Homeless In London

Sometimes when you travel, you end up in very weird situations! One time, I was on tour with a band in England. We had just finished six months of touring and we finally had a couple of weeks off. 

Most of us were staying at a place south of London, but a few lucky ones, with a bit more money, headed off to Greece on vacation. I actually had planned on being one of those lucky ones, but I had a car accident and my holiday money went to paying my insurance deductible. (That’s another story for a another time.)

Anyways, two good friends of mine, Matt (the drummer) and Gregg (the lead singer), took off from our base and headed up to Gatwick Airport to catch their flight to Corfu. That same afternoon, we received a frantic call from Gregg. He has somehow forgotten his passport at the base. He asked if someone would get it, take the train into London and meet him at Piccadilly Circus. I volunteered.

Everything went without a hitch. I found the passport, took the train, met Gregg and then proceeded onto Gatwick to see my friends off. But, by the time I got back into London, the trains had stopped running back to our vacation base.

So there I was at 1 AM in the morning with about 12 British Pounds ($25) in my pocket and no place to sleep. Fortunately it was a warm summer evening, so I decided to find a park bench to crash on. I can sleep anywhere. (see my blog: Sleeping On The Road) And by this time I was really close to Trafalgar Square.

For those not familiar with downtown London. Trafalgar Square is quite close to Buckingham Palace and it’s famous for it’s lion head statues. I proceeded to find a bare spot on one of the benches… there were a few locals there for the night… and using my small backpack for a pillow, I got some shut-eye. That is until the local police shooed us off the benches. But, I followed the other more experienced park bench sleepers, and after the police left, we all went back to our respective benches.

Thankfully, the rest of the night went quite uneventfully. But I got a good story out of if. Strange situations always give you the best stories. I have taken my son, Josh, through London a number of times and I always proudly point to the bench where his dad spent the night sleeping on a park bench in Trafalgar Square.

 Question: What problems have turned into adventures for you? Have you ever slept on a park bench overnight?

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