London town

Yo whaddup. Fall break part I. Commence.

My fall break began with waking up at the lovely hour of 5:15am so I could catch the second bus of the morning to the train station. I bought my train ticket to Pisa and barely caught the train. I sat next to some obnoxious, dumb, loud, still drunk, and ultimately unattractive American girls. I was able to pass out though, so life was good. After a plane ride, a bus ride and a tube ride, I finally made it to the flat I was staying at in London.

Those modes of transportation for that day were:

Bus
Train
Airplane
Bus shuttle
London Underground

I stayed with my lovely friends Sam and Alex who were both girls I met this summer while interning in Pittsfield, MA. They go to Ithaca and they graciously offered their hospitality to me way back in August even though I didn’t really know them super well. As it turned out, I even got to sleep in Sam’s bed because she was dating one of her flatmates, so they shared a bed and let me take hers. It was very sweet. Sam and Alex took me sight-seeing for a few hours that afternoon. We saw the enormous National Theatre and the Globe and we got gelato (British style – not so good, but cute anyway). Sam made dinner that first night and we went out for drinks where their other flatmates bought me drinks (Pims and Lemonade – odd yet delicious – like if a mojito and a hard iced tea had a lovechild). Then we went clubbing where I wasted a whole bunch of money on expensive, bad beer and then we all went home early. Sounds bad, but it was pretty fun. It was a wonderful night and I still can’t believe the unyielding extent to their gracious hospitality. Their 3 bedroom flat was small, but they welcomed me and I felt very much at home by the end of my three days in London. One of the flatmates is a magician (theatre major, gotta have a second profession, right?) and he kept doing all sorts of magic tricks for me, that I got endless enjoyment out of.
Day 2 began with sleeping in till around 10 and meeting my other friends, Max and Eve. I had met both of them on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Summer Seminar for High School Juniors way back in 2005. It was lovely to see them: we did some wandering and then checked out the National Gallery and played on the giant lions in Trafalgar Square. After that, I met my ex-girlfriend Kristan and we had dinner and went to see “Six Characters in Search of an Author” (we studied it in our dramatic lit class in the spring – a truly brilliant play that everyone should see if the chance arises). We had front row seats and it was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! We then met up with Max and Eve for 9 pound cocktails at a really ritzy, loud, packed bar. The cocktails were delicious, but the atmosphere was stressful.The evening ended with falling asleep at Max’s flat.
Day 3 was probably the best day of break. It became daylight savings time and after enjoying a mostly drool-free night in Max’s supermodel roomamte’s bed, (she was away on a photoshoot – no joke) we realized we still had a chance to catch the changing of the guard because of daylight savings time. We arrived slightly late, but it was raining so we were sad, wet pandas, and the royal band wasn’t playing on account of the rain. But we saw the fuzzy hat men walking. The next part was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Max is part of a “Gentlemen’s Club.” Not the traditional American meaning of the word, Gentlemen’s Club, but an actual Gentlemen’s club where you sit around and drink classy drinks and smoke and play billiards. We went for lunch and I needed to bring a suit. But I didn’t have one, so I borrowed Max’s. Now, my friend Max is about 6’3” and had just recently lost a fair amount of weight. So, rolling up my pants legs, jacket sleeves and cinching up my belt (size 37 pants – I wear 31-32), we headed out and had smoked salmon club sandwiches and Darjeeling tea in the lady’s drawing room (the only room Eve was allowed in on account of her being a woman). After that, we played in the ancient library and read about silly British sports like Cricket. Then we drank Scotch in the bar and had an amazing time. Next in the amazing day, I met up with Kristan again and she had graciously waited in line at 10 am to get more theatre tickets. This time for Tom Stoppard’s original adaptation of Chekhov’s Ivanov starring Kenneth Brannagh and Johnny Depp’s 1st mate from Pirates of the Caribbean. We had standing room tickets, and we were about a mile and a half away, but it was amazing! Horribly depressingly Chekhov, but brilliant. Kenneth Brannagh is amazing. Both plays were just 10 pounds a piece. One was from the front row and one from the back row. That evening we hung out and drank a few beers with Max’s British friends. Quite fun.
The next morning, I woke up, and had traditional British breakfast with Sam and Alex, spent the morning playing in the Natural History Museum (dinosaurs are awesome) and had lunch in a cemetery with Kristan. The events that followed were among the worst of my life. I scribbled on the back of a piece of paper on my bus shuttle to the airport because I was so caught up with emotion. It reads as follows:

Dear blog,
I am writing to you on the back of my god-forsaken EasyBus Ticket. I just spent the last 45 minutes sprinting around the Marble Arch area of London with my luggage trying to chase down various godforsaken easybuses. My GFS easybus ticket says the street name (Oxford) and the tube stop (Marble Arch). I arrive with 20 minutes until departure, only to find that there are roughly 1- stops on Oxford Street that say marble Arch and about 10 mores tops on sides treets in the surroudnig area. So I started wlaking, 10 minutes passed, I started power-walking, 5 more minutes passed, I started running. I passed the same places over and over and over again: still no GFS EasyBus! I’m running in circles, adrenaline coursing through my veins, sweat pouring down my face. I was going to miss my flight! I saw three GFS easybuses that wouldn’t stop for me. I literally almost started crying. [I tried to call the phone number they gave me on the ticket, but all I got was a recording saying various traffic reports around London.] Then finally I found a bigger bus that was stopped at one of the Marble Arch bus stops [not on Oxford Street] that said Luton Airport! Apparently they work with GFS EasyBus, so my ticket was still good. All in all, that only made me 25 minutes late to the Luton airport. I think I’ll be ok, but we’ll see. I may be in any of a number of places in any number of countries. We’ll see.

It turned out that when I got to the airport, my flight was delayed 2 hours, so all of a sudden, all that worry was for nothing. I had never felt so helpless in my life though. I had no phone number to call, no internet access, no one who knew the area and time was ticking. I asked a guy who worked at the tube, two bus drivers, and a parking ticket cop. They all pointed me in different directions, none of which is where I actually ended up catching the bus! I hate stupidity!

That’s all for London. Stay tuned for Paris. Or should I say, “On continue attendre pour la deuxieme blog“.

AJC