“It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last”
I have a complicated relationship with London. I have been dreaming of visiting this city since I was little, primarily due to being a bit of a Sherlock Holmes bookworm. But when BBC’s adaptation with Benedict Cumberskotchbatch came out, it made me fall in love with the feeling. I wanted to walk across the Millenium Bridge, see the roof of the St Bartholomew’s Hospital, see the black cabs going around the streets. But in reality, when I got to the city for the first time in 2024, it was a disappointment. Extremely overcrowded, overpriced, with the tube being approximately as reliable as I am with my menstrual cycle. It had its moments, like riding the double-decker redheads or simply discovering a random street, completely empty, with bricked houses arranged next to each other like royal soldiers. But overall, my impression was that I would not like to come back to this city from my own pocket.
And then I got diagnosed with celiac. To my surprise, London is widely recognized as one of the best places in the world to be gluten-free (or to have any allergy or intolerance for that matter, because they ALWAYS ask you). So I ended up going to the UK’s gluten-free food festival. On my way back to the flat, I noticed that the Greenwich park is kind of on the way. I did not manage to visit it last time since the distances are huge and it quite literally takes forever to get anywhere, so I decided to make the small detour. And god, I am not a fan of skyscrapers at all, but somehow this scenery was so… London? In the best way possible? Maybe it was the arepa I brought along speaking in me (and as we know, the pathway to woman’s heart leads through the stomach). Maybe it was the airplanes flying over my head every couple of minutes. But just being there, lying on that grass, made me realize, that sometimes giving something (or someone) a second chance with no expectations is the best thing you can do.