Went into London to meet up with Kaitlyn and Elise. I had arranged to stay at the same hostel as them for a couple nights to maximize our London time. Since I arrived before them I dropped my stuff off and went to explore the area. It was raining, but not bad enough to keep me in. Royal Albert Hall was not even a block away from my hostel. So many AMAZING concerts have been held in Royal Albert Hall. My personal fave being the 10th anniversary of Les Mis concert. Which is probably my favorite recording of Les Mis. Certainly the one I listened to the most. Anyways, there was a concert going on while I was there so I couldn't even go snoop the lobby. Next time!
Across the street from the Hall is Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, so I went to venture. I found a pond and from a distance I could see tons of swans and Canadian geese. I thought how nice it was having British swans and Canadian geese mingling together! What a good example of countries embracing each other! The closer I got I realized that the swans and the geese were in two separate groups. Definitely not mingling. So much for international unity! Geese, Swans, you'll have to work on that.
Then it was time to meet up with my friends. Elise wasn't feeling great so Kaitlyn and I went for dinner. We both got delicious burgers and filled each other in on our travels so far. It was quite nice. We stopped at a grocery store on the way back, I got a persimmon and candy. Back at the hostel Kaitlyn decided to call it a night.
I wasn't tired at all. And since I had an unlimited transit card for that day I decided to make use of it. I asked the reception at the hostel where the closest bus was and then I was off. I didn't care where I went cause I just planned on riding the bus around. It came in no time and before I knew it I was on the top level of a double decker bus, in the very front, listening to happy songs on my phone, and eating candy coke bottles while cruising around London at night. Quite possibly the best idea ever! Seeing London lit up was so beautiful! And I had the best view. The bus was pretty empty and I felt like the Queen up there. I'm sure she regularly cruises around London on the top level of a double decker bus eating candy coke bottles. What else would the Queen do? I cruised until I reached the end of the line and had to get off the bus which was right by Kings Cross station. Then I crossed the street and hopped on the same bus going back towards my hostel. I can't begin to tell you how happy I was. I was just in a state of bliss. It was a great ride, and I can't wait to do it again one day!
Monday started off heading straight for the Tower of London. It was Kaitlyn's choice since it was her birthday. In no time we were there exploring the old castle secrets. I like that stuff. They used to have somewhat of a zoo there. When they had polar bears they would tie a lease on them and let them into the Thame river to hunt for fish. Crazy.
We waited in line to see the crown jewels. Which all look very new and hardly old at all. Even though many had been around for hundred of years. I guess they don't get used a ton. We finished up the tower, the last thing we saw was the Bloody Tower. Where supposedly King Richard III had his nephews murdered so he could be king. Lots of mystery surrounding that, and not so much fact. But I was intrigued. And now I want to go watch the movie Richard III with Charleston Heston.
After the Tower of London we found food. And it was a steal of a deal. This lovely restaurant has food 1/2 price on Mondays. Yay it was Monday! So that is where we had Kaitlyn's birthday feast. We even got dessert, which the waiter so generously put candles into for her to blow out. All delicious food.
From there Elise was off to meet her friend, which left Kaitlyn and I to scope out the royal grounds. Starting with Big Ben, followed by Westminster Abbey. We didn't go in, but adored it from the outside. Next was Buckingham Palace. Took some pictures and walked around the walls. Which bear resemblance to the Berlin wall, but no graffiti.
To close off Kaitlyn's birthday we went on a walking tour of her choice. The Jack the Ripper tour. Yes you read right. He's not a very nice fellow. And the tour guide was very animated. It was actually very interesting, better than watching a movie. And spooky. At one point she was talking about a lady who had been murdered and was standing *she points to me* exactly where you are standing right now! Yikes. I took a step to the side. Later on a couple said to me "lucky you!". They had no sarcasm, and were very sincere. To which I thought "Yes, lucky me I was standing in the same spot as a victim who was about to get Jack-the-Rippered". Lucky me, was not my initial thoughts. We made it through the tour alive. And with a much deeper knowledge about Jack. Who apparently resembles Freddie Mercury. Bet you didn't know that! And after the tour we called it a night.
Tuesday was a big day. First stop was the Victoria Albert museum. Both Kaitlyn and I thought it was a museum about Victoria and Albert. We were wrong. Its an art gallery and very nice, but nothing to do with Victoria. Haha. So then we went to the Imperial War Museum, I love that museums are free here! The war museum made me very glad I did not live through the world wars. And I hope that I never have to. They had a big exhibit devouted to the Holocaust. Which was hard to go through, yet I felt like hearing these peoples stories is important for us to learn and grow from here.
We next went to find the Millennium Bridge. Which appeared in the Harry Potter movies. It was fun to walk across it (don't worry, no Death Eaters attacked it while I was on it) and then we explored the things on the other side. We found Shakespeare's Globe theatre, which sadly I did not get to see a show for. Next time! Then we saw London Bridge. Not super thrilling, but it was there. And we also checked out the Tate Gallery of modern art for a while as well.
We decided to head towards Kings Cross Station to further our unofficial self guided free Harry Potter movie sights tour. We grabbed some food first and ate it outside while admiring the beautiful St. Pancras building. Then we went to find Platform 9 3/4. We found it mobbed by a giant queue, with people waiting to get their picture taken by the professional photographer. Which you later could buy, after waiting in another very long line. We skipped the lines and took pictures of other people there instead. I thought it was funny, there was one guy whose job was to hold the end of a scarf (whichever Hogwarts house the person chose) and throw it in the air right before the photographer snapped the picture. He did this over and over. I wonder how he feels about Platform 9 3/4 haha. I was then determined to find the place where Hagrid and Harry walk with trains below them in the first movie. I found it, and didn't even have to buy a ticket. Though I didn't hang out too long in case people decided to check if I had ticket....
For dinner that night we stopped at a grocery store, I found a pack of 5 doughnuts for only £0.60. Of course I got those. And to make it a healthy dinner I bought a carrot. Which only came to £0.08. I'm pretty sure it was the cheapest carrot I've ever purchased! And it was big too. Yay! And don't worry, I shared the donuts.
That night we had tickets to Billy Elliot the musical. We met up with Elise and sat in our third row seats. The kid that played Billy was crazy good. I was blown away! Also the actress playing Mrs. Wilkinson had played the role of Fantine in the Les Mis 10th anniversary concert. I was fan-girling just a lot. Like I said previously, 10th anniversary concert was the CD I listened to the most. And I also watched the vhs about a million times, so seeing her live was pretty legit. It was indeed a lovely evening out.
A summary of Wednesday: Lots of running and lots of junk food and lots of theatre. A pretty perfect day. If you were to decrease the running by a little bit then it would be a totally perfect day.
I woke up early to go get day seats for the show Gypsy. I got to the theatre 20 minutes before it opened, enough to be fourth in line. They didn't release any cheap seats on the stage level, but I did manage to snag two cheap seats in balcony. They were still pretty good actually.
Before the show I met up with Kaitlyn. We rented bikes and rode around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. It ended up being perfect weather for it. Not too hot nor too cold, just right. There were quite a few paths that bikes weren't allowed on, so navigating was a bit of an adventure at times. We did well. Saw lots of geese, swans, (neither mingling with each other) and ducks. Even a big line of horses with riders who were in fancy uniforms. I was secretly hoping that maybe someone from the royal family was passing by, but I didn't see them if they were. There wasn't much for cars afterwards, so perhaps they were just practising. We returned our bikes and then I headed to the theatre district.
I met Nefer's cousin Kleidy for some fun theatre-ing. We headed to the Savoy theatre for Gypsy, starring the incomparable Imelda Staunton. For you witches and wizards, that's the former Professor Umbridge at Hogwarts. She was amazing! Seriously, really quite a show to see her live. It was very well done. And I had my Broadway-noculars, so that was a nice considering we were in the balcony seats. Both Kleidy and I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
When it ended we decided to be spontaneous and get tickets to another show. I hadn't planned on it initially, but we thought hey why not. We checked at two theatres that didn't have cheap seats left before finding some at Beautiful. I had seen it in NY, and loved it, so we decided on it. Here was the catch. The box office guy said we could get cheaper better seats at 7. It was 6:20. Just enough time to go to my hostel and pick up my big backpack and come back. Except it wasn't really enough time. Perhaps underestimating how long it would take, Kleidy and I ended up running madly through the streets of London. We got to the hostel at 6:58, and the show was 7:30. So we picked it up a notch. Even though I wore my giant backpack we sped back to the underground station. Which wasn't very close...onto the train we finally got to our stop. With one last sprint to the end we made it at exactly 7:30. Since we still had to buy our tickets we missed the first number. But since it had already started we ended up getting a major discount. So it worked out. Good ole Carole King. She's got quite the story. My allegiance is still to Jessie Mueller, as the original star of the musical in NY. But Katie Brayben gave a good show nonetheless. Our seats were awesome! Front row of the first balcony. Super close to the stage. Good seats spoil you.
After the show we made our way to the train. But missed the last one that would take us all the way to Nefer's village, good thing she is a kind kind soul and volunteered to send her husband to pick us up one village over. It was a good way to spend a last day in London. Despite only eating junk food, no time for dinner or lunch when you are sprinting through London trying to get to your shows on time. Still a great day!
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