Country

Pondering what to do my last week of my trip, I had a few considerations. I knew I wanted to return to visit my friends in Brighton. I felt I had seen most of what I wanted of London except for the never ending stream of great club music that plays there.. however that is mostly Thursday through Saturday. Rob has been so great in opening up his home to me, and nothing but welcoming, but I wanted to make sure he had his place to himself sometimes and that I wasn't always there, so some time away from London was certainly in order.

Fortunately, I got an invitation from some new friends I made at the Big Chill Festival to come up to Northern England for a couple days. (Vic)toria Jocasta Varley and Saffron Mina Katrina Glew (I love their names) hail from Halifax, a small ruralish town in the north of England near Leeds. I met them at one of those late night parties after all of the main music stages had closed down and all of us dance addicts all buzzed toward the nearest beat within ear shot. Those tend to be the best parties with the funnest people. This party was the best of all, tucked in a cider tent, DJ decks in the corner, and a gaggle of avid dancers, throwing down with five mile smiles on their faces.

Toria told me there was a burlesque show up in Huddersfield that would be fun. I knew if they said it would be fun, it would be. And what a great opportunity to get out of the more touristy areas and see some down home English living. So I took a train up there to meet them for the show. Folks tend to dress up for these things, and I am a mere shaggy backpacker, so I borrowed a couple of things from Rob, since we're about the same size, and did my best.

Huddersfield turned out to be a cute town with a surprising array of pubs and night life for such a small place. It is a college town though, and that always helps keep a town active. The ladies, in a concerted effort to throw their full support into the new burlesque club, dressed up to the nines with sequins, feathers... the works.

The show was great. Along with the traditional elements of burlesque (a cheeky MC, feather dances, strip teases, and great jazz/pop singers), they also threw in some creative, more modern takes on the art form, playing rock music and more up to date skits, like a crime scene investigator strip tease, for example. World class entertainment in a small town. Gotta love it.

I was also pleased by the quality of the music playing in the clubs and bars around town afterwords. The experience will, along with others in my travels, help me not to be so arrogant about what cities have really good entertainment.

The next day, the three of us headed to Halifax. We stopped off to meet Toria's family and wiener dog, Eric and then headed up to stay with Saffron's family, her cute little two year old, Molly, and Molly's chilled out, VW bus enthusiast dad, Jules. They live in a cute house at the top of a hill surrounded on every side by rolling greenery and nothing but stone masonry buildings. Again, nothing but great hospitality from them. We stayed up late, drinking wine and playing old school hip hop vinyl albums most of the night. How can you beat that.

The next morning I returned to London just in time to repack and head down to Brighton. Pete and Adeline were there to welcome me, of course, and I immediately remembered why I wanted to return. The feel of the place re-enveloped me immediately. Brighton is a big tourist destination which does affect the feel, but it nevertheless seems like a pleasant place to live as well.

This time, however, I did manage to find my friend Roussos, the hippyish Greek guy I spent time with in a couple of Thailand cities. I knew he was living in Brighton and had a little stand selling clothes and trinkets, but never found him during my last visit. This time, thanks to the magic of Facebook, I managed to contact him and he gave me more exact coordinates.

Roussos leads a pretty charmed life. He is always positive, always has a big smile on his face, and is one of the friendliest people ever. I think this has helped him to manage exactly the life he wants. He is a life long traveler. But while most other travel enthusiasts return home to get a real job to fund the next trip, Roussos designed his own job. This year he went to Thailand and Morocco to develop some relationships with suppliers of his products. Then he managed to fall into the opportunity to setup a table and racks outside of a store on a quiet, sunny, tourist shopping street. The shop owner liked Roussos so much, he discounted the rent he normally charges for the spot just so he could get on his feet. He told me one day, he got tired of looking at the restaurant across from his table and wished he could have the palms and coconut trees of Thailand to look at. Soon after, the restaurant changed hands, became a Thai restaurant, and they painted pictures of palm trees and sunny skies in front of his face. Ahhh.

Roussos says his main problem now is keeping items in stock. Business is good.

Way to go, man.