Raining. Pouring.    Water surrounds me.   I'm trapped in this  translucent column.  Buildings are as grey  as the flow that keeps       on coming and   soaking me. They say it's a beautiful city, it's not. The wind blows and slaps to my hears, as if it wanted to torture me. Everywhere I look, there's nothing but the gloom of the shades of grey. No one is here and yet there are people, walking by such as ghosts ruled by a unstoppable clock. The cars that go by only increase the humming of my loneliness. No one is here for me, neither am I to anyone. Everywhere I look, there's nothing but stones, stones, and stones. Everything looks sad. And I feel lost. As a matter of fact, I am. Lost in the dirt of the city that is called "Big Smoke". Smoke? Such a fitting. This one and only word recaps the situations. Everything blured, and everyone trapped in a huge cigarette.

I woke up again, without knowing where I was. As before, I was on the river Thames bank, except that this time the water had turned as grey as a cloud loaded with rain. My impression was confirmed when I looked up to the sky that was a perfect reflection of the water. Of course it was grey, as usual, but there was something different. The mist was mor opressive that how it used to be.

An awful noise came to my ear as a weird machine passed by me, running faster that the biggest tropical animal I had ever seen. The road was covered by a grey and solid paste on which you could sometimes see a somehow white painted line. But I was even more stunned when I realised that the animal/machine that passed by me was connected to a humanbeing. At least they made some progress in this version of London.

I walked a bit further, following the strange road and trying not to get killed by the rolling machines. When I finally reached the city, I stopped, unable to walk because of the lack of air this vision caused me. The city that stood there was far from the London I knew; It was at least twenty times as big as my London, and the buildings seemed to be willing to reach the sky. It seemed like standing in front of a thousand towers of Babel. But what stroke me most wasn't the height nor the expansion of the city but the cloudy and dense fog overlooking London. An eternal hat made of several sad colours and, I guessed, an extreme pollution. From the outside, the whole town felt like nostalgy, grieving for a time, a golden age that might had never existed.

Sadness surrounded the city, so I decided to have a look from the inside, hoping this impresion would disappear. It took me a long while to go into the city, and I was stil impressed by the height of the buildings that had lost their heads into the cloudy sky. Even though the buildings were an architectural prowess, their monotonous colours always reminded me of the humdrum gloom that had taken up residence in London. Contrary to the first version of London thhat was shown to me, hapiness and healthiness weren't the main words that boosted the town.

Suddenly, I was swept away deeper into the city by a hord of people, walking as fast as they could and wearing exactly the same outfit in black or grey, merging perfectly with the flat routine of what I had seen of the city. But the deeper I got, the brighter the colurs became. The shops were painted in red, bleu, green or yellow, windows were freshly washed and everything was so cleaned that I almost could have forgotten the weather. As I walked by the shops, I saw several lights that made everything look brighter. I was so astonished by all those new things that I didn't see the man in front of me, so I bumped into him. I was so sorry and was trying to apologize but the man was already far gone, mumbling about how stupid I was to be wandering by the shops. " He didn't even look at me" I thought. " How can someone be so rude?". Anyway, I kept walking and wandering by, trying to be more careful this time. I was quite disappointed that people in this London weren't nice at all. I hoped this man wasn't a generality that had spread into London, but seing the face of all the people that surrounded me, I sure was afraid it was something so deeply anchored into the society that it wouldn't go away for long.

I kept walking until I finally got downtown. And ther my dream came true. Evey building was remarkable. There even was some that I could remember such as Big Ben or Westminster  Abbey. And even though the Thames was grey and repulsive, the buildings enhanced the beauty of the place, such as a rose makes the rosebush look less wild and dangerous. I came into several places, looking at the art of this London, that was unbelievable and not understanble to me, but how could I have known, as I was just a passing traveller who didn't know a thing about the culture that surrounded me. The center of London was a wonderful place of art, where even the outfit were influenced by this arstitic feeling that was palpable.

I found my new London. My unperfect utopia, the place where I would grow and live in, the place of my dreams. The place of expression

(Own this photo,  not taken on the net)

We're back, from one the most amazing trips we ever did! London, we were in London! The excentric city, the crazyness, and the smog, right, but we didn't care! I want to go back and live there for a while, just to be able to be myself without being judged! Do shopping all day long, then party, then think about a job maybe! So if I have to say to say something about this trip, it would just be that it was a great time of getting to know people, culture, and several great other stuff that I can't describe because it would take too long. But I have to thank our host, Rosie, who was and still is the best.