Rough Sleeping

[HiddenFormula]

My first experience sleeping rough was when I was about 13/14. I got drunk and I was scared that my parents would find out so me and a mate made a fire and slept on a school field. It was January, icy and bloody cold but we felt like true survivors. It almost became a routine for a while...the sleeping in school fields to avoid our parents 11pm curfew until the excitement wore off (2/3 times later!) Really pathetic thinking back.

Anyway the last time was last year when I slept in/on a bush in Hoek Van Holland. I got there at 11pm and had 10 hrs till morning & the arrival of the ferry to Harwich. Everywhere was shut and I was on my own at the time and I was shattered so I thought I may aswell crawl into a bush and try and sleep. It was a damn fine bush and I actually got a decent amount of sleep considering my lack of sleeping equipment (a towel for a duvet/backback for cushion) It was also funny seeing peoples faces when I emerged with twigs stuck in my hair & covered in mud!

Prior to that there were a few more rough nights when travelling arounf Europe. We kinda thought we could book on arrival everywhere we went, but being peak season that often didn't work out.

My hat goes off to people who do it every night.

 

[roni]

[...] (1)when I was about 13/14. [...] It was January, icy and bloody cold but we felt like true survivors [...] Really pathetic thinking back.
[...]
(2) It was a damn fine bush and I actually got a decent amount of sleep
[...]
(3) my lack of sleeping equipment (a towel [...]

1)
It IS pathetic. But at that age, that's an adventure.

2)
I know that feeling. ("Oh, yeah, behind that museum with a roof all around, that was a damn fine corner to sleep in.")

3)
You knew where your towel was, that's all that counts!
I mean - do you know 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams?
It's a little weird, but a funny - AND even serious - read if you like the homour of Monty Python and the likes.

(btw. Adams had the initial idea for the radio-script, later to become a novel, later to become a cult, later to become 5 novels, while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck (Austria) while travelling around.)

 

[HiddenFormula]

^Haha nice didn't know that. My brother had the book and I borrowed it off of him when I was at school. Really funny, I should re read it again. I haven't heard the radio show but I have seen the recent film adaptation which was okay-ish.

 

[Bruno Dante]

Anyway the last time was last year when I slept in/on a bush in Hoek Van Holland. I got there at 11pm and had 10 hrs till morning & the arrival of the ferry to Harwich. Everywhere was shut and I was on my own at the time and I was shattered so I thought I may aswell crawl into a bush and try and sleep. It was a damn fine bush and I actually got a decent amount of sleep considering my lack of sleeping equipment (a towel for a duvet/backback for cushion) It was also funny seeing peoples faces when I emerged with twigs stuck in my hair & covered in mud!

You can always rely on Holland when you're after decent bush ;)

 

[Black Swan]

rough sleep humm.
In 69, I was sleeping on a reserve in Salmon Arm, hitchiking.
The evening started in the local bar with my travelling friend. We ended staying in the chief's house. He slept with a rifle under his pillow to let us know that we would be safe :eek:

 

[the only good poet]

My hat goes off to people who do it every night.

It was kind of ironic to me to discover the homeless behind the Savoy. They slept in the fire exit doorways, while the rich swung in and out of the front. I bet the homeless had a little chuckle over the irony, every night.

 

[1fsh2fsh]

back (way) when I was a teen, I lived "in the streets" and spent at least a couple of years, (summers) sleeping rough. under bridges, all night gas stations, laundrymats, parks, ect. to have a bed or roof was unusual. don't really know why I did it, just cuz I guess....

 

[HiddenFormula]

how did you get money? what did you eat? When I was travelling around Europe. I kinda ran out of money near the end. I still had my ticket home, but a train fine on the last leg of the trip rinsed most of my cash so I had too live very basically for the end of the trip. It's amazing how easy it was to eat for ridiculously cheap. Bread...beans. Cheap n' filling.

Man a couple of years is quite a while. I think I could do it for a while but I think two years would be too much. I like to think that I am pretty adaptable but the cold I cannot bear! I can sleep in most places...hygiene I'm not so fussed...but when you feel the cold right down to your bones, it's just depressing. After the brief cold patch this winter I saw a lot of homeless guys cocooned up in their sleeping bags under doorways around London. Man, I respect their drive just to keep going. I mean there must be something in life that makes them want go on regardless of how little they have got and how shitty their life can be. Maybe, that's why...being stripped of all the material belongings & everyday traps of life they can salvage an aspect of life that so many people miss. I don't know maybe not, but I often wonder how many of the homeless guys to it out of choice or just because of drugs, booze or other issues.