travel diary

Derek and I met at the Carfax Tower. It was raining, but he just wore shorts, a t-shirt and no shoes. Derek was from Singapore and studied in Oxford. He invited me for a hot chocolate. We talked a lot and he told me about his hobbies, one of them was free climbing. It was just amazing. We brought my stuff to his house and he took me on a walk through the city. He showed me his college and told me about the story behind it. In the evening we went to Brooks University to the fitness center. There we did some climbing in a climbing hall. It was really cool and he gave me a lot of tips about the climbing. Afterwards we headed to his favorite Indian restaurant. He ordered a lot of food and we shared our dishes. I really enjoyed talking to him. At night he had this crazy idea about me and him going free climbing. I said "Yes why not". Maybe that was really stupid, but it was one of the amazing things I've ever done. So we went out in the middle of the night and climbed a 150 feet high crane. I was really scared and when we arrived at the top I was still shaking. Derek gave me a hug to calm me down and after a few minutes sitting there it was just amazing. We could overlook the whole city. And he explained the different parts to me. We sat there for about four hours and even I just met this guy about 12 hours ago I felt that I could talked to him about everything.

On Thursday a friend of mine told me that she was going to Brighton over the weekend. So I joined her from Friday to Saturday. We took different buses, coz I had to leave a bit later, so we met up in Brighton.
Since we both were on a tight budget we decided to go to the 99 pence store and buy some food for a picnic on the beach. We bought cookies and beans. The rest of the day we spent on the beach, coz the weather was just amazing for England anyway.
After a while a guy we met on couchsurfing joined us and we had some really random conversations.
Craig invited us for a BBQ at his friends place for the next day and we happily said yes. After he went back home me and Shiki decided do go to one of the pubs to get a drink, just to warm up a bit, because we decided to spent the night outside coz we couldn't afford a hostel and didn't find a place to stay.
We spent about 3 hours in the pub before we decided to go back to the beach. On our way we bought a bottle of cider and sat on the beach for a while. It was already quite cold, thanks good I brought my sleeping back which we used as a blanket.
So we sat there till about midnight drinking and talking random.
After a while we decided it would be too cold to sleep on the beach, coz the wind made it much colder than it actually was. So we walked back into the city and looked for a good place to sleep. We found a corner and made our beds. We already felt like homeless people.
I was really scared that people would see us lying there, but most of the people walking by were so drunk they didn't even realize.
The city was sooo busy, there were people walking around till 5 in the morning and the seagulls were really annoying too. But worst was the cold, it was freezing and we were shaking all night and didn't get much sleep.
At 5.45am Shiki woke me up and said she had to move, coz she was freezing. So we walked around Brighton covered in a sleeping bag early in the morning.
When we found a McDonald's we bought a coffee and sat there for 4 hours to warm up.
At this point we could laugh about the night and what a stupid idea it was in the first places.
Later on we bought some more beans and a disposable BBQ to heat them up. It was good to not eat them cold again.
We had to skip the BBQ at Craigs place, coz we couldn't afford to get there and by that point we totally run out of money. For lunch we had another can of beans, but since we already used the grill we had to eat them cold. By that time we both were super tired and hungry. Thanks good I was going back to London that afternoon. Shiki stayed another day, but another friend of her would come down to Brighton and Craig offered her to stay at his.
Well it was a good experience and will be a fun story to tell and we sure can laugh about it now. But I probably won't do it again. And no more beans for me, at least for a while.

During my travels I experienced quite a bit of hospitality and kindness from people I had just met and who had no reason to help me out and did it anyway. When I got to Los Angeles I had about ten dollar in my pocket which had to last for at least the next couple of days. Thanks god I had already sorted out my accommodation for the next few days. I was about to couchsurf in a part of the city called Korea town. One morning I had to leave my host early. At around six in the morning I left his apartment, as he had to go to work and would not come back until the evening. So I had to stay out all day in a city I had never been to, all by myself as I didn’t know anyone either. I spent most of the morning walking around the Korean district. LA is a huge city and since I didn’t have a car and could not afford a bus ticket I just kept on walking. After I while I arrived at a park with a pond in the middle. My feet hurt from walking around all day, so I decided to sit down in the grass and take a rest. I started to become very hungry, but didn’t have enough money to buy some food. Just in that moment, while I was sitting there, seeing some families walking by I became homesick. I just couldn’t do anything but to start to cry. So I sat there, all alone, tears rolling down my cheeks when a man came up to me and asked “Que pasa, chica?” I looked at him and tried to explain in my basic Spanish that I was so far away from home, missing my family and that I have not eaten all day. He reached after my hand, helped me up and we walked around the pond for a few minutes. Then we sat down under a tree where two other guys were having a small picnic. They offered me a few cookies and some lemonade. While we enjoyed our lunch they told me their story. All of them were illegal immigrants from El Salvador who came to Los Angeles a few months ago. None of these three men had a job nor did they have a place to live. I spend the whole day sitting in the park with them talking. I was touched by their kindness. Offering a girl they did not know food, even though they did not have much for themselves. That day might not start off well, but I will always remember it. It made me see and believe in the good in people.