London Calling

So we were in London from May 6-May 12th, so I'm combining them all into one post (excluding Paris)

5/6
We leave Liverpool, sad to have not gotten more time there, and head off to London (FINALLY). I was happy to be taking my last train ride. The journey isn't bad, but the carrying of a 50 lb. bag, a carry-on bag that's about 25 lb and a purse was really freaking stupid of me and driving me crazy at this point. We got to London late afternoon but we were so tired from the travel that the first night we pretty much just stayed in. We had dinner at the very nice (and expensive) restaurant in the hotel and then turned in early.

5/7
We headed off to try and catch the changing of the guard at the palace. We were told to go around 10 and we thought that would be fine because we had made appointments for massages, but not until 12. So we go there and wait and wait and find out it doesn't start until then, so we saw the first few minutes and then had to run off. Oh well, the palace was beautiful and I almost saw one of the guards slip, which was pretty funny. I got a hot stone massage which was amazing and I must get another soon. We then went to Baker street to see Sherlock Holme's place, check out a rock & roll memorabilia store and had some authentic London food. We also did the double-decker bus tour around London, which was a cool way to see everything around the city. That night we headed over to see Les Miserables and it was so great. It was beautifully acted and the set was fucking awesome! Seriously impressed. It was also really sad but I think I was the only one crying during it. It had that stereotypical the-English-don't-cry feel to it. But I loved it and was depressed at the same time lol.

5/8
PARIS...see other post!

5/9
I was still kind of sick from Friday, so today was super low key. I slept in while my dad ran around looking for alcoholic presents for our friends/family. We saw Wicked around the corner from my hotel that afternoon and it was probably the most amazing theater experience I've had. It was Elphaba's last day of performances and Kerry Ellis is extremely gifted. I feel lucky to have seen her. She was the first Brit to play Elphaba there (Idina Menzel went over there to do it first) and she had performed on Broadway in NY for awhile then came back to do a run of shows in London and I'm so happy I got to see her. I don't think I've ever cried so much during a show. Every song made me cry, loved it. I could've seen it again 2 hours later. Afterwards, we just went back to the hotel and I watched Britain's Got Talent and went to bed early in attempt to get better!

5/10
Sunday we decided to do some shopping. I still had a lot of people left to shop for so we headed out after a late breakfast. First, I wanted to buy something at this store, Evans, which was really cool. I found a lot of cute stuff and really digged the style there. We then headed to the original Hard Rock. We had lunch first, and I have to say our "American meal" was probably the worst of the trip. But our waiter was actually originally from Sacramento and was a delight, loved him! We then did the Hard Rock tour and bought some gifts there. The rest of the day we just did some more shopping and headed back to the hotel. Nothing terribly interesting.

5/11
This was our last day so we had a lot to cover. We headed to St. Paul's Cathedral, which was beautiful and i'm still irked I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. The only weird thing was when I went into the catacombs I started having panic attacks and I couldn't figure out why. Maybe I was having a blonde moment or something, but it seriously took a good 10 minutes for me to realize I was walking over fucking graves. No wonder I was feeling dizzy, heart racing, a little shaky. I'm super sensitive to spirits, which I'm sure people find ridiculous, but it's true. I have a hard time going past graves, hospitals, old folks homes, anywhere people have died or are buried. I can sense it and it freaks me out. So we high tailed it out there and went over to a whisky shop. It's a whisky we had in Edinburgh and thought we could get anywhere, but apparently it's not that easy. So we had to search online for London distributors and headed over to pick up a couple bottles. So yummy, it's Columbia Cream, which is cream, honey and scotch. Love it. We then headed over to a part of London that's a little more punk. It was awesome. I wish we would have had more time to spend there and shop. They have this huge flea market section and I bought some cute clothes for some friends and then we headed over to get our tattoos.

I love tats and my dad was actually going to get one, which was a big deal. But he wanted me to get the same because it was very symbolic to him. We're both oxes in Chinese astrology and he wanted the Chinese symbol for the ox because this trip really fell in line with the start of the 'year of the ox'. I never wanted a chinese symbol tattoo but I was willing to do it for my dad because he gave me this trip and it was my gift back to him. Apparently my body didn't agree because it rejected the ink! I actually have to get it touched up in a couple places and the healing was awful.

Later that night we headed over to see Spring Awakening. Fantastic! I can't wait to see it again.

The next day we left and had to spend hours at the airport, in customs, etc. And then there was the 11 hour flight back. But all in all, I was happy to be home but happier to have had such a fantastic experience. I can't wait to go back.