Literally my Diary

London

London had been my favourite city since I had first been there when I was eight years old. I have been there many times since then especially in my exchange semester when I was 14. My last visit was 5 years ago. I was supposed to go last summer for a fan convention but my flight got canceled. It was one of the worst days of my life.
Now I know that sounds overdramatic. But at that point I was very unhappy with where I was in my life. I felt trapped in my relationship and in my home. I felt powerless. That trip was my personal beam of light. I was looking forward to getting out. Seeing my favourite city again. Just feeling free. You can imagine my despair when all that was taken from me the day I planned to leave.

Now I was in a very different place in life. London and I still had unfinished business. Sam and I boarded the plane and walked all the way down. 30. 31. 32. That was the last row. We had row 35. Perfect. Our seats didn't even exist.

„Excuse me, we were supposed to be in row 35?"

The stewardess gave me tired but professional smile.

„Yes, there has been a change of aircraft. We will have to see where we can find you seats once everyone else is seated."

„Oh okay, this is my friends first time flying could you maybe arrange for us to sit together?"

„Of course, I will see what I can do."

„Thank you so much."

I looked over to Sam. Of the two of us, I was the optimist. Sam sighed and gave me an annoyed and slightly worried look.
I tried to keep up morale and in the end we did end up sitting together so it wasn't even that big of a deal.

It was lovely being in London again and to quite literally walk down memory lane. I realized though that I did romanticize it a bit. It is after all just a big city as any other. I have to say I like my city better. I did what every good tourist would do and wandered around all the famous monuments and parks. I did very much enjoy spending a whole day second-hand shopping in Brick Lane. It was a sunny day and everywhere I looked there were stunning vintage and second hand shops. Some were hiding behind not so vintage rings and souvenir shops.

After some strolling around I sat down at a cafe to get some wifi and do our online check in for the flight.
It wasn't working. I tried a couple more times but still no luck. I decided to call the airline in hopes that they would just check us in manually. The next hour entailed repeated calls with the airline, multiple new online accounts and a little mental breakdown on my end. At some point Sam had joined me at the cafe. He was very thankful that I handled the calls and you could tell he felt really bad when I started to get more and more desperate and my voice started breaking.

"Do you need a hug? Or is this more of a 'touch me and I kill you' situation?"

"The latter."

"Ok, got it."

When I finally handled the check in I tried enjoying the rest of my day. I sent a lot of pictures to Levy just to annoy him because I knew he loved second hand clothing and was very jealous that he couldn't be there. I even found a dope-ass shirt with a dollar bill print for him and a gorgeous silky baby-pink morning robe with lace detailing for myself.

Since I had never really seen a musical before and London is famous for it, I booked myself tickets for Wicked the Musical. When I took my seat in the auditorium I felt lonely and empowered at the same time. Here I was. A grown woman in London treating herself to a musical. But I also had noone to share it with. I had to think of the circus show we watched at the Lublin opera house in Poland. It was a field trip with our circus group and I was so tired that day. When I wasn't falling asleep on Levys shoulder, we were chatting about the show, mesmerized by the acts. Now I was alone.