The Unexpensive London

The ¨Free Hugs¨campaign lands in Covent Garden, leaving a sound, non-cloudy scent…

Not everything´s expensive in London, as the tall stories go whispering around. Hugs are pretty cheap in Brit´s capital; free, actually.

The ¨Free Hugs¨campaign has checked in the cosy lovely area of Covent Garden to radiate random happiness and brim over hugs of all kind. When you step on Covent Garden, you might expect to find all sorts of street artists (it´s the only part of the city where their work is licensed, giving out a rate of amazing daily performers from around the globe), but probably not a bunch of random people (that seem to be ¨picked from very different gardens¨) wearing white t-shirts with these messages in red: FREE HUGS. Just smiling at passer-by shoppers or walkers offering free hugs. That´s what they were doing. Simple. Some chaps were reticent, as if thinking: ¨What the hell is the trick here? What´s going on?¨, while some others ran straight to the arms of the offerers. They had not met each other before, but they were sharing a minute-long hug able to stop the world.

The ¨Free Hugs¨campaign is a movement that started back in 2004 (spread widely in 2006), when ¨Juan Mann¨ (a pseudonym), going through a very bad patch of his life back in New Zealand, decided to jump to one of the most frequented streets holding a big sign with the now two famous words of the campaign over his head. The unselfish movement started back then, boosting impact after one of its videos got on YouTube in 2006. Now thousands of people around the Earth follow his initiative. I still wonder why the hell it took me so long to discover it…

With no failure, these guys at Covent Garden got a smile out of everyone walking by.
The unexpensive London´s not that bad after all: are you ready to make someone´s day?

~ by travelandramble on October 10, 2007.