So as you might imagine, I spent all day on Wednesday researching the early 1960s in Britain. Not too exciting, but we went out for a Writing Center reunion at a pub called The Court later that night. It was a really good time, and the atmosphere at The Court is great. There are a lot of young people and loud American music, so it's a fun place to go out with a group and just have a good time. Plus, they play "Don't Stop Believing" as their closing song every night, and it was so loud that I got to sing without anyone complaining. That was especially nice, because it was one of the first nights that I didn't have to do homework, and I felt as though I was finally able to enjoy a little bit of London like a twenty year-old is supposed to do.
Thursday was another day of work--we walked our tour route again (without asking directions to any fantastic places this time) and hammered out a lot of the speaking parts. We were good humanities students and drew overarching connections and themes between history and music... look at us go! After our walk, I snuck away to a discount bookstore on Charring Cross Road (Kaitlin assures me that the Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be on Charring Cross Road, but I cannot confirm this. The bookstore looked like it belonged in Diagon Alley--stacks of books on every available surface, not a lot of rhyme or reason--it was heaven). This store has books for $1.95 (except in pounds)!!!! I was happy.
Friday was a bit more exciting, I promise. Well, I went to the British Library again in the morning, but I couldn't focus and so left to go see about half-price theatre tickets in Piccadilly Circus after lunch. The man in the booth was completely unhelpful and kept spitting sandwich crumbs at me, but I met two very nice Lithuanian women. We bonded over having bits of cheese sprayed at us. After popping into the Wellcome Collection to see an exhibit on skin (weird), I headed to the National Theatre to meet the rest of the group for a backstage tour. The National Theatre is cool because it's a pretty innovative venue, and it's a charity, so all proceeds go directly back into the theatre. Their mission is to provide exciting, new theatre (and some of the classics) to audiences at reasonable prices, and they make all of their sets and costumes on location. During the summer they have free outdoor events centered on a set of giant, turf-covered furniture, so we were acting like three year-olds.
After the tour we stayed to see The Habit of Art, which was a play within a play type deal. Good, but not my favorite. BUT--sitting appoximately seven seats away from me was... SIR IAN MCKELLAN. I know, whoa. I did not talk to him, though, because one does not bother a wizard. The actors got wind of this by the second act, and since the play took place in Oxford they inserted some new dialogue: "Professor Tolkien was at dinner. Apparently he's writing another book.""Wonderful. Probably more fucking elves."
Saturday was a great day. We rehearsed our tour again in the morning, and it went really well. Our group got along well and I had fun workiing with [most] everyone. Stephenie and I met Jess and Kaitlin at Old Spitalfields Market for lunch, where we got crepes and wandered into a huge Japanese festival. Lots and lots of Japanese food, traditional clothing, and cultural demonstrations including drumming and martial arts. We also got to walk through some medieval ruins because it was Open House Day, which is when all of these historic places in London are open to the public.
Stephenie, Sarah, and I decided to go to King's Cross to look for Platform 9 3/4 after escaping from the crush of humanity at the festival, and we were finally successful! It's actually at 8 3/4, which I guess doesn't sound as cool as 9 3/4.
I pushed really hard, but alas, I could not get through the barrier. We did miss the September 1 deadline, though, so that's my excuse. Saturday night I took a solo trip to see War Horse, since Jessica hated it so much. This logic actually worked--I loved it! The show is about a young boy and his horse in Britain at the outbreak of the First World War. His horse is sold to an officer, so the boy up and enlists, and is sent to the front, but never stops looking for his horse. Sounds kind of weird, but I actually got really invested in the story, and the staging was absolutely incredible. It was a little like Lion King because the horses are puppets, and you can see the puppeteers working the mechanisms, but they were so believable! I really, really enjoyed it.
On Sunday morning we actually gave our walking tour, which went really well. So yeah, if you want to know anything about why the 1960s rock music scene was possible in London, just let me know! We had to be the audience for a tour that afternoon in Westminster, so Stephenie and I headed that way for lunch. We just so happened to stumble across a celebration at Westminster Abbey--it was the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain (when the Nazis tried to bomb the daylights out of London in order to crush British morale, enabling them to take the country. The Royal Air Force put up a hell of a defense, otherwise we'd be speaking German right now. Winston Churchill commemorated the occasion when he said, "Never have so many owed so much to so few."). Most of the Royal Family was at the Abbey, and tourists were just lining the road. There was a procession with a military band and a division of the RAF (I assume) and a flyover by a Hurricane and a Spitfire, two planes that were important to Britain's defense.
There you go, Dad, just for you. Apparently several RAF veterans had done a flyover earlier in the day, and it was the first time that they'd flown in formation since the war. It was very cool, and it was interesting to see how a country that was on the front line (more or less) of the war commemorates it. Also, we were walking in St. James Park afterward and Prince Charles, Camilla, and Prince William drove by. I'm just saying, London is cool.We wound up in Covent Garden after the second tour--such a cool place! It's a giant, semi-permanent market that sells all of the scarves that you could ever want, basically. Also, delicious cookies. So I browsed, ate cookies, and watched the street performers (they were everywhere). Street performers here are very mean to their audiences! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and then I headed to Chinatown with Steph for dinner. Chinatown here is part of SoHo, and it's basically just restaurants, and a few corner grocery stores. But it's really colorful and fun.
We met some other friends and proceeded to eat too much food and laugh much too loudly. It was excellent!Monday was an entirely free day, which was absolutely amazing. Kaitlin and I headed to Buckingham Palace in the morning to watch the Changing of the Guard (told you that I was doing all of the touristy stuff this week).
Let me explain my feelings regarding the Changing of the Guard: it's the most ridiculous thing that I've ever seen! All this pomp and circumstance and stopping traffic for something that could be discreet and take all of five minutes. But no, tradition must be followed! I mean, yes, it was fun to watch the guards march in and out, but after 45 minutes it was a bit old. 
Anyway, there are the guys in funny hats. Enjoy. Following this spectacle I actually went into Buckingham Palace and toured the State Rooms, which are open during the summer while the Queen is at Hollyrood in Scotland (except she was at Buckingham while I was there. Shh.). The rooms are absolutely gorgeous. I forget how old the original estate at Buckingham is, but it was the home of a duke for a bit until George IV made it his palace. John Nash designed it and went incredibly over budget, and so it wasn't finished until Queen Victoria's reign. It's stunning, as you might expect, but there are SO MANY TOURISTS. Most of them from Asia. I still have not found a suitable explanation for this phenomenon. After a month in London, I was quite impatient with "regular" tourists, even though I was technically still a tourist.
I spent the afternoon at Regent's Park, in Queen Mary's Garden amongst all of the roses. It was quite lovely--parks in London are fantastic.
I think that there are so many parks because Londoners recognize their own need to escape from the city. In the parks and gardens (and even the little neighborhood squares) you can almost forget that you're in the most cosmopolitan city in the world, and you can escape from the noise, the dirt, the tourists, and the sense of a crowded rush of humanity bearing down on you. That's why Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens were built--Queen Victoria realized that Londoners needed a break from all of the pollution and grime in the newly industrialized city, hence, a ginormous park.Okay, nature rant over. Monday night was also excellent! We went to see Death Trap, a new thriller-comedy (sounds like a good combination, yeah?) that we'd been seeing ads for all month. We got half-price front row tickets! I love the theatre in this country. It wasn't my absolute favorite show, but it was really good and really self-aware. All of the shows that I saw in London (except maybe Les Mis) were very aware of the theatrical traditions that they were coming from, and they played with those conventions. So maybe the British focus on tradition is good for theatre, but bad for traffic at 11.30 in the morning by Buckingham Palace. Anyway, we got to meet Jonathan Groff (Jesse on Glee) after the show (he was one of the leads). He was really nice and didn't seem to mind that there was a group of American girls waiting for him at stage door.
Tuesday was our last day in London, which was so weird. We'd all grown so used to being in the city that it became normal, so leaving for another new place so soon made all of us a little wary. So I was nervous, but excited because I was ready to leave the city. I also had trouble remembering that I wasn't heading home after London--I was going elsewhere for much longer than a month! But we had our last class gathering on Tuesday morning. We hiked up to Hampstead Heath, which offers a beautiful view of London (beautiful view, ugly city. What can you do?)
So there was some sentimental wrapping up from some, and frolicking from others. I was one of the frolickers, and we got very lost on the heath (which is just a name for a big hill) on our way back to the city. I considered writing a gothic novel while I was there, but we found our way out again.That night my friends actually convinced me to go on the London Eye. Yes, me, with my fear of ferris wheels, rode the largest ferris wheel in the world, white-knuckled all of the way.
It was a half-hour ride, and it really was beautiful. London at night is amazing. Much nicer than London during the day! 
We had a great time though, and some of the cliquier members of the group actually condescended to join us. Dinner at a pub afterward, and I felt like it was an appropriate way to say goodbye to London. So I definitely enjoyed my time in London--I was able to do some absolutely amazing things and I learned a lot, both about London and about myself. It was a fantastic experience, but I am glad to be out of the city. Norwich has been absolutely amazing so far, and I'll try to update on that soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment