"The light fell either upon the smooth, grey back of a pebble, or, the shell of a snail with its brown, circular veins, or falling into a rain-drop, it expanded with such intensity of red, blue, and yellow the thin walls of water that one expected them to burst and disappear. Instead, the drop was left in a second silver grey once more, and the light now settled upon the flesh of a leaf, revealing the branching thread of fibre beneath the surface, and again it moved an and spread its illumination in the vast green spaces beneath the dome of the heart-shaped and tongue-shaped leaves."

'Kew Gardens' (1919), Virginia Woolf 

Alarms

In a dorm room nobody wakes up early. The alarm clocks begin to ring at 7:30 a.m.. One, two, three different ringtones. Everyone starts trying to get their mind out of the wonderland they were in and back into another day’s travels. They roll around for a couple of seconds trying to convince themselves that they should get up and have a shower before a queue forms, but it’s no use. They tumble back into the cosy and welcoming world they left moments before.

Not long after the alarms sound again. Grunts and yawns, even a few stretches can be heard but no one moves No one is able to leave their cocoon.

Third time. One or two people who had planned to get up later start to become restless, starting to remember all the disadvantages of sleeping in a Youth Hostel’s dormitory.

But wait, this is it – someone manages to leap out of bed and stumble their way to the bathroom, trying to be careful and as quiet as possible, while secretly feeling like smothering her friends with her pillow.

‘Victory!’ the others think, rolling over, while preparing themselves for another ten minutes of sleep. Now begins the period in which everyone secretly hopes another brave soul will volunteer to have their shower next, leaving them yet another ten minutes to rest.

It’s funny how even when in the most exotic of places people can’t quite grasp the importance of waking early and doing their sightseeing before everything and everywhere is crowded. How they can’t work up the courage to get out of bed.

Late checkout anyone?

Para o Bruno, Gabriela e Leonor ;)