The UK Jaz's Way: Ladies and Gents - Jaz takes over London

London... where to start - what to say - which pictures to post.... so many decisions for this blog!

Let's start at the beginning (it's a very good place to start - uh, Jaz, your theatre is showing again...). Ok, so in order to get to London I had two choices. I could travel 6 hours by bus or 2 hours by train. For those of you who know me, I am scared of trains. Why? I am not quite sure. They are loud and seem very dangerous. Yes, I know that they are one of the safest ways to travel... I have heard it over and over again, it doesn't change the fact that they scare me. However, when I decided to come to the UK I told myself that I would travel by train. The only way to get over one's fear is to confront it. So travel by train it was. I left Thursday evening with Mackenzie and Luis and we traveled for two hours via train to London. The ride wasn't as bad as I expected once I forced myself onto the train. I took Dramamine and listened to my ipod and wrote in my journal to calm my nerves. Only once did the train make that awful screeching noise that scared me to death.

Once in London, I took the underground (ALL BY MYSELF) to meet Chelsea Gill who was AWESOME and let me crash on her couch for 3 days! We went out that night to a neat little pub and had a drink and talked! Chelsea is so wonderful and she is going places! I couldn't be more proud of her for going after what she wants in life! YOU GO CHELSEA!!!

On Friday morning, I got up early and met Mackenzie, Rob, and Luis and we did the walking tour "Millennium Mile". We started off at the Tower of London. It was a lot more fun than what I expected! This is where they keep all the royal jewels and boy were they beautiful! They also had an exhibit of all the armor that past military men wore throughout the years! We toured all the towers and learned some really interesting, and sometimes spooky, information about what went on their. Oh, I also found myself a man while there!

Me and my man!

After we left the Tower of London, we stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to The Globe! The Globe was amazing! Our tour guide was wonderful and made everything super fun and interesting! It was so awesome to be inside and get a feel for what it would have actually been like 400 years ago! There was also an exhibit full of stuff from the first season in 1997! Costumes, designs, interviews it was all there! I got a new journal while there that I am super excited to start using after I finish with my current one.

Standing in front of the stage.

After the Globe, we visited Tate Modern and then made our way down to the London Eye! We spent about 3 hours looking at art in the Tate Modern and each exhibit was so different and so interesting! The London Eye was breathtaking of course! I didn't ride it though, because it was huge and a little too intimidating for me :) After that, we made our way towards Leicester Square where Mackenzie and I got tickets to see a show that night! I went and got a ticket to see the thriller "Deathtrap". On my way back from purchasing my ticket I ran into someone I had always dreamed of meeting, but never thought it would actually happen - Stephen Sondheim! For those who don't know, he is a musical theatre composer and has written some of Broadways best contemporary pieces like "Into the Woods", "Company", "Assassins", and "Sunday in the Park with George"! After meeting him and talking with the group a little bit, I went back to the theatre to see "Deathtrap". I really enjoyed it a lot! I had never seen a thriller on stage before. I actually screamed out loud twice (so did other audience members... it's not like I randomly screamed in the middle of a performance). I was a little concerned about the casting choices in the beginning, but soon began to love all the actors and their performances. I can't say that I liked the last scene of the show, but I understood why the playwright put it there. It did nothing for the show, except give it one last jab of humor for the audience to leave on. After the show, I was able to meet Jonathan Groff who was in the show (he was in the original cast of "Spring Awakening" and made guest appearances on "Glee"). He was so nice and talked to me about the states and how he toured through Indiana with "The Sound of Music"!

Jonathan Groff!

DEATHTRAP!

That was it for my first day in London! On Saturday, Mackenzie, Rob, Luis, and I met up with Laura, Kortnei, Lisardo, and Johnny at Westmister Abbey. Unfortunately for us, we didn't do our research and didn't realize that it was closed on Saturdays.... wah wah. But we still got to see the outside, which is beautiful. While there, we also saw BIG BEN and the Houses of Parliament! To hear Big Ben ring for the first time is like WOAH! You are taken away from reality because you are experiencing something like a fairy tale. It really takes you back to watching Peter Pan as a child. After Big Ben, we walked through St James garden and went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. The garden was unbelievably beautiful and to see Buckingham Palace was amazing! However, the changing of the guards was a long process in which tons of people pushed and shoved you around just to get a closer look. But, at least I can say I experienced it!

Big Ben and the London Eye in the background.

St. James garden

Standing outside Buckingham Palace

Once we left Buckingham Palace, we decided to head towards Camden Market to do some shopping and get lunch. It got really cold and rainy when we got there, but Camden Market was a great place to go because there was a ton of shopping at really great prices! It took forever to decide what we wanted to eat for lunch, but that is only to be expected when you have 8 people in a group and they are all indecisive :)Once we were done at Camden Market we all split up. The guys went to ride the London Eye, Mackenzie went to see Hamlet, and Kortnei, Laura, and I went to Leicester Square to wander around until we decided what to do. Ultimately, we just did a lot of walking around until the guys were done at the London Eye. Once the guys met up with us we went to this great italian place for dinner called the Spaghetti House. Our server was awesome! 6 of the 8 people in the group ordered a bottle of white, sweet wine to share. Lisardo got a beer and I tried to order a whiskey sour. Our server told me they didn't have sour mix but that he was going to bring me something on the rocks, no charge. It was straight whiskey, lol! Now, I love whiskey mixed with stuff, but I have never been able to successfully drink straight whiskey. Well, I did that night :) Hey, it was free! The food was fantastic! But right before we got our food, we heard yelling coming from our waiter. Apparently someone had really upset him and he was ***FREAKING*** out. But he calmed down quickly and started bringing us free stuff saying, "When people upset me, I do nice things for others"! We got another half a bottle of wine free, 2 free things of dessert and free cookies! He was so much fun and we had a blast there! After dinner, we wandered around for a couple more hours before calling it a night!

So that brings us to Sunday, the last day in London. I met Laura, Johnny, Kortnei, and Luis for lunch at a little Greek place. It was good, but not very filling. Luckily though, Johnny, Luis, and I ended up at this Chocolate tasting thing where 30 of Europe's best chocolatiers were giving away samples! It was so awesome! I tried some of the most interesting chocolate that I have ever had! It was so much fun!

To close up our trip, Luis, Kortnei, Laura, and I went to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter. Yes, I love Harry Potter. No, I am not afraid to admit it. Yes, I did take numerous photos at the platform!

Why, yes I finally got my letter to Hogwarts!

So that was it. We were exhausted! We got to see so much that London had to offer and pretty much walked everywhere! We hopped back on a train (I can say hopped now, because I am an experienced train rider... who only kind of gets nervous... ) and went back to Chester. It was a blast and a dream come true to get to visit there!

***Below are a few more pics from the trip!