London calling
A chaotic little trip, remembered through songs, photos and random clips from the digi cam. I just finished editing this video, and it made me want to go back for a little while. So, let me take you with me.
september eight
I´m sitting in a coffee shop in Camden right now. The sounds of the city paint the soundtrack to me reminiscing about the past days. I´m drinking tea, ginger tea, to be precise. It´s my last day here, I´ll fly back home tomorrow early in the morning. My flight is at 7, isn´t it? Wait, let me check.
Yeah, 7 am. I´ll try to sleep early tonight, let´s see how that goes. Probably not too well, as someone who has spent twenty-six years with myself, I know that going to bed early on a night where I should go to bed early isn´t exactly my greatest strength.
Anyway, this trip to London has been very spontaneous, though I might have been subconsciously manifesting it. I´ve been wanting to go to London for a while, even though I didn´t think it would happen anytime soon.
But when the chance to purchase a ticket for a sold-out concert that I really wanted to go to appeared, I couldn´t resist booking a last-minute flight. And I´m so glad I did.
I tried Fries and Vinegar for the first time (don´t know if I like it or not though), walked a lot (like, a lot!), felt at home when seeing one of my favorite bands live again, browsed through record stores, listened to lots of street music, watched the sunset off Primrose Hill and walked around Abbey Road pretending I´m one of the Beatles in 69.
Record Store Recommendations :
All Ages Records &
Rock n Roll Rescue
september twelve
It´s been a few days, I didn´t end up finishing writing when I was sitting in said coffee shop, but it doesn´t really matter, so I´ll continue writing from home.
The trip was chaos in its best form - my favorite way of traveling. Somehow, I thrive off things not going as planned, in the middle of a chaotic, unplanned trip I feel most like myself.
The biggest issue I had were bedbugs in my 24-people hostel dorm, which led me to barely sleeping for three nights. I did get a full refund on the hostel, so I spent that money on overpriced matcha, CDs and food.
The biggest gift in London was the weather - they always say London is grey and rainy (it probably is) but I had nothing but sun and warm, summery weather.
I think being excited sums up the whole trip – I felt excited about literally everything. The British accent, the way the Tube looked, red double-decker buses, and the fact that I was in the city where so many of my musical heroes lived. I guess I´m just easy to impress some days. I felt like a little kid exploring and kept being amazed by everything. They drive on the other side of the road? I mean, I knew that, but seeing it with my own eyes was fun.
As I´ve already mentioned, the reason for my trip was a concert. It´s a little ironic I´m going to London to see a band that´s from my home country, but that´s that.
The concert gifted me with the discovery of a new band I didn´t know before, TV Smith who were the opener - I was blown away by their energy and stage presence. I keep listening to Generation Y which is the song that immediately caught me and started leading the soundtrack of this trip.
As for the actual concert, I think it´ll go into my top five concerts ever (and I´ve been to a lot of concerts, so for a concert to make it to my Top Five, it needs to be very special!)
I just felt so happy and free, dancing in Mosh Pits, singing along to songs that have been part of my life since forever. There are rumors they might be retiring soon, so with that in mind, everyone in that venue was even more enthusiastic. They´re called Die Toten Hosen, a band that deeply shaped my childhood and teenage years, I´ve seen them live many times, but every time I do, I feel right at home.
The concert was in a venue called O2 Forum in Kentish Town, and it was so pretty, I kept standing there looking around in awe of everything. It felt surreal in a way, being there, far from home in London, about to witness one of the best concerts I´ve ever been to (I think I already knew before they even went on stage that this night will be something I will hold onto for a long time.)
Getting home after the concert was a pain, the area my hostel was in felt a little sketchy at night, so I ran from the bus stop all the way to my hostel, just in case. I probably would´ve been fine walking like a normal person, but I didn´t feel like testing my luck that day, so I chose to run (plus, it did get quite cold and I was wearing shorts).
The next day, the tube started a strike, so London was in chaos - buses were running, but they were packed.
I chose to stay in walking distance of my hostel and had the best day ever - I strolled around secondhand record stores, looked around vintage shops, explored London’s grocery stores (underrated travel activity in every country!) sat in said coffee shop where I started writing this, and ended up walking all the way to Primrose Hill to watch the sunset.
My flight back home was early - remember when optimistic me wanted to go to bed early for my last night? Yeah, I didn’t. Instead, I pulled an all-nighter as I had to go to the airport in the middle of the night anyway.
I started my period the moment I set foot into Stansted airport, which was unfortunate, but excepted. Period cramps started setting in which led to me crying in the bathroom, and then getting upgraded when boarding the plane - I asked the flight attendant if it would be possible to switch to an aisle seat so I could stretch out a bit because of my period cramps. Instead, I got seated in first row with so much space for my legs instead.
Ryanair might be known for being very strict and greedy, but this was a really pleasant experience. I told this story to some friends back home and no one believed me, apparently no one has ever had a positive experience with Ryanair before, so that´s that.
Now I´m back home, normal life has settled in again, and I miss that version of myself – the one that thrives in chaos, and the one that allowed herself to be enthusiastic about everything, the way I did when I was a kid. When mundane routines are my everyday life, I sometimes miss her, but I´m glad London showed me that she is still inside of me.