Alright, I’m in this tropical place where it has been 30+ degrees for some days now and the forecast predicts this is not going to change any time soon. Hello London! Good to be back in you. I took the ferry from the Hoek van Holland (‘hoek’ means ‘corner’, which you can see in the first picture) to Harwich (the second picture is the arrival). I brought both my passports and I was just about to find out the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, when my train landed at London Liverpool Street. I had seen a beautiful sunset along the way, before I had to change for the underground to Turnham Green.
Where my friends live. Who are on a holiday themselves for this week. So I’m watching their house and hamster Gus-gus, while my parents are taking turns staying at mine. Mutual friend Julianne, who lives nearby, waited for me at the station. I’ve had help with my suitcase from gentlemen at the station TWICE! Not the ‘I’m doing this because I want in your knickers’ kind of help, but the ‘I’m doing this because I think it is normal and nice to just help someone’. Call me old-fashioned, but I like this. (Hear that, Dutch guys?!)
Julianne’s been a great help too. We ran to each other like people do in movies and she made sure there was tea and fresh milk in the house, so it was a warm welcome in every sense of the word. As I was lying in the huge bed with the great view, I was thinking how lucky I am to have such sweet friends. Julianne also asked for the day off to show us (a couple of other friends who are spread over London) around in Richmond. Which is a beautiful area with a few lovely pubs to cool off in. I’ll show you some of these pictures in the next blog.
Meanwhile I’ve settled in here. I went around for a walk myself and I’ve been to the local supermarket. That probably doesn’t sound very exciting, but I still feel like I’m on a holiday, even though I’m also studying my English books. Plus people know how to queue here and the cashiers pack your groceries. They don’t call it ‘Great’ Britain for nothing you know! There was a box full of bottles of wine wrongly delivered here, so I took it to the neighbour a few houses further up, who then gave me a bottle. I love it here. And it’s great I can just say to my friends: ‘Hey what are you doing later? Shall we hang out?’ We already have plans for the weekend, but in the meantime, I’m back to my studies…!
