In the year 2002 I took a quite rickety overland bus drive to London, just to see Alan Rickman in the award-winning British production of Noel Coward’s play „Private Lives“. Having just developed a huge crush on the actor after seeing him in „Sense and Sensibility“, nothing was going to stop me from this live experience. Even not the fact, a completely sold out play. It was its last week staging. With that in mind I left Berlin at the end of february in 2002.

Since back then something like cheap airlines didn´t even occur to my mind, it took me 14 hours, a nearly missed connection from Brussels to Calais and all my will to not throw up over the ferry railing, to get to London. Having arrived in London city, I paid unbelievable 50 (fifty!!!) Euros for a terrible room in a terrible hostel. The rest of my money I spent on the prospering black market in front of Albery Theatre for the ticket to the play. To make a long story short: It was all worth it. I will and cannot give a review here. Others, like the guardian or my favorite Rickman website have done it already and probably a lot better than Iever  could. I know for sure though, that this has been one of the best theatre evenings in my hitherto existing theatre life and I have rarely had such a good sleep like in this night. Alan Rickman´s performance in this beautiful play was outstanding and the soft baritone of his voice cast a spell on me. I sat in the second row with hearts in my eyes and a never fading smile on my face.

The next morning I woke up refreshed and happy, only to find part of my glasses broken. Nonetheless I had to make it through London, to make to the bus station in time. I left my crappy hostel and, half blind and completely broke, wandered the streets of London. Stopping at every street corner, I pulled out my broken glasses and checked my foldable city map (for the younger ones of you: foldable maps are similar to google maps, but made out of paper and you have to search for yourself). I managed to get to the bus station 5 minutes before departure.

I claim this to be one of my first traveling adventures, though I did not see very much of London.

What are your funniest and maybe craziest stories of traveling so far?