Our flat's common room.
The rather nice, but unused, kitchen.
Side one of Katie's and my room.
And the other side. The room was long but narrow.
The view from my window.Our first stop in the city--Leicester Square, the theatre district to get tickets for any of the numerous shows playing, including Wicked, Les Miserabes, The Phantom of the Opera, Oliver, Chicago, Hair, The Lion King, and Legally Blonde (to name a few). We had heard that we could get good deals on tickets if you buy from the box office on the day of the show, since the theateres want to fill as many seats as possible. As I am my mother's daughter, I marched right into Gielgud Theatre to buy my ticket for Hair! I knew that I would be getting a deal but I had no idea how good of a deal it was until 8:00 that night. More about that later but I'll tell you right now that I got a seat in row 3 (8 feet from the stage) for a mere 20 pounds!
The view down theater-ville. You can't see too well but there are theatres all the way down.
After our adventures in Theatreland, we wandered around the city in search of some chow. I felt like I was in a desert! There were buildings and things everywhere but nothing seemed to satiate my hunger and thirst (while not emptying my money stash!) Katie and I found this affordable-looking Italian place. Perfect!, we thought. WRONG WRONG WRONG. We were the only ones in there. The host guy was sooooo awkward. He just stood there and stared at us the entire time. Then he asked us what type of water we wanted. It sounded more like "Would you like oasidnfaoisen or sparkling?" Needless to say, we just stared dumbly at one another before asking for whatever was free. In case you were wondering, free water in London= tap water with floaties! Woo hoo! Despite the amoeba-infested water, our food was actually really tasty. But then came the challenge of paying. Do they bring the check in London? Do we leave the money and run? Do we go up to the cash register? We had no clue so we decided to just sit and wait for the host to come with the check. Bad idea. He never came. So, we eventually just got up, threw the money at him and got the heck out of there!
After our horrifyingly awkward dining experience, Katie and I ventured to The British Museum, which was right around the corner from our flat. I can't say that I particularly loved the museum. There was no context for the items and I had no personal attachment to the artifacts. Nonetheless, I took some pictures and tried to enjoy myself.
This here is the outside of the museum.
Some totem pole thing-a-ma-jiggers.
A statue and some urns from India.
Me and big-boobed-small-waist lady, also from India.
Buddah, buddah, buddah, buddah rockin' everywhere!
After all the traveling and walking, Katie and I were so tired that we went back to the flat and had a little cat nap. Let me tell you, my feet, and my whole body for that matter, have never hurt this much or this consistently before! I guess I'm just not used to walking so much. After our little nap, we did a little window shopping at the millions of little souvenir shops. (In other news, it is apparently popular to have "Fully Licensed Sex Shop(s)" in the basements of some of the shops!)In order to give ourselves plenty of time to navigate to the theatre, Katie and I had dinner at about 6:30. We found a fabulous little Latina place called Las Iguanas. It was happy hour, and since in England the drinking age is 18, Katie and I got a pretty good peachy drink called an Iguana Wana. We had some tasty nachos and quesadillas (no creepy British innards and grease and fat for us!). Then we went on over to the theatre, where the really fabulousness kicked in!
The marquis for Hair!
Me with Berger and Claude!
Due to copyrighting issues (as we were informed by a bitchy usherette), we couldn't take pictures of the stage. But here are some photos of the theatre itself.
It's almost show time! (I look too excited for my own good!)
I can't even begin to say how ABSOLUTELY FABULOUSLY AMAZING this show was! First off, our seats were perfect, especially for this show. The cast often came out into the audience and interacted with them. Several people got lap dances, one girl got to hold Berger's pants (which he removed within the first 10 minutes of the show. Although he did eventually put them back on), and one lucky guy got an up-close look at Berger's butt cheeks. Haha. All in good fun of course! At the start of the show, the pregnant character came out and hugged me. And a bunch of the cast touched my head and hair at different points in the show. Since I was seated on the end of the row, I got to hold hands with one of the cast members when we made a little Kumbaya-type love circle. We also got flowers from Claude and a flier for the "Be In" that the characters held (where they burned their draft cards). Plus, at the end, some of the audience was brought on stage to dance and so I went on up and shook my stuff! I achieved my dream of performing on a Broadway stage!!!!!!
Our cast! Berger was the bomb and Claude there was very attractive, if I do say so myself!
All this and I haven't even talked about the actual show! The actors were simply perfect. The show is so lively. There is a constant, psychadelic motion of color, bodies, dancing, and, you guessed it, HAIR! The story, however, is powerful, lingering and still relevant today: In the midst of violence and turmoil, love and let the sun shine in! If you look at this link, you can see all the members of the cast that I saw (they are the original Broadway cast of the revival of the show). They are also featured on the soundtrack! Hair-The Musical
I have to say that this experience was the highlight of my weekend in London, even though there are two more adventure-packed days that I have to tell you about! In the words of my prof, Richard Mezeske, "Hair was the best damn show ever!"
As of now, I'm super tired and will have to fill you in on the rest my London adventures later. But never fear, for tomorrow I hope to post all the sigh seeing pictures (there are TONS!).
In other news, it is currently the part of the trip where I feel like I've been here forever and yet there is still so much time left to go. It gets overwhelming at times but I am so fortunate and blessed to have such an amazing opportunity! Thank you so much to my parents for supporting me and financing this trip! I will never, ever, ever forget it!
Until tomorrow, cheers, and peace!
The view down theater-ville. You can't see too well but there are theatres all the way down.
After our adventures in Theatreland, we wandered around the city in search of some chow. I felt like I was in a desert! There were buildings and things everywhere but nothing seemed to satiate my hunger and thirst (while not emptying my money stash!) Katie and I found this affordable-looking Italian place. Perfect!, we thought. WRONG WRONG WRONG. We were the only ones in there. The host guy was sooooo awkward. He just stood there and stared at us the entire time. Then he asked us what type of water we wanted. It sounded more like "Would you like oasidnfaoisen or sparkling?" Needless to say, we just stared dumbly at one another before asking for whatever was free. In case you were wondering, free water in London= tap water with floaties! Woo hoo! Despite the amoeba-infested water, our food was actually really tasty. But then came the challenge of paying. Do they bring the check in London? Do we leave the money and run? Do we go up to the cash register? We had no clue so we decided to just sit and wait for the host to come with the check. Bad idea. He never came. So, we eventually just got up, threw the money at him and got the heck out of there!
After our horrifyingly awkward dining experience, Katie and I ventured to The British Museum, which was right around the corner from our flat. I can't say that I particularly loved the museum. There was no context for the items and I had no personal attachment to the artifacts. Nonetheless, I took some pictures and tried to enjoy myself.
This here is the outside of the museum.
Some totem pole thing-a-ma-jiggers.
A statue and some urns from India.
Me and big-boobed-small-waist lady, also from India.
Buddah, buddah, buddah, buddah rockin' everywhere!After all the traveling and walking, Katie and I were so tired that we went back to the flat and had a little cat nap. Let me tell you, my feet, and my whole body for that matter, have never hurt this much or this consistently before! I guess I'm just not used to walking so much. After our little nap, we did a little window shopping at the millions of little souvenir shops. (In other news, it is apparently popular to have "Fully Licensed Sex Shop(s)" in the basements of some of the shops!)In order to give ourselves plenty of time to navigate to the theatre, Katie and I had dinner at about 6:30. We found a fabulous little Latina place called Las Iguanas. It was happy hour, and since in England the drinking age is 18, Katie and I got a pretty good peachy drink called an Iguana Wana. We had some tasty nachos and quesadillas (no creepy British innards and grease and fat for us!). Then we went on over to the theatre, where the really fabulousness kicked in!
The marquis for Hair!
Me with Berger and Claude!
Due to copyrighting issues (as we were informed by a bitchy usherette), we couldn't take pictures of the stage. But here are some photos of the theatre itself.
It's almost show time! (I look too excited for my own good!)I can't even begin to say how ABSOLUTELY FABULOUSLY AMAZING this show was! First off, our seats were perfect, especially for this show. The cast often came out into the audience and interacted with them. Several people got lap dances, one girl got to hold Berger's pants (which he removed within the first 10 minutes of the show. Although he did eventually put them back on), and one lucky guy got an up-close look at Berger's butt cheeks. Haha. All in good fun of course! At the start of the show, the pregnant character came out and hugged me. And a bunch of the cast touched my head and hair at different points in the show. Since I was seated on the end of the row, I got to hold hands with one of the cast members when we made a little Kumbaya-type love circle. We also got flowers from Claude and a flier for the "Be In" that the characters held (where they burned their draft cards). Plus, at the end, some of the audience was brought on stage to dance and so I went on up and shook my stuff! I achieved my dream of performing on a Broadway stage!!!!!!
Our cast! Berger was the bomb and Claude there was very attractive, if I do say so myself!All this and I haven't even talked about the actual show! The actors were simply perfect. The show is so lively. There is a constant, psychadelic motion of color, bodies, dancing, and, you guessed it, HAIR! The story, however, is powerful, lingering and still relevant today: In the midst of violence and turmoil, love and let the sun shine in! If you look at this link, you can see all the members of the cast that I saw (they are the original Broadway cast of the revival of the show). They are also featured on the soundtrack! Hair-The Musical
I have to say that this experience was the highlight of my weekend in London, even though there are two more adventure-packed days that I have to tell you about! In the words of my prof, Richard Mezeske, "Hair was the best damn show ever!"
As of now, I'm super tired and will have to fill you in on the rest my London adventures later. But never fear, for tomorrow I hope to post all the sigh seeing pictures (there are TONS!).
In other news, it is currently the part of the trip where I feel like I've been here forever and yet there is still so much time left to go. It gets overwhelming at times but I am so fortunate and blessed to have such an amazing opportunity! Thank you so much to my parents for supporting me and financing this trip! I will never, ever, ever forget it!
Until tomorrow, cheers, and peace!
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