European travel can be such a heady pleasure

admin / December 23, 2010 /

It was a sultry summer back in the 80’s I think it was, and I was starting to see these bikes zipping around the United Kingdom’s capital city. These easily acquired push-bikes were had for as little as a quid and one could not miss the sponsor splashed on the bikes. Barclays; I won’t forget the name easily since it played such a large part in shaping present day me. Travel can do that, widening your horizons and revealing yourself in a new light for even you.  As one of 50 people that were gifted a chance by Barclays for European travel that summer, I was amazed that a teenager like me could win something like this.

Paris, Brussels, Heidelberg, Brunnen and Venice. These are some of the finest cities anyone can cram into their European travel itinerary and I got to experience them in world-class fashion. Five star travel all the way is a very big deal for a seventeen year old with raging hormones. I would have probably gone berserk if they crammed Amsterdam into that list. Not something you’d expect someone who won his way in thanks to a short story I submitted based on a fictional England in 2010, eh? I don’t remember much of it except that it was about a captured terrorist and life lessons, but my pretentious execution must have won me some brownie points to score that trip!

It was all part of a marketing campaign by Barclays, but honestly, it must be the least cost-effective advertising campaign of all time. The idea was to promote banking as a career and make us fall in love with Barclays, and fall in love I did. But it was not Barclays, but a beautiful young Parisienne that I fell in love with. At the time, I felt it would be forever, but it was to be nothing more than a summer fling and then a little more. But it was such sweetness to have been with her. Every moment was filled with joy, every tomorrow brimming with surprises. Lovely, lovely Sophie. I wonder sometimes whether life and the passing years have been kind to her.

To have never been out of the country before then and to now find love and such freedom, such temptation was incredible. I remember getting very drunk, smoking a lot and exploring every inch of Sophie when the moment permitted it. There were no strings attached and no limits. The channel cut us off and liberated us, and the European travel memories I have will live with me forever.

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