My first day in New York City coincided with a gig from the Australian indi-folk brother and sister duo, Angus + Julia Stone. Prior to leaving I’d managed to score a pass to shoot them thanks to their older sister Catherine.
My last full day in England was spent wandering around the Thames once more, a visit to Tate Modern and a tour of the Globe Theatre. It really was a leisurely day, not having to do much was great. Had lunch with Samantha, a friend from High School, ran into a bunch of German skaters doing some photos and videos outside the Tate Modern and just did some basic exploration.
After decamping from Cord’s place and relocating to my new digs – a hostel near Baron’s Court – I jumped aboard the train to Manchester to meet up with Ruth and Adam, fellow members of TheRoot42.org, for a traditional Sunday Afternoon Roast, capped off with a couple of Coopers (had to introduce the poms to it!). What I hadn’t counted on was that Manchester United was playing the same day, so my trip up and back with Virgin Trains meant that while I didn’t have a seat, I had a lot of entertainment provided for me – from the Swedish teachers over for the weekend to get pissed and watch football, to the unhappy supporters of the losing side (not Manchester thankfully, otherwise I’m sure it would have been a far worse trip back!).
Arriving in an English speaking nation for the first time in a little over a week I was both relieved and slightly apprehensive. I’d learnt to slow down and observe the goings on around me far more readily when I didn’t understand the language and quite enjoyed the freedom that this gave me. That said, it was nice to get to a location where you didn’t have to apologise for not having local language comprehension. Thankfully the nordic countries are amongst the most friendly I’ve met, and everyone I met spoke english more fluently than many native speakers.
To get from Skellefteå to København on my round the world ticket I had to fly from Skellefteå to Stockholm with SAS, then back Helsinki in Finland – the home of Finnair – before the final last leg to land in København in Denmark. Luckily for me I scored free accomodation thanks to a friend working for IBM who had since moved to Singapore. So after calling his mates looking after the apartment in København I got in, grabbed some grub and crashed early that evening. The next day I headed out to DONG Energy for a meeting to discuss all things regarding “smart grids” and the distribution network.