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From Prague to London the Hard Way"I came before you, young lady! Don't jump the queue!" said a woman with yellow hair, dressed in a track suit. How typical. July 1st, 8 am , Prague coach station. With a hangover and a huge backpack on my back, I once again realize that I really want to leave this country as soon as possible. But London is far away and this coach is not promising the most comfortable journey. Driver's announcement that the air conditioning is not working does not really surprise me - these things happen all the time in the Czech Republic . I light a cigarette - Marlboro light. After this one, I will be able to afford only hand rolling tobacco. My boyfriend has about ten packs of cheap Czech cigarettes left, but they are disgusting. The "we don't know how long" trip around the world starts. And we are excited, finally exchanging our boring lives of school and work for a big adventure. With a tent, two sleeping bags, 400 pounds, several phone numbers, no specific plans and a lot of naivety we arrive at Victoria coach station the next day. The weather is awful and all I want to do is sleep. Ondrej feels the same. But we have to find the house of our friend John with whom we will be staying over the next few days, in search for a job in this city full of opportunities. John is cool. He used to teach History at my university and enjoyed going to the pub with us. Now he teaches drama in London . We find his place quite easily, having paid for a bus ride what in the Czech Republic we would normally earn in one day. I quickly realize that the 400pounds is not that great and finding a job will be more urgent than we thought. Despite our university degrees and fairly good knowledge of English we will take anything - bar work or most probably cleaning. According to John, it should not be a problem. We get drunk with him in his favourite pub that evening, drinking Czech beer for a ridiculous price. Next morning our quest begins. We go from place to place, begging for work. We obtain a few application forms, which are very easy for us to fill, because we do not get past three or four questions. First name. Fine. Surname. Fine. Date of birth. Still ok. But what the hell is NIN? I do not have a bank account. Not even mentioning UK permanent address or contacts of referees. And what kind of experience do I need for cleaning.? I call a phone number copied from an ad which was posted at a local shop. "Mature maid needed". Well, I am not mature, really, but I can work well. "When are you able to start?" is the question to which I answer that practically any minute. "OK. What colour is your hair?" Brown. "Height and weight? Why do they need to know that? For a uniform, maybe? "Have you got any experience?" In cleaning? Well yes. The lady on the other side of the phone starts to laugh." What job are you applying for? Well, maid. "Darling, have you read the other ad that was posted in the shop?" Apparently I haven't. And I don't want to work in personal services either. End of day one. We can't afford Czech beer anymore so we drink cider from three litre plastic bottle. On the second day, we are still full of enthusiasm. It is very much the same as the day before, although this time we hit the dodgy areas of London . We come across a few Czech or Polish speaking people, working in car washes or bars, they speak little English and work for two pounds an hour. Anyway, it gives us hope. Ondrej is invited for an interview. I wait outside the restaurant, where he might be able to get a job as a waiter. It takes awfully long and I am convinced that he got it. Well, not really. The manager could not understand how it is possible that he has not got any stamps in his passport from coming to the UK . Not everybody has realized that the EU is a little bit bigger now. I am late for my interview at a petrol station. Who can blame me? "Come in the afternoon" is not very specific, after all. Job is gone and we are exhausted. We spend three more days like this. And I already know that we will not find a job in London . And even if we did, we would not have a place to stay. In our country, if you want to rent a flat, all you have to do is meeting the proprietor and if everything goes well, you can move in the next day. In the UK , everybody wants references (and nobody would really care about the ones from the Czech Republic ) and above all a deposit. On the sixth day, we pack our backpacks and decide to try our luck in Scotland . We worked on a farm last year. Hopefully it will work out. At that time we didn't have the slightest idea about what was awaiting us. Nothing easier than London , but definitely a lot of fun. Picking strawberries on a farm near Dundee, being supervised by 18 years old Polish girls and Romanian homeless, teaching English to a bunch of Italian kids in Glasgow, getting kitchen experience in a hotel owned by a former head of Scottish police, working in numerous places, ranging from a tapas bar in Inverness to a 16th century pub in Guildford. And I must not forget the brief Christmas visit of the Czech Republic , which reassured us that we really want to be elsewhere else. We made lots of friends, met many interesting people, learned many new things and finally started to understand culture and social system of the UK . The trip around the world will take much longer than we originally planned, but it will be worth it.
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