Unterwegs mit Pascal

Last week we went to Inverness in Scotland. We had many problems already before we arrived in Inverness. First there was a thirtee kilometres long traffic jam. We where standing about one hour and used all the gas in our car, so we had to make a stop at a petrol station. The station was so full that we had to wait almost 40 minutes in line to pay. But near Glasgow we had to make a second stop at another petrol station for a body break. The way from London up to Inverness is very, very long. Even without all the holiday traffic.

When we arrived it was already dark and a little bit spoooky. The houses are quite old, and not maintained. We went to our hostel but the recepionist told us that the hostel is almost full. We where scared, because we had made a reservation and now our room was already taken. We went to another hotel but they also told us that they are fully booked. Same story with the other hotels in the city. The streets where empty and we were wondering about that, normally there are always people on the street or in bars, but everything was dark.

Then we finally found a small hotel outside of the city. It was an old building, and had some broken windows, a rusty sign was weaving and flapping in the wind. But it was our last hope to find a place for the night.

We entered the hotel. The lobby was full of cobwebs and a couple of things where smashed on the floor. The receptionist told us that the city is forgotten by the tourists. "A long time ago, many things got stolen by thiefs. And some of the buildings got destroyed. So the tourists are gone and the city did not have enough money to rebuild everything."

After hearing this story we where scared, and we asked: "But wasn't it such a beautiful place and a tourists magnet?" "Yes, but you saw what happened to all these buildings here!? The whole city is lost." We asked if we can stay here over night.

The next day: We went to the city hall and asked the mayor if we can help them to rebuild the city. He asked us how we want to do this, and my dad told him that he works for a construction company and can organize this. After the meeting he contacted his company and asked if they can help the city and they agreed. As payment they can sleep over night in the hotels in the city. 

In one month the company helped rebuilding a large part of the city. Everyone joined, the residents, the mayor, even the old man from our hotel.

It was a good month, and no one complained that we have to work in our holiday, because we could sleep in a hotel without paying anything. I also found two new friends, the first one, a boy, is living here with his parents and the second one, a girl, is living in Westminster, London and I think I'm in love now.