Travelling light

The train journey was very bumpy and shaky. The railway went all the way around Europe. My friend Henrik and I had been travelling by train a round in Europe. We had been in Germany, Belgium, Netherland and had just stepped of the train in Paris, France. It was summer holidays, and the weather was just fine. It was so burning hot, and you could see, by the colour of our skin, that it had been such fabulous weather all the time, while we had been travelling. We travelled with our backpacks and nothing else, because we wanted to travel cheap and this was the cheapest way to do it. To plan this journey, we had used all spring, so we were very excited when we finally took off.

There were many people on the streets in Paris. People were packed like sardines. We clanged to our belongings and went into the massive crowd of people. Henrik had the card so he leaded the way to find the nearest youth hostel, so we could accommodate us. Suddenly I dropped my shoulder bag, and when I had picked it up, Henrik was gone in the crowd. “Henrik, Henrik, Henrik, where are you”, I yelled, but there was no answer. People looked at me like I was crazy, but I did not care, I just kept on yelling while I walked on. There was no Henrik to be seen anywhere. I needed to get up higher, so I could get a better overview. Just a few meters from me was a concrete fence and I made my way to it. Then I climbed on top of it and spectacled beyond the crowd of people. Something captured my attention. It was something shining. It was Henrik. He had taken his plate, from his bag, and captured the sunlight in it, so it reflected the way he pointed the plate. We made eye contact and I heaved a sigh of relief. Henrik started running towards me. I could feel my heart in my throat because, I was so frightened that some had happened to him, or that he maybe had been kidnapped. So I was very happy when we reached each others arms. As a precaution, we tighten a rope around our waist.