Only in London can you celebrate a holiday honoring a TERRORIST! Seriously thought the 5th of November was Guy Fawke’s Day, which celebrates when Guy Fawke’s and his buds unsuccessfully tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Now the celebrate similarly to 4th of July, with fireworks! So we wanted to spend the holiday the way the natives do. We attempted to get out to these big fireworks, but this is when public transportation fails. The tube was so crowded we couldn’t even get on it. So we got on a bus that got stuck in traffic while the fireworks started above us. So we used our own two feet. The fireworks were good (from where we were standing), but not as good as 4th of July American fireworks!
Another place I visited was Royal Albert Hall.
It’s basically a famous concert hall with a giant statue of King Albert opposite of it. It was originally created for the Great Exhibition that displayed the greatness of the British Empire back in the day.
Me and Kelsey took a tour of the Globe too. We had been there weeks ago when we were back in Stratford but not really gotten to see everything in it. We got to walk on all the levels of the theatre and we learned that you never refer to Macbeth by name in the Globe. You have to call it “The Scottish Play.”
And fyi when they built this replica of the Globe they tried to build it just as it would have been built in Shakespeare's time. That means there are no nails in this theatre rather they used wooden "nails" I guess you would call them. And the walls in Shakespeare's time were made from plaster and cows hair. Apparently cows aren't as hairy these days so they ended up using cashmere in the walls of the Globe!
We took a day trip out to East London and Greenwich. East London is where they are building the stuff for the 2012 Olympics! Isn't it insane how early they have to start doing all of that?
They've got a lot of things up already. You can see Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Village, the Aquatics Center as well as lot's of other things that are being developed with this project.
That's me doing my sport (swimming) in front of Olympic Stadium (which actually is not where the pool is located). Let's hope my technique in the water is better than out of it...
We then went out to Greenwich. This was a beautiful area of town but it is most famous for being one of the places that the prime meridian goes directly through. So I got to be in two places at once, hooray!
I went and saw the Lion King here. It was cool. They've incorporated a lot of African tribal elements into the show. There's more chants and African languages involved. The puppets they use are pretty innovative as well, although some of them were just weird.
My biggest complaint about The Lion King was that all the actors (except maybe Zazu) had phoned in their performance for the night. I know it's hard to do a show night after night, but come on you're getting paid to do this! It was a very half hearted effort.
Speaking of shows, I also went and saw Sister Act The Musical. I was skeptical but it was so good! It's just a feel good musical and it reminded me of Legally Blonde the Musical in a lot of ways. I laughed so hard through the whole thing. My only complaint about this show was that there were FOUR understudies on for principal characters. I know people get sick and stuff, but this was unacceptable. Whoopi Goldberg's character was understudied too. I wasn't happy but of course the understudies still were terrific.
My friend and future apartment-mate Meg came to visit! She was here for like 48 hours, but it was so fun to see her. We went to the Tower of London together. This is one of the few places I've been where the attraction was actually worth the admission fee.
First we took a beefeater tour. He was hilarious! They tell you the various histories and ghost stories related to the tower. You get to see where the scaffolding used to be where they beheaded all those people. Like Henry the VII's wives.
Also I visited Abbey Road and took pictures which was fun.
Tonight I'm going to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but that's probably the last big thing I'm doing here in London. It has Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones in it!
Well looks like this will probably be my last post from good ole London. I've had a blast here but I'm definitely ready to go home. Next I will be traveling through the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Austria for about 10 days and then I will be back home. I will try to post about those things if possible, but please be praying for safe and smooth travel. See you all soon!
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