In New Delhi we lived across the road from each other, in
The Netherlands we lived in the same student house, and my apartment in London
was a 10 minute bike ride away from hers. Apart from these coincidental but
most appreciated months that our international routes overlapped, she spent some
time in her native Greece whereas I briefly called myself an expat in China and
now live in Ireland. Travel-wise our independent itineraries crisscross Europe
in an apparently random and disorganised figure, coincidentally conjoining only
to revert shortly afterwards to diverging dotted lines on a map. Last Sunday
was one of those cherished moments that we got to catch up on what must have
been at least half a year of absence. I loved the scene: a 5 minute stroll from
Embankment, where she travelled my tube and I cycled to by Boris bike, in a
snug red painted coffee house, right next to the window so that London’s metropolitan
vibe was always right there but distanced enough not to interrupt our conversation.
2 hours of intense catching up, sharing stories of work, life, new loves and
long forgotten memories, only to end when I had to catch my plane back home and
she needed to go back to the bunch of friends she had over. Vasiliki, it was
yet again a true pleasure seeing you, and I already look forward to our next
time. Borders and distances do nothing to true friendships if not only enhancing
them.
(photo below: London tube, autumn 2012)
(photo below: London tube, autumn 2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment