Torturous Tour 

As we rocked up with no plans or research done we decided to leave it to fate to see what would happen. It was an extremely hot day so we decided to do the free walking tour, it was 45 minutes and seemed the fastest way to see the city. Considering the heat it seemed like the best idea. We started making our way to the meeting point but parts of the city seemed to be fenced off.

We tried to go a different way as the heat beat down on us. We walked round the corner and much to our horror we were met with a giant crowd of thousands of people who were all walking in the same direction along the pavement. The pavement on one side had a row of armed soldiers and the other side was fenced off to allow the road to be cleared.

I’m not exactly sure how but we ended up getting stuck in the crowd of people and there was no way to move out so we just kept walking .It was approaching midday and the sun was at its full power and also so many people were in a close proximity to us. We were worried we would fall victims to the sun and worried as to what was happening.

We walked over to one guard to get help and he gave us what I can only explain as a very menacing look. We did not want to challenge it as it was a very tense environment so we went back and joined the crowd. Alona who was freshly recovering from sunstroke was starting to crack up. We walked for another hour still stuck in the crowd, there was no way of getting out of it everywhere was blocked off. After another half an hour we were giving up, it was endless and we were dehydrated and tired. We were roped off in an industrial area and we couldn’t find any cafe or shop for water. How had we got stuck in this? We still had no idea what was going on. Then from behind us we heard clapping and cheering. We held on to the fence wondering what was going on.

As the cheers carried forward from around the corner a police car drove towards us and after that six riot squad vans with men hanging out them with full riot gear. What’s going on?

More police cars, more riot vans and still everyone was cheering.

‘Bet you feel like a superhero doing that.’ I said to Alona.

Then the crowd start clapping and cheering louder and a long black car comes into focus. It had two American flags on the front. As the car got closer we realized that inside the car was none other than Donald Trump.

I looked at Alona in slight disbelief she mirrored my expression, did we really just get stuck in something to do with Trump? How did that happen? Then I had a genius moments and thought of Google.

‘Google what’s going on. ’I said to Alona.

She tip taped away on her phone and she looked up at me laughing.

‘Its Trump's first visit here, apparently he's the first American president ever to come here.’

We were in slightly in shock as our free walking tour had turned into a political visit. As the crowds started walking again we followed suit. After another half an hour we found ourselves in a large opening with thousands of other people. Trump was doing a speech but we were too far away to hear so we streamed it on my phone under a tree safe from the horrible heat.

As the speech came to an end and the crowds died down we turned my phone off and followed them to what I hoped would be the way out. However all the roads were still blocked off and we, along with everyone else, just had to stand in the baking sun. Alona had had enough and she was crouched on the ground cradling her face. I was actually surprised she hadn't cracked sooner. In her defence it had been about 5 hours since we set out for our 45 minute walking tour and it had been 5 hours with no shade, water, food or suncream. I hoped the suncream I had put on in the morning would suffice.

As we stood for a further 45 minutes waiting to cross the road, all the police cars and riot vans drove past us then Trump himself followed by more police vans. About ten minutes after they had scooted past us they opened the barricades. Yet none of the buses were running and we were 10 kilometers from our accommodation. We had already walked about 7 kilometers that day. Alona was not overly thrilled with the news. We can stop half way home I suggested.

When we were halfway to our accommodation we were at breaking point so we stopped for some food and had a cheeky vodka to take the edge off. We rested our legs and got our moral back. Alona was starting to look a bit red as she had gone without suncream that morning.

We went back to our accommodation; Alona rocking a lovely lobster red that she branded as a ‘tan’ and me with my wits in tatters.