ABBEY ROAD

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I took the tube to Waterloo on this gorgeous Saturday afternoon to meet my old friend, Javier, whom I met in Costa Rica. He's a tall, good-looking, Mediterranean gentleman with a beautiful Spanish accent. As a flight attendant, he doesn't have many Saturdays off, so we're excited that we can meet today. He said he was going to bring his friend, Samantha, too.

I'm standing in the sunshine, reading my Lonely Planet guide to London (studying is probably the more appropriate word), facing the London Eye. Of course, I'm smiling.

I look up to see Javier and Samantha almost right in front of me. "Oh my goooood!" I scream and run to give Javier a big hug. We are so excited to see each other! He introduces me to Samantha, who is standing behind him. Trying to make her relax, I hug her and say, "Nice to meet you!"

She doesn't smile or say anything.

I turn to Javier, "So, what's the game plan?"

"I was thinking," says Javier, "that I'd like to see Abbey Road--"

"AAAAH!" I cut him off, jumping up and down. "Abbey Road, oh my god, that's perfect! AAAAH, what a perfect day!"

He laughs as we start walking back into the tube station, chatting all the while.

We realize that it has been almost exactly a year since we met in Costa Rica. Strange how my life has changed in only a year.

I can see from their body language that Samantha and Javier are more than just friends. The way they lean in and talk softly to each other. The comfortable way Javier lightly touches the small of her back as we walk into the station. How Samantha's arm is on the back of Javier's chair.

Javier spends so much time flying that he's rarely in London. And when he gets time off work, he likes to go back to his hometown of Madrid to visit his family. So basically, although he's lived in London for eight years now, he's never been to Abbey Road or learned his way around the city very well.

We get off the tube at Maida Vale and study a map that Javier has printed off the internet. "Going to Abbey Road was Samantha's idea today," he said. "I hadn't even thought of it until she suggested it."

"Heeey," I smile at her in a congratulatory way. "What a brilliant mind you have! A fantastic suggestion if I ever heard one!"

She doesn't smile and just shrugs, not looking at me.

As we walk and talk some more, Javier has the map and is guiding us. In between pauses to look at the map, he coaches me on Spanish and the accent in Spain. It occurs to me that in Tennessee, the only foreign language I ever hear is Spanish. Here in the UK, Spanish is rare. There are so many other languages, I never know what language people are speaking. When Javier starts speaking Spanish to me, I have a brief feeling of something familiar, a reminder of home.

We turn onto Abbey Road and see the famous crosswalk ahead of us. I scream and jump around in circles. "Oh my goooooood, I can't believe I'm at Abbey Road!!!"

Javier laughs.

People are standing around, cameras poised to capture their loved ones crossing the famous street. It's a busy intersection, so cars keep having to stop and wait. They're probably used to it.

While we're waiting our turn, we snap pictures of a building that has a sign saying "Abbey Road" on it. We walk around and around the intersection, trying to find the perfect spot to get a picture as much like the album cover as possible. That'll be hard to do, considering whoever took the picture was obviously standing the middle of the street, and this intersection is way too congested. We try anyway.

I want a picture with all three of us crossing the street, but Samantha doesn't want to join in, and Javier wants to operate the camera.

So, I cross Abbey Road alone.

I walk tall, with long strides, euphoria seeping into my viens. I'm walking where the greatest band of all time walked, where they were photographed for one of the greatest album covers of all time. I think I floated across the street.

Javier keeps snapping my picture when I'm barely off the sidewalk. I run back and look at the photo and say, "Thanks, but can you get one when I'm in the middle of the road?"

Although we try it many times, he never gets one of me in the middle of Abbey Road. I'm always right off the sidewalk. After I cross the street dozens of times while Javier tries to get a good shot--with no other people in it, no cars waiting for me, and me not looking weird somehow--I take some photos of Javier crossing the street. He also crosses the street dozens of times.

After crossing Abbey Road a million times, we take pictures of the outside of the recording studio. The gates to the parking lot are shut and locked, so no one can enter. I see one business-looking man in a suit with a briefcase enter the studio while talking on his cell phone. I wonder who he is.

Along the white-washed wall outside the studio, people have written all kinds of graffiti--Beatles lyrics, their names, stick-it-to-the-man comments, poems, pictures, musical staffs with notes, locations of where they're from, props to some other famous rock stars, ideas about the revolution, peace love and happiness statements. It is all so hippie-ish, I love it. We, and other tourists, walk slowly along the wall, reading all the messages and taking pictures of them.

Finally, we leave. I'm hungry and I have to pee like a racehorse. "I wish we could find a street sign that says 'Abbey Road'," says Javier. "But the city removed them because people kept stealing them."

A block later, there it is. A sign reading "Abbey Road." We are all over it like a donkey eating a waffle. Taking pictures, posing different ways, getting different combinations of me, Samantha, and Javier. He asks for Samantha to stand alone by the sign, saying, "I'd like a picture of you, Samantha, my camera-shy beauty."

She walks calmly to the sign and stands there while Javier snaps pictures. I just have to break through this shell of hers. She's probably just shy.

My camera battery dies, so we switch to using Javier's only.

Once we're satisfied with the photos, we walk to a Latin restaurant on the South Bank of the Golden Jubilee Bridge. We talk some more and look at the pictures on our cameras. Javier and I like taking pictures, so we'll probably do some sight-seeing together again.

After our food arrives, Javier goes to the restroom while I devour my paella. (I freakin' LOVE paella!) I say to Samantha, "Gosh, Javier is so nice. He's such a great guy! It's wonderful to see him again."

She looks down, adjusting the front of her jacket, "Yes. Well. He and I have been spending a lot of time together, so that's nice."

She looks up, staring straight ahead, not at me.

"You have such a beautiful accent, Samantha! I mean, seriously. It's like the quintessential, perfect, classy British accent."

After dinner, Javier and I give each other hugs and promises to get together next time he's in town. We part ways outside the restaurant. I want to stay on the South Bank for a while.

I walk down the Queen's Walk. I've never been down here at night. The trees have blue and white lights in them, which cast such a romantic scene on the lovers who line the benches, whispering into each other's ears. Everything in the Oxo Tower is closed except restaurants, but I look through the windows anyway. Not impressive. The shops are boring. I walk down a little further to the Tate Museum of Modern Art. That's something I want to see! However, it's such a gorgeous night, I don't want to go inside. I just want to stay by the river. I keep walking.

I walk all the way to London Bridge.

Then, I walk back. Slowly taking it all in. Breathing in my London.

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Photos

Finding Abbey Road
Samantha and Javier check their map. Javier also printed a picture of the Abbey Road album cover and a picture of what the street looks like today.

Javier
The Spanish flight attendant I met in Coast Rica a year ago.

Javier and I
Trying to look "posh".

Leaves and Broken Sidewalk
Along Abbey Road

Crossing Abbey Road
...along with some other people.

Crossing Abbey Road
Take 2.

Crossing Abbey Road
"Next time, Javier, can you take the photo when I'm in the MIDDLE of the road?"

Crossing Abbey Road
"Thanks!"

Crossing Abbey Road
I'm in the middle, but my legs are together. Try it again!

Abbey Road Studio
That's right, bitches.

Writings on the Wall
Outside the studio, all along the block where the famous crosswalk is.