It started out with an ELEVEN HOUR BUS RIDE from Amsterdam to London. I had my own seat for most of the time, but it didn't matter with all the ruckus going on around me. We left at 10 pm and not only were there a bunch of high school kids behind me talking up a storm, but then there was the infamous French man. He was justifiably INSANE. He kept talking about his kids and life in general, 12 decibels louder than anyone else, and when everyone was trying to sleep. Then, he thought it would be really swell to turn on the overhead light so he could read, but the dingbat girls got angry with them, so he got up to try to sit elsewhere. Mind you, people are dozing off, there are children present, mostly women on the bus, and no one wants to be there in the first place.
He starts talking so loud about how he has no where to sit, then yells at a man sitting by himself that he should be allowed to sit next to him. After using very expletive he can think of on the man, he starts questioning his sexuality, and claims to have known him from the bus ride days ago when they came to amsterdam, and that he let the man stay in his room. Obviously crazy, but the guy never denied anything either...so who knows. Anyway, some kid in the back tries to get him to come back and sit next to him, but he doesnt want to listen so he holds up in the toilet, trying to "read." After a while, he came back up and started yelling again, trying to punch the man in the face. No one knew what to do, but eventually the bus driver pulled over at a gas station, which are hard to come by, so we were lucky to find one.
We thought he had cooled off, and everyone had moved around to let him have 2 seats to himself, right across from ME! You can imagine the joy in my heart. ITs about 2am, and he won't settle down, and started rustling around with foil, and asked a woman for a pen. I thought to myself, "hey, this is kinda fishy..." but was so disoriented and discombobulated that I couldn't think too much into it. Until he leaned down under the seat and actually STARTED SMOKING CRACK. On the bus, not giving a f***. The woman sitting next to me started to yell for the driver, who had to again pull over, but had to wait for a place to do so.
By this time the whole bus is going crazy, and the bus driver and 2 other guys had to pull him off the bus. The driver wanted to leave him there, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Belgium and France, but the guy was so crazed he stood in FRONT of the bus, refusing to move. We couldn't go anywhere, and the Belgian police didn't seem to care. So the driver lets him back on to sit next to him in the front, but you can hear him yelling at the French guy to stop bugging him, sit still, etc. Especially frightening when he is attempting to steer a giant bus through fog that you can't see 5 feet in front of. SCARY.
Nevertheless, we got to the French/UK customs area by the port, and he was taken into custody, and we waited to board the ferry. I was so exhausted, I found a place to sleep for about an hour, and when I woke up everyone was GONE, and I had to run down to get to the bus where almost everyone had boarded.
It was about an hour until we got into London at 730am, then I found a cafe to sit at and waited to meet up with Ash around 10. Of course, why would that be easy? No money on my Dutch phone, no way to call her phone when the payphones didn't accept my phone card. After about an hour of the worst phone-tag and confusion, I walked outside and saw little Ash sitting on her suitcase, surrounded by people. Reunited!
From there we saw a sign for Wicked, bought tickets for about 20 pounds, then headed to our hostel to get cleaned up and rest for a bit. Then it was time to explore London! We wandered, had a few beers, made it to the show (soo amazing...much greater than I expected) and went back to sleep.
The next day was Christmas eve, and one of the longest days of my life! We went on the London Eye, found Abbey road, took countless photos in the ubiquitous red phone booths, wandered around Big Benny Boo Boo, Westminster Abbey, and Trafalgar square, and attempting to woo the stern faced guards with our good looks and immature humor...to no avail. We had some dinner...with wine...then wandered back to the hostel. We hung out for a bit, then went to the only bar we saw open, which was a gay bar, so we felt right at home :) From there we walked around some more, and went to a center area with a small carnival and people everywhere.
We ran into 2 Italian guys (the kind your mother warns you about) who instantly duped Ashley into believing "They always wanted to meet a Californian girl!" Nevertheless, we decided it would be fun to go have a drink with them (if they're buying, who cares right? The dollar to pound conversion is not healthy.) But, because our lack of luck never fails, they turned out to be creepers. We went downstairs to use the toilet and hope for an escape route..when one guy followed us! He stood by the door to the women's bathroom, "twirling his hair" and basically waiting for us. On impulse, Ash freaked out and started running up the stairs and out the door at full speed! He was in hot pursuit, and when she turned and stopped outside the bar, he yelled "BOO!" and she took off again, further from me! He eventually gave up, and I caught up, and we got the hell out of there. Weird times, good stories. Sometime in the midst of all the craziness, we ended up in front of Buckingham Palace for almost an hour, talking and laughing and drinking.
We headed to Trafalgar square, bought some wine, and sat in the paws of a huge iron lion for hours, talking and reminiscing. One of the best times of my life, something I'll remember forever. We met tons of people just wandering along, and an Algerian guy that told us his life story, starting with "When I was one year old.." making sure we didn't miss anything, I suppose. After awhile, he got obnoxious, so we escaped back to the hostel, then left 20 minutes later to a bar around the corner, where we snuck the rest of our wine in and searched through every pocket and crevice to come up with money to afford one beer. The lengths we go to...
The next day was Christmas, and virtually only Chinatown was open. We waited for awhile and finally got a seat at one place, and had a deliciously tasty and fulfilling meal for a reasonable price. Hung out at the hostel for awhile, and were invited to a bar by the hostel workers, and basically everyone staying there went. It was sketchy as all hell, a couple of blocks away but we had to pay 5 pounds to get in, and were led downstairs to a filthy bar that "couldn't be cleaned because they had a party the night before, and no one works on Christmas." There were flies around the bar, all the toilets were out of order, and the bouncer was also the DJ and the bartender. Either way, we stayed and made friends with a Spanish gay guy and a guy from Penn State named Everardo. All was jolly until... Ash noticed her wallet was gone.
The contents of her wallet included all forms of id, cash, credit cards, passport, birth certificate, and social security card. If its going to be gone, might as well all be at once, right? It was basically the worst thing to happen, and at the worst time. Ever. It was the middle of the night on Christmas, the next day was Boxing Day (Which is the worst 'holiday' known to man. Lazy Brits.) and everything was closed, then it was the weekend. We reported it stolen to the local police, but had to head back to Cardiff later on Friday, so it didn't matter. We took the bus to Cardiff, then hung out around town and with her roomie, thankful for a free place to stay!
The next day she made it to the bank, who agreed to give her advances of 200 pounds without id, which was much needed. Then Sunday...it was time to head to Manchester to meet Sarah b. and Vanessa, friends from home :)
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