Story of a Heart

Chapter 15: The waiting game

Lisa's point of view
The tour had been a weird experience, but truly great. Different cities every other day, so many beautiful cultures to explore, so many beautiful places to visit, and doing it all with my best friends made it even better. There had been so many brilliant moments, so many highlights I'd remember for ever - some stupid and some of just pure happiness. So many people, so many games teases and jokes. One night we even got Claire to enjoy herself so much she completely forgot about her usual homesickness! There were so many good moments too. So many times I'd laughed so hard I couldn't breathe, so many times I'd smiled so much my cheeks ached, and danced so much my feet hurt.

Berlin, Germany
While we were in Berlin, me and Faye had slipped out one evening, after an almost mind numbingly boring trip around the city talking about city life in modern, post reunification, Berlin. I'm sure Lee was enjoying himself even if the rest of us weren't all that much. I'd been tempted to tell the tour guide to piss off more than once! Now even me and Faye had known without a lecture that Germany prized itself for its beer, but it was fantastic. The one night we may have drunk so much that the following day had been a real struggle, especially as we had a morning children's TV show appearance where we had to try our best to seem like we weren't ridiculously hungover. I think that hangover tried it's very hardest to kill us both. The most agonising part of the whole event is that neither me or Faye remember very much of the evening, but Claire has reminded us numerous times that she had to come collect us from the pub, because a fair proportion of Berlin were already talking about how much of an embarrassment we were. Clearly whatever had happened was not one of our finest moments.
The following day, in order to not look associated with us Claire and H held hands and pretended to be 'just another couple out enjoying the sights' while me and Faye tried (and failed) to appear as if we had not been drinking the night before. And Lee just kept turning up at the inopportune moment. Faye did manage to snap a fair few pictures of the 'couple' though, which we'd been teasing them with for the remainder of the tour.

Rome, Italy
We visited Rome as the third stop of the tour, and it was so beautiful. I think we took loads more photos there than anywhere else. The history they have is so fantastic, and I think it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. The moment was ruined once or twice by the young romantics - Faye and Lee - getting a little closer than is probably preferred in public, if not necessarily by the law certainly by the friends they were travelling with and we tended to make that known to them. Usually they'd work it out and tone it down, but once or twice there had been temptation to start throwing belongings at them. But it was worth it when me, Claire and H decided we would go get some Italian ice cream instead of putting up with them any longer, ditching them looking over the coliseum and (when we left) rubbing noses. We sat in the middle of a large green park, eating ice cream and comparing photos until the other two managed to somehow find us (and subsequently promised to tone it down a bit). That was the moment I was quite glad this tour didn't include Paris, mostly because I'm not sure I could have survived that as well as Rome.

Copenhagen
Copenhagen, famously the capital city of Denmark, NOT Norway as Claire had told me (I'd known all along Copenhagen was in Denmark, although the look on Claire's face when she found out the truth was utterly priceless), was a great time too. While we were in the hotel there had been a quite noisy and violent thunderstorm, which had scared Faye so much that she had snuck across our room and joined me in my bed before I'd even had chance to ask if she was okay. I knew she hated thunder, I'd found that out on many occasions even back in England. By the way she was shaking and clinging on to me quite tightly at times throughout it I had quite quickly concluded she was terrified and not alright, and even after end of the thunderstorm, she remained in my bed. When she finally stopped shaking from the fear, she'd ended up falling asleep curled up with her arms around me (although at least when she had I could breathe, which at times during the storm had been quite difficult with the way she'd been crushing me). H had many things to say about my night when I told him over breakfast the following morning, which included useless comments like "Why didn't you ask her out?", I did nearly slap him for that one, and in hindsight probably should have done because he hasn't let it go yet, and I don't think he will.