The Empty Room Read online

  I stayed out in the lounge and tidied up for a while till Karen came back out drying herself off.

  “Is room service not here yet?” Karen asked,

  “No not yet.”

  As Hannah knocked on the door carrying her bags in. Karen just looked at me like I could have helped her as she opened the door.

  “That’s okay Karen, no doubt you’ve seen how useless Phil is,” Hannah laughed.

  “You should have asked Hannah.”

  As Karen went over and helped Hannah out.

  “Hey, I’m just going to have a quick shower, won’t be long,” I said.

  Grabbing Hannah’s large bag and putting it in the corner where the cushions had been.

  “I might quickly pack,” Karen added.

  As Hannah said, “I’ll just hang out here then?”

  “Actually room service, hasn’t turned up yet if you could let them in Hannah,” I added.

  “Yeah no worries, I’ll see you both soon,” Hannah said.

  As Karen and I walked into our room and got sorted, I quickly jumped in the shower as Karen packed and put her stuff next to Hannah’s, luckily it didn’t take me that long to get sorted once I was out of the shower, only walking back out to the lounge with my bags, seeing the girls sitting at the table eating away.

  “Oh wow, that looks good.”

  “Yeah, we saved you some coffee,” Hannah joked.

  Karen just smiled as I took a seat and Hannah laughed as she handed me a cup of coffee.

  We sat there for a while and relaxed for an hour or so.

  “So what are we up to for the rest of the day?” I asked.

  “We could go for a walk if you wanted,” Karen suggested.

  “Yeah, that would be good,” Hannah said agreeing.

  “Yeah okay, we should have saved something for today, especially with the train leaving so late,” I remarked.

  “We could go back to the wall, if you guys want,” Hannah suggested.

  “I wouldn’t mind going back to the forbidden kingdom,” Karen remarked.

  As they both agreed I suggested.

  “Should we just go for a walk for a while and see where that takes us.”

  “Yeah okay,” Both Karen and Hannah agreed.

  “Yeah, I’ll grab a few bottles of water and put them in my bag for later,” I commented.

  “Sounds good I’m gonna get some shoes on, then we can head off,” Karen replied.

  We ended back at Tiananmen square. Walking around and walking back through the museum then as luck would have it, the forbidden city. It was a great last day in Beijing. Heading back to the hotel early that evening, tired and hungry we sat at the restaurant down stairs for dinner. Before I walked over to the front desk and arranged a ride to the train station to catch the Trans-Siberian. Really-looking forward to it. Excited we all decided to finish packing and Karen and I had a quick shower, before Hannah rang downstairs and they came and grabbed our bags. Putting them straight into the courtesy car, I walked over and settled the bill telling Hannah we can sort it all out in London as I had paid for her as well. I was too excited about the next leg of the journey, having never been on a long train trip before.

  “Yeah okay, did you do the same for Devin?” Hannah asked.

  “No, he sorted it all out pretty quickly, I didn’t have the chance, probably helped by the way he put his credit card on the room pretty much straight away,” I joked.

  As Hannah remembered and laughed.

  Karen was sitting in the car falling asleep as Hannah and I jumped in. Luckily the driver helped us with all our bags when we finally got to the station and we got our cabin sorted and got settled in. Our four-berth home, for the trip was pretty roomie and we could only just spread out a little, Karen had crashed out as soon as her head touched the pillow. Hannah and I stayed up for a while playing cards and drinking a few spirits we took from the room back at the hotel. I was thinking, I probably should have gotten more duty free but what I did get, never stood a chance with the three of us drinking to our lost friends, in China. On a trip they would have both enjoyed, and we would have enjoyed having them along.

  “This should be a fun trip. How much room do you have still?” I asked Hannah.

  “Do you want me to take some of your suits back with me,” Hannah replied.

  “Yeah if you don’t mind,”

  “Yeah no worries, we should have gotten some peanuts,” Hannah commented.

  “Yeah, first stop I say we get some chips or something,” I agreed.

  Laughing, we went back to playing last card for a while, Hannah had taken a deck from her flight to Beijing. Which was lucky cause neither of us had a book and I wasn’t going to let them read the one I had been writing.

  Both Hannah and I turned in a few hours later, we had met some of the people around us who seemed really-good, an old couple from Perth and two young couples from the South Island of New Zealand. Hannah hit it off with them straight away, even telling them I was from the North Island which followed with a few, ‘Boo’s’.

  Through it all, Karen slept and we said we’d introduce them to her in the morning.

  Waking up on the bottom bunk bed with Karen was a surprise. She must have snuggled in during the night, it was morning and we were all a little hungry. Both Karen and I couldn’t hear Hannah, but she was out to it on the top bunk bed on the other side. Finally waking I told Karen I was just gonna have a quick shower, then I’d be back.

  “Oh cool I’ll head down with Hannah when she wakes up,” Karen whispered.

  Yawning and not moving much as I climbed over her and found some clothes and a towel I had taken from the maid’s cart in China, and headed down to the showers. Being as fast as possible as not wanting to wake anyone else. Getting a morning, from the people we met last night, the South Islanders heating up some noodles, which was a great idea as there was hot water available at the end of the train car.

  The food on board was pretty-good, and we would get a few things including noodles, as we had an opportunity to stretch our legs at stops along the way. Where they had vendors everywhere. Especially surprised none of us got sick, as it was starting to get cold and we only had a couple of jumpers each. One night dressing up in one of the other suits I had made up as those we had met decided to get dressed up for dinner one night. It was good to be surrounded by so many good people really-wanting to enjoy the trip, as it was a once in a life time for many of them.

  “Hey that was fast,” Hannah said, as she and Karen were getting some stuff sorted and headed off to have a shower. I hung my towel up and had a look out the window, as this strange world went by. Later-on, when I was re-joined by the girls, they both thought we had come on board a little bit unprepared.

  “It’s okay when we stop at a station we can get a few things, I’ve got some extra Chinese and Russian money so hopefully should be sweet,” I remarked.

  “Yeah, we should get some drinking chocolate and noodles for sure, and chips,” Hannah suggested.

  “Chips? what for Hannah,” I asked.

  “Just plain salted chips, the South Islander’s might play poker for some of their noodles,” Hannah replied, as we all laughed and got ready to head to the restaurant car for breakfast.

  By the time we left the train we were over drinking chocolate, instant coffee we could swap for a couple of books, as I refused to let the girls read mine and the old couple were the train car parents for all of us. Also, remembering to send postcards off at a few stations along the way. We had a great time with Hannah and Karen really-enjoyed our time together. Hannah and the South Islanders making fun of me, while Karen didn’t really-understand the banter, found it all very funny. The old couple, just sat around and laughed as we all joked amongst ourselves. We also gave a few postcards to each other so they had someone they could get a hold of, as they were touring around Scandinavia after the train trip and we weren’t due back in London for a few more days so hopefully we’d have a chance to catch up later.r />
  “Thanks guys,” Karen insisted.

  One night as we were all about to go to sleep and she just wanted to thank us both. We had the way of helping her forget about her illness, and just have a good time with us and everyone else. To be fair we probably had forgotten, we were having a great time also, and the nights spent with the other travellers had been really-good. Watching the scenery go by during the day from our cabin to the restaurant car, was unexpected yet we were having a great time. Even Hannah was letting her hair down and danced around one night with the other South Islanders as we were listening to some Russian music. It was all fun till we pulled into Moscow, everyone had no idea how a trip that long could be over so fast, it was only seven days but still we were all having so much fun. Hannah was flying home later that day and we were jumping on a train to head to Amsterdam, we probably should have gone to see Hannah off, even just to make sure my suits made the flight okay. Luckily the old Perth couple were flying to London at the same time so we all thought it must have been the same flight and they were more the happy to escort her to the airport. Which wasn’t hard as we rung a car company and they took the three of them there, we didn’t have far to go to get the train to Amsterdam so we headed off slowly wandering around for a while.

  “Hey thanks again guys, Hannah, I’ll see you in a few days,”

  The old couple were more than happy to do it.

  “Thanks Phil, I’ll see you both soon,” Hannah replied.

  Walking over to Karen to give her a massive hug and to tell her she’d see her in a few days and thanked her again for such a great trip.

  “Thanks Hannah it was so much fun, I’m so happy you and Devin could join us,” Karen insisted.

  As we all agreed, I walked over to Hannah and gave her a hug and told her to check her emails in a day or so, with a funny look from Hannah. Her and the old couple were off.

  We headed off back into the train station, laughing as I thought it wouldn’t take us to long to get to Amsterdam, being use to sleeping on trains helped, so we both didn’t mind another long train trip, though this time we were more prepared and luckily Audrey had known the travel time so had booked us in on the right day. I had thought it might have been a quick nine-hour trip. It ended up being over-night and a little bit more, which was not lost on Karen as she laughed when we woke up the next morning.

  “You’re so useless,” Karen laughed.

  “Yeah, I should have checked.”

  “Well, we still have a bit of stuff left over from the Trans-Siberian,” Karen remarked.

  “Cool, let’s get on the train and head off then,” I replied.

  Laughing as we got our cabin, closed the blinds and crashed out. Waking up later-on, and talking for a few hours before crashing out again. Laughing when we woke up and luckily, the hotel had sent the courtesy van to pick us up as we would have struggled to find our way around. We were in Amsterdam for three nights. While planning our sleep patterns as soon as we checked in and got sorted so we could hit the ground running. Bypassing the red-light district of course, and the lines at Anne’s house were massive, so took some pics of us at her statue instead.

  17

  Amster-damage

  “Hey let’s get going,” Karen insisted.

  As I really-wanted to have a shower before heading out.

  “Surely, I could jump in the shower?”

  “No, don’t worry about it lets go have a quick look around and get some space cakes.”

  “Yeah, alright let’s go,” I remarked.

  Closing-up my bag and walking towards the door with Karen. Once out on to the street, it took a while to get use to the cycle lanes and the trams. Only nearly getting hit a few times. Karen just laughed at me and told me to follow her. Our first night in Amsterdam we ended up drinking at an Irish bar, walking past a couple of bulldog cafe’s too scared to go in, only when Karen saw that they sold space cakes on our way home did we buy a couple each for ourselves. Getting back to our hotel just as security were starting, even as the concierge was finishing up, he vouched that we were staying there, even showing the security guard our key, he just laughed and hoped we had a good night.

  I’m not sure if he saw what we were carrying or if he even cared. Either way it wasn’t long till we were back up in our room, and ordering a light snack to get us through the night, as neither of us wanted to have a space cake before going to sleep.

  “Hey, they should be heading up with in thirty minutes,” I remarked.

  “Nice, what did you end up ordering?” Karen asked.

  “Just a couple of burgers.”

  “Oh right, is that nice and light,” Karen joked, laughing at me.

  “Hey I’m gonna grab a shower,”

  “Yeah sounds good, I guess I’ll wait for room service,” Karen commented, dropping her lip.

  “Hey, I won’t be long,” I replied.

  Karen just laughed at me.

  “Yeah I know you won’t,” Karen joked.

  Walking over and quickly giving me a hug, before I walked into the bathroom.

  Once out Karen jumped in and got ready for bed, luckily we were still a bit hungry when the burgers arrived and after smashing them Karen went to bed and I got a few free moments to check some emails and let Hannah know about the lime green bag in my room, noticing a few other emails, Audrey’s made me laugh and Greg and Devin sent me one each, even if Greg’s email read like Iva had written it. It took a couple of hours to email everyone back, but once that was done I quietly slid into bed trying not to wake Karen.

  Sleeping in the next morning, I got a funny wake up show when I was being woken up by Karen, who I would find out thought the space cakes were terrible and had eaten three of them. Having not given one of them thirty minutes to do its thing.

  “Phil wake up! Rah, I’m a dinosaur!” Karen yelled.

  I just rolled over and went back to sleep for a minute, waking up with Karen nudging my cheek with her nose, not what I was expecting to wake up to.

  “Rah, I’m a dinosaur Phil,” Karen insisted. Gritting her teeth and trying to look fierce.

  “Um, sure okay, what have you done?” I asked.

  “I’ve got tiny little arms and I’m a dinosaur,” Karen insisted again, jumping on me and trying to nudge my head with her nose again.

  I couldn’t do much as she had spread herself over me and I was well wrapped in the duvet and trapped. All I could do was laugh and try and get out of bed. It was then, when I turned over that I notice Karen was almost naked with her arms folded into her chest and using three fingers, pretending to be a T-rex, freaking out a little bit.

  Luckily after a while I got my arms free and hugged Karen back into bed and told her that dinosaurs needed a nap and wrapped her up in the duvet and got out of bed.

  “Hey, you’ll be okay.”

  “I’m a dinosaur!” Karen yawned.

  I laughed a little as I walked out to the living room and tried to find one of the wrappers, finding all three on the coffee table, contemplating having the last one, so I could pretend to be a dinosaur as well, though the thought of that made me laugh, I probably should just keep an eye on Karen for a while, reading the back of the wrapper.

  After eating, give yourself at least thirty minutes to assess the effects of the space cake.

  “Rah, I’m a dinosaur!” Karen yelled, racing over to me and trying to tickle me to the ground.

  “Yeah, you are,” I replied, rolling around on the floor laughing.

  With Karen trying to peck my cheek with her nose, I was laughing when she kissed me and then ran back into the room to get changed. Before jumping out again in the MC Hammer pants from Paris.

  “Phil, you can’t touch this, I’m a dinosaur!” Karen yelled, hoping on to the couch with me.

  “Phil, Phil, I’m a dinosaur,” Karen whispered into my ear.

  “Don’t you like dinosaurs,” Karen added, dropping her bottom lip looking at me.

  I couldn’t stop laughing as Karen po
ked me in the chest, again and again.

  “Phil,” Karen said.

  Whispering so I could just hear her.

  “I’m a dinosaur.”

  “I know and an awesome dinosaur as well,” I replied.

  “Thanks Phil, love you,” Karen said, kissing me on the cheek and pretending to be a dinosaur walking back into the bedroom.

  “Hey Phil, ever done a dinosaur?” Karen asked.

  At that point, I forgot what I was going to do, got up and walked into the bedroom.

  A few hours later after most effects were wearing off and we were both waking up, Karen shuffled out of the bed and went and had a shower. Jumping back in and again waking me up.

  “Hey, let’s go do a day trip tomorrow,” Karen remarked.

  “Yeah, sounds good, lets head out to Edam and do a cheese and clog tour,” I suggested.

  “Yeah, that sounds good.”

  Jumping back into bed.

  “How are you feeling,” I asked.

  “Yeah good, a little less dinosaur though I suppose,” Karen remarked, smiling at me.

  “Do you want some room service then how bout we go for a walk?” I asked.

  “Yeah, that sounds really-good, then let’s go check out some museums and wander around,” Karen said winking.

  “I’m not going back to the sex museum.”

  “Why not? I haven’t been,” Karen commented, laughing.

  “Hey, I’m gonna get up and have a shower, do you want to order?” I asked.

  “Yeah okay, sounds good,” Karen replied.

  Jumping up and heading out to the living area to check the menu, while I had a quick shower and got some clothes sorted to get washed at some stage and put my shoes next to the door.

  “Hey room service should be here soon,” Karen said, sitting on the couch watching TV.

  “Ah cool, so Van Gogh museum later?” I asked.

  “Yeah okay, it’s not that far away, we might have walked past it last night, I think,” Karen mentioned.

  Just as room service came in and set up the table, opening-up the tray of fries and nibbles.

  “Oh man this looks good,” I remarked, tipping the room service guy as Karen got up and joined me.