Thou shalt not covert thy neighbour’s ass – The Ten Commandments
Aussie Di was on the next bus, Contiki https://www.contiki.com/six-two/bus-tour-seating-strategy/, and as everybody in coachworld knows Topdeck https://www.topdeck.travel and Contiki should never mix.
Only Di had golden shoulder-length hair and a smile as bright as the sun.
And I was the envy of all the bronzed Aussie dudes at the party because for the first time in my life I got the girl.
Longing for the Alps
All of which longings across a coachpark in Austria in the Eighties came flooding back to me.
As I digested the Covid times survey which said that four out of five of us are keeping our lovin’ to our own households just now.
I have oft times returned to those two carefree summer trips to the Oktoberfest and Austria.
And particularly when I have passed through Munich https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/08/01/hungry-and-thursday-the-munich-beerfest.
The magic bus
And in Austria with www.topflight.ie, Soll Mates and all across the Alps https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/04/27/rainy-days-and-songdays-yodeleeeee/amp/
Coach rides are still the best, and most economical, way for 18-35 year-olds to see the world.
I’d look back at other Topdeck routes between drinks on the coach which was reconditioned to include a kitchen, with the top deck bunks.
South African dreams
And I vowed that one day I would get down to South Africa, an ambition I realised last year when I visited Nelson Mandela’s state, the Eastern Cape https://www.southafrica.net/uk/en/ and What’s new pussycat? and Day in the life of a township.
I’d go again in a heartbeat.
And, in truth, it’s that sweaty mass of humanity (rather than the sweaty mass of the Son and Heir’s dirty washing) I miss most in this lockdown.
For the record I tried to revive my holiday romance with Di when I returned home.
Difficult though it was with me in Aberdeen in Scotland and Di 400 miles south in London.
The prospect of the Topdeck reunion on the horizon kept me going though through all those cold Scottish nights.
Plenty more fish
When the time came I made our appointment in Trafalgar Square near the South African Embassy where a protest was taking place to free Nelson Mandela.
But Di was nowhere to be seen.
She was though at the reunion later in Earl’s Court (where else?).
With her Scottish boyfriend!
