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So. . .London? Where do I even begin? To start, it was amazing. Quite honestly, I didn’t want to leave. I’m actually now looking into doing graduate school there.
As far as the plane ride goes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. As I write this, I’m on my way home to Philadelphia and watching (or more like listening) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. We had to sit on the tarmac for three hours (let me tell you, I wanted to kill myself cause some of the people on this plane are assholes) while they fixed the heating/air conditioning system. (Side note: It’s totally weird to watch Dan after seeing him in Equus yesterday. More on that in a moment.)
After arriving in London on Thursday, Steph picked me up at Heathrow. That day, we really just walked around Uxbridge. Uxbridge is the town where her school, Brunel University, is located. The shopping in London is FASTATIC. Oh my goodness, I was in love with the shopping. If I really truly had the money, I would have gone crazy at the little boutiques in Uxbridge alone and bought myself a whole new wardrobe.
That night we didn’t do much because jet lag majorly kicked in around 5PM while sitting down for a pint at a pub. Haha. I was so bloody tired that I honestly passed out by 8:30PM.
The next morning (Friday), we got up early and it was off to central London to see the sights with Steph, and Steph’s friend from NY Erin. We started off with Big Ben and Westminster. Both were absolutely breathtaking. We took a walk through Green Park to make our way towards Buckingham Palace. That was neat to see as well. The next time I go to London, I want to get up early to see the changing of the guards.
After that, we made our way towards Picadilly Circus. I loved loved loved Picadilly. We were able to see the Geilgund Theater where Equus was playing so we had an idea on where it was located. We also did some shopping. We went to Ann Summers (sex shop on Oxford Street). I was in shock that there was that type of store totally out in the open like that. Sex shops in America are hidden in back alley ways and shit. Haha. It was definitely interesting. We explored Picadilly a bit more before making our way back to Steph’s flat.
That night, I experienced my first true English pub. We had drinks with some friends of hers. (Dan, Erin, and Hal, Erin’s boyfriend.) After being slightly intoxicated, the three VERY American girls overheard this Brit call his body an ignorant American because he was wearing an Atlanta Falcons jersey. Actually, his exact words were “You look like an ignorant American.”
Uh. So not cool. We exchanged words, and he left. We ended our night not much later.
Saturday was the day of going to see Equus. Steph, Erin and myself were a bit apprehensive because we weren’t quite sure was to expect.
We were NOT disappointed by any means. The play was absolutely brilliant. Dan Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon in the HP movies) far exceeded any expectations I had. Both of their performances left me teary eyed by the end of the second act. To see how much Dan has grown as an ACTOR was brilliant to see. Our seats were fantastic. First row, center. D Rad was standing directly in front of me at one point. (Remember the part where Alan’s father catches Alan and Jill at the movie theater, ”youdreamer”? It was that part specifically among others.) It was so amazing to see Dan and Richard get a standing ovation as well as how HUMBLED Dan looked while receiving the standing ovation. He was almost blushing receiving that type of praise. It humbled me! Haha. At the end, Richard wrapped his arm around Dan and Dan did the same. That was neat because it was obvious that Richard was proud of him and his performance.
If you want to know my thoughts on “the scene”, scroll down to the end.
We spent the rest of the day walking along the Thames and seeing the Tower of London. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this because I was afraid to bring my digital camera to the theater. I was afraid that they would take it because of the whole “no pictures of the performance” crap. Such is life. It was amazing just the same, and I have the mental picture at least. We didn’t do anything that night because we were wiped out. So that leads me to now. .on the plane back to Philadelphia.
And now what some of you really want to know about. At the risk of sounding like a complete per, let’s just say he is very endowed. Haha. The nakedness was what I expected it to be for that particular scene(s). To be completely honest, if you told me the young man on stage was a rather inexperienced (let’s be honest here) 17 year old on stage acting, I would have called you a liar.
Let’s just say that our catch phrase after the play was either “Grow Dan Radcliffe set!” or “Grow a Harry Potter set!”. Haha. Now that I watched Harry Potter on the plane, watching Dan in OoTP in July won’t be a problem. Lisa and I already made plans to make a weekend trip to NYC to see Equus when it comes to NYC next summer.
So that ends my first trip to London and my first time out of the country. It’s time I go back to watching Harry Potter. Haha. I just want to know when I can go back damnit!
Pictures are coming later on this week when I finally catch up on sleep. Haha.