London

At last, a chance to breathe. After six weeks of staying in no one place for more than five nights and having traveled some three thousand kilometers by air, road and rail I was finally stopping. For ten days, in my friend's apartment where I'd have my own room.

About that friend. Randy Hines was one of the first people I got to know at university. We lived across the hall from one another in a residential college, different from a dorm in that it tried to foster a more intimate atmosphere focused on cultural activities and extracurricular learning. I think the plan was to reform our wild high-school ways and make a go at legitimate young society. It proved an ill-fated ambition. My program of self-improvement was already teetering when I met Randy and when we started hanging out it utterly collapsed. He was the first of many great accomplices.

After school he moved to New York for work and then to London. He was always generous and gracious and these traits seemed only to have grown more pronounced with his success. Aside from opening his home to me he took me golfing at a prestigious club in the English countryside and even to the Olympics. All on him. All without a thought of taking the money I offered for these outings. Men's weightlifting was the event. A North Korean won gold and set a world record in the process. After each successful lift he'd jump up and down and cry out in triumph and the crowd just ate it up. His government calling my country its sworn enemy be damned I cheered him on like all hell. Good to know someone over there's getting enough to eat.

I first visited London two years ago and loving it was a foregone conclusion. It was my first time in Europe as an adult, and before that trip I loved Europe as much as a person could love a place they'd never been to. I was intoxicated by the beautiful streets and buildings, the people, the way of life, and I realize now that being in this state prevented me from seeing the place fairly.

This time I was an experienced traveler with the time to form a complete opinion. Randy gave me every free moment he had but he was working during the day and had some other commitments as well. That was fine, I like being alone. But it's the biggest cities that make you feel lonely. Seeing the Londoners spilling out of the pubs in huge crowds after work, pint glasses in hand, or sitting in small groups in the parks on blankets drinking wine or champagne - I wanted someone to do those things with. The fact that I had come very close to moving here until that chance was taken from me by circumstances beyond my control made this outside-looking-in feeling even worse. This was almost my life, my city. The local language was my own, and the barrier to being a part of it all didn't seem that high. But it was.

That's not to say I didn't meet anyone. There's one more anecdote from London I have to include because I told someone I would. One of my last nights there I went to a house party thrown by some guys Randy knew. Most of the people there lived in London but I met this one girl who was a traveler like me. Like practically everyone you meet in that town she had a cool international history, she was from New Zealand but lived in Qatar. I sat at the window with her while she smoked cigarette after cigarette and we talked about traveling, the middle east, my own story. Her name was Jade.

I thought she was a really cute girl and later on in the night when I saw she was leaving I caught her up and told her exactly that. She smiled and said "You're a sweet boy" and our eyes held a moment too long and I planted one on her.

"Did you just kiss me?"
I looked at her. I didn't say anything.
"Did you just kiss me?" she repeated.
"I did."
"Are you going to put this in your blog?"
"I thought I'd leave this out actually."
"Well now I want to be in it. What do I have to do to be in your blog?"
"Kiss me again."

And she pressed her body against mine and we made out in the middle of the party. We stopped and I said Goodbye and it was hard to watch her go because I knew she was going forever. I gave her the address of this thing before she left. So Jade, if you're reading, you made it in.

Two days later I would get my flight to San Sebastian, Spain.