london dream

London was always close to my heart since my very young years. You see my grandfather was carrying an English passport and he fought with the English army against Rommel in the El Allamein fight during the II World War.

He was always mentioning proudly that he got a medal for that fight and an injury too.

The injury send him to my grand grandmothers hotel in Cairo, which during the war was used a hospital by the army.

He met my grand mother there and fell in love and never returned to the battling fields. So we have a history in this family with love and what twist of faith can bring to you.

On top of that my father was and still is obsessed with English football and I got involved from a very young age with music and comedy coming from the UK. Pink Floyd, Monty Pythons, Peter Sellers, Beatles and Deep Purple were filling hours and hours.

I was imagining London. The London Bridge and the Times Square, the Piccadilly, the subway, the taxis, the phone booths, red buses , SoHo, fish and chips and all that during my grown up connected with the UK and London especially.

So during my 23rd year I got the chance to travel for the first time in the UK but not in London. The plan was to arrive and to depart from Birmingham due to an exhibition I had to attend. I could not waste the chance to visit even for a night, even for a few hours and therefore I set up a plan.

I planned on the last day to catch the train from Birmingham to London and then to drop off my luggage in any hotel and to walk in the city for the day and as much as I could from the night.

This was my second travel abroad and during the early 90’s travelling was not so easy as it is today. On my last in Birmingham I got onto the 12.00 train to London, scheduled to arrive at 15.00. I am carrying 2 suitcases, and an envelope with the London hotel voucher I received from the travel agent. In the envelope there is my return ticket also, for next day's return flight at 06.00 hrs.

I planned everything to perfection. I arrive at 15.00 and at around 17.00 I should be somewhere in the city center, I am travelling to London! Gods I am coming!

The joy is overwhelming me and so is the enthusiasm. Everything I ve dreamed is about to reveal it self in front of my eyes. However this thrill and enthusiasm got interrupted by the announcement that the train was stopped due to a breakdown.

The breakdown lasted for almost 3 hours and instead the train to arrive at London at 15.00 it arrived at 18.00 hrs. I am suffering. The suitcases became heavy, I am not sour where to go, many people everywhere. I jump into a taxi and I pass the envelope with the hotel address. I ask the driver if he can drive me there and then to center. "Not a chance my friend, the is the rush hour, we have to cross two times the city for to do this and by the time we will arrive at the center the shops will be closed".

My plan was becoming a catastrophe, my dream a nightmare, my hopes for my London hours are shuttered. Traffic like hell and me on the back seat wondering and looking.

All my English education was a 6 month period in a local private school during my childhood. Mrs Delaporta was the teacher and I didn’t like her one sent. I didn’t like school one sent either, but there was not a choice. During my six month period in Mrs Delaporta English school I succeed to learn that the English taxi drivers are obliged to pass such hard exams in order to receive their license that by memory they should knew all streets, locations, sightseeing and hotels. At least this was what we have been taught and after that night I never went back to confirm it.

So then the idea kicks in, “can you leave me now in the city center and then to drive my luggage to the hotel? I ll pay you the full ride now”. And so there was, an oasis to my darkness. The guy said yes, I had a quick look on the voucher, Hotel Anna was the name, I paid him and thanked him and never saw him again.

He dropped me off right in the city center. London, the city of cities, I am walking there.

Hours passed and in some kind of happiness. I walk here and there and everywhere, I enter shops, I look vitrines, I watch the crowd, the buildings, the lights, the sky and how is looking when you are standing in Piccadilly Circus. I am enjoying the evening, the weather is mild, everything’s new and exciting and I am present!

The evening became night, most of the shops closed, the people on the streets became less. Time to go I thought and I stopped the first taxi I found. “Where to sir?", "Hotel Anna” I replied. “Which one sir? There are several with that name in the London area”. Bomb!

"No idea I say", taking under consideration Mrs Delaporta information for the education of the English cab drivers. “I am sorry sir, I can not help you, please get out”. And so I was.

At the time, no mobile phones or internet was available and 4 taxis later and almost midnight I am somewhere in London, with no one to know, no telephone, no information where my luggage can be, if they ever arrived I thought.

Moreover, inside the luggage is my return ticket and my passport. Obviously the excitements led to a dead end, again. Finally the 5th taxi driver after listening my situation proposed something. The idea was to drop me off at the YMCA center where they might help me. And the idea worked.

A very kind guy and a very kind girl at the reception of the YMCA building search through the yellow pages and start calling all hotels named Anna listed there. In one of them a taxi driver dropped off luggage earlier that afternoon. A small yellow piece of paper with the address and a smile what was they give me while in the same moment I felt that I was holding a way out of my dead end.

Past midnight and I enter the 6th driver with my little yellow salvation paper on the hands. I was impressed by the fact that this guy was the only English cab driver I saw the whole night. Usually these jobs are occupied by English citizens of Indian or Pakistani origin. But this guy was god saves the queen, all the way. Shaved head and a cross tattoo on the back of his neck, hearings and a green military jacket. “What time you are off” I said, “three he replied”.

I asked him to drive me at the first MacDonald he could and to wait for me. I came back with two MacDonald paper bags in my hands. One for him, one for me. Burgers, fries, coke, the whole parade. “That’s for you, I said, drive me around till the end of your shift, I want to see London.” And he did.

There I was, on the back seat of a famous black English cab, with an English driver, with drinks and food on the side of the window watching London by night.

The guy drove me everywhere and show me everything I was dreaming to see, we were talking for hours until he dropped me off in front of the hotel where I only enter to take my luggage and to sign the voucher.

I left London full of memories which will last for a life time.

London was exactly what I was imagining.