Sleeping on the street

29 April 2011, the day it seemed half of England had been waiting for and half of London had been planning to escape from. It was decided seen as I didn’t have any real place of residence at this current moment and that I now had experience in sleeping on the ground, that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to rock up one night to Westminster, take a stroll down The Mall and decide to pull up a picnic blanket and a sleeping bag on the pavement (that’s right, not even grass). However, it seemed quite a few others had the same idea that night, hmmm. A good night’s sleep was had by no-one but me, who having been still warn out from Turkey fell asleep like a baby, much to my friends jealousy. I was also the only one to camp under an umbrella, which meant I didn’t wake up spitting tree seeds out my mouth, like most. Extra jealousy may have also now occurred. For our efforts, we were rewarded with a front row fence position for the royal wedding procession. It wasn’t until about 9am that we realised how lucky we were with the crowd now some 25 people deep. Those towards the back had resorted to periscopes and climbing port-a-loos for a glimpse. Well the rest you know as you saw it on TV.

Gallipoli

Exciting, inspiring, spine tingling, sad, patriotic, these are just some of the words I could use to explain the feeling of being in Gallipoli for the ANZAC day dawn service. This is a must do for all Australians and New Zealanders and it went a little something like this. Off to bed early on the 23^rd, up at 6am, bus to Troy at 7am, ferry across the Dardenelles at 10am, supermarket for supplies at 11am, arrive at 1pm, wait at the gates until 6pm (my least favourite part as some people or groups, cough fanatics cough, were getting pushy), reserve your own patch of grass at 6:30pm, eat, chat, take photos, walk around, try and get on TV until 9pm, listen and watch some speeches, documentaries until 11pm, fall asleep to Julia Gillard’s pre-recorded speech at 11:30pm, wake up at 1am and realise you forgot about the existence of dew and find your sleeping bag all wet, dry it off with a towel and fall back to sleep, be abruptly woken up by an orchestra enhanced by speakers playing a rendition of the invasion at 2am (they should warn people with heart problems of that one), go for a walk and eat a kebab until 3am, sleep until 5am until woken up to pack up your gear, including getting out of your sleeping bag, even though its minus 2 and the coldest ANZAC night for 10 years, dawn service and spine tingling at 6am. How the rest of the day goes well you’ll just have to do it for yourself.

Ancient Turkey

The last four days have included some bus bonding, although it’s clear it will be a difficult task to get to know 45 people in a week, and some visits to ancient sites. To be exact, the ancient sites included Pamukkale, Aphrodisias, Ephesus, Pergamon, Acropolis and Troy. Only having heard of Troy before arriving, I was in awe of these sites to which I had been somewhat ignorant of before. Definitely worth a look for anyone contemplating it in the future. While there have been too many stories to mention a couple of notable ones are the car crash on day two and the pinching of a mascot. Day two, saw a local woman sideswipe the bus. Not much damage to the bus, in fact most didn’t know we hit a car. It turned out the woman and been on the drink, a more serious crime while driving in this country meant the woman did a runner and her partner was left to explain the events to the local police. Story two. After our guide decided that we needed a bus mascot and all we came up with was a small stuffed kiwi, it was declared not good enough for the 35odd Aussies who out-numbered the 10 Kiwis. A day later we had somehow managed to pull a large blow-up kangaroo from no-where… it turned out the kangaroo was stolen in a well-planned heist from one of the other buses. After a couple of days with its new friends appearing in endless photographs, it was returned to its distraught owner.

Istanbul

The first day in Istanbul was a bit of a shock with a top of 10 degrees and incessant rain, not the Mediterranean like weather I had been expecting.  Night one was crazy, as four full 45 seated Topdeck busloads of Aussies and Kiwis descended upon the same two bars in an effort to meet and greet whoever you could. Day one saw kinder weather and included a visit to the Blue Mosque, a get to know you boat ride down the river and a Turkish dinner and show. Day one also saw misadventure one and two. Misadventure one involved missing the bus to the pre-paid Turkish dinner, determined not to miss it, DC embarked on sprinting around the local area looking for whoever he could find that hadn’t gone on the dinner for phone numbers in order to find the location of the dinner. Success saw DC turn up only 20 minutes after everyone else, i.e. while the entrees were being served. It turned out someone on a different bus missed there’s and decided to jump on mine, resulting in all seats being taken up and the tour leaders therefore assuming everyone was on board (another small little black mark for Topdeck). Misadventure two, involved an altercation between a pointy low garden fence and DCs brand new jeans, with the fence being declared the winner.

Richmond, from rags to riches

The last two weeks before my Turkish adventures, was had in the flash and somewhat snobby borough of Richmond-upon-Thames. Luck had fallen my way and I was put up for a couple of weeks in a friend’s house in RICHmond. To top it off the weather had improved tremendously, the sun decided to appear for longer than it disappeared and spring was finally upon little old London. In what was to be one of the warmest and driest springs on record (with one day over 25 by the way) the last two weeks in Richmond were a pleasure. Turkey here I come.

The hostel life

Hostel life was something at first strange to me, but it soon turned out to be one of the best things I have done here in London. The hostel was a 7 night minimum which meant there were not many travellers but many medium stayers looking for houses and jobs too. Well they were attempting to look for houses and jobs until the hostel life took the better of most and day trips and parties ensued. Many friends were made and many good times were had. As time went on, the inhabitants gradually changed and the good mix had disappeared and was eventually quelled by a more somber crowd. It was time to depart.