My first trip to London

The year was 1966 and I just finished school and the age of 19 and wanted to improve my English language skills, so I decided to go to London. Slovenia was then still under Yugoslavia with Tito as the leader. Out technology consisted of a small radio and that was it. So when I arrived in London I was overwhelmed by the big city.

We didn’t go by airplane, that was very expansive in those days, we went by train. Weird things happened to me on the way there. As we were crossing the Austrian border two men tried to lock me in the train carriage, even to this day I do not know how I managed to escape. I stayed in the train corridor until we arrived in Munich. There I should have switched trains and should have gone on the Dover train but I couldn’t find it so I missed it, then next one to Dover was not leaving until he next day; so I slept on the train station.

When I finally arrived at the customs in the UK, they didn’t let me enter the country, saying the working visa has expired. I insisted they should call London and they finally did and I finally arrived in the UK. When I bought a ticket to Victoria station, despite already owning a ticket to London, I was very happy to be in the country because many of the other girls were rejected and they had to go back home.

When I arrived at Victoria I found a taxi which took me to a hotel at Queens gate, Kensington. There my Slovenian friend awaited me there, but she didn’t stay for much longer since her visa expired soon. Even to this day I know the last name of the head maid there, it was Miss Walker, a grumpy old lady. I soon switched jobs and started working at the Adria hostel in Onslow gardens for which I was payed 7 pounds (of the old money) per week.

After a year my work visa expired so I had to get back to Slovenia. I have numerous stories about the year I spend in London to write about, but thats for some other time.I still to this day enjoy going back to London. Last year for example I have seen a few tennis matches at Wimbledon. This year I am again going back to London in December, I hope to see some more tennis at the Albert Hall and have tea at the Ritz and a meal at Jamie’s restaurant is a thing I will not miss. This year it will be 43 years since my first trip to London and I plan on going to London by plane this time!

-Mika @ twitter.com/mikazorzut

Don’t forget – for every comment made on this post, $1 will be donated to the charity: water campaign for this blog. Check out our progress and look forward to your contributions too! The campaign page is http://mycharitywater.org/biscuitinthebasket.