London Calling

So in between Amsterdam, regaining total bodily control and now i managed to lose my phone at a German fußball match, gain a skinhead, befriend Bochum's homeless and surface tour London.

Let's start at the start. Freiburg Vs Bochum, in Bochum. I, with that stupid traveller smile, agreed to don a Freiburg scarf and travel into town, stopping to meet friends and stand around drinking beer at the station, before heading off to Bochum's main stadium to experience a real piece of Germania! Let me just explain how this works. At home, you support Melbourne, your stupid cousin Collingwood and your mates Hawthorn. It's cool if you all go to a Melbourne Collingwood match together, drink a few beers, shout a few incoherent insults at both sides, pat eachother at the end and go home. That is not how it goes here. The fans of each side are separated by tall metal fences. Security guards pat you down as you enter the stadium one at a time and gruff looking policemen patrol the entire area. But once inside the stadium the air relaxes and you are among friends! Our tiny red and black Freiberg corner surrounded entirely by a swarm of roaring blue and white. About 6 or so beers later, a lot of shouting in english (and polish by that stage) i began to notice the German's love for unified hand movements. This worried me. All i was thinking was war, war, war, war...these are an easily arounsed people!!! A few dodgy umpiring desicions later and Freiberg walked away victorious. Never have i seen such elation. I was dubbed the good luck charm and was bought for a repeat event in Dortmund in December. Hours of crawling through Bochum's Bermuda Triangle...no it is really called that...drinking god knows what i found myself in deep philosophical discussion with a kid that looked like he was plucked straight out of This is England. I'm talking shaved blonde hair, braces, white t shirt and army jacket. If i had been sober i would have been terrified! Many hours later, stuffing my face with Mc D's i noticed i had a certain lack of phone...left my brother-in-law sitting on the pavement outside, draping his Freiburg scarf around his new homeless friend and searched in vain. Fail. Ah well...the polish say...one pays for stupidity!!

Anyway...longest introduction ever! London! Spur of the moment desicion, cousin was free, cheap AirBerlin flight done. Now i am not normally one to fear flying, i relish it...You're in a chair IN THE SKY!!! but for the first time something squeezed my insides when i saw what would be taking me over a sea and into another country. Picture a paper airplane, add some lego propellors, put a lick of paint on and you have a rough image of my international flight. No fear, got there in one piece and thrilled at the prospect of seeing English signs and hearing brit accents again. Disappointment at point 1. More migrants than Melbourne and even less English accents than home.

London itself felt like home, although Melbourne is like the smaller twin, the one that came out second when the parents were not even expecting twins. It gets the older, stronger, sportier brother's hand-me-downs. He looks the same but is skinnier and is not as popular with the girls at school because he likes playing chess. Again...distractions!

The amazing grey weather was not at all condusive to intensive sight seeing so i indulged in what i have dubbed surface tourism. I took photos of the important things but found excuses not to go in...'oh, what, Remeberance Day..means i can't spend the day in Westminster Abbey' or '4:30 and it's already dark, that means i can't do the tower either' but it was far too easy to dive into some underlit cavern of a bar and stare somberely at the football match on screen. I did battle ridiculous amounts of water pouring unrelentlessly from the sky to walk Southbank and see Big Ben and the Eye. I did try. No. I succeeded. I concluded my Bard experience with a tour of the Globe and its adjoining museum which rocked my nerdy literature loving world. But i still have time to try again right??