Writhe and Shine

From Writhe’s journal:

London. I am utterly exhausted. Most of it is due to the fact that I haven’t slept properly in over 24 hours. I can never fall asleep properly on planes. I think it has something to do with not being able to lay down. I’m also very tired from lugging my backpack through a portion of London. I’m on my way to a friend’s flat (I suppose that’s what they call apartments) to stay for a few days and experience the city with the help of a couple of locals. I met them on the internet and they seemed more than happy to help me out on the first part of my adventure.
I’m stopping at just about every park to pull out a map (no I don’t have one of those neat phones with the internet) and try to make sense of my surroundings. I can’t figure out which way to go or which way is north or why all the street signs are so damn small! I was sitting confused in one park and apparently couldn’t hide the appearance that I was pretty much lost when this rather large woman with sickly green glittery lipstick and multi-colored sparkling toenails poking through her sandals sat next to me. “I’m the biggest boobies in Austria,” she exclaimed. She did indeed have large breasts, but then again, a lot of her was big. I quickly made a disgusted face (which told her I wasn’t interested in anything she was offering) and left without saying a word.
Ugh. I really need to get something to eat. I think I’ll try to find some food on the way to Big Ben.

I finally arrived at my friend’s place around 7 in the evening. We talked a bit and they showed me around their flat. Their kitchen was very small and I had to squat down in the bathtub to take a shower as there was no vertical pipe or shower curtain to keep the water in the tub. Instead, there was a detachable handle with a short flexible hose that I used to direct the water. I felt like I was in a large sink, but was happy to get clean after a full day of travel. We ended up eating some kind of almost bland gyro-type thing from a vendor down the street as my hosts showed me several photo albums, pointing out who I will meet and who I won’t at the Goth Picnic tomorrow in Hyde Park(?). After a quick trip to the local grocery store to stock up on things I would need for the next couple of days, I passed out at around 11pm. That was probably the longest day of my life.