! No knickerbockers in it at all but it was a hell of a lot of glory!

Nobody could argue about vegan missing out of great food if they have tasted this feast! It’s the kind of thing that stupid omnivores eat and then declare to be so good it can’t possibly really be vegan.

When my sweet tooth was satisfied (momentarily) we headed back to the bus. At the stop there was the disturbing sight of pigeons eating some abandoned fried chicken. It just seems a little too close to cannibalism to me. Just a random bit of freakiness on the day.

Anyway on the bus we sat up the top of the red double decker at the back talking about our fave Monty Python moments. We want to have a get together in the future to watch Monty Python and eat vegan food.

When we got back to Camden, we were gonna go our separate ways but then vegan cake was suggested. This is not an offer to be refused so off we trooped to inspiral lounge and more sweet treats. Eventually we rolled ourselves back to the hostel. We survived with our lives but possibly with some new tooth cavities to show for our sugary day with the strangers who are now friends.

 

Two lovely London days

So the first day my new gay friend and I went out to enjoy an uncharacteristically sunny day in London. He does need a name, I shall call him hunnybunny which is much cuter and sweeter than what he wanted me to call him. Yeah I’m not calling him sexyboy like he wants (he is such a closet bi). He is my funny sunny little hunnybunny until I think of a better name.

We got a late start and went to Euston station where he had to buy a train ticket for a future trip, then to Tottenham Court Road where I had to go to the Crumpler store and buy a laptop sleeve. I paid far too much for a green Sir Gimp but I refuse to feel bad about it. My new baby needed protection so I got it the best gimp money can buy.

We then walked via Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square and the Jubilee Bridge to the London Eye. We took lots of photos, hunnybunny’s were much better than mine but hey he has a much better camera than I do. A big Japanese tourist special vs. my little compact camera.

There were lots of people about and many street performers trying to get their money. Everyone was enjoying the wonderful weather.

We bought tickets for the eye at 4.30pm but we were told they were selling them for 6pm and we couldn’t line up until 5.30pm.

So we wandered around. Going to the Dali gift shop and a souvenir shop to pass the time. Its fun looking for tacky souvenirs. Did not buy anything thou. Hell I had spent enough already with the Sir Gimp and the eye ticket!

We lined up at the end of a very long line for the big bicycle wheel and finally boarded our eye pod around 6.20pm. It was dark by then but still a very nice view. Big Ben was all lit up next to the Thames and you can’t see the end of London. It just stretches out forever.

The ride lasts about 30mins and afterwards we walked to embankment tube station.

 

 

 

 

The other day I had an appointment with a recruitment agency in the Kings Cross area. So afterwards I went to The British Library which is nearby.

I used The Rick Steves book as it has a tour to follow in it. Really the best things to see are in the one room, The Sir John Ritblat Gallery. I walked around consulting my book constantly in true tourist form. Saw the Magna Carta and actually learnt what it was all about. Feeling very educated me then walked around to see the big wall of books. On the way out I then found a poster and read Darwin’s debating of the pros and cons of marriage. I’m still undecided on the issue really…

I detoured from the Kings Cross Underground station to go into the railway station and find platform 9 ¾. It is a kind of hidden away spot where they have just put up a sign and have a luggage cart sticking half way out of the wall. I didn’t make it through to Hogwarts but did get a devil duckie photo just before he fell off the cart. Oh well am not a rabid Harry Potter fan or anything, I have only read the first 5 books so far. Not in any rush to read the rest. Not when I should be out enjoying nice days in the city like this.