Xpaths. Series 2. Episode 1. Adrian's story.

Let us say a few words about Adrian, our brave Brit.

He was born in England's green and pleasant land, but by his 22nd birthday, he had become bored with the colour green and his predictable life path. School, uni, work, mortgage – no fun, no thank you.

A single photo of Bondi beach on his sketchbook had caught his imagination and this naturally led to the purchase of a one-way ticket to Australia. He lived by the beach, surfing every morning and evening. Sustaining this lifestyle with a series of casual unskilled labouring jobs. This is the life, why doesn't everyone do this he thought.

A mid-wave collision with Bradley, a local surfer, who although initially didn't take kindly to Adrian stealing his wave formed a friendship.
This carefree existence lasted a few years before he realized that a burn time of 15 minutes was too much for his fragile freckled British skin.

It was time to move on to the next destination Blue Earth had to offer, overlanded through Asia ending up in Western Europe followed by parts of Africa than both American continents even taking in Antarctica. He was on a mission to see the whole world.

A message from Bradley popped up on email saying he had moved to one of the recently formed Eastern European countries, the name of which Adrian had never heard of before. It caught his imagination, always up for a challenge he decided it was time to explore this post-Soviet uncharted region.

A few days later a jet that was easy brought him to the city L. It was love at second sight, as at first sight the grey day followed by the grey hotel in decay was off-putting. But with sunshine the next day bathing the centre of the old city he fell in love with its medieval beauty. Unrestored buildings with their falling plaster were its charm. Unlike many cities that had been inappropriately repaired and finished off with cheap plastic windows.

Adrian immediately saw the potential of the country which had not yet been invaded by mainstream tourism. The next step was to purchase an apartment in the historic centre and set about renovation. Taking the walls back to the brickwork then using his design skills to return it to its former aristocratic glory. Back in the UK his friend Nike who was at a loose end saw pictures of this luxurious apartment and decided to take up the offer to visit. And stayed.

That's was Adrian's story in short so far.

For a complete change of scene, our three friends decided to leave the expensive consumeristic West and experience the more affordable East where people were still close to the land. Literally, villagers were so close to the soil producing what in the West is called "organic". The evidence lurking under their fingernail, dirty!

Good food grown in 6 feet of volcanic soil was another reason to move. The West had become too reliant on supermarkets with their often synthetic, under-ripe produce thus lacking taste and nutrient.
...
Returning to present-day 5 years on we find Adrian sitting in the train admired ever-changing views of never-ending fields, the countries treasure.
Who was he going to meet, he didn't know as yet but was intrigued and excited after months of letter exchange. This exotic stranger was soon to become reality.

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To be continued... next Sunday. Cheers

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Thank you for reading! This is a continuation of our recent Expats story Series I. The previous episode you can find here: http://steemit.com/writing/@dovetail/expats-episode-5-adrian-goes-east

Next Episode Xpaths. Episode 2 https://steemit.com/drawing/@dovetail/meeting-helen-xpaths-episode-2