7/7

it was 5 years ago and i was on my first ever visit to london. traveling with my friends andrea & jill, we stayed southwest of london in surbiton, where andrea's sister, amity and brother-in-law, paul lived at the time. it was unseasonably cool that year. i regrettably packed for a july vacation better suited for another country's weather, not the UK.

being my first visit, we went into london nearly every day, taking in the tourist sites. hopping in and out of tube stations, we saw (and drank) our way through central london. most evenings were spent at amity and paul's small, one bedroom garden flat. along with whatever dinner we prepared were copious amounts of wine! (hey, it's cheaper than water in europe!) on the night of july 6, 2005, we stayed up late drinking, smoking outside the living room garden window, and playing euchre. before we retired for the evening, we discussed our plan to visit tower of london and tower bridge the following day.

as part of the security of a garden flat, there was a large, rolling window cover that was locked into place for the night. it created a completely dark den in the living room where we slept. we slept like babies on that floor.

the next day, paul had left for work and amity was running a bit late. both worked in central london. a while after she left the flat, amity rang us explaining that she wasn't able to enter the tube station. she wasn't exactly sure what was going on as details were sparse. she told us to turn on the tv. we tuned into one of the BBC channels to discover that multiple bombs had gone off in tube stations and on buses in london. amity was safe and after finally reaching him, paul too was okay.

for the rest of the day, we were glued to the tv watching the news coverage. clips where shown on repeat for hours on end. it reminded me of only four years prior when the world watched the events of 9/11 unfold.

because it was so early in the states, we didn't call our family back home quite yet. we decided to get out of the house and grab lunch at a nearby pub. while we were gone, my mother called to see if we were okay. i can only imagine the horror of waking up to see what was happening miles away, knowing your child was where terror had struck.

i will never forget that day. i'm thankful that we had a crazy night that led us to sleeping in. i'm glad that the amity and paul were safe in london. and i will remember those 52 innocent people who lost their lives that day.

photo of the 7/7 memorial in hyde park.