London

This past Tuesday, I went on a day trip to London. I was so excited for this trip because I had never been there before, and had heard so many fabulous things about it. I had a couple goals (being the ever so goal oriented person I am) for the trip. In no particular order:

1. Be really touristy and see the major Londony things
2. Shop
3. Have tea and crumpets, or scones, or little tiny sandwiches with the crust cut off
4. See a musical
5. Ride the Underground
and of course:
6. Buy a Burberry scarf.

You may know that I have been planning goal #6 for quite some time. A cashmere, typical brown Burberry plaid, thick, wrap around your neck to give lots of warmth. Not the wrap around once. I mean the one with volume...no, that's not the right word. The one that piles around your neck...oh nevermind. I wanted a scarf. A costly scarf. It would be my belated present to myself for my fabulous current existence.

Anyway, little do I realise that I would only have a limited amount of time to do goals #2-#6. See, Herstmonceux Castle is a good 3 hours away from London...and then there's the time added on to it because of rush hour traffic. It didn't help that our bus broke down, so we had to wait another hour for a new bus.
Then we go on a super rushed bus tour of London. Buckingham Palace (the Queen was in), for a quick photo opp (no changing of the guard that day - rainy), driving past Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the British Museum, the London Eye, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, the Thames River...basically everything. And we drove by a HUGE Burberry store...but we kept driving. We didn't have time to stop and walk around on our own.

We had a quick stop for lunch in Covent Gardens, where I realised that things in London are EXPENSIVE!!! The prices seemed normal if they were in CHF or in Canadian dollars, but then with the conversion...jeez. I bought cookies from Ben's Cookies. Heavenly. You MUST try them. I had time to pop into the gift shop at the Royal Opera House (read: the same place that the Royal Ballet performs) and I didn't want to leave. It was fabulous. It also had the same ballet pencil cases that I got in a little stationary shop in Yorkville. The overpriced pencil case that I justified purchasing because I needed a "judging pencil case". Right. I forget the company, but I'll figure it out soon I'm sure.

We went for a walk around the Tower of London and boy do the Royals have a lot of bling. The guards in their get up are surprisingly friendly. They were mingling with the tourists and stuff. And the ones who are supposed to stand without moving do move. At least they were smiling when we were talking to them. We didn't see anyone wearing the big bear fur hats. Oh well.

By the time we were let loose, it was 6:45pm. We were to meet back again at 9:15pm. Luckily, we were dropped off just beside the big Burberry store that I'd seen earlier. Unluckily, it was already closed. I looked in the window in dismay, but noticed that there was another store close by on Oxford St. I knew stores would close at 7pm or so, but as much as I wanted to get my scarf, I wanted to figure out if I could still see a show. I knew that most shows started at 7:30pm, so I figured that none would be over by 9:30pm (the LATEST I figured I could be late), but who knows, maybe I'd get lucky somehow. I quickly went to the half-price booth, and the only show that would be over by the required time was The Vagina Monologues at the Wyndham Theatre. How exciting! I had wanted to see the annual student production of The Vagina Monologues at university, but for some reason, I never ended up going, but here was my chance. Sure, it wasn't a musical, but it was darn better than nothing. So I got tickets (2nd row!), and we were off to go shopping.

Back to Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street (not much time until the 7:45pm start time) and as it happened, only enough time to go into two stores (not even London-chic stores at that - Mango and Zara), and then a quick dash to see TopShop from the outside, and by this time, I've already given up on the scarf, because I know that I'm going to be late for the show. On the way to TopShop, I notice the other Burberry store, and for a moment there's a glimmer of hope. Quickly squashed because it too is closed. Alas. Oh yeah, there was a huge Apple store too. HUGE. (I'm excited to visit Yorkdale and see all of the new and exciting stores there.)
Anyway, we actually run to the theatre, and go in just as they're closing the doors. The theatre was fabulous. A small and cozy venue. The show was fabulous. SO funny, I recommend everyone (women AND men alike) see the show at least once. There are tons of Vagina Monologues all over, so there's no excuse. Turns out the Sharon and Aimee Osbourne were supposed to be in it, but due to some "personal illnesses" they pulled out. Right. Sharon would have been hilarious! Still, the three ladies on stage were so funny, and it was time well spent. A funny ending to the night. At 9:30pm, we're eyeing our watches, because we're still sitting in the theatre as the show has not ended. I'm starting to get antsy, but there's nothing we can do about it. See...there's a lady on stage having an orgasm. And it's been going on for about five minutes, and it doesn't seem like she's coming (no pun intended) to an end anytime soon. I mean, we have to leave, but how rude would we be for standing up and leaving in the middle of her orgasm? So, we sit there awkwardly, hoping that she finishes soon, but all the meanwhile, laughing hysterically. So she finishes her thing, and we rush out of the theatre (the show hasn't ended yet...I hate leaving a show early), and we're late to meet our group...but what else could we have done?!?

So yeah...I only really fulfilled goal #1, and sort of half assed at that. I don't even consider myself to have visited London, because of the lack of stuff that we did. I didn't really get any souvenirs (just a couple postcards). I did see some things, and I have an idea of what to do next time, and where to go, so I did get something out of the trip, but not enough to warrant it being a "first experience in London".
The whole time I was there though, I was in awe. Complete awe. I was actually giddy. It was a fantastic city (from what I could tell), with so much going for it. There's just so much to do and see there. The fact that so many of the museums there are free is just an added bonus. I've already started to look into when I can do next. Even though I will be here for at least another year (although going home for the summer eats away a lot of precious travel time) my time here seems so limited. Which brings me back to my confusion of my not so distant future. It seems like I always get so confused after a trip.


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I'm not even sad about not getting the scarf, because I know it was out of my hands. By the time I could make my move, the store was closed, so it wasn't even like I had to chance to buy it...or chicken out for that matter. Some people I was with were sad for me...others said it was a sign. Funny how I've got people discussing this famed purchase, and all that's involved with it. At Gatwick Airport on the way home, there was a Burberry store. I was alone (which was nice after being with people all week) and I went in to eye the merchandise. Probably Tax Free at that, but I decided that it wasn't the right venue. When I bumped into my group, they quickly mentioned to me that there was a Burberry here, and asked if I was going to buy the scarf. Then they started to discuss the pros and cons of buying the scarf there and then. I wasn't even really part of the conversation. It was kind of funny how important this scarf was to them...because they knew how important it was to me. (I just realised that I never really talked about why this scarf is so important to me, but I guess that's not important to you blog-readers.)