London, Day 3

Friday, 20.2.2009

Today was the easy day. We'd seen just about everything there was on the first two days. We too our time getting ready and heading out. I bought a fantastically overpriced memory card for my camera because I forgot to buy one before I left home. Fail.

We went back to the Tower of London and paid the 14 pounds to get in. Ick. However, it was pretty sweet. We hung around for 15 minutes waiting for a tour and wound up with a pretty funny tour guide. The tour was about an hour and it consisted mainly of standing around outside and hearing the history of the castle. Which was pretty sweet.

Catapult!

Tour Guide man sir. All the tour guides are Yeomen.

After the tour we were free to roam around and do whatever we liked. First we went into the Tower/Castle itself. Which, like everything I ever go to see, was under construction. Or reconstruction, as it were, so half the rooms were closed. It wasn't as big or fun as the castles we saw in Ireland forever ago (ten years?! I feel so old D:), but it was still cool. There were exhibits on weapons and armor and money through the centuries. There was a staircase on the outside (why, I have no idea), and that's where the bodies of two young princes were found a few months after their uncle (who later became king, go figure) "put them to bed" one night. Slash probably killed them, yeah?

"THE TRADITION of the TOWER has ALWAYS POINTED out THIS as the STAIR UNDER WHICH the BONES of EDWARD the 5th and of his BROTHER WERE FOUND in CHARLES the 2nds TIME and from WHENCE THEY WERE REMOVED to WESTMINSTER ABBEY."

Picture of the princes.

This was a toilet. A hole cut into the floor on one of the upper levels. And it just opened up to the ground below. Faaantastic.

We left the castle itself and wandered over to the spot where 7 people were killed over the years. Apparently stories of killings and toture at the tower have been exagerrated over time. A lot of people were imprisoned there though.

Memorial to the people beheaded on that spot. There's a little poem going around the base of it and their names are carved around the outer edge of the glass.

I have more pictures on Photobucket (link at the end of the post). In all of the places where people were imprisoned, there're carvings in the walls. Sometimes just names, sometimes pictures or prayers or affirmations of faith. Twas interesting. But wayy too many pictures to post here.

After all that we went and got overpriced hot chocolate and muffins from the café and stood in line to go see the crown jewels. They were pretty neat. No pictures allowed in the building though, sadness. Also sadness? The epic expense of all the stuff in there. Like, all of the diamonds and rubies and everything were HUGE. And they're just sitting there behind glass, chilling. I can't imagine anyone being able to buy them the way they are, but surely they can be put to better use? And really, there's an entire robe/cape/thing that weighs like 20 pounds and it made entirely of gold thread. Not just gold-colored, but actual gold. What's the point?! Argh, people frustrate me. "Heyyyy! Check out my bling, yo! My clothes are made of goooold!" >__>

Moving on. We wandered around most of the outside of the castle from there. Not all of the wall was open for tourists. There was a little exhibit thing on what they did when the castle was attacked (see below) and on how during a revolt of some kind, people broke in and stole armor and such. There was also a gate that at one point was called "Watergate" but then was renamed "Traitor's Gate." Commence bad jokes. They renamed it though because oh hay, water ran through it at first and then later they brought in traitors (new prisoners etc) through it on little boats.

Uhhh...

I made a new friend!

We made our way down to the Bloody Tower next. It's the one where they did all the fun torture things. They had examples of the rack there, and manacles, and this thing that I forgot what it's called, but basically they'd just squish you into a ball (or a giant acorn, according to Stacey) for a few hours.

The Bloody Tower.

THE RACK. One of three torture devices on display.

Having spent around 4 hours in the Tower of London, we bid it adieu and went off in search of the Globe Theater. Heyo. Found it with a little bit of difficulty no thanks to street signs failing at life. Were disappointed to find out that it cost like 8 pounds to get in. Took pictures of the outside and left. On the way by there was some kind of construction going on, and the barrier around it said "Temporary Eyesore" all the way around. I wanted a picture but it wasn't possible because of the way it was written. Fail.

Globe Theater woo! I still hate Shakespeare though.

Onward to dinner! Where did we go? Pizza Hut. Yes, that's right. Pizza Hut. Except it seemed like a classy establishment? Dear London, you're doin it wrong. They had a Happy Hour special from 3-6; garlic bread, an individual pizza, and a soda for 3.50. I approved. Got a pizza with peppers and tomatoes and it was made of yum. Back to the hostel. Packed our stuff to get ready. Went on a pub crawl that was run by the people who ran the took we took the first day. Crowded clubs were crowded, yeesh. Got back around... 1230ish maybe? And then joy of joys, we left the hostel at like 330am. Walked a few blocks to a bus station, took a bus to another station where we had hoped to get a cheap bus to the London Stanstead airport, which is like an hour out of London. No such luck since it was like, the phantom bus. Fail. So instead we got 20-pound train tickets to the airport. More fail. But then we got to the airport, got Starbucks, and all was right with the world. Smooth journey home except for some bizarre reason our train was half an hour late getting back here and we were stuck with two obnoxious screaming French children next to us. Yeahhhh.

In sum: London was pretty cool. I'm glad I went, but I don't think I'd go back anytime soon. Unless maybe it were for a show (Spring Awakening opens March 21st! D:) and someone was paying the super expensive travel fees. It is really expensive there, even ignoring the awful exchange rates (I think 1 pound was $1.60 when we went?). And it just reminded me too much of Boston. Touristy things aside, it's just another big city. Crowded, loud, and expensive.

It had the most inefficient public transportation I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot compared to both the T and the GRTC. I'll take the Paris Metro anyday. Once I dig out the map again I'll upload a photo, but god it was stupid.

And there were Starbucks and McDonald's everywhere. We saw two Krispy Kremes, a KFC, a few Subways, two Pizza Huts, and some other things. It was kind of sad. But downtown anywhere is pretty much the same.

I was a little bit disappointed in the theatre part. There are like 40-odd musicals supposed to be playing there, and I thought the West End was supposed to be the theatre district. I was expecting to walk onto a street and be bombarded with huge signs and marquees like on Broadway. But no, not really. They're scattered all over the city and it made me sad over the lack of epic. Oh well.

MOAR PICTURES.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

This post relates entirely to Les Misérables and its epicness. You have been warned.

Okay, so seeing this show simultaneously made and ruined my life. I'm not sure when I started getting obsessed with it, but I know I have Mom to blame. PBS showed the 10th Anniversary Concert on TV every so often, and she would watch it. And she has the Original London Cast soundtrack, and I remember when we were little Sean really liked "ABC Café/Red and Black." Fast forward probably a decade (!! oh god that's awful). Somehow it comes up in conversation that "I Dreamed a Dream" was played at my friend's prom (?) in high school. We talk about the show's epicness. She gets me the soundtrack to the concert for my birthday. Like an idiot I ignore the revival tour, only to regret it once it's left Boston. A year later Meghan and I go to NYC to see Wicked and we see some guy with a Les Mis playbill as we head back to the bus station. And I want to kill something because I didn't think to check and see if it was playing in New York, which was so stupid of me. (Lea Salonga was in it then too! I could have killed to see her! D: I think she was playing Fantine at the time, which would have been weird, BUT STILL. ...Okay, tangent: after watching her do "I Dreamed a Dream" on YouTube, it would not have been so weird because she's still amazing. But I still like Ruthie Henshall's version better. More on that later.) ANYWAY. So for three or four years now I have desperately wanted to see this show.

AND I GOT TO SEE IT IN LONDON. We went to a little store that sold tickets for basically all the plays and musicals that were running; they were supposed to be cheaper the day of or day before because they were last minute tickets. We were open to seeing a number of shows, but this turned out to be the best seats for the best price. 36 pounds to sit in row K of the stands/orchestra? Uh, yes please!

So because I am a massive geek, I bought a playbill (they're not free in England. saddness), a photo book, and a mug. I almost went for a baseball tee with '24601' on it, but I've seen better ones online. The show surprised me by starting on time, which is unheard of in the US.

I sat there grinning like an idiot when the orchestra started the Prologue. I bounced up and down in my seat like a three-year-old. I was full of GLEE and it was made of win. Before this I had been to various theatres at least 8 times for musicals and twice for operas. None of those experiences compares to this. It was absolutely incredible to sit there and feel the bass resonating through the room during "Work Song." And to see it being acted out made it real. Mom's DVD is just a concert; the actors are in costume, but they just stand there and sing, it's not the whole show. I'd watched clips of performances on YouTube, but it's so not the same. Everything came together and filled in gaps in what I knew of the story... yay.

I have to say, one of the best parts was not having to listen to Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean. That alone made it worth it. =P Going in I was a little worried that the show wouldn't be as good as my CD was, or that I wouldn't like it as much because I was too used to the cast on the CD. No worries there. They were all amazing. I was worried about Javert because of Philip Quast's awesomeness, but the guy was really, really good. The only one I didn't like so much was Fantine. The character has a lot of bad things happen to her in quick succession, which should make for a lot of emotion. The woman that night was not as emotional as I had expected and didn't seem as heartbroken as she should have. "I Dreamed a Dream" was not nearly as powerful as it should have been, which made me sad. That was really the only song I was actually disappointed in. I'm sorry, but if your life is falling apart around you, you're not going to stand there and be ambivalent about it. Please. Thank you.

Backing up a little bit, "Valjean's Soliloquy" was actually really good. Again, it probably comes out of my hating Colm Wilkinson. Not to take away from the actor that night, but I definitely think I went in with low expectations. "Who Am I?" turned out pretty powerful and I was surprised to find later that I actually liked "Bring Him Home" despite the god-awful high note at the end. Gleeeee.

Okay, I lied a little bit. "Master of the House" did disappoint, only because the Thénardiers in the concert were so crazy. The people we saw weren't bad by any means, but I was expecting it to be a little sillier. Again, the drawbacks of having something to compare it to.

Another of the most epic parts was "ABC Café/Red and Black" and "Do You Hear the People Sing?" And by epic I mean oh my god. It was really powerful thanks to a combination of the music resounding through the room and the emotion of the actors and the number of people singing all at once and just the song itself. It was made of wow.

So I'm not a fan of Cosette's character because I don't like Judy Kuhn either. Oops. The girl in the show wasn't bad, but I could take her or leave her.

Eponine. Was epic. Not Lea Salonga, but epic. I haven't really liked any of the other Eponines I've heard via YouTube, but this girl was really good. Whee! It made "A Heart Full of Love" bearable and omg "On My Own" was fantastic. Very emotional. So tortured. Eeeee.

I was a little bit confused because on the CD I have, "The Attack on Rue Plumet" starts Act 2. So when the show went right into it I was like, "Uh... guys?" But then I realized it made a lot more sense this way. Most shows end the first act with an epicly awesome uplifting song ("Defying Gravity," anyone?) and then pick up from there. This worked out in my favor, because instead of my having to sit through the intermission painfully waiting for "One Day More!" I got to be excited and all but flip out during "The Attack." I started bouncing in my seat again in anticipation and omg it was so epic. So. Epic. I love the song anyway and I love the way everyone sings their own parts and how it all flows together and whee. It was amazing. I was totally high on life during the intermission.

Act Two. As I said, "On My Own" was made of wow. "A Little Fall of Rain" was even better. I cried. And I don't cry, ever, so that says something. So awesome.

Beyond that, epic show was epic. I really liked the effects during "Javert's Suicide." "Empty Chairs at Emtpy Tables" was just as sad as it should have been. Something about Marius' appearance bothered me during the whole show, but I couldn't tell you what it was. Maybe the hair. He had weird-looking hair. Ah, well.

I was really sad when it was over. Like, it was too awesome to be over and what was I supposed to do now? When the cast was coming out to bow the third(?) time, Valjean pretended to attack Javert and it made me laugh. And then they were smiling and talking and being all friendly and it made me happy. I'm weird, I know.

Music aside, I think my favorite part of the show (wait, there's more than the music?) was the stage: most of the stage is a huge circle that moves. So like when action is progressing or someone's running away, they just walk in one direction while the circle (and everyone else on it) moves in the other and it's really really cool.

So this show was unbelievably awesome. Moreso than any of the others I've seen (which says a lot). And it has also ruined my life because now the CD I have is slightly less epic since I've seen it live. And because I want to go back and see it again so badly. But it's kind of expensive to get to London. :(

For reference: 10th Anniversary Concert on YouTube divided up by song.

London, Day Two

19.2.2009, Thursday

We took it easy today. Partook of the fantastically cheap but included breakfast at the hostel again. Went back to the British Museum so I could buy the necklace I'd seen the day before. Wandered a bit, looked in some souvenir shops. I've realized now how kitschy and useless most souvenirs are. It's kind of disappointing.

Hopped on the bus and went to Buckingham Palace, getting there just in time for the changing of the guard. All in all, it was pretty anticlimactic. Maybe because we stood there for a while with no idea what was going on? All of the guards paraded down the street through the gate. There were some guys on horses leading them and a band playing fancy music. Once they were all inside they kind of just... stopped. And lined up there for a while. A lot of spectators left and the rest of us were like, "Okay, is it over now? Do we leave? What's going on?" We watched some guys walk back and forth, but nothing was happening...



And the band played Waltzing Matilda "Dancing Queen" and "Mamma Mia" by ABBA. Uh, what? They were playing music and people just stopped and listened like, "They're not really playing 'Dancing Queen,' right?" But they were, and people walking by started singing it. And "Mamma Mia" followed. And it was epic. They played a third song but I have no idea what it was. I feel like it had nothing to do with ABBA though.

After standing there for maybe 45 minutes, Courtney and I decided to leave because nothing was happening. Aaaand surprise, stuff happened! We'd crossed in front of the palace and noticed that, hey, they were moving. So we wound up at the gate they were leaving through. Yay for awesome timing.




Stopped for lunch on our way to a train station. We both got cottage pie (hamburger topped with mashed potatoes and brown gravy) and it was soooo good omg. Also split a profiterole sundae. That was yummy as well. After finally wrangling our check from the guy we went to the station. I got a coffee from Starbucks. We saw the theatre Wicked was playing in. And we took a really long bus ride down to St. Paul's Cathedral. Drove down Fleet Street (as in, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street") but I couldn't get a picture of any of the signs. Stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was massive. And which I'd wanted to see because it's mentioned in "Jekyll & Hyde." Yay, musicals. I love London.

From there we went to the Tower of London. Which, for the record, is not a tower. "Tower of London" refers to the entire stupid castle. Way to go, British people. Way to go. All we did was take pictures of the outside because it cost 14 pounds to get in and because it was closing in like an hour.

Sadly, Mr. Yeoman Tour Guide Man decided to talk to us while we were taking the pictures. Hence the awkward face.

So we wandered a bit, got on a bus, got stuck in traffic, and went back to the hostel to change and scarf dinner before we went to see Les Miiiiissss! We were running fantastically late and I forgot my city map so we got lost before we even got started. I gave up and we got a taxi, which only got us there with 7 minutes to spare; had we walked or taken the bus we would have been super late and I would have cried. Epic show was epic. Went to Starbucks afterward, then took the bus home. I was totally high on life. It was great.

This is the smallest police station in London, located in Trafalgar Square. I really don't think you can actually fit anyone in there.

Peeeek-churrrs.

"There's no Place Like London!"

Title from "Sweeney Todd." Notice a trend yet?

So, first full day in London. 18.2.2009

We had a fantastic breakfast of corn flakes and toast, then headed out to the British Museum to kill time. This place is made of awesome. We didn't see a whole lot, but it was free. And it had the Rosetta Stone. omg. I know I'm a huge geek but it was epic. Yaaaay silly linguistical things! I did see a Celtic cross necklace that I liked at the gift shop, but I didn't buy it. Sadness.

From the museum we went near Hyde Park to meet a tour group by the Wellington Arch. There’s this company call New Europe that runs free tours in big cities in Europe, one of which happened to be London. Yay, free things! From the Wellington Arch we walked to Buckingham Palace. Our tour guide was really funny and told us how security there is not all that fantastic; she had three different stories about how random people wound up inside, including two Germans who camped there overnight by accident, instead of in one of the surrounding parks. Heh, oops.

From Buckingham Palace we walked to two other royal homes. Of course I have no idea what they were called, but one is where Prince Charles and his family live currently and the other is where Princess Diana lived. We walked down Pall Mall Road to a house where a woman named Nell Gwynne lived. She was a mistress of a prime minister way back when (one of many, I think), and she held their baby over a balcony one day, threatening to drop him unless the PM gave him a title. So the kid wound up being duke of something or other, a title that still exists today. That was pretty funny. As we continued down Pall Mall Road we passed a memorial for Waterloo. Then we came to Trafalgar Square. There were lots of pigeons. Lots of them. The National Gallery is there. There’s a huge statue with a lion in each of the corners, except they’re not quite lions. They’re supposed to be, but the guy who carved them had never seen a real lion before. As a result, the heads are lion-like (because he’d seen pictures), but the bodies look like his cocker spaniel. There’s your useless trivia for the day.

Onward! To some kind of archway thing? The weirdest thing about it is that there’s a nose on one of the columns. Just chilling there like, “Hey, I’m a nose.”

It's that odd-colored spot right above the person's hair.

No one knows how or why it got there. After that we saw the place where they’re playing beach volleyball in next year’s Olympics.

Uh… yeah.

We could also see the back of the houses on Downing Street. You can’t go down it anymore because Margaret Thatcher decided that was a security risk. Sadness. Onward to something involving Churchill and planning for war. There is supposed to be a network of tunnels underneath it that lead all around London. Whee, tunnels.

From there: Westminster Abbey and Parliament! I have a million and a half pictures of both, and Big Ben. They’re both so big that it was absolutely impossible to get an entire building in one photo. Westminster Abbey was super expensive to go into, boo. Something like 14 pounds I think? The tour ended there.

Courtney and I went back to our hostel, grabbed lunch, and headed out to find Leicester Square to get tickets to a show. A well-meaning Brit gave us convoluted directions on how to walk there, which didn’t turn out too well. We found a discount ticket seller and just stopped there. And walked away with ticket to LES MISERABLES. I was beside myself. Also found out something bizarre (that probably means nothing to anyone reading this). Courtney was looking at a brochure for Hairspray (which we couldn’t get cheap tickets to because it’s so popular; the cheapest were like 77 pounds!) and I looked over her shoulder and exclaimed “Michael Ball is in Hairspray?!” and the ticket guy kind of smiled and said, “Yeah, but you wouldn’t recognize him.” Michael Ball is an amazing singer who played Marius in Les Mis and has done lots of other things. I didn’t really understand what the guy was implying, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered. So the next time we rode the bus by the theater Hairspray was in, I took a good look at the signs. Turns out he’s playing the crazy mother (John Travolta’s character in the movie). I absolutely cannot imagine that. At all. Even though I don’t really like the musical, I kind of wish we’d been able to see it, just so I could see him. Ah, well. I’ll pay money to see shows, but 77 pounds was a huge no-no.

MOVING ON. Walked to Picadilly Square. We were trying to get to Westminster Abbey for the 5pm Evensong service, but we wound up going the wrong way down a street. So instead we turned back and went into the National Gallery. Spent a good hour there, then went to the one place in London that every tourist absolutely HAS to go to: King’s Cross Station. More specifically, Platform 9 and ¾!! We stopped off at McDonald’s first so Courtney could get coffee. In the meantime I called Sean just to double check that we were going to the right place. The conversation went as follows:

“What’s the name of the station where Platform 9 ¾ is? Is it King’s Cross?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Because I’m standing right outside it and my friend and I are going to go take pictures.”

**Cricket chirp**

I thought he’d hung up on me. Instead he just stopped talking, then asked if the conversation was over yet. I love my brother. So we walked around the station for a few minutes trying to find the platform and not quite wanting to ask anyone about it. I, for one, was grinning like an idiot. We knew it wouldn’t be a real, actual platform, but we still couldn’t see it anywhere. Finally I asked someone who worked there. I was surprised that he was totally unfazed by the question. Not even an eye roll or anything. But we found it, and it was totally just a random wall that they had stuck a sign on and bolted half a luggage cart to. But that does not make it any less epic in any way. Because dude, it’s Platform 9 ¾!! No words can describe the epicness. So we took our silly pictures and went back to the hostel for the night.

All in all, it was a great day. We were both exhausted by the end of it, in a combination of getting up early, being busy all day, and walking everywhere. But it was pretty sweet.

Sliiiideshowww

"First we'll go to Calais, then a boat across the sea!"

It took us about three hours to get to Calais from Paris. We had to get out and do fantastic immigration control things before getting on a ferry to Dover, England. But I has another stamp on my passport now! Yay! We got lunch on the ferry. I think it was almost two hours? Maybe three? But it was better than being stuck on the bus. We thought we were going through the Chunnel on the bus. We were a little bit disappointed about not taking the Chunnel, but I really do think I preferred being able to walk around. Go figure.

View of Calais from the ferry.

Oh, post title courtesy of "Les Misérables." Foreshadowing, clearly.

Finally the bus got to London. We dragged our luggage and ourselves from the coach station to the nearest tube station at 6pm-ish. Dear god. In addition to costing us 4 pounds each (!!!) for the fare, the ride was just crazy. We had to change once or twice and oh my god. It was worse than trying to get through Kenmore after a Sox game. Since the tube is so old to begin with, the trains are super small. Anyone over 6 feet should find alternative means of transport because it's just not worth it. And you have to take an elevator from the train level to the ground level in most stations because the only stairs are narrow, winding, and number over 175. Craaaaazy.

After that fun experience we went to our hostel (after taking a detour since their directions were made of fail), which was disappointing compared to the other two I'd stayed it, but I think this is what a hostel usually is like. Ick. It wasn't super dirty or awful or anything, but it was an experience. More on that later. We explored the immediate area a little and discovered that even though there were Starbucks everywhere, they all closed no later than 8pm. That's just stupid. Wound up at a pub for dinner.


I got fish and chips.

Oh yeah. Dinner was sweet. Went back to the hostel, planned for the next day, and went to bed since we were getting up bright and early. Wahoo!