An Ode to Jessica Clayton

For a few years now I've wanted to venture to Eastern Europe and this year I was going to do it, regardless of what happened. It got to the point where I was so determined to go that I was going to go alone, something I was originally completely opposed to. Then came the legend that is J Clay.

Cliche, but when you leave school, you really do realise who your real friends are; you no longer are forced to spend 6 hours a day with people. Regardless of how hard you try not to, you inevitably part ways when you go to university or take jobs that make you old and boring and stop you being able to spend time with your friends. On paper, myself and Jess probably shouldn't still be friends; her job requires her to travel away to events and uni for me means that I'm constantly drunk, so I break my phone a lot and therefore have no point of contact.

We also have other friends that are undoubtedly our bests that we throw into the mix, some common and some not. Megham Clements, the beautiful giraffe-like creature who we love dearly, Curly and Tammy and of course the rest of my LUWRU girls. But we know that our friends that we don't have in common would love each other and we're happy to introduce them as and when and we know they'll all get on - this is when you know that the people who you surround yourselves with are awesome.

But yes, Clay and I are best friends. We go through periods of talking everyday which is wondrous, but sometimes life gets in the way and we will only manage to speak properly once a month if we can. The incredible thing about this is that despite how much time we've had away from each other, each time we talk, it's as if we'd never left each other and this was proven by spending twenty days away together this summer. Spending twenty days with only one person is pretty intense, you'll be exposed to the person's strengths, their weaknesses and most importantly of all - how much of a nutter they are.

Jess and I discovered on this trip that we balance each other out VERY very well. There were times on the holiday where one of us (usually me) messed up and the other was there to provide solitude. E.g. When my bag got "robbed" and therefore the bank of Jess was there to help me out for the remainder of the trip when I had to cancel my card (my bag definitely did not turn up somewhere that I might have put it when I was drunk). And at times when Jess was being over-pragmatic and stressing that we wouldn't get things done in time or that things "weren't going to be ok," I was there to provide the hippie, (apparently radical) left wing, chill out vibes.

Some memories will live with me for a very long time, despite being drunk for the duration of the trip. The Drunken Monkey bar crawl in Prague where we first had a true taste of each others' limits, the Sparty in Budapest, lovingly referred to by Jess' soulmate Larry as the "Reservoir of Sin" and Benicassim festival which was honestly the best time of my life.

We met some interesting people from all over the world throughout our trip and were reconciled with our lovely friends Megan and Georgie in Spain for the festival. A festival which by the way, I cannot recommend highly enough. From the guaranteed weather to the brilliant acts the festival was always going to be insane, it was only the company that could have made it any better, which of course it did by miles.

We had some funny times, some scary times (Munich) and some crazy times and I wouldn't change a single part of it.

We absolutely had the trip of a lifetime and I can safely say that along the way, we've made friends for life. The important thing to remember is that your friends are important, you need to make time for them, you sometimes need to spend a shit tonne of money to go on holiday with them when you're close to not being able to afford it. This holiday (if you can even call it that) was phenomenal and despite ruining my body in every way it could be ruined, it has consolidated and reminded me why this utter knob head/absolute legend is my best friend and I love her.

This blog post however, does not weaken me. I still don't have feelings, this wasn't me, it was Bev.
CYA.