37h

I’m still in a commonwealth country, but on the other side of the world, Europe has me back. It was a long way to go; at least it felt longer than the way to Australia. Getting up at 6am I drove the McKenzie car to Brisbane, where I met Luke’s sister who took me to the airport. From there at 1.15pm to Sydney and at 4.30pm I left Australia direction Bangkok, 9h flight. I did not sleep on that one, just tried to stay awake to be able to sleep on the next flight. That one was not too bad, I had a free seat between me and the girl next to me, so we could relax a bit better and I could stand up whenever I wanted. Had some funny chat with the stewardesses and it felt quite quick that we got to Bangkok. I had a bit of a flashback on Bangkok airport, not a long time ago I’ve been there…

The next one was much longer, 13h but felt even longer. I slept quite a lot and didn’t see many movies, but I couldn’t move too much, due to a sleeping couple next to me (remember: don’t pick a window seat when you travel long). I laughed about myself at the end of the flight, I have had 13h to watch a movie, but I wasn’t able to finish it, because we were landing quite quickly ;) Was a good one: the tourist (or maybe it was not so good, my mind was just too tired to distinguish?)

Anyway, after a bus ride and a taxi I got to Tarne’s house, dropped my bags, took a shower and went to the center, I haven't had a big plan, just wander around and stay awake, which was difficult already. Nero caffe is my best friend these days ;)

I jumped off the tube at Oxford Circus and started to walk. Again no shopping but many shops I entered. I love London for its little special shops, of course you find the big stores as well, but I’ve never seen this big variety of small, cute, special not mainstream shops packed with fashion, jewelers and accessories. I kept walking, bumped into Camden town without willing it (more shops), then Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. The last time I was in London I haven’t seen any of these places, but maybe my travel experience gave me a good intuition to find the right sights. Next to Trafalgar Square I entered the National Gallery, my goal was: stay awake until 4pm, a short nap and then a run with Tarne, dinner and hit the hay.

Cool and decided to develop my cultural knowledge I entered the National Gallery, grabbed a map and went into the first of fifty something rooms stuffed with paintings. And there came the question: what is art? Many of the paintings in the National Gallery reminded me a bit of the typical Bavarian forest landscape with a dear on it… I just wandered around, looking here and there and studying the ones I kind of liked. Well and then, in room number thirty something I thought: wow, I know that one, a van Gogh, more than one actually. But the one I knew were the sunflowers, a famous piece of linen with yellow flowers.

Between van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet I started to feel a bit dizzy, well, actually not a bit, I could have sat down on one of the banks and passed out without any problem. But I didn’t. I was just admiring the museums’ guards. They are sitting in room for I have no idea how many hours and just observe and prevent that someone touches the paintings. They reinforced my will to stay awake, I think they were almost as tired as I was, but couldn’t even move around! It felt a bit like an Ironman marathon, when every part of your body is hurting already but you keep going, because you’re decided to get to the finish line. My finish line was 4pm. And I did it. Well, I went almost to every room of the Gallery, one of them made me feel really bad, a modern artist whose name I can’t remember, had painted heaps of circles on a big wall, black circles on white ground, looking at it the circles started to move and chaise each other, that was the point when I decided to get some water and head back home. And I did so.

I miss Australia. I’m excited to see my friends again, but I miss these smiling people and the obligatory question: Hi, how are you today? And the answer “oh, I’m fine/tired/good/whatever, how are you?” Over here the most you get is “hi” and no smile. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why people like Australia so much. It is a happy country. And happy countries make unhappy people happy.

On Thursday morning at the pool, just finished a 100m set I got pushed by a woman yelling at me “you hit me!!” I had overtaken her and touched her slightly. And I realized again: I’m a quite happy, positive person and many people aren’t. I guess somehow I mastered the part of all the self development books that say: see the challenge, not the problem.

I’m going to face lots of challenges in the next weeks. Once I get to Germany I’ll have to find out where to stay, what do to and how to move on. Since I touched European ground I start to look forward to have something like a home again. Almost 3 months living out of a backpack was fun, but I think being able to say “I’m coming home” will be a nice feeling as well. But as I said before: it’s not important where you are, it’s the people surrounding you making you feel home. But hey, a wardrobe is a nice accessory too?