LONDON!!

Was absolutely incredible and a wonderful visit. I spent 5 nights and 4 full days there and saw and did everything I wanted to see and do! I stayed with my friend Dan Shapiro from UCSD, who is studying theater there at the British American Drama Academy. He has a nice flat on the 10^th floor, so with a gorgeous view overlooking a lot of the city. I spent some time with him and his friends, but mostly I was a solo traveler (which, as you know, I love). So, in my blog-post bullet highlights style, I give you LONDON!:

-PARKS (“GREEN LUNGS”). I really super love the parks in this city. I spent some good time in all three of the biggest ones: Hyde Park, St. James Park, and Regents Park. They are beautiful and have big green grassy fields and rolling hills and it was so wonderfulllll (in Spain grass is a rare commodity. We have one park in Granada, and it's just fountains and bushes and little grass). So, funny story. It was my last day, and I was wandering through Hyde Park and found a nice bench near Serpentine Lake, and I stretched out on the bench in the sun and fell asleep. A while later I awoke to this man saying loudly near me in a funny Austrian-sounding accent "Halo? haloooo?" My initial thought in my sleepy state was shoot, I have to pay for this bench. (I had sat on a lawn chair earlier and a man came around collecting money to use the chairs, so I left). But no, that can't be right, it's a public bench. When I decided that this man was definitely speaking to me, I sat up, and said "yes?" The man motioned for me to scoot over and said he and his wife wanted to sit. ! This man had woken me up so he could sit down! I was confused and sleepy so I just got up and left. The park was fairly crowded, so some benches were full, but there were definitely some empty benches. What the heck!? While I was walking away I had this huge regret that I didn't call the man out, and say something like "Excuse me!? Is this the only free bench in all of Hyde Park, sir?" But of course I am too nice to do that. I definitely regretted not saying something though. Ha.

-PUBS AND NIGHTLIFE. So this big thing in England, obviously, are the pubs. Pub crawls are the typical night out activity. The thing is, I come from Spain, where our nightlife starts at the earliest in the early hours of the morning. Here we started at the pubs at like 8pm! So early for me. The pubs close at like midnight! I enjoyed the pubs; the ambiance was cool with comfy chairs and cool lighting and fun posters on the walls, etc. One night we went to this pub on Fleet Street (the very street that Sweeney Todd is based on) called YE OLDE CHESHYRE CHEESE. This pub was built in the 13th century! 800 years old! Can you believe that? So it's totally possible that Shakespeare drank a pint in the same pub I spent a night. Wow. It was really cool, multiple levels and the lower ones were dark and the walls were stone, so it felt like a cave. And I ate Shepherd's Pie here. Good!

-THEATER CENTER OF THE WORLD. I really liked the vibe in London that it was on the cusp of dramatic arts and theater and films. The walls of the Tube stations are covered with posters and advertisements for shows you've heard of your whole life, like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia, Avenue Q, and so many more. It was fun to see those everywhere. And the neighborhood of the West End (like New York's Broadway) was awesome to walk around at night. On every street corner there's a gorgeous ornate theaterhouse, and big glittering shiny signs for what show or musical is showing there. Les Mis has been played every night for 23 years now! Insane.

-PHANTOM! Yes, I saw it. In London. The Phantom of the Opera. My last night in London I decided it was totally worth it to shell out some money and go to a West End musical, and I have always wanted to see Phantom. I have watched the movie and know all the songs really well, and so it was so much fun! The theater was beautiful and red velvety and gold carved angely and magical. And the falling of the chandelier during the show was epic. And the singing, the gorgeous songs, ah it was so magical! Beautiful costumes, the mist when they are on the boat in the lake in the phantom's lair was super cool.....it was all really well done. And it was fun going to a big show like that on my own, so I could people-watch. It would have been fun to share with someone though.

-THE TUBE AND MY CLOSE CALL. So this is the best story of the trip. Are you ready?

So. Setting: I had just left Her Majesty's Theater after Phantom had finished. So, I was already a little creeped out because the show is rather dark and mysterious to begin with. So I was headed home to Dan's flat, and so I took off for the Piccadilly Circus Tube station. I walked down the stairs to the station and I passed this man who waited for me to pass, and then behind me locked the door from the street to the stairs. I remember thinking oh they must be closing this station, how nice of that man to let me pass before he closed it. I walked down the long completely empty tunnel to the station, and what did I find at the end? A heavy metal locked gate. Damnit. So I turned around to go back to the street and try a different station. Well....the door to the street was locked too. And the man was gone. So, I was locked in. By myself. Neither door opened in any way for me. I decided the only thing I could do was call the police, and so I pulled out my phone. Sin servicio. (No service). Crap! So I went to the door at the end of the tunnel through which I could see the station, and waited for someone to walk by. Two girls came after about five minutes of waiting, and I called to them. I was far enough away and hidden enough behind the thick metal gate that I had to yell really loud. It was scary but also just awkward and embarrassing, having to call out for help. The two girls were not helpful, they just awkwardly looked at each other and said they were tourists and didn't know what to do. I tried to convince them that I was totally trapped and could they please go find the police? Luckily two men came shortly after, and they were way more helpful. One of them was a Londoner, and he went up to the street to find cops. The other man came over to me. We had an awkward through-the-gate conversation for 5 minutes. His name was Kinny, and he was from Oklahoma! Ha. Halfway through the conversation he told me I had black marks all over my face. Turns out the metal gate was all greasy, and I had been leaning on it to see through it and yell through it, so I had black on my hands, jeans, face.....ahh man. So we talked and waited, and finally the other man came down the opposite stairs, two policemen in tow. Just then, Kinny leaned on the gate and it opened! It turns out he had only tried to open it by pulling or pushing like a door, but he could open it by sliding it sideways! So from my side I couldn't open it at all, but the whole time it was open to him! He opened the door, we both stood there like uuhhhhh, and the cops turned around and headed back up to the street. Ah! It was quite an adventure.

I got onto the right train to head home, found a seat, and sat down. I was still pretty shook up and freaked out, so I pulled out my ipod to listen to some music and calm down. I didn't know what I wanted to hear, so I put it on shuffle mode, so shuffle out of my 8,000 songs! The first song that played was a song form a band I loved back in middle school. Great song. Band name?.........TRAPT. ! perfect. :) The song came on and I laughed out loud, it was so coincidental. I laughed loud enough that some passengers sitting around me looked at me funny. The laughing out loud helped me cool off, shake off that fear.

-TOURIST SITES AND ATTRACTIONS. I saw all the main ones. Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the changing of the Royal guard on horseback, The London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, the London Bridge, the Milennium Bridge (the bridge in the Harry Potter 6 movie that gets ripped apart. remember? bellatrix bridge.) Check out pictures for all of these places. They were beautiful.

-MUSEUMS. Are free! FREE! For all of them! And these are gorgeous, world-class HUGE museums we're talking about here! Back at home we pay a lot of money for museums, and because of it I feel really pressured to get as much as possible out of the museum, see everything, etc. But here since I could just walk in anytime, I could either check out one exhibit for 15 minutes, or spends all day seeing everything! It was a really sweet deal. I went to the Tate Museum of Art with Dan and his friends and saw some beautiful paintings. On Sunday on my own I went to the British Museum and saw the real Rosetta Stone! So amazing to see such a famous, important piece of history. And I saw many more Egyptian artifacts and hieroglyphs which were amazing, and translated thanks to my new friend Mr. Rosetta Stone. Good work!

-BRITISH ACCENTS. First of all, it was very strange being in an English-speaking country again. When I first got off the train from the airport into Victoria Station, I was trying to find the Tube and so I walked up to a man. While walking up, I was mentally preparing my question in my head (as I always do when in Spain to make sure what comes out of my mouth has some meaning)...and I started to ask him for directions in Spanish! Ah dios mio. It was pretty funny and embarassing. The accents here are awesome. I think my favorite thing is when you overhear tiny adorable children speaking with their proper British accents! I like the pub lingo too. All the bartenders call you “honey” and “love”, it's pretty funny. And they use the word “cheers” all the time for many different things.

-PRICING. Is ridiculous. For everything. Basically things are priced about the same number amount as you'd expect them to be in the US, so like 6 pounds for a dollar, or 3 pounds for a coffee, or 20 pounds for a shirt...But, the pound is more or less worth two dollars right now, so that means everything in pounds is DOUBLE what it would cost in the US. Ouch! Luckily, whenever I felt guilty for paying so much for food or something, I reminded myself that I was getting free lodging and for that was saving a huge chunk of money. That's better. Thanks Dan.

-BARTERING! I finally was successful bartering for the first time in my life! I have always hated bartering, as I feel really guilty and bad and I hate doing it. So in the past I always had others do it for me. But, as I was on my own, I tried it. I was in this huge open-air market in Camden Town and really wanted this black leather jacket. The initial price was 30 pounds. I started out my trying it on and then saying Oh, this is the exact same jacket I tried on over there, but he was selling it for 20 pounds. The man said oh no, this is of a much better quality. I showed some interest, but then decided it was too much and that I'd only pay 15. He refused, so I started walking away. Then he called me back and we settled on 17 pounds! I felt bad because I still hate this practice, but I did pretty well for my first time bartering! I patted myself on my newly leathered back and set off with a smug look on my face.

-WEATHER. I was very lucky. It rained a bit one day, but the rest of my time there it was beautiful. Sunny with come clouds, so some dramatic lighting in the sky. And then it was chilly, which was fun for me, as everyday I bundled up in my new black leather jacket, a colorful scarf, and new black leather gloves (which, every time I looked at my hands, made me feel like V from V for Vendetta. Or Darth Vadar, him too. Haha).