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Published: October 25th 2012
I'm writing about a trip to Europe that I did more than 5 years ago, so it's mostly about anecdotes that I remember about this trip. The previous post was about Paris.
In the afternoon of Wednesday 20th of December I said goodbye to Paris, hopped on a train in the Gare du Nord train station and crossed the English Channel to arrive at the Waterloo train station, where I was going to be met by Paul Engeham, a retired Royal Navy Lt-Cmdr. Before I go any further with this post, I'll describe how I got to meet Paul (which will set me back in time about 9 years):
In 1997 my father was the Commanding Officer of a British built County Class Destroyer ("Almirante Latorre") that was bought second hand to England after having participated in the Falklands War under the name of HMS "Glamorgan". This ship was struck in the hangar by an Exocet missile fired from an Argentian land based platform during the war and the damage control actions performed by the crew managed to salvage the ship. Paul Engeham was a sub-lieutenant embarked on that ship at the time (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glamorgan_(D19)).
Paul happened to be in Valparaíso, Chile in 1997 and after seeing his old ship berthed in the harbour, he requested permission to visit it.
He was received by my father, who took him on a tour around the ship. Since then they've remained in touch. Paul was back in Chile in two other ocassions: in 1999 and last time in 2002. In 1999 he met my father again and he took him on a tour around the city and the surrounding areas.
In 2002 my father was the Naval Attache of the Chilean Navy in Washington DC, so Paul sent him an e-mail to see if he could meet with my brother and I (I had just graduated from the Naval School and my brother was in the Naval School). My father forwarded me the e-mail and in return, I sent Paul one, saying that I was going to be navigating at that time and that my brother, being a cadet, was only allowed out of the Naval School during the weekends, so none of us were actually able to meet him.
Anyway, I also stayed in touch with Paul and frequently
exchanged letters. In one of those, I mentioned a 6 month trip I was going to do in 2002 onboard the Chilean Navy training vessel, a tall ship by the name of "Esmeralda" (320 crew), one of the biggest in the world. I mentioned the ports we were going to visit and in the letter that he wrote back, he mentioned a friend of his that was living in Sydney (one of the ports we were going to) and gave me his contact details. His name is Andrew Smith, a British Army Officer who was living with his fiancee, Francesca Alsimon in Sydney, as part of an exchange with the Australian Army.
I met with them for dinner one evening and I invited them to visit the ship the next day. I also stayed in touch with them after that.
When I started planning my trip to Europe, I began pulling out all of my contacts and wrote to Paul and Andrew that I was going to be in London in December. Andrew had married Francesca and they had two kids; Alexandra and Hamish. He invited me to stay with them during those days.
Now, back to the story: the previous day, while I was still in Pais, I received an invitation from Paul to have beers with him and his friends in London the next day.
I had to meet Paul at the Waterloo train station, go to Andrew's house, leave the backpack and go out for beers straight away. I hadn't met Paul in person yet, but with my description of a tourist with a black 70LT backpack, he spotted me rather easily. After a very brief introduction, we got on the underground, rushed to Andrew's house, quickly said hello to him and Francesca (after not having seeing them for 5 years) and out to the pub. We had a fantastic time at the pub with his friends and stayed there until about 11pm. I've got to admit that I struggled with the English accent at first.
The next days, I pretty much did the same I did in Paris: walk the city. On Thursday, I woke up early and went to take a walk along the River Thames. I got off in Waterloo station and went to take a few photos from Waterloo bridge. Right by
the bridge, there was an open air photo exhibition and one of the photos caught my attention: a lit "Underground signal" on a first plane, with the Big Ben as background, taken at night. I really liked it and tried to replicate it as best as I could the next day.
From there, I walked along the south bank of the Thames in a rather gloomy day. I also went to look at a few of the typical London highlights: Westminster Abbey, the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc.
That evening I was invited to a "dinner party" in which Andrew and Francesca invited Paul and other friends to their house. I can't remember the people who attended, but overall it was a very entertaining dinner.
On Friday, I was invited by Paul to have lunch at the Army-Navy Club, in which formal attire was mandatory (jacket and tie). I was backpacking, so I wasn't carrying anything I could wear and certainly wasn't expecting an invitation like that. All I had were grey trousers (not fully formal, but could be used for the ocassion) and a green Shirt. As for shoes, I had my brown trekking
shoes. To complement my attire, Andrew lent me a brown jacket and a red tie.
So, early in the morning I left the Smith's house (looking like a clown) to walk around the city center before going to lunch with Paul. I went to Trafalgar Square and walked around for a few hours taking photos and then I went to meet Paul at his workplace. He worked as an analyst for the MoD (Ministery of Defence) and I actually got to go inside the building. He met me at the entrance and after several security checks I was cleared to go in. I accompanied him in his office while he finished work and then we headed off to the Navy-Army Club. I must've been an odd sight between everybody else in their impecable suits, but I didn't really mind. After lunch, Paul went back to work and I went back home to change clothes and go out again. I went along the south bank ot the River Thames again, all the way to Tower Bridge, visited the Tower of London and back along the north bank.
I took the opportunity that night, to go out and
take night shots of the city and replicated the photo I had seen near the Waterloo bridge the previous day.
On Friday, the Smiths had to go out for one day, so I was left with the house to myself. Like the other days, I went out to walk the city and took some more photos of London at night, including some punks in Picadilly Circus. When I got back home, there was a note from Andrew with directions to get to a house in which friends of theirs were having dinner with other friends. I went back to the underground and somehow managed to find the address on time (no smartphone, just a map) and I arrived at the house. I have vague memories of the dinner, but I do remember having a good time and there were people from England and South Africa.
Saturday I did some more sightseeing and went to a few museums. After sunset, I wandered through the city taking more night shots and also went to the Tate Modern, a modern and contemporary art museum. Of all of the museums I visited during my trip in Europe and
this is one that stood out, I really enjoyed it.
That evening I had dinner with Andrew and Francesca and then, while Francesca put the kids to bed, I stayed talking with Andrew in the kitchen. The next day I was going to Edinburgh to spend Christmas with Scottish relatives that I hadn’t met yet. My father’s mother has 6 Scottish cousins, so it’s a pretty big family there. The next part of the conversation went as follows:
Andrew: “I have Scottish relatives that lived in Chile for a while, so just to make sure we’re not related, what’s the name of the family you’re staying with?”
Daniel: “Their surname is Laing”.
Andrew: “I know an Alec Laing who used to be in the military with me”.
Daniel: “I have a third cousin who’s name is Alec Laing who I know just retired from the military and I’m staying in his house tomorrow”.
Andrew: “Alec is a very good friend of mine and I had lunch with him in London about 3 days ago”.
Before I go on, I’ll tell a few things about Alec Laing. I
hadn’t met Alec in person, but I had spoken with him on the phone 3 years before. In 2003 I was a Chilean Navy sub-lieutenant working in an auxiliary ship in Punta Arenas, Chile. Alec and 2 friends traveled to a National Park nearby called “Torres del Paine” and briefly stopped in Punta Arenas for a night. Through my father, he knew I was there and called me to meet up. Unfortunately I was on a 24 hour duty that day and couldn’t meet with him.
Back to the story in the Smiths' kitchen: Andrew picked up his cellphone and called Alec.
Andrew: “Hey Alec, I’ve got a Chilean sitting in my kitchen who says he's your cousin”.
Alec: “Yes, that must be Daniel, we’re expecting him here tomorrow to spend Christmas with us”.
After the phone call, Andrew showed me a photo of him and Alex in Sandhurst and said “this is your cousin”.
I think the 6 degrees of separation theory is more than accurate in this case (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation).
Sunday morning, I said goodbye to the Smiths and Andrew drove me to
the train station so I could take the train to Edinburgh where I was going to be picked up by Charlie Laing, the youngest of my grandmother's cousins.
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Any comments on the post are greatly appreciated, thanks!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Six degrees of separation...
the more you travel the more common such coincidences become. I spent 11 years working at NATO in Brussels so had colleagues/friends from all over Europe. After I returned to the States, one day years later I was browsing for travel books and I heard a Norwegian couple in the next aisle over. I, of course, had to introduce myself being of Norwegian ancestry. They asked I had visited Norway and had any relatives or friends there. I told them I had visited Norway many times and dear friends named Erling and Vigdis. They said they had picked up Erling and Vigdis earlier that day, and he would be the Norwegian Defense Representative to the US for the next three years. I called Erling at the Embassy about 10 minutes into his new job...he was very surprised to hear my voice and asked if I worked for the CIA...I didn't...just one of those 6 degree of separation moments. He ended up spending five years in DC and attended my retirement ceremony. This is just one of many stories I could tell. Anyway, it sounds like you are a networker as described in Malcolm Gladwell's book "Tipping Point." It's good to meet a fellow networker.