Anyway, I am now in my home away from home: Switzerland! It is so amazing to be here again. It’s been four years since I was last here, and while a lot has changed, this place hasn’t really, which is really nice and comforting. I remember everything and I get these incredibly intense feelings of nostalgia and I love it. But I’ll write about Switzerland later! Here is a recap of the rest of the time in London:
Saturday: My parents and I went to meet Patrick (we all call him Paddy), one of my dad’s best and oldest friends. Paddy normally lives in Exeter, but he’s an actor, and he’s currently in a show here in London (which he got us tickets to, which we went to later that night). Paddy is a wonderful man and I quite like spending time with him. He would still be great if he was American, but his English accent makes him sound so cool. Anyway, we went to lunch at an Indian restaurant that would have been very tasty if I hadn’t been dying (fuck you, supertastebuds). Later that night, we went to Paddy’s play. I can’t really call it a play though, because it was so much more than that. In this HUGE building, there are tons of difference rooms and spaces and the whole place is turned into “the stage,” with everyone walking around everywhere, audience (Paddy says the actors refer to them as ‘punters’) and actors alike. My parents say this style of theater is called ‘environmental theatre’ or something. It’s really hard to explain… the piece is called “Masque of the Red Death,” which is the name of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. The piece itself takes about four different Poe stories and adapts them. Some of them tie into others, and all are being performed simultaneously, in different parts of the building. The whole thing is really quite creepy. When you first get in, you’re given a very creepy white mask that you are supposed to wear at all times (the actors do not wear them, so this makes finding the actors easier. It also enhances the creepy vibe). Then you walk around, exploring. From this moment on, everyone you interact with will be part of the performance. Pretty early on you’re meant to stumble upon a room where a man gives you a velvet cloak. So basically you’ve got hundreds of cloaked, masked people walking around everywhere in dark, misty, creepiness. If you’ve read Poe, you know his stuff is, well, creepy. My point is everything was creepy. But it was also awesome. Paddy had told us what to expect earlier that day, and he said that he suggested splitting up and wandering around by ourselves rather than sticking together, but he also told us that if we wanted to see him do something (there’s no program, no map of the space, etc., so it’s not like we could easily find him whenever we wanted-also the place was seriously HUGE, it was amazing. So many different rooms) then we should go to the “Palais Royal” (this is the only room where you’re allowed to take off your mask and/or talk. It’s got a bar, so you can buy a drink, and there’s like little Vaudeville-esque performances happening on a stage. The people who perform them are actors from the main performance(s), either still in their characters from that, or doing something else, but always still acting) at 8:25 and my dad was the only one with a watch, so we ended up staying together the whole time. Sometimes, actors would do “one on ones” where they’d take a “punter” into a room alone with them and have an interaction with them (I know this because Paddy told us about these, but actually at one point when I was in a room, there were two other people, and the woman looked at one of the others, gasped, and pushed me and the third person out of the room, and slammed the door). Paddy says they can get really aggressive and scary (apparently for his, he tells whomever it is to take of their mask, and thinks that the person is his dead sister or brother, while he’s on an opium trip, and shakes the person’s shoulders and screams at them and stuff. Pretty crazy!) In any case, I could go on and on, but it’s obviously not easy to describe. The important thing is it was unlike anything I’d ever seen, the acting was great, the dancing was great (there was a lot of really strenuous physical activity in the acting, like throwing themselves off balconies and writhing around on drugs and such), and it was, all around, very impressive and cool. I wish I had pictures to show to help explain, but pictures weren’t allowed in the place (no surprise there), but here’s a picture of me and Pops in our masks before going in:
Sunday: We met up with Paddy again around noon, but this time he brought his two brothers along. We all went to Richmond Park, in the Southwest of London. After walking around for a bit, we went to ‘Pembroke Lodge,’ where we ate a lovely meal (including real figgy pudding!). Afterwards the walked in the park to the place where Paddy’s mothers ashes were scattered. London is so huge and has so many parks that most tourists don’t know about, it’s nice to know people who live here that know about the lesser known places. After that, we went to a magical store called ‘Fortnum and Mason’ where Paddy’s friend Sue was reading Christmas stories that she wrote. Sadly we missed the stories, but we got to meet Sue, who is hilarious. We all went to have a drink in a pub, and eventually parted ways.
Monday: Christmas Eve and my dad’s birfday. The first thing we did was go to Harrods, where we spent about 3 hours. Harrods is absolutely insane. It is easily the most elaborately decorated and decked out department store I have ever been to (and probably that exists in the world). They have 29 fine dining establishments. They have rooms called “The Egyptian Room,” and “Luxury Room II.” In the Poissonerie, Charcuterie and Fromagerie room they have a sculpture with real fish coming out of it, as well as real pigs and slabs of beef hanging from the ceiling. I’m telling you, it was out of control. Here are a few pictures (see Facebook for more if you want):
After Harrods we went to a play: The Adventures of Tin Tin. You might be familiar with the Tin Tin comic books? They’re French, but they exist in English. My dad really loved them when he was a kid, so Paddy found us tickets to this play. It was a lot of fun! The staging was incredible, and it was a really cute story. After the play my mom and I went on The Eye. The London Eye is London’s version of the giant Ferris wheel in Paris. My dad, who is terrified of heights, opted out, but my mom and I (who love heights) went for it. It’s pretty enormous and you do get incredible views of the city, but it’s no where near as cool as the Ferris wheel in Paris (nor the Ferris wheel in Lyon, nor basically any Ferris wheel come to that, in my opinion) because you’re inside a giant bubble (which is kind of, I guess, shaped like an eye). I prefer being out in the air; it’s more exhilarating and you can see everything more clearly. Plus they fit like 20 people in each “eye” so there are all these tourists running around trying to see the view from all angles, which is kind of annoying. Also, it moves really, really slowly. You only go around once, so I guess they’re trying to give you your money’s worth, but towards the end it’s kind of boring. But I mean, it was still cool. Here's a picture of the eye, and then some of the view from the top of it:
After that, we headed to Leicester Square (this was my favorite part of London when I was fourteen-there’s always a lot going on here, lots of nightlife, lights, etc.) where we had a nice fish n’ chips meal, with spotted dick for desert. (In one of the Harry Potter books they mention “spotted dick.” Having never heard of this before (it’s a traditional English desert) my parents and I thought this was hilarious, obviously. When we saw this on the menu outside at the restaurant, our search for a place to eat was over. We had to get some spotted dick.) Spotted dick is okay, but not delicious. It’s like, a couple of dense cakes with raisins in them with some creamy rum sauce on top. But we had fun making inappropriate jokes about it.
Tuesday: Christmas. None of the tubes were in service so we had a lovely day staying in, reading, playing board games, listening to Christmas music, etc. We also took a stroll through Hyde Park since our flat was just around the corner and that was very nice.
Wednesday: Boxing Day. A big deal in the UK. There wasn’t much open. But we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was pretty impressive. St. Paul’s was founded in 604 AD (wow). The building that exists today is the fifth church on the site and they started building it in 1675. A lot of important shit has happened there: Winston Churchill’s funeral, Charles & Diana’s wedding, etc. Anyway, it’s a pretty beautiful building. Unfortunately you’re not allowed to take pictures inside, but the art and architecture is incredibly impressive. At the top of the building is a big dome, and you can actually walk to the top of it if you climb up 434 steps. We did. Pretty tiring (although I’m pretty used to climbing steps from living in Croix Rousse) but once you’re at the top it’s worth it: there’s a really nice view of London.
We left St. Paul’s for a bit, got a cup of coffee, walked around the area, but we actually went back there later for some sort of Christmas service (Christmas does not end after the 25th in England. Apparently that carol about the 12 days of Christmas is legit; some people actually do observe 12 days of this holiday.) I know nothing about Christianity so I’m not sure exactly what was going on during the service, but it was mostly a choir singing songs with some recounts of Jesus’ life thrown in. It was all very pretty though, and my mom was really into it. We got to sing along during some of the songs and it was kind of fun to hear the priests (?) tell the story of Christmas with their strong English accents.
Later that night we went on a pub crawl! I love pub crawls. I think they’re such a cool way to learn about a city, or part of it at least. The one we went on was called “London on the Thames” or something to that extent. We went to two different pubs (we were supposed to go to three-one at the beginning, one in the middle, and one to end-but the third one was closed due to it being Boxing Day), and in between we stopped at various points of interest to learn about their histories. It was great.
Thursday: We went to Canterbury. For those of you who don’t know, my father the English teacher teaches The Canterbury Tales in his 10th grade American Lit class. Canterbury is about an hour and a half from London and my dad really wanted to go there. Also, another friend of my dad’s from way back when, Peter, is also English and lived in Canterbury for 10 years, so he was happy to show us around the town. I basically remember nothing from the book (sorry Dad), but apparently, even though it’s fictional, there really was a pilgrimage from Southwark to Canterbury and my dad wanted to find the trail they traveled and walk it. After driving around for a while in Peter’s car, popping out to ask the locals if they knew where this trail was (no one did), we (my dad and I) decided to get dropped off at where we thought the closest thing to what we were looking for was, and walk. We were to meet my mom and Peter in town in an hour and a half (2 miles) later. I’m pretty sure we were absolutely not walking the trail my dad was looking for, and it only took us about 25 minutes, but it was a nice walk anyway. After that we all met and just explored the town (it’s very small). After having a traditional English tea at a tea shop we headed back to London.
So that was pretty much it. Yesterday we said goodbye to the Brits and hello to the chocolate, cheese and cows. I feel like the week in London was busy but also pretty relaxing at the same time. Also, I didn’t feel like I didn’t have enough time there, which almost always happens when I travel. It was nice. That is, sadly, not going to happen here. I only have three days and way too much I want to do. But it is awesome being back here. And that is a post for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment