London!!!
I went and visted Nick in London this weekend.
First off, I just want to say that nothing makes Vienna seem foreign like going to the UK does.
Second, I don't know what I'd do without Nick. Even though I've spent a lot of time with him these past couple of weeks, it was still exciting to see him again. And I had so much fun!! I probably wouldn't have gone to London if I wasn't visiting him, and I'm so glad that I went.
Anyway, onto the weekend.
My plane landed at 11:45 pm. It was an hour bus ride to where Nick was meeting me. So what time did I finally meet poor Nick, who had been waiting for me since 1ish? 3am. Well, after 3 am. I don't know the exact time. Passport control was crazy! And, after the first bus was too full, I kinda said I was part of a group of girls in front of me to make sure I got on the second bus. So I did finally get to Nick. It was actually kinda awesome because I met him at the Baker Street stop, so we wandered around Baker Street at 3am when no one was around. It was fun. Nick was just happy to have someone to talk to, after waiting so long. At least it wasn't cold. London is so warm!! I didn't bring a winter coat, and I was so glad about that. I was fine in a sweater and a scarf most of the time.
Anyway, so Fri morning we woke up at 9, late for us. We ate some breakfast and then headed to our first stop, the Tate Modern. I was looking forward to this so much!! We got off at the stop by Big Ben, and walked along the Thames to get there. It was a nice, rainy London day. Anyway, the Tate Modern is an amazing museum. First off, I love Modern museums. It has basically Impressionism and up. Second, this museum is a little different than an ordinary museum. It's an old coal factory something, so it's huge. And instead of one curator it has many, and each person makes their own wing...this is hard to explain. For example: Instead of being organized by periods or artists, the first wing we went into was called "Dreams and Poetry" and had a lot of surrealism. It was pretty awesome. But, as cool as that was, I have to admit that me and Nick really went for the special exhibit going on right now:
Slides!! They are a kinda cool art piece. They look really cool, there's like 5 of them, and they have all these stands and paper and people can draw their views of it, so that's neat. And more importantly they were so much fun!!! You had to go get a ticket, and then you could go back at the time the ticket said. So the first two tickets for us were for 12-12:30, and the last and highest slide was for 1. So we actually took a break and went out for a little bit and then came back. Museums in London are free, which is awesome!
So, on our break, we crossed Millenium Bridge, which is a really cool bridge and had some great views of the city. Then we went to St. Paul's where of course we got video of us singing "Feed the Birds" on the steps of St. Pauls. Fun times.
Chasing a pidgeon.
After the slides we met up with Nick's friend Caitlin. The three of us then went to Harrods, which was just as beautiful and expensive and crowded as you might expect. But it was pretty cool. They had an entire section dedicated to Christmas, and we just walked around looking at the bins full of gorgeous, expensive ornaments.
After that, we headed to Hyde Park, which of course was really pretty. I have to mention that Nick was pointing out a lot of cool landmarks, and he knows some of the history of things, and some architecture facts, so the whole weekend it was great. Like having a private tour guide. Anyway, in Hyde Park we went and saw the Princess Di memorial fountain. It's not what it sounds like. It's this huge, stream-like thing that flows in a circle around this hill area. It's really pretty though. The different parts are supposed to represent her life, or something like that. But you can walk around it and through it. The park itself is beautiful too. If you were transported there though, with no concept of time, you would think it's early October. The trees still all have their colored leaves, and there are still flowers in bloom. It's crazy! Anyway, next we went to the Peter Pan statue. Nick was really excited about seeing this.
After the park the 3 of us went back to school to eat and change. Nick goes to Regents College, not just some random Webster campus. It's through Webster University, but it's really cool because it's a great college. It's in Regent's Park, which is beautiful. He has dorms and a cafeteria on campus. He has a meal plan, and is trying to use it all up, so I got free food all weekend which was awesome. And it's nice that the people he goes to school with are also the people he lives next to, so he's made a lot more friends than us in Vienna, where we only see the other Webster kids for our 3 classes a week. Plus, there's a lot more study abroad students there because people from otehr schools come there, not just Webster Kids. So, most of his friends are actually American. This weeknd was also a great time to visit, because he has two roomies, and they were both gone this weekend. One of them did come back Sat night. I should also mention that I didn't see much of Heather this weekend because her father was in town. So she was obviously hanging out with him.
Anyway, so we change, eat, find out its a snow day for webster and call Hans to wake him up. We're a little evil. Then we meet up with another friend of his, Mary, who was wonderful and head off to the West End. We leave early so that we can take the scenic route and walk through Soho, Chinatown, Piccadilly, and of course the West End. Nick takes me to Leicesters Square (pronunced Lester's), which is one of his favorite places. It's the place where all the movie premires take place. They just premired Casino Royale there. Anyway, we finally end up at our destination, which is Spamalot!! Yay!!
Seeing a West End show in London was awesome, of course. The theatre, The Palace Theatre, was amazing. It was beautiful. And inside, it was SO STEEP!! Our seats weren't far back in space, but we were higher up than the catwalks. It was kinda like at the omnimax, only instead of those high backed chairs you have theatre seats. So you kinda felt like you were going to fall a lot of the time. Also, they not only let you eat and drink in the theatre, they sell ice cream at the shows. Weird.
The show itself was better than I expected. The set was wonderful, and they really made it blend into the theatre, which was quite a feat and really cool. And it was a lot funnier than I thought it would be. I just wasn't sure how they would make the movie work as a show without it just being everyone's favorite quotes, but they really made it work. Even before the show started, me and Nick were cracking up at the program, so that should have been a clue. And Mary has never seen any of the movies, but she still loved it. When they got to the line, "We dine well here at Camalot" I finally realized where the title of the show came from, which was bothering me. Also, when they played the first few notes of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", the ENTIRE audeience immediately started singing. It was so funny. There's a line later that invites everyone to join in, but it was so pointless because everyone was singing as if they already had. And, the best part about seeing this show:
Getting to meet Tim Curry!
The cast is still the orginal London cast, which was awesome. Everyone was so good!! And of course, seeing it in London is so fitting. I'm disapointed "You Won't Succeed on Broadway" is on the soundtrack and not "You Won't succeed in the West End", which is what I heard. Anyway, meeting Tim Curry was ridiculously easy. Apparently in London, NO ONE waits at the stage door after the show. So it was us and literally 3 other people. And that was a "big" crowd. This is so crazy, because in New York it's practically a given that if you see a show, you wait at the stage door to see the stars. There was no guard, if we had wanted to we honestly could have walked right into backstage. It was crazy. And Tim was very nice, if not very chatty.
Theatre in London is different from New York in ways other than the stalker fans. First off, the biggest difference between West End and Broadway is that Broadway is literally a place, while West End isn't. Most of the shows are in that area, but they don't have to be. I'm so jealous of Nick for getting to study in London. I love Vienna, but London is THE place for theatre. I got to walk in the Lobby of the National Theatre and I was amazed. Seeing a West End show was great, but hearing Nick talk about the other theatres, of which their are hundreds, and the different things they're doing for theatre is amazing. Even their fringe theatres are always trying new things. The best thing I thought about London is that they're trying to make theatre more of something incorporated into people's lives, and not just somewhere you go for a night out. They want to get people into the theatre and seeing entertainment, even if it doesn't mean seeing a show yet. Just getting them in a having the theatre itself not be a foreign, set apart from the real world kind of place is a start. It's awesome!! And technologically, they have things I though people only joked about being real. "Oh yah, I would love a lift that went up down and side to side, ha ha" "Wireless DMX would be awesome!" Yah, they have them. And have had them for awhile. And aren't even the coolest things that they have. Plus they have theatres that only do new shows, they have places you can catch a new show while you eat lunch, they have the cheapest ticket prices (minus the conversion rate) for the quality of their shows, all sorts of things. I would love to work somewhere in the London theatre scene someday.
After that we all went home, but I forgot to mention that earlier that day, when we were walking to the Tate Modern, we were stopped and asked to be in a music video. So we did. It actually looked pretty funny. They had somehow convinced a cop to dance in it, and a statue street performer. We hope this guy makes it big and we're in his video.
Saturday! We woke up early again, ate breakfast, and headed out. Today, instead of taking the tube, we took a bus. It was actually more exciting than it sounds, because it meant I got to sit in the top of a double decker bus. Yay!! And it didn't cost anything to take a bus because of my oyster card, thank god Nick got that for me. We took the bus down to Oxford Street, which is the fancy shopping district. There we ran into a surprise- the whole street is closed to traffic. And not just Oxford Street, but also Oxford Circus and Regent's Street. Apparently they decided to make it pedestrian only for one day, and there were performers and music playing everywhere, millions of Santas, it was pretty amazing. And this is only the second time they're ever done this. And these 3 places are very traffic heavy, so getting to walk in the street was a big deal for Londoners. It was really fun! We went to the Disney Store, H&M, FCUK, Hanleys (a HUGE toy store), and of course, the Apple Store. It was so much fun!! We didn't buy anything (well, Nick bought a hoodie at H&M) but it was still great.
Our candy says H&M on it!! It's both of our's favorite store. I love this picture!
The Apple Store!! They just added onto it to, so you should of seen us running around in it all excited. And of course we asked the emplyees ridiculous nerdy questions that they didn't know the answers to.
Next: Trafalger's Square! Nick has been wanting someone to climb on the Lions with him for awhile, so of course we did.
Nick: "BE the fountain!"
It's huge!
After that, another pretty section of town: Covenant Garden. They had up all their Christmas decorations, and it was really pretty, but in reality we were only walking through to get to the Theatre Museum. The Theatre Museum is closing down at the end of Dec, so it was cool that we got to see it while we could. That being said, I understand why it's being closed down. It's very dry, and even being theatre people neither of us had the patience to read everything. There was some cool things to look at, but not as much as you might expect. And while there were a couple interactive things to do, and some videos playing through out the museum it was a very "Walk though it and read about stuff" museum. Plus, the layout was ridiculous. It was complicated for no reason. But, we got to see some design stuff that was amazing!! I'm really glad that we went.
Next we were getting a little hungry, so we tried to go to this restaurant that Nick likes. It's called Hummus something, and it sells all different kinds of Hummus. That's it. And for really cheap too, like 3 pounds for hummus. It sounded amazing, but unfortunatly the day before they had tried to fix an air conditioning vent and discovered the whole ceiling was about to fall down. So, needless to say, they were working on fixing that. So why am I telling this pointless story? Because with each purchase of food at the Hummus place you get a free pin, that says, no kidding- "Achieve Whirled Peas". Dead serious. So Nick is going to get one for me. He's a sweetheart. We decided to hold off on the food for a little longer, and went to the Postsecret display. That was really neat, kind of small, but we're both postsecret fans.
After that, it was back to school to change and eat, and since it's us play on the computer together.
We were going to a show again that night, so we left early and got to see some Christmas lights before we got there. You can walk down pretty much any random street in London and it's beautiful and full of lights. The bigger streets are more guady and tacky, the smaller ones are cute and pretty. And it's so cool that instead of driving around to look at lights, you can walk.
Oxford street at night.
We found our way to the theatre. We were seeing a fringe show, on the south side. A couple of Nick's friends met us there. The theatre itself is pretty cool. It's called the chocolate factory, and it's in the basement of a restaurant of the same name. So it's tiny, but very very good. They recently did Sunday in the Park with George, and it's currently in the process of being sent to Broadway. So it's small, but quality. It was open seating, and there's not a bad seat in the house, but we got front row seats, which was awesome! And the show?
Little Shop of Horrors!!! I don't know why this picture is sideways...
The performence itself was AMAZING!!! Nick is averaging about 2 shows a week since he's gotten here, and his friends who came are also all theatre people, different aspects though, who've also been seeing pretty many shows. And they all told me it was one of the best show's they've seen yet in London. Nick wanted to go see it again. So I have it on good authority that it was a great show even if you see a lot of London shows. I don't even know what else to say about it. Everything was wonderful- performers, set, special effects. The voice of Audrey II was a guy from Office Space. Even their American accents weren't bad. The blocking/directing/choreography was hysterical. It was so funny. I was almost in tears laughing during "Downtown", which does not sound that funny if you just listen to the song. And I have to mention that they started the show in a one count, which was amazing!! If you know the show at all, you know the music starts like that, but they took out house, brought up this tv screen, started the music, everything all at once very sudden. Everyone screamed. It was great!! I really just still can't get over how good it was. It was a good thing we saw Spamalot first, because it would have been a disapointment to see after this.
Sunday! Obviously, we woke up early. We went down to Nick's favorite London building: The Tower of London. Of course, we didn't go in, that would cost money, but we walked around, and he told me the history of it and pointed out things to me. And we walked halfway across Tower Bridge and back. The view was pretty, but there's really no reason to cross it.
Why are my pictures sideways? Look, the sun came out! Just for us.
Being in a tourist area meant we could take pictures without feeling really out of place, so continuing on that, we went to Nick's favorite tube stop and took some pictures there. We did get some weird looks there, but whatever. It's Nick's weekend to act like a tourist! Being study abroad is so weird, because you're not really a tourist, but you don't live there either.
Westminster Station
After that we walked around some of the residential areas by Nick's place. It's cool getting to go places that you wouldn't know about if you were just a tourist there on your own. Then we met up with Heather and her dad and went to church, and after that we went home and ate some lunch.
After lunch, we went back out into the city. We stayed pretty close to home this time though, walking around Regents park. This park is so gorgeous!! It's a little ridiculous. And it's home to the famous Rose Gardens, and some of the roses are still in bloom. Crazy!! But we walked around there for a long time because it was so pretty. Then we headed down to Camden. Camden is what used to be this off-kilter, cheaper, non-commercial outdoor market for clothes and such. Now it's a little more commercial, but it's still the place to buy some really cool stuff. As Nick said, if I lived in London, I would probably shop there. He showed me all the hidden back alley stands, where clothes are only 1-3 pounds. It was really cool. I didn't buy anything though. We took a huge detour after that because the Camden tube stop was closed (we had walked to there), and then took the tube back to Trafalger's Square. There we went to the National Gallery gift shop so we could buy a gift together for a mutal friend. After buying the gift we did go look at the "Monet to Picasso" exhibit (They had ONE not so great Picasso work, they just wanted to be able to use his name), which was cool but way crowded so we didn't stay long. Then back home for some tea and rest. We got a little caught up just hanging out in his room, so we ended up setting out again a little later than planned, but it worked out perfect.
Nick by a random art exhibit on the street. You touched the photographs and they played sounds.
One of the things I've been looking forward to all weekend: The London Eye!
We rode on the Eye and it was great. Fabulous views of the city. London is so flat, you can just see the city lights going on forever until the horizon curves. And the pods in the Eye are fun because you get to stand up and walk around. It was great fun.
After the eye we walked around the city for a couple of hours. We looked at all the Christmas lights. We stopped at Somerset House for awhile, which had an ice skating rink set up, and was just a weird place. We didn't ice skate, but we watched and laughed at people for awhile. Well, don't go ice skating a a place surrounded by people watching you (they even have restaurants set up around it to watch the ice) if you don't want people giggling when you fall. And then we walked around some more. If you're familar with London at all, we walked from the Southside, up to the West side, than back to Regents Park. We stopped again in Convenat Garden and sat on the steps by a giant Christmas tree and had some Mulled Wine while they played Christmas music. It was a great evening.
After that we went back and hung out some more in the dorms. I said bye to Heather. We took a short nap, and then it was off to the bus station at 3:30. My flight took off at 6:30am. I said goodbye to Nick, and now I won't see him again untill January. Sad.
So, that was my trip to London, and my last big trip overall. A great way to end. I came home to Vienna to no hot water, which was a pretty awful surprise, and Jo staying in my room, which wasn't a surprise but was still great. It's so wonderful to be able to visit people and have people visit you.
Times Square.
And so that is my NY trip in a very small nutshell.
