天橋下滑一跤

Oct 8  2009

9 days away from New York, the weather turned rather cool. Fall had come and everyone is expecting the season of leaves changing. Now I looked back at this unexpected trip to UK, surely, there was something I experienced on the road worth a talk.

When Harry Potter boarded the train at King’s Cross station, I wasn’t there. Nevertheless, I took the National Express train for “Durham” at the same station and glimpsed this city while waiting for departure. Through the whole night in London, streams of British men and women dressing in style, along with small beetle cars passed by this Industrial Evolution era-like old train station, apparently, another 24/7 city is presented here, modern and traditional. Somehow this country had already aroused my interest by a fantastic magic power in such a short time.

On the train, I kind of looked forward to seeing the small town after going through the 20-hour transportation. Besides, I missed my friend Polly and couldn’t wait to give her a big hug. It is always interesting whenever I meet friends in another completely different place or occasion. We not only seem so out of place with each other but also fairly foolish.

The second day in UK, when I got up in the afternoon, Polly and her brother ”Tyco” had been off to Edinburgh for their round-the-UK trip. A while later was my turn to tour around this small town. Durham was a lovely charming place. The whole town seemed like hundreds of postcard scenes. Castles, cathedrals, bridges and plaza are everywhere. Walking on the cobbled stone pavement was a journey back to Middle-Age Europe, I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw a knight on the street or found King Arthur and Merlin the Magician were my neighbors. I fell in love with it immediately. In the first few days, I enjoyed myself hanging around there. Following every little sound to discover a new path, a new beautiful corner was completely a cheery thing to do. Eventually, I found it was a quiet place but filled up with beautiful melodies. The sounds of bell, river, kitchen and rock bar gave me a touch of life in Durham.

On the Friday night, Polly planned to show me a lounge bar, where we could drink and talk in a cozy space. While we were on the way across a hill to the lounge bar (Duke), a noise came from a rock bar (Angel’s) on the sideway, and we found it sounds good. Soon we decided to go to the rock bar instead of lounge. That rock band on the stage called Fishburn Mafia played the music hard, singing their songs and some classic rock songs with all their might. The world of British Rock overwhelmed everyone emotionally. Though now is already weeks later on, the night at the bar still had a glamorous radiance in my memory. Besides, I found the age of the crowd at the bar was variety, from very young generation to grandfather and grandmother. They wore leather jacket, metal ring and showed their tattoos. From the view of a tourist like me, I believe on Friday night every British folk rocks. By the way, the beer is big and cheaper, of course no tip culture there, an awesome place! We all think so.

One bottled water cost me 1.55 pounds. Speaking of the price level in England, it’s simply a disaster. A one-way train fare from London to Durham charges 65 pounds and could reach 200 pounds for different level of seat. If Polly hadn’t warned me to book the discount fares online in advance, I would have trouble to go through the purchasing process on the vending machine, because it was too scary to buy a one-way train fare which is more expensive than my 30 days unlimited MTA card in New York. Students’ favorite fast food “Fish’n Chips”, I was confident about that it wouldn’t be a wrong choice since almost every student had it on the street. The “Fish’n Chips” was made with only one fried fish on French fries, and it cost 4.5 pounds. I trusted it was a good deal because of its great popularity. Anyway, when I tried it, it was nothing but garbage. Anyone who hasn’t tried it yet wouldn’t believe how terrible it can be. I just threw it away when I barely could swallow it.  

During this trip, I visited Newcastle, which is 40min away from Durham by bus. The day I was there, it was raining hard. Despite of the bad weather, I was still eager to see the city. There is a subway station connecting to the bus terminal, I went there and found two young girls. Since I hadn’t prepared anything to do in the city, my strategy was to find some locals and ask them where I should go if this was my last day in Newcastle, and young generation is preferred. When these two girls showed up, I could tell right away that they are fun seeker from the punk rock style and outgoing behaviors. We discussed for a couple of minutes, and strangely could hardly figure out a thing I must do. At the end they were sorry to say the shopping area above the subway was the best area in town. This bad weather and punk rock girls totally cooled down my enthusiasm, suddenly, there was nothing to do for me. I found the best way to enjoy the day in Newcastle was taking my time. When I slowed down, the raining city was kind of beautiful and 100% British style. It was nice, yet I still love Durham more.   

The last night of the trip, I hurried to see London at night and was going to sleep at Getwick Airport for my flight on the next morning. The city was so big and beautiful. I dragged my luggage to see Westminster Abbey and London Eye. While I was walking along the river and taking pictures for myself, there was another Taiwanese girl “Leeann” walking by alone. I thought why not be accompanied. She was nice and kind of being my tour guide and showed me around the river, she also mentioned about those two years she studied in London was her best time in life. After we said goodbye to each other, she headed to her hostel and I got on my mid-night train and spent my last night at airport. When I arrived at the airport, inside the airport was surprisingly crowded. Backpackers and passengers had slept on everywhere, benches, couches and chairs were completely occupied. Since there was not any ideal target to sleep on, eventually, I slept on the floor down the corridor on the second floor. It was a little bit funny when I walked to the end of the line of sleeping people, put my stuff down and made myself a cozy place, in the meanwhile, people came one after one to lineup after me. Due to this strange phenomenon, I was looking for an explanation. I guessed it was because everyone wants to visit London but not everyone can afford its lodging expense, especially for young people. Anyway, it was my honor to join this rare phenomenon of human society. It meant we trusted and feared each other equally at the same time, also the consensus came from the same righteous reason. I took it as a very cool lesson in life.

The main reason I went on this trip was to get another 6 months entry permit from U.S. customs due to my last one was going to expire soon. Luckily, I made it to get the permit when I reentered the border, therefore I still feel excited about the sequence of doubling my time in New York. Despite the fact of that I am really living on the edge right now.