Commonwealth

“Are you hungry?” I asked Victoria as I pulled out an apple. She smiled and lowered her eyes a bit but did not say anything. “I tell you what, you can have two big bites of my apple, deal?” “O.k.” She took her two bites and handed me back my apple. It was exactly what my body wanted at the time: it was sweet, sour and tart. I then asked if she wanted chocolate. She resisted at first but like all desirable things, especially chocolate, resistance is futile. Her facial expressions while eating the dark Ukrainian chocolate I brought with me were very, very gratifying. I started feeding her squares of the dark chocolate, making her close her eyes as I placed the smooth pieces in her mouth. The chocolate was done by the time the plane made its descent towards London. We held each other's hand as I felt the couple of hours of our relationship weighing down on me while the ground rushed up to meet the plane's landing gear. By the time we had landed I was thinking that we needed a break.

“So, while you are in England we should get together for a coffee or drink.” “Sure,” she said as we exchanged info. We waited together at the long border crossing in the airport as I took in the smell of her hair. We held onto one another as though we had known each other for years. Our turn came up and I insisted that she go first. Having a Canadian passport, I thought I would be done before her as Ukrainians are generally hassled much more than any other country in the world at border crossings. She got to the counter as the next border guard waved me to him.

I handed him my passport as he started asking me the standard border-crossing questions: “What is the purpose of your visit, how long are you staying, where are you staying, who are you staying with, how do you intend to support yourself during your stay here, what is this 'n/a' under your current work section?” I explained to him that I am here visiting friends, for tourism, for three days and that the “n/a” means that I do not work at the moment. “So you are unemployed?” “Well, you can say that” “and how do you plan to support yourself here?” “I have savings.” “What's this stamp here?” he asked pointing to an exit or entry for the tenth of December. “I'm not sure... I can check my travel log...” “how long have you been travelling for?” “About a year but you won't find anything before this month in that passport, I was travelling with my Greek passport.” “You have two?” “yeah, want to see it?” “Never mind” he replied as he left with my passport and started speaking to whom I assumed was his supervisor.

When he returned he told me that because I was not employed and that I was travelling with my Canadian passport that he would have to put some restrictions on my visit. “What kind of restrictions? I thought that using a commonwealth country passport would have been easier.” I asked. “For instance, if you want to access part of the welfare system, such as if you end up in a hospital, you would be denied certain benefits.” O.k. So I've been in the hospital once or twice while travelling and try to choose private clinics anytime I can, preferring to pay for services I use rather than paying for services others use.

“How long will this take?” “Why do you choose to travel with your Canadian passport?” “Well, in the countries I was visiting it is easier to travel as a Canadian than as a Greek. Would it make things easier if I chose to visit England with my E.U. Passport?” “Yes, you would be waved right through.” “Fine by me, here's my passport” I said. He glanced at the passport and just waved me through, not even stamping it for entry.

I had booked an easybus ticket online a few days ago and made my way to the bus, already worrying that I would be later than the cutoff point that they have on their terms and conditions agreement that I hadn't read. I made it in fine enough and started to worry about my hostess and whether she would be concerned that I hadn't shown up the time I was supposed to. She told me to call her when I got to a building close-by and that she would come take me to her “hidden apartment.” Walking in the drizzling rain, I saw a group of three men, a little younger than I, walking towards me. They were dressed in three-quarter length grey overcoats over three-piece business suits typical of Londoners. “Hey guys, can I ask you a favour? I just got in and need to call my-” they glanced at me, turned away and kept walking without missing a step. I was shocked. “Hey! I'm talking to you! Assholes! At least tell me to piss off!” I yelled after them. They just kept their heads down and continued walking away as though I was nothing more than Jacob Marley's ghost in A Christmas Carol.

I started to walk in the direction the three men were coming from when I noticed a scarf on the ground. I stopped, picked it up and saw that it was similar to the scarves that the men in London like to wear with grey overcoats and three-piece suits. I should run back and see if it belongs to one of those as- No, you shouldn't. Karma. This is what you get from Karma. It was a battle over a monumental issue decided in under a second. I folded it up and stuffed it into the side of my bag. The fourth and fifth people I asked were almost as bad. At least they lied to me about not having a phone. The last set of men decided to help me out and soon enough the 'click-click-click' sound of high heels hitting pavement started getting louder as it approached the spot I was waiting for my hostess. “Pavlos!” she yelled after me as I turned to open up my arms to her and kissed her on each cheek. She was a petite woman with a perky attitude, cute face, Asian princess style skin and cheekbones and dark searching eyes. “Man, are you a sight for sore eyes... Why are you running?” “I didn't want you to get wet” “Oh my! You didn't have to! Its only drizzling!”

Chyi was staying at her friend's apartment who was back in Argentina for some reason or another. We made tea, talked for over an hour about our travels and cultures and she then offered me blankets and pillows before disassembling a red pleather couch which folded out into a bed. I declined to use her blanket as I was only there for the night and pulled out my sleeping bag for a great deep but short sleep.

I made coffee and mate tea the next day, pillaging a few spoonfuls of the mate that the Argentinian apartment's owner had stashed amongst his teas and coffees while boiling the water for my thermos. I made Chyi her coffee and decided to hit the city as soon as possible. My main goals were to see the London Tower, the Tower Bridge and the Tate museum before going back to Chyi's house to grab my bag in order to drop it off at my next hostess' work by five o'clock.

I crossed the Southwark bridge, walked along the Thames on the northern bank, took a ton of pictures of the Tower sights before heading back over the Tower bridge towards Chyi's place on the south side of the river. By the time I reached the Southwark cathedral Chyi sent me a text cancelling lunch (we planned on cooking a nice lentil soup at home) which worked out great for me seeing as I was not quite done seeing the city at that time.