Let§s dive back on in.
I flew to London on Thursday to meet Katherine. I got in, took the Gatwick Express into to London, and then took the Tube to Katherine§s friend§s work. The first thing I thought when I got off the plane was "People speak English here!! I can communicate without awkward hand signals!! I will be able to read the signs so I§ll go into the right bathroom!!!". Not that I have had a problem with the last one...ahem...anyway... We were both tired so we decided to only go to the British Museum. Heh. Only the British Museum. Only one of the largest museums in the world. We decided to only do a small section so we went to my favorite stuff, the Egyptian artifacts. (Yes Sarah, I did pretend to be Amelia Peabody. I looked for Emerson and Ramses, but they were not to be found). Anyway, we got our fill of mummies and hieroglyphics and headed to the hotel. I was going to see Grease that night, so we went out for a quick bite to eat at an Italian restaurant near the hotel.
Y§all know me, I love me some musical theatre, so clearly I had to visit the West End while I was in London. My first show, Grease, delivered like Dominos. It was everything I wanted it to be: bubbly, cheerful, and super fun. I was mouthing the words and bouncing in my seat the whole time. It was the definition of the feel good musical. I bought a program and was slightly distressed to learn that the actor playing Danny is two years younger than me. I§m already behind. Oh well.
On Friday, we met up with Katherine§s friend from Duke who showed us around an open air market. It was huge and full of fun things like 3 foot long monkfish and rhubarb. We got breakfast at the market, deciphering the menu full of words like "bap" and "bubble". Crazy Brits. After breakfast. we wandered across the TOWER bridge. Not the LONDON bridge. Apparently, these are two different things. And unfortunately for her, Katherine gave me the navigating job. I guided us in the right direction...but from the wrong bridge. Whoopsies! We finally got to the Tower of London and took a tour with a pretty darn hilarious Beefeater. We saw the ravens, the green where Anne Boleyn was decapitated, and ... the Crown Jewels. So sparkly. I continue to formulate my plot to become queen of England so I could wear a crown and fun jewelry. How hard do you think it would be to trick Prince Harry into marrying me?
I flew to London on Thursday to meet Katherine. I got in, took the Gatwick Express into to London, and then took the Tube to Katherine§s friend§s work. The first thing I thought when I got off the plane was "People speak English here!! I can communicate without awkward hand signals!! I will be able to read the signs so I§ll go into the right bathroom!!!". Not that I have had a problem with the last one...ahem...anyway... We were both tired so we decided to only go to the British Museum. Heh. Only the British Museum. Only one of the largest museums in the world. We decided to only do a small section so we went to my favorite stuff, the Egyptian artifacts. (Yes Sarah, I did pretend to be Amelia Peabody. I looked for Emerson and Ramses, but they were not to be found). Anyway, we got our fill of mummies and hieroglyphics and headed to the hotel. I was going to see Grease that night, so we went out for a quick bite to eat at an Italian restaurant near the hotel.
Y§all know me, I love me some musical theatre, so clearly I had to visit the West End while I was in London. My first show, Grease, delivered like Dominos. It was everything I wanted it to be: bubbly, cheerful, and super fun. I was mouthing the words and bouncing in my seat the whole time. It was the definition of the feel good musical. I bought a program and was slightly distressed to learn that the actor playing Danny is two years younger than me. I§m already behind. Oh well.
On Friday, we met up with Katherine§s friend from Duke who showed us around an open air market. It was huge and full of fun things like 3 foot long monkfish and rhubarb. We got breakfast at the market, deciphering the menu full of words like "bap" and "bubble". Crazy Brits. After breakfast. we wandered across the TOWER bridge. Not the LONDON bridge. Apparently, these are two different things. And unfortunately for her, Katherine gave me the navigating job. I guided us in the right direction...but from the wrong bridge. Whoopsies! We finally got to the Tower of London and took a tour with a pretty darn hilarious Beefeater. We saw the ravens, the green where Anne Boleyn was decapitated, and ... the Crown Jewels. So sparkly. I continue to formulate my plot to become queen of England so I could wear a crown and fun jewelry. How hard do you think it would be to trick Prince Harry into marrying me?
We got lunch at an Americanish restaurant near the West End and then headed to Trafalgar Square for more touristing. We saw the pigeons at Trafalgar Square and then walked down the street towards Parliament. On the way, we ran into a large crowd of cops surrounding one alley. Turns out this alley was actually Downing Street, and they were preparing for the Prime Minister to do something. I gawked through the iron gates, but Gordon didn't come to greet me. Oh well. We kept on walking until we got to Big Ben and Parliament. Incredible. There is a reason that they are tourist sites; they are so exquisitely gorgeous. Seriously, America, why don't we have office space like that? Let's get on that.
We wanted to see Westminster Abbey, but it was closed. Boo. But we made up for our disappointment through retail therapy at Harrods. After not buying anything at all [ha], we headed back to the hotel because that night I was seeing Billy Elliot.
Run, fly, steal a car to drive to New York to see Billy Elliot right now. RIGHT NOW! The. best. play. I. have. ever. seen. Hands down. I treated myself to a good seat [hey, it was my birthday] so I was on the fifth row. Awesome. The basic plot is a boy [Billy] is living in North England during the mining strike. He is unhappily taking boxing lessons, but accidentally takes a ballet lesson one week. He turns out to be a natural, but struggles with the preconceptions that ballet comes with. There are four boys who alternate playing Billy [ages 12-13] and the boy that played my night was phenomenal. He blew the roof off with his passion for the character. Is it odd that my new acting mentor is 12? Anyway, GO SEE IT. RIGHT NOW. I AM NOT KIDDING. I would go see it right now if I could.
We got up early the next day to get down to breakfast at the hotel. Ahh, full breakfast. Here, I am used to either yogurt and a piece of bread, or a slice of ham and a piece of bread for breakfast. Not in England. While I steered clear of black sausage, baked beans, and stewed button mushrooms, I definitely hit up the omelet station. Delish! We went down to the West End to get tickets for a show for that night and then headed to Buckingham Palace for The Changing of the Guard. It was a good thing that we got there early because there were gobs of people by the time it started. If it's this bad in early January, how is it in July? Anyway, The Changing of the Guard is a very solemn event with the bear fur hat dudes marching very precisely and seriously. Which is why I was surprised that the guard band played a rendition of ... Livin' la Vida Loca by Ricky Martin. Followed by Bailamos by Enrique Iglesias. I am not joking. I have recordings of the performances. Ridiculous. I kept waiting for the Queen to appear, but she must have heard that Steinmart is having a pantyhose sale and wanted to stock up. Can't knock her for wanting to save a few quid. [See the fun new vocab I learned in England?]
We met up with Robin, another of Katherine's friends from college to have lunch at a local pub. There I tried mushy peas. As the name indicates, it was pretty much peas...that were mushed up. Some food trends don't need to cross the pond. After lunch, we headed to Pax Lodge, a WAGGGS [World Association of Girl Guides/ Girl Scouts...yeah, I'm that good.] center. It is a place that girl scouts or guides can come visit [or even stay] while they are in London. The volunteers there were my age, and we asked how you apply to work there. I am definitely looking into that for after I graduate.
That night, we saw Zorro. While it was the least favorite of the shows that I saw while in London, I still enjoyed it. The music [not the lyrics] were Gypsy King songs and the story was kind of like the movie. It was very different from the musical theatre that I am used to, but not in bad way.
The next day, Katherine left early in the morning, so I wandered around by myself. I couldn't go too far because I didn't want to let my laptop out of my sight. Oh, have I not mentioned that? Yeah, my computer is dead. Dead DEAD dead. I opened it up when I got into the hotel the first night and the screen had shattered. Into thousands of pieces. I looked into replacing the screen back in Prague, it's not worth it. At least my hard drive is fine. Epic fail.
Anyway, I got safely back to Prague on Sunday night [after doing some damage in the Harrods in the airport]. I have had a quiet week in Prague, settling back in and worrying myself to death over my computer.
Sorry for the ridiculously long post--I had to make up for lost time!
No comments:
Post a Comment