My mom told me before she'd even arrived that she had a surprise for me that I would love. My mom has surprised me several times and usually it's with something I had asked for on a whim and then forgotten about, so I was a little wary of what was to come. When she arrived she told me we were going to see the Phantom of the Opera matinee on the 20th. This ended up being one of my favorite London days.
I didn't even have time to think of Phantom until the day of. After coming back from Dublin so late, the next day we spent relaxing and we were still in my dorm room so we had to try to pack up everything from my five months there as well as all the souvenirs and new things that we had, we donated a lot of my books that had accumulated, my bedding, and anything else that wasn't really important. We packed a bag for our last few days in London and everything else was carefully packed in the larger bags in preparation for the trip to America. We left on the bus that morning and found the hotel by noon. Checking out of accommodation went easily.
This is where things got crazy. We wanted to dress up some for the play. I had forgotten to put nylons in my little bag so we had to tear apart three of the big bags to find them. My mom needed some little thing then I needed another thing. By the time we left in a hurry for Phantom, the hotel room was a mess.
Phantom was AMAZING. I am not usually emotional, but I actually wanted to cry during the play. It was all surreal. Not only that I was there, but that it was so good. I'm used to going to those small-scale productions put on by high-schools in Boise, this play actually had costume changes and the chandelier in the theater actually began to swing at that part (for anyone who has seen the play/movie) where it comes crashing down on the audience. The voices of the singers were amazing. It was just all around wonderful.
After the play we wondered around London for awhile and wanted to go out to a fancy (maybe that's not the right word... different maybe?) dinner. There are so many options in London that it makes it hard to find one. We ended up picking a Thai restaurant. Now that I've tried Thai food, I love it as long as it doesn't taste like peanuts. We had cocktails and chicken satay for appetizer and I had pad see ew. It was so good and in true European fashion, we ate for at least two hours. We went home and crashed.
The next day we were determined to go on the walking tour of London. Turns out it's by the same company that did the walking tour that I loved so much of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was Emily. She was a theater/drama major and she worked solely on tips so she was very animated. You'll have to check out the pictures for the run-through of the tour. We ended up seeing a lot of really random things. There was a parade of veterans where they laid wreathes on a war memorial. We couldn't get close enough to see which memorials specifically. It made me really sad because they had them divided by marines, air force, etc. and after those walking there were men with canes, and then at least half of teach group was in wheel chairs and they were followed by oxygen tanks and medics. It was really sad that those that risked their lives had to suffer old age. They also had a small group of nurses. We also saw the band that does changing of the guard at Buckingham paraded down the street which our tour guide says she's never seen them do before.
After the walking tour, my mom and I walked around to finish my souvenir shopping list. We stopped and had a tiny lunch at this amazing cafe. We split a ham and cheese croissant. I wouldn't mention it, except this was the best best cheese I've ever had in my life! It was a hybrid between butter and cheese. It was amazing. We didn't realize that it was Sunday and that everything was going to close early (man we could have used Barcelona's time table right then) so we were wondering around town planning on spending the last of our money on shopping and maybe eating out somewhere for dinner when we started noticing all the shops closing at 5pm. We wanted to make one last run to Primark but we were out of luck. All the stores on Oxford street closed. Put out, we went back to our hotel, ordered room service and undertook the major task of repacking.
My mom had to leave the hotel at 3am while I had to leave at 12pm so she headed to bed. I followed soon after. It wasn't too long before we met up again in Boise for another whirlwind. I will always remember the time in Europe traveling with Stacy and Jansher, Carly and Kaylin, Britney, and with my mom. Thanks to all who supported me.
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