Yesterday was an amazing day in London. After a night of dancing in a club (so we're doing all this on maybe 4 hours of sleep), we wake up bright and early for a day-long trip to London. We leave at 8 am and grab the bus to the Harlow Bus Station. Then we took another bus to Epping, a small town where there happens to be a tube station, which links up to the rest of the London Underground. We board and we're on our way.
We come up at the Holburn station, close to Covent Gardens. After a few minutes of wandering, we eventually coming to a market square. We decide to get some breakfast, since it was 10:30. Everything was great, eating outdoors watching other tourists run around until we actually got the food and discovered that the eggs were...well, not too good. They were a weird pink-orange colour and probably not cooked. The salmon I had was quite delicious, on the other hand. I just did not eat the eggs.
We do a little exploring in the open market and I found the Disney Store. My inner child woke up and I had to go inside. It made me a little sad though, since if Michele was alive, I'd have to get her something. Though what, I have no idea. She'd want pretty much all of it. I did manage to get a cute top for going out. It's slit down the side though, so I'll need to make a trip out to Primark (it's a cheap clothing store, not far from the bus market) to pick one up. Maybe a few more tops too, while I'm there.
Anyways, after getting slightly lost, we're in Trafalgar Square, which has some beautiful views, by the way. Behind there, there's a stand where you can get discount West End show tickets. Original, the girls wanted to see The Lion King. Not my first choice, but I figured "ok, it's supposedly a good show. I'll check it out." It's sold out. We agree on seeing We Will Rock You, a jukebox musical based on the music of Queen. Sounds great to me. So we pay £33 and off we go. It's only around 12 now and the show's not until 2:30. Knowing we want to see the London Eye as well, we decided to make our way to the theatre, because it'll probably take longer to see the Eye.
So we're walking along, making our way to the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road. We stop prior to this for a bathroom break at McDonald's (where I had a banana milkshake! Banana! I'm loving this country more and more...) and we saw this giant guy in a bear suit walking around. I get my picture taken with him. Oh yes. I'm a dork.
It only takes us about 30-40 minutes to make it to the theatre from Leicester Square (it's probably shorter, but we stopped to look at things, take pictures, consult the map etc). We're way too early for the show, but learned that the British National Museum was only up the road. We hike up there and split into two groups for a quick 45 minute look around. If you haven't been, put it on the bucket list! I was so disappointed when my camera battery died just as we were getting there. It was so fantastic, amazing, historical. I could feel something inside me well up and I partly wanted to cry at everything I saw. I don't know why. Maybe because I was looking at things that were so old, and I wondered so many questions; what the story was behind the objects; who used them and what were they like; what happened to make this Goddess statue break; what sort of people thumbed through this book; what did that pharaoh do? It was so overwhelming, and we only saw a small fraction of what was there. We need to go back and spend a day or more there.
Around 2, we made our way back to the theatre. Again, we were split up into two groups, a group of 2 sitting in row J, a group of 5 in row....A! Oh yes. I was in the first row. Right at the end, but I was in row A nonetheless. Sure you could see the actors spit as he was enunciation his words and see up the dancers skirt, but it was front row at West End! I will say this: it's a little cheesy, but I think it has to be to connect all the songs. Basically, it takes place about 300 years in the future where everyone has learned to be clones and consumerism as it at's best. All music is made on computer and musical instruments (particularly rock and roll) are banned. A young man rebels and gives himself the name Galileo Figaro. He meets a girl (who has no name) and he calls her Scaramouche. Galileo hears things in his head (which are song lyrics) and they're considered part of an ancient sacred text. They meet other rebels called Bohemians (who have names based on other musicians, which changes based on the music of the moment...and it's pretty funny) and he learns what rock and roll is. They're fighting the evil corporation in charge (we don't really know what they do...they're just "the man" I guess), who's leader is....Killer Queen. Cute. A prophecy, that the rebels believe was given to them by other rebels from a band called Queen, from long ago, says that there'd be a time in peril and only the heir of the "Hairy One" (not sure if it's Freddy or another member) can bring it back by going to the land of the living rock (i.e. Live Rock, which in London means Wembley Stadium) and finding the instrument, playing it to destroy the Killer Queen.
I won't comment on the ending of the play but it was great. Despite it's cheesiness, it makes you believe in the power of rock and roll. Awesome. The cast was great too. At the very end, after the final bows, across the screen comes "Do you want Bohemian Rhapsody?" (since that wasn't played). The audience screams and the screen says "Oh. Alright then." Then the cast comes out to sing. Then, the most amazing thing of life happens. Oh of the front of the stage, in a cloud of smoke, rising from below is Brian May. THE Brian May, lead guitarist of Queen. Oh. My. God. He did the solo for Bohemian Rhapsody and the cameras were out flying, snapping all sorts of pictures, even though picture taking is not allowed. Brian apparently only comes to play for special occasions, such as an anniversary. In this case, it was a casting change. But, I paid £33 to sit in the front row and watch Brian May play Bohemian Rhapsody. That's priceless. What the amazing odds.
After we're still being blown away (I'm still in disbelief!), we took a tube and found the London Eye. It was almost 6 when we get there, and just after 6 when we get our ticket. The line-up seems to go forever, both getting the ticket and getting on. We got on about 20 after 6, so that wasn't too bad. The view was amazing! You could see pretty much the entire city and it was beautiful. I was little scared because you're over the Thames, and I hate being over water. It's about half an hour long and at 7, we're looking for some supper. We decide to go to TGIFridays, since we don't have one and the commercials make it look good. Unfortunately, everyone else in London decided to go too. We were waiting probably half an hour for a table, but when we got there, the food was so good (oh, and we split up again...4 and 3, since they couldn't do a table for 7). The burger could barely fit in my mouth! A bit pricey though. The price in pounds wasn't too far off what we'd pay in dollars for it. Good food though.
After we're done, it's close to 9:30. So, we board a tube and make our way back to Harlow. We got back about 10:15. Not too late for buses, we figure. Nope. We just missed one and another one wasn't coming for another hour. For some reasons, a lot of buses don't run past, 7 or 8. I really don't know why. People still go places, or maybe that's just a North American thing. So we're waiting an hour and then we get the bus, just at 11. We get to the bus station, and we're waiting....still waiting. It's almost 11:30, and we're waiting for a bus to take us home. It's just about midnight when we finally see our route...which drives right past us. Noooo! We have no idea what to do now! We tried calling a cab but one wasn't available for another hour. Just then, a cab that can hold 8 people (and we were 7) pull up down the road. We ran for it. Two of the girls ran faster and luckily managed to convince the cabby to drive us home. Usually, they won't do it like that. You have to have the cab already hired and can't just hail one. But, really, we look tired, we're all disheveled, we don't sound/smell/look drunk...we're obviously not British! He took pity on us and luckily drove us home.
So that was the day in London. Hopefully, there'll be more to come. We're going to Glasgow at the end of the month and Dublin in November. So look for updates for there too. In the meanwhile, it's almost bed time. Back in the classroom tomorrow.
Amy
